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The Sandbagging of Robert "KC" Johnson

by Ronald Radosh

HNN: The Case of KC JohnsonMedia coverageRobert David"KC" Johnson:"Why I Was Denied Tenure"

The National Insecurity State

by Ira Chernus

Fifty years ago this month, American voters chose Dwight D. Eisenhower as their next president. Though few realized it at the time, they also chose a vision of America as a nation permanently in peril. The Eisenhower era created a state of national insecurity that has lasted for half a century. The Bush administration constantly voices the nation's hope for security. Yet its actions plunge us even deeper into insecurity. This administration alienates allies, expands our list

Me-Too Democrats and the Mid-Term Elections

by Robert S. McElvaine

As Democrats assess the debacle the party suffered in Tuesdays elections, they will necessarily ask themselves two questions: What went wrong? and Who is responsible? The answer to the second question includes several people. Among them are Osama bin Laden, Karl Rove, and George W. Bush. Bin Laden and his terrorists did for George W. Bush what Timothy McVeigh and company did for Bill Clinton. National tragedy leads people to turn to the only president they have at the ti

Bellesiles: Did the Emory Committee Deliberately Try to Avoid Culpability?

by Evan Stephenson

Emory University's specially selected "Investigative Committee in the Matter of Michael Bellesiles" has released its report. Bellesiles has responded. Although much has been made of the report's critical treatment of Bellesiles's work, especially by Bellesiles himself, in truth the committee has effectively sided with Bellesiles on the only issue that really mattered: whether the widely discussed mistakes in Arming American: The Origins of a National Gun Cul

Why Remaking Iraq Might Be a Lot Harder than Remaking Japan Was

by David Greenberg

Over the last few weeks, Iraq war talk has suddenly leapfrogged over the prospective combat itself to how to remake the country after we win. The New York Times reports that the White House is considering a military occupation, and a recent Atlantic features a James Fallows thinkpiece on how nation-building might play out. Both accounts cite one particular historical case as a model: post-World War II Japan, in which Gen. Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander for Alli

In Praise of the Bush National Security Strategy

by John Lewis Gaddis

It's an interesting reflection on our democratic age that nations are now expected to publish their grand strategies before pursuing them. This practice would have surprised Metternich, Bismarck, and Lord Salisbury, though not Pericles. Concerned about not revealing too much, most great strategists in the past have preferred to concentrate on implementation, leaving explanation to historians. The first modern departure from this tradition came in 1947 when George F. Kennan revealed

Why Daniel Ellsberg Is Still Relevant

by Ruth Rosen

Daniel Ellsberg’s just-published memoir, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers is a page-turner. The Vietnam War shaped and shadowed both of our lives for more than a decade. I, however, was a young nobody. He was the consummate insider, a brilliant military policy analyst, who enjoyed access to top-secret information, as well as to high government officials. Why, then, I kept asking myself, did it take him so long to openly oppose the Vietnam

Shooting the Messenger: Jon Wiener on Arming America

by Jerome Sternstein

Jon Wiener's recent brief for the defense of Arming America, "Fire at Will", in the Nation, fits into a larger pattern originally pioneered in this case by the subject of the inquiry himself, Michael Bellesiles. It's called "Shooting the Messenger," a tactic invariably employed by politicians who find themselves under indictment for fraud or corruption. Rather than confront the evidence of their wrongdoing, they lash out, claiming that t

Bellesiles is Gone--The Problem Lingers

by John G. Fought

In "Shanghai Express," Marlene Dietrich, as Lily, reflects that "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." So it is with scholarly misconduct: Michael Bellesiles didn't make his name by himself. Supported by generous subsidies over recent years, he wrote a work well calculated to appeal to a special audience defined by a particular cluster of beliefs. Now he and Emory University have parted at last, with no admission of guilt from

Remaining Questions Concerning Michael Bellesiles

by HNN Staff

 Will Columbia University's Bancroft Committee rescind its award to Arming America? ANSWER: YES Will the Organization of American Historians rescind the Binkley-Stephenson award, given to Bellesiles for his 1996 article on America's gun culture, which appeared in the Journal of American History. ANSWER: UNKNOWN Will Knopf withdraw Arming America from bookstores? (Will Knopf publish a new edition of Ar

Does Jimmy Deserve the Nobel Prize?

by David Frum

Could there be a less deserved Nobel Prize than the one just awarded to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter? In his four years as President, Carter managed through weakness and ineptitude to create crisis after crisis. During the 1976 presidential campaign, he pledged to withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea--a pledge that emboldened the North Koreans to position eight additional infantry divisions and 35% more tanks against the South. North Korean bellicosity forc

Text of the Joint Resolution on the Use of Force Against Iraq

Text: Joint Congressional Resolution October 11, 2002 Text of a resolution passed by the House and Senate.Passed by the House 296 to 133.Passed by the Senate77 to 23.Joint Resolution to Authorize the use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. Whereas the Iraq Liberation Act (Public Law 105-338) expressed the sense of Congress that it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove from power the current Iraqi regim

The Greatest Attack on Labor Since Reagan Walloped Air Traffic Controllers

by Norman Markowitz

As it prepares for war in the Middle East, the Bush administration is using the Taft-Hartley law to launch a mini-war against one of the strongest and historically militant and progressive unions in U.S. history, the International Longeshormans' and Warehousemans' Union (ILWU). Founded by Harry Bridges, a militant Australia-born partisan of socialism allied to the Communist Party, USA, in the 1930s(now that he is dead, the New York Times calls him a Marxist) the ILWU did

Pipes Vs. Zinn: America and Iraq

Friday Forum LATELINE: Late night news & current affairs Australian Broadcasting Corporation October 4, 2002 TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Now to our Friday Forum on the Iraqi dilemma, with two formidable guests in the US. Joining me now from Seattle is Daniel Pipes. He's one of the few analysts who predicted the threat of militant Islam. Daniel Pipes now serves on the Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology at the US Department of Defense. He's

Why Engineers Are Worried About the Temple Mount--and Why Politicians Are, too

by Daniel Pipes

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem (holiest spot on earth for Jews and ranking up there in sanctity also for Christians and Muslims) may soon come partly crashing down. Despite appearances, the 35-acre Temple Mount plateau is not a natural formation but a man-made esplanade built centuries ago by stacking one large brick-like rock atop another.The wall on one side might cave in due to the fact that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has had administrative control over the Templ

Remember the Maine!

by Norman Markowitz

Bush's "Splendid Little War" In a class last night, I found myself dealing with the crisis of the 1890s. Economic uncertainty and growing anger against the railroads, the banks, and the Trusts. Widespread beliefs that the Senate and most of politics had become a millionaires club following a bitter and divisive presidential election in 1896. A new mass "yellow" press screaming headlines about colonial wars in Africa and the Near East where Bri

Tonkin Gulf II?

by Donald R. Shaffer

The Bush administration has increased pressure on Congress for a quick resolution authorizing virtually unrestricted military action against Iraq. Sadly, most members of the House and Senate appear ready to acquiesce, eager to support a popular president before going off to face the voters in November. Only a brave few in Congress seem to remember the last time a president asked for such a carte blanche -- in 1964. The president was Lyndon Johnson. He got what became known a

George Kennan Speaks Out About Iraq

by Albert Eisele

George F. Kennan, the chief architect of the containment and deterrence policies that shaped America foreign policy during the Cold War, said Sunday that Congress, and not President Bush, must decide whether the United States should take military action against Iraq.In a wide-ranging interview at a Georgetown senior citizens home where he spent the past month, the 98-year-old historian and former top U.S. diplomat repeatedly warned of the unforeseen consequences o

Waiting for Emory

by Jerome Sternstein

To find out about the latest deveopments in the Bellesiles case click here.In early June, a journalist working for a pro-gun organization interviewed an unnamed professor at Emory University who reportedly was closely following the institution's investigation into the allegations of academic fraud and misconduct leveled against Michael Bellesiles's research in his award-winning book Arming America.

Why History Is Important

by President George W. Bush

On September 17, Constitution Day, President Bush delivered two speeches concerning history. In the first speech , given in the Rose Garden, he announced three new initiatives: (1)We the People, which will offer grants to improve the teaching of American history and civics, (2) Our Documents, which will place online important American historical documents, and (3)