Recently Published

Are We in World War IV?

by Tom Engelhardt

Throughout much of the Cold War, people feared above all else a global hot war, the third great one in a century of devastating world wars; and we crept up to it more than once -- most desperately, there can be no doubt, at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. For decades, the world was poised for that next world war; the two superpowers with their nuclear arsenals running to thousands of weapons (as they still do), a few hundred of which would have been civilization-busti

The Genius of Republics Is Pacific?

by Alexander Hamilton

In recent weeks, with the elections in Iraq and Ukraine and other places, there has developed the idea that democracy, to put this quaintly, is the "wave of the future." But while these developments are undoubtedly positive, there is implicit in the celebrating the assumption that the proliferation of democracies will make the world safer. And this assumption may or may not be accurate. In the Federalist Papers

Does the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Have a Future?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

This May, the United Nations will be holding a review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a key nuclear arms control and disarmament agreement to which 188 countries are now parties. Originally proposed by the U.S. and Soviet governments, the NPT was signed at the United Nations in 1968 and went into force in 1970. Under its provisions, non-nuclear nations agreed to renounce the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear-armed nations agreed to divest themselves

History for Dummies

by David Greenberg

Several weeks ago, a history book called The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, by Thomas E. Woods Jr., a hitherto unknown assistant professor at Suffolk County Community College in New York, appeared on the New York Times paperback best-seller chart. User-friendly in its layout,

Should Historians Be Working for the Tobacco Industry?

by Robert N. Proctor

Historians of medicine last year were shocked to learn that Kenneth Ludmerer, president of the American Association for the History of Medicine, has been quietly working as an expert witness for the tobacco industry since the late 1980s. In a deposition[1] submitted for his work as an expert witness in USA v Philip Morris Inc et al, the ongoing federal case against the industry, Ludmerer admits to having worked on at least thirteen separate trials over the past 15 years, always for the d

Iwo Jima: A Battle of Choice Waged on the Basis of Faulty Intelligence and Bad Planning

by Max Boot

On Feb. 19, 1945, 30,000 Marines splashed ashore on a small volcanic island in the central Pacific. After four days of bitter fighting, a small patrol reached the peak of Mt. Suribachi, where it planted a U.S. flag in an iconic scene captured by photographer Joe Rosenthal. This famous image was hardly the end of the battle. Iwo Jima would not be secure until March 26. Almost all of the 21,000 Japanese defenders elected to die rather than surrender. Rooting them out cost more than 6,000 American

Want to End Terrorism? End Foreign Occupations.

by Juan Cole

Fareed Zakariya argues that Bush got one thing right. Zakariya writes: "Bush never accepted the view that Islamic terrorism had its roots in religion or culture or the Arab-Israeli conflict. Instead he veered toward the analysis that the region was breeding terror because it had developed deep dysfunctions caused by decades of repression and an almost total lack of political, economic and social modernization. The Arab

Is Ward Churchill the New Michael Bellesiles?

by Thomas Brown

I’m beginning to see Ward Churchill as the carny in the dunking booth, who hurls insults at the crowd, and then howls with outrage when he gets soaked. Yes, the unenlightened were out to get you. Yes, the system was rigged against you by the power structure. No argument there. But should anyone care?For the second time in the new millennium, a university professor has come under heavy fire from the political right, and is in danger of losing his job as a consequence. The most pro

Social Security, George W. Bush--And the "L" Word (No, Not Liberalism)

by Robert Brent Toplin

Millions of Americans who view Social Security as one of the most successful programs ever created by the U.S. government find current talk about its supposed failures puzzling. They recognize that the system is generally healthy today, and they understand that some minor adjustments in future years can sustain it long past the middle of the twenty-first century, the time when shortfalls will likely develop because of an aging population. Yet President Bush continues to make frightening pred

Why So Many Find the Anti-Evolution Argument Appealing

by Charles A. Israel

After the recent court ruling ordering the removal of evolution disclaimer stickers from district biology textbooks, the Cobb County (Ga.) School Board denounced the case as “an unnecessary judicial intrusion into local control of schools.” The case is currently under appeal to the 11th Circuit. The stickers in question were placed in the books in 2002 when the district finally bought texts actually describing evolution. Under pressure from parents (in the form of 2300 pe

Reading Between the Lines of the Bush/Putin Press Conference

by Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Something rather extraordinary happened during the joint press conference held by presidents Bush and Putin in Bratislava. Vladimir Putin was placed on the dock accused of disloyalty to the Russian democracy and George W. Bush was forced into acting as his prosecutor. So upset were the Russian reporters that they reverted to their Soviet era behavior. Ironically, in so doing they prevented the subject from being changed, kept Putin on the defensive and the spotlight squarely on the sad decli

Japan's Hidden Role in the "Return" of Zainichi Koreans to North Korea

by Tessa Morris-Suzuki

The slow and troubled journey towards a future normalization of relations between Japan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK - North Korea) is shaped by two radically different visions of the past. Both Japanese and North Korean governments demand a “settling of accounts” for past history. For Japan, however, the “account” in question is the fate of the Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea. For the North Korean side, on the other hand, it is the older and larger history o

Petition to Suspend the Transfer of the Nixon Papers to the Nixon Library

At noon on March 10 the following petition, posted on the website of the National Security Archive, was faxed to members of Congress. The petition was presented in response to the Nixon Library's abrupt decision to cancel a long-scheduled April conference on Nixon and Vietnam. As reported on HNN last week, this was the first conference at the Library that was to have featu

Even Richard Nixon Would Have Been Embarrassed

by Melvin Small

Richard Nixon once wrote that "History will treat me fairly. Historians probably won't because most historians are on the left." Apparently one way to compensate for the putative shortfall in fair and balanced historians is for the protectors of the Nixon legacy to control the dialogue at his presidential library, which still is not integrated into the admirable National Archives system of presidential libraries. Last fall, the Nixon Presidential Library and Whittier College

About the Nixon Library's Promise to Turn Over a New Leaf

by Stanley I. Kutler

The Richard M. Nixon “Library & Birthplace” and Whittier College, the former president’s alma mater, joined forces to sponsor a promising April conference on “Richard Nixon as Commander-in-Chief,” with the immodest sub-title of “The History of Nixon and Vietnam.” Nearly twenty-five accomplished historians, journalists, and public officials, with wide-ranging expertise, agreed to participate. Many sacrificed more lucrative invitations, believing

How History Was Used by All Sides in the Supreme Court Debate About the 10 Commandments

by Anne Lagaisse

Last week the United States Supreme Court considered two cases which concerned the placement of the 10 Commandments in public settings on government property. One case involved the display of the 10 Commandments in a glass case at a courthouse in Kentucky. The other involved a monument on the grounds of the state capitol in Austin. Lawyers on all sides of the issue, including members of the Court, used history to bolst

Why Conservatives Are So Upset with Thomas Woods's Politically Incorrect History Book

by Ronald Radosh

Writing in the New York Times on January 26, editorial board member Adam Cohen launched a major attack on Thomas Woods Jr.’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Rather than Woods's book being an effort to “set the record straight,” Cohen charges, it is something else: “an attempt to push the record far to the right.” Cohen finds that among other claims made by Woods, the most e

Is Congress AWOL on Iraq?

by James M. Carter

Is the Congress today doing its job with respect to the continuing war in Iraq? This is now more than ever an appropriate question for Americans to begin to ask. The Congress is, of course, vested by the Constitution with certain responsibilities of oversight. Its members, as representatives of the people, are expected to ask the difficult questions. They are expected to ensure the proper working of the government. They are expected, to as great an extent as is possible, to make the go

Should a Soldier Who Changes His Mind About War Have a Right to Status as a Conscientious Objector?

by Staughton Lynd

Everybody knows the conscientious objector. We recall the Quaker wife in High Noon, who objected to all killing until her husband supposedly showed her that sometimes violence is the only way. Or we think of the Amish elder in Witness who spoke with horror of persons who use a "gun of the hand," or handgun. Conscientious objection is defined in United States military regulations as objection to "war in any form," based on "religious training

Why Iraq, Like Vietnam, Is Immoral and Unnecessary

by Peter Kirstein

There are numerous parallels between America’s wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Both were unnecessary, unjust wars that severely damaged the international reputation of the United States. While it contravenes the vision of American exceptionalism, the U.S. is reviled for its preemptive, unilateralist foreign policy that is characteristic of state-sponsored terrorism. It is no accident that Europeans consider the United States a major threat to international peace and security. A Pew Glo