Recently Published

Civil Liberties: What If Jefferson Davis Had Been Tried by a Military Court?

by Derek Alger

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Maybe so. But extraordinary measures can also easily, almost imperceptibly, lead to common mistakes and assumptions, which was the case with the scope of the military tribunal gathering evidence to try those associated with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. In the immediate aftermath of the assassination at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865, it was not surprising that many, especially in top gover

Politics: Enron and Mr. Bush

by Edward Winslow

Almost 30 years have elapsed since the"third rate burglary" of the Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 17, 1972 that opened the dam of the Watergate scandal. The press and members of Congress largely ignored the crime, as then President Richard M. Nixon kept the nation's focus on the war in Vietnam. Similarly, with the press and Congress distracted by President George W. Bush's war in Afghanistan, they are ignoring another scandal. No third rate burglar

Column: No, My Predictions for Bush Can’t Possibly Turn Out True, Can They?

by P.M. Carpenter

Historians aren't supposed to be in the prediction-making business. It's a professional bugaboo routinely frowned on, and in some circles an overheard transgression is to be reported to the proper authorities immediately. But seeing how it's not an indictable offense, except in the eyes of some tenure-review boards, I'll make one anyway. A warning, though; it's guara

The Greatest Generation's Historian

by Nicholas Confessore

The following article appeared in volume 12, Issue 17 of The American Prospect (September 24-October 8, 2001). This June, for the second time in their lives, the men of Easy Company invaded Normandy. It was considerably easier than the first time. From New York City, the surviving veterans flew in a chartered jet--courtesy of American Airlines--to Paris, where they boarded a chartered train to the town of Carentan, courtesy of HBO, and were deposited at the Utah Beach Mem

Invade Iraq? No

by Dr. Paul Sullivan

Are the drum beats for a war against Iraq in tune with reality? No.The drums have been beating for some time to start to focus on Iraq after the military side of the Afghan war is over. These drums have been beating loudly and often in the media. Television talk shows are often"debating" the question:"Should we attack Iraq?" Sometimes the people on these show are hardly debating the issues, but agreeing with each other in different ways. It seems that there is a group of middl

Presidency: FOIA, SCHMOYA

by Ruth Rosen

The President didn't ask the networks for television time. The attorney general didn't hold a press conference. The media didn't report any dramatic change in governmental policy. As a result, most Americans had no idea that one of their most precious freedoms disappeared on Oct. 12.Yet it happened. In a memo that slipped beneath the political radar, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft vigorously urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by Americ

Now, Stephen Ambrose

by Fred Barnes

In 1995, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Childers, published a book about his uncle's B-24 crew in World War II. Entitled Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in World War II, the book was well received by critics. Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post called it"powerful and unselfconsciously beautiful." It sold fifteen thousand copies in hardcover and remains available in paperback. In 2001, Stephen

So W. Hasn't Been Political the Past 4 Months?

by P.M. Carpenter

Now that George is wrapping up what Christ found a tad difficult--that is, ridding the world of evildoers--he has announced he’s once again turning his attention to politics. Nothing, of course, has been farther from W.’s mind in the past few months than the tawdriness of political jockeying. As the Washington Post recently reported,"Administratio

Presidency: An Executive Order Richard Nixon Would Love

by Stanley I. Kutler

The United States was attacked in a stunning suicidal assault on September 11, 2001. We have retaliated and apparently destroyed a regime that harbored terrorists, and the hunt goes on for other sponsors and perpetrators of terrorism. Eventually, they will be eliminated or neutralized, and the republic will stand. But what republic? We pledge allegiance to a flag and"to the republic for which it stands," but is it now a different republic? As calmer moments inevitably return, we will

Anniversary: Russia 10 Years After the Fall of Communism

by David S. Foglesong

It was on Christmas day ten years ago that Kremlin guards hauled down the Soviet flag for the last time and Mikhail Gorbachev calmly resigned as head of a state that had quietly ceased to exist. Since then, American thinking about Russia has swerved abruptly between three conflicting views: a heady belief that the former U.S.S.R. could quickly be remade in the image of the U.S.A.; gloomy pessimism about turning a former totalitarian enemy into a genuine democratic ally;

Analogies: The USS Pueblo and Paranoid Policy-Making

by Mitch Lerner

It is a trying time. A sudden and unexpected attack from abroad deals the United States a shocking blow, one that the nation's massive intelligence apparatus somehow overlooked. A stunned American nation demands vengeance. The president, a Texan who came to office under highly unusual circumstances, makes his position clear: the real culprit is not a single nation but a larger conspiracy that extends across much of the world. He warns of a long struggle and calls for patience, while work

Civil Liberties: Round ‘Em Up? No

by Roger Daniels

Stephen Schwartz, early in his muddled account of"What we did with Aliens in World War II," in last week's edition of HNN, notes that"few of those who expatiate on the topic nowadays know very much about it." The same applies - in spades -- to his fantasies about"Japanese government-controlled Shinto religious temples in America," or his conflation of the internment programs of the D

Column: Demonizing Daschle

by P.M. Carpenter

James Michael Curley--Boston’s “lovable-scoundrel” who served four terms as mayor, four terms as U.S. representative and one as the Commonwealth’s governor--once infuriated his opponents during the 1945 mayoral campaign by reading poetry on the air rather than responding to their increasingly shrill attacks. The gambit endeared him to the public and contributed to C

What Should Be Done with John Walker?

by By John Barnhill

The case of John Phillip Walker Lindh, the young American recently captured fighting for the Taliban, pushes to the fore the meaning of treason. While many of his fellow citizens are horrified, and rightly so, by his actions, we need to look at the Constitution for guidance. Past cases of U.S. citizens found on the wrong side of wars put Walker's situation in a clarifying light. According to the Constitution, treason is defined as taking up arms ag

Civil Liberties: Let The Military Try Them

by John Dean

This piece originally was published by findlaw.com.Civil libertarians, from both the right and left, have expressed continuing concern over the President's proposed use of military tribunals for bringing terrorists to justice. Even before knowing what procedures will be used, or who will be tried by these military panels, many have anticipated that worst case scenarios will be the likely norm.It is easy to complain. But hand wringing is not terrib

Presidency: 10 Arguments in Favor of Keeping the Electoral College -- Refuted!

by Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar

This piece originally appeared in findlaw.com.A year ago, Americans watched the loser of the national popular vote win the electoral vote (with a little help from his friends). In a continental republic of equal citizens, why shouldn't every voter's ballot count equally in a single nationwide vote for president? If one person, one vote is the best way to pick a state governor, why isn't it also the best way to pick a national president?In our

Invade Iraq? Yes

by Richard Perle

It was inevitable that an event like September 11 would eventually materialize. A history had developed, particularly over the last decade, of failing to respond to acts of terrorism. In 1993 Iraqi intelligence plotted the assassination of former president George H.W. Bush. That plot was foiled when we uncovered it and the response was a handful of cruise missiles aimed at an intelligence headquarters in Baghdad.The dust hadn't settled from that attack

Is Bush Pandering to Muslims?

by Daniel Pipes and Mimi Stillman

Islam has dominated American public life on two occasions, once during the period of the Iranian hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981, and more recently since the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. In both instances, Americans responded with outrage and puzzlement to the sight of ostensibly pious individuals (Ayatollah Khomeini then, Usama bin Ladin now) sponsoring unprovoked violence against American civilians. Each time, Islam became one of the most di

Column: The Trail Leads Back to Bush I and Iraq

by P.M. Carpenter

The political scene is getting very, very weird when we have right-wing Dan Burton denouncing the Bush administration as a “monarchy” and left-wing Barney Frank praising the eccentric Indianan as a man of “genuine intellectual integrity.” Indeed, the scene is too weird to even venture a reasonable prediction on the legal or political outcome of the growing wa

Column: Hermann Göring, Civil Libertarian

by P.M. Carpenter

On the 84th day of the Nuremberg trials, Hermann Göring took the stand in a defiant face-off with Supreme Court Justice and U.S. Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson. Since Göring's arrest by enemy forces in May, 1945 he had taken the cure for his lethargy-inducing addiction to dihydro-codeine and now appeared, according to coconspirator Albert Speer, to be"in better for