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Crimes in the Name of Freedom

Andrew J. Bacevich

Of the several monks who taught us English, Father Allen was the easiest to relate to. Father P. was ­obviously gay—we used different terms in those days—which ­created a...

Man of the World

Andrew J. Bacevich

God’s Cold Warrior:The Life and Faith of John Foster Dullesby john d. wilsey eerdmans, 271 pages, $21.99 John Foster Dulles is a largely forgotten figure. Had he not served...

Mr. and Mrs. Fearmonger

Andrew J. Bacevich

The Cold World They Made:The Strategic Legacy of Roberta and Albert Wohlstetterby ron robinharvard, 365 pages, $35 Today all but forgotten, Roberta and Albert Wohlstetter were once the First...

Limiting Moralism

Andrew J. Bacevich

A state is not a church. A state exists not to redeem humankind or to do God’s work but to provide for the security and well-being of the people...

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Andrew J. Bacevich

From the perspective of Israel and its (few remaining) friends, the Six Day War was—and remains—both just and necessary. Nothing in Michael Oren’s book calls this basic judgment into...

The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power

Andrew J. Bacevich

Less than a year after the attack of September 11, Americans have just about succeeded in absorbing the war on terror into their daily routine. In the home, the...

The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism and The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria

Andrew J. Bacevich

Abdulaziz Sachedina is a man with a mission. He is determined to demonstrate that when it comes to the West’s relations with Islam, there need be no “clash of...

The Vietnam Wars

Andrew J. Bacevich

Like Israelis and Palestinians eyeing each other suspiciously from adjacent hilltops in the West Bank, Americans who were on opposing sides of the Vietnam War may share the same...

Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy

Andrew J. Bacevich

In 1996, Robert Kagan and William Kristol published a widely read article in Foreign Affairs advancing the case for unabashed American hegemony”benevolent, to be sure”on a globe“straddling scale. In...

Political Will and Personal Belief: The Decline and Fall of Soviet Communism

Andrew J. Bacevich

Throughout the Cold War, Sovietologists contended fiercely with one another over the nature of Communist regimes. Engrossed in that pursuit, they missed altogether the one development that really mattered....

The World According to Clinton

Andrew J. Bacevich

As part of its professed commitment to “complete the unfinished business of the Second World War,” the Clinton Administration last year released its second and final report on “Nazi...

Old Ghosts

Andrew J. Bacevich

Venona:  Decoding Soviet Espionage in America.By John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr.Yale University Press.  475 pp. $30. The Haunted Wood:  Soviet Espionage in America––The Stalin Era.By Allen Weinstein and...

The Irony of American Power

Andrew J. Bacevich

I The overarching theme of twentieth-century geopolitics has been America’s success in prevailing over its competitors for global power. A century ago, the United States was a continental power...

Memoirs of a Catholic Boyhood

Andrew J. Bacevich

The muddy Illinois River ranks among the least distinguished of the Mississippi’s tributaries, a brown expanse of water sliding past slippery banks strewn with refuse. From time to time,...

The Seed of the Church

Andrew J. Bacevich

Their Blood Cries Out: The Growing Worldwide Persecution of Christians by Paul Marshall. Word, 304 pages, $12.99. This book bears all the earmarks of being a loser. The title...