Daniel N. White The University of Texas at Austin recently hosted an Event on the new book on the newest release of the Nixon White House recordings. It rates the capital E on account of their bringing in out of town talent, Douglas Brinkley the biggest, for a panel discussion on the new book about…
W.J. Astore In April 2009, I wrote an article for TomDispatch.com recounting Mary McCarthy’s critique of the American experience in Vietnam, and how her lessons applied to President Obama’s “surge” in Afghanistan. A central lesson cited by McCarthy was the American desire never to be labeled a loser. That desire explains, at least in part,…
Michael Murry As a veteran of the Nixon-Kissinger Fig Leaf Contingent (Vietnam 1970-72) I have always thought that the American slogan “Peace With Honor” had little to do with Peace and nothing to do with Honor. Over forty years later, witnessing the U.S. military floundering about in — and flailing away at — Afghanistan and…
W.J. Astore In April of 2009, I wrote the following article for TomDispatch.com on the situation in Afghanistan. During his 2008 campaign for President, Obama had claimed that Afghanistan was the right war to be fighting, and that Bush and Company had taken their eye off the Afghan ball when they chose to invade Iraq…
We have appointed Michael Murry as the Contrary Perspective’s “poet laureate” and have decided to bring his ” Polemical Poetry” to our readers as a regular feature that will appear every month. From time to time established poets have written verse that is political and verges on the polemical but Michael has brought his poetry…
W.J. Astore Eleven years after my freshman essay on the Vietnam War in 1982, I found myself at Oxford in a Strategic Studies Seminar. For that seminar, I wrote the following paper on People’s War and Vietnam. Based on deeper reading and more reflection than my freshman essay, I concluded that the Vietnam War had…
Michael Murry The government of the United States still demands that all American males between the ages of 18 and 24 register for military conscription – i.e., the Draft – even though that same government maintains that no such system of military conscription any longer exists. To enforce this Draft Registration, various penalties accrue to…
By Daniel N. White. Introduction by William Astore. The current count of American service members killed in the Afghan War stands at 2245. What did they die for? For most Americans the answer remains unclear. Also unclear is why, nearly twelve years into this war, the U.S. military continues to maintain a large (and…
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