History
March 2, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Suppose six former Secretaries of State wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed discussing the urgent need to recognize and establish diplomatic relations with Communist China. Their op-ed might make you think the former secretaries were asleep at the switch during their time at Foggy Bottom. Unfortunately, six former Secretaries of Education have signed the rough equivalent of such an op-ed for the Journal. The six are: Lamar Alexander, Arne Duncan,
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February 28, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The 9/11 boatlift is not exactly breaking news. The 2016 book American Dunkirk: The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11 documented the event for historical purposes (reviewed here by Rick Spilman for gCaptain). Yet it comes as news to me, via our friend Jean Yarbrough of Bowdoin College. Professor Yarbrough draws my attention to the moving 10-minute documentary “Boatlift” (video below). The film dates back to the tenth anniversary of
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February 24, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Tim Weiner is a former New York Times reporter and author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (2007). The history of the CIA, according to Weiner, is a history of the failures of the CIA. The CIA chose not to ignore the book. It posted a response by the agency’s historian that the agency has unfortunately removed from its site. The CIA historian’s response to Weiner’s book
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February 22, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Today we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to whom we owe our freedom, Washington’s greatness was the rarest and the most needed. At this remove in time, it is also the hardest to comprehend. Take, for example, Washington’s contribution to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Washington’s mere presence lent the undertaking and its handiwork the legitimacy that
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February 21, 2021 — Steven Hayward
Yes, that is a ridiculous headline. And yet, as we noted here last week, what does it tell us about the present condition of America that the president of France, Emanuel Macron, has a better grasp of perversity and danger of our “woke” culture than the President of the United States? The New York Times has followed up on its first startling account with a report this week on steps
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February 19, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Rennie Davis died earlier this month. Davis was a radical community organizer back when radical community organizing was hot, not cool. He is best remembered for being part of the “Chicago Seven,” a group of left-wing radicals tried for the disruptive activities they organized and led at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The jury convicted Davis, along with five co-defendants, for conspiring to incite a riot. However, the convictions were
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February 10, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
One of the good things about the impeachment of Donald Trump — maybe the only good thing — is that it has brought William Belknap into the spotlight. And that’s a good thing only for history buffs. Belknap is the only member of the executive branch until now to be impeached after leaving office. His impeachment trial is said to be precedent for holding one for Trump. Belknap was a
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February 9, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Seth Lipsky tells a great story about George Shultz in his editorial tribute to him. Harking back to Shultz’s tenure in the Nixon administration, Seth recalled: Shultz was then, as best we recall, President Nixon’s budget director. He was in town on such business and called a press conference at the federal building, which was across the street from the [Wall Street] Journal’s news bureau. So we tucked a notebook
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February 7, 2021 — Steven Hayward
There are not many of the giants of the late Cold War still among us, and today saw the passing of one of the greatest among them, Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz, at the age of 100. Only Henry Kissinger and Lech Walesa come to mind as remaining peers of Shultz. I only got to meet Shultz on a couple of occasions at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, long
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February 2, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Escaping from the memory hole down which Joe Biden has deposited the 1776 Commission and its final report, Victor Davis Hanson comments on the saga in The Classicist podcast below in response to questions posed by Troy Senik. This is a highly illuminating podcast featuring a principal on the right side of the fight for our true history and related issues in the culture war that now threatens our survival.
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January 30, 2021 — Steven Hayward
What episode offers you “spice that ramps up the palate, carried forward by the full body, hearty proof, and mouth-coating texture”? This edition of the Three Whisky Happy Hour, if the latest reviews of our choices in the Whisky Advocate are any indication. Alas, we remain unable to resolve our “peat-versus-sweet” single malt debate. In any case, we know the magazine is just a shill for Big Whisky, and we
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January 27, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Harris/Biden administration is leading us beyond equal rights to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” “Diversity, equity, and inclusion” is the new shibboleth of the lunatic left and it permeates the recesses of the Democratic Party. To take an example that hits close to home, the Minnesota Department of Education has just rolled out its very own “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Center” to address “systemic racism,” to “ensure students receive an
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January 22, 2021 — Scott Johnson
President Trump’s 1776 Commission presented its report on January 18, just before the inauguration of Trump’s successor. The report came under the immediate and insane assault of the mainstream media. Commission member Victor Davis Hanson, a historian of the first rank, set forth “Thoughts on the 1776 Commission and its report” in a column dated January 21. “[A]t any other age than the divisive present,” he observed, “the report would
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January 19, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The United States will not survive without a true understanding of its founding. President Trump appointed a commission chaired by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn with members including Charles Kesler, Matthew Spalding, and Victor Davis Hanson to advance such an understanding. Other members of the commission and contributors to the preparation of the report are set forth on page 41. The commission released its report yesterday. I have embedded it
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January 18, 2021 — Scott Johnson
When Martin Luther King, Jr., brought his nonviolent campaign against segregation to Bull Connor’s Birmingham, he laid siege to the bastion of Jim Crow. In Birmingham between 1957 and 1962, black homes and churches had been subjected to a series of horrific bombings intended to terrorize the community. In April 1963 King answered the call to bring his campaign to Birmingham. When King landed in jail on Good Friday for
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January 17, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Dartmouth Professor of English Jeffrey Hart opened my mind to the great tradition and more during the four years I was his student. A long-time senior editor at National Review, Professor Hart contributed “The secession of the intellectuals” to NR’s 15th anniversary issue in 1970. Thinking of Power Line’s own 15th anniversary a few years back, I returned to that essay. NR editor Rich Lowry kindly arranged for the publication
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January 8, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Joe Biden introduced Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee for Attorney General yesterday. Biden took the opportunity to attack the Trump presidency from stem to stern, from beginning to end (video below, NPR transcript here). “[Trump] unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy from the outset,” he said — this from a guy who, on his way out the door as vice president, had a hand in
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