Category: Imported

was Vann’s continuing insistence thatnthe war could be won, which Sheehannattributed to his “ignorance” ofnVietnam’s history. Worst of all, Vannnliked Richard Nixon.nMixed into the story of John PaulnVann is Sheehan’s version of thenevents of 1962 and 1963, and this partnis disappointing, even dismaying. InnNovember 1963 South Vietnam’snPresident Ngo Dinh Diem and hisnbrother Nhu were murdered...

rape and torture of arrested Communistnsuspects, whereas the Communist GeneralnVo Nguyen Giap, described as anman of candor and character, apologizednpublicly for torture excesses duringnthe North’s land-reform campaign.nThe Vietcong were “forbidden to executenthe accused savagely,” and “dispensednterror with relative discrimination.”nSheehan held Diem responsiblenfor corruption and for the cowardicenand incompetence of the South Vietnamesenarmy, ARVN, because he...

36/CHRONlCLESnVery Oldnby Tom MurraynTo us it might seem that lifenFor him growing older, grew harder:nEndlessly attending an invalid wife,nHouse-cleaning, replenishing the larder.nTuesday and Friday are his outside days.nShopping bag in hand he standsnAt windows. You can see the reflected gazenOf blue eyes measuring blends.nPrices and quantities. The yearsnHave etched the face, drawn too fine the...

Random House, he was bringing withnhim a Ufelong admiration for ThenCatcher in the Rye. But six years, twoncourt cases, and three versions later,nthe biography Hamilton ended up withnis a far cry from an appreciation. By thentime it was over, Hamilton was itchingnto pounce on Salinger, and only tooneager to denigrate even Salinger’s fiction,nwhich he used...

THE BEST OF RHYMES,nTHE WORST OF RHYMESn”One of the minor disadvantages ofnbeing a poet … is being continuallynasked who reads one’s poetry. Or whonreads poetry.” It is easy to appreciatenwhy John Ashbery gave way to thisnminor fit of pique in the introduction tonThe Best American Poetry 1988 (NewnYork: Charies Scribner’s Sons; 249 pp.,n$19.95). While Ashbery...

Letter FromnWashingtonnby Samuel FrancisnThe Drugged WarnWhen President-elect George Bushnannounced a week before his inaugurationnthat his new “drug czar” would benformer Education Secretary WilliamnBennett, the air began to seep out of thentires of his new presidency before itneven got on the road.nHad Mr. Bennett ever participated inna drug arrest, had he ever worked for anlaw enforcement...

crats-in-uniform whose clearest sight ofna battlefield is a computer simulation.nOf course, governance-by-manipulationnserves the interests of thosenwho are expert in it. In the case of then”drug war,” professional therapists,nteachers, public-spirited entertainers,nyouth counselors, social scientists, andnthe army of PR technicians who jerknthe images and symbols of mass “education”nwill accumulate small fortunesnby battening onto the provisions of thennew...

do very well in New York, BeverlynHills, and San Francisco.” Yes, indeed.nTell you what, we’d leave themnalone if they’d leave us alone. But herencomes a smarty-pants Washington lawyer—ntwo words that should terrify andnnauseate honest folk everywhere — tonsue the state of North Carolina, challengingna law that exempts the Biblenfrom state sales tax. The former Dukenstudent...

are proud to be Southern boys.nThey’re not Hitler Youth (the kidnwhose jacket was taken said in anninterview that he thinks “the Klan’s anbunch of jerks”). You might ask whynschools that long ago abandoned dressncodes get to make up new ones on thenspot. Since every Satanist and tabledancernin the South seems to be protectednby the First...

Toryism. Red Tories claim some affinitynwith the paternalist and statist elementnthat so often dominated thenBritish Conservative Party, until thatnelement was cast into the wilderness bynMrs. Thatcher. The real father of thenmovement was George Grant, a philosophernand essayist who was a highlyninfluential teacher at Ontario andnMaritime universities for over threendecades.nGrant evolved a synthesis of classicalnphilosophy, Christianity,...

Announcing…n”One of the mostnsuccessful summerntime activities”nAn Antidote ton^f?e Stanfotb ‘^ieeasenYoung America’s Foundation’sn11th Annual Conservative Student ConferencenwM^we^^hnÂ¥$Mn-^’ t!,0”in^i’^^’-c -i •nNational Review •^”.’^JT:-^’!*^”-“‘^nStanford students are no longer required to study thenculture that gave them freedom. Thomas Aquinas is out.nSo are Dante, John Locke, Mill, and Galileo. Rastafariannpoetry is in. And with it the U.N. Declaration of HumannRights,...

flow through Bismarck-area motels,nrestaurants, and shopping malls betweennApril 6 and mid-June. (Did younknow that Bismarck has the largest mallnbetween Minneapolis and Seattle? It’snworth a trip.) There are five people onna team. That’s 40,000 people — neadynas many as live in Bismarck (Mandannhas 15,000). These teams will stay annaverage of four days. Forty thousandnhungry, tired, ready-to-party...

Letter FromnEuropenby Thomas MolnarnKingdoms of the FuturenThe invitation to the first symposiumncame fi’om my old alma mater, the FreenUniversity of Brussels, founded bynliberals, freemasons, and socialists, allnunited in their opposition to the CatholicnChurch, embodied by the 15thcenturynUniversity of Louvain. Nostalgiandrove me to the once well-knownnquartiers, or rather what remains ofnthem now that Brussels has ceasednbeing...

ent king, Baudouin, to whom all paynrespectful tribute. Respect for the monarchynwas awaiting me in Nice also,nwhere the symposium was devoted tonthe “art patronage of the Capetiannkings.” You may remember that whennLouis XVI was beheaded in 1793, henwas first stripped of his royal titles andnsentenced as the simple citizen “LouisnCapet.” In 1987 France was celebratingnthe...

COMMONWEALnReviving thenMerchant Marinenby Morris GuralnicknIn the years following World War II,nthe merchant marine of the UnitednStates went from being the greatest innthe world to its present virtual nonexistence.nFrom 1935 through World WarnII, the United States built some 6,500nmerchant ships. When the guns ceasednfiring, the United States owned thenlargest merchant fleet in the world.nEven in the...

them Grace Line, United Fruit Co.,nWeyerhauser S.S. Co., PrudentialnLine, Lockheed Shipbuilding Co., andnGeneral Dynamics).nShip operation has proven to be anmarked casualty of the decline in thenmerchant marine. Competition fromnforeign lines and other forms of internalntransportation have resulted in thendemise of most of the old-line companies.nIn the past ten years, more thann60,000 seagoing jobs have vanished,nand...

circulation newspaper is better than ansmall local newspaper at addressingnissues of major significance. But from anless rigid perspective the questions revealnsomething else: there are places innAmerica where the end of a hot spellnjust naturally qualifies as “currentnevents.” (By the same token, there arenplaces in America where some eventsnare rather less current than the weather.nWhen asked...

And yield to the lustful partnof their senses . . .nAnd on it goes, as merciless in itsnwarning to prom-bound Adair Countynyouth as some ancient mountain ballad.nHave fun, kids.nOccasionally an Adair Countiannmakes news that is too big to be containednin the Statesman. Such is thencase of Oconal Tucker, whose storynmade it all the way to...

billion — ten times the value of mergersnbetween 1975 and 1977. Businessesnrepresenting up to 7 percent of thentotal market value of all US companiesnhave disappeared through acquisitionsnin each of the past four years.nNow even a partner in a leveragednbuyout firm — Theodore Forstmannn— thinks things have gotten out ofnhand. As he puts it: “Watching thesendeals...

Geneen contends the argument thatnbuyouts create greater managementnefEciency — due to the pressure onnthem to pay off the huge debt load — isnspecious. He says that while managementsnmay be more effective in generatingnshort-term cash flow, what’s beingnoverlooked is having organizationsnthat have a long-term feeling and objectives.nKind of the difference betweennmarriages made under the gunnin Reno...

Pistols, and Iggy’s avant-garde weirdnessnstill earns him entree to recordingnstudios 20 years later.nBack in the 60’s and early 70’snDetroit also boasted the AmboynDukes, whose “Journey to the Centernof the Mind” taught many guitar playersna thing or 20 about feedback.nWhen the Dukes played they had thenaudience (figuratively) hanging fromnthe rafters, while the lead guitar player,nTed Nugent,...

Despite a medianbrownout, tliis bool(nfouglit its way ontonthe bestseiier lists.nAnd when you read what itnreveals about Teddy andnChappaquiddickf you’ll see why.nRay Kerrison explains it all in his New YorknPost column:n”The biggest surprise — and scandal — of the publishingnseason is the public’s extraordinary demandnfor a book exposing Sen. Edward Kennedy’s fatalnescapade at Chappaquiddick, despite a...

EDITORnThomas FlemingnMANAGING EDITORnKatherine DaltonnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSn]ohn W. Aldridge, Harold O.].nBrown, Samuel Francis, GeorgenGarrett, Russell Kirk, E. ChristiannKopff, Clyde WilsonnCORRESPONDING EDITORSnBryce Christensen, Odie Faulk, JanenGreer, Andrei Navrozov, John SheltonnReed, Joseph Schwartz, Gary VasilashnEDITORIAL SECRETARYnLeann DobbsnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTnMatthew KaufmannPUBLISHERnRichard A. VaughannART DIRECTORnAnna Mycek-WodeckinPRODUCTION MANAGERnGuy ReffettnADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVEnGeorgia L. WolfnCOMPOSITION MANAGERnAnita FedoranCIRCULATION DIRECTORnCarol BennettnA Publication ofnThe Rockford Institute:nAllan C. Carlson,nPresidentnEditorial and...

On ‘Books andnBook Reviewing’nKatherine Dalton’s article in the Januaryn1989 Chronicles overstates bothnthe leftward bias of American booknreviewing and the authority of ThenI^ew York Times.nShe’ rests much of her case on thenhandling of Veil in The New YorknTimes Book Review and The New YorknReview of Books. No other books getnany extended treatment. But even innher chosen...

Naturally, I subscribed to their publicationnto help support the new endeavor.nAfter months of editing and revision bynmail, they accepted the short story fornissue number two to be published innApril of 1988. I am still waiting fornissue number two.nBut, however disillusioning, thensmall press is still better than the alternatives:ntrying futilely to get the attentionnof a major...

HOW TO ENJOY TRAFFIC:nLISTEN TO THE CONSERVATIVE CLASSICS!nCOMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED BOOKS. . .ON CASSETTE TAPESnLOW INTRODUCTORY PRICES OFFERED ON THESE CONSERVATIVE CLASSICSn1007 GOD AND MAN AT YALE-lfm. F. Buckley, Jr.n5-1% hour cassettes Purchase $22.95n30 Day Rental.. $11,95n1021 FREE TO CHOOSE-Milton & Rose Friedmann9 • 1% hour cassettes Purchase $36.95n30 Day Rental .$15.95n1009 WEALTH AND ?OVE«TY-George...

SOME STUDIES HAVE failed tonfind that executions have any success inndeterring homicides. But according tonsociologist Steven Stack of AuburnnUniversity in the American SociologicalnReview (August 1987, vol. 52, pp.n532-540), those studies have beennmethodologically flawed by the highlynquestionable assumption “that thenpublic is more or less aware of executionsnand that they are well-informednof every execution.” They have thereforenneglected...

for questioning who didn’t volunteer tongo (if the only probable cause was anresemblance to the man in the sketch).nThere was outrage over thisndecision — especially among womennwho ride the dangerous subway intonCenter City each day, and amongnstreet cops who were restricted in whatnthey could do with the evidence ofntheir own eyeballs — but the decisionnhad...

where in the country at any job in theneconomy for a twelve-month periodn(which is considered permanently) —nuntil the judges started “screwing menout of my fee.” A lawyer on a case thatnhad both Workers’ Compensation andnSocial Security Disability aspectsnwould be paid for only one, my neighborncomplained, on the reasoning thatnthe work done on both was identical...

The quicknand easynway tonlearn anforeignnlanguage!nBased on the U.S. Militaryn”Speed-up” Methodnof Language LearningnProgrammed for Rapid Learning!nIt’s been scientifically proven that we remembernwords we hear better than words we see. That’s whynyou’ll find the two audiocassettes in each Language /n30 package more useful than all the language booksnmoney can buy. Just start listening to the tapes, repeatnthe...

PERSPECTIVEnLife and Death in a House DividednThe Supreme Court’s recent decision to review anMissouri abortion case has raised the spirits of thenpro-hfe movement. In his appeal, Missouri’s attorney generalnasked the Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade, the landmarkncivil rights decision that made pregnant women and theirnphysicians sole arbiters over who is born and who is...

every institution that protects individuals from the brutenpower of the state. There is no other way to read suchnlegislative breakthroughs as the Fourteenth Amendment,nthe Civil Rights Act of 1964, and 20 years of feministnlegislation, except as deliberate assaults on the traditionalnprivileges of families, communities, and states. By liberatingnwomen from husbands and fathers, we have, at...

the answer. Prominent evangelical clergymen now endorsenOperation Rescue’s illegal tactics, and Jerry Falwell has evenngone to Atlanta to get himself arrested in demonstrationsnthat must remind Atlanta police of an earlier generation ofnillegal protests. Mr. Falwell had hoped to enlist the supportnof other prominent Southern Baptists, but Atlanta ministernCharles Stanley, former president of the Southern BaphstnConvention,...

the dangers of nuclear war, but in a mutation of Christianneschatological hope, which affects believers and unbelieversnalike. The passions fueling the peace movement can benunderstood only as the end result of a centuries-long processnof moral inversion, beginning with the political religions ofnthe Enlightenment, and now coming close to conqueringnthe Christian churches themselves.nIf we cannot expect...

present troubles, if only because of the extreme moralnmodesty of paganism. As against the vast moral hopes thatnChristianity has kindled in mankind, paganism expressed annattitude of resignation and fatalism in regard to moralnmisfortune, which is reflected in all the reflective philosophies—nEpicurean as much as Stoic — of late antiquity. Nevernwas it supposed that imperfection was...

proliferation of nuclear technologies across the globe, togethernwith the growing possibilities of nuclear terrorism,nrules out any such easy solution. Even in respect of thenSoviet Union, the Star Wars shield cannot protect Europe atnall, and could be nearly perfect and still (by allowing in a fewnmulti-warhead missiles) allow for the devastation of NorthnAmerica. Whereas it undoubtedly...

they already partly convict their targets of witchcraft.nExamples of such words include, for example, the phrasen”under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance (which automaticallynand without argument makes it impossible for ZennBuddhists, animalists, polytheists, and atheists to be patrioticnAmericans) and the slogans of both the pro- and thenanti-abortion movements. The subtext of the word “prolife”nincludes the...

“the” in “the unicorn,” “the phoenix,” or “the gods,” or, asnmany baby boomers now use the term, “the Establishment,”nan ironic reference to the general gremlins ofnparanoia that inhabit social life. Here the definite articlengives its seal of approval not to the existence of the mythicalnbeast, but to the shared agreement to entertain it as andelightful...

of “the patriarchy” is an assumption that those who believenin evidence and reasoning do not in fact know the limits ofntheir usefulness, and that they are therefore blind tonanything else. This is the mild implication, and it may evennserve as a useful corrective for those who might forget thenlimits. But underneath it is a more...

to be unhappy, and actually they’re even happier in thenthought that I’m unhappy.n”But at least I know now who the enemy is. He has beenncrushing me, taking away my power; when I loved him it wasna stupid waste, because he collected all the happiness I gavenaway and kept it for himself. Why should I give...

that it may be ourselves or children who would be killed ornmutilated as well as’ an amorphous ‘enemy.'” The modernnshibboleths of “pluralism” and “tolerance” will likewise findntheir way into the work of the socially-motivated deathneducator who helps students understand that “death meansndifferent things to different people” and that “style of dyingnis individualistic.” In the death-ed...

funeral home to be seen by family members only whennembalmed and cosmetically prepared for viewing.nThe modern professionalization of death has not onlyndistanced the family from the dead, but has also reduced thenvisibility of religion. In many cities, nine out of ten funeralsnare now conducted out of funeral homes, not chapels ornsynagogues. Buoyed up by technocratic...

President what was happening. This isnthe most shocking part of the story.nAfew of the many examples: in earlyn1983, when jeane Kirkpatricknmade a tour of Central America with anletter from Reagan outlining his policy,nThomas Enders, assistant secretary ofnstate for Latin America, sent a letter tonall area ambassadors to ignorenKirkpatrick because a new policy, thenState formula, was...

la looked ominously like the 1938 Munichnsolution for Czechoslovakia is notnsurprising, since a primary characteristicnof the liberal world view is the endlessnrepetition of errors. This is because eachnissue is seen as a discreet problem to bensettled. If just this one thing can be putnbehind us, they say, then normal relationsn(peace) will be restored. Theynrefuse to...

them that the USSR’s assistance “mustnnever be provocative.” This did notnpreclude the signing of several secretnmilitary and technical assistance treatiesnbetween the two great socialistnnations.nOnly later, as Moscow concludednthat Washington’s reaction to thenCubanization of Grenada would notngo beyond rhetoric, did the Sovietnpresence increase. Ambassador GennadiynSazhenev — a former officer innthe USSR’s long-range bomber forcesnwho reportedly served...

Henry James, the conquest of London.nEliot intended nothing less than tonmake himself the preeminent authority,nin England, on literature, philosophy,nand culture. The process by which henmastered Anglo-American literary politicsnis fascinating. It involved his immersionnin the literary tradition and modernncultural developments. He undertook ancalculated program of reading, he gavenlectures in a university extension program,nhe cultivated British and...

Eliot, the retired president of Harvardnand a cousin of Eliot’s grandfather,nwasn’t convinced by Eliot’s expatriation.nAs he told Tom in a letter ofn1919: “My last word is that if you wishnto speak through’ your own work tonpeople of the ‘finest New Englandnspirit’ you had better not live muchnlonger in the English atmosphere. ThenNew England spirit has...

ining the character, of aspiring leaders isnthat it is good for us—personally goodnfor us. Ms. Sheehy sees her characternportraits as “case histories that instructnus in how, and how not, to conductnourselves to win at life.” Her subjects,nas she presents them, teach us “thenprice for avoiding or denying confrontationnwith life’s major passages”; theynare a “mirror.” But...

and the present comprehensively conformistnsubjugation of our own heritagenof respect for the individual maynall equally stem from the 20thncentury’s self-congratulatory promotionn(as defined by an internationalncredit monopoly) of so-called ordinarynpeople, an orthodoxy of nobodyhoodnand nothingness that thrives on thensuppression not only of Napoleons ofnPoetry like Pound, but all ournJeffersons, Edisons, Einsteins, HenrynFords, and Bucky Fullers, past...

in the Communist East. The loss of allnsacred vision and our consequent myopicnpreoccupation with man and hisnpresumed abilities led first to Utopianism,nwhich is still honored, at leastnformally, in the Communist world, butnwhich in the West has given way to annincreasing moral fatigue, based on annawareness of man’s limitations, a sensenof man’s inability to meet his...