DOCSLIB.ORG

Walter Lippmann, Strategic Internationalism, the Cold War, and Vietnam , 1943-1967

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Walter Lippmann, Strategic Internationalism, the Cold War, and Vietnam , 1943-1967 ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: WALTER LIPPMANN, STRATEGIC INTERNATIONALISM, THE COLD WAR, AND VIETNAM , 1943-1967 Matthew A. Wasniewski, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Shu Guang Zhang, Department of History This dissertation examines the Cold War writings and activities of the American commentator Walter Lippmann—in particular his observations about U.S. policy in Vietnam. Lippmann was the preeminent columnist of his era, writing 2,300 installments of his Today and Tomorrow column between 1945 and 1967. Lippmann crafted a conceptual framework for promoting American internationalism that blended political realism, cosmopolitanism, and classical diplomacy. That approach shaped his role as a moderator of the domestic and international dialogue about the Cold War, as a facilitator of ideas and policies, and as a quasi -diplomat. Chapter one suggests that based on new archival sources a re -evaluation of Lippmann is necessary to correct inadequacies in the sta ndard literature. Chapter two surveys his strategic internationalist approach to foreign affairs from the publication of his first foreign policy book in 1915 to three influential volumes he wrote between 1943 and 1947. Chapter three explores Lippmann’s position on a prominent and controversial Cold War issue—the partition of Germany. Chapter four makes a comparative analysis of Lippmann with the French commentator Raymond Aron, examining Lippmann’s part as a dialogue-shaper and public broker during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the subsequent debate about nuclear sharing in the Atlantic Alliance. Chapter five moves the study toward his writings on U.S. policy in Asia —particularly U.S. -China policy and the Korean War. Chapter six examines Lippmann’s analy ses of U.S. -Vietnam policy from 1949 to 1963 framed by three consistent arguments: first, that America had no vital interests at stake there; second, that it could not win a military victory there at any reasonable cost; and, third, that its best course wa s to use diplomacy to promote Vietnamese neutralism. Chapter seven explores Lippmann’s efforts to dissuade U.S. officials from intervention in 1964. Chapter eight details policymakers’ elaborate efforts to delay Lippmann’s public criticisms of the Vietnam policies. Chapter nine explores the Johnson administration’s determination to discredit Lippmann’s public criticisms of the war after July 1965. Chapter ten counters the standard literature’s portrayal of Lippmann’s Cold War commentary and suggests that his most influential activity as a public figure may have been as a quasi - diplomatist. WALTER LIPPMANN, STRATEGIC INTERNATIONALISM, THE COLD WAR, AND VIETNAM, 1943-1967 By Matthew A. Wasniewski Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Advisory Committee: Professor Shu Guang Zhang, Chair Professor Keith W. Ol son Professor Jeffrey Herf Professor George H. Quester Dr. Donald A. Ritchie © Copyright by Matthew A. Wasniewski 2004 For Mimi, Ella, and Evan ii Acknowledgements Historians stand on the shoulders of archivis ts. Mike Parrish of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, with good cheer, provided invaluable research assistance during and after my stay in Austin. Judith Schiff and Bill Massa, Jr., of Yale’s Sterling Library Manuscripts Division were invaluable in filli ng requests for photo - duplication from the Lippmann Collection. The staffs of each of the following repositories also were unfailingly helpful: the presidential libraries of Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy; the Virginia Historic al Society, particularly Nelson Lankford; the Library of Congress, Manuscripts and Reading Division; the Mudd Library Twentieth Century Public Policy Collection at Princeton University; the National Archives and Records Administration II at College Park; and the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section. Each of the following institutions extended generous research grants: Harry S. Truman Library Foundation, Eisenhower World Affairs Institute, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, and Virginia Historical Society. I also am indebted to persons who consented to personal interviews. Elizabeth Midgley and Francis Bator kindly opened their homes to me and shared their memories of Lippmann. With patience and insight , Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Louis Auchincloss spent a long lunch fielding questions about Lippmann. Walt Rostow graciously volunteered his recollections of Vietnam . iii Ronald Steel, whose biography is the standard by which Lippmann scholarship must be measured, provided encouragement, suggestions, and a lunch or two. His belief that there was room for another Lippmann study inspired me to shape out my own views. Though I disagree with some of Ron’s conclusions I found him to be one of the most agreeable peo ple on a journey filled with many such persons. My research began at James Madison University where I had the privilege to know some fine teachers: Skip Hyser, Lee Congdon, Steve Guerrier, David Owusu - Ansah, Chris Arndt, and Clive Hallman. As a visiting scholar at National Archives, Melvyn Leffler led an inspiring course that broadened my research horizons. I thank my patient advisor at the University of Maryland, Shu Guang Zhang, who offered me the latitude to tackle this subject. I also thank my other readers: Art Eckstein, Jeffrey Herf, Keith Olson, and George Quester of the University of Maryland, as well as Donald Ritchie of the U.S. Senate Historical Office, for thoughtful commentary. For four decades , Keith Olson and his wife Marilyn have mentored —with thoughtful conversation, meals, and lodging —a constellation of students from Scandinavia to Shanghai. Though academic culture does not reward such good works they are its lifeblood. I am greatly indebted to the Olsons’ kindness. I thank, too, my colleagues at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, especially Don Kennon, who provided a flexible wo rk schedule and a “sabbatical” in August of 2001. Beth Bolling transcribed interviews and also catalogued many of Lippmann’s columns. As I approached the final stages of writing, my colleagues at the Office of History & Preservation in the U.S. House of Representatives also offered support and encouragement, especially Ken Kato, Farar Elliott , and Andrew Dodge . iv Friends, family, and other colleagues along the way who provided food, shelter, good company, childcare services, encouragement, perspective, or combinations of the above : David and Valerie Adams, Eleanor Adams, Carl Ashley, Rennie and Katie Scott -Childress, Geoff Coats, Joann Crockett, Craig Daigle, Michelle Denevan , Josh Freed , Chris Hopkins, Patrick and Shea Hopkins, Ali Noorani, Greg O’Brien, Jeff Pickron, Paul and Kelly Raymond, Terrance Rucker , Frank Schumacher, John and Kathleen Wasniewski, and Stanley Wasniewski. My parents, Andy and Connie Wasnie wski, have been two of my most steadfast supporters even when (with justification) they may have wondered if it would ever end . Hamid and Jenny Noorani welcomed me into their family as a son- in -law and they have unfailingly made me feel at home with their support. My wife, Mimi Noorani, sacrificed more than anybody to help me finish . Mimi is a thoughtful critic, ruthless editor, gifted conceptualizer (from childhood education issues to gardening), and she is my best friend. She has known of Walter Lippma nn since our first date but, in all these years, has had the patience to insist on writing well rather than writing quickly. In the midst of my project we embarked on a far more ambitious adventure : parenthood. Our twin children, Evan and Ella, provided the inspiration to finish —allowing us more time to know the wonder of watching them grow. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Reconsidering Walter Lippmann ............................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Walter Lippmann and Strategic Internat ionalism: Cosmopolitanism, Realpolitik, and the Education of “Fully Enlightened American Nationalists, 1915-1942 ............................................................................. 27 Chapter 3: Conflict and Convergence: Walter Lippmann, George Kennan, Raymond Aron, and the Problem of German Partition, 1947-1963 ......................... 118 Chapter 4: Trans-Atlantic Brokering: Walter Lippmann, Raymond Aron, The Cuban Missile Crisis, and Nuclear Sharing, 1962-1963.................................... 176 Chapter 5: "An Unendng Series of Insoluble Dilemmas": Walter Lippmann and Containment in Asia, 1947-1955.......................................... 236 Chapter 6: “Long . A Pessimist About Vietnam”: Walte r Lippmann and U.S. Policy in Indochina, 1949-1963.................................... 298 Chapter 7: Personal Persuasion and Calculations of Co -Optation: Walter Lippmann, McGeorge Bundy, Lyndon Johnson, and Vietnam November 1963 to February 1965 ............................................................................ 376 Chapter 8: “Give Him More of the Same”: The Johnson Administration’s
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Pulitzer Prizes for International Reporting in the Third Phase of Their Development, 1963-1977
    INTRODUCTION THE PULITZER PRIZES FOR INTERNATIONAL REPORTING IN THE THIRD PHASE OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT, 1963-1977 Heinz-Dietrich Fischer The rivalry between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. having shifted, in part, to predomi- nance in the fields of space-travel and satellites in the upcoming space age, thus opening a new dimension in the Cold War,1 there were still existing other controversial issues in policy and journalism. "While the colorful space competition held the forefront of public atten- tion," Hohenberg remarks, "the trained diplomatic correspondents of the major newspa- pers and wire services in the West carried on almost alone the difficult and unpopular East- West negotiations to achieve atomic control and regulation and reduction of armaments. The public seemed to want to ignore the hard fact that rockets capable of boosting people into orbit for prolonged periods could also deliver atomic warheads to any part of the earth. It continued, therefore, to be the task of the responsible press to assign competent and highly trained correspondents to this forbidding subject. They did not have the glamor of TV or the excitement of a space shot to focus public attention on their work. Theirs was the responsibility of obliging editors to publish material that was complicated and not at all easy for an indifferent public to grasp. It had to be done by abandoning the familiar cliches of journalism in favor of the care and the art of the superior historian .. On such an assignment, no correspondent was a 'foreign' correspondent. The term was outdated.
    [Show full text]
  • Resisting Chinese Linguistic Imperialism
    UYGHUR HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT SPECIAL REPORT Resisting Chinese Linguistic Imperialism: Abduweli Ayup and the Movement for Uyghur Mother Tongue-Based Education Rustem Shir, Research Associate Logo of the Ana Til Balilar Baghchisi (Mother Tongue Children’s Garden) May 2019 Contents Acknowledgement 4 Introduction 5 1. CCP language policy on education in East Turkestan 6 Foundations of CCP ethnic minority policy 6 Eras of minority language tolerance 9 Primary and secondary school ‘bilingual’ education policy 12 The Xinjiang Class 20 Mandarin as the language of instruction at Xinjiang University 22 Preschool and kindergarten ‘bilingual’ education policy 23 Suppression of the Movement for Uyghur Mother Tongue-Based Education 26 The Hotan Prefecture and Ghulja County Department of Education directives 28 Internment camps 29 Discussion 32 2. ABduweli Ayup and the Movement for Uyghur Mother Tongue-Based Education 36 Upal: Why couldn’t we study Kashgari? 36 Toquzaq: Oyghan! (Wake Up!) 38 Beijing: Our campus felt like a minority region 41 Doletbagh: My sad history repeating in front of me 50 Urumchi: Education for assimilation 55 Lanzhou: Are you bin Laden? 60 Ankara: Ethno-nationalism and a counterbalance 67 Urumchi: For the love of community 72 Lawrence: Disconnected 77 Kashgar: Rise of the Movement for Uyghur Mother Tongue-Based Education 81 Urumchi: Just keep silent 89 Kashgar: You’re going to be arrested 93 Doletbagh Detention Center: No choice, brother 98 Urumchi Tengritagh Detention Center: Qorqma (Don’t be afraid) 104 Urumchi Liudaowan Prison: Every color had disappeared 109 Urumchi Koktagh Prison: Do you want to defend yourself? 124 2 Urumchi/Kashgar: Release and return 127 Kashgar: Open-air prison 131 Ankara: Stateless and stranded 138 Paris: A new beginning 146 3.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pulitzer Prizes 2020 Winne
    WINNERS AND FINALISTS 1917 TO PRESENT TABLE OF CONTENTS Excerpts from the Plan of Award ..............................................................2 PULITZER PRIZES IN JOURNALISM Public Service ...........................................................................................6 Reporting ...............................................................................................24 Local Reporting .....................................................................................27 Local Reporting, Edition Time ..............................................................32 Local General or Spot News Reporting ..................................................33 General News Reporting ........................................................................36 Spot News Reporting ............................................................................38 Breaking News Reporting .....................................................................39 Local Reporting, No Edition Time .......................................................45 Local Investigative or Specialized Reporting .........................................47 Investigative Reporting ..........................................................................50 Explanatory Journalism .........................................................................61 Explanatory Reporting ...........................................................................64 Specialized Reporting .............................................................................70
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring the Perception of Nationalism in the United States and Saudi Arabia Reem Mohammed Alhethail Eastern Washington University
    Eastern Washington University EWU Digital Commons EWU Masters Thesis Collection Student Research and Creative Works 2015 Exploring the perception of nationalism in the United States and Saudi Arabia Reem Mohammed Alhethail Eastern Washington University Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.ewu.edu/theses Part of the Islamic World and Near East History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Alhethail, Reem Mohammed, "Exploring the perception of nationalism in the United States and Saudi Arabia" (2015). EWU Masters Thesis Collection. 330. http://dc.ewu.edu/theses/330 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research and Creative Works at EWU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in EWU Masters Thesis Collection by an authorized administrator of EWU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EXPLORING THE PERCEPTION OF NATIONALISM IN THE UNITED STATES AND SAUDI ARABIA A Thesis Presented To Eastern Washington University Cheney, WA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Master of Arts in History By Reem Mohammed Alhethail Fall 2015 ii THESIS OF REEM MOHAMMED ALHETHAIL APPROVED BY DATE ROBERT SAUDERS, GRADUATE STUDY COMMITTEE DATE MICHAEL CONLIN, GRADUATE STUDY COMMITTEE DATE CHADRON HAZELBAKER, GRADUATE STUDY COMMITTEE iii MASTER’S THESIS In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at Eastern Washington University, I agree that (your library) shall make copies freely available for inspection. I further agree that copying of this project in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • Theory of International Politics
    Theory of International Politics KENNETH N. WALTZ University of Califo rnia, Berkeley .A yy Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Reading, Massachusetts Menlo Park, California London • Amsterdam Don Mills, Ontario • Sydney Preface This book is in the Addison-Wesley Series in Political Science Theory is fundamental to science, and theories are rooted in ideas. The National Science Foundation was willing to bet on an idea before it could be well explained. The following pages, I hope, justify the Foundation's judgment. Other institu­ tions helped me along the endless road to theory. In recent years the Institute of International Studies and the Committee on Research at the University of Califor­ nia, Berkeley, helped finance my work, as the Center for International Affairs at Harvard did earlier. Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and from the Institute for the Study of World Politics enabled me to complete a draft of the manuscript and also to relate problems of international-political theory to wider issues in the philosophy of science. For the latter purpose, the philosophy depart­ ment of the London School of Economics provided an exciting and friendly envi­ ronment. Robert Jervis and John Ruggie read my next-to-last draft with care and in­ sight that would amaze anyone unacquainted with their critical talents. Robert Art and Glenn Snyder also made telling comments. John Cavanagh collected quantities of preliminary data; Stephen Peterson constructed the TabJes found in the Appendix; Harry Hanson compiled the bibliography, and Nacline Zelinski expertly coped with an unrelenting flow of tapes. Through many discussions, mainly with my wife and with graduate students at Brandeis and Berkeley, a number of the points I make were developed.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Packaging Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3th639mx Author Galloway, Catherine Suzanne Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California PACKAGING POLITICS by Catherine Suzanne Galloway A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the Graduate Division of the University of California at Berkeley Committee in charge Professor Jack Citrin, Chair Professor Eric Schickler Professor Taeku Lee Professor Tom Goldstein Fall 2012 Abstract Packaging Politics by Catherine Suzanne Galloway Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Berkeley Professor Jack Citrin, Chair The United States, with its early consumerist orientation, has a lengthy history of drawing on similar techniques to influence popular opinion about political issues and candidates as are used by businesses to market their wares to consumers. Packaging Politics looks at how the rise of consumer culture over the past 60 years has influenced presidential campaigning and political culture more broadly. Drawing on interviews with political consultants, political reporters, marketing experts and communications scholars, Packaging Politics explores the formal and informal ways that commercial marketing methods – specifically emotional and open source branding and micro and behavioral targeting – have migrated to the
    [Show full text]
  • The Elliott School of INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
    THE ELLIOtt SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS ANNUAL REPORT 2006/2007 MISSION THE MISSION OF THE ELLIOTT SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS IS: • To educate the next generation of international leaders • To conduct research and produce scholarship that advances understanding of important global issues • To engage the public and the policy community in the United States and around the world, thereby fostering international dialogue and shaping policy solutions Our mission is to create knowledge, share wisdom and inspire action to make our world a better place. A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN recent survey of scholars ranked the Elliott School’s undergraduate and graduate programs in the top 10. Only five schools in the world were ranked this highly in A both categories. It’s an impressive club. It’s also an important club. The issues we study at the Elliott School—ranging from war and peace to poverty and development—affect the lives of billions of our fellow human beings. Powerful international dynamics—population growth, rising levels of resource consumption, the expansion of the global economy, mounting environmental challenges—will shape the world in the decades ahead. Wise policy and effective international cooperation will be more important than ever. At the Elliott School, the study of international affairs is not an abstract exercise. Our aim is to make our world a better place. The Elliott School is in a unique position to make a difference. Our location in the heart of Washington, DC—just steps from some of the most influential U.S., international and non- governmental organizations in the world—enriches our teaching and research, and it provides us with unmatched opportunities to engage the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to Material at the LBJ Library Pertaining to Political Affairs
    LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON L I B R A R Y & M U S E U M www.lbjlibrary.org Rev. 11/2002, 6/2010, 7/2011 PL MATERIAL AT THE LBJ LIBRARY PERTAINING TO POLITICAL AFFAIRS INTRODUCTION This list includes the principal files in the Johnson Library that contain material relating to political affairs. It is not definitive, however, and researchers should consult with the Library's archivists about other potentially useful files. The guide includes those collections that have been opened for research in part or in whole, and those collections that are currently unprocessed or unavailable. See also the guides: Congress; Public Opinion Polls and Mail; Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP); New Hampshire Politics; The President’s Club; Public Opinion Polls and Mail; 1968-69 Presidential Transition; Whistle Stop; plus those for individuals such as Barry Goldwater, Robert F. Kennedy, etc. WHITE HOUSE CENTRAL FILES (WHCF), SUBJECT FILE This permanent white House office was the main filing unit during the Johnson presidency, though not the primary file for foreign policy documents. Material was filed under 60 major subject headings, as described in the WHCF finding aid. Box # FG, Federal Government Organizations FG 1, The President of the United States 9-35 FG 400, The Legislative Branch 321-330 FG 410, House of Representatives 332-333 FG 411, House Committees 333-337 FG 412, Speaker of the House 337-338 FG 415, Joint Committees of Congress 338-339 FG 430, Senate 339-340 FG 431, Senate Committees 341-346 FG 440, Vice President of the United States 346-351
    [Show full text]
  • Graham on Goodwin, 'Walter Lippmann: Public Economist'
    H-Socialisms Graham on Goodwin, 'Walter Lippmann: Public Economist' Review published on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 Craufurd D. W. Goodwin. Walter Lippmann: Public Economist. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014. 424 pp. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-36813-2. Reviewed by John Graham Published on H-Socialisms (March, 2015) Commissioned by Gary Roth Bringing Keynes to America and Economics to the Masses: Walter Lippmann, Economic Journalist Walter Lippmann was the preeminent American journalist of the twentieth century. Distinguished for his intellectual depth and breadth, and for his vast personal contacts in academia and government, he wrote daily newspaper columns that were widely read and respected for close to fifty years, from the 1920s through the late 1960s. His authoritative columns were meant to inform his readers and to shape their opinions on a wide range of current political, social, and economic issues. In aNew Yorker cartoon from 1932, a dowager lady at breakfast confesses, “A cup of coffee and Walter Lippmann is all I need.” A voracious reader and quick writer, Lippmann could have been an academic or a politician but rejected both professions in favor of journalist and public intellectual. The only child of well-traveled, upper-middle-class New York German Jews, Lippmann graduated from Harvard in 1910. Over the next twenty years, he wrote six highly regarded books on moral philosophy, social issues, and politics; helped start the New Republic; and wrote the lead editorials for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. With its demise, he left the Democratic-leaning World for the Republican-leaning New York Herald Tribune.
    [Show full text]
  • Postcoloniality, Science Fiction and India Suparno Banerjee Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Banerjee [email protected]
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2010 Other tomorrows: postcoloniality, science fiction and India Suparno Banerjee Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Banerjee, Suparno, "Other tomorrows: postcoloniality, science fiction and India" (2010). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3181. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3181 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. OTHER TOMORROWS: POSTCOLONIALITY, SCIENCE FICTION AND INDIA A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In The Department of English By Suparno Banerjee B. A., Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, 2000 M. A., Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, 2002 August 2010 ©Copyright 2010 Suparno Banerjee All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My dissertation would not have been possible without the constant support of my professors, peers, friends and family. Both my supervisors, Dr. Pallavi Rastogi and Dr. Carl Freedman, guided the committee proficiently and helped me maintain a steady progress towards completion. Dr. Rastogi provided useful insights into the field of postcolonial studies, while Dr. Freedman shared his invaluable knowledge of science fiction. Without Dr. Robin Roberts I would not have become aware of the immensely powerful tradition of feminist science fiction.
    [Show full text]
  • UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title A Soldier at Heart: The Life of Smedley Butler, 1881-1940 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6gn7b51j Author Myers, Eric Dennis Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles A Soldier at Heart: The Life of Smedley Butler, 1881 - 1940 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Eric Dennis Myers 2013 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION A Soldier at Heart: The Life of Smedley Butler, 1881 - 1940 by Eric Dennis Myers Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Joan Waugh, Chair The dissertation is a historical biography of Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940), a decorated soldier and critic of war profiteering during the 1930s. A two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner and son of a powerful congressman, Butler was one of the most prominent military figures of his era. He witnessed firsthand the American expansionism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, participating in all of the major conflicts and most of the minor ones. Following his retirement in 1931, Butler became an outspoken critic of American intervention, arguing in speeches and writings against war profiteering and the injustices of expansionism. His critiques represented a wide swath of public opinion at the time – the majority of Americans supported anti-interventionist policies through 1939. Yet unlike other members of the movement, Butler based his theories not on abstract principles, but on experiences culled from decades of soldiering: the terrors and wasted resources of the battlefield, ! ""! ! the use of the American military to bolster corrupt foreign governments, and the influence of powerful, domestic moneyed interests.
    [Show full text]
  • Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Discussion Paper Series
    Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Discussion Paper Series #D-64, June 2011 Disengaged: Elite Media in a Vernacular Nation1 By Bob Calo Shorenstein Center Fellow, Spring 2011 Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley © 2011 President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Journalists, by and large, regard the “crisis” as something that happened to them, and not anything they did. It was the Internet that jumbled the informational sensitivities of their readers, corporate ownership that raised suspicions about our editorial motives, the audience itself that lacked the education or perspective to appreciate the work. Yet, 40 years of polling is clear about one thing: The decline in trust and the uneasiness of the audience with the profession and its product started well before technology began to shred the conventions of the media. In 1976, 72% of Americans expressed confidence in the news. Everyone knows the dreary trend line from that year onward: an inexorable decline over the decades.2 And if we fail to examine our part in the collapse of trust, no amount of digital re-imagining or niche marketing is going to restore our desired place in the public conversation. Ordinary working people no longer see media as a partner in their lives but part of the noise that intrudes on their lives. People will continue to muddle through: voting or not voting, caring or not caring, but many of them are doing it, as they once did, without the companionship of the press. Now elites and partisans don’t have this problem, there are niches aplenty for them.
    [Show full text]