Despite the posthumous praise for Cronkite's February 1968 telecast that dubbed the war "a stalemate," the facts show that the broadcast came only after Cronkite's protracted support for the war.
Colin Powell and Robert McNamara exemplify the ever-loyal, unquestioning subordinate. McNamara self-righteously invoked Dean Acheson's quiet departure from the New Deal as his model, but Acheson's silence did not assure him a place at the World Bank. If McNamara had denounced the war, would it have made a difference? What if the very popular Colin Powell had expended some of his political capital and denounced the dubious rationalization for war against Iraq? Perhaps their dramatic gestures would have been wasted. But Archibald Cox's forceful stand against Nixon in October 1973 is instructive, showing that public resistance to a superior can make a difference.
The president has set a limit on the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. For now. That's how escalation works. Ceilings become floors. Gradually.
Whatever his better nature, it was the stark evil he perpetrated as secretary of defense that must indelibly frame our memory of him.
Even after McNamara spelled out everything that went so horribly wrong in Vietnam, he lived long enough to see a new generation of the self-appointed "best and brightest" in Washington pay absolutely no mind to the lessons of our recent past.
While the Obama administration blames their dallying on the press or the political situation, they should be reminded that that didn't stop Johnson.
Republicans must not take comfort from 1968. They must take it as a warning sign.
Obama has repeatedly declared that he would govern as a consensus builder. He wasn't lying. However, there are two ways of achieving consensus.
When Obama takes a progressive step, it has been made possible by progressive activism. When Obama takes an anti-progressive step, it has been facilitated by progressives muting their criticism.
We're now witnessing the neo-carnage that has resulted from neo-cons Newt Gingrich and his "Contract on America," and Ronald Reagan's buyout by Barry ...
For more than 75 years, conservatives have smeared progressive attempts to reform our faltering health-care system as "socialized medicine."
In an intriguing and little-known episode worthy of a Cold War spy novel, the late Minnesota Democrat held a secret meeting with Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara in New York in 1964.
Since the narcissists who so often run things don't care much about their victims, the best hope for at least a little more truth-telling may be to try and show them the damage they're doing to themselves.
The enormous challenge facing the administration is not just getting us out of this economic mess, but also to begin to think through what our post-recession economy will look like.
Holder dared to challenge the nation on the taboo R word. Just don't expect much more to come of it.
When Beltway insider Jack Valenti died two years ago at age 85, he was playing the role of intermediary between Washington and Hollywood as the theatr...
President Obama appears to be running scared -- scared of the Republican minority in Congress, scared of faith-based groups, scared of boldness.
The Inauguration of our new Chief this January has miraculously, it would seem, inaugurated a shift in movie genre. Barack and Michelle looked like Fred and Ginger.
The White House has reclaimed its place as an intellectual playground. In keeping with this tradition I propose a permanent addition to the White House staff: a historian-in-residence.
Not only must we re-dedicate ourselves to King's civil rights mission along with the world peace mission, we must see the two as being so utterly linked that one cannot exist without the other.
The Eartha Kitt that I knew, remember, and pay homage to, was an impassioned contributor to peace and civil rights.
The early keys to a successful Obama administration will be managing expectations and setting up an administration that will be proactive and not get sidetracked by the inevitable events and crises.
The economists of the Johnson era, notably my father and Walt Rostow, understood that the fortunes of the U.S. cannot be disentangled from the progress of the developing world. In the years since, we have forgotten.
Eisenhower: 2 recessions; Nixon and Ford: 2 recessions; Reagan: 1 recession; George H.W. Bush: 1 recession; George W. Bush: 2 recessions; Democrats: 1 recession. Eight to one, you decide.
President-elect Obama appointed old hands to his top economic posts, explaining Wednesday that "the vision for change" comes from him. That's a way to deal with a central problem of transitions.
