The German soldiers of World War II have often been portrayed, both during the war and in the decades since, as simple-minded, unimaginative and brutish. Hollywood movies and popular U.S. television shows have for years contrasted confident, able and “cool” American GIs with slow-witted, cynical and cruel Germans. “Propaganda is an inescapable ingredient of modern…
Landing at Nagasaki Airport last November, I joined a line of Japanese men, women, and children waiting to disembark from our plane. Most were likely returning home on this holiday weekend or arriving to visit family and friends. I wondered how many of them remembered or thought about the nuclear annihilation of this city 73…
“Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.” So said President Charles De Gaulle, who in 1966 ordered NATO to vacate its Paris headquarters and get out of France. NATO this year celebrates a major birthday. The young girl of 1966 is no longer young. The alliance is 70 years old….
The method of warfare fought by Hitler’s forces in the Soviet Union would, before long, come back to haunt them. By pursuing a conflict in extreme ideological terms against Russia, it steeled the Red Army’s resolve in overcoming the “fascist hordes” at whatever cost. Hitler had titled his march eastwards “Operation Barbarossa”, named after King…
As Washington’s leadership fades more quickly than anyone could have imagined and a new global order struggles to take shape, a generation of leaders has crowded onto the world stage with their own bold geopolitical visions for winning international influence. Xi Xinping has launched his trillion-dollar “Belt and Road Initiative” to dominate Eurasia and thereby…
The Paris November commemoration of the End of World War I: The War to End All Wars acknowledges that 14 million lives were lost in the course of The Great War I (1914-18). The largest casualties were incurred by Russia, France, Germany, Italy, the British Empire (including troops from Canada, Ireland and British colonies), and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. …
