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FROM THE ARCHIVES In June 1945, Commonweal associate editor C. G. Paulding denounced an essay by Major George Fielding Eliot, then a military analyst for the New York Herald Tribune, that...

Christmas Critics (December 2013)

BOOKS Christmas Critics Thomas Powers For the used-book business this is the worst of times and the best of times—worst because stores are closing all over the United States, and best because the...

By way of farewell: (March 1983)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers BY WAY OF FAREWELL AFTER EIGHT YEARS, THE TIME HAS COME I OFTEN WONDER, not idly, who reads Commonweal? Some magazines spend a fortune finding out. The answer is...

What do they want? (February 1983)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers WHAT DO THEY WANT? WHY GREAT POWERS DO WHAT THEY DO A FEW YEARS AGO I asked a student of political and military affairs what was the source of Russian interest in...

Dense pack Q & A: (January 1983)

DENSE PACK Q & A SHOULD IT REALLY GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD? BACK IN 1967 the Institute for Defense Analysis produced a multi-volume study generally re-ferred to as Strut X - for "strategic...

Glacial confrontation (December 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers GLACIAL CONFRONTATION IS MOSCOW FINALLY CLEARING THE DECKS? (Editors' note: This column was originally sent to the printer two days before Brezhnev's death was...

The moment to say no (November 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers THE MOMENT TO SAY NO A THOUGHT FOR THE BISHOPS BACK DURING the first months of the Carter administration a major inter-agency study of strategic weapons policy...

The road to Masada (October 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers THE ROAD TO MASADA BEGIN INCREASES ISRAELI ISOLATION MY FATHER and I share an office in Vermont during the summer. He usually arrives about 9:30, carrying the...

The 12th of June (July 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers THE 12TH OF JUNE LESSONS FOR A YOUNG MOVEMENT THE 12TH OF JUNE was a perfect day for a demonstration-no threat of rain, but not sunny either. Marching in the sun...

The bomb bibliography (June 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers THE BOMB BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS THAT HELPED MY THINKING THE LITERATURE on nuclear weapons is vast, but much of it is written in a cautious, professional tone with one...

Choosing sides (May 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers CHOOSING SIDES IT'S NOT MILITARY MIGHT WE LACK THERE IS A CURIOUS claim in the second volume of Henry Kissinger's memoirs. It is that the world is all of a piece....

What is war? (April 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers WHAT IS WAR? FROM CLAUSEWITZ TO SHERMAN FOR THE LAST thirty years of his life, Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), the great Prussian military writer, tried to...

Living with the fear (March 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers LIVING WITH THE FEAR THE BENEFITS OF FAMILIARITY Last spring I had lunch in Washington with S., a young theoretical physicist who had switched to defense work....

The power of words (February 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers THE POWER OF WORDS WHY PESSIMISTS SCARE US, NOT CHANGE US In my youthful way I wondered, "If only some day a hundred years from now, a little street or even an...

On nuclear disbelief (January 1982)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers ON NUCLEAR DISBELIEF 'MAYBE IT JUST WONT HAPPEN' I have never seen a nuclear weapon. But last spring I visited the Atomic Museum at Kirtland Air Force Base on the...

How accurate is accurate? (December 1981)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers HOW ACCURATE'S ACCURATE A MISS IS AS GOOD AS A MILE ONE OF THE better-kept secrets of World War II was the fact that bombers had a hard time hitting anything-that...

What to tell the children (November 1981)

WHAT TO TELL THE KIDS I GET UNEASY WHEN SOMEONE MENTIONS MY BOOK "I got you!" "No you didn't!" "Yes I did! You're dead!" That's the way it went in cops and robbers, or cowboys and Indians, or...

The way out is forward (October 1981)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers THE WAY OUT IS FORWARD ACHIEVING A WORKING CLIMATE OF TRUST WHEN HERODOTUS visited Egypt in the fifth century B.C. he found a decadent society, exhausted by time...

The moral fallacy: (September 1981)

THE MORAL FALLACY NUCLEAR WAR MAKES OUR DIFFERENCES PALE Be England what she will. With all her faults she is my country still "The Farewell" Charles Churchill (1731-1764) THE OTHER DAY - it was...

Principles of abolition (July 1981)

allow our children to believe that a sol- dier should obey orders without ques- tion, or a citizen must pay taxes or obey the summons to join the army, we are laying the groundwork for more of the...

Yesterday's talismans (June 1981)

regard it with love or reverence, to see ,it as a possible killing ground, is a sign of what we think of humanity. This is a religious issue, as slavery was, as war always is, as the arms...

Iron law of institutions (May 1981)

themselves acknowledged, as a consequence of "feeling same pattern expressed all across the nation, often in papers of burned" first by an administration deceptive about Vietnam only 20,000 to...

Down the miracle mile (April 1981)

DOWN THE MIRACLE NILE REAGAN'S PLAN FOR STRENGTHENING AMERICA TULLAHOMA, TENNESSEE, is hard to find. It isn't really there any more. Once upon a time there was a downtown with a courthouse, a post...

Spasm war: (March 1981)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers SPASM WAR WILL BOTH SIDES SHOOT THE WORKS? LAST FALL I went to see the deputy undersecretary of defense for strategic and space systems in the Office of the...

Signs of war (February 1981)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers SIGNS OF WAR IS IT TIME TO MOVE TO NEW ZEALAND? I MET a woman, some years ago, who had a number tattooed on her forearm She served coffee in her living room on a...

After the bombs: (January 1981)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers AFTER THE BOMBS WHERE THE IMAGINATION FALTERS FIVE years AGO the National Academy of Sciences published a long, interesting, technically detailed study which is...

A question of intentions (December 1980)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers A QUESTION OF INTENTIONS INTERPRETING SOVIET BEHAVIOR THE DAY AFTER the sixty-third anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, celebrated in the traditional...

Using up the president (November 1980)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers USING UP THE PRESIDENT THE PROCESS IS ONE OF ALMOST FEUDAL INTIMACY POOR JIMMY CARTER. There wasn't enough of him to go round. A college friend told me a story...

Crossing the nuclear threshold (October 1980)

His regular reelection showed that his confidence in the people of his district was not misplaced. One can think of nothing more necessary to restoring the vitality of American politics than a...

Great tumult of print (August 1980)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers GREAT TUMULT OF PRINT WHY WRITE POLITICAL JOURNALISM? Ir is hard not to wonder, going through a pile of more or less current magazines, trying to keep up,...

The citizen army (July 1980)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers THE CITIZEN ARMY THE PEOPLE WERE SIMPLY AMAZING TIME IN THE ARMY is a kind of dead time. It is time plucked from time. It is pure time, all duration...

The mysterious Spaniard (June 1980)

...

The good soldier system (May 1980)

The Agency had managed to trap another Of several minds: Thomas Powers CIA book in the courts--costing the pub- lisher $150,000 in legal fees--and to suppress 168 separate words or passages on the...

A chance encounter (April 1980)

recognition from Pol Pot. Such a step would indicate not only a The problem is how to get the administration to go beyond new sensitivity on our part to Cambodian suffering, it would such symbolic...

The CIA & the president (March 1980)

A REPLY TO ARTHUR SCHLESINGER, JR. The CIA & the president THOMAS POWERS INTERESTED readers will recall that in the last issue of Commonweal Arthur Schlesinger Jr. had many critical things to...

This time it is Munich (February 1980)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers THIS TINE IT IS MUNICH THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING THE MOST DIFFICULT choice which ever faces men in power is the choice between war now and war later. Ordinary...

Q. & A. on Iran (January 1980)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers Q. & A. ON IRAN CAN WE GET OUT WITH A WHOLE SKIN? WHERE is Iran? A long way from the United States, and walking distance from the Soviet Union. What is the...

War by computer (December 1979)

my feelings are over there, waiting for evaluation or contact. The self, seen as an object among other objects, a thing we can handle and deal with, is a bad idea. Unfortunately, the self seems...

Kind word for Carter (November 1979)

all. Nowhere does he speak of "abortion on demand." Andin fact he argues that the case for federal funding of abortion for the poor shouldnot be argued on the basis of "legal right" but of...

The Nuclear Question (November 1979)

agreeing with the second, I suggest that a successful hardline fight to restore restrictive laws will not overcome, will more likely nourish the abortion ethic where it has taken root. Logic...

Wolfe in orbit (October 1979)

forms I have been discussing is the revival of democratic about it. On the other hand, the fate of the Liberal party in Parliamentary politics itself. What is in the minds of...

Dead farms: (September 1979)

But it was the uncertainty about what lay behind the visit Due to space limitations, John Garvey's regular column which caused most of the comparative coolness. Its raison dare was...

The Forest & The Trees (August 1979)

national entity and those who have sought greater latitude for of preventing the frequent killings by the terrorist-separatist the regions. The configuration of the present problem, how- ...

The Unwanted: (June 1979)

bring about a climate favorable to Kremlin doves, an atmos- wills; from a grain of mustard seed-can blossom a tree sturdy phere "in which disarmament is possible." They also...

Life in the parks: (May 1979)

become "economic deserts" if the job and industry subsidies rooted in Friedmanite ideas about how to encourage invest- were ended as proposed by the Conservatives. As one moved ...

A chance for the PLO: (April 1979)

form of energy have evolved a jargon all It is true that a diopped bomb and a And that is the point. The experts with their own. One of them said that the melt-down have very...

The next war: (March 1979)

sis is less on law, more on reconciliation, am glad that is something my children gan brothers and other members of the and there doesn't seem to be the dread of won't have to suffer;...

Looking for moles (March 1979)

with all its faults, you can be a Buddhist, snake which swallows its tail. We are tunate; the average liberal says that it is, or Catholic, or Taoist, and you can't, asked to find...

On killing a deer (February 1979)

doing. He is evil. The newsmen persisted: of course he must be sick . . . how else could he do those things? The Ugandan answered that as long as the newsmen thought Amin was sick,...

The Illusion in Iran: (December 1978)

we know God and try~to use God for our ends, we are idolators. It is possible, I think, to have an idol and call it Jesus. To be a follower of Jesus, do I have to know how I feel about it, or have...

Our Urge to Execute (November 1978)

Of several minds: Thomas Powers OUR URGE TO EXECUTE ANGER AS A POLITICAL FACT Democracy is a wonderful thing. Ours may be indifferent to the nuances of public desire, but if the people want...

The real peacemaker (October 1978)

erably less than sure-fire--current hits in- clude Gin Game, which consists wholly of two inmates playing cards in an old folks' home and Dancin', a musical with no story at all, no sketches,...

THE PRESS: No News Is Bad News (September 1978)

with the inclusion in the new Department of ,Education of certain Department of Agriculture and Department of Labor programs. In the USCC's judgment, .non-public school p~rticipation in the...

DAMN THE REFUGEES & FULL SPEED AHEAD (September 1978)

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ONLY THE PRESSREC~II,I-~ OUR OBLIGATIONS DAItlN THE REFUGEES &SPEED AHEAD We've been reading about the boatpeople for nearly a year and a half now, those...

PRESS: The Mauling of Nixon (May 1978)

ment suggests, his relationship with her is for him a kind of playtime. When she threatens to leave him, he is philosophical and poised. When she decides to come back to him, he is philosophical...

PRESS: What Is Begin Up To? (April 1978)

MERTON ON THE MOVE JAMES T. BAKER Following his footsteps to Thailand I remember Thomas Merton as a man always on the move, always saying goodbye, always escaping. Strange ,to say this of one...

PRESS: Bombs, Spies & Loch Ness (March 1978)

PRESS BOMI~, SPIES & LOCH NESS The mills of the press may grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. If you've got a capacious memory, and a fulltime file-keeper, you can sometimes put the...

PRESS: The Lives of Writers (March 1978)

THE LIVES OF WRITERS PRESS No cruder writer ever lived. If he were a lepidopterist (and he is, in his way) he wouldn't find his pleasure in the chase, out there in the fields with his net and...

PRESS: Who Lost The War? (February 1978)

SOME THOUGHTS ON RAPE ARLENE SWIDLER A crime in which social stigma is projected onto the innocent Several years back a writer in the New York Times reported that the women's movement had found...

PRESS: South African Reality (January 1978)

PRESS Sometimes there is no way out. The figures seem to tell the story: 18 million blacks, 4.8 million whites, 2.5 million "coloreds," 760,000 Asians. How long can 4.8 million whites hold out...

THE PRESS: The Dig Book on the War (December 1977)

are scattered throughout that township. It brought us to the old quarry/ram which most o/the stone /or the college buildings and /or the /arrnhouses had been taken, and brought us to Quarry...

PRESS: Peacetime (November 1977)

that we soon begin to thirst for a single entendre. Surely, one imagines, there is more to life than premature ejaculation, homosexuality, masturbation, etc. etc. What is annoying about Soap is...

THE PRESS: Mark Rudd Returns (October 1977)

to the point of experiencing deep community. In "dosed" institutions feelings of estrangement are attributed to the belief that Sister faculty are privy to decisions that remain secret to the...

Press: A Tale Of Midnight (September 1977)

Sam's fourth and fifth victims. After that the sky was the limit. It would be hard to say which was the Sam story. The pickings are too rich. High among possible candidates would be the...

The Press: The Night the Lights Went On (August 1977)

left with one disturbing detail. During the riots he walked with the student corteo, or procession, from the University to the downtown area. When they reached the business area and began passing...

The Press: The Memory Thereof (July 1977)

claptrap or the theoretical re-directioning of a man's mind. The steel blade in the gangleader's palm and the steel revolver on the guard's hip have been the only rehabilitation a majority of...

The Press: Too Much With Us (June 1977)

generally liberal orientation of the "professional" church community. We can see this in the way ministers in Congress vote on issues considered important by three church lobbies--Network, an...

PRESS: J.F.K.-R.I.P (May 1977)

There was a time when I thought it would be a good idea to conduct another official investigation of the death of John F. Kennedy. A good deal of my motive was simple curiosity. Every other...

Press: The Road to Tel Aviv (April 1977)

it for him: the offer was rejected by the bishop of Fall River, whereupon the CPA backed down. Then they issued a fine-sounding statement about prior censorship to cover their cowardice....

PRESS: What I Read (April 1977)

I'm a slow reader by choice, conviction and temperament. In college I attended the first few classes of a speed-reading course of the sort which allegedly enabled President Kennedy to read...

PRESS: Winners, Losers, Dreamers (March 1977)

The Battle. of the Somme took place a long time ago --nearly 61 years ago, now--but it was not the sort of thing anyone would be likely to forget. It was not like the Battle of Bunker Hill, or...

Press: Back to the Cold War (February 1977)

There is only one crucial question facing the modern word, and I guess we all know what it is. It's odd to go back and read The Guns ol August and think of the time and effort the Great Powers of...

PRESS: Revolution That Wasn't (January 1977)

Something extraordinary happened in Argentina last August 29, a Sunday. Thirty "leftists," none of them yet identified by name, were taken to a deserted area near Buenos Aires, presumably by...

PRESS: Neglected Stories (November 1976)

PRESS There are three possible reasons why the American press has published as close to nothing as two-graf stories can get about Vietnam since the other side won not quite a year and a half...

PRESS: Line of Maximm Consequence (October 1976)

LINE OF MAXIMUM CONSEQUENCE PRESS I know it's hard to believe but in late September some reporter summoned the bald effrontery to ask Rosalynn Carter of Plains, Georgia, if she had begun to doubt...

PRESS: Unfinished Business (September 1976)

UNFINISHED BUSINESS Before getting on with the rest of the American century there are a few pieces of unfinished business to be cleared up. To wit: why did the Watergate burglars want to tap Larry...

PRESS: Indira's India (August 1976)

INDIRA'S INDIA PRESS It took me a long time to realize that not everybody in this world is in favor of a free press. Indira Gandhi, for example, probably grew up thinking that a free press would...

PRESS: Covering Carter (July 1976)

COVERING CARTER PRESS When The New York Times Index for 1976 is published next year it is going to contain thousands of references to Jimmy Carter and page on page of tiny, dense, eye-straining...

PRESS: The All-Time Day Story (July 1976)

PRESS Of all the onerous chores young reporters are given to do, the Day story is worst. Obituaries are always easy to write, and sometimes interesting, and police stories are flavored with...

PRESS: Armageddon, Anyone? (June 1976)

CARMAGEDDON, ANYONE? PRESS Headline from the New York Times of November 23, 1975: EXPERTS DOUBT VIEW THAT ATOM BLAST COULD END ALL LIFE It's hard to keep some problems in focus. The poor, for...

PRESS: The Nixon Finale (May 1976)

THE NIXON FINALE THOMAS POWERS here's the way to prove it, the whole sordid business would open up like a septic boil. But she won't talk. She is afraid without knowing quite what she fears. She...

PRESS: Schorr and a Free Press (April 1976)

SCHORR AND A FREE PRESS The stage crew is already at work on the latest confrontation between Government and Free Press. It's hard to say just when the climactic scene will begin, but when it does...

PRESS: The Big apple (March 1976)

PRESS THE BIG APPLE New York's fiscal crisis is roughly a year old now, but its effects on West 10th Street, where I live, are visible in only two ways: the garbage trucks make three pickups a...

PRESS: Nixon's Revenge (February 1976)

PRESS General Maxwell Taylor is an intelligent, articulate, well-educated man. He once quoted Polybius before a congressional committee. General Taylor is also an experienced man, a veteran of many...

PRESS: For the Gunder (January 1976)

PRESS FOR THE GANDER THOMAS POWERS In certain circles eighteen months ago it was an article of faith (as well as an article of impeachment) that Richard Nixon did things as President no President...

THE PRESS: The Zionism Resolution: (December 1975)

THE ZIONISM RESOLUTION PRESS An important question was overlooked-even willfully ignored-in the furor which followed the UN's passage November 10 of a resolution declaring Zionism "a form of...

PRESS: Cry Wolfe (October 1975)

CRY WOLFE PRESS Go to the nearest bookstore. Find the table where they stack the new releases. What do you see? Saul Bellow, E. L. Doctorow, Reynolds Price, Richard Yates, L. Woiwode, Peter...

PRESS: Squeeze on New York (September 1975)

PRESS The answer to the great, unasked question about New York's fiscal crisis lies within the Municipal Building, that funereal grey block of a building across the street from City Hall. The...

PRESS: The Problem with Facts: (August 1975)

THE PROBLEM WITH FACTS PRESS When I was a kid I used to watch Dragnet on television and, like most people no doubt, what I remember best is Jack Webb's dead voice and blank, Indian's face saying,...

PRESS: Writing Saigon's Obit (June 1975)

WRITING SAIGON'S OBIT PRESS An odd thing happened back in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson started to ship American combat troops to Vietnam: the American press stopped writing about Vietnam. They went...

PRESS: Reporting on Indochina: (May 1975)

PRESS REPORTING ON INDOCHINA One of these days-perhaps soon-we are going to pick up our morning papers and see, there on the front page, the last photograph to be taken by an American in South...

PRESS: UNMASKNG THE CIA (April 1975)

to conduct a complete inquiry, The role of the press, however, is not to nail down the details but to focus public attention and create the political pressure with- out which no...

PRESS: Reporting on Non-Reporting: (March 1975)

PRESS REPORTING THOMAS POWERS Question: When is a story not a story? Answer: When the New York Times and the Washington Post decline to treat It as one. imagine for a moment, if you can stand...

PRESS: Cry War!: (February 1975)

CRY WAR! PRESS There was a period last fall when a new Arab-Israeli war appeared to be imminent. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's "step by step" approach to a Middle East settlement had bogged...

Critics' Choices for Christmas (December 1974)

government-run programs of assistance. Overall, too, less predictable than the Humphreys and Mondales. Nevertheless, there will be a report card issued by the voters on the Democrats, even though...

BOOKS: (September 1974)

The Political Stage feeling of pleasure that kept me read- works by participants-Harold Clur- MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN ...

RIGHT-TO-REPLY LAWS (May 1974)

RIGHT-TO-REPLY LAWS THOMAS POWERS Can a forum for reply be guaranteed in the press? Everyone in the United States is in favor of a free press, until you get down to particulars. Then...

VIETNAM IN FICTION (March 1974)

W INSTON CHURCHILL once wrote tenants in conflict with company com- there is nothing so exhilarating THOMAS...

The Rights Of Reporters (May 1973)

THE RIGHTS OF REPORTERS THOMAS POWERS The danger is of compromising the First Amendment while trying to protect it I have never been called by a grand jury but I have thought about it from...

Powers, Thomos

Powers, W. D.

POWERS, WILLIAM F.

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