The column appeared in the December 18, 1998, edition of the New York Times. The columnist was the ardently pro-Israeli A. M. Rosenthal, who earlier that year had written a provocative column calling Saddam Hussein the Palestinians' best ally. The president was Bill Clinton, who had ordered a four-day bombing campaign targeting military installations in Baghdad.


Clinton announcing military action against Iraq
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
© Getty Images

In his December 18 column, entitled "What Clinton Can Do," Rosenthal called on the president, who was facing impeachment, to resign. Rosenthal was not especially concerned with the lies Clinton had told about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky (the subject of the impeachment hearings). What upset Rosenthal was that, in ordering an attack against Iraq on the eve of his possible impeachment, Clinton had compromised America's security interests. Rosenthal wrote that Clinton lacked the credibility to lead the kind of sustained military effort necessary to topple the Iraqi dictator. As a result, Rosenthal argued, Saddam Hussein's hold on power would be strengthened and the probability that he would use his "chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons" would increase.

Jump forward to June 24, 2003. In a piece entitled "Denial and Deception," a New York Times columnist implicitly calls on the president of the United States to resign after he has authorized force against Iraq. The columnist emphatically rejects the president's rationale for war and argues that, even in the face of a "powerful, ruthless political machine," voters have a "moral obligation to demand accountability" from their leaders.

This time the columnist was the liberal economist Paul Krugman, who would later write a provocative column arguing that the occupation of Iraq was making America less safe. The president was George W. Bush, who on March 20, 2003, had ordered the bombing of military installations in Baghdad--a campaign marking the start of a war that continues to this day.

Activity

Carefully read through A. M. Rosenthal's "What Clinton Can Do" and Paul Krugman's "Denial and Deception." As a class, discuss possible answers to the following essential questions that promote critical thinking about the power of the individual to dictate historical events:

• Two presidents--one Democrat and one Republican--are accused by two New York Times columnists--one with conservative views on U.S. foreign policy and one with liberal views--of taking the nation to war for self-serving reasons. To what extent, if at all, does this apparent coincidence suggest that decisions to go to war are a function less of the whims of individual leaders than of unchanging economic interests?
  
  
• Select a politician from the Famous Dead People section of ProQuest's Historical Newspapers Graphical edition. To what extent does the writer of the obituary present the politician as a shaper, rather than a product, of historical events?