war

The Reporter Who Helped Persuade FDR to Tell the Truth About War

After Witnessing the Bloody Struggle with Japan, Robert Sherrod Thought the Public Should Face the 'Cruel' Facts

Betio, part of the Tarawa Atoll, is a small, bird-shaped island along the equator in the central Pacific. Early in the morning on November 20, 1943, elements of the Second Marine Division boarded tracked landing vehicles (“amtracs”) and headed for Betio’s beaches. As part of an operation codenamed Galvanic, the Marines hoped to clear the heavily defended island of Japanese forces under the command of Rear Admiral Keiji Shibasaki and capture its vital airfield. The Japanese commander had boasted to his approximately 4,800 troops that “a million men couldn’t take …

By Ray E. Boomhower |

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We Shouldn’t Rely on Politicians to Memorialize Our Fallen Soldiers

Gold Star Families Need to Reach out—and Communities Need to Reach Back

By Kelly Kennedy |

Five U.S. infantry soldiers died on June 21, 2007, when their 30-ton Bradley tracked vehicle hit a deep-buried bomb in Adhamiyah, Iraq.

I was embedded as a reporter with their unit …

The Role of War and Sacrifice in Russia’s Mythic Identity

A History of Victories Over Mongols, Napoleon, and Nazis Has Shaped Its Sense of Exceptionalism and Wariness Toward the West

By Gregory Carleton |

If you want to understand Russia better, think of war. But not the one in eastern Ukraine or the frightening possibility of a conflict with NATO.

Go back instead to …

What Losing a War Does to a Nation’s Psyche

70 Years After World War II, Japanese Elites Are Still Haunted by Despair and Shame

By Edgar A. Porter |

In the spring of 1976, while visiting the Tokyo Zoo, I was confronted with the unforgettable sight of an aging former Japanese soldier, wearing a ragged army uniform and cap, …

How This Journalist Is Surviving Mexico’s Drug Wars

Act Like a War Correspondent, Think Like a Detective, and Dream Like a Poet

By Diego Enrique Osorno |

In early 2007 I lost a plane ticket that I had purchased to travel to Africa. My plan was to arrive in Nairobi and stay two months, since the World …

How Deprivation and the Threat of Violence Made Sweden Equal

War and the Great Depression Spurred Its Embrace of the Welfare State

By Walter Scheidel |

Sweden is almost universally regarded as a bastion of sensible people, temperate social policies, and steady, evenly distributed economic growth. So it surprises many to learn that the Scandinavian country …


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