“Damned High Wire,” on the Special Relationship that Unites Bush and Blair in Iraq

I would like to thank Walter LaFeber, Thomas McCormick, Marilyn Young and Warren Kimball for their comments on an early draft of this article. The speech can be found at http://www.number-10.gov.uk/printprint. Ibid. James Naughtie, The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency (New York: Public Affairs Press. 2004), pp. 80–1. Associated Press, November 12, 2004, http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp7flok Ibid. On this point, see Anne Norton, Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2004). Robin Cook, The Point of Departure (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 213. The speech can be found at http://www.number-10.gov.uk/print. Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution (New York: Penguin Books, 1998), pp. 200–01. A classic example of the inherent tension in the American belief, and assertions of the uniqueness of the American Revolution as Providential destiny, came in 1966 at hearings on the Vietnam War. Challenged by Senator Frank Church that Vietnam was a genuine revolution — however different from American experience — Secretary of State Dean Rusk recoiled at the idea. ‘There is a fundamental difference between the kind of revolution which the Communists call their wars of national liberation and the kind of revolution which is congenial to our own experience, and fits into the aspirations of ordinary men and women right around the world.” Quoted in William Appleman Williams, Thomas McCormick, Lloyd Gardner and Walter LaFeber, America in Vietnam: A Documentary History (New York: Doubleday, 1985), p. 258. As they say, that is quite a mouthful. Rusk suggests that the American experience is the only experience with revolution that fits into the aspirations of ordinary men and women “right around the world.” 12 Edmund Wilson, Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1962), pp. 105–6. Ibid., 104. Thomas M. Freiling, George W. Bush On God and Country (Alliance Press: Washington., D.C, 2004), p. 10; Norton, Leo Strauss, pp. 134–5. See, Anders Stephanson, “Law and Messianic Counterwar from FDR to George W. Bush,” p. 13. Diary, April 12, 1945, in Beatrice Bishop Berle and Travis Beal Jacobs, Navigating the Rapids, 1918–1971: From the Papers of Adolf A. Berle (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973), pp. 526–7. (Italics added.) New York Times, April 18, 1945, p. 1. Minute by J. Donnelly, September 5, 1945, FO 371 44557. Joseph M. Jones, The Fifteen Weeks (New York: 1964), pp. 6–7. William Roger Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1984), p. 98. Louis writes, however, that “it certainly was not the British intention to evacuate the Middle East, and still less to calculate an American takeover. The British hoped rather to adjust relations with the Arab states, as with colonies and countries throughout the world, so that British influence would be strengthened, not liquidated.” Sir J. Balfour to Neville Butler, May 29, 1947, PRO, FO 371 (AN 1976/17/45). Thanks to Walter LaFeber for providing me with his notes on this document. (Emphasis added.) Dulles, draft, “The ‘Big Three’ Alliance,” July 11, 1954, The Papers of John Foster Dulles, Subject File, Box 8, Mudd Library, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. “Memorandum of Conference with the President,” October 30, 1956, Dulles Papers. Dillon, “Memorandum for the Record,” December 12, 1956, ibid., Memos of Conversations, Box 1. For a survey of the American efforts, see, Douglas Little, “Mission Impossible: The CIA and the Cult of Covert Action in the Middle East,” Diplomatic History, 28:5 (November, 2004): 663–701. Joseph Wilson, who was in the American Embassy at the time of the first Gulf War, notes that Glaspie’s comments could not be taken in any way to be a green light, but that a Congressional delegation, and then a letter from President Bush appeared to Iraqi leaders to be highly conciliatory, too much so in light of the critical situation. See, The Politics of Truth (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004), pp. 94–103. Bush, Public Papers, 1990, I, pp. 130–31. To begin with, see, Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (New York: Harper Collins, 1993), pp. 823–4 and continue with James A. Baker III, The Politics of Diplomacy (New York: G.P. Putnams, 1995), pp.279–80, and then look at Parmet, George Bush: The Life of a Lonestar Yankee (New York: Scribner, 1997), pp. 453–4. Bush, Public Papers, 1992–93, I, 565. On the connection see, James Bamford, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies (New York: Doubleday, 2004), pp. 261–3 Ibid., 278–9. “Where Did He Go Wrong?,” an interview with Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Atlantic Unbound, May 6, 2004. The original Desert Fox was Africa Korps commander in WWII, General Erwin Rommel. Peter Singer, The President of Good and Evil (New York: Dutton, 2004), p. 135. Russ Baker, “Two Years Before 9/11, Candidate Bush was Already Talking Privately About Attacking Iraq, According to his Former Ghost Writer,” GNN.TV, October 28, 2004, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1028-01.htm. Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror (New York: The Free Press, 2004), p. 32. Bamford, Pretext for War, pp. 298–308. Cook, Point of Departure, p. 213; Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (New York: Simon & Schuster: 2004), pp. 176–78. London Observer, April 11, 2004. CNN Transcript of Interview Broadcast, November 20, 2003. Ron Suskind, The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O’Neill (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), pp. 188–91. The Independent, November 16 2004. Andrew Grice, ‘Blair calls on UN To ease invasion of ‘bad’ countries’. NY Times, June 29, 2004. p. A 11. 43 John O. Edwards, NewsMax.com, November 21, 2003. Speech to the Federalist Society, November 12, 2004, Associated Press Report, November 13, 2004. New York Times, November 4, 2004. Ibid., 220–3. New York Times, July 4, 2004, 3. Laurie Goodstein, ‘Politicians Talk More About Religion, and People Expect Them To’.48 San Antonio American Statesman, June 5, 2004. Ken Herman, ‘God is Everywhere at GOP Convention,’ 49 November 14, 2004.