ESSAYAddressing the graduating cadets
at West Point in May 1942, General George C. Marshall, then the Army
chief of staff, reduced the nation’s purpose in the global war it had recently
joined to a single emphatic sentence. “We are determined,” he remarked,
“that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recog-
nized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand and
of overwhelming force on the other.”
At the time Marshall spoke, mere months after the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor, U.S. forces had sustained a string of painful setbacks and
had yet to win a major battle. Eventual victory over Japan and Germany
seemed anything but assured. Yet Marshall was already looking beyond
the immediate challenges to define what that victory, when ultimately—
and, in his view, inevitably—achieved, was going to signify.THE OLD NORMAL
Why we can’t beat our addiction to war
By Andrew J. Bacevich
Andrew J. Bacevich is president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a
contributing editor to Harper’s Magazine. His new book, The Age of Illusions: How
America Squandered Its Cold War Victory, was published earlier this year.ESSAY 25The Last Flag (Dedicated to Howard Zinn), a charcoal drawing by Robert Longo
Courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures, New York City