.........FP: The atomic bombing of Japan?
Schweikart: Some of the texts make it very clear the view the atomic bombing of Japan as “atomic diplomacy,” designed to frighten or intimidate the Soviets, not to force Japan to surrender. It’s silly. We know now from internal Japanese documents that the Japanese government wasn’t even close to surrendering prior to Hiroshima, and still hesitated after Hiroshima.
FP: The Rosenbergs?
Schweikart: Another clear example of blatant bias. The textbooks state that they were innocent, and the ones that admit the Rosenbergs were guilty go on to excuse what they did by saying, “It wasn’t that bad. What they provided wasn’t important.” I guess this means if a traitor gives away the army’s position, then the army moves and isn’t wiped out, everything is fine. In fact, none other than Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev said his top spy told him the information provided by the Rosenbergs was crucial to building the Soviet a-bomb.
FP: Almost all American history books identify John Wilkes Booth as a “Confederate” and more than half identify Lee Harvey Oswald as a “Marine.” What does this say exactly?
Schweikart: I think it’s one of the clearest messages in the book. Oswald shot Kennedy because he was a Marine---because of his “Marine-ness.” Only one mentions the fact that he was a communist, and in fact that is why he shot Kennedy, because as a communist he disliked Kennedy’s hard line against the Cubans and the Soviets. Booth didn’t shoot Lincoln because he was an actor! So it displays a rather stunning insight into how these historians view the military. In fact, in most of the books, there are very few---if any---“heroic” images of our soldiers. Some wounded soldiers in Vietnam appear, but you are almost never shown American military success.
FP: Watergate?
Schweikart: Watergate is a small part of incredibly negative and downright nasty chapters on Richard Nixon, usually interspersed with words such as “paranoid,” “disturbed,” “dark,” and so on. The evidence emerging from several trials in the 1990s, in which G. Gordon Liddy was sued by John Dean or his surrogates over claims Liddy made that put Dean behind the Watergate break in were all resoved in Liddy’s favor. That suggests that his version of the events---not Dean’s---is the right one. That doesn’t mean, nor do I write, that Nixon was not guilty of obstruction of justice. He most certainly was, but it came after Dean likely planned and directed the operation for some time.
FP: Popular textbooks often state that it was Gorbachev, not Reagan, that ended the Cold War.
Schweikart: This lie is prominent, and in some form appears in most of the textbooks. In fact, the ink given in American history textbooks is greater than that given to most other foreign leaders, ever. Gorby is portrayed as this good-hearted, wonderful reformer who had to convince that evil Ronald Reagan that nukes were bad. It’s absurd. Gorbachev had no intention of getting out of Afghanistan until the casualties mounted. He had to do something about the Soviet economy because contrary to what another U.S. historian, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., said at the time (that the economy of the USSR was great and would surpass that of the U.S.!), it was collapsing like a house of cards. Reagan kept the pressure on, especially with “Star Wars,” and the evidence is overwhelming from the former Soviet archives that this was what happened. Reagan forced Gorbachev to change, not vice versa.
FP: Students are told that the Reagan economy was characterized not by high economic growth, but by deficits. What is the true historical record?
Schweikart: Unemployment plummeted under Reagan; interest rates dropped from double digits to under one percent; Americans became homeowners like never before; income rose; and the economy added a stunning 14 million net new jobs in eight years---at a time when all of Europe added . . . zero.........
More Here
Schweikart: Some of the texts make it very clear the view the atomic bombing of Japan as “atomic diplomacy,” designed to frighten or intimidate the Soviets, not to force Japan to surrender. It’s silly. We know now from internal Japanese documents that the Japanese government wasn’t even close to surrendering prior to Hiroshima, and still hesitated after Hiroshima.
FP: The Rosenbergs?
Schweikart: Another clear example of blatant bias. The textbooks state that they were innocent, and the ones that admit the Rosenbergs were guilty go on to excuse what they did by saying, “It wasn’t that bad. What they provided wasn’t important.” I guess this means if a traitor gives away the army’s position, then the army moves and isn’t wiped out, everything is fine. In fact, none other than Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev said his top spy told him the information provided by the Rosenbergs was crucial to building the Soviet a-bomb.
FP: Almost all American history books identify John Wilkes Booth as a “Confederate” and more than half identify Lee Harvey Oswald as a “Marine.” What does this say exactly?
Schweikart: I think it’s one of the clearest messages in the book. Oswald shot Kennedy because he was a Marine---because of his “Marine-ness.” Only one mentions the fact that he was a communist, and in fact that is why he shot Kennedy, because as a communist he disliked Kennedy’s hard line against the Cubans and the Soviets. Booth didn’t shoot Lincoln because he was an actor! So it displays a rather stunning insight into how these historians view the military. In fact, in most of the books, there are very few---if any---“heroic” images of our soldiers. Some wounded soldiers in Vietnam appear, but you are almost never shown American military success.
FP: Watergate?
Schweikart: Watergate is a small part of incredibly negative and downright nasty chapters on Richard Nixon, usually interspersed with words such as “paranoid,” “disturbed,” “dark,” and so on. The evidence emerging from several trials in the 1990s, in which G. Gordon Liddy was sued by John Dean or his surrogates over claims Liddy made that put Dean behind the Watergate break in were all resoved in Liddy’s favor. That suggests that his version of the events---not Dean’s---is the right one. That doesn’t mean, nor do I write, that Nixon was not guilty of obstruction of justice. He most certainly was, but it came after Dean likely planned and directed the operation for some time.
FP: Popular textbooks often state that it was Gorbachev, not Reagan, that ended the Cold War.
Schweikart: This lie is prominent, and in some form appears in most of the textbooks. In fact, the ink given in American history textbooks is greater than that given to most other foreign leaders, ever. Gorby is portrayed as this good-hearted, wonderful reformer who had to convince that evil Ronald Reagan that nukes were bad. It’s absurd. Gorbachev had no intention of getting out of Afghanistan until the casualties mounted. He had to do something about the Soviet economy because contrary to what another U.S. historian, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., said at the time (that the economy of the USSR was great and would surpass that of the U.S.!), it was collapsing like a house of cards. Reagan kept the pressure on, especially with “Star Wars,” and the evidence is overwhelming from the former Soviet archives that this was what happened. Reagan forced Gorbachev to change, not vice versa.
FP: Students are told that the Reagan economy was characterized not by high economic growth, but by deficits. What is the true historical record?
Schweikart: Unemployment plummeted under Reagan; interest rates dropped from double digits to under one percent; Americans became homeowners like never before; income rose; and the economy added a stunning 14 million net new jobs in eight years---at a time when all of Europe added . . . zero.........
More Here
