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Fred Kaplan

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John Tower; Pete Hegseth.

In 1989, Senators Faced a Pete Hegseth Situation Very Differently

I covered the 1989 fight over George H.W. Bush's secretary of defense nominee. It feels awfully familiar.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on January 23, 2025
Image of classified documents and Russia and US leaders shaking hands.

A Newly Declassified Document Suggests Things With Russia Could Have Turned Out Very Differently

This remarkably prescient document holds several lessons about how to run foreign policy.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on December 23, 2024
Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office.

There Has Been Nothing Like This in American History

Joe Biden is hardly the first president who has decided not to seek a second term—but the circumstances this time are unique.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on July 21, 2024
Member of Hamas holding a flag and an automatic rifle.

How George W. Bush Helped Hamas Come to Power

In Bush’s naïveté about the magic of elections, he ignored a crucial point about democracy.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on October 24, 2023
Major General Groves and J. R. Oppenheimer view the base of the steel tower used for the first atomic bomb test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on Sept. 11, 1945.

A New, Chilling Secret About the Manhattan Project Has Just Been Made Public

Turns out Oppenheimer’s boss lied, repeatedly, about radiation poisoning.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on August 8, 2023
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US secretary of state James Baker in the Kremlin, Moscow, February 9, 1990.

‘A Bridge Too Far’

Even the most ardent advocates of NATO expansion after the implosion of the USSR realized that it had limits—and one of those limits was Ukraine.
by Fred Kaplan via New York Review of Books on March 11, 2022
George W. Bush speaking to marines

Why Did We Invade Iraq?

The most complete account we are likely to get of the deceptions and duplicities that led to war leaves some crucial mysteries unsolved.
by Fred Kaplan via New York Review of Books on July 6, 2021
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