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November 13, 2014
Entries by Greg Mitchell
The 'Last Soldier to Die for a Mistake' in Iraq--But More to Come?
John Kerry famously asked, as a Vietnam vet leader while that war was still going, "Who will be the last U.S. soldier to die for that mistake?" In regards to the Iraq war, which began more than eleven Veterans Days ago, we knew the answer back in December 2011, but...
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Revealed: Ayn Rand's Movie Script Glorifying the Atomic Bomb
(39) Comments | Posted November 7, 2014 | 9:55 AM
As some of you may know, Ayn Rand, like many famous novelists, had a period when she "went Hollywood." True, she was no Faulkner or Fitzgerald, but in 1943, Rand sold the rights for The Fountainhead to Warner Brothers, and wrote the screenplay. She was then hired by top producer...
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When Bruce Springsteen Helped Bring Down the Berlin Wall
(1) Comments | Posted November 4, 2014 | 9:38 AM
With the 25th anniversary of the fall of the first break in the Berlin Wall coming later this week, I posted here at few days ago about a landmark concert by Bob Dylan in East Berlin two years before that, in 1987 -- and a secret...
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As Berlin Marks Fall of the Wall: The Secret Police Document on Bob Dylan
(0) Comments | Posted October 30, 2014 | 12:56 PM
Next week, all of Germany--and the rest of the world, at a distance--will mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989. Much has been written about it and much more to come in the following days. One angle you may not hear much about...
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The Wildest Political Night in the History of Hollywood
(0) Comments | Posted October 27, 2014 | 3:59 AM
On Oct. 22, 1950, almost exactly 64 years ago, several hundred members of the Screen Directors Guild convened in emergency session in the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel. One participant later called it ''the most tumultuous evening'' in the history of Hollywood. The showdown over a loyalty oath...
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As Germans Mark 25 Years Since the Fall of Berlin Wall, a Famous Anthem Takes Center Stage
(1) Comments | Posted October 23, 2014 | 12:13 PM
Next month, Berliners, and the world, will mark the fall of the Wall 25 years ago, with numerous, moving public events. One highlight: a nine-mile length of the path of the Wall marked by balloons. But the climax will be a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony...
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Former NYT Editor Calls Media Fear-Mongering on Ebola 'Disgraceful'
(1) Comments | Posted October 22, 2014 | 11:37 AM
Since I've used that word repeatedly in recent weeks to describe the same syndrome, I was pleased to see former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson embrace "disgraceful" as the way to describe media hyping of the Ebola non-crisis in the U.S.
It happened this week in...
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When a Woman Dared to Run for the U.S. Senate -- and Richard Nixon Destroyed Her
(1) Comments | Posted October 20, 2014 | 9:13 AM
The number of women serving in the U.S. Senate today remains disturbingly small, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of my home state of New York reminded us in an appearance on Bill Maher's HBO show this past weekend. The current number is 20, or one in five in the chamber, a percentage...
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Hey, I Tried to Warn You About Climate Change 30 Years Ago!
(21) Comments | Posted October 17, 2014 | 11:45 AM
Even the Pentagon is worried about climate change, and warned it could exacerbate the threat of terrorism, we learned in a report this week. And in the hot Florida governor's race, the increase in flooding in some areas has become a campaign issue -- and in...
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Think This Year's Campaigns Are Dirty? Check Out the Race That Changed Politics Forever
(2) Comments | Posted October 16, 2014 | 11:25 AM
Forgive me, but when pundits label this year's campaigns for the Senate and the House "divisive" and "dirty," or at least "outrageous," or "dominated by money," I have to laugh. After writing books about the 1950 contest for the U.S. Senate between Richard Nixon and Helen Gahagan Douglas and, especially,...
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ISIS May Be Using Mustard Gas Linked to US Against Kurds
(0) Comments | Posted October 15, 2014 | 10:38 AM
There's much to analyze and lament in the new New York Times bombshell (so to speak) article by C.J. Chivers on the decade-long U.S. cover-up of injuries caused to soldiers who came upon abandoned chemical weapons remnants in Iraq. (See the main points and video here.)...
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The Hiroshima Cover-up (Part III): When Harry Truman Censored MGM's Movie Epic on The Bomb
(36) Comments | Posted October 14, 2014 | 11:12 AM
In Part I and Part II of this series we probed the U.S. suppression, for decades, of historic and revealing film footage, shot by the Japanese and my an elite U.S. Army unit, of the aftermath of the use of atomic bombs on two Japanese cities...
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The U.S. Soldier Who Killed Herself After Refusing to Take Part in Torture
(1) Comments | Posted October 12, 2014 | 7:09 PM
More than a decade ago, when I was the editor of Editor & Publisher, I was, as far as I know, the first writer with a national platform who regularly drew attention to the then largely-hidden tragedy of the rising rate of suicides among American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan--and...
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The Hiroshima Cover-up (Part II): Why the US Buried Shocking Film for Decades
(330) Comments | Posted October 9, 2014 | 12:26 PM
Yesterday in Part I, we saw how black and white footage shot by Japanese newsreel teams was suppressed for decades. Today: color footage shot by an elite U.S. Army unit.
In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan 69 years ago, and then for decades afterward,...
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69 Years Ago: US Suppressed Shocking Footage on Atomic Bombings of Japan
(23) Comments | Posted October 8, 2014 | 11:59 AM
In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan in 1945, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. This included footage shot by U.S. military crews and Japanese newsreel teams. In addition, for many...
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Cooperstown's Mayor on Obama's Visit -- and That Anti-Fracking Protest
(0) Comments | Posted May 23, 2014 | 12:11 PM
Last Sunday I visited Cooperstown, New York, a few hours north from my home, for a screening of the acclaimed film I co-produced, Journeys With Beethoven, at a benefit for the local food pantry. It turned into an amazing community gathering, with 300 attending (a huge...
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When Hollywood Turned Left -- And Politics in Films Changed Forever
(0) Comments | Posted March 27, 2014 | 12:03 PM
Conservatives may overstate the impact, but few today would challenge the claim that the movie industry, or "Hollywood" in archaic shorthand, is staunchly, at times proudly, liberal in politics (Jon Voight, Clint Eastwood and Gary Sinise notwithstanding). This has been true for so long that most Americans -- even right-wingers...
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When Kurt Vonnegut Met Kilgore Trout!
(2) Comments | Posted August 22, 2013 | 11:06 AM
In early 1974, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. granted me a then-rare interview, at his new townhouse on the East Side of Manhattan, where he'd just moved with photographer Jill Krementz. He was impressed with my recent exclusive interview, also for Crawdaddy, with Catch-22 author Joseph Heller.
But the Vonnegut sit-down...
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Fun Excerpt From New Book, Kurt Vonnegut and Me
(0) Comments | Posted August 19, 2013 | 11:09 AM
I first encountered Kurt Vonnegut in 1970 when I took part in a "rap session" with him just before the opening of his play, Happy Birthday, Wanda June. Four years later, for the legendary Crawdaddy, where I was senior editor, I interviewed him and turned it into a unique profile...
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After Hiroshima, Truman Failed to Pause--and Nagasaki 'War Crime' Followed
(29) Comments | Posted August 8, 2013 | 3:38 PM
By August 7, 1945, President Truman, while still at sea returning from Potsdam, had been fully briefed on the first atomic attack against a large city in Japan the day before. In announcing it, he had labeled Hiroshima simply a "military base," but he knew better, and within hours of...
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(2) Comments | Posted November 11, 2014 | 9:47 AM