Historians Reflect on the War in Iraq: A Roundtable

Alan Brinkley
Peter L. Hahn
Marilyn B. Young
Kevin Gaines
Eric Foner

At its 2003 annual meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, the Organization of American Historians assembled a panel of historians to discuss the war in Iraq. The roundtable, which took place on Saturday April 5, was moderated by William H. Chafe, Duke University and included panelists Alan Brinkley (Columbia University), Peter L. Hahn (Ohio State University), Marilyn B. Young (New York University), Kevin Gaines (University of Michigan) and Eric Foner (Columbia University).

What follows is a transcript of the roundtable.  The roundtable was also broadcast by C-SPAN who has available for viewing a replay of the session in Memphis. (Click to download RealPlayer.)

As with all papers and commentaries presented during its annual meeting, the Organization of American Historians disclaims responsibility for statements, whether of fact or of opinion, made by its panelists, moderators, and participants.

What follows is a transcription of the roundtable. The presentations are copyrighted by the individual presenters.

William Chafe: Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here. We appreciate the effort of the Organization of American Historians to set aside this two-hour period for us to engage and discuss and reflect on an issue which is certainly of enormous concern to all of us. We are going to have five ten-minute presentations, and our panelists have agreed that they will be as brief as they can be in order to give you as much opportunity as you can have to talk about the things that are on your mind as you listen to them and respond to them. By the way, my name is Bill Chafe, I'm from Duke University, and I'm very pleased to be able to moderate this panel. This is clearly a moment of potential transformation in the way in which we conduct ourselves in the world. Conceivably we are in the process of reversing a half century of foreign policy and the way in which we conduct ourselves with relationship to the rest of the world. There are profound divisions around this issue, and it's important to respect the different opinions that exist on all sides.

We have some terrific speakers today who bring various degrees of expertise, both in foreign policy and domestic policy, to the issues before us. I'm going to basically simply introduce them in terms of their institutions and their order of speaking rather than try to do the usual OAH schmear. I would ask us to think not only in terms of what we're going to talk about vis a vis the war but also vis a vis what we're not talking about in terms of what may or may not be happening in the United States and in terms of our own issues that we may or not be waging war to deal with, including poverty, racism, malnutrition, etc.

The panelists in order of presentation will be Alan Brinkley, Distinguished Twentieth-Century Historian from Columbia University. Peter Hahn, from Ohio State University, who will be second. Marilyn B. Young from New York University, who will be third. Kevin Gaines from the University of Michigan, who will be fourth, and Eric Foner from Columbia, who will be the final speaker. I will then return to the podium and take your--moderate, rather--your questions to the various speakers, so let us begin with Alan Brinkley.