Slate Magazine - War Stories

Why was Berlin the key to the Cold War?

Fred Kaplan — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:14:06 EST

The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago, but few of the news stories marking the anniversary have explained the event's full significance. The Cold War had been raging for 14 years before the wall went up on Aug. 13, 1961. How could its collapse, on Nov. 9, 1989, have heralded the Cold War's demise?

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What's behind Bill Clinton's "private" trip to North Korea?

Fred Kaplan — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 10:35:03 EST

News comes this morning that former President Bill Clinton is in North Korea, talking with Kim Jong-il and his top aides. And, though no officials are saying so, this suggests that a diplomatic breakthrough could now be in the offing, if one is possible at all.

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The worst thing about President Karzai's brother's CIA gig.

Fred Kaplan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:19:48 EST

The New York Times' lead story today—that the CIA has been making regular payments to Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Afghan president's brother who is widely suspected of involvement in the drug trade—is even worse news than it sounds.

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How the Pentagon sowed confusion with an incomplete recruitment report.

Fred Kaplan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:43:53 EST

On Oct. 16, I wrote a column about the fishy numbers in a recent Pentagon report on military recruitment. The report claimed that recruitment was up, but the numbers seemed to indicate the opposite. What was going on? This is the story of how I got that story—and how I learned, through a jumble of phone briefings afterward, how I got it both right and wrong.

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The Army says it exceeded its 2009 recruiting goals. But the numbers are very fishy.

Fred Kaplan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:52:40 EST

The Pentagon boasted this week that the U.S. armed forces have exceeded their recruitment goals for this year. Some officials attributed the success to high unemployment in the civilian job market, others to a spurt in civic-mindedness.

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