The Atlantic Monthly – December 2003 Preview

NewMexiKen notes that the December issue of The Atlantic Monthly looks to be worth the price. It’s due out Tuesday.

Tour of Duty
by Douglas Brinkley
Senator John F. Kerry often cites his service in Vietnam as a formative element of his character. A new account of his time there—based on interviews with those who knew him well, and on his never-before-published letters home and his voluminous “war notes”—offers the first intimate look at a traumatic and life-altering experience

The Bubble of American Supremacy
by George Soros
A prominent financier argues that the heedless assertion of American power in the world resembles a financial bubble—and the moment of truth may be here. “The dominant position the United States occupies in the world,” he writes, “is the element of reality that is being distorted. The proposition that the United States will be better off if it uses its position to impose its values and interests everywhere is the misconception. It is exactly by not abusing its power that America attained its current position.”

The Backside of War
by P.J. O’Rourke
“At dawn on Thursday, March 20, when the first American missiles struck Baghdad, I was asleep in a big soft bed. My wife, watching late-night news in the United States, called me in Kuwait to tell me that the war had started. That was embarrassing for a professional journalist in a combat zone.” A noncombatant’s diary, from one of America’s great satirical foreign correspondents.

How to Kill a Country
by Samantha Power
Turning a breadbasket into a basket case in ten easy steps—the Robert Mugabe way. “The Zimbabwe case offers some important insights,” writes Samantha Power, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her recent book on the Rwandan genocide. “It illustrates the prime importance of accountability as an antidote to idiocy and excess. It highlights the lasting effects of decolonization. . . . And it offers a warning about how much damage one man can do, very quickly.”

Scrutiny on the Bounty
by Christopher Buckley
Entries from Captain Bligh’s secret logbook. “February 2, 1789. . . . Am much vexed on account of Mr. Christian. His mood-compass vacillates sharply between Histerical Agitation and Sullen Lethargy. I had so wanted this Voyage to be special for him.”