Razorcake Issue #19

Whether or not you’ve heard of Ann Coulter, you’ve probablyhad her arguments recited to you at some point. Coulter hasbecome the top right-wing guru, providing talking points for conservativeseverywhere, and turning up on Fox and MSNBC topreach to adoring talk show hosts. After the September 11 attacks,she garnered national attention by recommending that Americainvade the Middle East and force Muslims to convert toChristianity. In 2002, she made it to the top of the bestseller listswith her book Slander, which charged liberals with systematicallylying about conservatives. Last summer, Coulter followed Slanderwith Treason, in which she accused everyone to the left of theRepublican Party of being traitors. Like its predecessor, Treasonsold well and drew considerable fire. However, critics of the bookhave concentrated more on Coulter’s attempt to rehabilitate JoeMcCarthy than on the specifics of foreign and military policy. Withthe November elections upcoming and the Iraq War dragging onmore than nine months after President Bush’s declaration of victory,Republicans’ political interests depend more than ever onbranding their opponents dangerous on foreign policy issues. Solet’s finally settle the claims of the book that is the unofficial 2004Republican Platform.Harry Truman is one of Coulter’s favorite targets: she labelshim a traitor for firing General Douglas MacArthur and rejectinghis plan to widen the Korean War. Coulter describes the disputebetween the two men this way: “Truman believed MacArthur’scrossing of the Yalu River had unnecessarily antagonized thepeace-loving Chinese Communists and dragged them into theKorean War.” 1 It would have been at least somewhat antagonisticto cross the Yalu, since that would have meant invading China.Coulter has confused the Yalu River (which separates China andNorth Korea) with the 38 th parallel (which then separated Northand South Korea) – a pretty fundamental error, and one that showsjust how little she and her editors know about the Korean War.Even after correcting the geographical mistake, Coulter’s statementis still false: Truman authorized American troops to cross the 38 thparallel.Coulter also neglects to mention that MacArthur had beenspectacularly wrong about China from the beginning. Just sixweeks before the Chinese launched a massive attack against U.N.forces, MacArthur had assured Truman that there was “very little”chance China would do so. 2 Coulter likewise fails to note that afterMacArthur was dismissed, he explained that he had planned todrop between 30 and 50 nuclear bombs on northeastern China andto blanket the border area with radioactive cobalt. 3 If she is so surethat MacArthur’s policy was superior to Truman’s, then why suppressthe fact that MacArthur’s policy included nuclear war? Whatwould have been the long-term effects of massive radiation on thearea’s inhabitants, including U.S. servicemen in Korea? Also, howdoes Coulter think Josef Stalin would have reacted to seeing hismost important ally nuked, with at least part of the fallout landingin Soviet territory? Is she aware that the Soviets also possessednuclear weapons in 1951?Of course, Korea attracts less interest from conservative mythmakersthan Vietnam, because the widespread protests against thelatter war offer rightists a chance to blame protestors for the defeat.However, even a cursory look at the Vietnam conflict tells anotherstory. The U.S. committed massive resources – over 500,000 troopson the ground at one point and more bombs than were dropped inWorld War II – in an unsuccessful attempt to prop up the SouthVietnamese government. Doesn’t that prove that the SouthVietnamese state was never a viable entity from the start? Coulterducks the question, regarding it as self-evident that Kennedy andJohnson lost the war by failing to be aggressive enough.In trying to advance her case, Coulter makes what she can outof the war’s sideshows. For instance, this is how she describes theCIA-backed military overthrow of South Vietnamese dictator NgoDinh Diem in 1963: “In the middle of a war, Kennedy dispatchedthe CIA to help assassinate our ally.” 4 When a conservative objectsto a right-wing military coup against a civilian ruler, you know