Jim Hoge: A Man With Exactly The Honesty Needed To Edit Foreign Affairs

In mankind's long annals of boredom, few things have been as boring as the Council on Foreign Relations. It was started in 1921 as a place for America's rich people to get together and hash out what foreign policy they wanted for the US. Being rich, they had better things to do than read books, so they often have farmed out the thinking to professor-types.

The wide spectrum of acceptable thought at CFR is illustrated by its board, which runs from former Reagan staffers on the right all the way over to Robert Rubin on the far far left. You can imagine how vigorous and fascinating CFR debates can be.

Recently there was a tiny kerfuffle at Foreign Affairs, CFR's magazine. It began with a book review of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, edited by the beautiful humans of the National Security Archive. It covers the US involvement in the overthrow of Chile's Salvador Allende in 1973.

The review was written by Kenneth Maxwell, a Latin American historian and 15-year veteran of CFR. As explained in this Nation article, Maxwell made a serious mistake: he told the truth. Maxwell wrote:

As for the coup itself, there is no doubt that the United States did all that it could to create the conditions for the failure of Allende and his government... What is truly remarkable is the effort -- the resources committed, the risks taken, and the skullduggery employed -- to bring a Latin American democracy down, and the meager efforts since to build democracy back up.

As it so often does, the truth made certain people quite unhappy -- in this case, people like Henry Kissinger and William Rogers, one of Kissinger's chief lickspittles. Rogers fired off an angry response to Foreign Affairs, filled with the kind of rickety prevarication in which Kissinger & co specialize.

Maxwell responded; then Rogers responded to his response. According to tradition at Foreign Affairs, the author of the original -- Maxwell -- would at this point get the last word.

But it was not to be. Jim Hoge, the editor of Foreign Affairs, informed Maxwell that Rogers would have the last (mendacious) word. As Maxwell convincingly demonstrates in a new article (pdf file), Hoge made this decision under fierce pressure from Kissinger, delivered via higher ups at CFR. Maxwell, clearly a guy with integrity, severed his connection with CFR and Foreign Affairs.

This is the way the world works. It's the way the world has worked ever since we developed fingers to write and brains big enough to make the fingers write lies. So there's not so much shame in what Hoge did. Sure, he's a dog on a leash held by Henry Kissinger, but lots of people are on lots of leashes. At least Hoge has received all kinds of tasty doggy treats for his loyal service. Plus, according to New York City law, when they go on walks Kissinger has to pick up his poop.

The funny part, and the reason I tell this whole dreary story, is that Hoge has vociferously lied about the pressure from Kissinger. As Hoge put it, "I didn't talk to Henry Kissinger, I didn't talk to anybody...these are editor's decisions, which I made. Period."

But that's always the way with these people. You'd think they could tell the truth, or at least maintain a decorous silence. Instead, they loudly proclaim they would never give into threats, they're the captain of their own destiny, etc., even as everyone watches their owners give their leash another hard yank.