"Those Who Cannot Remember The Past . . .": Did Paris Hilton Say That?

In October 1962, President John F. Kennedy announced on TV that the Soviet Union had, based on reconnaissance photos, been building nuclear missiles and bomber bases in Cuba, ninety miles away from the United States. The President ordered a blockade of Cuba, leading to a standoff that was thisclose to launching nuclear war. A week later, Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev agreed to remove the bases. World destruction had been postponed.

In December 2007, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino goes on a National Public Radio show called Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me and admitted that she didn't know anything about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

We assume Perino's lack of knowledge stems from the fact that she was born in 1972, according to Wikipedia. Had things turned out differently, the events of 9/11/01 would have been nothing compared to a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Millions, not thousands, would have been dead

Of course, in Perino's world, JFK may have been the father of Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. But they're both Democrats, so they don't count, right? And the Soviet Union? Didn't JK Rowling write a Harry Potter book about that?

It's not news that the Bush administration is filled with people who keep getting themselves (and us) into trouble. That's why we have wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and possibly Iran. That's also why civil liberties are being eroded in the wake of 9/11, stem cell research is stifled, climate change is ignored, and so on down the line.

What's also at work here is the dumbing down of American history. Budget cuts and "No Child Left Behind" have caused schools to cut back on teaching history, meaning that Jhonny and Jaine have something in common with Perino. They don't know much about the Cuban Missile Crisis, either.

So where have we been getting our history from these days? The Civil War, jazz and World War II have been covered by Ken Burns. Steven Spielberg did a movie about the Holocaust. David McCullough wrote books on John Adams and Harry Truman. Slavery was chronicled by Alex Haley. Doris Kearns Goodwin authored tomes on Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. You get the idea.

You would think that anyone who works in the White House would have a working knowledge of American history. Unfortunately, the man they work for has a tendency of saying "nucular" instead of nuclear, started a war based on false evidence of weapons of mass destruction (the current euphemism), and claims to be out of the loop on certain issues. It just rubs off.