One Hundred Days of Silence: America and the Rwanda Genocide
Jared Cohen interviewed those who usually have been overlooked by scholars and journalists—Rwandans and mid-level U.S. Government officials. His bold freshness of approach was the starting point for this arresting analysis—equally fresh—of exactly how the U.S. Government's ability to act morally in the Rwandan genocide crisis was immobilized. (James Lowell Gibbs, Jr., Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, Stanford University)The U.S., along with the rest of the international community, failed to respond in any constructive way to stop the killing of roughly 800,000 people in Rwanda during the spring of 1994. This book represents a commendable effort to investigate the Clinton administration's response to evidence of genocide that seemed undeniable by the May. . . . Many interviews recorded here provide an account of what middle-level policy makers supposedly thought and said, and why minimal efforts to respond were thwarted by bureaucratic politics. Cohen, who now works for the U.S. State Department, explains why even the proposal that the U.S. jam incendiary radio stations was rejected, and a decision to provide military vehicles to a resuscitated UN force was delayed for an interminable period of time. Highly recommended. (CHOICE)Cohen's book supplies greater detail than previous works about the beaurocratic decision-making that allowed the genocide in Rwanda to continue with impunity for ten long weeks. (Journal Of Genocide Research, January 2009)After the Holocaust, many nations vowed "never again." But genocide occurred in Rwanda, and no nations moved to stop it. How could this occur? In this thoughtful and carefully researched work, Jared Cohen provides chilling answers. Anyone interested in human rights and preventing genocide should read this book. (Joseph S. Nye Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard; author of Soft Power)These essays are an excellent starting point on the subject, and trail blazes to encourage more research until Africa is no longer a place where terrorism can have a foothold.(Terrorism and Political Violence)