Background Briefing: March 4, 2019
The Vatican’s Secret WWII Archives to Be Opened
We begin with the announcement by the Vatican today that it would open its secret World War Two archives on the papacy of Pope Pius XII who has been accused of keeping silent about the genocide of the Jews by the Nazi’s, aided by the Italian fascists, at the time of the holocaust even when Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University who studies fascism, war, racism, authoritarian rulers and propaganda, joins us to discuss the move by Pope Francis to open up the archives which the American Jewish Committee has been calling for access to for 30 years. And while Pope Francis said that Pius’s legacy had been treated with “some prejudice and exaggeration”, the fact that the wartime Pope did not speak against the persecution of the Jews and later the murder of six million of them, has long been a matter of controversy among scholars, particularly those from the leading Holocaust memorial institutes in Israel and the U.S., who are now welcoming the opening of the secret archives by the Pope which is scheduled for March 2, 2020.
Behind the Scenes at CPAC
Then we get a summary of the events surrounding the CPAC conference which ended on Saturday with President Trump’s bizarre, rambling two and a half hour address after two days of Hillary-haters and Hitler-lovers hectoring members of liberal press, as speakers warned of the feminization of American manhood by soy-eaters along with the impending Muslim invasion and the socialist takeover of America. Will Sommer, a tech reporter for the Daily Beast who covered CPAC 2019 joins us to discuss his article “Anti-Muslim Activist Laura Loomer Banned From CPAC After Harassing Reporters” and how today’s GOP is now the party of MAGA-hatted, white nationalist, Trump-followers.
The White House’s Reckless Path Away from Nuclear Deterrence and Diplomacy
Then finally we speak with Michael Krepon, the co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center and Director of its South Asia and Space Security Program about his article at The New York Times, “The New Age of Nuclear Confrontation Will Not End Well”. He joins us to discuss the need for Congress to fill the void since the White House is taking the nation and world on a reckless path away from deterrence and diplomacy towards nuclear brinkmanship and confrontation.