In Search of Monsters — A Soldier’s Tale

This hour of In Search of Monsters provides a backstory, a backstory of two men – two centuries apart –  inside the idea of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. First came John Quincy Adams, the sixth US president, son of the second one, who kept his fledgling country out of war with England and Spain in the 1820s. His diplomatic tagline became America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Many wars later, there came an idealistic young soldier out of West Point, Andrew Bacevich, who met the monsters in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf and learned his Quincy lessons the hard way: that war was not the answer, that modern American war policy was chewing up his country. Andrew joins Chris Lydon on this foundational episode of In Search of Monsters

Listen to the full episode here:

Additionally, check out these related resources:

• Imperial Detritus: Henry Luce’s Dream Comes Undone – QI President Andrew Bacevich, 7/13/22. 
• America’s Militarism Will Be Its Downfall – QI President Andrew Bacevich in The Nation, 4/18/22.  
• The Irony of American History – Reinhold Niebuhr