American Immunity: War Crimes and the Limits of International Law

Acknowledgments

vii ACKNoWLeDGMeNTS I acknowledge the financial support of the British Academy, the Lancaster University History Department Research Support Fund, and the Lancaster University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for the research in this book. I acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of Luis M. Acosta, emily Carr, Frank Alan Herch, Debbie G. Keysor, Megan Lulofs, and Christine Sellers, Law Library of Congress; Jeffrey M. Flannery and Lewis Wyman, Manuscript Division , Library of Congress; William H. Davis, Archivist, National Archives and Records Administration, Center for Legislative Archives; Robert ellis, Archivist, National Archives and Records Administration, Federal Judicial Records; Mary Kay Schmidt, Archivist, Special Access and FoIA Staff, National Archives and Records Administration at College Park; Paul B. Brown, Archives II Reference Section, National Archives and Records Administration at College Park; Terrance Rucker and Matt Wasniewski, House of Representatives office of History and Preservation; Betty Koed and Katherine Scott, Senate Historical office; Zoe Davis, Head of Reference and Information Services, Senate Library; Fred L. Borch III, Regimental Historian and Archivist, the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, Virginia; Glen R. Asner, Senior Historian, Historical office, office of the Secretary of Defense; Carolyn Thorne, office of the Secretary of Defense; Records and Declassification Division, office of the Secretary of Defense; Kimberly Harper, Debbie G. Keysor, and Belinda Vogel, the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia; John Nemmers, Descriptive and Technical Services Archivist, Department of Special and Area Studies Collections, Smathers Library, University of Florida, Gainesville; Laura Clark Brown, Research Archivist, and Matthew Turi, Manuscripts Research Librarian, Southern Historical Collection , Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Hilary Dorsch Wong, Senior Manuscripts Processor, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections , Kroch Library, Cornell University; Mary Nelson, Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita State University Libraries, Wichita, Kansas; edwin Moloy, Curator of Modern Manuscripts, Harvard Law School Library Historical and Special Collections; Abigail Malangone, Archivist, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, California; Diana Manipud, Patricia J. Methven, Lianne Smith, and the staff and trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London; Jenny Brine, Helen Clish, and Lorna Acknowledgments viii Pimperton, Librarians, University of Lancaster Library; Interlending and Documents Service, University of Lancaster Library; Hugo L. Black Jr., the executor of the Hugo L. Black Papers, Library of Congress; and edward W. Brooke, the donor of the edward William Brooke Papers, Library of Congress. While one can easily agree on the necessity for justice, sometimes the possibility of justice is more in doubt. Members of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the U.S. armed services have at times been called on to act as their nation’s conscience, as when Capt. Aubrey M. Daniel reminded President Richard Nixon of the need to respect the legal process and when judge advocates acted unstintingly in the defense of the rights of detainees at Guantánamo. I rest my hope for the world in the example of their respect for the law. I have never encountered in any professional community such intellectual generosity and conscientiousness as in the current and former military lawyers and legal scholars who responded to queries from a newcomer in their field. one of them even wrote from a war zone to offer his detailed advice. I am grateful to Brian J. Bill, William G. eckhardt, Melissa epstein, Glenn R. Schmitt, and J. T. Parker; and to Terry Chapman, eugene Fidell, Louis Fisher, William Schabas, and Gary D. Solis. Michal Belknap gave me a lead that helped me track down the Jordan memorandum. R. Kenly Webster kindly responded to an e-mail inquiry. Colleagues in a number of fields provided me with advice, encouragement, and support. They include Chris Appy, Beerd Beukenhorst, Ronika Chakrabarti, Nicola Clarke, Charlotte Dickenson, Paul Gilroy, Ruud Janssens, Rhodri JeffreysJones , Dan Larsen, Corinna Peniston-Bird, Paul Quigley, Doug Rossinow, Derek Sayer, Kirsten Smith, and David Sugarman. I am grateful for the attention and questions of audiences at the conference “Whose Vietnam?” at the University of Amsterdam in october 2010; the American History Workshop at edinburgh University in March 2012; the Transatlantic Studies Conference at the University of Cork in July 2012; and the conference “Confronting U.S. Power after the Vietnam War” at the University of Sheffield in october 2012; as well as of successive groups of students in the Law 311 course at Lancaster University. Thanks are due to Kendrick oliver and J. T. Parker for reading and commenting on drafts of the manuscript as well as offering...