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Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

Conversation with the Founder of the Assyrian Genocide and Research Center (SEYFO Center) Mr. Sabro Bengaro (Video)

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The Assyrian genocide also known as Seyfo, Assyrian for Sword, was the mass slaughter of the Assyrians by Ottoman and irregular Kurdish forces during World War I.

The Assyrian Genocide Research Center, also known as the Seyfo Center, was established in 2003. Wally Sarkeesian founder and Journalist of Gagrule.net we had the pleasure Interviewing Mr. Sabro Bengaro the organization’s founder, who is completing his Ph.D. at The University of Texas University at Dallas. We talked about the Assyrian genocide and Seyfo Center’s recent publication, The History of the Assyrian Nation in the Twentieth Century, with Special Emphasis on the Events of World Wars I and II, written in Assyrian by Koorish Yacob Shlemon and translated into English by Arianne Ishaya, Ph.D.

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Katia Tavitian Karageuzian’s “Forbidden Homeland” Book Launch Gathers Crowd of Over 200 Community Members

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By ANNA GASPARYAN, ANCA

The ANCA-Western Region Education Committee organized a “kinetzon”, or wine blessing, for one of its own members, author Katia Tavitian Karaguezian, in a book launch for Forbidden Homeland, a personal account of diaspora with a focus on the Armenian Genocide and the ongoing Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict.

“The ANCA-WR Education Committee was pleased to host the traditional Armenian book blessing, Kinetzon,” said Alice Petrossian, Chairperson of the ANCA-WR Education Committee. “Birthing a book is as difficult as birthing a child. Katia Tavitian Karageuzian has made us proud by telling her story through the lens of our painful history.”

“They say when you send the universe question marks, sometimes it sends you back the answers,”remarked Katia. Forbidden Homeland is a true account of the author’s family’s survival story and how a seemingly unremarkable comment she made in college led to the discovery of her roots and heritage.

The launch took place at the Glendale Public Library, where over 200 Armenian-American community members, public officials, and the author’s family members packed the hall to hear excerpts from the book and to witness the wine blessing, initiating its success.

“A whole community with churches, schools, and centers had risen from muddy marshes thanks to the will of an exiled people who fought to survive by rebuilding a new home to identify with” read artist and MC, Arpi Krikorian, from the chapter “Bourj Hammoud”.

Katia Karageuzian expressed her gratitude to the ANCA-WR Board and Education Committee for their support of the project. She went over some historic facts covered in her memoir adding, “And so it is, that regional players continue to use Armenian lands to negotiate compromises and push for their interests, while we constantly fight to hang on to our ever-shrinking forbidden homeland.” She hopes that her book will not only be a conversation starter when it comes to sharing our diverse backgrounds but that it will also reveal truths about the Armenian Genocide that seems to be continuing today in Artsakh and Armenia.

The timely launch of Forbidden Homeland sheds light on the origins and root causes of the Karabakh Conflict. After 44 long days of Azerbaijan’s illegal blockade, the United States and other western countries continue their shocking inaction: withholding aid for the Armenians in Artsakh who are at the brink of starvation and a complete lack of life-saving resources.

The book is available for purchase now on Amazon for Kindle and paperback, as well as Barnes & Noble, and local bookstores like Abril and Sardarabad.

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Forbidden Homeland, Story of a Diasporan is Katia Tavitian Karageuzian’s vivid memoir, Interview Video

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Forbidden Homeland, Story of a Diasporan is Katia Tavitian Karageuzian’s vivid memoir of the personal journey that helped define her understanding of the Armenian Cause.

In 1988, a chance comment she made at college led to the discovery of long-lost relatives she knew nothing about. The family secrets that surfaced next became the catalyst to a decades-long search for answers she had been looking for since childhood.

Born in Lebanon, Karageuzian draws on her personal accounts of diaspora, and her research on the Armenian Genocide and the Karabakh conflict, to expose buried truths and unveil the geopolitics that consistently stand in the way of justice, and muffle the ongoing wars in Transcaucasia.

Forbidden Homeland is an American story of immigration and the pursuit of happiness, and the story of Diasporas that continue to form because of tyranny and leading nations engaged in power games. It is also a testament to bravery and resilience and the stubborn human will to live in freedom.

The book is now available on Amazon.com Forbidden Homeland in both paperback and Kindle e-book.

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“The country with powerful security structures, Syria, fell into Turkey’s trap with its four paws. Armenia, which is preparing to establish relations with Turkey, Abraham Gasparyan

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On December 29, Genesis Armenia Brain Center / Foundation Founder, Candidate of Political Science, Associate Professor Abraham Gasparyan’s “Mukhabarat” took place. The Alawite Resolution on the Security of Syria “book presentation. The scientific paper presents the security structures of Syria and the issues of security policy. According to Gasparyan, “Syria’s military-political security is on the shoulders of four security” square “structures, which in turn have hundreds of subgroups and sub-branches. The powers of the security system, Mukhabarat, are interconnected, which has caused an institutional crisis in the country.

The author has studied “Mukhabarat” with a clear scientific methodology, which will allow understanding the nature of Syria’s military-civil relations, the mechanisms of security-intelligence agencies. “A country with such powerful security structures fell into the trap of Turkey with its four paws. “Armenia, which is going to establish relations with Turkey, must seriously study the experience of Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, so as not to fall into the trap of creeping neo-Ottomanism,” Abraham Gasparyan said.

The speakers of the meeting, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Ruben Melkonyan, Candidate of Historical Sciences Armen Petrosyan, used the work both in the context of the possibility of deep recognition of the Syrian state and the application of that recognition and knowledge in the foreign policy of Armenia. “The book answers a number of important questions, but especially in our time it is very vital for Armenia to understand how the Assad regime managed to resist geopolitical pressures and conflicts of interest,” said Armen Petrosyan. According to Ruben Melkonyan, the book is not only for the professional community, but for all concerned and thinking citizens. “The work is an opportunity to look at the experience of Syria’s relations with Turkey, to understand how the Syrian security system worked with a hard and soft Turkish force.

The latter is especially important for Armenia, given the authorities’ agenda to normalize relations with Turkey. “In the near future, our state and society will face enormous pressure from the Turkish soft power. In this sense, the book should also be a manual of state and security structures,” Melkonyan said. The book is written in an innovative style ․ In the links section you will find QR codes that will take you to the sources of the scientific articles and documents presented in the paper. All proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to fund an educational program initiated by Genesis Armenia to fund IT training for servicemen with disabilities during the 44-day war.

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Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Series First Books Published

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The initial three books of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Translation Series have been published in Armenia. The series focuses on translating the most important social sciences and humanities texts into Armenian.

The first book published is Giorgio Agamben’s Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive (Quel che resta di Auschwitz. L’archivio e il testimone), translated into Western Armenian by Marc Nichanian and published by Actual Art. The book, originally issued in 1998, probes the philosophical and ethical questions raised by the testimony literature of the survivors of Auschwitz.

When asked why translating international books is important, Marc Nichanian explained: “translation is necessary for several reasons: first, because we need to get acquainted in the Armenian language with influential books read in the world, especially within academic circles that set trends. Second, because in order to keep a language alive and ensure its vitality, it must interact with the world outside of itself; in a way, it must be ‘measured’ by what is foreign. Lastly, because translation work is very delicate and difficult, it requires the translator to try, test and expand the boundaries of his or her own language. This Translation Series is a good opportunity for the two branches of the Armenian language (the Eastern and Western literary standards) ​​to listen to each other, to meet and read each other.”

The second book is Jürgen Habermas’s The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft), translated into Eastern Armenian by Hrachya Stepanyan and published by Ankyunaqar. The book, originally published in 1962, is an important contribution to the modern understanding of democracy. It focuses on the process of the democratization of the public sphere, drawing on the European experience.

Stepanyan talked about some of the difficulties in translating such texts into Armenian: “in the case of the translation of this book,” he explained, “the additional task was to avoid the use of foreign words as much as possible, and to use the Armenian or Armenianized equivalents instead. But this brings with it another problem: the difficulty of understanding texts with a vocabulary that many readers are not familiar with, especially if the sentences have multiple clauses and are complex. As a solution to this problem, I found it effective to include the original foreign word in parentheses next to the Armenian.”

The third book published, by Newmag in Yerevan, is Alain Badiou’s The Century (Le Siècle) translated into Eastern Armenian by Nazenie Gharibyan. It was originally published in French by Éditions du Seuil in 2005. It is a book about politics, philosophy, and literature, weaving together approaches and disciplines that are not usually in dialogue with each other. Badiou’s analysis of the 20th century is drawn from his unique encounter with 20th-century poetry, theatre, and literary theory on the one hand, and the totalitarian realities of the century on the other. Badiou is in search of meaningful narratives that are not confined to the usual approaches based on “logic” or “dialectics.”

“Translation, and especially the translation of world philosophical thought, is the most important strategic impetus for the development of any language and culture, as well as civilization,” highlighted Nazenie Gharibyan. “In this regard,” she added, “the Translation Series undertaken by the Gulbenkian Foundation has created an unprecedented opportunity to fill gaps; it not only provides new and fresh food for thinking in Armenian but also directly enriches modern Armenian. This, in turn, expands the creative horizon of thought in all spheres of activity.”

The Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Series aims to reduce the schism between Armenian intellectuals in Armenia and current approaches to the social sciences and humanities in the western world. Within the framework of the Series, ten books of the most influential contemporary academic texts in the 20th and 21st centuries are being published, none of which have previously been translated into Armenian. This project is being implemented in Armenia by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in close collaboration with the ARI Literature Foundation.

The following additional books will be published during the upcoming months: Edward Said, Orientalism; Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism; Michel Foucault, L’archéologie du savoir; Antonio Gramsci, Quaderni del carcere (selezioni); Simone de Beauvoir, Le deuxième sexe; Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Zizek, Contingency, Hegemony, Universality; Jean-Francois Lyotard, Instructions Païennes and La condition postmoderne.

The books can be purchased at all major bookstores in Yerevan, as well as some bookstores in the Diaspora, or by contacting the ARI Literature Foundation.

For more details about the Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Series, consult the explanatory “Foreword” to the Series by Razmik Panossian, the Director of the Armenian Communities Department.

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Magda Tagtachian: ‘The Armenians and the Kurds should join forces’

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Having published her third book “Rojava” on the women’s struggle in North East Syria, the Armenian writer says that Kurds and Armenians should join forces, pointing out the similarities between the ongoing attacks against the Kurds and the Armenians.

Third generation Armenian journalist and writer living in Argentina Magda Tagtachian analysed the ongoing attacks against the Kurdish people for ANHA.

Actively engaged in the struggle of her people and several Armenian institutions, Tagtachian has been known for her books “Forget-me-not Armenuhi, The Story of My Armenian Grandmother”, “Armenian Soul” and “Rojava“.

She told ANHA that the threats faced by the Armenians in 1915 are now similarly being acted out against the Kurdish people:.

“The whole world is watching these threats. The world remained similarly silent when the Ottoman state massacred over a million Armenians. Now the Kurds are faced with the same threats. The Kurdish people are faced with the same danger.”

She says that the states are remaining silent with an eye on their own interests. “Similarly when the Armenian massacre was being played out not one power even made a statement of condemnation. The condemnatory statements were made decades after the event,” she said.

She underlined that we are seeing the same crimes continuing today, but “no-one is saying a word, despite the fact that developing technology ensures that the moment genocide takes place it reaches the whole world.”

She states that Turkey has performed various theatricals in order to legitimise its crimes in Afrin (Efrîn) in the eyes of the world. “Numerous journalists were invited to occupied Afrin in an attempt to play out the theatricals being performed there to the world,” she said, adding that she was included in the invitations.

“I turned it down,” she said.

“Unfortunately numerous journalists accepted and became tools in the plans of the Turkish state to legitimise the occupation.”

Tagtachian finds it surprising that the world sees the Kurds as a “minority”, although there are 40 million Kurds in the Middle East. “Wherever Kurds are to be found they are under threat from the Turkish state.”

She stated that the Kurds have gone to great lengths to prove their existence. “They have achieved great things, like the Autonomous Administration in Rojava. They are currently being threatened. The US and Russia are pressurised by the Turkish state.”

The Armenians, she noted, experience threats from the Turkish state too. “So the Armenians and the Kurds should join forces. They should increase the struggle against their common enemy Erdoğan.”

She drew attention to the Turkish state’s bombing of Assyrian villages in Tall Tamr [Til Temir].

“The Turkish state is following Ottoman policies. They want to bring about a resumption of the events of 1915. They are waging a war against the ideological system that has come to life in Rojava. Erdoğan feels that the system in Rojava will threaten his power. Rojava is one of the greatest obstacles to his new Ottoman project.”

Tagtachian also analysed the Kurdish women’s struggle, stating that the YPJ (Women’s Defence Units) forces in North and East Syria had caused reverberations across the world and also gave her an inspiration to write her third book.

“I decided to write about the women’s struggle in Rojava when I completed my first two books. It was well worth writing about the great struggle of women against the Baath regime, the Turkish state and DAESH.”

When she wrote about the women’s struggle going on in North and East Syria, she felt as though she was “writing about the struggle of those saved from the massacre of 1915.”

“I feel honoured by the Kurdish and Yazidi women’s struggle. I have complete faith that they will achieve the aims they are struggling for. They have taken revenge for their sisters who were burnt alive.”

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Ruthless dictator Erdoğan publishes new book advocating global justice, equality, Putting human face on his brutality.

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Erdoğan publishes new book advocating global justice, equality

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan published a book named “A fairer world is possible,” advocating global justice and equality, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Monday.

In his book, Erdoğan detailed Turkey’s pursuing for justice for all humanity, it said.

Erdoğan has been supporting Islamist-leaning political movements in the Middle East such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas for the last decade that have drawn criticism from regional powers and concern from Western allies. Erdoğan defends the criticism, saying his policies are in support of democracy against autocratic regimes.

Turkey has also ranked 40th among 41 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2019, in a social justice index, measuring categories such as education and health.

The country placed 31st in poverty prevention, 41st in access to equal education, 37th in access to the labour market, 39th in inclusion in social life and non-discrimination, 18th in intergenerational justice, and 36th in health, the annual report prepared by Germany’s Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation found.

Pointing out the dilemmas of global politics, especially over injustice, refugee crisis, international terrorism and anti-Islamism, President Erdoğan said that there is a discrimination and double standard in the world, Anadolu said.

There is a need for a comprehensive reform, especially in the United Nations Security Council, Erdoğan said in his book, also drawing attention to the problems of legitimacy, functionality, effectiveness, inclusiveness, representation and governance of the United Nations, according to the news website.

“No one is innocent in a world where children die and are killed,” Erdoğan said.

At least 26 child labourers have lost their lives in the first five months of 2019 in Turkey, according to a Workers’ Health and Work Safety Assembly (ISIG) report released in June 2019, an organisation that tracks work-related incidents in the country.

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Hagop Baronian: Armenian Ottoman satirist of 19th-century Istanbul

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A talented journalist who published the first Turkish humor magazine in the Ottoman Empire, Hagop Baronian was also an important playwright in the Ottoman and Armenian theater known as the ‘Moliere of Armenians’

It has been more than a century since the death of sharp-tongued satirist Hagop Baronian. However, the literary works of the Armenian Ottoman journalist, playwright and humorist still offer readers a perspective into everyday life in 19th-century Istanbul.

Publishing his first play at just 22 years old, Baronian’s works are relatively few in number but their impact was great, dealing with issues such as marriage and family matters. The products of his journalistic career were likewise pertinent to the times, containing satire and social criticism.

Born in 1843 to a poor family in the city of Edirne in present-day northwestern Turkey, he predominantly went to Armenian schools, although he attended a Greek school for about a year where he learned to speak Greek.

In 1864, he settled in Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire, where he worked in various jobs as a secretary and teacher, learning Italian and French through his own efforts along the way.

Here he also started contributing to various journals, gaining experience as a professional writer.

Professional life

Baronian’s interest in theater manifested at a very young age. His first play, written in 1865, was a short farce called “One Butler with Two Masters,” an imitation of Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni’s original work, “A Butler with Two Masters.”

Four years later came his first comedy, “Oriental Dentist,” in which he dealt cheerfully with arranged marriages and marital fidelity.

Baronian explored what he saw as decaying family relations, with couples going behind each other’s back, while the lives of spouses and lovers old and new intertwine.

Amid a background of the social developments of the period, the play invites readers to think about the timeless relationship between marriage and fidelity.

He began writing another play, “Flattery,” in 1872. However, this would only be completed half a century later by fellow great Armenian Ottoman humor writer Yervant Odian after it was left unfinished.

Another satire, “Honorable Beggars,” published in 1880-1881, focused on the indiscretion and naivety of a rural notable, while also drawing attention to how open these qualities were to exploitation by an array of artistic, professional, religious and artisanal opportunists.

His last work, “Baghdasar Aghbar,” again criticized Armenian institutions around the theme of divorce. It is one of the most popular plays in the Armenian comedy tradition.

Though he announced in 1887 that he would be releasing another comedy called “Dowry,” he never published this comedy. An incomplete draft of the play, consisting of eight scenes and some episodes, was found among his papers and published following his death.

Journalism

Baronian’s career in journalism began in 1871 when he became chief writer at Yeprad (Euphrates) newspaper, later also writing in the Megu (Bee) and Khigar (Wise).

He started publishing an Ottoman Turkish humor magazine, known as Tiyatro, on March 20, 1874, followed only a couple of weeks later by Tadron, a bilingual publication in both Armenian and Ottoman Turkish, which was first printed in the Armenian alphabet.

Baronian created all of the content published in the four-page Tiyatro magazine. The biweekly was the fourth Turkish satirical magazine published in the Ottoman Empire.

In Tadron, he discussed issues relevant to the Armenian community at the time. It was also published twice a week and included common content with Tiyatro, with both publications surviving until 1877.

Baronian died of tuberculosis on May 27, 1891, in Istanbul. He is buried in the Armenian cemetery in the city, though his exact place of rest remains unknown.

None of his plays were staged while he was alive, though they became popular in the decade following.

Known by many as Moliere of the Armenians, Baronian shines a light on contemporary social life in his city and his works have proven invaluable to interested historians and laypeople alike.

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Newmag to publish French writer Valerie Manteau’s fiction novel about Hrant Dink

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On September 15, 2020 Hrant Dink would turn 66. In commemoration of his anniversary, Newmag informs that Valerie Manteau’s fiction novel “The Furrow” will be published. The translation and publication of the novel is  supported by the Embassy of France in Armenia and the French Institute. 

35-year-old Valerie Manteau is a popular journalist and columnist. In 2008-2013  she worked for the popular magazine Charlie Hebdo.  

Hrant Dink is at the heart of the latest work by French writer and journalist Valérie Manteau, entitled Le Sillon. Living in Istanbul since 2017, the novelist sets out to find traces of the journalist and his heritage. Mixing autobiographical story and work of memory, this novel received one of the highest French literary awards, the Renaudot Prize, in 2018. Le Sillon is literally the French translation of the name Agos, the journal of Hrant Dink.

Valerie Manteau’s second novel has remarkable depth. In a masterful depiction of the unknown, a love story dotted with impossibilities commingles with a world on the verge of the abyss and with the life of a murdered journalist. 

A young woman meets up with her lover in Istanbul. While the city is slowly decaying amidst its contradictions and the violence of the regime, some are still fighting for their freedom. As she wanders around, this woman discovers the story of Hrant Dink, an Armenian journalist murdered in Turkey because of his aspiration for peace. 

Frederick Martin, French publisher and director of the publishing house Le Tripode, said, “When I first read Valérie Manteau’s The Furrow, I was so impressed by it that I decided to make it the only book that our independent publishing house, Le Tripode, would publish during August and September 2018. A few months later, the book received one of the most prestigious literary prizes in France, the Prix Renaudot. It’s impossible to say whether this book is a novel or an autobiography. And yes, it’s as much a feminist text as it is an essayistic reflection on the tensions between the East and the West. And yes, it is within this fusion of coarseness and elegance that something distinctly French flourishes (even if I have some doubts about this). And yes, more than anything, it succeeds, with unflinching nerve, at interweaving the intimacy of a love story with a stirring defense of democracy against populism through the figure of an extraordinary man, Hrant Dink”. 

The book not only received an authoritative award, but was also warmly acclaimed by critics. Here are a few:   

Virginie Despentes, French writer and novelist: “The writing is direct and sincere and it immediately had me hooked. I love how she portrays Turkey, she describes what could happen in France tomorrow.”

Annie Ernaux, French writer: “Inside Le Sillon dwells a frantic, violent and menacing world ; a world that is nevertheless very much alive. Its story approaches the collective experience in the best possible way : through the intimate everyday life of the individual.”

Dany Laferrière, Haitian-Canadian novelist and journalist: “I was delighted [to read the book], even if the theme is serious. An outlook, a style and a generosity that brought out emotions in me that I hadn’t felt before.” 

Yann Perrreau, Les Inrocks “Her honesty brings Emmanuel Carrère to mind, the use of “me”  that becomes all the more delicate and painful since this “me” is stripped naked, revealing all of its imperfections and defaults. It is a novel about a failure, but nothing is more beautiful than the stories that end badly because their themes surpass them.” 

Alexandra Schwartzbrod, Libération  “Valérie Manteau combines an autobiographical love story and an investigation into Hrant Drink, the Armenian journalist who was assassinated in 2007.”

The translation of the book into Armenian has already begun. Samvel Gasparyan is translating it. Samvel previously has translated Charles Aznavour’s books for Newmag. Now the translation is in process. “This is not only a book about Hrant Dink, but also about Turkey as a whole, its cities and problems. I think we are dealing with a very interesting writer both in terms of language and approach. This is a very beautiful, lexically rich book. This is not an ordinary book. This is a truly extraordinary novel with original structure and an inner dynamic.”

On this occasion the Embassy of France made a statement. “The Embassy of France in Armenia has the honor to announce its support for the translation and publication in Armenian “The Furrow” by Newmag publishing house. It will be released in January 2021 to commemorate the Hrant Dink assassination”.  

Source: tert.am

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Here’s one of the most disturbing details from Woodward’s Trump book that people are missing

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The coronavirus bombshells in Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” due out September 15, are so explosive that they have somewhat overshadowed other important parts of the book — for example, the veteran journalist/author’s reporting on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions. And Woodward, according to the Guardian’s Julian Borger, describes some of the ways in which Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Defense Secretary James Mattis and others tried to rein Trump in on foreign policy.

“Rage” is based in part on a series of interviews that Woodward conducted with Trump from December 2019-July 2020. Woodward reports that on February 7, Trump told him that COVID-19 was five times “more deadly” than the flu — although he was publicly claiming, in February, that the novel coronavirus didn’t pose a major threat to the United States. Not surprisingly, Woodward’s damning coronavirus revelations have dominated cable news discussions of “Rage.” But other parts of “Rage” are important as well, and Borger notes some of Woodward’s reporting on Trump’s foreign policy decisions.

Four days before the January 3, 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian military Qasem Soleimani, Graham and Trump discussed Iran. Graham, according to Woodward, warned Trump that killing Soleimani would be a “giant step” and told the president, “How about hitting someone a level below Soleimani, which would be much easier for everyone to absorb?”

But the attack went ahead, and Soleimani was killed.

One of the most disturbing revelations in “Rage”,” which hasn’t gotten enough attention, is how seriously Mattis feared a nuclear confrontation with North Korea. Mattis was so worried, Borger writes, that he “took to sleeping in his gym clothes and having a flashing light and bell installed in his bathroom in case a missile alert happened when he was in the shower.”

Mattis, discussing that possibility, told Woodward, “You’re going to incinerate a couple million people. No person has the right to kill a million people, as far as I’m concerned. Yet that’s what I have to confront.”

The New Yorker previous reported that Mattis played a key part in preventing the U.S. and North Korea from entering a “war footing”:

According to multiple senior officials, in early January the President asked his staff to present him with a range of evacuation plans for the approximately two hundred thousand American civilians who live in South Korea. (On TV, Senator Lindsey Graham was calling for dependents of U.S. soldiers there to be brought home.) Any evacuation would send a profoundly alarming signal to South Korea, and inevitably put the U.S. and North Korea on a war footing. McMaster and his staff dutifully began gathering options for the President. The deliberations were scuttled only after Mattis and Kelly intervened.

In the fall of 2017, McMaster was planning a private session to develop military options for the possibility of conflict with North Korea: a war game, with Trump in attendance, at the Presidential retreat in Camp David. McMaster asked Mattis to send officers and planners. Mattis ignored him. “He prevented the thing from happening,” the former senior Administration official told me. Later, Mattis kept General John Nicholson, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, from meeting with Trump.

Administration officials speculate that Mattis was trying to avoid a war, or that he simply wanted to control the flow of information, so that the President could not make ill-advised decisions. “There are a lot of people in the Administration who want to limit the President’s options because they don’t want the President to get anything done,” the former senior Administration official told me.

Mattis declined to comment for the record, but a former senior national-security official told me, without confirming any incidents, that a strategy had evolved. “The President thinks out loud,” he said. “Do you treat it like an order? Or do you treat it as part of a longer conversation? We treated it as part of a longer conversation.” By allowing Trump to talk without acting, he said, “we prevented a lot of bad things from happening.” In 2017, Mattis and his staff helped forestall a complete withdrawal of American forces from both Afghanistan and Syria

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