Published in The American Srbobran

A Pompous Academic Ass  By William Dorich

"I do not agree with what you say,
but shall defend to the death your
right to say it."—Voltaire.

May 17, 1999—In the America of the 1930s in which I was born, the lexicon 
included such ugly words as “Japs, Kikes and Pollocks.”  As the son of a 
“Displaced Person” of Serbian origin, I was called a “Hunky.”  Today we 
referred to such abusive language as “hate speech.”  In the current American 
society it is considered “politically incorrect” to attack Blacks, Asians, 
Arabs and Homosexuals.  However the recent article in the May issue of The 
New Republic entitled “The New Serbia,” Mr. David Goldhagen of Harvard 
University demonstrates how acceptable it is to attack Serbs with the same 
ferocity that Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels attacked the Jews prior to 
putting 6 million to death and liquidating 1.7 million Serbs.

In 1939 Hitler said:  “I have three enemies, the Serbs, the Jews and the 
Communists.”  Mr. Goldhagen’s shameful piece of academic trash appears to 
have fallen from this same dust bin of hateful European bigotry.  Sadly, he 
is not alone.  Secretary of State Warren Christopher displayed his anti-Serb 
hate by saying “Serbs are immoral.”  He had to eat those words before 
leaving office when his nephew was arrested at Forest Lawn Mortuary in 
Glendale, California, where it is alleged he burglarized the facility and 
where the police allegedly caught him having sex with a corpse.  There are 
no laws in California against having sex with the dead, but the mortuary was 
compelled to notify the family that their loved one was raped in death.  
Necrophilia was not included in the list of bigoted names attributed to the 
Serbs in recent years.

When Madeleine Albright took office at the UN she accelerated the pace of 
demonizing the Serbs.  In 1991, at a demonstration in front of the United 
Nations, a Serbian demonstrator yelled out at the Ambassador in his native 
language, “Why do you treat the Serbs like we are animals.”  Albright turned 
on her heels and in her best Serbian dialect replied: “Because you are.”  In 
a New York Times article on February 15th, 1999, Albright said she had “Fond 
memories as a child in Belgrade,” and that if her father “Was not a Czech 
first, he would have wanted to be a Serb.”  After 7 years of her insulting 
terminology her new found fondness for the Serbs was like pouring salt in 
their wounds.  Especially since her biography omits any reference that Pavle 
Jankovic, a Serb journalist with Politika, save her life in WWII.

Richard Holbrooke unashamedly called Serbs “Murderous Assholes” (New Yorker, 
Nov. 6, 1995), and in his new book referred to the Serbs as “Evil.”  Senator 
Biden’s Serbophobia included calling the Serbs, “... illiterates, 
degenerates, rapists, baby killers and cowards” (Aug. 1, 1993).  And just 
imagine, that was only in one of his many appearances on CNN.  Congressman 
Obey called the Serbs, “Pigs” and political cartoonists began drawing Serbs 
as pigs turning over outhouses.  Even the press has its share of bigots as 
Morton Kondracke called the Serbs “Bastards” on national television.  
Apparently Harvard University also unashamedly supports the “collective 
guilt” concepts of Professor Goldhagen.  If Harvard University does not make 
a full apology for this hate speech, I suggest to the Serb National 
Federation that they file a class action suit against this professor and 
Harvard University for this racial intolerance by a member of their staff.  
I also suggest that the Serbs take this potential “hate crime” to the 
Justice Department considering our new laws.  It appears obvious to me that 
after some of these racist creatures obtain their teaching credentials they 
emerge out of their closets confident of their academic cover.  I suggest 
that this professor crawl back under his rock.

Mr. Goldhagen’s abhorrent suggestion that Serbs should be “occupied, 
rehabilitated and punished” for their collective sins borders on the absurd. 
  In a Washington Times article, June 15, 1997, “A German tank rolls through 
a small village, and the peasants rush out , lining the road with their 
right arms raised in a Nazi salute as they chant ‘Heil Hitler.”  How immoral 
that professor Goldhagen omits this lack of Croat “rehabilitated” now for 60 
years.   Germany helped Croatia fulfill its WWII Nazi dream of an ethnically 
pure, Roman Catholic state—they “aided and abetted” the genocide of 630,000 
Serbs cleansed from Croatia with German weapons, financial aid and 
intelligence support.  Professor Goldhagen’s vengeance of the Serbs reveals 
a contempt for the truth.  Der Spiegel publisher Rudolf Augstein wrote about 
Goldhagen’s book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, “Goldhagen’s conclusions 
were at best ignorant, if not in fact malicious.”

President Milosevich of Serbia, President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and 
President Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia are all ‘Commanders and Chiefs’ of 
their armies, each of whom had concentration camps in which their prisoners 
were starved, raped and beaten to death—yet all three go free while we 
prosecute low-life camp guards and pin all of the responsibility on 
Milosevich.  There are currently 1.2 million Serbian refugees from Croatia 
and Bosnia who have not been allowed to return to their homes for three 
years with 30,000 NATO troops on the ground in Bosnia who have obviously 
been sitting on their hands.  Going to war, or occupying Serbia to guarantee 
that 700,000 Albanians are allowed to return to their homes reveals the 
abhorrent double standards of this educator.

Mr. Goldhagen’s statement that “Germany, ... has become a force for 
democracy, cooperation, and prosperity...” is pure bilge.  Germany was 
responsible for the first genocide in this century in 1904 when they 
slaughtered 100,000 Namibians and 1907 when they liquidated 120,000 
Tanzanians.  Germans were responsible for two World Wars and they end this 
century by fomenting the dismemberment of Yugoslavia.  For the third time in 
this century German Luftwaffe are dropping bombs on the Serbian people, or 
has the professor been too busy rewriting history to notice?

His remark “... if a people's self-understanding of self-determination 
includes conquest, mass expulsion, and mass murder, the principle of 
self-determination is rendered moot,” was repugnant.  He totally ignores the 
fact that Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia were denied self-determination and 
even autonomy by an international community that stood by as Serbs were 
denied their human rights and their sovereignty.   Apparently Mr. Goldhagen 
has amnesia that 44,000 Serbs signed “loyalty oaths” to the Croatian 
government in 1991, then they were fired from their jobs and tossed out of 
their homes. The ICRC has confirmed that 575,000 Serbian homes and 212 
Serbian churches in Croatia and Bosnia were razed as Mr. Goldhagen managed 
to look the other way.  By his arrogant standards there were no Croatian, 
Muslim and Albanian Nazi war criminals in WWII and there are none now.

By stating that “The majority of the Serbian people, by supporting or 
condoning Milosevic's eliminationist politics have rendered themselves both 
legally and morally incompetent to conduct their own affairs and a 
presumptive ongoing danger to others” sounds like he is having an entire 
nation of 11 million Serbs mentally committed for the crimes of their 
leaders—much like the World Council of Churches has removed the Serbian 
Orthodox Church from their organization, in spite of the fact that Patriarch 
Pavle led dozens of demonstrations against the Milosevich regime in the past 
9 years.  Apparently the Serbs can’t do anything to please professor 
Goldhagen and his ilk.  In 1997, 2 million moderate Serbs protested for 100 
days in the dead of winter, the largest and longest protest against a regime 
in modern times.  Where was Mr. Goldhagen’s support of those Serbs, and 
where was the support by our State Department?  Both were immorally silent.  
Now this academic seeks to take their country away from them.

Serbs have been persona non grata at the Foreign Relations Committee, the 
Helsinki Commission and the Human Rights Caucus since 1992.  At Bosnian 
forums held at nearly every American college and university since 1992, 
Serbs have been barred.  Without checking, I am confident that Professor 
Goldhagen never permitted the presentation of Serbian views to his students 
at Harvard.  It makes one wonder in whose interest Daniel Jonah Goldhagen 
works so diligently—it certainly is not for free speech, equal access to the 
press, for including Serbs in the democratic process and for the rights of 
dissenting views.

In conclusion, no one should be surprised that Professor Goldhagen’s article 
in The New Republic was void of any mention of the KLA terrorists who 
launched this murderous war against the Serbian people whom they have killed 
and cleansed with equal efficiency.

The writer is the author of numerous books on the Balkans
including his 1992 book, Kosovo and his current book, Hilendar’s
Octocentenary.  He is a correspondent for the American Srbobran.

This article will be widely distributed on the Internet.


CC:
James S. Hoyte, Assistant to the President
Harvey V. Fineberg, Provost
Dennis F. Thompson, Associate Provost
Sarah Wald, Assistant Provost
Jeremy R. Knowles, Dean of the Faculty, Arts and Sciences
Carol J Thompson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Laura Fisher, Associate Dean for Academic Planning
Margot Nelson Gill, Administrative Dean of the Graduate School
Christoph Wolff, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Dean William Mills Todd III, Dean for Undergraduate Education
Dean Jeffrey Wolcowitz, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education