Letters from alumni about Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School

May 2, 2003

Anne-Marie Slaughter '80 is quoted in "Princeton Experts Examine War in Iraq" (Princeton with one Accord, spring 2003) telling a student-filled Dodds Auditorium, "Whether you think it's right or not, no one can want war."

Was this an exhortation or an aspiration? It seems too simple to dismiss the likelihood that people could want war, given a lengthy human history of war (a history extending back at least 60 million years to even include our non-reasoning homo sapien ancestors). Why so much war? Well, there are psychopathic leaders calmed by war (Attila the Hun to Osmana bin Laden), and there are many economic interests advanced by war (see Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", about those that build all the guns, death planes, and big bombs).

It would be interesting to learn more about this from our Princeton professors.

Theodore A. Endreny *99
Syracuse, N.Y.

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October 12, 2002

This is in response to the letter slugged Family ties, your issue 10/09/02.

My Dear Master F. Bosley Crowther 3rd '56, do try your best to keep a stiff upper lip and present a stern countenance to the world is spite of the fact that you were "shocked and dismayed when not one of the Princeton publications"  saw fit to mention the genealogy of Anne-Marie Slaughter.

The article, however was discussing Ms. Slaughter's appointment as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School not her qualifications for membership in the D.A.R., the Social Register, or the F.F. V.

Be assured that while the "family still counts for something at Princeton," it is Anne-Marie alone who, as the new dean, must bear the whips and scorn of outrageous fortune, not her brother or even her father who "served as a special assistant to the US attorney general."

Thankfully, Princeton is a diverse community which embraces gays, lesbians, liberals, conservatives and even a few fops and snobs.

Lewis W. Hicks 3rd '50
Lawrenceville, N.J.

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July 15, 2002

I was shocked and dismayed recently when not one of the Princeton publications (inlduing, if Town Topics is any indication, the press release) announcing the appointment of Anne-Marie Slaughter of the Class of 1980 as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, saw fit to include the information that her father is Edward R. "Ned" Slaughter ’53 (among other distinctions, he has served as a special assistant for litigation to the U.S. attorney general), and her brother is Hoke Slaughter’ 83. Surely famiily sitll counts for something at Princeton.

F. Bosley Crowther 3rd ’56
Palmyra, Va.

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June 6, 2002

Cornel West's announced return to the Princeton faculty has generated all the attention, but Anne-Marie Slaughter's appointment as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School deserves closer scrutiny as well.

In a Washington Post article published just after September 11, Professor Slaughter, a professor of international law at Harvard, wrote that if the UN Security Council failed to authorize a U.S. military response to the terror attacks, the United States "must at least turn to NATO."

Yet there is nothing in the North Atlantic Treaty that requires the U.S. to receive the permission of its NATO allies in order to exercise its right of self-defense, or to launch any military operation. Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine a policy more foolish than subjecting American defense policy to veto by NATO, or by any other international organization or individual country.

Professor Slaughter's views indicate not only profound ignorance of a critical issue in international law and diplomacy, but a lack of common sense. Neither quality would appear to be an asset for running a school of public and international affairs.

Alan Tonelson '75
Washington, D.C.

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