President John F. Kennedy issued the Cuban embargo on February 7, 1962 after years of tense diplomatic relations and Castro’s increasingly close relationship with the Soviet Union. White House lore has it that just before authorizing the embargo Kennedy purchased 1,200 hand-rolled Cuban cigars for himself. The Cuban embargo is seen by some as a … Read more
Alex Burns is a senior political reporter for Politico. He published this article about changes to the leadership of U.S. intelligence agencies after 9/11 in the Fall 2004 issue of the Harvard Political Review, when he was a contributing writer. Burns graduated from Harvard in 2008. On July 22, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks … Read more
In 1976, still dealing with the fallout from Watergate, Republicans and conservatives from around the country and across the ideological spectrum used the presidential nominating process as a proxy for debating the future of the GOP: would it continue with the mainline “law and order” Republicanism represented previously by Nixon, and then by incumbent President … Read more
In the Fall of 1974, after the dust from Watergate had begun to settle, renowned broadcast journalist Dan Rather sent in an article to the Harvard Political Review, forecasting the future of the GOP. His predictions are telling of the mood at the time: fraught with conflict and confusion after a betrayal by their party’s … Read more
The 1972 Democratic Convention was one of the most contentious in the party’s recent history, with various non- or anti-establishment wings of the party causing enough debate and disruption to delay George McGovern’s speech, in which he finally accepted the party’s nomination for president, until nearly 3 in the morning. This convention was 4 years … Read more
This article was originally published by Albert Gore ‘69 when he was a senior at Harvard College. It was featured in the first-ever issue of the Harvard Political Review: Spring, 1969. The article is based on his senior thesis, published the same year, “The Impact of Television on the Conduct of the Presidency, 1947-1969” When … Read more