Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC Spinning History Author(s): Michael Jarvis Source: Foreign Policy, No. 134 (Jan. - Feb., 2003), p. 102 Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3183534 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 21:37 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign Policy. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 188.72.126.108 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:37:29 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
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Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to Foreign Policy.
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This content downloaded from 188.72.126.108 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:37:29 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
N ovelist E Scott Fitzgerald concluded "there are no second acts in American lives." But that was
before the Internet. Today, retired U.S. presidents and world leaders can be born again by establishing per- sonal Web sites. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton's site, www.clintonpresidentialcenter.com, is typical, detailing the president's writings, biography, leadership chronology, and highlighting recent commentary.
Michael McCurry, Clinton's former press secretary, sees such Web sites as a "higher tech version of a very old tactic-telling your story first, before someone else does it for you." McCurry says most leaders believe "their records are better than the way they are treated by jour- nalists." So they seek fairer treatment by historians.
The sites tend to spin leaders' legacies. The site of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, www.margaretthatcher.org, claims among other things that the politics of popular current Prime Min- ister Tony Blair "would not have existed without her." Some sites contain glaring omissions. Clinton's sophisticated site makes no reference to scandal or impeachment. Former South African President EW. de Klerk's site (www.fwd- klerk.org.za) makes no mention of apartheid or race but celebrates his dedication to "national reconcili- ation." The site of Augusto
Pinochet (www.fundacionpinochet.cl), former military dictator of Chile, credits him for "the freedom and development that is alive in Chile today."
Most sites profess to reveal the down-to-earth- such as the rugby-playing university days of former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (see www.kan- tei.go.jp/foreign/rekidaisouri/mori_e.html). Others are more blatantly self-promoting. The sites of de Klerk and Paul Keating, longtime socialist prime minister of Australia (www.keating.org.au), prominently plug their books. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (www.mikhailgorbachev.org) offers consultancy ser- vices to "preserve the heritage of perestroika."
As a generation of baby boomers leaves power in the next decade, at younger ages than ever before, politicians are unlikely to fade quietly-not with decades of service still to offer. McCurry believes the Internet will be an increasingly important tool. Hav- ing reached the summit of politics, leaders will reluc- tantly surrender influence and will seek internation- al roles. The Internet offers global reach and visibility.
Will the establishment of a legacy-spinning Web site soon signify the death knell of one's domestic political aspirations? Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has no site as of yet. -Michael Jarvis
Cap, Gown, Mouse
T he number of people seeking higher education world-
1 wide has grown exponentially in recent years, rising from 13 million in 1960 to 65 million in 1991. It's pro- jected to hit 130 million by 2010. The developing world is no exception. China, for instance, currently sends 6 per- cent of its students to tertiary education and hopes to increase that figure to 15 percent by 2010.
Demand is rising faster than developing nations can build universities. The Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes the Internet can help. Its Open- CourseWare (ocw) pilot program went online last September at ocw.mit.edu. Modeled on open-
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