Timothy J. Naftali

Basic Facts

Position: Director, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives and Records Administration, July 2007- Current 
Area of Research: American Government and Politics, Cold War, Foreign Policy, Intelligence and Espionage 
Education: Ph.D., History, Harvard University, 1993  
Major Publications: Nafatli is the author of George H. W. Bush, (New York: Times Books, 2007);  Khrushchev's Cold War: The Inside Story of An American Adversary co-author with Aleksandr Fursenko, (New York: Norton, 2006); Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism, (New York: Basic Books, 2005);  US Intelligence and the Nazis co-author with Richard Breitman, Norman Goda, and Robert Wolfe, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005); US Intelligence and the Nazis co-author with Richard Breitman, Norman Goda, and Robert Wolfe, (Washington, DC: National Archives Trust Fund, 2004);  The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy, Volume 1, ed., (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001);  The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy, Volume 2, ed., co-editor with Philip Zelikow, (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001; and "One Hell of a Gamble": Khrushchev, Castro and Kennedy, 1958-1964, co-author with Aleksandr Fursenko), New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. 
Naftalu is also the author of numerous articles, book chapters and reviews which have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Contemporary Austrian Studies, The Cold War International History Project Bulletin, Diplomatic History, Journal of American History, and the popular media including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, among others. 
Awards: Naftali is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including among others:
Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature (with Aleksandr Fursenko), 2007;
Principal Investigator, "Why Terrorists Stop," Two-year grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation, 2006-Present;
Principal Investigator, Three-year grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, 2003-2006;
Sesquicentennial Fellowship, University of Virginia, 2003-2004;
Akira Iriye Prize for International History (with Aleksandr Fursenko), 1997-1998;
Olin Fellowship in National Security, International Security Studies, Yale University, 1996-1998;
Research Fellowship, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1996;
Charles Warren Fellowship for Studies in American History, Harvard University, 1995;
Fellowship in National Security, John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard University, 1991-1993;
National Intelligence Study Center Prize for best student paper, 1992;
Harvard MacArthur Fellowship in International Security, (3 Semesters), 1990-91;
John Addison Porter Prize for best essay in American History by an upperclassman, Yale 1983. 
Additional Info: 
Naftali is currently General Editor, Presidential Recordings Series, 2003 - Current; 
Historical Consultant, Nazi War Crimes and Imperial Japanese Government Records Interagency Working Group, National Archives and U.S. Department of Justice, 1999- Current Naftali is formerly Director, Nixon Presidential Materials Project, National Archives and Records Administration, October 2006 - July 2007; 
Associate Professor, General Faculty and the History Department, University of Virginia, 1998 - 2006; 
Director, Presidential Recordings Program and Kremlin Decision-Making Project, The Miller Center of Public Affairs, 1999- 2006; 
Instructor, Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre), 2003 - 2006; 
Historical Consultant, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (9/11 Commission), 2003-2004; 
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, Yale University, 1996-1998; 
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Hawai'i, 1993-97. 

Personal Anecdote

Among my favorite anecdotes involves a weird and nerdy coincidence. In February 1984, not too long out of College, I made my first visit to what was then called the Public Record Office in Kew, outside London. As I awaited the train at the end of my day, I noticed that the evening newspapers carried the headline "Andropov dies." The Soviet leadership had reached a point where it was as decrepit as the Soviet economy. That was my last trip to the PRO for a little over a year. 

My next visit came on March 10, 1985. Sure enough as I reached the train station to catch the tube home, I saw the headline of the newspaper lying on the platform: "Chernenko Dies." I don't know what possessed me, but I then burst into laughter that I know the other passengers found unsettling and distinctly disrespectful to the dead. Thereafter I used to kid that Gorbachev's friends were asking me never to return to the PRO. It would be mischievous to now claim that because I never returned to the PRO, the Cold War ended and, well, you know the rest. But I did go back to the PRO plenty of times and, of course, and fortunately Mr. Gorbachev is still with us. 

Quotes

By Timothy J. Naftali

After years of studying the intelligence and security world I have come to believe less in the efficiency of conspiracies than I do in the inefficiency of government. Most of the supposed conspiracies of modern American history dissolve when you examine them closely. The Roosevelt administration would have had advance warning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had not interservice rivalry and overclassification of intelligence led to a decision to focus on the wrong Japanese communication channel. Japanese diplomats had not been told about the attack; Japanese admirals, on the other hand, had been. Unfortunately, US intelligence had chosen to break the Japanese diplomatic cipher instead of that of the Japanese Admiralty. In 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald exploited a last-minute change by the US Secret Service in the route of the presidential motorcade through central Dallas. Oswald had delusions of grandeur and was looking to kill someone famous. A few weeks earlier he had shot at Edwin Walker, a prominent right-wing extremist. Now he would have a chance to use his marksmanship against an even more famous man, John F. Kennedy. Certainly there have been real conspiracies in US history -- Watergate and Iran-Contra come to mind -- but our society is open enough that we eventually hear about them. Someone is bound to leak to Bob Woodward. -- Timothy J. Naftali in "Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism"

About Timothy J. Naftali

"The 41st president's political persona was the stuff of greatness, argues this entry in the American Presidents series. Historian Naftali (Khrushchev's Cold War) credits Bush less with principles than with "tendencies" toward flexibility, realism and a moderate Republican version of decency. In his foreign policy, these qualities helped him nudge communism toward a soft collapse and build an international alliance to eject Saddam Hussein from Kuwait; domestically they led him to a budget compromise with Democrats, in which he acquiesced to unpopular tax hikes for the good of the nation. Bush's flexibility had a dark side, the author notes, that came out in his repeated tactical embrace of racial politics, from his opposition to civil rights legislation during his 1964 Senate run to the 1988 Willie Horton ads, and in his public support for Reaganomics despite deep private misgivings. Naftali forthrightly dissects Bush's misdeeds-especially his role in the Iran-Contra scandal-but he's less skeptical about the substance of Bush's policies, which he pointedly contrasts with Bush Jr.'s failures; he credits Bush's wars in Panama and Kuwait with helping America "overcome the burden of Vietnam," without wondering whether this paved the way for the son's misadventure in Iraq. Naftali's is a brisk, useful, but not always penetrating overview of a pivotal presidency. -- Publisher's Weekly review of "George H. W. Bush: The American Presidents Series: The 41st President, 1989-1993"