Joel Hayward: Senior academic at the heart of the British defence establishment has controversial past

HNN Editor: On February 9, 2008 Mr. Hayward, the subject of this entry, raised objections to this story. This is his statement:

In 1993 I received a two-year Master of Arts degree from the University of Canterbury, comprising a supervised one-year research thesis (written in 1991) and four classroom-taught papers (1992). I received a grade of “A+” for the thesis and four grades of “A” for the papers.

I have regretted for the last seventeen years that my 1991 thesis – my first ever attempt at sustained research – was an imperfect piece of research. Straight out of a three year bachelor degree I found myself overwhelmed by sources, confused by some highly complex arguments, manipulated by some people I contacted, and not yet mature in my thinking or skilled at the historian's craft. I researched and wrote in good faith, trying hard not only to excel but also scrupulously to follow the guidance and advice of my well-published professor, with whom I had weekly supervision meetings.

My fledgling research made statements and expressed arguments that were not universally strong. Some were very poor. For seventeen years I have wished that I had been better prepared at the time to deal with my very complex topic. I have especially regretted that I mistakenly wrote those erroneous things and that no supervisors or examiners stopped me from doing so or at least pointed out the grave weaknesses of interpretation. Even worse, I have hated occasionally observing online that a few revisionists and Holocaust deniers – many of whom clearly adore the Nazis, whom I despise – have alleged that my far more mature historical assessments in subsequent years were coerced by Jews. Their accusations are both silly and antisemitic.

I have learned a lot over the intervening years, both about the historian's craft and about our need as members of decent and forgiving societies to make amends for our youthful mistakes and foolishness. I am at least pleased that, as well as publishing several well-received books and many articles on different topics (military operational art and leadership), I have been able to devote my academic career to something honorable, positive and beneficial: the preparation of decent young men and women who will serve the noble causes of democracy, freedom and peace as members of the Royal Air Force.

Dr Joel Hayward
Lincolnshire, England

New Zealand historian Joel Hayward -- who caused a furore with a 1993 thesis which questioned the validity of Holocaust history -- is now a senior academic at the heart of the British defence establishment.

Dr Hayward, 44, is now Dean of the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell, in England -- where Prince William is undergoing pilot training, the Jewish Chronicle reported today.

The London-based publication, the world's oldest Jewish paper, said Dr Hayward was appointed last year after two years as head of the Air Power Studies Division created by the RAF and King's College, London.

He has lived and worked in the UK since 2004, first teaching strategy at the Joint Services Command and Staff College.

Dr Hayward was at the centre of a bitter controversy in 1993 when there were public calls for Canterbury University to revoke his MA, based on a thesis entitled The Fate of Jews in German Hands: An Historical Inquiry into the Development and Significance of Holocaust Revisionism.

The 360-page document, which won praise from, among others, Holocaust-denier David Irving, alleged that there was never an official Nazi policy to exterminate Jews in gas chambers and questioned whether six million Jews were killed.

Irving, recently jailed in Austria over Holocaust-denial charges, described Dr Hayward as "New Zealand's leading Holocaust historian".