February 1980
In This Issue
Explore the February 1980 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
The Craft and Craftiness of Henry Kissinger
Foreign policy during the Nixon Administration depended heavily on secrecy and deceit and on disregard of much of the government bureaucracy, as the memoirs of Henry Kissinger make clear. Now the Kissinger book is being widely hailed as a revelation of the hard truths about the way our government works. But is this the real world—or merely the world according to Kissinger?
John Anderson: The Nice Guy Syndrome
He's Washington's favorite Republican—bright, independent, articulate, thoughtful. Then why does nobody give his candidacy a chance?
The Atlantic Puzzler
Finland: "Active Neutrality"
Finns pride themselves on their continuing resistance to their powerful Soviet neighbor—and on their role as one of the world’s peacemaking nations.
Air Line Fares: What Goes Up, Goes Up
The Tests and the "Brightest" How Fair Are the College Boards?
Each year some 2.5 million high school students match wits with the Scholastic Aptitude Tests. The results go a long way toward determining who gets into the most selective colleges. The tests are the subject of a growing debate. Do they really discover the best and the brightest? Or do they chiefly identify the richest and the most expensively educated?
The Day of the Strudel
A true story, from the annals of diplomacy, about shooting wild boars with Nikita Khrushchev.
Union Carbide
Touchstone
The Marvels of Microsurgery
Aided by a dazzling array of new tools, surgeons now use sutures as fine as a spider’s silk to stitch blood vessels viewed through a microscope, making the concept of a human “spare parts bank" in the future “as feasible,”says one surgeon, “as an auto supply store is today.”
Second Papers
Some cities still support two newspapers—but barely. Being No. 2 is increasingly frustrating and expensive, and made much more precarious by the illusion that all the news is carried by television. Yet, some big city “second papers" are spunkily holding on—for how long, only their accountants know.
The Liar
The Copperhead
Hi! Sex Is Not Located Only in the Head!
The Spell Against Spelling: (A Poem to Be Inscribed in Dark Places and Never to Be Spoken Aloud)
Mozart Never Slept Here
The Gnostic Gospels
The Transit of Venus
Childhood and Other Neighborhoods
Jimmy Carter: A Character Portrait
Vida
Winter Journey
Why Males Exist: An Inquiry Into the Evolution of Sex
History of the Idea of Progress
The Decline of Bismarcks European Order
The State of the Language
Spirit Wrestler
The Ballad of Castle Reef
Caroline
History and Human Nature
Plains Song
Queen Victoria's Sketchbook
Forbidden Laughter
The Strength of Fields
The Golden Century of Venetian Painting
The Europeans
