Even after the reality of genocide in Rwanda had become irrefutable, when bodies were shown choking the Kagera River on the nightly news, the brute fact of the slaughter failed to influence U.S. policy except in a negative way. American officials, for a variety of reasons, shunned the use of what became known as "the g-word." They felt that using it would have obliged the United States to act, under the terms of the 1948 Genocide Convention. They also believed, understandably, that it would harm U.S. credibility to name the crime and then do nothing to stop it.Bystanders to Genocide, "a chilling narrative of self-serving caution and flaccid will" from Atlantic Monthly. Also, a just-released set of declassified Rwanda documents is here.
originally posted by xowie
