One Hundred Days of Silence

America and the Rwanda Genocide

Jared A. Cohen

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2006
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781461640400
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

One Hundred Days of Silence is an important investigation into the 1994 Rwandan genocide and American foreign policy. During one hundred days of spring, eight-hundred thousand Rwandan Tutsis and sympathetic Hutus were slaughtered in one of the most atrocious events of the twentieth century. Drawing on declassified documents and testimony of policy makers, Jared Cohen critically reconstructs the historical account of tacit policy that led to nonintervention. His analysis examines the questions of what the United States knew about the genocide and how the world's most powerful nation turned a blind eye. The study reveals the ease at which an administration can not only fail to intervene but also silence discussion of the crisis. The book argues that despite the extent of the genocide the American government was not motivated to act due to a lack of economic interest. With precision and passion, One Hundred Days of Silence frames the debate surrounding this controversial history.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Map of Rwanda
• 1 - Missed Opportunities
• 2 - The “Somalia Hangover”: Peacekeeping Reformed
• 3 - The “Dangerous Spring of 1994”
• 4 - Getting Out
• 5 - A Bureaucratic Nightmare
• 6 - Calling It Genocide
• 7 - Too Little, Too Late
• 8 - Wrong Actions: What the United States Should Have Done
• Appendix A - Chronology of U.S. Policy Toward Rwanda
• Appendix B - List of Key Interviews
• Appendix C - Flow Chart of Rwanda Decision-making Process
• Appendix D - 1948 Genocide Convention
• Appendix E - UN Charter, Chapter VI
• Appendix F - Clinton’s 1998 Apology in Rwanda
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author