SOURCE: Zinn, Howard, and Jack McEnany. “The Politics of War.” Humanist 53, no. 1 (January-February 1993): 13-17.

In the following interview, originally conducted in the summer of 1991, McEnany questions Zinn on American participation in various wars throughout history, from the Revolutionary War up to and including the Gulf War.

The following extracts are from an interview with Howard Zinn … professor emeritus of history at Boston University. The interview was conducted in the summer of 1991 by Jack McEnany as part of a video project entitled The Gulf War: Is This Any Way to Run an Empire? (See note at the end of the article for further details on this project.)

[McEnany]: Professor Zinn, recurrent in your book, A People's History of the United States, are examples of working-America fighting wars that it had no personal stake in. Was this true of the Gulf War?

[Zinn]: Oh, yes, the Gulf War fits that...