STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump has fired all the members of an obscure committee that helps to illuminate American history. It's the State Department Historical Advisory Committee. It's a group of outside historians who oversee the work of State Department historians who reveal old foreign policy documents. They publish red volumes filled with old diplomatic cables or telegrams, along with records of meetings and letters and other things. Sometimes, these documents are dry, and often they are dramatic, as I've learned in my own book research. James Goldgeier was appointed to this panel in 2020 during the first Trump administration. He told me how historians gather their material.
JAMES GOLDGEIER: They're looking at records from the National Security Council staff, from the State Department, from the Department of Defense, from the CIA. They're looking through all of those classified documents. They are then putting these volumes together, and then they submit those volumes to those different agencies to be declassified. And our job as the Historical Advisory Committee is to help whenever there are bottlenecks that might arise or to give advice on whether if a document can't be included because it's not being declassified, whether or not that affects the thoroughness, accuracy and reliability that we're supposed to be paying attention to.
INSKEEP: How often over the years have these foreign relations in the United States books been the way that the larger public discovered something important about our history?
GOLDGEIER: Well, probably the most important thing that has occurred since the statute in 1991 is that the main way that the United States government publicly acknowledges historical covert actions. So for example, of United States government role in the overthrow of the Chilean leader Salvador Allende in 1973. And so these volumes are partly a way to acknowledge those types of actions, which, for a democracy, being transparent and accountable is hugely important.
INSKEEP: I'm beginning to understand why somebody might regard some of your work as controversial. They may think that some of the things that you bring to light are embarrassing for the United States.
GOLDGEIER: Yeah, I don't see it that way. I think, in fact, it's a good thing for the United States to put these volumes out and the documents out so that people can see what really happened. I think it's a way, in fact, to counter conspiracy theories and disinformation.
INSKEEP: How were you fired?
GOLDGEIER: The nine of us received an email from the White House liaison to the State Department telling us that on behalf of President Donald J. Trump, she was informing us that our service had been terminated effective immediately. That was on April 30.
INSKEEP: Why were you fired?
GOLDGEIER: We have been told nothing about why we were fired, and by statute, this committee is supposed to exist. The Congress has mandated the existence of this committee and the work that it does.
INSKEEP: So we do not know exactly why the administration has done this, but we do know the administration has broader opinions about history. I'm looking at one of the president's executive orders, titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, and it's a long executive order, but it argues that historical revisionism has trashed the nation's legacy of, quote, "advancing liberty, individual rights and human happiness," saying it's all inherently racist, sexist and oppressive or fosters a sense of national shame. What have you thought about as you've heard the administration's opinions about history as it's being taught?
GOLDGEIER: Well, I think that it's incumbent upon us to learn as much as we can about that history. And even when that history puts us in an unfavorable light, that's important for us to understand so that we can move forward and that we can address these issues. Simply acting as if these issues that are bothering the administration don't exist doesn't really do anything to help us move forward as a country.
INSKEEP: That's James Goldgeier, a professor of international relations at American University. He was appointed to the State Department's Historical Advisory Committee during the first Trump administration and was fired by the second. He's also the husband of NPR's Kathy Goldgeier, director of collaborative journalism. We also reached out to the State Department, and a senior official told us, quote, "there is a plan in place to maintain the committee." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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