Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.

Get Ready, Here Comes the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle

The New York Times Magazine
Star Wars missile defense: the sequel.
September 26, 1999
Dale Reis and Jerry Lockard lead the way into a land of secrets. Reis punches in a code and a locked door clicks open with the metallic sound of a bullet clip sliding into place. They enter an arena ... (Read more)

To Enter Heaven, Click Here

Talk
Isaac Tigrett wants to do good. But can he do well?
September 1999
When you walk into Isaac Tigrett’s house in Sherman Oaks, California, you feel you are entering a church whose pastor has a spiritual version of multiple-personality disorder. Tibetan prayer flags hang from the ... (Read more)

I Am Elena. You Will Fly Now.

Outside Magazine
There, up there in the Arizona sky! It’s the cream of the once-mighty Soviet machine! Now pulling G’s at an airport near you.
July 1999
Elena Klimovich is tying me down. She tightens the straps around my hips, fastens the cords that pin my shoulders in ... (Read more)

Balkan War Criminals: The Most Wanted

George
The war in Yugoslavia is so complicated that it’s sometimes hard to tell the players without a scorecard. Well, here it is–a list of the Balkans’ bad guys.
June 1999
1. Slobodan Milosevic. In 1987, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic made a promise to a crowd ... (Read more)

Let’s Not Forget Milosevic’s Partner in Crime

The New York Times
May 31, 1999
What about Tudjman?

This question comes to mind after the long overdue indictment of Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Yugoslavia and the prime villain behind the carnage that has engulfed the Balkans for the past decade. But President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia is hardly ... (Read more)

Milosevic, the Perfect Dictator

The New York Times
May 3, 1999
If you are looking for an example of the genius of Slobodan Milosevic, the picture that appeared in newspapers over the weekend, showing him deep in prayer and hand in hand with Jesse Jackson, suffices quite well.

Milosevic is not known for participating in prayer sessions. ... (Read more)

Rudy Awakening

George
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has New York under his thumb, and he’s become one of the GOP’s rising stars. But as Giuliani ponders his next move, New Yorkers are starting to rebel against his rough-and-tumble tactics.
April 1999
“Il Duce!” called out a portly gentleman ... (Read more)

Taken Hostage

The Washington Post
In the Cellar. By Jan Philipp Reemtsma
February 21, 1999
By Jan Philipp Reemtsma
Knopf. 240 pp. $24

Reviewed by Peter Maass

What can be said about a book in which the author vows to avoid a vivid narrative style and vivid metaphors? In which, writing of a traumatic experience he endured, ... (Read more)

The Secrets of Mississippi

The New Republic
Post-authoritarian shock in the South.
December 21, 1998
Jesse Morris walks past a Civil War memorial that casts a long shadow in front of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. He enters the bunker-like building and passes into a quiet, book-lined library ... (Read more)

NASA’s Lack of Shuttle Diplomacy

The Washington Post
Dragonfly: Nasa and the Crisis Aboard Mir. By Bryan Burrough
December 10, 1998
By Bryan Burrough
HarperCollins. 528 pp. $26.95

Reviewed by Peter Maass

Space flight is in vogue again. The journey of John Glenn has refocused attention on the fascinating spectacle of humans soaring into ... (Read more)