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This article presents information on the international relations between the U.S. and Russia during the year 1998 as a result of the Gulf War. The Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned that a U.S. attack on Iraq could provoke World War III. The U.S. considered a nuclear attack during the Gulf War as was professed by General George Lee Butler, former Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command. Consideration of the option was a closely held secret at the highest levels of the Pentagon and White House. The U.S. nuclear policy directive reported in December 1998 explicitly allows for a nuclear strike against a so-called rogue state threatening the use of chemical or biological weapons-a significant departure from past policy.

This article presents information on various socio-political and administrative developments in the U.S. and from around the world. The U.S. President George Bush's policy towards the gulf war and its linkages to the speech that he delivered before the joint session of the U.S. Congress. The gulf war, gave Bush the opportunity to plump for cutting the capital gains tax and against "punishing" the rich with higher marginal rates. He came out for more nuclear power and for ravaging the Alaskan wilderness in search of oil. He admitted that there will be no peace dividend and he all but promised that U.S. troops will stay in the gulf theater from here to eternity.

National Security Adviser of the U.S., Brent Scowcroft's most recent clandestine trip to Beijing, China, on behalf of U.S. President George W. Bush, delicately ignored the terrible underside of post-June Chinese politics--the waves of arrests that have punctuated life in urban China over this past half year. Ironically, Scowcroft's latest visit came at the height of the largest wave of detentions, since August. Of particular irony, Scowcroft's timing may not have been entirely to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's advantage. Ever since June, the perpetrators of the Beijing massacre have been caught up in internal disputes over how severe the purges of dissidents ought to be. Deng Xiaoping and his immediate allies are using the less bellicose rhetoric in an effort to reduce the number of arrests. The net result is that the campaign of repression against intellectuals has moved forward in fits and starts, with arrests coming in sporadic waves.

Presents letters to the editors referencing articles and topics about politics and administration discussed in previous issues of this periodical. "Bloodbath Devalued," which focused on the issue of crimes committed by the U.S. in third world countries; "Plantation Blues," which focused on the issue of the review of the book "How Harvard Rules;" and "Sleaze Protected," which focused on the issue of a computerized database for all people charged with federal crimes.