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.

I Am Elena. You Will Fly Now.

Outside Magazine
July 1999

Elena Klimovich is tying me down. She tightens the straps around my hips, fastens the cords that pin my shoulders in place, and then uses a small winch to eliminate the few millimeters of slack that escaped her attention. I try to stay calm, but this is difficult under the ... (Read more)

Balkan War Criminals: The Most Wanted

George Magazine
June 1999

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.

1. Slobodan Milosevic. In 1987, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic made a promise to a ... (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: Mayor Rudolph Giuliani Has New York Under His Thumb

George Magazine
April 1999

“Il Duce!” called out a portly gentleman in an orange t-shirt, trying to attract the attention of Rudolph Giuliani, the mayor of New York City. “Il Duce!”

Giuliani was marching at the head of a parade honoring the city’s West Indian community, ... (Read more)

Taken Hostage

The Washington Post
February 21, 1999
(Review of “In the Cellar,” by Jan Philipp Reemtsma)

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, he retreats into the third person, ... (Read more)

The Secrets of Mississippi

The New Republic
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 on the ground floor, and he sits down in front of a ... (Read more)

NASA’s Lack of Shuttle Diplomacy

The Washington Post
December 10, 1998
(Review of “Dragonfly: Nasa and the Crisis Aboard Mir” by Bryan Burrough)

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

Back to Bosnia: A War Correspondent Returns

The New Republic
October 12, 1998

A flashback: I heard the sniper’s shot before I saw Haris Bahtanovic fall to the ground. He was walking through a park-turned-shooting-gallery behind Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn. A few men rushed into the open and dragged Bahtanovic into a car that tore away. ... (Read more)

Moon at Twilight: The Unification Church Has a New Mission

The New Yorker
September 14, 1998

A little before dawn one day last April, a chauffeur-driven Mercedes sedan entered the grounds of an estate in Tarrytown, New York, and stopped in front of a brick carriage house that had been converted into a meeting room. An elderly passenger in a business suit got ... (Read more)