To the Editor:

America lost an intellectual titan this Christmas Eve when political scientist and foreign policy expert Samuel Huntington passed away at the age of 81. A professor at Harvard University, Huntington was probably best known for his 1996 book, "The Clash of Civilizations," in which he argued that future conflicts would be defined not by ideology, but by cultural and religious differences between the world's various "civilizations."
The book was often contrasted with another work of the time, Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History." Whereas Huntington described the West as only one of many competing civilizations, Fukuyama (who has since changed his mind) argued Western ideals had triumphed

"The Clash of Civilizations" was widely criticized at the time as a vast oversimplification of world affairs, but with radical Islamic terrorism, the rapid rise of China and a resurgent Russia, Huntington's ideas have gained considerably more cache, and many have come to regard his work as remarkably prescient.

The same, I believe, will one day be said of his less well-known but equally important book, "Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity," which warned mass immigration threatened to eventually turn the United States into a bifurcated, bilingual society unless efforts were made to bring immigration under control and to assimilate the immigrants already here.

Huntington was predictably attacked for expressing such fears, but recently, they have come from another quarter: the U.S. government. In December of last year, The Task Force on New Americans, appointed by President Bush in 2006, issued a report warning that unless greater efforts are made to assimilate immigrants, America runs the risk of developing "marginalized or fragmented enclaves" that "can create social tension in the short term and may ultimately threaten to undermine the very fabric of values and principles that unite all Americans."

Of course, this is exactly what Huntington (and many others) had been arguing for years, and I'm glad to see the U.S. government has finally begun catching up.
I never met Samuel Huntington, but I wish I had. He was clearly a man of great courage, willing to speak the truth as he saw it regardless of what others thought, and it is equally clear that he loved his country. Patriots everywhere ought to mourn his passing.

Chad Burchard
Vanderbilt School of Law