Washington Post: Correction:
This article incorrectly states that in his 2008 book, “The Post-American World,” Fareed Zakaria failed to cite the source of a quotation taken from another book. In fact, Zakaria did credit the other work, by Clyde V. Prestowitz. Endnotes crediting Prestowitz were contained in hardcover and paperback editions of Zakaria’s book. The Post should have examined copies of the books and should not have published the article. We regret the error and apologize to Fareed Zakaria.
Zakaria’s 2008 book, “The Post-American World,” contains a quote from former Intel Corp. chief executive Andy Grove about the nation’s economic power. “America is in danger of following Europe down the tubes, and the worst part is that nobody knows it,” Grove says in Zakaria’s book. “They’re all in denial, patting themselves on the back as the Titanic heads straight for the iceberg full speed ahead.”
(Charles Sykes/AP) – Fareed Zakaria attending the 71st Annual Peabody Awards in New York.
In fact, Grove’s comment was published three years earlier in“Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Power to the East,” by former Commerce Department official Clyde V. Prestowitz.
In an interview Monday, Prestowitz said Grove made the comment in an interview Prestowitz conducted while he was researching his book. The quote appears in the book’s first chapter.
Prestowitz, who heads the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank, said he contacted Zakaria about the Grove quote when “The Post-American World” was published four years ago but received no response. Prestowitz said that he also mentioned the lack of attribution to his editor and agent, but that he doesn’t know if they raised the issue with Zakaria or his publisher.