were as able a dynasty as ever ruled a great empire. 'The Mongol Khans, from Genghis Khan through his sons and grandsons. Boorstin's 'The Discoverers', in which the former librarian of Congress writes: Perhaps your reporter should have begun his research with Daniel J. The question that comes to mind is why your paper would use a Westernized, 'central casting' depiction of its Man of the Millennium.Īs a Mongolian American, I also found Achenbach's pronouncement that 'it is true that he was a thug,' particularly offensive because it perpetuates an unsubstantiated, negative image of a truly remarkable individual. Your use of a portrait that bears an eerie resemblance to Omar Sharif in the Hollywood version of 'Genghis Khan' fosters greater ignorance of a subject you purport to illuminate. It is well established that there is only one extant contemporaneous portrait of Genghis Khan, which is currently in the National Museum of the Republic of China on Taiwan. It is perhaps the same heritage that compels me to respond to some of the glaring historical inaccuracies and offensive points in Joel Achenbach's article.

My support comes notwithstanding my Mongolian ancestry. I am writing to concur with your choice of Genghis Khan as the Man of the Millennium. It was liberal Western civilization that almost bloodlessly stopped, humbled and then destroyed the 20th century's would-be military conquerors from the Asian steppes. Picking the Mongol as Man of the Millennium obscures the real story of the last thousand years, which is of fantastic technical, moral, social, scientific and cultural progress. I say they are not much worse than earlier ones, though our means to do evil (and good) have increased. I think maybe Achenbach elevates Genghis Kahn because he is dismayed by the barbarities of our century. His influence was just a multi-car pileup on the highway of progress. Mongolia was a backwater like Genghis Kahn found it long before the millennium ended. Wherever the Mongols went, they either left or were absorbed. He stimulated some trade, but destroyed more. He ruled vast tracts - but mostly of emptiness.

Genghis may have conquered most of Eurasia, but the Avars and Huns did it before him, and Tamerlane and the Bolsheviks did it after him. The choice of Man of the Millennium may be partly a matter of taste, but Joel Achenbach's choice of Genghis Kahn is so preposterously wrongheaded that it can't go without comment.

Genghis Khan by John Man