Why do politicians lie? What is the link between political lies and self-delusion? And how much organized deceit can a democracy endure before it ceases to function? 50 years ago, the century's greatest political theorist, Hannah Arendt focused on these essential questions in two seminal essays, brought together here for the first time. These essays crackle with insight and intelligence,and are perhaps even more relevant today than ever before. In "Truth and Politics," Arendt explores the affinity between lying and politics. She shows how our shared sense of reality can be torn apart by organized lying, replaced with a fantasy world of airbrushed evidence and doctored documents. In "Lying in Politics," written in response to the release of the Pentagon Papers, Arendt applies these insights to an analysis of American policy in Southeast Asia, arguing that the real goal of the Vietnam War-and of the official lies used to justify it by successive administrations-was nothing other than the burnishing of America's image.