A description of Blum's book and a few readers' reviews of it:-
"Killing Hope : U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II-Updated Through 2003"
Is the United States a force for democracy? In this classic and unique volume that answers this question, William Blum serves up a forensic overview of U.S. foreign policy spanning sixty years. Remarks from the previous edition: "Far and away the best book on the topic."-Noam Chomsky "A valuable reference for anyone interested in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy."- Choice "I enjoyed it immensely."-Gore Vidal "The single most useful summary of CIA history."-John Stockwell "Each chapter I read makes me more and more angry."-Helen Caldicott "A very useful piece of work, daunting in scope, important."-Thomas Powers, author and Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist "A very valuable book. The research and organization are extremely impressive."-A.J. Langguth, author and former New York Times bureau chief For those who want the details on our most famous -actions (Chile, Cuba, Vietnam, to name a few), and for those who want to learn about our lesser-known efforts (France, China, Bolivia, Brazil, for example), this book provides a window on what our foreign policy goals really are. William Blum is the author of Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower .
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REVIEWS:-
Kathy Hendrix
This is perhaps the best political book I have read, certainly the best on US foreign policy I have seen anywhere. Every American needs to get this book and investigate what it says. If they doubt its truthfulness they can look in other places to find further information, but the plain fact is most Americans would not know 99% of what is in this book...and they have to or our "democracy" is a joke. Even if this book is biased, a biased view that can be investigated is better than total ignorance. However I do not think this book is that biased to begin with, most of the actual facts exist in thousands of other books, they have just never been brought together so effectively.
While there are a lot of books out there on the evils of American foreign policy, this is the only one I have seen that goes through country by country, state by state to show how we intervened, year after year. There are other books by authors such as Noam Chomsky that may contain more detail and analysis, but none are as complete or are ordered so well.
After you read this you cannot help but put foreign policy as the main issue you care about in politics. Sure domestic issues are important, but what can that compare to us literally participating in the killing of thousands, and in some cases millions overseas? How can you even weigh domestic concerns compared to supporting torturing dictators for decades? The fact is our foreign policy is not that of the Nazi's, it differs in one very important way: we have gotten away with it for 50 years.
This book will give you as ugly a view of America as there is, but if you want to improve things (if thats even possible anymore) you need to start with the ugly truth.
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Mary F Czach
Written by a former State Department employee, the author's wealth of knowledge and experience are thoroughly impressive, and this book is very easy to read and follow. Beginning at the end of WWII, the author lists, by country, US military involvement in chronological order. Readers will find the consequences - some of which are being seen today - profoundly interesting.
Another reviewer mentioned that the book had a "blame America first" slant, but I sincerely doubt that reviewer read the entire book. While the book does specifically mention US involvement in the overthrow of democratically elected governments in places like Iran, Chile, and Indonesia, these incidents are generally known now. The people responsible are blamed, not the American people who were not privy to such Washington secrets.
It is interesting to read why Washington powerbrokers chose military intervention: In some cases bowing to political interests, in other cases with fine intentions, in most cases not foreseeing the negative consequences for the US and the world.
This book provides a concise background for the state of the world today.
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From firebrand
I fashion myself to be a political history expert, and I have a Master's Degree on the subject, but there's stuff in this book that even surprised me. Everything that we see on TV today in relation to Iraq and the War on Terror is not new. Torture, subversion of sovereign governments, execution of leftists, funding of illicit, ex-Nazis or Nazi-associated organizations, etc, the U.S. did it all, all for fighting the Communists, even when the evidence available proved that in many cases, the Communist bogeyman was used where it wasn't present. Today, substitute Terrorist for Communist, but the same tactics are applied.
This books goes a long way toward answering those deep, but important questions: "Why do they hate us? Are we truly a force for democracy? Do we even know how to export it, based on our past record? Unless someone is morally depraved or holds a closet view that the U.S., by some unexplainable supreme right, should rule the world at its leisure, this book will come as a shocker and will provoke reflection. Any American who values the Founders' values, equality, fair play, and true freedom will become horrified at what their goverment's agencies have done for over 100 years and more (this book covers the post-1945 era).
The intent is not to "hate" on America, but rather provide a historical background to the reader so that they don't become unthinking, pro-war, pro-goverment, pro-jingoist drones. After reading this book, it would become almost impossible to be a war-consenting citizen. The only warning on this book is that you must be prepared to be a cynic and a dissident of American foreign policy, because the evidence is so overwhelmingly negative that one becomes opposed to what this goverment has done and continues to do. That is, of course, if you have some basic sense of morality and fairplay. If you're looking to build up your imperial ideology, please look up books by prominent neoconservatives. If you plan to educate yourself so that you can educate others and make sure this never happens again, this is the book for you. REQUIRED READING FOR ALL AMERICANS.
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From Ronnie Lavon "rlavon"
This book is a meticulous catalog of all the "good" deeds the USA has committed since W.W.II. I counted fifty-five (55) cases of interventions in the internal affairs of other countries from 1945 to 1994 described in the book. The interventions spanned the globe to include everybody, friend, foe or neutral. Some of the interventions were actual invasions and full scale wars with millions of dead human beings (mostly innocent civilians). Others were cases of "fixing" elections or, when that failed, military coups.
When you read this superbly researched book with plenty of footnotes (the notes alone span 57 pages....) you cannot help feeling shame and anger. This is what our government has been doing in our name (while hiding it from us and lying to us....) In the 2004 edition there is a new chapter covering the period 1994-2002 (alas, missing the Iraq invasion)!. There are three useful appendices: How The Money Goes Round (diagram), Instances of use of USA armed forces abroad 1798-1945 (169 times)! and US government assassinations plots (38 plots in the period 1949-2003). This book is the definitive answer to the question:"Why do they hate us?". Remember Ronald Reagean's "Evil Empire"? Or as the famous saying goes: I met the enemy and it's us!
Recommended reading for those who don't know why 9/11 happened (or think they know why it happened....) |
