Important Read | Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II--Updated Through...

"the greatest strategists" | Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II--Updated Through 2003 | William Blum

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	• Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II--Updated Through 2003 William Blum Common Courage Press, 2008 - 500 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since WW II-Unpdated Through 2003

An actual historical view of the unnecessary wars and interventions by the US. Very informative but also disconcerting for the killings and atrocities commited by the US in most cases wasn't over Democracy or Terrorism but for special interests seeking greedy gain....either in power, advantageous positioning, or someone elses resourses. Greed again in most cases was the common demoninator.

Important Read

I admit that I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but you need not be one in order to be shocked at some of the information contained within. The reason is that many of the sources referenced are mainstream media. Not that this makes the information true necessarily, but it certainly provides a dose of credibility to other more abstruse historical accounts.

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"the greatest strategists"

As head of the US State Department planning staff in 1948 George Kennan wrote: "we have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population... Our real task... is to... maintain this position of disparity... To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming... We should cease to talk about vague and... unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better." After a careful reading of Killing Hope one should be able to grasp the significance of the praise heaped on Kennan by the current US Secretary of State as she spoke of his "profound influence" on her, his "inspiration to generations of men", and his legacy as "one of the greatest strategists in the history of American foreign policy." I honestly don't know which is more disgusting, scumbags like Kennan and Rice or goose-stepping, flag-waving one-star-reviewers.

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Hope is Hard to Kill

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II--Updated Through 2003

THIS IS A WONDERFUL BOOK!

I had no idea that the United States was as active as it has been since WW II. The military and the CIA have been in overdrive everywhere for 65 years. Killing Hope deals with events after 1945. Before that, of course, there was WW II, the interwar period (1918 to 1939), WW I, the run-up to WW I, the Spanish American War and the building of the Panama Canal with interventions in Central America and Colombia. Washington was not asleep before the 20th Century, either. The United States has been up to its neck in everything throughout its history. You can look that up in Appendix II.

After looking at things through the eyes of our enemies, I believe we in the West have all been the victims of a never-ending series of elaborate hoaxes that have been perpetrated by our élites. Our enemies were never as big and scary as we believed they were. We, on the other hand, were always very big and scary.

The Twentieth Century looks to me like a giant power grab with the Anglo-American empire (that's us good guys, you know) taking over the world. We were trying to forestall losing our preeminent position as others caught up to us. Before WW I, the British were desperately afraid of Germany which was making better stuff and selling it for less. Before WW II, the United States was desperately afraid of Japan for the same reason. Nobody imagined that India and China would ever get up off the floor where we put them, but they have.

The Chinese can thank Richard M. Nixon for opening the door to China in 1972. Samuel Gompers must have been spinning in his grave. Everyone is catching up: It was inevitable because people are smart and they learn from each other.

In times going back long before Marco Polo, all the good stuff was coming from India and China. The great goal in Europe was to get to India, China and Japan. The Portuguese went around Africa. The Spanish went west and ran into the Americas. Then they continued on across the Pacific. The British and Dutch were fast on their heels.

Five Hundred years after Columbus, China and India are important again. Japan and Germany have been leading economies for decades -- after they were bombed into the stone age and crushed in 1945. If one doesn't count Grenada and Panama, we haven't won a war since The Great Victory of '45. Whoda thunk that would happen? We have been doing our best, but hope is hard to kill.

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The Best Reference Out

The book does a great job showing the irony in the double-standards the US has used in its foreign policy since WWII, as State department officials confessed to (shown in the last chapter). This also makes for a more entertaining read than most other books on the topic. All together though, the book's use of these contradictions are just used to propel a central idea the author has, as stated in his introduction - that the communist threat was largely imagined, either intenionally at times or unintentionally, and that the US media failed to rationalize the discrepancies of state doctrines. So, if you believe this, you'll enjoy the book, otherwise, you'll find it a "worthless left-wing propanganda."

The book does take for granted a large degree of knowledge by the reader. That is, the author only explains US activities (as the book's title plainly states) in particular regions, but general history between time periods and other nations' influences are usually omitted. So if your history isn't up to par it may be a little confusing keeping track of changing foreign attitudes and policies.

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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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