Overthrow

There are times you wish you could give something more than five stars; this is one these rare books. I picked up this after hearing the author being interviewed and thought his reasoning very solid on current events (Jan ‘26). But, the book is a step beyond when it outlines in detail who/where/when/why of the chosen “events”. In addition the narrative manages to link the various overthrows to show similarities and differences and the resulting outcomes. We know history is written by the victors, but this rips the bandaid off the whitewashed stories told by history books and (shame on you) complicit major news organizations. When you receive today’s news and wonder “haven’t we been here before?”, the reply is a resounding YES, and Stephen Kinzer has already dissected the historic events and the resulting calamities. This a very important book today; 20 years after it was first published!

I will not repeat the many excellent comments here except that Kinzer writes very well, making the read fascinating and factually solid. Other points: I think Kinzer made it fairly clear that the deposed leaders were not necessarily great or without flaws. The point is that when we went into these countries and replaced their democratically elected leaders with our puppet leaders, most of them turned out to be difficult to overthrow despots and tyrants. This left the fledgling democracies no chance to learn whether that elected official was good or bad, and gain more experience and time to develop their political parties and election processes. Instead, it repeatedly developed an environment where the only groups that could overthrow those puppets were fanatics and zealots, who grew out of the resentment of the American interference and the suffering of the country under quasi American rule. Besides, who are we to point fingers at the less than perfect elected leaders of other countries? The economic aspects of the overthrows were clearly an essential part of the pattern. However Kinzer stresses that the politicians had their own geo-political reasons for stepping in - often using the nationalization of companies as an excuse to hide their motives. The nationalization process is often misunderstood and Kinzer did a very good job of pointing out this rarely had much to do with anything but mild socialism. Instead, it was a response to the centuries of imperialism that allowed developed countries to take over so much of the underdeveloped world - almost exclusively those that had valuable resources to develop. During that phase, many companies became international power houses by developing those resources and selling them - with minimal compensation to the country whose economic futures were being plundered. Iran in '53 was looking at the incredible profits of the companies who developed the oil industries, yet hardly met their agreed payments to the country for being allowed to get rich off the resources they were given access to. This is still happening with globalization. Multinational corporations go into small countries with some agreement to have access to the resources, including cheap labor, and few restrictions on how they treat the employees, environment or invest some of the profit money in the country to help it gain it's own economic footing. It has been mentioned that countries operate on their own self-interest. They have reason to operate on enlightened self interest and do so far more than the corporations. Many figured this out and have formed coalitions to fight it. This book is important information Americans need to understand, in order to grasp the foreign policy deceptions that have been foisted on us by our government and the high profit media. James Pfiffner, professor of poli-sci at George Mason Univ, addressed presidential lying in a `99 essay (Presidential Studies Quarterly). He identified a hierarchy of presidential lying, some of which he considers justifiable: -Lying about personal matters that do not affect national policy or security. [Duh?] -Lying to foreign governments can be a necessary element of diplomacy. -Lying about matters of national security (Eisenhower denying U-2 flights over USSR) National security is where Pfiffner finds the worst errors because they are "lies of policy deception". The president says he is doing one thing, while in fact, the military, CIA, NSA or other agencies are doing something else. This is where he nails the issue for me: These lies are inexcusable because they deceive "the public about the direction of government policy" and deny voters the opportunity "to make an informed choice [which] undermines the premise of the democratic process". His examples are Johnson's escalation of the VN war and the Gulf of Tonkin deceptions. Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia (14 months), and Reagan's lies about Iran/Contra. We need to develop the awareness in American voters about what has been done in our names, with our tax money; while being deceived about the real reasons - or even that we were doing it covertly- so we could not vote or contact our representatives. A variation of taxation without representation, let alone ignoring the grassroots American conviction that we don't support interfering with other countries governments. Kinzer's book is an excellent text for this enlightenment. I also consider it essential for dissemination on a much wider scale.

This is a fascinating book about all the countries the US has overthrown beginning with Alaska and ending with Iraq. The only reason I didn't give this book a five star rating is because the reader may become exhausted over the repetition. By repetition I'm referring to how our country has minimized other countries beliefs and by covert operations or invasion, destroyed relationships. One may become weary to the point of thinking, oh no not again! The author presented great detail and explanation as well as the author's summary of events. So, I'm not blaming the author, I'm blaming our country. We have entered into covert operations over threats by foreign countries, or more accuratly, perceived threats, to outright miss reading the tea leaves. And every other reason one can think of such as transportation, lumber, bananas, Pepsi and of course oil, to name a few. We have invaded because of poor intelligence or perhaps just to show the world how strong we may be. The only element we have been consistent in; is how we left these countries. Usually destroyed and defenseless from the internal parasites that pop their heads up once we leave. We have succeeded in leaving these countries, at best, only a bit better for a short time. Now they have no infrastructure, no single governing body and opportunities for those wishing to rob the country of resources and a sustainable economy. So, yes this book is worth reading. I very much enjoy this author's writings and literary style. His research is phenomenal. I have read at least five of his books thus far.

Exposes the US as the worlds biggest war monger nation and it didn't start with the overthrow of Hawaii.

Great book about the history of American backed coups around the world

He iniciado su lectura, y hasta este momento lo encuentro imparcial

Kinzer has probed the many instances of US/CIA/Military involvements in overthrowing democratically elected leaders around the world because they didn't like their politics or their desire to own their own natural resources.

Very well written, easy to read and understand. Reads like a fictional work except that it's true. Wish someone would put those people in gaol and throw away the key. Wicked, greedy and American. Now after a hundred or more years doing it one way, they're changing gear to TTIP and TPAC etc to achieve even more control and wealth. Lock em up before they ruin the world - again! Problem is that greedy and corrupt politicians around the world - not singling out the UK but...? can't resist taking bribes from these people either in monetary form or more typically in fat paid jobs after politics? By the way, I love this book. Well done Stephen Kinzer.