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Killing Hope

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Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II by William Blum is a history book on covert CIA operations and United States military interventions during the second half of the 20th century. The book, published in 1995 by Common Courage Press, takes a strongly critical view of American foreign policy.[1] It is an updated and revised version of one of Blum's previous works, The CIA - A Forgotten History (1986).

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II
First edition
AuthorWilliam Blum
LanguageEnglish
SubjectCentral Intelligence Agency (U.S.)
GenreHistory
PublisherCommon Courage Press
Publication date
1995
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages500 pp
ISBN1-56751-253-4
OCLC53832319
Preceded byWest-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir 
Followed byFreeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire 

The book covers various US foreign policy ventures from just after World War II onward. Its basic premise is that the American Cold War-era activities abroad were done with imperialist motives.

Chapters

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  1. China 1945 to 1960s: Was Mao Tse-tung just paranoid?
  2. Italy 1947-1948: Free elections, Hollywood style
  3. Greece 1947 to early 1950s: From cradle of democracy to client state
  4. The Philippines 1940s and 1950s: America's oldest colony
  5. Korea 1945-1953: Was it all that it appeared to be?
  6. Albania 1949-1953: The proper English spy
  7. Eastern Europe 1948-1956: Operation Splinter Factor
  8. Germany 1950s: Everything from juvenile delinquency to terrorism
  9. Iran 1953: Making it safe for the King of Kings
  10. Guatemala 1953-1954: While the world watched
  11. Costa Rica mid-1950s: Trying to topple an ally, part I
  12. Syria 1956-1957: Purchasing a new government
  13. The Middle East 1957-1958: The Eisenhower Doctrine claims another backyard for America
  14. Indonesia 1957-1958: War and pornography
  15. Western Europe 1950s and 1960s: Fronts within fronts within fronts
  16. British Guiana 1953-1964: The CIA's international labor mafia
  17. Soviet Union late 1940s to 1960s: From spy planes to book publishing
  18. Italy 1950s to 1970s: Supporting the Cardinal's orphans and techno-fascism
  19. Vietnam 1950-1973: The Hearts and Minds Circus
  20. Cambodia 1955-1973: Prince Sihanouk walks the high-wire of neutralism
  21. Laos 1957-1973: L'Armee Clandestine
  22. Haiti 1959-1963: The Marines land, again
  23. Guatemala 1960: One good coup deserves another
  24. France/Algeria 1960s: L'etat, c'est la CIA
  25. Ecuador 1960-1963: A textbook of dirty tricks
  26. The Congo 1960-1964: The assassination of Patrice Lumumba
  27. Brazil 1961-1964: Introducing the marvelous new world of death squads
  28. Peru 1960-1965: Fort Bragg moves to the jungle
  29. Dominican Republic 1960-1966: Saving democracy from communism by getting rid of democracy
  30. Cuba 1959 to 1980s: The unforgivable revolution
  31. Indonesia 1965: Liquidating President Sukarno ... and 500,000 others East Timor 1975: And 200,000 more
  32. Ghana 1966: Kwame Nkrumah steps out of line
  33. Uruguay 1964-1970: Torture—as American as apple pie
  34. Chile 1964-1973: A hammer and sickle stamped on your child's forehead
  35. Greece 1964-1974: "Fuck your Parliament and your Constitution," said the President of the United States
  36. Bolivia 1964-1975: Tracking down Che Guevara in the land of coup d'etat
  37. Guatemala 1962 to 1980s: A less publicized "final solution"
  38. Costa Rica 1970-1971: Trying to topple an ally, part II
  39. Iraq 1972-1975: Covert action should not be confused with missionary work
  40. Australia 1973-1975: Another free election bites the dust
  41. Angola 1975 to 1980s: The Great Powers Poker Game
  42. Zaire 1975-1978: Mobutu and the CIA, a marriage made in heaven
  43. Jamaica 1976-1980: Kissinger's ultimatum
  44. Seychelles 1979-1981: Yet another area of great strategic importance
  45. Grenada 1979-1984: Lying—one of the few growth industries in Washington
  46. Morocco 1983: A video nasty
  47. Suriname 1982-1984: Once again, the Cuban bogeyman
  48. Libya 1981-1989: Ronald Reagan meets his match
  49. Nicaragua 1978-1990: Destabilization in slow motion
  50. Panama 1969-1991: Double-crossing our drug supplier
  51. Bulgaria 1990/Albania 1991: Teaching Communists what democracy is all about
  52. Iraq 1990-1991: Desert holocaust
  53. Afghanistan 1979-1992: America's Jihad
  54. El Salvador 1980-1994: Human rights, Washington style
  55. Haiti 1986-1994: Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?
  56. The American Empire: 1992 to present 383

Critical reception

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Noam Chomsky called the book "far and away the best book on the topic."[2] John Stockwell described it as "[t]he single most useful summary of CIA history", Ramsey Clark judged it a "valuable contribution", and International Security's Teresa Pelton Johnson wrote: "Blum has performed a very important service in collecting this information in one place, and the documentation is praiseworthy."[3]

Ted Dace characterized Killing Hope as "[a] good, long look in the mirror".[4][verify]

Reviewing the earlier version of the book, Choice's R. H. Immerman wrote: "By falling prey to the same Manichean absolutism that has hamstrung US global policies, Blum has compromised the credibility of his work. He has nevertheless produced a valuable reference for anyone interested in the conduct of US foreign policy."[5]

In the LSE Review of Books, LSE doctoral researcher Julia Muravska unfavorably compared Killing Hope with the work of academic historians such as William Keylor, stating that Blum's criticism of the U.S. occurs in an historical vacuum without any consideration for Soviet actions that "would have also helped the reader understand what drove the US foreign policy decisions that today's citizens find so morally repugnant." Although she noted that much of the book is "heavily and meticulously footnoted," Muravska harshly criticized the 2014 edition's "The American Empire Post-Cold War" chapter for "unsubstantiated claims" and shallow analysis, claiming that "Blum relies on ... RT to make his case" regarding the post-2014 Russo-Ukrainian War.[6]

Editions

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First published in 1995,[7] it has since been updated several times by the author.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Blum, William (30 May 1996). "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II". The Gaither Reporter. 3 (4): 37. ProQuest 219587219.
  2. ^ Daniel Falcone, Our Leaders Do Not Mean Well Archived 2017-11-15 at the Wayback Machine, truth-out.org, 4 January 2014.
  3. ^ Killing Hope - Reviews, zedbooks.net. Retrieved 24 December 2018
  4. ^ Ted Dice, "Rogue: Is the U.S. simply a big bully?", The Manhattan Mercury, 8 October 2000, pp. 28-29.
  5. ^ The CIA: A forgotten history: US global interventions since World War 2, sirsi.net. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  6. ^ Muravska, Julia (2015-01-21). "Book Review: Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since World War II, Updated Edition, by William Blum". LSE Review of Books. Retrieved 2018-12-24.
  7. ^ About William Blum, williamblum.org. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
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