Table of Contents

Author's note Introduction to the new edition
Introduction to the original edition
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 one
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 labour 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 marvellous 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 1959-1980s: 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 publicised 'final solution'
38. Costa Rica 1970-1971: Trying to topple an ally, Part two
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 1981-1990: Destabilisation in slow motion
50. Panama 1969-1991: Double-crossing our drug supplier
51. Bulgaria 1990: 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 man?
56. The American Empire: 1992 to the present. Notes
Appendix I: This is how money goes round
Appendix II: Instances of use of United States Armed Forces abroad, 1798-1945
Appendix III: US Government assassination plots

Promotional Information

A devastating alternative history of America's covert and overt military interventions since the 1940s, updated for this new edition.

About the Author

William Blum is one of the United States' leading non-mainstream experts on American foreign policy. He left the State Department in 1967, abandoning his aspiration of becoming a Foreign Service Officer because of his opposition to what the US was doing in Vietnam. He then became a founder and editor of the Washington Free Press, the first 'alternative' newspaper in the capital. Blum has been a freelance journalist in the US, Europe and South America, and is the author of Rogue State and America's Deadliest Export.

Reviews

A very valuable book. The research and organization are extremely impressive.
*A.J. Langguth, author and former New York Times bureau chief*

A valuable reference for anyone interested in the conduct of US foreign policy.
*Choice (American Library Association)*

I enjoyed it immensely.
*Gore Vidal*

Each chapter I read makes me more and more angry.
*Helen Caldicott*

The single most useful summary of CIA history.
*John Stockwell, former CIA officer and author*

Far and away the best book on the topic.
*Noam Chomsky*

I bought several more copies to circulate to friends with the hope of shedding new light and understanding on their political outlooks.
*Oliver Stone*

A marvelous job of bringing together a lot of loose ends from many sources.
*Philip Agee, former CIA officer and author*

I am impressed. It is a valuable contribution.
*Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States*

Blum has performed a very important service in collecting this information in one place, and the documentation is praiseworthy.
*Teresa Pelton Johnson, Assistant Managing Editor, International Security, Harvard University*

A very useful piece of work, daunting in scope, important.
*Thomas Powers, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist*