Overthrow
Reading the best non-fiction book ever right now: Overthrow, by Stephen Kinzer. It is the history of the 14 governments the US has overthrown starting with Hawaii and ending with Iraq. I'm halfway through and so far we've toppled Hawaii, Cuba, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Iran, Guatemala, and Vietnam. The writing is great, clear and interesting. I also appreciate that he doesn't moralize about how terrible we've been, since he really doesn't need to. The perpetual hypocricy of America, the land of the free, comes through loud and clear.
It, unsurprisingly, has made me much more down on our country. Since college, I've found myself slowly getting... I wouldn't say more conservative, but less judgmental about America. And it is stupid to say the US is the anti-christ, when all countries, and humans, can be and have been evil. But this book is kind of sending me back. Yes, all countries have done bad things but... 14 governments in just over a century?
It all got me to thinking about which country has behaved the worst over the last century.
Defining this is tough. Is it how they act in their own countries or how much they've effected the rest of the world? Does doing good things help them? How about all those are factors.1. Russia: Stalin was almost as bad as Hitler and they're still oppressive
2. Germany: Behaving themselves quite well lately, but still a major factor in two world wars. And then there was the Holocaust.
3. Cambodia: Don't know a whole lot about the history of Pol Pot, but I think it's that he killed a lot of his people while trying to force them to be farmers. Not the nicest, or most forward looking, leader
4. USA: Not so bad at home, but abroad...
5. Britain: Like the US, but more colonialism and less bad lately
6. Iraq: Saddam might come in third in terms of things he's done to his country (gassing the Kurds, political assassinations, torturing...). But, other than Kuwait and Iran has done little to the rest of the world and I don't believe anything pre-Sadaam.
posted by chuckdaddy2000 at 6:18 pm
4 Comments:
oh i'm just about to finish my book and am looking for my next pick - this sounds intriguing. My new thing is abusing the library, so I'll see if they have it.
Ah yes, petrovich, the United States is notoriously an awful place to live. As evidenced by the unceasing outmigration of people desparately fleeing our blighted land, in favor of greener pastures almost anywhere else. The last ones out, please, remember to turn off the lights.
Nice one Michael. He told your ass Petrovich!
Damn. My attempt to start a fight failed. So concillatory Petro, I was hoping for a bit more fire.
Anway, We just overthrew Chile and Grenada (in my book). I wanted to defend my original point that at home we're not so bad, but I'm so in hater mode it's tough.
BTW, it appears that every single overthrow in this book other than Vietnam, was done when a Republican was in charge.
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