Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

by Stephen Kinzer

Book Overview

A fast-paced narrative history of the coups, revolutions, and invasions by which the United States has toppled fourteen foreign governments - not always to its own benefit "Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805078614
• ISBN13: 9780805078619
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Times Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

At last, the book I've been waiting for

Overthrow documents the U.S. propensity to further business interests by replacing foreign governments, even at the expense of the native people. There is a reason people are wary of the U.S. government. For those who don't understand Iran's stance, this book might help understand the deep hatred against the U.S. which turned the people to support a religious regime. The consequences of the government's actions are also documented well. This is a good counterpoint to the Bush administration's reasoning for the war in Iraq. It also documents that Bush's use of military force is not rare. In some ways he is more transparent.

Timely, read with Zinni, Leebaert, Butler, and Johnson

EDITED 27 June 2007 to add thoughts from second reading (accidental). While at the beach, ran out of books, bought this not remembering I had already read it, and found new value. Using the new link feature to insert links to the books originally listed. This is a timely review, although the facts are well known to those who follow international affairs. In this second (as if new) reading, the following quote stayed with me from page 317: "Most American sponsored 'regime change' operations have, in the end, weakened rather than strengthened, American security." I list the countries covered by this book: Hawaii, Cuba, Nicarague, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Guatemala, Iran, Viet-Nam, Chile, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq. I focus more on Hawaii, in 1893, the first of a new range of intrusive overthrows (beyond the land expansion actions the author chooses not to cover). I am struck--moved--by the duplicitious immoral actions of both the white landowners and the white US government representatives against the people of Hawaii. The author discusses how Hawaiians were at the time bound by obligations, ritual, and a reverence for nature. I am reminded of how we and the Spanish genocided the native Americans, north and south, individuals who had decades if not centuries of refined knowledge on how to shape and nurture the Earth in harmony with their needs. This time around, the author's emphasis on how the legal right to buy land led to the loss of local indigenous control and rights. I now firmly believe that foreign and absentee landlords should be eliminated. This time around, I note the author's emphasis on how corporations are a form of national army, capturing wealth in different ways from an armed force. This time around, I think of how Dick Cheney has raped the American dream, in so violent and so public a fashion, that America's "lost innocence" can not longer be denied. This time around, I discover and reflect (being at the beach) on the superb bibliography. For a broader and perhaps more disturbing overview of the costs to America of corporate-driven foreign policy, see The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti=Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project) Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions Confessions of an Economic Hit Man Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy Why We Fight The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption

Tying the Threads Together

OVERTHROW is a remarkably interesting book. It ties together 14 different instances of U.S. "intervention" (read: regime change) by finding similarities between U.S. foreign policy in places as geographically and culturally various as Chile and Iran. Among Kinzer's conclusions is that it is impossible for the U.S. to EVER be successful in the long term when we get caught in the temptations of implementing regime changes. This is partially due to the fact that one can't install leaders in foreign countries who are both genuinely popular with their compatriots AND who are looking out for American interests. The two are nearly always mutually exclusive. But it's one thing to sum up one of Kinzer's primary theses, and quite another to read OVERTHROW's specific and fascinating examples. I consider myself well read and informed, yet in each chapter, I found historical material that surprised me. Stephen Kinzer's work as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times served him well for this volume: He is a master at "explaining" the interesting stories and crucial background needed to understand his case studies in this book. Brilliant work.

Some Unpleasant, Mostly Unknown US History!

It's surely true that about all Major World Powers, at least European and American, have invaded and occupied many smaller nations for economic and corporate reasons. Mr. Kinzer makes the point that most, if not all, of the USA invasions from Hawaii in 1893 to Iraq in 2003, have been the result of US corporations (oil,sugar,bananas,etc) persuading the USA Powers that local, nationalistic pressures on the bottom line should result in "Regime Change" military Operations, for the past 113 years, from Ben Harrison to GW Bush. And usually the result is negative, though sometimes these results may take a very long time to show. Case in point: Iran, where in 1954 a US-sponsored "Regime Change" due largely to corporate pressures resulted in some very unfriendly feelings in Iran towards the USA, lasting through the 1979-80 Revolution, and into today's Diplomatic Stalement. The Central American Operations are well known, along with Cuba and the Philipines during the Spanish American War of 1898, another war stated on some bogus info:ie, the sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbor. Though US Politicians may be convinced of their own righteousness in ordering "Regime Change", the local people are not always convinced, and can even hold very long term grudges.He is not positive on the current Iraq Mess, noting the obvious, though he does admit it's possible that the future may be better!