Let’s start with the easiest question: what do George Robertson, Chris Smith and Marjorie ‘Mo’ Mowlam have in common? They are, of course, all strong Tony Blair supporters in the new Labour Cabinet. And what about Peter Mandelson and Elizabeth Symons? Not yet quite Cabinet members, but both are key figures in the ‘modernising project’ … Read more
In footnote 6 in his essay on the Bilderberg group in Lobster 32, Mike Peters noted that the US Left had lost interest in the study of the power elite because the subject had become ‘contaminated’ by the interest in it taken by the US Right.(1) I had never thought of it as that, but … Read more
Unfree press A recent release of previously undisclosed documents reveals that J. Edgar Hoover ordered the FBI to carry out the illegal surveillance of newspaper labour activists during the 1940s. Also revealed is the fact that informants included journalists who wanted Communists removing from the leadership of the Newspaper Guild.(1) Only following orders Psychologist Stanley … Read more
Blowback: the cost and consequences of American Empire Chalmers Johnson London, Little, Brown and Company, 2000, £18.99 (hb) Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism John Cooley London, Pluto Press, London, 2000, £12.99 (pb) It has recently been revealed that the CIA inadvertently helped to create Soviet chemical and biological weapons by convincing the Soviets … Read more
A Franco-German Bomb? A study by the German historian Werner Abelhauser casts new light on Franco-German efforts to provide the youthful European Economic Community with military capability.(1) The essay is notable because it adds another dimension to our grasp of how and why the EEC was formed. Most modern work follows from the thesis developed … Read more
Joel Kotek Translated by Ralph Blumenau Macmillan 1996 £40 An edited version of a PhD thesis, this is an extremely interesting and massively detailed account of the politics of the student movement before and during the early years of the Cold War. Centrally it shows how Communist Party members from various countries, under presumed if … Read more
Inside the League Scott Anderson and Jon Lee Anderson (Dodd, Mead and Co., New York 1986) This is the only book I know on the World Anti-Communist League. Most of it is new to me but the few bits I am familiar with look accurate, and it is reasonably well documented. It is really in … Read more
War stories Evidence that the Royal Air Force colluded with their German enemies in the most secret air mission of the Second World War has been discovered in the Czech Republic. The personal log books of some of the 87 Czechoslovak fighter pilots who escaped the 1939 German occupation of their country to fly RAF … Read more
Olivier Schmidt Atlanta (USA): Clarity Press, 2005, $14.95, p/b www.bookmasters.com/clarity/currenttitles.htm Here’s a new name to me, the publisher Clarity; and a familiar one, Olivier Schmidt. In the 1980s Schmidt was producing a very good newsletter in Paris, Intelligence and Parapolitics. This got expensive, professionalised and eventually went on-line for subscribers as Intelligence.(1) This is … Read more
William J. West Berkeley Books, USA, 1990 From the UK reviews: ‘Unassailably accurate … beautifully written … the definitive book on the Hollis story’ – The Times ‘Lively, well-written a completely engrossing book. West has unearthed completely new material’ – Financial Times ‘West is a thorough and meticulous researcher. His book is one of the … Read more
