James Carroll Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 2006, $30 h/b Juan Bosch was the president of the Dominican Republic from 1963-65. He tried to implement land reforms and was removed from office by a military coup which was then supported by the deployment of 20,000 US troops. In 1967 he published a little book called Pentagonism: … Read more
See note (1) James ‘Bo’ Gritz, linked to the US Army Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), was detained with Lance Corp. Edward Trimmer whilst trying to enter Thailand. (Guardian 23rd September 1983) They were apparently on another mission looking for American POWs. In December, for the first time since 1975, American troops were in Laos investigating … Read more
Robert Caro New York and London: Alfred Knopf, 2002, hb $35 (US) £35 (UK) (But in the UK only £22 from Amazon.com) This is the third volume in Caro’s biography of LBJ. The first two volumes are wonderful pieces of work, the best biographies I have read; and in many ways this is their … Read more
Wick the forgotten One of the most prestigious, yet least challenging, posts in British journalism is that of Washington correspondent. Prestigious because of the importance of the United States; but least challenging because the natives speak English, more or less; and there are so many ready-made stories ripe for recycling to Britain, as the Internet … Read more
[…] International Workers Association. Who they? you ask. That I don’t know. Details at http://www.directa.force9.co.uk Heavy weather An impressive reworking of the evidence that the Libyans did not kill WPC Yvonne Fletcher was published in Squall and is – or was – on their Website at www.squall.co.uk/yes/ind2.html Drug wars and Another view of the Afghani […]
John Newsinger London: Bookmarks, 2006, £11.99, p/b Fifty years after Suez is a good time for Britons to reflect on empire. Our military is again deployed in regions of the world more associated in the national mind with the 19th century than the 21st, while the children of the poorer regions of Britain are … Read more
John Newsinger Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave; 2002 hb £47.50 To my knowledge this is the first account of Britain’s post-1945 colonial wars written from a radical left stand-point. By which I don’t mean that it is a load of left rhetoric – that is entirely absent; but the assumptions about legitimacy and right are on … Read more
[…] (if you’re black or a Native American) through to media character assassination, but it is a grim read. By world standards, The Great Satan hasn’t had to kill many at home since 1900; and why it hasn’t needed to is explained here. The author argues that the American state has gone ‘beyond bullets’, that […]
Rogue State: A guide to the world’s only superpower William Blum Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine, 2000, $16.95 Globalize This! The battle against the World Trade Organization and corporate rule eds. Kevin Danaher and Roger Burbach Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine, 2000, $15.95 I have lumped these together partly because they are both published … Read more
[…] ten competing cereal brands on the shelf. Welcoming converts but not necessarily engaged in organised conversion (the equivalent, in retail terms, of no longer cutting prices to kill the competition in a winner take all tactic), the major faiths in Britain are playing the numbers game. Together they form a huge political lobby with […]
