''Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II'' by

William Blum William Henry Blum (; March 6, 1933 – December 9, 2018) was an American author, critic of United States foreign policy and socialist. He lived in Washington, DC. Early life Blum was born at Beth Moses Hospital (now part of Maimonides Medical ...

is a history book on

covert Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

operations and United States military interventions during the second half of the 20th century. The book takes a strongly critical view of

American foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

. The book covers various US foreign policy ventures from just after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

onward. Its basic premise is that the American Cold War-era activities abroad were done with

imperialist Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

motives. It is an updated and revised version of one of Blum's previous works, ''The CIA - A Forgotten History'' (1986).

Critical reception

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

called the book "far and away the best book on the topic." John Stockwell described it as " e single most useful summary of CIA history",

Ramsey Clark William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021) was an American lawyer, activist, and federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States Department of Justice under Pres ...

judged it a "valuable contribution", and '' International Securitys Teresa Pelton Johnson wrote: "Blum has performed a very important service in collecting this information in one place, and the documentation is praiseworthy." Ted Dace characterized ''Killing Hope'' as " good, long look in the mirror". Reviewing the earlier version of the book, ''

Choice A choice is the range of different things from which a being can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate motivators and models. For example, a traveler might choose a route for a journey based on the preference of arriving at a give ...

s R. H. Immerman wrote: "By falling prey to the same Manichean absolutism that has hamstrung US global policies, Blum has compromised the credibility of his work. He has nevertheless produced a valuable reference for anyone interested in the conduct of US foreign policy." Julia Muravska, a policy expert for the RAND corporation, unfavorably compared ''Killing Hope'' with the work of academic historians such as William Keylor, stating that Blum's criticism of the U.S. occurs in an historical vacuum without any consideration for Soviet actions that "would have also helped the reader understand what drove the US foreign policy decisions that today's citizens find so morally repugnant." Although she noted that much of the book is "heavily and meticulously footnoted," Muravska harshly criticized the 2014 edition's "The American Empire Post-Cold War" chapter for "unsubstantiated claims" and shallow analysis, observing that "Blum relies on ... '' RT'' to make his case" regarding the post-2014

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Rev ...

Editions

First published in 1995,About William Blum
williamblum.org. Retrieved 24 December 2018. it has since been updated several times by the author. * 1998 revised edition (Black Rose Books) * 2003 revised edition (Common Courage Press) * 2004 Updated Edition (Common Courage Press) * 2014 Updated Edition (

Zed Books Zed Books is an independent non-fiction publishing company based in London, UK. It was founded in 1977 under the name Zed Press by Roger van Zwanenberg. Zed publishes books for an international audience of both general and academic readers, co ...

)

References

{{reflist, 2

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

) 1995 non-fiction books Non-fiction books about the Central Intelligence Agency Books about the Cold War Books critical of capitalism

Critical reception

Editions

See also

References

External links