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 Center) in Borough Park, Brooklyn, to Ruth (née Katz) and Isidore Blum, who were Polish Jewish immigrants. His father was a machinist. He was a graduate of Erasmus Hall High School and gained a degree in accountancy in 1955 from the City College School of Business and Civic Administration, which later became Baruch College of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

. Blum worked as a computer programmer for IBM and later the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

. He had the ambition of becoming a

foreign service officer A Foreign Service Officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U ...

to, as he explained, "take part in the great

anti-Communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

crusade" but was later disillusioned by the Vietnam War. Blum became involved in anti–Vietnam War activism and was pressured to resign his government post in 1967. By then he had already taken part in anti-war protests and become a founder and editor of the '' Washington Free Press'', an alternative bi-weekly newspaper.

Journalism

In 1969, Blum wrote and published an exposé of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in which were revealed the names and addresses of more than 200 CIA employees. He worked as freelance journalist in the United States, Europe and South America. In 1972–1973, Blum worked as a journalist in Chile where he reported on the

Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fi ...

government's " socialist experiment" before the U.S backed coup and the regime of Augusto Pinochet. In the mid-1970s, he worked in London with ex-CIA officer Philip Agee and his associates "on their project of exposing CIA personnel and their misdeeds". He supported himself with his writing and speaking engagements on college campuses. One of Blum's stories on Iraq was listed by Project Censored as one of "The Top Ten Censored Stories of 1998" In his books and online columns, Blum devoted substantial attention to CIA interventions and assassination plots. Noam Chomsky has called Blum's book ''

Killing Hope ''Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II'' by William Blum is a history book on covert CIA operations and United States military interventions during the second half of the 20th century. The book takes a strongly ...

: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II'', "far and away the best book on the topic." Blum supported Ralph Nader's presidential campaigns. He circulated a monthly newsletter by email called "The Anti-Empire Report". Blum described his life's mission as: "If not ending, at least slowing down the American Empire. At least injuring the beast. It's causing so much suffering around the world." In an interview with

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

in 2006, Blum stated: "Speaking about U.S. foreign policy, which is my specialty, the authors I would most recommend would be Michael Parenti and Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman and Howard Zinn and

Alexander Cockburn Alexander Claud Cockburn ( ; 6 June 1941 – 21 July 2012) was a Scottish-born Irish-American political journalist and writer. Cockburn was brought up by British parents in Ireland, but lived and worked in the United States from 1972. Together ...

." According to Blum, left-wing publications such as '' The Nation'' declined to publish his work because they considered him too much of a fanatic.

Osama bin Laden statement

In early 2006, Blum briefly became the subject of widespread media attention when

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

issued a public statement in which he quoted Blum and recommended that all Americans read '' Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower''. As a result of the mention, sales of his book greatly increased. "I was quite surprised and even shocked and amused when I found out what he'd said," Blum commented. "I was glad. I knew it would help the book's sales and I was not bothered by who it was coming from. If he shares with me a deep dislike for certain aspects of US foreign policy, then I'm not going to spurn any endorsement of the book by him. I think it's good that he shares those views and I'm not turned off by that." On the Bin Laden endorsement, Blum stated, "This is almost as good as being an Oprah book." In an interview on MSNBC ''Countdown'', he said: "Basically it's US foreign policy which creates anti-American terrorists. It's the things we do to the world. It's not, as the White House tells us, that they hate our freedom and democracy. That's just propaganda." In a May 22, 2006 article entitled "Come Out of the White House With Your Hands Up", Blum wrote: "Since the bin Laden recommendation, January 19, I have not been offered a single speaking engagement on any campus. . . . This despite January–May normally being the most active period for me and other campus speakers."

Death

Blum died on December 9, 2018 in Arlington, Virginia from kidney failure at the age of 85 following a fall in his apartment two months earlier.Chris Agee and Louis Wolf
William Blum, Renowned U.S. Foreign Policy Critic, Dead at 85
covertactionmagazine.com. Retrieved December 24, 2018.

Works

Articles

Dissident Voice, May 22, 2006.
“Hit List”
''

CovertAction Information Bulletin ''CovertAction Quarterly'' (formerly ''CovertAction Information Bulletin'') was an American journal in publication from 1978 to 2005, focused primarily on watching and reporting global covert operations. It is generally critical of US Foreign Polic ...

'', Fall 1993. (p. 9)
“The Painful Truths Told by Phil Agee”
'' Consortium News'', June 27, 2013. Books
''The CIA: A Forgotten History''
Zed Books, 1986. * ''

: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II''. Common Courage Press, 1995. *
UK edition
Zed Books, 2003. Revised in 2014. **
2nd edition, updated
Common Courage Press, 2004. , * '' Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower''. Common Courage Press, 2000. *
Full text available
* ''West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir''. Soft Skull Press, 2002. * ''Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire''. Common Courage Press, 2004.
''America's Deadliest Export: Democracy - The Truth About US Foreign Policy and Everything Else''
Zed Books, 2013.

References

External links

* * * *
American Exceptionalism: The Naked Truth by William Blum
a
CovertAction MagazineWilliam Blum's articles
at ''Foreign Policy Journal''
William Blum's articles
at Z Communications (archive.org)
''America's most feared man''
Interview with Nerve Magazine, Issue 2, Summer 2003
''William Blum in the Media Whirlwind''
Appearance on

's call-in show ''Washington Journal, '' January 28, 2006
Killing Hope
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blum, William 1933 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists American anti-capitalists American foreign policy writers American male journalists American male non-fiction writers American people of Polish-Jewish descent American political writers Baruch College alumni Erasmus Hall High School alumni American opinion journalists People from Arlington County, Virginia Writers from Brooklyn American dissidents