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

This book details America's thirst for other countries' resources in order to support its existence. From Hawaii to Iraq, each under a different pretext, ranging from liberating the oppressed population, containing the spread of communism, spreading democracy, to fighting religious terrorism the overthrowing of foreign governments, whose agendas are not inline with those of the US, by the US government has been going on for over a century.

Often backed by large, very powerful corporations, the overthrow of the foreign governments by the US government has only one thing in mind: USA's own interests (not necessarily the common people of USA, however).

This is the kind of book that you don't have to read from page one to the end, if you don't want to as each chapter is modular: Each chapter/section in the book details one overthrow (more or less). If you want to know about the Panama (Noriega) episode, for example, chapter 11 is what you want to read.

After reading the details of a few of the overthrows, I couldn't help myself making up a profile for the sort of foreign government that would qualify for overthrowing by the US government (most governments in the world would qualify, unfortunately):

1. The foreign country has resources the US government wants.
2. The foreign government does not necessarily have US interests high on their priority list (but doesn't have to pose direct/indirect threat to the US).
3. The foreign country is smaller & weaker (The US wouldn't pick on China for a direct confrontation, for sure - not alone, anyway).

As another reviewer has pointed out, the book could be depressing & sad to read at times as it is often the innocent bystanders and the defenseless that would bear the brunt of the events.

Over & over again, foreign government whose agendas and policies are not inline with those of the US would find itself replaced by one who would, with no care whatsoever for the interests of the people in the affected country.

The irony in all of this is that the replacement regime would often incite another kind of revolution that would then bring about yet another regime that would cause bigger problems for the rest of the world.

An impressive narrative (6/6 people found this helpful)

A well documented and impressive narrative of US intervention in foreign governments and the resulting disastrous consequences. He begins with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch in the 1890s and ends with the invasion of Iraq. Clearly written with lots of new (for me) information - e.g. the Panama Canal was originally planned to go through Nicaragua. Although this is a serious piece of work it is very readable - in fact at times it reads like a novel and is hard to put down.

The next time we hear of a US politician wondering why so many people seem to hold their country in contempt they should be directed to read this book and find the answer.

An appalling record of catastrophic successes (5/5 people found this helpful)

Stephen Kinzer's hard-hitting book is a fascinating but depressing read.
It depicts in detail a long series of brutally imposed foreign `regime changes' fully endorsed by the US government.
The author exposes clearly that the official rhetoric of liberation, freedom, self-determination, democracy instead of communism or humanitarian intervention concealed commercial and business interests. The US government understood all too well that if it allowed democracy to flower in the countries it controlled, those nations would begin acting in accordance with their own interests, not those of the US.

The newly installed governments of countries with valuable hard or soft resources were told to let those resources be controlled by or shared with US interests or to abolish interference with US businesses (`the resource curse'). Other regime changes served to protect US interests, to open markets ('kick in the door') for US products or to control strategic locations.
The only exception would be Vietnam, but other authors point at the domino theory (the allowed self-determination of one country would be followed by others) and more specifically at oil-rich Indonesia.

This book painfully illustrates that those interventions were perhaps successful for the US in the short term, but catastrophic in the long term. Most US-sponsored regime changes in the end weakened rather than strengthened US security. Into the bargain, military force, even combined with political and economic power, proved ultimately not to be enough to bend the will of nations (Vietnam, Chile, Iran, Iraq?).
But for the vast majority of the populations involved the human and social costs of the regime changes were staggering and left a very bitter residue of pain and anger against the US.
Overall, the colossal investments in weaponry instead of in humanitarian aid, diplomatic posts, libraries and cultural centers could prove to be all too costly and totally counterproductive.

Stephen Kinzer gives also an in depth portrait of John Foster Dulles.
His book reads like a thriller and is a must read for all those interested in the history of mankind.

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

Stephen Kinzer

Reader Reviews:

"Democracy" ala USA (3/3 people found this helpful)

An impressive narrative (6/6 people found this helpful)

An appalling record of catastrophic successes (5/5 people found this helpful)

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