I found this book very much on target with its principal thesis, to wit,
that the United States is too quick to take pre-emptory and often covert or
illicit action against short-term threats, and that we pay a very heavy
price over the long run for doing things like reinforcing despotic regimes,
overturning anti-American regimes, and so on.
However--and I am one of those who first learned to admire the author when
he was an authority, in the 1970's, on the causes of revolution--I found
the presentation spotty, with errors of fact and perception in those areas
where I have a solid background, specifically the U.S. Marine Corps on
Okinawa, and the clandestine service of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Neither of those two organizations is as evil or disorganized as the author
seems to believe, and frankly, I found his bibliography with respect to
both domains to be mediocre.
This is a helpful book. If it were the only one it would be important in
its own right, but in the light of books such as Daniel Ellsberg's
"SECRETS: A Memoire of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers," or Derek
Leebaert's much more profoundly researched and documented "The Fifty-Year
Wound: The True Price of America's Cold War Victory," it falls from the
front rank to the second shelf.
Among the critical points where the author is original and heed must be
paid, is in his evalution of competing forms of economic management, and
his very strong condemnation of the manner in which the US tries to impose
a specific form of capitalism on the Asian economies, to their great
detriment.
His book reinforces concerns others have articulated with respect to
administrative secrecy enabling terrible policies to be enacted in the name
of the people; to the military-industrial complex and its negative roles in
arming and inciting to repression selected military around the world; to US
guilt in human rights violations, to include the provision of encouragement
for repression in both Indonesia and South Korea; and with respect to the
value of North Korea to those in the US who want to fabricate a case for an
anti-missile defense that most informed people agree is absurd in its
concepts and extortionary in its pricing.
I am quite glad I read this book, quite glad to be reminded of the
brilliant long-term contributions of the author to the field of Asian
studies and the causes of revolution, and certain that those who specialize
in studies the pathology of power--especially of imperial power such as is
now enjoyed by the United States, will find much food for thought in this
book.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805062394/qid=1043562043/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-7637210-1756125
