War and Politics Books

Too often books about war deal more with the officers and civilian leaders, the ones who direct the military actions without looking at those most involved. The young men and women on the front lines who must live with life and death and whose minds are concentrated both on the action at hand and their loved ones back home. It is most likely the latter that keeps them going in the face of enemy fire, the memories of happier days in their home towns or cities.

His Name Was Donn: My Brother's Letters from Vietnam is a particularly moving book, a collection of letters written by Donn Sweet during his service in Vietnam up to his tragic death. An honored soldier, his letters are a combination of describing what is taking place over there and his memories of home. These letters were put together by his younger sister, Evelyn Sweet-Hurd whose grief over his death kept her from re-reading them for decades. Now this book has helped bring her closure and is a moving tribute to a brave young man with a sense of humor who truly loved his country. It gives us an insight into the heart and soul of a true American hero and patriot.

The reader also learns a great deal about the Sweet family and Evelyn's own thoughts and feelings then and now. It is the sort of book every reader can relate to whether Donn is writing about comrades dying or his memories of home. Home is very important and Donn takes the time to write thankyous for gifts and letters even when under enemy fire. There is a strong connection between Donn's two worlds and his relationship with his younger sister Evelyn who idolized him. The book is a testimony to the importance of family in the growth and maturity for young people.

Ms. Sweet-Hurd writes in a style that is both vivid and concise. Once finished this is a book you will want to re-read as you will feel connected with the family. This would make an excellent film and we want to see more works by this author.

"His Name Was Donn" is powerful and poignant, a book that will stay in your head and your heart long after you have raced to finish it--even though you know the tragic conclusion from the first page. What an amazing accomplishment of Donn's sister to open the box and share his letters with all of us! Evelyn Sweet-Hurd's technique of alternating letters and commentary keeps us involved and challenges us to think about the individuals who are sent to war on our behalf.

A young soldier dies heroically in battle. His maimed body is returned to his grieving family. Medals and citations are awarded posthumously.

At once the circumstances of his death eclipse all other aspects of his life. He becomes forever a fallen soldier. The military citations extol the "ultimate sacrifice." Nowhere in the formal wording is there mention of "the life that might have been."

But the two are one and the same.

This is the message of Evelyn Sweet-Hurd's remembrance of her brother, Lieutenant Donn Sweet, a native of Roanoke VA, who was killed in Vietnam in 1968 at age 26.

In, "His Name Was Donn," Sweet-Hurd attempts to rescue the memory of her brother. From a box of letters shuffled from attic to attic over forty years, she has fashioned a soldier's journal that speaks to our day as poignantly as if written from Iraq yesterday.

From the first line of Letter #1 ("It's a warm Saturday afternoon") to the final signoff two days before his death ("Well, it's beginning to rain"), Donn Sweet reports on his Vietnam experience very much as an observer, more war correspondent than soldier at times, fascinated with events, people, places and how the weather was. Absent, always, is any acknowledgment of personal danger.

To his mother, he writes: "Yesterday we left Dong Ha in a driving rainstorm and
took a boat up the river to the coast and a Marine camp called Qua Viet. The day before, Qua Viet had been shelled and a dentist and three others were killed."

We are reminded of the young Martin Sheen journeying up the river in Apocalypse
Now, without, in Donn Sweet's telling, the sense of foreboding.

Forty years later, his sister wonders if her beloved big brother had indeed
taken a first step into the "Heart of Darkness." It bothers her when he writes,
"I took pictures of one of the dead VC. He was 28 and was from Gio Linh -- or so
his papers said."

The reader has difficulty sharing the author's concern. Donn Sweet seems always to have a sure hold on reality. His lifeline is a mischievous sense of humor and a relentless focus on his civilian life to come.

Three days after describing a fire fight in which "We lost nine men...", he pens
an appreciation of a package newly-received from an aunt, "[There was] a black
oblong soft smelly object. At first I thought it was a squashed eclair; the
Marine captain living with me thought it was a piece of liver. You know what it
was? A BANANA! What would make someone think a banana would make it to Vietnam?
... I will write a thank-you note."

After noting that the officer who relieved him in his last command has been killed, he instructs his mother: "I want you to please do the following and write me on what you do and the results. Please have the valves on my Porsche set for the proper setting and have my oil changed correctly. I want the filter screen cleaned. The manual explains how it should be done. I don't want them to simply drain the oil out the plug and put some new oil in. Check it out and have it done right... and let me know what the story is."

He mentions running into a mortar ambush, "...we had one KIA (killed in action)
and one WIA (wounded in action"...", then inquires about law schools: "Ask Ernie
[a lawyer friend] what he thinks about McGeorge College of Law and U. of Arizona,
OK?"

John Lennon famously said, "Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans." Donn Sweet was killed in Vietnam by a mortar shell. His Silver Star citation states that he had confronted and killed a North Vietnamese sniper in order to reach a hilltop from which he could direct artillery fire. There is nothing in the citation of his having other plans.

In her commentary, juxtaposed among the letters, Sweet-Hurd does not disguise
her anti-war sentiments. But they come across as neither insistent nor intrusive. They are a crying out for comprehension, and they are a needed perspective, a simple wondering at what Donn himself might have made of the Vietnam outcome and of his own "ultimate sacrifice."

In the book's "Post-Mortem", the author makes her point with quiet subtlety.
Without comment, she lists the official telegrams and citations received from
the Army. They commemorate a hero, the military laying claim to her brother's memory. To the reader, who has come to know Donn Sweet through his own words, his kid sister's appeal proves successful on at least one score: the citations seem to be placed where they properly belong -- in the appendix.

My review starts with a warning to readers. Once you pick up the book, you will find it hard to put down. Long after you do read it, you will find yourself still connected to the young lieutenant and his world.

The book is a combination of letters from Donn, who is stationed in Vietnam,to his mother and the reflections of his sister as she reads the letters again thirty years later. Like war itself, the book contains jarring juxtapositions. The abstract and the specific, the important and the trivial, the terrifying and the hilarious are side by side. Donn worried about the beloved car he had warily left in the care of his family, joked about his mother's weight, and relayed the brutality and dangers of war in a careful and powerful way.

Another dimension of the book is his sister's growing awareness of her brother and how he adapted to war. Her teenage vision of him was incomplete, and the matured vision she reveals as she reads his letters again is moving and truthful.

I know many will read the book and say they learned a lot about the realities of war, and you will, but the book is about more than war. The book is about love and the strong bonds of family.

_His Name Was Donn_ gives us a rare look into the daily life of a soldier in Vietnam, conveyed through his letters home in 1968, just before he was killed in combat there. Along with the collection of letters, Sweet-Hurd offers her commentary from the perspective of more than thirty years of grief and avoidance. The book is timely and well-done; it offers insight into the multiple forms of war casualties in a voice that is wry and vulnerable. Through the dual voices of Sweet-Hurd and her brother, Lt. Sweet, we observe a progression along different trajectories. Having lost her brother violently, Sweet-Hurd coped by mythologizing his memory. As she revisits the letters and his life in them, she comes to a new understanding of the man whom she idolized, recognizing both his innocence and his ability to enjoy war.
This is a book of contrasts, sharply and poignantly drawn. To read it is to enter the daily life of a combat soldier on the ground in Vietnam, coping with rain, mud, death, fear, drudgery, and the joy of letters from home. We see him writing his letter on a stump in the rain, and we see his sister opening those letters one by one in her home in Atlanta, each one of them bringing her closer to the inevitable confrontation with ultimate loss, again. This is a book that we need to read today.

Hunting the American Terrorist: The FBI's War on Homegrown Terror

An amazing journey through a top FBI case. Can't wait until the next book by these authors comes out--HOMELAND INSECURITY!

As a retired FBI agent, I am finally impressed with a realistic presentation of a multiagency task force investigation. Hunting the American Terrorist captures the array of human emotions that motivate and complicate big cases. Readers will be able to enter the bull pen and proceed through the complex world of colorful personalities and bewildering puzzles that make up the daily successes and failures of an actual investigation. HAT should be required reading for anyone considering a career in law enforcement.

As a forensic psychiatrist, I believe this is an extremely important book, which works on many levels. First of all, it is the ultimate page-turner true life crime story, told by the ultimate insiders. Turchie and Puckett let their tale of hunting the Unabomber and other domestic terrorists unfold as they experienced it, allowing us a rare view of the politics and personalities that presented assistance and obstacles along the way. Told in a matter-of-fact voice, and absent the rigid and self-congratulatory tone that rightly diminishes lesser "insider" true crime books, the authors reveal their methods to us: pain-staking attention to detail, thinking outside the ultimate bureaucratic box, and, in the Unabomb case, the careful maintenance of an inquisitive and open mind in the face of FBI profilers unwilling to adapt to new evidence.

The first half of the book concentrates on the successful search for and arrest of Theodore Kaczynski, with a fascinating look at the relationship developed by Agent Puckett and Kaczynski's brother, which has evidently remained intact as David Kaczynski provides a back cover review. Puckett served as the Behavioral Analyst on the Unabomb task force, and provides unique insights into Kaczynski's personality, decision-making, and motives.

The second half of the book discusses Puckett's study of American Lone Wolf Domestic Terrorists. The reader learns the value and method of taking a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding these offenders, as Puckett takes us on an investigative "road trip," visiting law enforecment officers, forensic scientists, and mental health experts who worked on the cases. It is rare that these disciplines reach out to each other, but each could benefit from the others knowledge and expertise. Puckett's study is the template for this type of collaboration. This is the heart of the book, and is an invaluable manual for those who hunt terrorists, domestic and foreign.

The FBI's head agent in charge of the Unabomber Task Force and one of the FBI's top behavioral analyst combine to write a fascinating book on the homegrown terrorists that have plagued our country in recent memory.
The criminal cases of Theodore Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph are the primary focus of the book. I can only imagine the monotony that might come from spending thousands of man hours tracking down false leads and suspects; but you won't find any of that here. Author Terry Turchie keeps the events fast paced and interesting.
My favorite part of the book is the telling of David and Linda Kaczynski's heroic role in the Unabomber case. They are the brother and sister-in-law of Theodore Kaczynski and their sense of duty born of a most difficult situation are very inspiring.
I came away with a new found respect for Louis Freeh and Janet Reno. In an age of a centralized FBI, this book credits their leadership that allowed agent Turchie to put in place new ideas and procedures that led to solving these cases. His methods were sometimes extremely controversial but ultimately lead to the capture and conviction of the Unabomber and drove Eric Rudolph deeply underground.
Agent Kathleen Puckett wrote Part II of the book. In it she details her work in providing a monumental psychological study of ten homegrown American terrorists. She established a set of criteria and conclusions that looked at the behavioral aspects of these ten criminals and labeled it the `Lone Wolf' mindset.
Hunting The American Terrorist is a book that is hard to put down. Although I knew the outcome and fate of the Unabomber, reading the story of how these two key FBI agents finally `get their man' is compelling.

Fascinating story, read it in one sitting. Finally the true story of the Unabom investigation and the dedicated group of people who worked tirelessly to solve the case. The book also demonstrates that the lessons learned from that investigation assisted in the identification of Eric Rudolph . Recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn the true story of the Unabom investigation.

The description of the condition of the book was dead on and got my satisfaction. A great purchase and a great book.

This volume covers the period from September 1914 to 1948, and consists of essays and other writings on war and Hesse's reactions to it. I was surprised how what he said resonated with me--filled with opposition to German militarism and detestion of the Nazi horror. I was again reminded of Hesse's greatness, and I don't see how the language of the translation could be better. I was greatly moved by the proof that there were good Germans who cringed in pain as they watched the slide to Hitlerian madness. There are 25 separate pieces and I am glad I own this book, so I can refer to them again and again.

Hermann Hesse's "If the War Goes On" is different from many of his other books because rather than fiction, it is a book of short essays. The one which still stands out in my mind after 20-plus years is entitled, "The European". The book is worth reading. Hesse was, if I recall correctly, a pacificist whose nationality happened to be German, at a time when war was going on in Europe. The title of the book seems to reflect both the external political cirumstances of the time in which he was writing, but also, and perhaps mainly, conditions of conflict inside people. It is evident from biographies of Hesse that he struggled alot and documented this in his writing. It's time for me to re-read this incredible book.

I don't know the "Amazon.com Customer" who wrote the 1998 review of Hesse's small book of essays _If the War Goes On_. What I do know is more than 30 YEARS after reading the same essay, "THE EUROPEAN", I'm obliged to continue recommending it to people everywhere. Hesse was European and German yet a pacifist. He also was a person with a healthy self-criticism for the population to which he belonged. In pre-Hitlerian Europe (specifically Germany) he must have suffered for his ideas and feelings far from the Teutonic/Euro ordinary. Yet he had enough courage to claim and share what he perceived. "The European" is a lesson for our times. Get this book. Share this essay.

What is it like to be a famous German novelist living in Switzerland during World War II? Innumerable Germans at their wits' end would write Hermann Hesse hoping that somehow he could help them. In this collection of short pieces, Hesse shows that the best way he knew to achieve peace was to use his pen.

It is worth getting your hands on this book just in order to read "The European," which reminds us that philosophy must above all be practical.

This book is both hilarious and thoughtful. 50 full-color "modern propaganda" posters which come "from" the Bush Administration and attempt to sway Americans to support illegal wiretaps, torture, war, intelligent design, etc. Each poster is accompanied by a well-written essay summing up the salient points of the issue and devastating Bush's legal reasoning and excuses for his positions. Highly recommended.

Humor illustrates tough truths in this new book of propaganda posters from Micah Wright. This time he writes his own accompanying political text instead of relying the Center for Constitutional Research, and the book does not suffer for it... in fact, the text is both informative AND funny. A great book.

Thats almost as funny as Mr.Wrights book. If You're Not a Terrorist, Then Stop Asking Questions is a recommended satire of the evil accuring in our country today. The review I am refering to in the subject line is a perfect example of the whole "rightwing will do anything to discredit someone" for their sick cause. Lie, cheat, steal, tell freedom of expression to shut up. Foul little beasties they are. Nasty. Evil. Eh heb, anyway. I highly recommend this book it is the bomb.

Wright totally nails the style of the old propaganda posters from World War I and II in these scathing posters. Totally fresh way to point out our increasingly eroding liberties under the present regime.

I wish we could get full-size posters of these amazing pages to post all over the country so we could possibly wake up the American public that now is the time to start fighting like hell for our liberties before they are all gone.

When the President of the United States reserves the power to ignore the law, lock up American citizens without cause and deny them due process (indefinitely), torture, eavesdrop on thousands of Americans, break treaties and wage illegal wars at a whim - and the list goes on - we are indeed on the verge of losing our democracy forever. Jefferson said "Information is the currency of democracy" and the secrecy employed by this administration is breathtaking. "Democracy dies behind closed doors" is another quote that comes to mind.

This is not a "tinfoil hat" scenario. This is reality. Get this book for yourself and buy a few copies for your friends and family as well.

I did!

This set of articles, written in the early 1990s, is even more relevant today than when they were first written. In contrast to the George Bush the elder's boast that the US was leading us all into a "New World Order" of peace and prosperity, the perspective here is a sober and realistic one: the US is leading the world toward economic depression, a renewal of fascist movements, and if the working class does not take power, World War III. This assessment was based on a series of events, including the gigantic stock market crash of 1987. Preventing World War III, and all that would accompany it, is the challenge facing working people around the world and we need to organize NOW to make sure this is not our future. In light of this, this issue of New International includes an extremely informative article on Cuba, which shows that despite the "Special Period" they were living through, without aid from the Soviet Union, the Cubans were still fighting for a socialist society and because they refused to bow down to capitalist America, they continued to be a thorn in the side of the US. All of this is even more true today, as the stock market bubble of the 1990s has now decisively burst. And what is most striking today is how the jockeying for position heading into the war with Iraq is showing just what this article said: that competition between "allies" within NATO would sharpen. Just look at all the anti-French and German propaganda going around right now and you'll see just how accurate this set of articles was and still is today.

This book explains the meaning of the 1987 New York stock market crash and its repercussions; the "Special Period" (term used in Cuba for the economic crisis caused by the collapse in trade with the former USSR and Eastern Bloc, the tightening of the U.S. trade embargo, and the revolution's own admitted errors); the struggle against Stalinism and the "pockets of capitalism" in Cuba, led by the Cuban Communist Party and the revolutionary government; and why the Cuban revolution is still an inspiration for working people all over the world. The march led by Yanqui-U.S. imperialism, in the first place, toward fascism and world war, against its allies/imperialist rivals, against the post-capitalist economic foundations which survive in the workers states ( ex-USSR, Eastern Europe, China, etc.) and against the workers and farmers the world over, including those in the imperialist countries, is explained as well. Finally, this book points out that there is only one road forward for the resistance to this barbarous future: to follow the example of the Bolshevik revolution and the example of the Cuban revolution, applied to the specific conditions of each country, which is both possible and necessary even in the imperialist countries, the U.S. included. Above all, this book is a message of hope and scientific confidence in the workers and farmers of the whole world, based on the experience of the militants who are building the beginnings of a revolutionary workers party in the belly of the Imperial Beast.

This 1994 volume takes up the long-term economic crisis of capitalism and how it drives the U.S. rulers toward more severe conflicts with their international rivals, and toward a showdown with workers and farmers at home. It explains the rise of fascist perspectives, such as those of Patrick Buchanan and Jean-Marie Le Pen, as the inevitable product of the social crisis that is unfolding. And it describes the increasing use of military force to defend the interests of U.S. capitalism as the result of the needs of a declining empire, not just as the choice of certain politicians.

This book's main article is a resolution adopted in 1988 by the Socialist Workers Party explaining the causes and results of the stock market crash. It is a remarkable picture of the growing conflicts between the big capitalist powers--the US, Europe, and Japan--and the economic crises, colonial wars, and other problems that have issued from those conflicts since then. Moreover, there is a program, just as relevant then and today for workers, youth, farmers, racial and national minorities to fight their way out of that to socialism. Not prophecy, but scientific socialist answers about where we have been and where we are going.

"OCTOBER 1987: a near-meltdown of stock exchanges world wide lays bare capitalism's new vulnerability and increaing instability. 1989-91: counterrevolutionary Stalinist police apparatuses in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union come tumbling down. 1991: a war against Iraq that Washington seeks to portray as victory of a new world order results instead in increasing conflicts among NATO powers themselves, and between them and others in the 'victorious coalition,' from Moscow to Riyadh.

1991-1992: in Gulf War's aftermath, it becomes clear that world capitalism has sunk into depression conditions for the first time in half a century; polarization between wealth and poverty grows, insecurity deepens, and ultrarightist forces gain new ground. 1994: despite most difficult conditions in 35 years, Cuba's working people fight to maintain proletarian social relations conquered through their revolution, giving the lie to expectations of 'friend' and foe alike.

"These are just a few of the events analyzed in this issue of New International that have transformed world politics and frame the growing class conflicts and military confrontations before us today. How the working class and its allies respond to the accelerated capitalist disorder will determine whether or not imperialism's march toward fascism and war can be stopped....And whether a road to the communist future of humanity will be opened" (from the back cover).

This book give types of Insurgencies that history has show us and the definitions that make them different to each other.

I had never thought of insurgency and terrorism as having enough material to justify having a textbook on the subject. Then again I didn't realize just how many different insurgencies are going on at any one time. In fact, he concentrates on the contemporary world, only mentioning in passing that Roman Armies also fought insurgents.

Part of a scientific analysis is to classify them into types based on common attributes. By assigning names to these classes, we make it so that we can use these names and immediately know what kinds of programs have worked against them in the past, and of course what have not.

Dr. O'Neill has looked into the Types of Insurgencies, Politics and forms of Warfare, Insurgent Strategies, the Physical Environment, the Human Environment, Types of Popular Support, Organizational Structure, External Support, and Government Response.

Through these classifications, he is, for the first time beginning to draw together a consistent approach to the study of terroism. Perhaps this is the start of a Terrorism Science to go along with Naval Science or Military Science.

This is an excellent book. The author is a well known and respected expert of the field. The book begins with an introduction that attempts to level set and baseline definitions and meanings. Although this may appear to be semantics, the differences both subtle and great is important. The book is well organized it is easy to refer to a specific chapter or section in the event you need a quick refresher and or reference. The book is well written, concise and offers a large quantity of foot notes at the end of each chapter. This book is for both the expert and the novice.

Terry Tucker, Adjunct Professor, Military Studies/History University of Maryland and Senior Doctrine Developer SANGMP, Vinnell Arabia

I have read the first edition of this book and I found it very useful to understand insurgency and terrorism. Moreover I wish I had read this book when I was in Colombia or in Haiti where we had to deal with insurgencies. In my opinion the book is an important tool for the intelligence analyst because it shows a framework to analyze the complex phenomenon of guerilla and insurgency. It was very valuable for me to learn about the four strategic approaches (conspiratorial - military focus - protracted popular war - and urban warfare)

As I wrote above, I read the first edition, so I don't know if the ideas that I'm going to write about are been included or not. The first one is about the "Legal Warfare" that was developed by the Insurgencies in Colombia and Argentina. It consists in accused soldiers of violations of human's rights. On almost every occasion they were false accusations. Therefore, they were judged and condemned by the civil authorities. However, nobody accused the terrorists of human right violations. The last one is about the insurgency that is developed from a defeated army. This is the case of what Col Volckmann said in his book "We remained" about the resistance in Philippines in World War II.

In conclusion, the book is brilliantly written and is very useful to understand and defeat insurgencies.

Terrorism and Insurgency by Bard E. O'Neill, is an invaluable resource for those interested in understanding insurgency and the relevant factors that lead to its success or failure.

This book appears to be written for a classroom audience (the author in fact provides a proposed semester-length class schedule complete with lesson plans and assigned reading). However, O'Neill also has government analysts and policy makers in mind. Throughout the book, and especially in chapters covering government response and the conclusion, he stresses the value of providing as complete a picture as possible while keeping in mind objectivity and maintaining an unbiased approach to analysis.

O'Neill begins his book by looking at insurgencies and the related fields of terrorism and guerilla warfare. His framework for analysis includes understanding the nature of the insurgency, insurgent strategies, both political and military, understanding the physical as well as human environment, organization, and the role of external support.

In the final chapter, O'Neill lays out a comprehensive lense through which a government analyst could view its adversary and policy makers can create successful counterinsurgency operations. Urging the avoidance of polemics and shortsightedness, O'Neill provides a credible and realistic lense through which to create effective countermeasures.

O'Neill helps to settle many unhelpful arguments and issues for analysts. For example, he rejects the false dichotomy of freedom fighter versus terrorist, as one deals with ends (freedom fighter) and one is a means to get their (terrorism). As such, a freedom fighter can use terrorist tactics to achieve his ends.

Also, a driving factor that many insurgencies use to determine their strategies are the physical and human environment around them and the perceived and real government response. Understanding this is invaluable both for insurgents and counterinsurgency operations.

The ideology, or political campaign, the insurgent group promotes, serves the valuable function of differentiating friend from foe. Providing an alternative to this ideology is integral to separating insurgents from the majority population (assuming the insurgents are a minority).

Many insurgencies survive through external support from other states or insurgent groups. One method students and analysts can use to find weaknesses to exploit is by knowing which insurgent groups do and do not receive external support and the motives for the disparity.

Finally, many responses to insurgency fail because of inflexibility, sloppiness, ignorance, bias, anger, bureaucratic imperative or psychological aversion. These failings create often flawed and fatally mistaken counterinsurgency strategies. Avoiding this should be of primary concern.

If you are interested in the history of the American Left or are a militant trying to understand some of the past lessons of our history concerning the socialist response to various social and labor questions this book is for you. This book is part of a continuing series of volumes of the writings of James P. Cannon that were published by the organization he founded, the Socialist Workers Party, in the 1970's and 1980's. Cannon died in 1974. Look in this space for other related reviews of this series of documents on and by an important American Communist.

In their introduction the editors motivate the purpose for the publication of the book by stating the Cannon was the finest Communist leader that America had ever produced. This an intriguing question. The editors trace their political lineage back to Cannon's leadership of the early Communist Party and later after his expulsion to the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party so their perspective is obvious. What does the documentation provided here show? This certainly is the period of Cannon's political maturation, and the beginning of a long political collaboration working with Trotsky. The period under discussion- from the late 1920's when he was expelled as leader of the American Communist Party to the early 1930's and the start of the great labor upsurge which would bring wide spread unionization to the working class. Cannon won his spurs in this struggle to orient those organizations toward a revolutionary path. One thing is sure- in his prime, which includes this period- Cannon had the instincts to want to lead a revolution and had the evident capacity to do so. That he never had an opportunity to lead a revolution is his personal tragedy and ours as well.

As an expelled faction of the American Communist Party, which continued to stand on the program of the defense of the Russian Revolution, the Cannon group needed an orientation. That they considered themselves an expelled but loyal faction of the Communist Party was the correct orientation for a small propaganda group. The party was where the vast bulk of the advanced political workers were. Immediately going to the "masses", as has occurred with other expelled groupings, then and now, would have proved disastrous. Cannon's group needed to cohere a programmatic basis and recruit a cadre to win over workers and intellectuals from the party. Its Platform of the Communist Opposition, a generally good programmatic statement, was its key analytical tool to win cadre. There are two points in that document that should be of interest to today's militants. Those are the slogans for a workers party and for the right of national self-determination for blacks (at that time called Negroes).

In a pre-revolutionary or revolutionary period a revolutionary workers organization would recruit militants directly to the party. Other events like the labor upheavals in the United States in the 1930's fall in the same category. Thus, using some algebraic formula for drawing workers to a broader revolutionary formation is not necessary. At other times, and the late 1920's and early 1930's was such a period in the United States, the call for a workers party, presumably based on less than a full socialist program, by a propaganda group would be appropriate. In short, propaganda and agitation in favor of a generic workers party is a tactic. The call for such a formation today by militants in the United States is appropriate. In any case, no militant makes such a call for a workers party based on, for example, the model of the British Labor Party, then or now.

The left-wing movement in America, including the Communist Party and its offshoots has always had problems with what has been called the Black Question. The Communist Opposition's position on this question reflects that misconception, taken over from the party. This position has always been associated with American Communist Party member Harry Haywood (see his book Black Bolshevik). Marxists have always considers support to the right of national self-determination to be a wedge against nationalists and to attempt to take the national question off the agenda and put a working class resolution on the agenda. In any case, that programmatic point has always been predicated on there being a possibility for a defined group to form a nation. Absent that, other methods of struggle are necessary to deal with the special oppression, in this case of black people. Part of the problem with the American Communist position is that the conditions which would have created the possibility of a black state were being destroyed with the mechanization of agriculture, the migration of blacks to the Northern industrial centers and the overwhelming need to fight for black people's rights to survive under the conditions of the Great Depression. If one really thinks about it the only realistic time that this slogan could be raised or supported would have been shortly after the American Civil War when the black population was more compacted geographically and there might have been some political will by Radical Republican to back such a scheme. This misconception of the viability (or desirability) of a black nation would later came back to haunt Cannon's group when the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950's and 1960's presented opportunities for intervention in the black struggle. At that time they essentially abstained from recruiting blacks based on their program. They zigzagged between following Malcolm X and Martin Luther King rather than fighing for a socialist program among blacks. And we are still paying the price for that missed opportunity.

The Cannon faction was not the only group expelled from the American Communist Party during the period under review. One cannot understand this period inside the Communist movement if one does not understand which ways the winds were blowing from Moscow. A furious struggle for power in the Russian Communist Party, reflected in the Communist International, was under way during this period. First, the Stalin faction defeated the Trotsky-led Left Opposition, and then shortly thereafter the Bukharin-led Right Opposition was defeated. In America, this was reflected in the expulsion of the Lovestone group, previously the leadership of the Party. The political shakeout from these events was a certain pressure to unite the two expelled factions. Trotsky, and through his influence Cannon argued strenuously that such a combination was unprincipled and unworkable.

Most parliamentary parties, and here the writer includes reformist workers parties, do not confront a question such as this proposed bloc for the simple reason they are not, and do not want to, carry out a revolution. Therefore, such parties, will freely block with any other organization under any advantageous conditions. Not so a revolutionary party. While it may unite, for the moment, with a wide range of organizations for general democratic demands it must have a fairly homogeneous program if it is to lead a revolution. The program of the Right Opposition, in effect, was a transmission belt for reformism. In short, if you unite left and right you have two parties, at least in embryo in one organization. The Russian Revolution and later the Communist International in its better days should have put that idea of unification to rest. For Trotsky, Canon and the International Left Opposition this necessary separation was shown most dramatically in Spain when the formerly Trotskyist Left Opposition led by Andreas Nin fused with the Right Opposition led by his friend Juan Maurin in 1935. The result, the Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), while being the most honest revolutionary party in the Spanish Civil War floundered over revolutionary strategy due to its confused orientation on the popular front, military support to the bourgeois government and a whole range of questions of revolutionary strategy and tactics. The POUM experience is the textbook of what not to do in a revolutionary period. Unfortunately, for confusion on this issue Nin lost his life at the hands of the Stalinists, the POUM leadership was arrested after the May Days in Barcelona and the Spanish Revolution was derailed.

In Communist history, the period under review is called the `Third Period', in theory allegedly the period of the final crisis of capitalism. The conclusions drawn by the Stalinists from this theory was that revolution was on the immediate agenda everywhere and that it was not necessary, and in fact, counterproductive to make alliances with other forces. This writer has read a fair amount of material about this `Third Period', mainly at the level of high policy in the Communist International, especially in regard to Germany where it was a disaster. This volume gives a very nice appreciation by Cannon in a number of articles of how that policy worked at the base, the trade unions and the unemployed. It is painful to see how the Stalinist withdrew from the organized trade union movement and set up their own "red" unions composed mainly of Communist sympathizers. That the Stalinist did not suffer more damage and isolation after this flawed policy was changed later during the great labor battles of the 1930's testifies more to the desperate nature of those struggles than any wisdom learned by the Stalinists. Read this book for more on how to build a workers organization in tough times.

As an addition to the historical record of this period this book is a very good companion to Cannon's own THE COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF AMERICA, 1932-34 and DOG DAYS: JAMES P. CANNON vs. MAX SHACHTMAN IN THE COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF AMERICA, 1931-1933, PROMETHEUS RESEARCH LIBRARY, Spartacist Publishing Co., New York, 2002.

In 1928 James P. Cannon is one of the central leaders of the US Communist Party known through the labor and civil liberties movement as the leader of the International Labor Defense,sent to Moscow to represent his faction in the party. In 1928 Cannon along with two of his assistants happen about Trotsky's critique of the draft program of the Communist International. They decides that these are the right ideas, and they fight for them, knowing they will lose offices, and jobs, not knowing but facing being attacked in the streets, their homes burglarized, pilloried through the labor movement from a leader of tens of thousands to a leader of a dozen. This book shows what Cannon's faith in his ideas meant and how they struggle to build a nucleus of a real movement because of the faith of ideas and in the revolutionary capacities of humanity. Anyone who thinks that Marxism had anything seriously to do with the US Communist party should read this book. Anyone who wants the courage to fight for a real future for the working and farming majority of humanity should read this book.

This might seem a rather obscure set of writings, but in reading through them I found a very rich collection of political writings, one that should be inspiring and useful for any thinking worker or young person today.

James P. Cannon was the central leader of the cadres expelled from the U.S. Communist Party in 1928 for their fight to maintain the revolutionary perspectives of Marx, Lenin and the 1917 Russian Revolution in face of the bureaucratic, conservative and increasingly counterrevolutionary policies imposed by Stalin from Moscow. The articles and speeches in this volume amply illustrate two points Cannon stresses time and again: the importance of political program, starting from a working-class world view, in building a revolutionary leadership; and the importance of knowing what to do next and doing it, based on the objective reality confronting the movement at any given time.

Cannon's writings here also present fascinating details of the working class struggle from these years, including the onset of the 1930s depression, defense campaigns for workers framed up and imprisoned by the bosses and their courts, and important strikes by miners, textile and garment workers in the United States. Don't miss them!

Cannon was a central founder and leader of the working class wing of the Communist Party. He was expelled for organizing opposition to the Stalinization of this party. In these writings Cannon explains the dangers of Stalinism and contrasts it with the revolutionary Marxist alternative that he and a number of other workers were in the process of founding. These writings also touch on little known but important working class struggles before the thirties, like the textile battles of the south and the mineworkers "save the union" movement. Cannon's insights on politics as well as his fine writing ability make this a good read, and an important one for those wanting to discover their roots in the fight for a revolutionary party.

The Left Opposition in the Communist Party USA, expelled in 1928, fought to maintain the traditions of the Russian Revolution against the corruptions and crimes of the bureaucracy of Stalin. This collection of writings by its central leader debates the issues at stake: the future of the USSR, the revolutionary potential in the U.S., revolutionary work in the labor unions, the South and the fight against racism, and much more.

"Letters from Lexington : Reflections on Propaganda" is a compelling collection of letters which reveal the role of the US major media in justifying and championing US government and corporate actions throughout the world. One chapter which illuminates Chomsky's dissident analysis is the chapter entitled, "The PC Thought Police". In this chapter, Chomsky compares the US propaganda system to that of Brezhnev's USSR:

"In the study of any system, it is often useful to look at something radically different, to highlight crucial features. Let's begin, then, by looking at a society that is close to the opposite pole from ours: Brezhnev's USSR.

Consider policy formation. In Brezhnev's USSR, economic policy was determined in secret, by centralized power; popular involvement was nil, except marginally, through the Communist Party. Political policy was in the same hands. The political system was meaningless, with virtually no flow from bottom to top.

Consider next the information system, inevitably constrained by the distribution of economic-political power. In Brezhnev's USSR there was a spectrum, bounded by disagreements within centralized power. True, the media were never obedient enough for the commissars. Thus they were bitterly condemned for undermining public morale during the war in Afghanistan, playing into the hands of the imperial aggressors and their local agents from whom the USSR was courageously defending the people of Afghanistan. For the totalitarian mind, no degree of servility is ever enough.

There were dissidents and alternative media: underground samizdat and foreign radio. According to a 1979 US government-funded study, 77% of blue-collar workers and 96% of the middle elite listened to foreign broadcasts, while the alternative press reached 45% of high-level professionals, 41% of political leaders, 27% of managers, and 14% of blue-collar workers. The study also found most people satisfied with living conditions, favoring state-provided medical care, and largely supportive of state control of heavy industry; emigration was more for personal than political reasons.

Dissidents were bitterly condemned as "anti-Soviet" and "supporters of capitalist imperialism," as demonstrated by the fact that they condemned the evils of the Soviet system instead of marching in parades denouncing the crimes of official enemies. They were also punished, not in the style of US dependencies such as El Salvador, but harshly enough.

The concept "anti-Soviet" is particularly striking. We find similar concepts in Nazi Germany, Brazil under the generals, and totalitarian cultures generally. In a relatively free society, the concept would simply evoke ridicule. Imagine, say, that Italian critics of state power were condemned for "anti-Italianism." Such concepts as "anti-Soviet" are the very hallmark of a totalitarian culture; only the most dedicated and humorless commissar could use such terms.

Well-behaved party hacks were guilty of no such crimes as anti-Sovietism. Their task was to applaud the state and its leaders; or even better, criticize them for deviating from their grand principles, thus instilling the propaganda line by presupposition rather than assertion, always the most effective technique.

With these observations as background, let us turn to our own free society.

Begin again with policy formation. Economic policy is determined in secret; in law and in principle, popular involvement is nil. The Fortune 500 are more diverse than the Politburo, and market mechanisms provide far more diversity than in a command economy. But a corporation, factory, or business is the economic equivalent of fascism: decisions and control are strictly top-down. People are not compelled to purchase the products or rent themselves to survive, but those are the sole choices.

The political system is closely linked to economic power, both through personnel and broader constraints on policy. Efforts of the public to enter the political arena must be barred: liberal elites see such efforts as a dangerous "crisis of democracy," and they are intolerable to statist reactionaries ("conservatives"). The political system has virtually no flow from bottom to top, apart from the local level; the general public appears to regard it as largely meaningless.

The media present a spectrum of opinion, largely reflecting tactical divisions within the state-corporate nexus. True, they are never obedient enough for the commissars. The media were bitterly condemned for undermining public morale during the war in Vietnam, playing into the hands of the imperial aggressors and their local agents from whom the US was courageously defending the people of Vietnam; a Freedom House study provides a dramatic example. For the totalitarian mind, again, no degree of servility is enough.

There are dissidents and other information sources. Foreign radio broadcasts reach virtually no one, but alternative media exist, though without a tiny fraction of the outreach of samizdat. Dissidents are bitterly condemned as "anti-American" and "supporters of Communism" as demonstrated by the fact that they condemn the evils of the American system instead of marching in parades denouncing the crimes of official enemies. But they are not severely punished, at least if they are privileged and of the right color. Again, the concept "anti-American" is particularly striking, the very hallmark of a totalitarian mentality."

Just one example of Chomsky's brilliant analysis contained in this seminal study of how the major US media works together with the US government and its corporate interests to undermine democracy. A must read for any student of journalism.

The double entendre in the title of my review is intentional. Chomsky's letters not only sketch how the USA government manufactured domestic consent for its foreign policies during the early 1990s, it also (perhaps intentionally?) adumbrates by demonstration the salient aspects of the "propaganda model" Chomsky and Edward Herman explored in considerable depth in their work *Manufacturing Consent*.

As for the content of the work, I recommend that readers consult the excellent reviews by Chris Green (always, always read his reviews), Egalitarian, and "Reader" (10.10.99) on this page. I couldn't possibly improve on them.

One last observation: Chomsky resides in Lexington, but I can't help but wonder if the title selection plays on the historical significance Lexington has as the location for the beginning of the American Revolution. Perhaps I am poeticizing the title. Nevertheless, I am quite certain that this work will make the canon of literary political dissent as so many of Chomsky's works have already done.

Chomsky writes that the Sandinistas won an election in November 1984 widely perceived as free and fair but U.S. elites put this down the memory hole. Michael Kinsley noted the "Orwellian" rhetoric of the Reaganites in blaming the Sandinistas for Nicargua's ruined economy, after it had been the official policy of the U.S. backed contras to destroy it. But he praised Nicaragua's 1990 elections as free and fair. Anthony Lewis praised the elections too but criticized the Central American policies of the administration--which included the economic embargo on Nicaragua supported by liberals like him. Chomsky quotes the UNO economist Fransisco Mayorga as estimating that the embargo cost Nicaragua 3 billion.

The implications suggesting that the U.S. is a terrorist state in that it was telling the Nicaraguan people that Contra terror and the embargo would continue unless they voted out the Sandinistas in Feb. 1990, was not noticed in the U.S. media. Indeed Time magazine celebrated the attacks on Nicaraguan civilian infrastructure i.e. U.S./contra war crimes as causing the Sandinistas to be voted out. The killing of the poor by the U.S. backed security forces in El Salvador and Guatemala, which ran elections under extreme terror, received little sustained attention.

Chomsky observes that Laurence Pezullo, while the last U.S. ambassador to Somoza, had advised the National Guard to continue its final mass murder operations which were killing tens of thousands. After Carter couldn't prevent the Sandinistas from taking power, the National Guard, the future Contras, were flown out in U.S. military planes with Red Cross markings (a war crime). The media had nothing to say about the U.S. successfully pressuring the new UNO government in Nicaragua after 1990 to drop its demand that the U.S. comply with the World Court ruling of 1986 that the U.S. stop terrorizing Nicaragua and pay 17 billion dollars in reparations. After the U.S. withheld desperately needed aid, the Chamarro government dropped its demand for U.S. compliance

The media suppressed that evidence of Libyan involvement in the murder of one American that led to the "retaliation" against Libya in 1986 which killed many dozens of civilians, was non-existent according to the West Germans. . Chomsky writes that likewise evidence for Libyan involvement in the Lockerbie bombing is negligible (and years later this is still the truth, see--William .Blum's new book "Freeing the World to Death). In any case, Lockerbie may have been "retaliation" for the U.S. shooting down an Iranian civilian airliner in 1988, killing 290. The commander of a nearby vessel, David Carlson later wrote that the Iranian plane was clearly civilian.and not acting otherwise.. The shoot down, by the U.S.S. Vincennes, Carlson suggested,was designed to test the ship's Aegis missile system. This atrocity was the culmination of U.S. support for Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war; for a few days later Iran capitulated to a cease fire on Iraq's terms. When the commander of the Vincenes came home, he was awarded medals by George Bush Sr. In another case of the U.S. and blowing up planes, Chomsky writes that George Schultz later admitted "in a backhand way" that the terrorists who blew up the Air India Flight over Ireland in 1985 killing 329, originated in a mercenary training camp for Central America in Alabama. It was a sting operation that went haywire.

The U.S. funded Noriega's candidate in 1984 elections in Panama that Noriega stole with great violence, a period when he was knee-deep in the drug trade.. George Schultz went down to the inauguration of the candidate, Barletta. The U.S. later soured on Noriega of course, for reasons having nothing to with his bad qualities. As the U.S. invaded Panama to install more reliable drug tycoons in the name of freedom, the Bush senior administration was resuming high tech sales to China and lifted a ban on loans to Saddam's Iraq. After the U.S. suppressed peaceful settlements of the first Gulf war and killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, Thomas Friedman and Alan Cowell explained that after the first Gulf War the U.S. undermined the anti-Saddam rebellion.. They hoped Saddam would remain in place until a more pliable clone of the dictator could overthrow him and restore Iraq to the "iron-fisted" rule that the U.S. had so admired before August 1990.. Ahmad Chalabi complained in the British press about the U.S. supporting Saddam's butchery of the rebels. Chomsky notes that the late Senator Moynihan was heard a great deal during this period about his devotion to the UN charter/international law. Of course, Moynihan had bragged in his 1978 memoir about blocking UN efforts to stop Indonesia's aggression against East Timor in 1975 while U.S. ambassador to the UN. He admitted that the invasion, supported by the U.S. until 1999, had killed 60,000 people by early 1976... The media did not juxtapose proclamations of U.S. opposition to aggressive dictators with U.S. support for aggression in East Timor, Morocco in Western Sahara(also helped along by Moynihan at the UN), Turkey in Cyprus, Turkey's ethnic cleansing of its Kurds, South Africa in Namibia and Angola, etc.

Chomsky analyzes a review by Caleb Carr about a book about America's mid 19th century Indian wars and notes its similarity to a hypothetical apologetic for Nazi expansionism. He exposes some embarrassing contradictions and fallacies in the venerable A. Schlesinger's claim that JFK intended to withdraw from Vietnam without victory.

This short book is lucidly written and full of Chomsky's subtle humor. It is Chomsky at his best and most accessible.

Chomsky is the American Empire's worst enemy. Like anyone who challenges powerful interests and their claims to authority, he has been the target of an unrelenting, but increasingly ineffectual (sometimes comical), smear campaign. Noam Chomsky is a national treasure and a credit to the human species. Read Chomsky's "Letters", or anything else by one of the world's leading advocates for democracy and freedom.

If one wants to understand the debacle or "quagmire" know as the Vietnam War, look no further than this riveting account! In "The Making of a Quagmire," David Halberstam pin points all of the failures of the system years before the first official U.S. troops splash ashore at Danang, Vietnam. His account, a collection of observations about Vietnam under the Diem presidency, is refreshing while at the same time shocking in its findings. While many observers insisted that efforts in Vietnam were progressing so well from 1961-63, Halberstam sees the light. His expose of all the failings of the system includes candid words about the inept south Vietnamese leadership and the American advisors who grow increasingly frustrated with their mission. Most importantly though, Halberstam offers a glimpse into the life of a journalist caught in his own war of censorship.

Before reading this book, my knowledge of the Vietnam war was limited to the movies I had seen on the subject, until recently when a friend recommended this book to me after a brief discussion of the war, its political agenda and its intrigue. Making of a quagmire is an extensive and thourough account of the events in 1961 and 1962 that lead to the eventual full american involvemnt in Vietnam. Halberstam provides an unbeleivable and at times jaw-dropping first hand account of the political and military events of the period, and translates with remarkable skill the frustration of the vicious circle that was the american policy in Vietnam. A must read for any one with even a slight interest in the subject

Halberstam's work is a classic, outlining the dilemma that Vietnam posed to American policymakers in the early 1960s, and written in lucid, newspaper-reporting style. The author's perceptiveness is particularly striking when one considers that he wasn't even 30 years old when he covered Vietnam.

Unfortunately, this McGraw-Hill edition abridges Halberstam's masterpiece. Most of the essential pieces of the story remain, but much of the rich, colorful narrative, which makes this such a fascinating book, is lost. Hopefully, a complete version will return to print soon.

In the early 1960s, David Halberstam was a New York Times correspondent who initially viewed the U.S. political and military-advisory roles in South Viet Nam as a necessary stance against the Communist menace (as defined by Dwight Eisenhower's "domino theory" in Southeast Asia).

But his pessimism grew during tours of the nation, interviews with American military advisors and his concerns surrounding the corrupt South Vietnamese government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. His criticism became so much of a problem to the Kennedy Administration that the president himself lobbied NYT editors to have Halberstam yanked out of South Viet Nam if his reporting continued to run contrary to the government's optimistic pronoucements.

The abridged edition - to make the text more accessible to those not familiar with this history - is a classic retrospective on how Halberstam grew to question the policies of Diem and Kennedy. It also importantly takes the reader through a journey on how he had to walk gingerly through the web of censorship that is played out between the government & the news media.

I read this book when I was a Cadet at West Point. It changed the way I looked at U.S. policy.

Excellent text for the communication specialist or media analyst in search of background on how the American public gets its news about breaking stories -- especially those in which the US Government has a clear policy interest. "Media Access and the Military," using the 1991 Gulf War as a case study, gets as close to "tell it like it is" as we are likely to get on this subject.

For someone who experienced the Gulf War on assignment in Israel and got the report of the Iraqi attack through CNN moments before hearing the first Scud missiles slam into Tel Aviv, "Media Access and the Military" by Judith Raine Baroody is a fascinating read. An extremely insightful, carefully researched analysis of the Gulf War, the study looks beyond the pyrotechnics and smart and not-so-smart bombs that captured public imagination at the time to the crucial role of the press and its interface with the warriors. It's a story not often told, but told here extremely well -- by a seasoned diplomat who is also a scholar and former TV anchor. It is clear that this book will be the definitive statement on the subject for years to come and an absolute must-read for the military and embassy professionals who are called upon to handle public affairs issues during our next war.

Readers in international affairs will greatly benefit from reading "Media Access and the Military." The first and last chapters offer a lively discussion of freedom of speech, of what is considered for public knowledge during a war and how this issue is resolved from the point of view of the press and also from the military point of view.

Journalists and researchers will find the appendix very useful, as it includes the research questionnaire and the list of interviewed persons.

The book also offers a concise history of the Gulf War. Scholarly books have no obligation to be "a good read," but I found it extremely interesting.

For someone who experienced the Gulf War on assignment in Israel and got the report of the Iraqi attack through CNN moments before hearing the first Scud missiles slam into Tel Aviv, "Media Access and the Military" by Judith Raine Baroody is a fascinating read. An extremely insightful, carefully researched analysis of the Gulf War, the study looks beyond the pyrotechnics and smart and not-so-smart bombs that captured public imagination at the time to the crucial role of the press and its interface with the warriors. It's a story not often told, but told here extremely well -- by a seasoned diplomat who is also a scholar and former TV anchor. It is clear that this book will be the definitive statement on the subject for years to come and an absolute must-read for the military and embassy professionals who are called upon to handle public affairs issues during our next war.

The definitive study of this important issue, written with clarity, effective argumentation and comprehensive research. The oral history or the negotiations between the press corps and the Department of Defense is perhaps the most interesting and accessible portion of this TEXT, and gives an insight into the evoling nature of government/media relations.Overall, a valuable contribution to the field.