The Secret History of the American Empire - book

The Secret History of the American Empire, John Perkins (Dutton, 2007)

John Perkins, as you probably know, is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, his account of how he and others like him employed the most insidious tactics to help create the U.S. (secret) empire. Apparently after many years of participating in this brutal, unethical, and dishonest endeavor, feelings of guilt overcame him and he felt the need to confess. This current book is a continuation of that confession with many more cases and details and, finally, some recommendations for how we might bring about meaningful change.

I believe that everyone should read both of these eye-opening and sensational books, and reflect carefully on what our country has been about for so many years. As they read in part almost like spy novels there is a tendency to not take it all seriously, but that would be a great mistake. Perkins was there, he participated, he knows what he is talking about, and if it seems stranger than fiction, it is. Both books are well written, easy to read, pull few, if any, punches, and would actually be enjoyable if they were not so unpleasantly true. I bet even Republicans could manage to read them if they would (unlikely). Personally, I would recommend they be required reading for all graduating High School seniors, a recommendation so “far out” it would be like claiming George Washington didn’t cut down the cherry tree.

During his tenure as an economic hit man Perkins participated in events all over the globe. He reviews many of the “projects” in different parts of the world: Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Everywhere the methods and techniques used to exploit other nations were the same. This basically amounted to finding corrupt officials, Presidents, Dictators, high-level officials, those with power, offering them fortunes for going along with schemes designed to exploit their resources and impoverish their people, and then keeping them so indebted to the IMF or the World Bank they could not resist doing what they were ordered to do. It was a clever scheme that allowed us to create a world-wide empire without having always to resort to naked military aggression. But when the usual procedures failed to work, as they sometimes did when they encountered an honest man or woman, they did not hesitate to call in the “jackals,” the true hit men who carried out assassinations on command (this seems to have been not at all uncommon). After the publication of Perkin’s first book, some of these individuals approached him with their stories, knowing they carried the same burden of guilt that motivated Perkins to write his confession. The books are so fascinating, and read in part so like fiction, I think the style may actually be a tad inappropriate for the seriousness of the subject matter, but maybe not.

While I found his accounts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa of great interest, and there is no doubt of their tremendous importance to world affairs, I found the section on Latin America to be the most interesting, and the outcomes of unusual significance. Here we encountered some rare leaders in recent years that could not be corrupted, and who together are bringing about the most monumental changes in the world, and certainly in the Secret Empire. Presidents of Latin American countries, like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Michelle Bachelet, Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner, Luis Inacio “Lula” Da Silva, Rafael Delgado, Alan Garcia Perez, and others, have moved away from so much U.S. influence, and have discussed joining together for defense and switching their military objectives away from defending multinational corporations to defending their countries from foreign intervention. Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, in particular, have avoided assassination as well as the temptation of big money for doing “the right thing” (selling out their countrymen to corporate exploitation). The relationship of Latin American countries to the U.S. has changed dramatically, they will never again be at the mercy of those who wish only to exploit their labor and resources. This is a change so profound I doubt the full implications of it have completely registered with our unusually dimwitted Congress. Our loss of empire is beginning in Latin America but will inevitably not stop there. You do, I believe, eventually have to pay for your sins.

While I applaud Perkins for his honesty and his exposing of American greed and dishonesty, when it comes to his recommendations for what we might do to change all this, I wonder that he may be overly optimistic. He speaks of the “New Capitalism,” that may result from the pressure on corporations to change their behavior and recognize they should cease being so exploitive. I have no doubt that in some cases corporations have been forced to change their behaviors in ways that are more citizen friendly, but I wonder how realistic it is to believe they will truly change, given their primary motive is short-term profit. Further, it has been obvious for a long time that short-term profits may prove to be eventually disastrous in the long run, but this has not significantly motivated much change so far. What is worse, I fear, is that what he suggests will be immediately termed “socialism” by the powers that be, and Americans have been conditioned to respond to the term “socialism” in the same way they respond to the term “rattlesnake.” I wish I could be as optimistic as Perkins, but, alas, I am not. We desperately need a form of “Democratic Socialism,” but, of course, that would require the filthy rich and the corporations to pay more taxes, a genuine “no-no” here in the good old U.S. of Greed, exploitation, and short-sightedness. The empire is beginning to crumble.