or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Sell Back Your Copy
For a $6.50 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia [Hardcover]

David Vine (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

List Price: $39.95
Price: $32.54 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $7.41 (19%)
  Special Offers Available
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 7 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Wednesday, February 1? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Textbook Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more

Sell Back Your Copy for $6.50
Whether you buy it used on Amazon for $13.95 or somewhere else, you can sell it back through our Book Trade-In Program at the current price of $6.50.
Used Price$13.95
Trade-in Price$6.50
Price after
Trade-in
$7.45

Book Description

0691138699 978-0691138695 March 31, 2009 First Edition

The American military base on the island of Diego Garcia is one of the most strategically important and secretive U.S. military installations outside the United States. Located near the remote center of the Indian Ocean and accessible only by military transport, the base was a little-known launch pad for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and may house a top-secret CIA prison where terror suspects are interrogated and tortured. But Diego Garcia harbors another dirty secret, one that has been kept from most of the world--until now.

Island of Shame is the first major book to reveal the shocking truth of how the United States conspired with Britain to forcibly expel Diego Garcia's indigenous people--the Chagossians--and deport them to slums in Mauritius and the Seychelles, where most live in dire poverty to this day. Drawing on interviews with Washington insiders, military strategists, and exiled islanders, as well as hundreds of declassified documents, David Vine exposes the secret history of Diego Garcia. He chronicles the Chagossians' dramatic, unfolding story as they struggle to survive in exile and fight to return to their homeland. Tracing U.S. foreign policy from the Cold War to the war on terror, Vine shows how the United States has forged a new and pervasive kind of empire that is quietly dominating the planet with hundreds of overseas military bases.

Island of Shame is an unforgettable exposé of the human costs of empire and a must-read for anyone concerned about U.S. foreign policy and its consequences.The author will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Chagossians.



Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Military Power and Popular Protest: The U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico $24.95

Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia + Military Power and Popular Protest: The U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico
  • This item: Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details

  • Military Power and Popular Protest: The U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vine, assistant professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C., relates the untold story of how in the 1970s, the U.S. forcibly relocated the population of Diego Garcia, a small archipelago near the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, in order to build a military base. Colonized by first the French, then the British, the island was populated by African slaves used to cultivate the coconut plantations fueling Mauritius's sugar industry. Vine reveals how the official U.S. Navy strategy of using island naval bases to secure American power during the Cold War led to the decision to deport the indigenous population, the Chagossians, who were not compensated for the loss of livelihood or property and endured pervasive institutional racism, extreme poverty and health problems. Interviews with surviving Chagossians and the officials who supervised the relocation show the strategic planning and careful coverup in establishing what is now one of the largest military bases in the world. While Vine has done a great service in documenting the forgotten plight of the Chagossians, the book's sluggish pace and painstaking details will dissuade casual readers. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review


[A] meticulously researched, coldly furious book that details precisely how London and Washington colluded in a scheme of population removal more redolent of the eighteenth or nineteenth century than the closing decades of the twentieth. . . . [O]ne likes to think that if Barack Obama were somehow to stumble across a copy of David Vine's fine book, he would instantly realize that a great injustice has been done--one that could easily be put right. -- Jonathan Freedland, New York Review of Books



This angry and angering book is well researched, compelling, and valuable to understanding and emerging US 'empire.' -- Choice



For Vine imperialism, military prerogative and racism have all combined to deny a people a home simply because they were in the way. His succinct style and controlled outrage make for a damning indictment. -- Phil Chamberlain, Tribune



Island of Shame is not just a gut-wrenching account of how a tropical paradise of powder-white beaches and palm fronds was turned into a massive launch pad for America's military expansionist programme. A large chunk of the book is devoted to how the Chagossians came to build their complex but happy society in the islands and the resulting tragedy of their displacement. Above all, Vine is a top flight researcher. . . . We owe Vine a great debt for shining his light on this island of horrors. -- Latha Jishnu, Business Standard



David Vine's story of the Chagossians is an exemplary piece of both socially embedded reportage and investigative journalism, despite a tendency to indulge in the self-conscious idiom of academic ethnography and reflexive criticism of US 'imperialism.' At heart, however, he speaks truth to power. Power, though, is not listening. -- Colin Murphy, Irish Times



David Vine . . . has rendered high service by writing a thoroughly documented expose of the crime, which the world has ignored because one of its perpetrators is a superpower, the U.S., and its accomplice, the U.K. -- A. G. Noorani, Frontline



Vine's important and timely book sheds welcome light on this dark chapter of U.S. military history, questioning the way our military operates and its impact on civilian populations. -- Katherine McCaffrey, American Anthropologist

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 281 pages
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press; First Edition edition (March 31, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0691138699
  • ISBN-13: 978-0691138695
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Painstakingly Researched, and Moving, June 27, 2009
By 
Neil Cotiaux (North Canton, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia (Hardcover)
Anthropologist David Vine spent years researching and writing "Island of Shame", and the meticulousness with which he approached his subject matter shows. For this reader, the book provided important nuances beyond the time constraints of John Pilger's moving television documentary on the deportation of the Chagossians, especially with regard to the type and level of compensation doled out to the evicted Cold War residents of Diego Garcia. (About the only thing missing from "Island of Shame" available within Pilger's first-rate program was the extremely telling on-camera interview with former U.S. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, who became visibly irritated, and questioned Pilger's motives.)

Like Pilger, Vine gets up close and personal with some of the deported Chagossians, explains the caste system at play in their new "home", and makes no bones about displaying sympathy for their plight. Likewise, he does a thorough job examining the development of the U.S. government's Strategic Island Concept, and fully chronicles the interplay between Washington and London in formulating the coverup of the handoff of Diego that persisted for decades. And the Epilogue poignantly demonstrates how geopolitical decisions, once made, can pose enduring moral tribulations for those who become cogs in the public policy machine.

Despite this book's painstaking research on a subject of moral significance, Vine's final chapter on the creation of a "Humanpolitik" descends into a broad-based polemic against military installations and American "empire", with precious little analysis of the pros and cons of the Strategic Island Concept and the use of American beach heads (although his discussion of the Bikinians is directly on-point). Tempering the emotions of this laudable work might have taken the wind out of Vine's sails, but the final chapter of his book, as written, also seems too big a subject to cover seriously in a mere 17 pages.

Despite this shortcoming, "Island of Shame" is well worth reading, slowly and carefully. It expands on John Pilger's admirable work, provides yet another illustration of America's far-reaching hand of power (captured magnificently in Stephen Kinzer's "Overthrow"), and should keep us ever-alert to the actions of government - any government.

Postscript: Soon after the release of this book, the current U.S. Administration released a small group of Chinese Muslims no longer deemed to be "enemy combatants" from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Bermuda. The British Government protested publicly, stating categorically that they had never been consulted by Washington on the matter. One must ask: despite the legitimacy of the release of these individuals, is this another example of London dancing to Washington's tune and engaging in "plausible deniability"?



Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Island of Shame, April 20, 2009
This review is from: Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia (Hardcover)
The book, Island of Shame is a compelling and authoritative account of a shameful episode in our country's history. Based on thorough and well-documented research, Vine presents an exquisitely moving and balanced portrait of the secretive and systematic steps taken by the U.S. and U.K. governments to make way for the Diego Garcia military base on the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Vine recounts the forcible expulsion of the Chagossians who lived there and their removal 1,200 miles away to Mauritius and The Seychelles where they continue to live in abject poverty. Their plight and their struggle to return to Chagos deserve the searing and riveting attention David Vine's book has given them.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia, June 28, 2009
By 
Louis Wolf (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia (Hardcover)
David Vine peels back the veil of secrecy from Diego Garcia. The United States and the United Kingdom committed an ignominious act of historic immorality by forcibly removing the innocent citizens of the island to turn it into a top-secret strategic base for military operations.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews


Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
copra workers, root shock, base displacement, overseas bases, double discrimination, previous empires
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Diego Garcia, United States, Indian Ocean, World War, Peros Banhos, United Kingdom, State Department, British Government, Strategic Island Concept, Port Louis, Mauritian Government, Cold War, Great Britain, Persian Gulf, Systems Analysis, Puerto Rico, Middle East, Air Force, Soviet Union, Marie Ange, Exclusive Control, Marshall Islands, Pearl Harbor, Foreign Office, South Korea
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums



So You'd Like to...



Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject