The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I was ready to rape and pillage when I headed to Asia in 1971..." (more)
Key Phrases: economic hit man, dream change, United States, Middle East, World Bank (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Having made a splash with Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Perkins offers similarly entertaining but disturbing accounts of the American government wreaking havoc around the world in support of American business. In Perkins's view, American presidents willingly comply with their CEO masters, distributing foreign aid to corrupt Third World leaders who keep a share and return the rest to U.S. business for major projects, leaving their nations poor and massively in debt, and requiring more loans and slavish obedience to U.S. policy. If any leader objects, the CIA destabilizes his government, by assassination if necessary. Gathering evidence is not Perkins's strong suit. Typically, a shadowy figure pulls him aside, insists on anonymity, then reveals all. Critics will rightfully accuse Perkins of dreadful journalism and a taste for conspiracy theories. Yet economists admit that loans and "expert advice" to poor nations are often harmful. Few deny that America has ruthlessly undermined uncooperative governments and supported dictators including Saddam Hussein. Perkins's assertions that the U.S. assassinated Ecuador's reformist president and connived at genocide in Timor and Sudan are not absurd, merely unproven. This book's greatest value may be to encourage a competent journalist to cover the same ground. (June 5)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

A sweeping, bold assault on the tyranny of corporate globalization, full of drama and adventure, with devastating stories of greed run wild. But Perkins is undaunted, and offers imaginative ideas for a different world. -- Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

John Perkins' new book is both an eye-opening expose of global corruption and a fascinating story of adventure and intrigue. This devastating indictment of current economic policies also offers hope by showing the power of the growing movement toward a caring economics worldwide. -- Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and The Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Plume (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452289572
• ISBN-13: 978-0452289574
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,783 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

114 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Perspectives, Though Weak on Details, June 19, 2007

By	Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption (Hardcover)

"The Secret History's" Prologue provides an outstanding summary of the dark side of American generosity as exemplified by the World Bank's actions. The U.S. holds veto power over major World Bank decisions, and its president is appointed by the U.S. president. Perkins asserts that the World Bank's mission quickly became synonymous with proving the capitalist system superior to communism, and to further this role, its employees cultivated cozy relationships with multi-national corporations. This opened the door for economic hit men (EHM) to channel funds from the Bank into schemes appearing to serve the poor while primarily benefiting a few wealthy people.

In the most common scheme, staffers would identify a developing country possessing resources our corporations desired (eg. oil), arrange a huge loan for it, and then direct most of the money to our own corporations and a few collaborators. Infrastructure projects (eg. power plants, airports, industrial parks) would then spring up - however, they seldom helped the poor, and the nation was unable to be able to repay the loan about 50-60% of the time. The EHM could then demand eg. cheap oil, U.N. votes on key issues, and/or troops for eg. Iraq.

Perkins substantiates his "American Empire" label by asserting that the U.S. is run by a big group who collectively act much like a king. They run our largest corporations, and through them, our government. They cycle through the "revolving door" back and forth between businesses and government, fund political campaigns and the media - resulting in a great deal of control over elected officials and the information we receive, regardless of who is elected.

National disasters, like wars and aid projects, are highly profitable for big businesses. A great deal of money for rebuilding is earmarked for U.S. engineering firms and large corporations owning hotel, communications and transportation networks, banks, insurance companies, etc. Sometimes they also provide an opportunity for local governments to extend their oppression - eg. just prior to the 12/26/04 tsunami the Indonesian government was ready to reach an agreement with Aceh rebels largely favorable to them - however, after the disaster disorganized and weakened the Aceh, it instead sent in additional forces to break their resistance in the resource-rich (multinational target)Aceh sector.

Overseas bribery is usually accomplished without violating U.S. law by leasing eg. equipment from companies owned by the target (and friends) at excessive rates; they can then subcontract portions to others at inflated prices. This model can be used to contract for food, housing, cars, fuel, etc. Another means is to offer to arrange for the target's children to attend prestigious U.S. colleges while covering all their expenses and paying consultant/intern salaries while they are in the U.S. U.S. companies also pay local militias for protection, thus weakening local control over them.

Little specific proof of the preceding is offered - however, it follows Perkins' earlier "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and numerous other sources. "The Secret History" then goes on to reference vague specifics in Asia, Africa, and South America in a conspiracy-mongering manner.

Some useful specifics come through, however. Examples include privatizing water in South America and then significantly raising rates to the point of provoking a mini-revolt, engendering political change in another country through energy-extraction agreements that provide little for the resident nation, etc.

Our "bottom-line" seems to be "go along with us or we'll foment revolution and/or assassinate you." Mid-East examples include Iran (early 1950s), and Iraq (early 1960s). (No wonder leaders are leery of American-style democracy.) Those wondering why the U.S. is so concerned about Israel's welfare have the answer provided by Perkins - Israel is America's foot soldier in the area, there to help keep the Mid-East in line.

Where have we ended up? Over half the world lives on less than $2/day, over 2 billion lack basic amenities such electricity, clean water, sanitation, land titles, phones, police and fire protection, the cost of servicing Third World debt exceeds their spending on health and education and is about twice what they receive in foreign aid, developing countries' 1970 trade surplus is now an $11 billion deficit, and U.S. corporations now pay less than 10% of federal taxes - down from 21% in as recently as '01 and over 50% during WWII.

Finally, Perkins is at his weakest in prescribing where we go from here. He senses environmentalism may offer the crisis for reform, and suggests that we all become less greedy.

Bottom Line: Despite the general weakness and generally conspiratorial tone of the book, I still found "The Secret History" to offer compelling perspectives in enough areas to be highly worthwhi

75 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Solutions, less balanced arguments, June 7, 2007

By	Sivakumar Nadarajah "Author of America Misund... - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption (Hardcover)

From what I have seen first-hand in Sri Lanka, a war-torn, tsunami-hit, civilian and minority unfriendly country, I'm not sure if I can completely agree with John Perkins although I immensely enjoyed the book.

Perkins makes sweeping allegations against every move the US government and corporations make in the global front. Although there is credible evidence to most of his arguments, there are other factors to be considered too. Here is a classic example of how things work both ways.

Take Sri Lanka for example. US pledged billions of aid for Tsunami recovery. Most of them came from corporations. Amazon alone collected and contributed $50 million. And I certainly think we helped Sri Lanka purely on humanitarian basis with no hidden agenda at that time. Yet the government of Sri Lanka didn't send the much needed aid to hard hit areas citing civil war and terrorism. Basically, the Sri Lankan minority Tamils and Muslims didn't get the aid because the government of Sri Lanka was not willing to share the aid with the minorities. Then for unknown reasons, the US government didn't force the Sri Lankan government to share the aid. Condi Rice praised the Sri Lankan government. The reason was, we had a strategic business interest in Sri Lanka due to geographical proximity of its ports to East Asia, and we didn't want to spoil the relationship with a government, though it acted unfairly.

So in one hand we wanted to sincerely help, then on the other we wanted to play a "strategic" role, which turned out to be extremely unfair.

Perkin's arguments are valid and I strongly think he makes a very good point. But looking at the Sri Lankan example, we cannot make sweeping allegations at everything that we do. The aid was good. But trying to be strategic and support an evil conduct was unfair and unethical.

One of the greatest pluses of this book is the excellent solutions Perkins has laid out. Only an intelligent and clear thinker like Perkins can come up with this.

Excellent book. 4/5

N.Sivakumar

Author of
America Misunderstood: What a Second Bush Victory Meant to the Rest of the World

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A View from the Seedy Underbelly, July 2, 2007

By	Justin Case - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption (Hardcover)

As a fifty-five year old man, my own history runs from a youthful idealism born in the frenetic 60's to a current disillusionment derived in part from a Supreme Court coup, a piecemeal destruction of the Constitution and a criminal Executive Branch that creates its own laws and ignores legislated ones.

When I read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" a year ago, the questions we all have about how the world got to this point in history suddenly became much clearer.

From a first-person perspective, Perkins exposed the seedy underbelly of the economic giant called the United States.

As Americans we've gotten used to angry epithets being thrown at us from around the world; by "dirty commies", by "tinhorn" South American dictators, by various types of anarchists and by "ignorant" peasants.

And the chant they repeated most often over the years was that the US was an IMPERIALIST nation.

The asbsurdity of this accusation was enough to make make most Americans ignore whatever else these people might have been trying to communicate to us.

But after reading this new Perkins book about the seriously evil deeds our national government and closely allied corporations have been up to for the last sixty years, we are forced to conclude that Empire is perhaps the kindest way to describe "unofficial" American foreign policy since World War II.

Perhaps the most intriguing section of his book--and most pertinent to today's most unsettling issues--is his discussion of the the Mideast's modern history as planned and executed by the major Western powers.

The perception and understanding by these powers that economic success depended on an unlimited and uninterrupted oil supply has underscored virtually every foreign policy initiative by the West since WWII.

The anger and hatred felt by a growing number of Muslims, Asians and other third world citizens did not arise in a vacuum. It has been building for the last six decades--much longer in our own Southern Hemisphere. The West, with the US spearheading the assault, has focused with laser precision on exploiting and safeguarding any lands around the world that have oil under those lands. Most thinking people by now know that Saddam had nothing whatsoever to do with 9-11. So what the hell do you think we're over there for? For God's sake, it was our own economic hitmen and jackals (CIA) who put him in power there in the first place!

Not content with only taking their oil, the corporations that do the actual work have exemplified the worst elements of unbridled capitalism by despoiling the land and water of those countries while giving almost nothing back to the people who are the rightful recipients.

Over the years, I've seen the concept of "unquestioning patriotism" become preeminent in our nation. Those who we depend on to ask those questions--the national media--have become part of the corporatocracy that conspires to create this world empire we call The United States.

John Perkins spent the first part of his life as an important element in the drive to create this empire. He now intends to spend the rest of his life trying to undo what he helped to create.

In a more-enlightened nation, these two books together would be required reading in every high-school history class. Only by seeing past the sophomoric belief that everything we as a nation do is good and that any criticism is unpatriotic will we also be able to hear beyond the angry slogans shouted at us throughout the world by those who have been victims of this; the American Empire.