Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

“Liberals’ loyalty to the United States is off-limits as a subject of political debate. Why is the relative patriotism of the two parties the only issue that is out of bounds for rational discussion?”

In a stunning follow-up to her number one bestseller Slander, leading conservative pundit Ann Coulter contends that liberals have been wrong on every foreign policy issue, from the fight against Communism at home and abroad, the Nixon and the Clinton presidencies, and the struggle with the Soviet empire right up to today’s war on terrorism. “Liberals have a preternatural gift for always striking a position on the side of treason,” says Coulter. “Everyone says liberals love America, too. No, they don’t.” From Truman to Kennedy to Carter to Clinton, America has contained, appeased, and retreated, often sacrificing America’s best interests and security. With the fate of the world in the balance, liberals should leave the defense of the nation to conservatives.

Reexamining the sixty-year history of the Cold War and beyond—including the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Whittaker Chambers–Alger Hiss affair, Ronald Reagan’s challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” the Gulf War, and our present war on terrorism—Coulter reveals how liberals have been horribly wrong in all their political analyses and policy prescriptions. McCarthy, exonerated by the Venona Papers if not before, was basically right about Soviet agents working for the U.S. government. Hiss turned out to be a high-ranking Soviet spy (who consulted Roosevelt at Yalta). Reagan, ridiculed throughout his presidency, ended up winning the Cold War. And George W. Bush, also an object of ridicule, has performed exceptionally in responding to America’s newest threats at home and abroad.

Coulter, who in Slander exposed a liberal bias in today’s media, also examines how history, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, has been written by liberals and, therefore, distorted by their perspective. Far from being irrelevant today, her clearheaded and piercing view of what we’ve been through informs us perfectly for challenges today and in the future.

With Slander, Ann Coulter became the most recognized and talked-about conservative intellectual of the year. Treason, in many ways an even more controversial and prescient book, will ignite impassioned political debate at one of the most crucial moments in our history.

From the Inside Flap

?Liberals? loyalty to the United States is off-limits as a subject of political debate. Why is the relative patriotism of the two parties the only issue that is out of bounds for rational discussion??

In a stunning follow-up to her number one bestseller Slander, leading conservative pundit Ann Coulter contends that liberals have been wrong on every foreign policy issue, from the fight against Communism at home and abroad, the Nixon and the Clinton presidencies, and the struggle with the Soviet empire right up to today?s war on terrorism. ?Liberals have a preternatural gift for always striking a position on the side of treason,? says Coulter. ?Everyone says liberals love America, too. No, they don?t.? From Truman to Kennedy to Carter to Clinton, America has contained, appeased, and retreated, often sacrificing America?s best interests and security. With the fate of the world in the balance, liberals should leave the defense of the nation to conservatives.

Reexamining the sixty-year history of the Cold War and beyond?including the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Whittaker Chambers?Alger Hiss affair, Ronald Reagan?s challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev to ?tear down this wall,? the Gulf War, and our present war on terrorism?Coulter reveals how liberals have been horribly wrong in all their political analyses and policy prescriptions. McCarthy, exonerated by the Venona Papers if not before, was basically right about Soviet agents working for the U.S. government. Hiss turned out to be a high-ranking Soviet spy (who consulted Roosevelt at Yalta). Reagan, ridiculed throughout his presidency, ended up winning the Cold War. And George W. Bush, also an object of ridicule, has performed exceptionally in responding to America?s newest threats at home and abroad.

Coulter, who in Slander exposed a liberal bias in today?s media, also examines how history, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, has been written by liberals and, therefore, distorted by their perspective. Far from being irrelevant today, her clearheaded and piercing view of what we?ve been through informs us perfectly for challenges today and in the future.

With Slander, Ann Coulter became the most recognized and talked-about conservative intellectual of the year. Treason, in many ways an even more controversial and prescient book, will ignite impassioned political debate at one of the most crucial moments in our history.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Crown Forum; 1 edition (June 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400050308
• ISBN-13: 978-1400050307
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,022 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #221,219 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #63 in

  Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political Doctrines > Liberalism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and Interesting, April 16, 2005

By	B. Hunt (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The more I read of Ann Coulter, the more I think she's the wittiest writer around today. She's just hilarious. It's worth also listening to the abridged audio books in the car just to hear her deliver the zingers herself. My husband and I listen to her audio books on long drives, and she has us laughing out loud the whole way.

Aside from being highly entertaining, this book was interesting. She writes in detail about Soviet infiltration of our government and media during the Cold War. The book presented a lot of information that I had never heard before and made me want to investigate the subject further.

Don't be fooled--this book has three stars because people who hate Ann Coulter's politics have been giving the book one star. Buy this book, and you won't be disappointed.

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Proving Ann's Point, July 1, 2003

By	Cambel "cambel" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

In this book Ann moves through the actual events and then compares them to the reporting of the events then and now. A very straight foreward read...

66 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Un-rewriting history, November 11, 2004

By	John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Silver Lake, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (Paperback)

Ann Coulter's thesis in this book is pretty straightforward: left-liberal Democrats have been on the wrong side of every single policy issue, domestic and foreign, without exception, for at least the past sixty years. And she backs up her claim.

It's not that she thinks conservatives are never wrong. But their errors really are _errors_. Over on the Left, they're not just wrong; they're culpably, morally, treasonously wrong. She's had enough noise about their alleged good intentions; their pattern of both opinion and behavior, she contends, is nothing short of sedition.

This subject -- i.e., the claim that left-liberals are traitors to the Republic -- is of course not one that lends itself to a huggy-squeezy let's-all-just-get-along approach. Liberals may find her a bit hard on the ticker; to borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams, Coulter is not above polemic, sarcasm, and invective the way the ocean is not above the sky. But her polemic is backed by facts and her targets deserve what they get.

Her overall approach is to correct the rewriting recent history has undergone at the hands of the terminally pusillanimous. The history she un-rewrites includes, notably, Senator Joe McCarthy and President Ronald Reagan.

In a series of incisive chapters, Coulter sets the record straight about 'McCarthyism' point by point. She reminds us of just what, exactly, Sen. McCarthy was on about (and when; and of course, as the 'Sen.' indicates, he wasn't involved in the _House_ Un-American Acitivites Committee), and points out (to anyone who missed the news ten years ago when the results of the Army's Venona Project became public) that there were, unquestionably, hundreds of Soviet spies in highly-placed positions in the U.S. government. That alone doesn't mean McCarthy was right -- he did, after all, expend most of his efforts looking not for actual 'spies' but for Communists (whether in government positions or not) -- but I think Coulter does at least manage to reclaim him as a patriot, if a somewhat bumptious one.

She also devotes a good deal of space to a proposition that shouldn't require any defense: that President Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. There are lots of issues on which I respect a wide range of opinions even when I disagree, but this isn't one of them; there is _so_ little question that Reagan (by any reasonable measure the U.S.'s greatest twentieth-century president) won the Cold War that I won't even bother arguing with anyone who thinks otherwise. He was the very first U.S. president to challenge Communism on moral grounds -- and he was the very first U.S. president unwilling to settle for appeasement, peaceful coexistence, or detente, preferring instead to hold out for victory. He got it -- and, if proof be needed, Coulter will prove it to the satisfaction of anyone who is both literate and honest.

Coulter also does a nice job on other subjects -- the Vietnam War, for example, and of course Iraq. In particular she's a lot of fun in the all-too-few passages where she takes aim at left-liberal celebrities. (I can't imagine why anyone takes celebrities' political views seriously merely because they're celebrities. In fact, I don't know of anyone who does, except of course other celebrities.)

But fun or not, make no mistake: by 'treason' Coulter means treason. Her overarching claim, again, is that these folks are not merely mistaken but positively seditious (whether deliberately or because they've been duped). Her no-nonsense conclusion: 'The inevitable logic of the liberal position is to be for treason.'

The whole book is a rare and well-written treat. Put it on your shelf next to Mona Charen's _Useful Idiots_, and pull both of them down the next time you're even _thinking_ about voting for a Democrat.