West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Political Memoir (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The Fourth day of August, 1969, 7:30 of a warm, clear Monday morning, Route 123, Langley, Virginia..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, State Department, Free Press (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In the 1960s, after four years with IBM and two more with the U.S. State Department, William Blum became a radical dissident. As an insider in two worlds, he is well suited to assess the people, events, and ideology of both the bourgeois and radical cultures. In West-Bloc Dissident, Blum brings unexpected wit and insight to his portrayals of both sides of the ideological fence. He draws unsparing portraits of his movement comrades Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, and others. An anti-war activist, he takes on the CIA, FBI, State Department, and police. Also included are firsthand accounts of everything from the underground press to Salvador Allende's Chile.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press; 1 edition (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887128727
• ISBN-13: 978-1887128728
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #189,740 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cursed with a social conscience, January 9, 2004

By	Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book relates the Homeric battle, not between the few and the many, but between the few powerful (who are in control of Imperialist America) and one individual (the author).
Nearly all his fellow travellers left the noble cause. But he persisted and brought us such important and extremely revealing and painful books as 'Killing Hope' and 'Rogue State'.
More, he is amazed that some fellow travellers were CIA infiltrators! Or, that Big Brother lurks nearly permanently over his shoulder.
It was not only a battle against the powerful, but also against himself: his strife to live an easy life (as he says himself: his true, greedy capitalist nature), instead of more or less one of an outcast.

At the end, he is disillusioned ('As a member of the human race, I was embarassed that the 20th century was ending the same way it began, with wars and violence') and scared ('that my own government, responsible for more of the misery than any other human agent, would scare me'). Nevertheless, he continues to fight.

This is a book by a courageous idealist, who continued to defend his political ideals in the face of many defeats, which he took terribly at heart.
As the Magistrate in Coetzee's 'Waiting for the Barbarians', he personifies the conflict between personal conscience on the level of the human race in its totality and the conscience of the member of a specific clan. In other words, it is the battle between the only Just and patriotic bloodthirstiness.

This is not to say that there are not some weaker points in this book: no mention of the fact that the URSS crushed revolutions in East Berlin, Budapest and Prague, or his total despise of social democrats or his big confidence (or should I say, illusion) in the real nature of mankind.

Of course, this autobiography contains a lot of strictly personal facts destined to the '(un)happy few', but I still learned a lot, e.g. Eisenhower, Patton and MacArthur crushed the Bonus Marchers of 1932 and got big promotions!

An exemplary account of a dissident life. Not to be missed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Deal, August 14, 2006

By	Daniel Raphael - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is outstanding both as autobiography and as historical political journalism. Bill Blum has been active--and activist--since an early age, and has a consequent wealth of stories to tell. He was one of the founders of the Washington Free Press, a member of the former alternative press that was illegally harassed and suppressed by the US Postal Service and the FBI-led COINTELPROL operation during the sixties and seventies. He has met Oliver Stone, CIA agents posing as radicals, and former kidnapper/comrades of Patty Hearst, among many others. He's not a "name dropper," though, and this book is neither a People-style cavalcade of the rich and radical, nor one of those waste-of-trees volumes that declaims about "the masses" and "historical forces."

What it is, is an entirely understandable account of his life as a person who cares very much about his world and the people in it. He describes the routine (why is it routine? ever wonder?) poverty he witnessed in his travels through Latin America, his sojourn in Chile before its democratic government was overthrown by the US-engineered coup that ushered in the (truly) fascist regime of General Pinochet, his meetings with the ex-CIA agent, Philip Agee, and much more. He has been around, both geographically and in his efforts to expose and oppose the wrongdoings of a long series of US governments.

One of the attractive things about this book is that most people can relate to it. He's known some really crazy people as well as some sweet and compassionate characters. He describes them all, using his combination of humor and intelligent grasp of what makes people tick. He describes without embellishment his frustrations and happiness with his succession of girlfriends, and his great joy at finally having a child with one of them. He has lived most of his life in various stages of poverty, so he knows the reality of the lives of real people unfiltered by the distance and ignorance of the well-to-do. He is a fellow who lives with few illusions.

Mr. Blum is the author of a well-selling book available here, Killing Hope, and has authored several additional books since that volume. He continues his activities by issuing a periodic email bulletin analyzing current events, and doing public speaking at various events. He's a person worth reading and his life has been a positive contribution to our world.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommend, June 25, 2006

By	Donald A. Brodzik "whatever" (San Francisco, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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A very well written, witty, interesting book. A fascinating history of a very turbulent time. A surprisingly honest history of the author's experiences, critical observations of the state, himself and people in general. A really good read.