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Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 Reprint Edition

by Kathryn S. Olmsted (Author)

4.3 88 ratings

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Many Americans believe that their own government is guilty of shocking crimes. Government agents shot the president. They faked the moon landing. They stood by and allowed the murders of 2,400 servicemen in Hawaii. Although paranoia has been a feature of the American scene since the birth of the Republic, in Real Enemies Kathryn Olmsted shows that it was only in the twentieth century that strange and unlikely conspiracy theories became central to American politics. In particular, she posits World War I as a critical turning point and shows that as the federal bureaucracy expanded, Americans grew more fearful of the government itself--the military, the intelligence community, and even the President. Analyzing the wide-spread suspicions surrounding such events as Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, Watergate, and 9/11, Olmsted sheds light on why so many Americans believe that their government conspires against them, why more people believe these theories over time, and how real conspiracies--such as the infamous Northwoods plan--have fueled our paranoia about the governments we ourselves elect.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[E]xquisitely researched and annotated new book...[H]er compilation presents a startling read of public history."--Chicago Tribune

"[An] energetic narrative shows an increasingly complex national security apparatus both prompting conspiracy theories and promulgating its own. Convincing study of how alternative histories develop."--Kirkus Reviews

"Though most conspiracy theories are nonsense, Real Enemies demonstrates that actors in and around American government have been engaged in conspiracies against the public interest for decades."--Chronicles

"Real Enemies is a study of paranoia in American politics, and of course, as Kathryn Olmsted shows, the paranoia begins far too often in the Oval Office. Olmsted makes it clear, however, that it didn't start with Richard Nixon or George W. Bush. Political paranoia, it turns out, is as American as political demagoguery."--Seymour M. Hersh, author of Chain of Command

"Kathryn Olmsted has written a brave, provocative, and audacious book. Her willingness to subject the systemic effects of consistent patterns of official government deception--together with the popular conspiracist 'blowback' this deception inspires and empowers--to scholarly scrutiny invites us to ask troubling but necessary questions about the nature of our political leadership."--Eric Alterman, author of When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences

"Once in a while, a talented historian writes a book about a neglected topic that millions of Americans think about all the time. Real Enemies is one of those rare and indispensable studies. With grace and impeccable judgment, Kathryn Olmsted illuminates one of the darker regions of the nation's political history. Richard Hofstadter would be pleased."--Michael Kazin, author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

"A revealing study of the impact of conspiracy theories on American society and politics...[With] careful, mature analysis, Kathryn Olmsted investigates every major conspiracy theory and monger in U.S. history." --Book of the Month Club 2

Book Description

A fascinating look at anti-government theories from the birth of the modern state in World War I to the current war on terror.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (March 11, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199753954
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199753956
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1 x 6.1 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,353,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,143 in Communication & Media Studies
- #5,395 in History & Theory of Politics
- #11,572 in Sociology Reference

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4.3 88 ratings

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Customers find the book provides good insight and analysis into conspiracy theories. It is well-written and entertaining, with an extensive bibliography. Readers appreciate the thorough understanding it provides of the origins of these theories.

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Customers find the book provides good insight into conspiracy theories and their origins. They appreciate its analytical approach and provocative content that makes them question everything. The book is considered one of the best historical texts on conspiracy history.

"...It is just very interesting look at conspiracy theories of all types with explanations of how they got started including extensive documentation..." Read more

"This is professional history at its best -- imaginative and analytical, solidly grounded in the relevant sources, smoothly and entertainingly written..." Read more

"...Would recommend for those that love good conspiracy theories and would like good information and facts that support it...." Read more

"This book makes you question EVERYTHING. It's an amazing read and makes you wonder how these possible conspiracies could have ever happened...." Read more

4 customers mention "Readability"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and well-written. It provides a thorough understanding of conspiracy theories and includes an extensive bibliography. The writing style is entertaining and doesn't sound like a teacher lecturing. The book includes documentation and bibliographies at the end that support the author's concepts.

"...all types with explanations of how they got started including extensive documentation and bibliography at the end...." Read more

"...solidly grounded in the relevant sources, smoothly and entertainingly written, and with an unbeatable cast of paranoid ideologists, duplicitous..." Read more

"...discussing the multiple conspiracy theories and gives the reader a thorough understanding of the birth of conspiracy theories and the way in which..." Read more

"...don't believe in any conspiracy theories but I think this articulated some good thoughts." Read more

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William J. Christensen
very interesting and provocative book
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2009
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This is a great book if the idea of reviewing past histories of "conspiracy theories" are of interest to you, from WWI to 9/11. The book is just packed full of information and documents to back up the concepts of the author. It reads like a PhD thesis----packed full of information and is not a book that will put you to sleep. It took concentration from me, even though it was well written. And It will take me at least a couple of reads to really get a handle on most of the topics. It is just very interesting look at conspiracy theories of all types with explanations of how they got started including extensive documentation and bibliography at the end. It would be a good research book and you could expand on any of the topics that may interest you by use of its excellent and extensive bibliography.

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William W. Hagen
conspiracists in power vs. conspiracists out of power
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2020
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This is professional history at its best -- imaginative and analytical, solidly grounded in the relevant sources, smoothly and entertainingly written, and with an unbeatable cast of paranoid ideologists, duplicitous and/or self-righteous politicians, self-serving opportunists, and government dirty tricksters and warmongers. The argument centers on a feedback loop, often downwardly spiraling, between governmental secrecy and reactions to it, in both sophisticated and unsophisticated minds. It couldn't be more relevant to today's political scene, but it also deepens understanding of executive power and privilege in the USA since Wilson's entry into World War I.

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No Self
Very good book, but lacking a solution.
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2020
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I found this to be a very good book, but lacking a solution. For more of what to do about our situation, I actually preferred James LaFerla's book "Conscious Neuroplastic Mediation: The Next Step in the Evolution of Human Consciousness."

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iSklcndykid
The Good vs. The Bad
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2013
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Well written, though it was assigned by my teacher I find the book enjoyable and inexpensive to boot unlike most books. The author stays neutral while discussing the multiple conspiracy theories and gives the reader a thorough understanding of the birth of conspiracy theories and the way in which they have impacted society. Would recommend for those that love good conspiracy theories and would like good information and facts that support it. Well written, keeps the reader entertained and does not sound like a teacher droning on and on.

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6 people found this helpful

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Daphne Mae
Holy ****
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2013
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This book makes you question EVERYTHING. It's an amazing read and makes you wonder how these possible conspiracies could have ever happened. It's a must for anyone who is interested in conspiracy theories.

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W. Green
Magicians of Mud
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2012
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REAL ENEMIES is a quick summary of the "facts" related to conspiracies alleged to have occurred over the past century. The author Olmsted finds that with the increase in government power and the democratization of information, conspiracy theories have been increasing. Of course such theories are speculation based on available information. Proof of criminal conspiracy requires facts showing that at least two people willingly agreed to commit a crime and took some action toward that end. Attempting to prove conspiracy involving government officials is difficult because the criminal "defendants" can control the release of the "facts" and the investigative system.

Some "conspiracy" theories: Did President Wilson deceive the public leading to the American participation in World War I? Did Roosevelt know about Pearl Harbor but allow it to happen so the USA would be forced to enter World War II? Did Lyndon Johnson and others warp the "facts" to hide the truth about the JFK assassination? Did Nixon create a criminal snoop machine and then attempt to hide the truth? Did the Reagan government conspire to use illegal means to fund rogue military operations? Did "W" Bush create or take advantage of the events of 911 go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The answers to all of these questions as presented in this historical summary could be: "yes", "maybe" "sort of", "possibly", "it depends of your point of view", and so on. Justifications for the possible illegal actions of officials are often cited: Wilson and Roosevelt needed to deceive the public in order to pull America into necessary wars and Lyndon Johnson and Hoover packaged an official JFK "lone nut" story to avoid igniting a nuclear war. The cover-up conspiracies that inevitably follow such disasters as Pearl Harbor or 911 could just be products of human nature. Bureaucrats and politicians need to put a pretty (or ignorant) face on their incompetence. But, as the author relates, no conspirator ever "takes the fall"-- no one goes to prison -- rarely is anyone even fired. Life goes on. Conspiracies continue.

There is a tone in the book that many of the conspiracy theories are set forth by the "little people" who do not have the facts and often jump to erroneous conclusions. It is suggested that shoe clerks and housewives find excitement in the conspiratorial chase otherwise not found in their mundane lives. And that often the government conspirators are "good guys" who cannot expose the logical motives behind their actions for reasons of national security. But then again even that could also just be a smoke screen.

Ultimately, the book shows that governmental and political criminal conspiracies and cover-ups are a real and continuing phenomena, obscured by the power of those who commit the crimes to create "official" stories, to manipulate public opinion, to delay or eliminate the release of facts, and to pardon those who happen to get caught.

After taking great pains in the book to appear neutral on the subject, the author identifies the book title perpetrators and summarizes the problem: "it is the secret actions of the government that are the real enemies of democracy."

I would add that it is the excessive power and often the criminality and incompetence of those in government that permits them to easily conceal the real motives, the crimes, the mistakes, the bribers, manipulators and "ego-driven crazies" involved in the conspiracies. Powerful politicians and bureaucrats like Johnson, Hoover and Helms working within the governmental/corporate/bureaucratic power structure are the magicians of mud who constantly dirty the waters of truth to conceal their crimes from a gullible and weary public.

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Leenebee
Good insight, current
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2013
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This book is wonderful. There is a lot of good insight contributed by Olmsted, and the correlations drawn are well supported. I would read this book 3 times.

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Jürgen Schwarzer
immer wieder dasselbe
Reviewed in Germany on February 25, 2014
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wer an einem krieg teilnehmen möchte - als regierung, meine ich, während das dumme volk nicht mitmachen will - inszeniert
am besten einen angemessenen kriegsgrund, tausend bis dreitausend (eigene) tote reichen schon aus (war's nicht napoleon,
dem 100.000 "nichts" bedeuteten? & wie sagte doch der (heilige!) augustinus, nach dem die CDU gar eine stadt in NRW be-
nannte: "was hat man denn gegen den krieg - etwa, daß menschen, die doch alle sterben müssen, darin umkommen?") dieses
buch beweist, wie (nicht nur) die USA vor allen kriegen, die sie führten (und lange schon vor dem 1.WK) ihr volk (natürlich auch
die weltöffentlichkeit) zunächst an der nase herumführten (man könnte es auch drastischer formulieren... Olmsted klärt auch
(endlich), daß verschwörungstheorien eben nicht die sind, die man gerne den aufklärungs"spinnern" anhängen möchte, sondern
zunächst & meist die, mit denen die regierung sich die deutungshoheit in der öffentlichen meinung (also den medien) schafft...
es sollte dringend auch ins deutsche übersetzt werden!

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Anglian Traveller
If you want to know where nut-job conspiracy theories originate, look to the US government: the `real enemies' of democracy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2013
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Kathryn Olmsted is Professor of History at the University of California, author of a biography of Elizabeth Bentley and of `Challenging the Secret Government: the post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA & FBI'.

In `Real Enemies' (published in 2009), Olmsted tackles the tradition of anti-government conspiracy theories in the USA. The origin of the tradition can be found, she demonstrates, in the actions of various administrations throughout the 20th century which have led to an escalating climate of paranoia and suspicion. The catalogue of subterfuge, cover-ups and half-truths perpetrated by various US administrations begins with President Woodrow Wilson's alleged machinations to take the USA into the First World War on the allied side, and concludes with the Bush 43 administration's clumsy mishandling of the 9/11 Commission and attempts to implicate Saddam Hussein in the 9/11 attacks & fictional WMD programs. On the way we are treated to revealing chapters on FDR's interference in the Pearl Harbor investigation (where attempts were made to scapegoat local naval commanders in Hawaii and exonerate others more demonstrably culpable of neglect-of-duty); the `Red Scare' of the 1950s championed by Senator McCarthy; the JFK assassination & Warren Commission report; the Watergate scandal and the Iran-contra affair of the 1990s.

As an academic historian Olmsted displays admirable investigative rigour, sticks to the facts and to demonstrable evidence, and writes with a refreshingly direct style.

Throughout the 20th century the power and reach of the US Government has (for mostly defensible reasons) grown exponentially, concurrent with the appropriation of escalating taxpayer revenue. The creation of an alphabet soup of often competing and mutually uncooperative intelligence bureaucracies has further extended this power, making it ever-more opaque. Moreover, it is openly admitted that agencies of the US government - including the President himself on occasions - have conspired to assassinate other heads of state (JFK persistently supported the CIA's botched and incompetent attempts to murder Fidel Castro for example) and gain political advantage through illegal and even criminal practices, i.e. Nixon's collusion with Republican-Party-sympathising ex-CIA agents to break into the offices of his Democrat Party opponents to plant recording bugs, and the Reagan administration's later involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal. The public have been persistently lied to, in attempts to cover-up such blatantly illegal and unconstitutional practices.

This nefarious history has gradually created a climate of suspicion, where an increasing proportion of the US population simply does not believe anything the government tells them - or at best remains highly skeptical. Trust in the government's fundamental honesty in the early 20th century was in the 90%+ range; this has gradually eroded to the point where it's now in the single-digit percentile. In this fetid swamp, conspiracy theories fester and grow, their proponents citing genuine precedents of government deceit and double-dealing to imply that even outlandishly bogus theories should be given credence.

Olmsted points out that the administration's occasional support for incomplete narratives of major events are not always for nefarious reasons, but sometimes for motives genuinely commendable. In chapter 4 `The Dealey Plaza Irregulars' for example she explains why President Johnson explicitly instructed the Warren Commission to play down Lee Harvey Oswald's hard-line communist credentials, from a fear that a proven Castro-Oswald link would create a populist call for the invasion of Cuba leading to a very real threat of thermonuclear war with the USSR. A fantasy that elements of the CIA and the mafia were involved in the JFK assassination was concocted from the fact that precisely such collusion had existed to assassinate Castro, supported by the Kennedy administration. The Soviet KGB also had an urgent need to defuse the prospect of cataclysmic nuclear war with the West; their psychological warfare division seeded stories of CIA/mafia involvement in the JFK assassination into several European political journals and fed it to (among others) Jim Garrison, a self-aggrandising & ego-driven public prosecutor in New Orleans who was successfully deceived into promoting the bogus conspiracy theory. The CIA played along with the game because it was in their interests to do so, despite the fact that no real evidence of CIA involvement in the JFK assassination ever emerged. You can understand why the Johnson Administration did not permit the Commission to publish damning evidence of Castro's culpability in JFK's assassination (it's not as though Castro lacked motive, as JFK had tried to murder him); thanks to Johnson's determination that any Castro-Oswald-communist link be suppressed, it's arguable that World War 3 was averted.

So sure, the Warren Commission Report was `incomplete' - for good reasons. Those ignorant of the facts, fuelled by liberal ideology and fertile imagination, leaped to completely erroneous conclusions and were manipulated into feeding a self-perpetuating mythology.

The author also demonstrates that `government' is not a single entity, but different elements are frequently in conflict, i.e. the CIA refused to support the fraudulent `Saddam-9/11' connection and was also unconvinced that Saddam had WMDs, fantasies the Bush-Cheney administration manufactured to gain public support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The book concludes by exploring some negative consequences of conspiracy-theorist thinking:

"...the costs of conspiracy theories outweigh their benefit; too often conspiracists press their analysis beyond the realms of facts and logic and inject toxins into the public discourse" (p236)

The classic MO of skilled disinformation campaigns is to work with the grain of pre-existing belief in your target audience, make them focus on what you want them to look at and away from real, important matters you want them to ignore. By channelling belief into concocted frauds like the CIA was involved in the JFK assassination or blatant stupidities like the twin towers of the WTC were destroyed by controlled demolition, provable examples of government lying & deceit become drowned out by the noise and continue unchecked. Persistently barking up the wrong tree wastes time and energy by pursuing delusional trash (`9/11 was an inside job' for example). Peddlers of conspiracy theories are - to say the least - very useful to the government in that they distract attention with nonsense, whilst ensuring no-one is held accountable for real-world intelligence failures, and genuine nefarious scheming is ignored. Conspiracy theories are used to contaminate the pool, everyone employed by the government keeps their jobs or gets promoted, Iraq was successfully looted by private interests, and abuses of power continue right out in the open with impunity.

So US governments past and present, claims Olmsted, are culpable in creating the swamp in which these poisonous weeds of delusion are encouraged to bloom. "Excessive secrecy breeds mistrust, which can make it impossible for democracy to flourish. By contrast, transparency causes government officials to hesitate before they engage in real conspiracies - and at the same time restores Americans' trust in their government" (p238).

Olmsted remains pessimistic that this cycle of mistrust and deceit is likely to dissipate in the near future. She demonstrates that conspiracy theorists more often than not undermine democracy, their outlandish theories help obscure the truth and conceal genuine government wrongdoing, and concludes:

"With cool calculation, (the government) has promoted conspiracy theories, sometimes demonstrably false ones, for their own purposes...it is the secret actions of the government that are the real enemies of democracy" (p240).

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F Henwood
On the Relationship between Official and Unofficial Conspiracy Theories
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2011
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Karen Olmstead has written an intelligent analysis of how conspiracy theories have shaped American political life. Her book does not discuss whether the theories are well founded. In so far as she does, she is sceptical of the `skeptics' like the 9/11 `Truthers'. But Olmstead wants to situate the emergence of conspiracy theories as an organic part of American political life (as it were) with its origins in the mainstream, not the lunatic fringe.

Conspiracy theories assume outlandish forms but they have some connection with what has actually happened in history.

First of all, in the 20th Century, for better or for worse, the power and scope of the federal bureaucracy and the Presidency has grown. The executive branch and its intelligence agencies have indulged in actual conspiracies and the government has lied to its people: John F. Kennedy's plots to kill Castro and the Bush administration's false pretext to invade Iraq are examples that come to mind. When Richard Nixon said that the law is whatever the President says it is, he presumably had Presidential precedents in mind. When it came to the abuse of executive power, Watergate was a difference in degree, not in kind to previous examples of executive duplicity and abuse of power in the 20th Century.

Second, the government (again mainly the executive and its intelligence agencies) has itself sponsored conspiracy theories, indirectly creating the mulch in which unofficial conspiracies can flourish. The Cold War was the apogee of government-inspired conspiracy theories but we have seen examples of official conspiracy narratives in recent years, in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Third, the inadequacies of the official version of dramatic events like JFK's assassination, 9/11 and so on have added additional stimulus to the `what are they not telling us' style of thinking.

Olmstead reminds us that the government is no monolith and different arms can be at odds with one another. Bush and Cheney's Saddam-9/11 linkage was not peddled by the intelligence agencies. Nor is the government's official narrative of events necessarily motivated by a nefarious desire to exonerate itself of its own culpability. Lyndon B. Johnson's instructions to the Warren Commission to becalm any talk of a conspiracy to assassinate JFK was motivated by a fear that Castro's agents might have been responsible. He knew after all that JFK had tried to kill Castro, so it wasn't as if Castro lacked a motive. LBJ feared that were such a link to be revealed, he would come under intolerable pressure to invade Cuba, perhaps triggering World War III. Hence LBJ's motives in this respect were entirely commendable.

The actual examples of government conspiracies, bungling, incompetent and frequently risible (Castro's exploding cigars or choosing the Bay of Pigs, Castro's favourite fishing spot, as a staging-post for the Counter-Revolution) do not lend support to the fantastical, occult-like powers that some conspiracy theorists attribute to the US government. The US is an open society and no government can plug all the possible holes through which details can leak. Actual conspiracies can and do see the light of day. The extreme theories have an intrinsic implausibility for this very reason.

However, Olmstead reminds us that psychological theories alone cannot explain the appeal of conspiracy theories: they arise, in part, from actual events that have happened in history. The suspicion that the government cannot be trusted, however exaggerated, is based on some foundation. This provides us with an extra angle to understand what is a political as well as psychological phenomenon, a dimension overlooked by David Aaronovitch's otherwise solid work on conspiracy theories Voodoo Histories, which is subtitled `How Conspiracy Theory Has Shaped Modern History.' Olmstead reminds us that it has actually cut both ways.

Olmstead sums up noting that the tragedy of conspiratorial thinking is that it becomes obsessed with theories to whether the twin towers was a controlled demolition while overlooking the real, documented examples of the abuse of political power. On occasions, such as the Iran-Contra scandal, government agents like Oliver North flaunted this, making no secret of the fact that he and his cohorts had broken the law. So there is no real mystery to be uncovered - it's blatant.

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bill
Objectivity
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2010
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Professor Kathryn Olmsted's book stands out on its topic for it is written by an academic of status (UCal, Davis campus), and published with the editorial rigour of the Oxford University Press. The author's objectivity seems notably better than is typical in this genre, especially from moonlighting opportunist journalists who lack the resource and time to do the research.

A main theme is that governments are often to blame for inducing conspiracy theories, for they use them to try and cover up, often for the personal gain of overly-ambitious politicians. The book captures the latest information on several unresolved issues, and draws parallels between the possible LIHOP (Let It Happen On Purpose) of the Pearl Harbour and '9/11' attacks.

As someone who has lived on five continents over 40 years as a businessman, observing military and diplomatic activities,
this book is highly recommended as reflecting the reality and activities that many elite leaderships would rather keep hidden.

It might be hoped that Olmsted will turn her resources to writing about 'President' Cheney, and his many initiatives since he became deputy/'Chief Mate' to President 'Watergate' Nixon's Chief of Staff Don Rumsfeld in 1970.

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ICB
Very thought provoking.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2012
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This book gives a very original look at why conspiracy theories abound in the USA. There have been so many genuine conspiracies (testing of drugs on unsuspecting citizens by the CIA, making it seditious to question the war in 1917 whilst having been an intensely isolationist nation in the 3 years leading up to that, assination plots, etc), that not believing the government's word has become endemic in America. She was too restrained in her discussion of JFK, the war mongerer who she didn't portray accurately as the man who tried to destabalise Cuba and brought the world to the bring of nuclear war as well as ignoring his responsibility for the killing of hundreds of thousands in Vietnam. But that aside this book is excellent, highly accessible yet detailed and informative. I found it very addictive and a hard book to put down and easy to pick up. (I read this in on my Kindle and it was fine)

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Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars very interesting and provocative book

5.0 out of 5 stars conspiracists in power vs. conspiracists out of power

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book, but lacking a solution.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Good vs. The Bad

5.0 out of 5 stars Holy ****

3.0 out of 5 stars Magicians of Mud

5.0 out of 5 stars Good insight, current

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars immer wieder dasselbe

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to know where nut-job conspiracy theories originate, look to the US government: the `real enemies' of democracy

5.0 out of 5 stars On the Relationship between Official and Unofficial Conspiracy Theories

5.0 out of 5 stars Objectivity

5.0 out of 5 stars Very thought provoking.

very interesting and provocative book

conspiracists in power vs. conspiracists out of power

Very good book, but lacking a solution.

The Good vs. The Bad

Holy ****

Magicians of Mud

Good insight, current

immer wieder dasselbe

If you want to know where nut-job conspiracy theories originate, look to the US government: the `real enemies' of democracy

On the Relationship between Official and Unofficial Conspiracy Theories

Objectivity

Very thought provoking.