Very Interesting video....I'll need to check out some of the books mentionedTwo more books I recommend are Robert Jervis’ Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq War (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs). Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010, and Mark Bowden's Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006. Jervis is an analyst who was commissioned to write reports for the CIA. One of those reports pertained to the 1979 coup and how the Carter administration bungled relations with Iran in 1979 (i.e., publicly chastising the Shah for anti-democratic repression while covertly expecting and encouraging him to repress the demonstrations).
During our Iraq "invasion"....there was so much press of how dare the Iranians support and teach Iraqis methods in attacking our US troops.
Of course, both my heart and voice, felt sadden and wrong that our Boys were suffering.
But in terms of big picture, I made the exact same arguement that was presented
in this video. How would we feel if Iran had thousands of troops in both Mexico and Canada making regime changes.
Would we have sat on sidelines....I think not. Originally Posted by vkmaster
I bought and started reading Bowden's book in 2006 after listening to a review on NPR. Within the first fifty pages, Bowden mentioned U.S. complicity in the overthrow of Iranian Premier Mossadeq in 1953. I had not heard that story before, so I researched and found two books on the subject: Kinzer’s and Wilber’s. At the time, Wilber’s book was available only from a British vendor. Fortunately, I chose to read Kinzer’s book first. His book is more traditional and journalistic; thus, it is easier to follow because of the way it was written. Wilber’s book is literally a redacted CIA report written soon after the event in 1954. The report was published in 1969 with names and some other pertinent details omitted to protect the identities of people still living in Iran. These omissions, of course, make for incomplete sentences in the text. Wilber’s book conveys an immediate sense of urgency and a fear of the rising communist party, the Tudeh party, in Iran. Kinzer dismisses the U.S. concern about communism as mere nonsense. Wilber’s report was an internal report and not originally intended for public publication. So as I said, Wilber’s book tempers Kinzer’s insupportable and dismissive attitude of U.S.’ Cold War attitudes towards communism; especially in light of revelations made by Vasili Mitrokhin (with Christopher Andrew) in his books, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. New York: Perseus Book Group, 2005, and The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. New York: Perseus Book Group, 1999.
Kinzer wrote another book I would recommend. It’s called, Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. N.Y.: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2006. This book offers a great introduction and overview to American imperialism, but the reader should be conscious of Kinzer’s liberal bent.
