6-28-06, 8:51 am
In the bulk of the Western media, the free market and its associated 'values' are portrayed as carrying all before them. The cold war was won by the forces of righteousness and that's the end of the matter. Or is it?
This book carries 10 well-researched essays designed to challenge the conventional right-wing interpretation of the post-WWII period.
Ellen Schrecker, professor of history at Yeshiva University, is best known for her books on McCarthyism. Here, she assembles experts on a range of disparate subjects and herself contributes to one of these, on the past activities of US communists.
Topics dealt with include moral judgements about the cold war, the impact of US hegemony on the US economy, the scale of 'subversive' activity within the United States, the character of the Berlin blockade, the relationship between Washington and the United Nations and the shaping of events after September 11 2001.
In the same vein, Carolyn Eisenberg notes the persistent academic analysis, uncongenial to capitalist propaganda, that is tactically frozen out of mainstream discourse.
'Within the field of diplomatic history, critical historians have received substantial recognition for the quality of their work. However, the constraints of commercial publishing, book reviewing and textbook writing and the unwillingness of the mass media to incorporate dissenting perspectives has limited their access to audiences outside the colleges and universities.'
In short, there is substantial academic criticism in the US of the capitalist agenda, but, for various reasons, it receives little exposure in the popular media.
Here, for example, we are reminded that the cold war damaged the US economy, that, during the Berlin 'blockade,' substantial goods were allowed transit through Soviet-controlled territory and that the Korean and Vietnamese wars were manifest reverses for US imperialism.
Some of the details included here will be well-known to Star readers. For example, the issue of 'blowback,' whereby Washington's military aggressions inevitably generate an increased 'terrorist' response against the US. So much seems obvious, despite all the efforts of the mainstream media to disguise the fact.
We also recall the fact noted here that, because of the pressures of the market, US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were forced to spend their own money on such much-needed personal items of war as 'night-vision goggles, desert camouflage boots, baby wipes, better radios and communications equipment and bigger rucksacks.' It is typical of capitalism that, while companies like Halliburton and Bechtel are grabbing billions of dollars through US military aggression, the sacrificial cannon fodder on the front line is starved of funds.
In a concluding essay, Corey Robin suggests that the political order projected by Bush and his advisers is a 'jerry-built structure' that can only survive as long as the US can put down any challenge to its power. And there is a fragility about this global posture.
This book is eminently worthwhile in helping us to see the tensions and dislocations within the US empire.
From Morning Star
