As a prelude to war in 2003, the administration of George W. Bush did its utmost to convince the public that Saddam Hussein's Iraq posed a threat to American security from the secret development of weapons of mass destruction. Within a year of the US invasion of Iraq, it became clear that no such weapons existed. Sadly, this was not the first time the American public was urged to support a war for reasons that turned out later to be scarcely credible. As law professor John Quigley amply demonstrates in this damning indictment of US military interventionism since World War II, the Bush administration's actions fit a decades-old pattern of going to war on a pretence rather than informing the public of the government's true intentions. The book analyses each instance of military intervention abroad by the United States since World War II from the perspective of what the government told the public, or did not tell it, about the reasons for war. Quigley concludes that the government's explanations differed greatly from reality. Why were American troops committed to Korea in 1950? Was it to stop the onslaught of world communism, as President Truman claimed? Why did the US Marines land in the Dominican Republic in 1966? President Johnson argued that it was to protect Americans in danger. This is the same defence used by President Reagan when he sent troops to Grenada in 1983. Quigley also analyses the stated versus actual reasons for intervention in the first Gulf War, Somalia, Kosovo, and other trouble spots. What emerges from his research is a tale of cover-ups, distortions, and manipulation of the media by our country's leaders for the purpose of gaining public support.
ohn Quigley (Columbus, OH) is President's Club Professor in Law at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University. He is the author of many books on international law and foreign policy, including most recently The Genocide Convention: An International Law Analysis.
List of Abbreviations; Preface to the Second Edition; Secrets of Government; How It Began; Korea: Whose War?; Korea: The Russians Are Coming; Korea: The Chinese Hordes; Guatemala: Deception and Timing; Indonesia: Caught in a Coconut Tree; Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan: Cokes on the Beach; Cuba: We Were Not Involved; Laos A Free-Fire Zone; Vietnam: What Were Those Bleeps?; The Congo: Trouble Out East; The Congo: Another Cuba?; The Dominican Republic: Bullets in the Embassy Window; The Dominican Republic: Seeing Red; Cambodia: Fish in the Craters; Angola: A Global Monroe Doctrine; Shaba: A Congolese Reprise; Iran: Hostages Will Die; Nicaragua: Who is Contra?; El Salvador: A Textbook Case; Lebanon: Death on the Beach; Grenada: An Ocean Venture; Grenada: Saving Our Students; Grenada: The Cubans Were Ferocious; Libya: Qaddafi's Air Conditioner; The Philippines: Shoring Cory; Panama: Slaying a Monster; Panama: Explaining Why; Liberia: Just in Case; Iraq: Blood for Oil?; Somalia: Blackhawk Down; Baghdad: Missiles with a Message; Sudan: Pharmaceutical Fiasco; Iraq: Low-Intensity Intervention; Kosovo: Credibility Above All; Afghanistan: End to Terror?; Iraq: Regime Change; Why Not Tell the Truth?; Why Intervene at All?; Won't the Media Protect Us?; Won't Congress Protect Us?; Interventions of the Future; The Price of Fraudulent Intervention.
""Quigley writes with intellectual fire." -The Washington Post "Quigley's extensive survey of American policy is a most valuable resource for anyone interested in testing America's foreign policy claims against historical record." Ludwig von Mises Institute Web site
