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  • Monthly Review Essays

About William Blum

William Blum is an author, historian, and U.S. foreign policy critic. He is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II and Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, among others.
  • american-russian-flags

    William Blum takes on the Washington Post again, in the person of columnist Max Boot, formerly of the Wall Street Journal

    Originally published: William Blum Blog on September 20, 2018 (more by William Blum Blog)

    “We are the good guys. We’re not the perfect guys, but we are the good guys. And so we’re doing what we can.” – U.S. secretary of Defense, James Mattis

  • Michael Birnbaum - The Washington Post

    The mind of the mass media

    Originally published: The Anti-Empire Report #159 on August 17, 2018 (more by The Anti-Empire Report #159)

    You write Trump “made no mention of Russia’s adventures in Ukraine”. Well, neither he nor Putin nor you made any mention of America’s adventures in the Ukraine, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2014, which led to the justified Russian adventure. Therefore…?

  • Unperson Button Badge Orwell 1984 | Zazzle.com.au

    Unpersons

    Originally published: The Anti-Empire Reports #157 on April 18, 2018 (more by The Anti-Empire Reports #157)

    One reason it’s so easy to get an American administration, the mainstream media, and the American people to jump on an anti-Russian bandwagon is of course the legacy of the Soviet Union.

  • Tump and Putin

    The Anti-Empire Report #153

    Originally published: William Blum Blog on December 5, 2017 (more by William Blum Blog)

    “He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.” – President Trump re Vladimir Putin after their meeting in Vietnam.

  • Capturing the wisdom and the beauty of Donald J. Trump in just one statement escaping from his charming mouth.

    The Anti-Empire Report #152

    Originally published: William Blum's Anti-Empire Report on October 20, 2017 (more by William Blum's Anti-Empire Report)

    If newness doesn’t win everyone’s heart, then BEAUTIFUL will definitely do it. Who likes UGLY military equipment? Even the people we slaughter all over the world insist upon good-looking guns and bombs.

  • Why Is the United States Waging Perpetual War against the Cuban People’s Health System?

    William Blum

    In January the government of the United States of America saw fit to seize $4.207 million in funds allocated to Cuba by the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for the first quarter of 2011, Cuba has charged.  The UN Fund is a $22 billion a year program that works to […]

  • The Secret to Understanding US Foreign Policy

    William Blum

    In one of his regular “Reflections” essays, Fidel Castro recently discussed United States hostility towards Venezuela.  “What they really want is Venezuela’s oil,” wrote the Cuban leader.  This is a commonly-held viewpoint within the international left.  The point is put forth, for example, in Oliver Stone’s recent film South of the Border.  I must, however, […]

  • Be Nice to America.  Or We’ll Bring Democracy to Your Country!

    William Blum

      Professor: The good news, class, is that the secret to understanding our country’s foreign policy is that there is no secret.  You simply have to understand that America strives to dominate the world for both economic and ideological reasons.  Once you understand that, much of the confusion, contradiction, and ambiguity surrounding our policy fades […]

  • Cuba.  Again.  Still.  Forever.

    William Blum

    More than 50 years now it is.  The propaganda and hypocrisy of the American mainstream media seems endless and unwavering.  They can not accept the fact that Cuban leaders are humane or rational.  Here’s the Washington Post of December 13 writing about an American arrested in Cuba: “The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen […]

  • The American Elite

    William Blum

    Lincoln Gordon died a few weeks ago at the age of 96.  He had graduated summa cum laude from Harvard at the age of 19, received a doctorate from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, published his first book at 22, with dozens more to follow on government, economics, and foreign policy in Europe and Latin […]

Monthly Review Essays

  • Nikolai Gogol’s Department of Government Efficiency
    Andy Merrifield A 1926 Soviet illustration of a production of Gogol's play The Government Inspector, showing audience members in the foreground, and actors on stage in the background.

    Almost two centuries after its opening night, Gogol’s five-act satirical play The Government Inspector continues to create a stir with every performance, seemingly no matter where. Maybe because corruption and self-serving double-talk aren’t just familiar features of 19th-century Russia, but have become ingrained facets of all systems of government and officialdom, making them recognizable to […]

Lost & Found

  • Strike at the Helm: The First Ministerial Meeting of the New Cycle of the Bolivarian Revolution
    Hugo Chávez Mural of Chávez in Caracas. (Univision)

    On October 7th, 2012, after hearing of his victory as the nation‘s candidate with 56 percent of the vote, President Hugo Chávez Frias announced from a balcony in his hometown that a new cycle was beginning the very next day, October 8th.

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