History buffs already know it: the Canadian radio show Today the story is a radio gem, a cultural treasure. She knows how to talk about history with rigor and passion, in a captivating tone.
The resulting books, published by Éditions du Septentrion, have the same qualities: they are clear, lively, catchy and very instructive. Short enough not to be overwhelming and long enough to say a lot, these works, written by masters of synthesis and storytelling, shine for their educational value.
American Power Defeated (Septentrion, 2022, 174 pages), by political scientist Karine Prémont, is no exception to the rule. It is devoured in a few hours and leaves us with the feeling of really getting to know our imposing neighbor better. Prémont obviously loves the United States, knows their recent history like the back of his hand and talks about it with contagious passion, combined with an uncompromising critical spirit.
Like her, I have always had an ambivalent relationship with American military, political and economic power. I don’t like Uncle Sam’s imperialism, but when things get hot on the planet, when Hitler pulls out his big guns, when the Islamic State group terrorizes innocent people, sometimes I’m happy to have the Americans as allies. Also, when it comes, as Prémont proposes, to try “to understand the contradictions and the contrasts of this country, its leaders and its people”, I am on board.
The United States of today is not quite the United States of yesterday. Their recent failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular, undoubtedly illustrate that the country of Trump and Biden has lost its luster. It is here, precisely, that history can assert its lights. In order to better understand the current state of affairs, the events of the past, writes Prémont, “are useful for recognizing the causes and the ideas for which the United States has always fought, but also for criticizing the means with which it has , more often than not, wanted to impose these ideals on the rest of the planet”.
Created in 1947 to protect American interests in the cold war against the emerging USSR, the CIA embodies the mix of power and arrogance that characterizes the post-war United States. It is normal, of course, for a country to have an intelligence agency aimed at protecting it against possible attacks. The CIA, however, throughout its history will largely overstep this mandate, often acting in defiance of US lawmakers and international law.
Prémont looks back on the organization’s sulphurous role in the overthrow of hated political regimes — in Iran, Guatemala, Chile and Cuba —, on its infiltration of American protest movements in the 1960s and 1970s, on its attempts to assassination of communist leaders almost everywhere in the world and on its failures as for its own mission, in particular its incapacity to prevent the attacks of September 11, 2001. The CIA, today, it is still 21,000 employees and a budget of $15 billion a year. We don’t know whether to feel reassured or worried.
The United States is powerful and scary, yes, but its recent history is full of embarrassing military failures. In 1961, to please the anti-Castro diaspora and to regain their full influence on the island, the country, newly led by Kennedy, launched a crude attack against Cuba which quickly ended in fiasco. In Vietnam, a few years later (1965-1973), it is rebellious, with much more considerable damage. During this conflict, the Americans will drop more bombs on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (7.5 million tons) than the Allies dropped (2.5 million tons) against their enemies during World War II. world. All this to finally give up the game, after losing 58,000 soldiers, as in Iraq more recently.
Prémont recounts these failures as well as a few others, such as Reagan’s “Star Wars” project and the intervention in Somalia under Clinton, with dazzling mastery. His observations on the often “unobjective, very patriotic, one-dimensional wartime media attitude,” particularly at the time of the 2003 Iraq war, speaks volumes about the American mentality. Although we have heard of all these events before, we rediscover them here in more depth in eight energetically polished stories.
Since 1945, we say to ourselves as we close the book, the United States has better defended its interests by using softpower— they continue to fascinate the whole world — only by pulling out their big arms. In Trump country, unfortunately, one rarely goes without the other.