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August 4th, 2012
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#1 |
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Administrator
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To Read List
The Golden Age, by Gore Vidal
Desperate Deception: British Convert Operations in the United States, 1939-1944, by Thomas Mahl A fascinating study of the efforts of British intelligence to push America out of its isolationist stance and into the Allied camp during the early days of WW II. Freelance writer Mahl has convincingly drawn on a variety of sources--including recently declassified FBI and government files, memoirs, personal papers, and little-known official reports--to weave together a portrait of extraordinary schemes and activities. He argues that such conventional sources as the official British history of the war are misleading and inadequate. Britain, lacking the resources to fight Nazi Germany alone, needed the immense production capacities and vast manpower of the US to save itself. But the British government was deeply concerned about American intentions: The nation seemed both unpredictable and unreliable in its support of Britain. To gain American allegiance, Britain launched a sizable propaganda campaign and a number of intelligence actions, many carried out or managed by William Stevenson (``Intrepid''), Britain's spy extraordinaire. Mahl asserts that British agents had willing accomplices in FDR's White House, filled with an anglophile elite that identified deeply with Britain. His research reveals that foreign money was poured into some congressional elections to defeat isolationist politicians, that British agents spent money freely to ease the passage of the Lend- Lease Act, that they planted pro-British articles in interventionist newspapers and magazines, and that some national opinion polls were rigged to reflect a deeper and stronger pro- British sentiment than existed. British agents set up Bill Donovan's Office of Stragetic Services and helped run it, and they established or influenced a number of organizations pushing for American intervention. Their efforts were ingenious and effective. They were also either dubious or downright illegal, but Mahl argues that, given the desperate situation in Europe, Britain had little choice. A carefully researched, engrossing addition to WW II history and the history of covert operations. 19 of 20 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Power structure at work May 6, 2002 By A Customer Format:Paperback This book is the missing link showing how elites use their influence to bring us into wars, manipulate political conventions, conduct propaganda campaigns against the populace(now known as public diplomacy), and other dirty tricks. For those students of power structure and are familiar with the work of the late Carrol Quigley, many of the people mentioned in his work play roles in this book. Members of the Round Table network( a global network of discussion groups of people waging propaganda justifying the British Empire on moral grounds) include: Walter Lippman - American Round Tabler, whose column in the Intl Herald Tribune was to guide American foreign policy in an anglophile direction. Thomas Lamont - Director and Chrm of the Board at J.P. Morgan, allied with FDR and instrumental in getting lifelong Democrat Wendell Willkie the 1940 Republican Presidential nomination. British members of the Round Table group include Ambassadors to the US - Lord Lothian(Phillip Kerr) and Lord Halifax. Some other members in MI6 in the US were also affiliated with this group. The Rockefeller family also loaned much of the office space for the British intelligence operations during the war, so they definitely had some knowledge or approval of their operations. Nelson Rockefeller was also appointed Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. Basically, there was a group of influential anglophile Americans, who wanted to get America into the war with Germany, so they provided assistance to British intelligence, who set up front organizations to agitate in a pro-British manner. They recruited anglophiles to stage demonstrations to fight Germany, write pro-British propaganda, and destroy the careers of isolationist Congressmen. They also penetrated polling organizations, and some of the polling results appear quite suspect. During the Republican Convention of 1940, the mysterious death of Ralph Williams, a pro-Taft isolationist, allowed Sam Pryor, a pro-Willkie man, to take over the convention. Through dubious allocation of tickets to the convention floor(Willkie supporters got way more than their fair share), an impression was made that he was the man of the people. Speaches of isolationists were also sabotaged by tampering with microphones or sending in bands during speaches. Having Willkie as the Republican nominee, allowed FDR to give destroyers to the British without a political opponent making political hay about it. For any Birchers out there, yes, there were some members of the Council on Foreign Relations involved. However, that is not the influential body. It is the rich and powerful, who control the mass media and bodies like the government and the CFR, who really make things happen. There are quite a number of typing errors in the book, but the editor should be faulted, not the author. Many people have suspicions about accounts of history, and Mahl does quite a good job supporting his account of what really happened. I strongly recommend reading this book for anyone interested in how our world really operates. +++++++++++++++++ The Wages of Destruction, by Adam Tooze [gary north] As for economic recovery after 1930, the main nation to recover was Nazi Germany, which used monetary inflation, price and wage controls, rationing, and violence against trade unions as the primary policy tools of economic growth. The Nazi state held down nominal prices by the threat of violence, thereby cutting real wages, so the statistics looked like recovery. The story of this "recovery" is found in Adam Tooze's book, The Wages of Destruction.[/B] Rhine Flows into the Tiber Last edited by Alex Linder; August 12th, 2012 at 08:52 PM. |
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August 25th, 2012
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#2 |
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Administrator
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The History of the Rockefeller World Empire
Posted by Charles Featherstone on August 25, 2012 07:24 PM The folks over at n+1 have a review of Inderjeet Parmar's new book, Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power, an intriguing history of how the Rockefeller World Empire came to use America to rule the world as the foundations came to create and dominate "policy" in the 1930s and 1940s: The trustees of the large foundations comprised a cozy group of men—well-heeled, white, and Protestant—who were raised in the same milieu, attended the same colleges (over half graduated from Harvard, Princeton, or Yale), and belonged to the same social clubs. Such men could not help but share a worldview, and for most of 20th century there was no one in the room to argue the other side. Internally united and externally unimpeded, they acted with a speed and resolve that was impossible for elected politicians. While government officials mired themselves in political debates, foundation leaders acted: they commissioned research, trained students, launched pilot projects, cultivated allies among foreign governments, and built networks of experts. By the time the government overcame its inertia on an issue, it found a smooth and well-marked trail stretching ahead through the wilderness. It is easy to overlook this quiet trailblazing because the big foundations rarely pushed extreme agendas, at least not at home. Unlike the think tanks of today, the Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller foundations were, and continue to be, studiously nonpartisan. They sought above all technocratic order: a strong federal government, a class of experts ready to guide it, and a docile public eager to follow. Abroad, they combined their faith in the rule of experts with the belief that the ideas and institutions best suited to the poorer countries of the world were those of the United States. |
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September 7th, 2012
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Administrator
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September 7th, 2012
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#4 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 3,633
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Desperate Deception
Reading this review (posted above) brings to mind the "biography" of William S Stevenson: A Man Called Intrepid, Lyons. Although Dr. Oliver panned the book to a fair-thee-well, I'd already read it when I came upon RPO's review.
I think anyone interested in the British intelligence activity in the US before and during WWII will be well served by reading the Stevenson bio. True, it consists mainly of myopic propaganda and unrestrained boasting and hubris. Nevertheless, in his desire to self-aggrandize and brag, Stevenson lets several "cats out of the bag", as it were. Worthwhile, itzs, to the student of revisionism willing to slog through purest "Allied" propaganda to obtain confirmation of some of the dirtiest tricks ever. Tricks that were propounded entirely to confuse the American public and mislead patriotic investigators and operatives within the American intelligence structures of the WWII era.
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No way out but through the jews. |
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September 9th, 2012
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#5 |
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Administrator
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[free pdf online] http://library.mises.org/books/Walte...20Highways.pdf |
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September 30th, 2013
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#6 |
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Wutta maroon!
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: In my comfy rabbit hole. Wut's it to ya, doitbag?
Posts: 5,687
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Here's one well worth the while by Norman Finkelstein and Ruth Bettina Birn. The authors put the lie to, and in the process make total mincemeat of, exterminationist goldenboy Daniel Goldenhagen's runaway bestseller Hitler's Willing Executioners. The duo proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Goldie intentionally "misrepresented the facts" (i.e., lied like a fucking rug) when claiming that the citizens of NS Germany needed no prodding by authorities in their supposed persecution of their nation's jews. Do check it out:
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Wit' jews ya lose; wit' rope deah's hope. - Bugs Last edited by Matthaus Hetzenauer; September 30th, 2013 at 12:47 PM. |
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December 8th, 2013
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#7 | |
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 459
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The review is not correct, as the Reece Committee discovered the tax-exempt foundations were doing the following:
"Directing education in the United States toward an international view-point and discrediting the traditions to which, it [formerly) had been dedicated.(parens mine) So, Inderjeet Parma is certainly wide of the mark when he writes "the big foundations rarely pushed extreme agendas, at least not at home." Altogether, Parma paints an incorrect picture, making these super-rich appear benign where our welfare is concerned. They are and have been anything but. Just a cursory review of some of the trustees or people on the boards of major American universities, nearly to the one, will reveal their participation in these tax-exempt foundations or their special interest entities. It was President Eisenhower who put an end to the Reece Committee's work. Quote:
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December 16th, 2013
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#8 |
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Wutta maroon!
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: In my comfy rabbit hole. Wut's it to ya, doitbag?
Posts: 5,687
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Picked up a hardcover of Izaak Walton's 17th century classic The Compleat Angler for $2 yesterday. And though not much of a fisherman myself, it appears as though the quaint observations and anecdotes of Walton, put across in both prose and verse (90% nonrythmic, which is nice, as I find rhyming couplets to be somewhat annoying/distracting) will make a relaxing, enjoyable read. Really light fare; and most of it considered to be right on fishing-wise. Then again, wtf do I know...
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Wit' jews ya lose; wit' rope deah's hope. - Bugs |
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May 26th, 2014
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#9 |
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Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 18
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My exam is just over and I was thinking to sort out some books to read. I going to check your suggestion one!
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May 27th, 2014
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#10 |
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Wutta maroon!
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: In my comfy rabbit hole. Wut's it to ya, doitbag?
Posts: 5,687
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Over the weekend I obtained a used, though mint-condition, paperback copy of Game of Thrones; the first book of the projected seven-volume epic by George R.R. Martin (America's Tolkien, or so it's said). I was a big fan of the HBO series, but had to give it up when I killed my TV at the start of the year. But as I started on War and Peace just a couple days ago, it's going to be quite a while before I'm able to get to this bad boy; but get to it I most certainly will.
Before buying the book at a yard sale, I read the first 10 pages or so and was immediately hooked; and it looks as though I'm going to enjoy it more than the TV series itself, which will be more than ample compensation for having to forego the show due to my having moided my vitz this past January.
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Wit' jews ya lose; wit' rope deah's hope. - Bugs |
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