Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations Paperback – September 22, 2020

Thanks to the author for exposing the dark side of US. In a world today where information travels fast and wide, people have started to learn and awaken to what US has been doing to subvert and suppress other countries and causing so much atrocities. By practicing what the author calls a manual for regime change, US has alienated itself from the world. The consequence is that its influence has declined. Sadly, US politicians are blaming other countries, not least China, for its decline instead of doing the proper things to right its wrongs.

This is a succinct and concentrated report on the sordid and bloody history of U.S. history, particularly since the end of World War II in 1945, but not excluding the period before. Since 1945, the U.S. has carried out political assassinations, overthrows of sovereign governments, and the suborning of military coups in countries that advocated socialism or who opposed U.S. corporate takeover of their natural resources. The list is long: Guatemala, Congo, Chile, Cuba, Vietnam, Brazil, Ukraine, Libya, just to name a few. Every American citizen should know of at least some of these events. Every American should read this book if they don't know.

A well-appreciated work of dedication. This is my first book by Vijay Prashad, and I am sure I will read more.

Although the short book is somewhat ‘all over the place’ in the beginning, it proves its worth after that. Also footnotes would be desirable rather than forcing the reader to search out documents that he cites. Still Prashad provides a great lens with which to reflect a reality far from the propaganda of peace and freedom we repeatedly hear from our great US democracy!

There is no better critic of American imperialism than Noam Chomsky, but Prashad is arguably his equal. Add to that the fact that Prashad writes in scintillating prose that is eloquent and concise.

A version of our story that explains the lopsidedness of our world far more convincingly than the alternative, 'official' version. Thank you, Vijay Prashad, for helping to educate people.

Vijay Prashad is a prolific writer and his essays are both easy to read and digest, as well as immensely informative. The format of this book makes it easy to pick up for short bursts, but the content is so compelling you might find yourself finishing it in one session.

As someone who enjoyed Prashad's Red Star Over the Third World, I was looking forward to his book on the history of CIA coups & assassinations. Unfortunately, the book fails to deliver. Calling it a history is quite generous (the book is 153 pages, and if you're familiar with the CIA's history, you already understand that that's far too short to cover even a brief period of it), at best you could call it a brief overview. Granted, I didn't expect a super thorough rundown of all the details of every coup and assassination, but I guess I at least assumed it would provide an overview of all the major events. Instead, it discusses the Guatemalan coup in some depth (though I feel like Vincent Bevins did a better job of this in The Jakarta Method), spends 2-5 pages on a few other coups and assassinations, and then very briefly mentions many many others, sometimes almost as just an aside (if I recall, the Grenada invasion was relegated to 2-3 sentences).Moreover, it is unfortunately poorly written. Throughout most of the book, he continually goes back and forth in time such that you sometimes have to go back and re-read a section to make sure you know which country or time period he's referring to (and at least a couple of times, he doesn't even elaborate on that!). Of course it's important to cite other examples to back up your argument, but not at the expense of coherence. Other parts read like a Twitter thread, like when he mentions that J.C. Stackpoole referred to the AFL-CIO as the AFL-CIA for how cozy they were with the CIA, and then calls the org the AFL-CIA from then on. And then there are times where he just makes a claim without backing it up. Don't get me wrong, he's usually not wrong, but at least try to convince the reader!Finally, as someone who relishes footnotes and sources so that I can read more about a given topic or anecdote, I was seriously irked that he didn't included any. He says that more than sources the book "relies on a lifetime of activity and of reading" and claims that listing all the books and articles he's drawn from would surely double the book's size. Seriously? Okay, the book is only 150 pages so maybe not far off. Then he goes on to say basically that he's been devoting his life to activism, man, and being involved in that provides more clarity than having distance from it. What? I guess this explains some of the claims he makes without backing them up since he probably forgot where he originally read it from, but it does not make me feel confident about what you wrote! At one point, I even tried looking up a specific quote he cites in the book and the only google search result was to his own book!So yeah, I cannot recommend this book unfortunately. If you really don't like to read and really want to know about CIA coups and assassinations, I guess it's probably the quickest read on the subject. However, if you're more interested in something that's written well and goes more in-depth on the subject, I'd recommend The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins, or for the history of the CIA specifically, The CIA as Organized Crime, by Douglas Valentine.

This book arrived promptly, and it is a good quality paperback.

This is an excellent overview of how the US has created an empire without sticking a flag in the ground to say 'This is ours'. Whilst many likely to read this book know of how the US destabilises countries, and leads coups, less know the work going on behind the scenes, such as the creation of an Islamic movement to counter pan-(socialist) Arabism. Instead of building, as the US and the western countries could, in the name of freedom and democracy, they simply plunder, as the case of Haiti shows. Well worth a read; well worth giving to those that think that freedom, democracy are for everyone, rather than the means to control, and break down public opposition within the west.

A great book, reveals a lot about the machinery of geopolitics that US undertakes in order to promote it's interest whatsoever be the consequences for others.Thing to keep in mind, the author is a very passionate Communist Historian and hence you have to expect at times him to be too critical and some things to seem hearsay like BUT overall a great read.

Un pugno nello stomaco, di quelli che ti lasciano tramortito, senza fiato e con la bruttissima sensazione di aver conosciuto la storia solo come hanno voluto insegnarcela!Proprio di oggi l'articolo del Corriere sugli archivi desecretati della CIA dai quali emerge un tentativo di eliminare Fidel Castro ad opera degli USA, conferma che un libro come questo non può essere liquidato ma deve farci profondamente riflettere.Imperialismo, colonialismo e lotta di classe sono le chiavi di lettura della storia contemporanea secondo Prashad.Da leggere!

Beautifully written book. Extremely simple. Always wanted to reach such a book on imperialism. Many thanks Vijay. Look forward to reading more of your books.