Stephen Kinzer, a former New York Times correspondent, has covered revolution, government transformation, and social upheaval in over fifty countries around the world. Motivated by his sophisticated fascination of international news reporting, Kinzer studied history in college and considered becoming a historian; however, he eventually found his true calling within the field of foreign journalism. According to Kinzer, this was a prime opportunity to watch history in the making. He is also noted for co-writing Bitter Fruit and writing All the Shah's Men, invaluable accounts of the CIA-orchestrated coups against administrations in other countries. From this book, Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, anticipate on reading an appealing and alternative account of America’s foreign involvement outlined from an United States citizens point of view. This book is not only credible due to the authors extensively cultured background, but also his first-hand familiarity within the countries themselves.
Overthrow centers on American business leaders and government intervention with foreign countries that ultimately could prove beneficial economically, ideologically, and politically to The United States; this was achieved through a series of invasions and regime changes from 1893-2006 in countries such as Cuba, Iraq, Honduras, Hawaii, Nicaragua, Iran, Vietnam, Chile, and Panama to name a few. The author’s main thesis is that the separate instances in which American government intervened in foreign nations in response to a political or economic threat should be viewed as a continuum, rather than simply a chain of unrelated events. When describing the invasion of Cuba, Kinzer notes Spain’s efforts to solve the Cuban crisis peacefully and “any president with a backbone would have seized this opportunity for an honorable solution. Such a solution, however, would have denied the United States the prizes they sought. They could be won only by...