Book Review Sample on US Regime Change: Examining Stephen Kinzer's 'Overthrow'

Introduction

For quite a long time the United States has often intervened in a number of countries to overthrow their governments, more than any other powerful nation in modern history. Stephen Kinzer’s book ‘overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq' was published in 2006 by a foreign correspondent in New York (Kinzer, 2007). This paper presents a detailed review of the book highlighting the major strengths, weaknesses, and summary of the book's organization.

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Foreign States and Governments

The book presents an account of the United States’ participation in overthrowing other foreign states and governments. Most importantly, the book narrates the various stories of the spies, audacious politicians, business executives, and military commanders who disposed of prime ministers, monarchs, and the presidents within the 19th Century.

In this extremely interesting story, Kinzer delves into exploring the various reasons, such as the involvement of the United States and what they achieved (Kinzer, 2007). For instance, in the early instances such as in Hawaii, Cuba, Honduras, and Nicaragua, the president of the United States presented himself in imperial fashion to protect the spheres of influence and corporate interests.

Through the various cases that have been recounted in a colorful and lively fashion, Kinzer postulates that the intention for the change in regimes has often varied from pecuniary and prosaic to strategic and perhaps principled (Kinzer, 2007). It is essential to note that actions were often undertaken in each instance, especially when the foreign governments declined to safeguard the interests of the United States.

Interventions

However, it is important to note that what Kinzer fails to clarify is why there were no interventions in some countries while there were none in others. The author uses a great introduction to formulate the pattern of regime change over aa couple of years. The book is organized such that the ‘regime change’ for the US policy exists in three basic acts, i.e., the imperial era, the covert action, and the invasions.

For instance, the Imperial era denotes the period when the Americans more openly deposed regimes. Additionally, the convert action existed during the cold war. This was a period in which any direct intervention by the United States could ignite some form of reaction from the Soviets. In most cases, the reaction was more catalytic. With the aim of adjusting to the new reality, the US adopted the coup d’état technique to disposing of the foreign states and governments.

Invasion

The last section of the book deals with the period of invasion. For instance, as the twentieth Century came to an end, it was challenging for the Americans to begin a coup since various leaders from foreign governments had learned the art of resisting them. Again, it was also becoming unnecessary to stage coups (Kinzer, 2007). The author presents the various instances of ‘regime change’ in a more meticulous way. Each section of the book culminates with a summary that presents an account of the fate of various countries who are essentially the victims of the ‘regime change’ policy.

The 'regime of change' did not commence with George Bush's administration, but it rather formed an essential part of the United States' foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Kinzer takes the reader through some fourteen countries such as Chile, South Vietnam, Cuba, Iraq, Cuba, and Iran and presents the history of America in a surprisingly new perspective (Kinzer, 2007). The American citizens interested in foreign affairs ought to read the book since it presents thoughtful ideas underpinning the national innocence myths and misconceptions. Even though Kinzer provides some account of American terrorism, this was done absurdly and shallowly in some chapters, especially where he discussed and categorized various interventions. For instance, upon undergoing numerous interventions within a century that could simply be referred to as terrorism, Kinzer continues to make an assumption that the American ground troops were merely a fallback option. Again, even though he chooses an interesting topic about regime change as a foreign policy tool, Kinzer fails to make a concrete case about the subject. In some instances, he fails to tie the subjects together in a somewhat meaningful way.

Furthermore, it is frustrating how Kinzer poorly grasps history. For instance, he exhaustively refers to Hawaii as the first American State to adopt the regime change, which is not true. He is oblivious of the American interventions in Texas, the misadventures in Nicaragua by William Walker, as well as the American intervention in California before the Mexican war. However, it is notable that the support of Americans in regime change was often uninformed, ignoble, and in most cases, perceived to benefit individuals and private corporations (Kinzer, 2007). For me, some of the few lessons that ought to be learned from Kinzer's history are that ignorance and paranoia should never be permitted to conflate nationalism.

Concisely, the US foreign policy must have several impacts in other parts of the world since the US is the global world leader and a superpower (Kinzer, 2007). This could be attributed to the fact that most countries in Africa and Asia still experience wars and terrorism that require US interventions. The US National leaders have the power to decide on intervention strategies in helping the affected countries.

Conclusion

In conclusion, for quite a long time the United States has often intervened in a number of countries with the aim of overthrowing their governments, more than any other powerful nation in modern history. Kinzer’s book, ‘Overthrow,’ presents an account of the United States’ participation in overthrowing other foreign states and governments. The strengths, weaknesses, and the summary of the book have been presented in work.

References

Kinzer, S. (2007). Overthrow: America's Century of regime change from Hawaii to Iraq. Macmillan. Retrieved from http://rahaie.de/pdf/StephenKinzer-bar_andazi.pdf