Real Enemies : Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11

4 Comments

1. Casey Mcmanis says:

   July 8, 2010 at 5:21 am

   I got this book as a Christmas present from my mom. I live in Davis, Ca, where the author teaches. My mom actually knows the author and I was really amazed about how great this book was. I have been a nerd about researching conspiracy theories for a while now and I had mostly been reading about the JFK assassination and 9/11 but after reading this I did a lot more research on WW1 and WW2. It opened my eyes (even bigger then they were opened already!).
   Rating: 5 / 5
2. Nicholas Nahat says:

   July 8, 2010 at 6:27 am

   “Real Enemies” aspires to explanations of the idea of ‘conspiracy’ in American history from WWI to the present that the material doesn’t rise to support, but is still a nonetheless engaging survey and poses interesting issues.

   A central insight is that throughout American history, many Americans feared that the government would fall prey to a conspiracy *against* it, it was beginning with the WWI period that the government itself became a *source* of conspiracy, with debilitating impacts on democracy. It is these ‘debilitating impacts’ which is controversial and unproved, and there the book grasps to achieve too much. WWI marked probably the largest expansion in federal power, and the budget ballooned from $1 billion to $13 billion dollars in the period.

   As the government grew, it gained the power to conspire against its citizens, and in fact did use that power, e.g. Tuskegee, MKULTRA, CIA testing of LSD on unsuspecting Americans, Reagan’s arms-for-hostages, Watergate. Government also developed ‘official’ conspiracies–e.g. Wilson’s German sympathizers, the communists of the Cold War, George Bush’s ‘Iraq/Al Quaeda connection’. Simultaneously, government will suppress dissent against official conspiracies. Americans in turn develop their own conspiracy theories about government action, often in competition with the ‘official’ narrative. For example, as discussed in this book, the ’9/11 truthers.’

   Government also grew to have the power to spy on and harrass dissenters. Woodrow Wilson had scores of Americans charged with ‘sedition’ during WWI; FDR expanded the FBI to spy on any Americans suspected of the very broadly worded ‘subversive activities’, allowing J Edgar Hoover basically carte blanche to amass files on Americans from WWII until he died in the ’70s–initially he was concerned with German spies, then communists, JFK, and finally figures in the civil rights movement like MLK. The FBI also developed COINTELPRO, to infilitrate and neutralize all of the aforementioned dissident groups. Again, entire books could be written about any of these aforementioned topics.

   One effect of Americans who develop their own conspiracy theories is that they will make a “leap from the undeniable to the unbelieveable.” Here another entire book could be written about the ‘epistemology of conspiracy.’ For example, it is undeniable that the Joint Chiefs of Staff developed a plan (“Operation Northwood”) to conduct terrorist attacks on US citizens, to set off bombs in major US cities, to shoot down an airliner, sink American ships, and foment riots. Fortunately JFK vetoed the plan. But it is unbelievable that George Bush would have actually rubber stamped a conspiracy with Saudi lackeys to bring down the World Trade Center. That is, just because the government developed outrageous plans in the past doesn’t mean that they developed this particular outrageous plan. Still, what counts as ‘historical fact’ can be deeply controversial, especially since people will have different standards of credibility and ‘rules of evidence’ concerning these issues.

   I do wonder what true, but unknown, conspiracies are lingering out there!

   Conspiracy theories also become more democratic throughout the 20th Century. Initially these theories are the province of governmental, media, or policymaking elites. The spread of easier communication and access to information, interesting and ironically through the aid of government e.g. the Freedom of Information Act, and the advent of the internet, made conspiracy speculation available to all. This is another weakness of the book in that it tries to do too much–an entire book could be written on this idea alone.

   The ‘ills’ which conspiracies foster in democracy are also conclusory and speculative, e.g. people spending time on abstruse irrelevant facts rather than on positive policy change, as is the ‘remedy’ of ‘more democracy’ or transparency.

   Another criticism of the book is the concentration on national crisis or tragedy in conspiracy, a question of emphasis if you will. conspiracy is when two or more people collude to break the law. Yet, on this definition of conspiracy, many many smaller instances exist which probably have just as imporant a cumulative impact concerning the evils the author describes. In Detroit, for example, the ex-Mayor colluded with his chief of staff to give false testimony in court, used public funds for personal purposes, and obstruction of justice. Multiply that by all the other smaller officials cutting deals with real estate developers, selling public land to friends at a discount, delivering votes of dead people, cops shaking down citizens and covering it up, etc.–that seems to be as or more damaging to democracy than the occasional, distant, national tragedy.

   Although “Real Enemies” tries to prove much more than its summary of largely secondary source material will permit, it is nevertheless thought-provoking and a worthwhile survey of the history of conspiracy beginning in the 20th Century.
   Rating: 3 / 5
3. William J. Christensen says:

   July 8, 2010 at 9:18 am

   This is a great book if the idea of reviewing past histories of “conspiracy theories” are of interest to you, from WWI to 9/11. The book is just packed full of information and documents to back up the concepts of the author. It reads like a PhD thesis—-packed full of information and is not a book that will put you to sleep. It took concentration from me, even though it was well written. And It will take me at least a couple of reads to really get a handle on most of the topics. It is just very interesting look at conspiracy theories of all types with explanations of how they got started including extensive documentation and bibliography at the end. It would be a good research book and you could expand on any of the topics that may interest you by use of its excellent and extensive bibliography.
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Norman Goldman says:

   July 8, 2010 at 11:18 am

   Author: Kathryn S. Olmsted
   
   Publisher: Oxford University Press
   
   ISBN: 978-0-19-518353-6

   University of California Professor of History Kathryn S. Olmsted asks in the introduction to Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War 1 to 9/11, how can we explain the profound distrust that many Americans have of their government? She goes onto state that in one of the world’s oldest constitutional democracies more than one third of the population actually believe that officials of their own government plotted to carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in order to trick the people into war. And as she illustrates in her book, it is little wonder that we have such cynicism, “it has happened before.”

   This just about sets the theme of this explosive exposé wherein Olmsted turns her expertise in helping us understand contemporary conspiracy theories. According to Olmsted, it is essential that we examine and explore “the history of proven government conspiracies, because for all their seeming outlandishness, the successive generations of antigovernment conspiracy theorists since World War 1 have at least one thing in common: when they charge that the government has plotted, lied, and covered up, they’re often right.”

   To advance her arguments and to comprehend why conspiracy theories are endemic to American democracy, Olmsted provides evidence that American conspiracy theories underwent a fundamental transformation in the twentieth century. The theory that there were alien forces such as Catholics, Masons, Mormons, and Jews that were bent on capturing the federal government was replaced by a conviction that the federal government itself was the conspirator. Many of these theories based their contentions that government officials lied to citizens, dragged peaceful Americans into unwanted wars, and then spied on and oppressed those who opposed the war.

   As Olmsted convincingly notes, these portrayals were not so far fetched as they appeared in an era when the federal government grew so powerful that they in fact were able to accomplish these abominable goals.

   Olmsted does a masterful job in tracing the history of the fear of conspiracies within the U.S. federal government from the birth of the modern state in World War 1, to Pearl Harbor, Communism and the McCarthy Era, JFK’s Assassination, Nixon and Watergate, conspiracy theories from the 1970s to the 1990s, 9/11 and ending with the current war on terror.

   Some of the more fascinating conspiracy theories examined include the ones advanced by President Theodore Roosevelt’s critics that made some valid points. Many of these theories were the result of Roosevelt’s secretive Asian foreign policy. He did make decisions that he knew might provoke the Japanese into an attack, and he made these in response to events in Europe. In fact, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he portrayed himself as being shocked by it as were other Americans. Finally, he did attempt to bury key documents and to force Pearl Harbor commanders to assume full responsibility for the disaster.

   Another is the U.S. government’s harassment of Linus Pauling, one of the greatest scientists who could have helped the frontiers of American science as well as showcasing the superiority of capitalism. According to Olmsted, the answer to his harassment lies in the conspiracy theory of communist subversion. Pauling was branded by America’s internal security agency as an enemy of the state.

   No doubt, one of the champions of conspiracy theories, as Olmsted demonstrates, was Richard Nixon, where during his administration, paranoia and conspiracy became fundamental operating principles of the executive branch. As we now know, his cohorts in crime strongly accepted conspiracy theories, actually participated in them, and cynically advanced some of these theories as a means to deflect attention from their own crimes.

   In her concluding chapter, Olmsted effectively sums up all of her arguments in stating that from World War 1 until the present, various actions of the U.S. government have aided in the creation of these conspiracy theories in three ways. Firstly, officials have often promoted these theories of their own. From Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush, there was a belief that it was the sinister powers that were responsible for trying to undermine American democracy. In order to combat this evil, it is essential that citizens trust the government in giving them more powers. Secondly, it is government officials through their actions that have provided the fuel for conspiracism by using powers to plot and to conceal real conspiracies. Thirdly, by actively supporting the suppression of alternative views, public officials have fed citizens’ antigovernment paranoia.

   Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War 1 to 9/11 belongs in every one’s library, to read not in one mouthful, but in small bites. Olmsted’s use of provocative and compelling examples and anecdotes is a testament to her talent and superb research skills that convincingly sways her readers in understanding the full significance of conspiracy theories as it applies to keeping American democracy healthy and informing the public debate.

   Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures

   Rating: 5 / 5