Michael Le Flem elucidates the terrible power play that engulfed Congo and took the life of Patrice Lumumba with it. With the newest information, he shows us how a democratically elected, constitutional government was wrecked by Belgium and the CIA before it got off the ground.

The strength of the book lies in the tracing of the Oswald files through the CIA under Angleton’s dominion. No book on Angleton has done this before. And that is certainly a commendable achievement. Hopefully, this will become a staple of future Angleton scholarship, writes Jim DiEugenio.

Read the 3-part article by Patrick Martin at the World Socialist Web Site

CounterPunch  is at times a valuable journal. But apparently they cannot outgrow the legacy of Alec Cockburn. What he represented on Kennedy and Vietnam was a gross distortion of historical fact, which is a shame when it’s done by the Left as well as the Right, laments Jim DiEugenio.

Michael Le Flem finds this brief book on one of the most important figures in the history of United States psychological warfare and propaganda, Time-Life managing director C.D. Jackson, an engaging, nuanced and timely addition to Cold War historiography.

Jim DiEugenio responds to a recent hit piece which uses Joe Kennedy III's State of the Union reply as a platform from which to launch yet another doctrinaire and uninformed attack on JFK and RFK, claiming that the latter's grandson is just another "false progressive idol" like his great uncle.

Robert Parry has left us at the young age of 68.  Read this tribute by his son Nat Parry.

One of the lesser appreciated programs instituted by President Kennedy, the Alliance for Progress, intended as a way of freeing Latin America from the yoke of U.S. and European entrepreneurial exploitation, encouraging its economic independence and broadening political participation and self-determination, like nearly all of his foreign policy strategies, met with hostility at home and was reversed subsequent to his assassination, as author Michael Le Flem discusses.

Part 2 of the interview by David Giglio of Our Hidden History with Jim DiEugenio, covering 1963-1975.

The following interview was conducted by David Giglio of Our Hidden History with Jim DiEugenio about his four part review of the Burns/Novick PBS documentary The Vietnam War. But it goes beyond the material in that series and uses information recently declassified by NARA.  Part 1 covers 1945-1963. (Click on the image for the audio.)