William Blum
William Blum is an author and critic of United States foreign policy who specializes in researching CIA interventions and assassinations. A former State Department employee, he left in 1967 due to his opposition to the Vietnam War. He describes himself as a socialist and has supported Ralph Nader's presidential campaigns.
From 1972 to 1973 Blum was in Chile, where he reported on the Allende government's "socialist experiment." In the mid-1970s, he worked in London with former CIA officer Philip Agee and his associates on their project of exposing CIA personnel and their alleged misdeeds.
In the late 1980s, he moved to Los Angeles to work on a documentary on American foreign policy, based on his own book Killing Hope. He worked on this together with Oliver Stone, but the project ultimately foundered.
Blum was a founder and editor of the Washington Free Press. He is also the author of a monthly newsletter called "The Anti-Empire Report."
Quotations
- "From 1945 to the end of the century, the United States attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalist movements struggling against intolerable regimes... In the process, the U.S. caused the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair." (Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower)</blockquote>
- "No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine" (Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower). [1]
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Books
- 2004: Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire (Common Courage Press)
- 2003: Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, revised edition (Common Courage Press) ISBN 1567512526
- 2002: West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir (Common Courage Press) ISBN 1567513069
- 2000: Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Common Courage Press) ISBN 1567511945