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Stephen Kinzer

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Stephen Kinzer
Born (1951-08-04) August 4, 1951 (age 73)
Alma materBoston University (BA)
Known forAmerican author, journalist, and academic
Websitehttp://www.stephenkinzer.com

Stephen Kinzer (born August 4, 1951) is an American author, journalist, and academic. A former New York Times correspondent, he has published several books and writes for several newspapers and news agencies.

Reporting career

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During the 1980s, Kinzer covered revolutions and social upheaval in Central America and wrote his first book, Bitter Fruit, about military coups and destabilization in Guatemala during the 1950s. In 1990, The New York Times appointed Kinzer to head its Berlin bureau,[1] from which he covered Eastern and Central Europe as they emerged from the Soviet bloc. Kinzer was The New York Times chief in the newly established Istanbul bureau from 1996 to 2000.[1]

Upon returning to the U.S., Kinzer became the newspaper's culture correspondent, based in Chicago, as well as teaching at Northwestern University.[1] He then took up residence in Boston and began teaching journalism and U.S. foreign policy at Boston University. He has written several nonfiction books about Turkey, Central America, Iran, and the U.S. overthrow of foreign governments from the late 19th century to the present, as well as Rwanda's recovery from genocide.[citation needed]

Kinzer also contributes columns to The New York Review of Books,[2] The Guardian,[3] and The Boston Globe.[4] He is a Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.[5]

Views

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Kinzer's reporting on Central America was criticized by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in their book Manufacturing Consent (1988), which cited Edgar Chamorro ("selected by the CIA as press spokesman for the contras") in his interview by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting describing Kinzer as "just responding to what the White House is saying".[6] In chapter 2 of Manufacturing Consent, Kinzer is criticized for deploying no skepticism in his coverage of the murders of GAM leaders in Guatemala and for "generally employing an apologetic framework" for the Guatemalan military state.[6]

Kinzer has since that time criticized interventionist U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America and more recently, the Middle East.[7] In Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq (2006), he critiqued U.S. foreign policy as overly interventionist.[8] In a 2010 interview with Imagineer Magazine, he said:

The effects of U.S. intervention in Latin America have been overwhelmingly negative. They have had the effect of reinforcing brutal and unjust social systems and crushing people who are fighting for what we would actually call "American values." In many cases, if you take Chile, Guatemala, or Honduras for examples, we actually overthrew governments that had principles similar to ours and replaced those democratic, quasi-democratic, or nationalist leaders with people who detest everything the United States stands for.[9]

In his 2008 book A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man who Dreamed It, Kinzer credits President Paul Kagame for what he calls the peace, development, and stability in Rwanda in the years after the Rwandan genocide, and criticizes Rwanda's leaders before the genocide, such as Juvenal Habyarimana.[citation needed] According to Susan M. Thomson, the "book is an exercise in public relations, aimed at further enhancing Kagame's stature in the eyes of the west", is one-sided due to heavy reliance on interviews with Kagame and even apologist.[10]

Kinzer has been criticised for "help[ing] spread Assad's propaganda".[11] In a 2016 opinion piece, Kinzer wrote that Aleppo had been liberated by Bashar al-Assad's forces from the violent militants who had ruled it for three years, but that the American public had been told "convoluted nonsense" about the war. He added: "At the recent debate in Milwaukee, Hillary Clinton claimed that United Nations peace efforts in Syria were based on 'an agreement I negotiated in June of 2012 in Geneva.' The precise opposite is true. In 2012 Secretary of State Clinton joined Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel in a successful effort to kill Kofi Annan's UN peace plan because it would have accommodated Iran and kept Assad in power, at least temporarily. No one on the Milwaukee stage knew enough to challenge her."[12] Clinton was referencing the Geneva I Conference on Syria, during which the major powers agreed on principles and guidelines for a power transition.[13]

In April 2018, he added:

According to the logic behind American strategy in the Middle East—and the rest of the world—one of our principal goals should be to prevent peace or prosperity from breaking out in countries whose governments are unfriendly to us. That outcome in Syria would have results we consider intolerable.[14]

Kinzer wrote that the 2018 Syrian Gas Attacks on Civilians in the Douma region was a "false flag" attack, suggesting the event was staged by either al-Qaeda, NATO, or Syrian Civil Defense.[15][16]

Kinzer has opposed US support for Ukraine in response to the 2014 and 2022 Russian invasions, stating that the war is a proxy war provoked by NATO expansion.[17] Kinzer said in March 2022, after Russia's initial invasion, that US provision of arms to Ukraine only "guarantees more suffering and death" and that it "provoke[s] Russia to respond by killing more Ukrainians."[18] Kinzer believes that "for American strategic planners, this war has little to do with Ukraine. They see it as a battering ram against Russia. Since saving Ukrainian lives is not their priority, they view diplomacy as an enemy."[19] Kinzer has rejected the "villainous" depiction of Vladimir Putin, stating: "For years, we reveled in our moral superiority over colorful nemeses like Castro, Khadafi, and Saddam Hussein. Putin fits perfectly into this constellation."[20]

Bibliography

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Title Year ISBN Publisher Subject matter Interviews, presentations, and reviews Comments
Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala 1982 ISBN 9780385148610 Doubleday 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Written with Stephen Schlesinger. Revised edition, 1999, Harvard University Press, ISBN 9780674075900.
Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua 1991 ISBN 9780399135941 G. P. Putnam's Sons Nicaraguan Revolution Revised edition, 2007, Harvard University Press, ISBN 9780399135941.
Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds 2001 ISBN 9780374131432 Farrar, Straus and Giroux Turkey Booknotes interview with Kinzer on Crescent & Star, October 21, 2001, C-SPAN
All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror 2003 ISBN 9781681620619 John Wiley & Sons 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Mohammad Mosaddegh, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Presentation by Kinzer on All the Shah's Men, October 8, 2003, C-SPAN
Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq 2006 ISBN 9780805078619 Times Books United States involvement in regime change Presentation by Kinzer on Overthrow, April 10, 2006, C-SPAN
Presentation by Kinzer on Overthrow, June 4, 2006, C-SPAN
A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It 2008 ISBN 9780470120156 John Wiley & Sons Paul Kagame, Rwandan Civil War Presentation by Kinzer on A Thousand Hills, June 18, 2008, C-SPAN
Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future 2010 ISBN 9780805091274 Times Books Iran–U.S. relations, Israel–U.S. relations, Saudi Arabia–U.S. relations, Turkey–U.S. relations Presentation by Kinzer on Reset, June 15, 2010, C-SPAN Later published as Reset Middle East: Old Friends and New Alliances -- Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Iran, 2011, I. B. Tauris ISBN 9781848857650
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War 2013 ISBN 9780805094978 Times Books John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles Q&A interview with Kinzer on The Brothers, November 3, 2013, C-SPAN
Presentation by Kinzer on The Brothers, October 4, 2013, C-SPAN
The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire 2017 ISBN 9781627792165 Henry Holt and Co. Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, American imperialism Presentation by Kinzer on The True Flag, January 26, 2017, C-SPAN
Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control 2019 ISBN 9781250140432 Henry Holt and Co. Sidney Gottlieb, MK-ULTRA Presentation by Kinzer on Poisoner in Chief, October 3, 2019, C-SPAN

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Stephen Kinzer". Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
  2. ^ "Stephen Kinzer". nybooks.com. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  3. ^ "Stephen Kinzer". theguardian.com. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  4. ^ "Stephen Kinzer - The Boston Globe". bostonglobe.com. Archived from the original on September 17, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  5. ^ "Stephen Kinzer - Watson Institute". brown.edu. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  6. ^ a b Chomsky, Noam; Herman, Edweard S. (2002). Manufacturing Consent. Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0375714498.
  7. ^ Interview about the United States and Iran, Democracy Now!, March 3, 2008 (video, audio, and print transcript)
  8. ^ "Author Kinzer Charts 'Century of Regime Change'". NPR. April 5, 2006.
  9. ^ "Imagineer :: Stephen Kinzer". December 3, 2009. Archived from the original on December 3, 2009.
  10. ^ Thomson, Susan M. (2008). "Review of A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It". International Journal. 64 (1): 304–306. doi:10.1177/002070200906400131. ISSN 0020-7020. JSTOR 40204478. S2CID 146485596.
  11. ^ "How Western academics help spread Assad's propaganda". Middle East Eye. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  12. ^ The media are misleading the public on Syria, February 18, 2016, The Boston Globe
  13. ^ "The United Nations in the Heart of Europe - News & Media - Action Group for Syria - Final Communiqué - 30 June 2012". July 10, 2012. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012.
  14. ^ Kinzer, Stephen. "The US doesn't even care about Syria — but we keep the war going". The Boston Globe.
  15. ^ @stephenkinzer (May 18, 2019). "In case you fell for this one: chemical weapons monitors conclude that famous 2018 gas attack in #Syria was not an #Assad bombing--evidence shows "only plausible explanation" is "manual placement" by folks on the ground (al-Qaeda/#NATO/White Helmets)" (Tweet). Retrieved May 5, 2023 – via Twitter.
  16. ^ Kinzer, Stephen (April 27, 2018). "Hoisting the false flag". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  17. ^ Kinzer, Stephen (March 9, 2023). "The incalculable moral cost of proxy wars". Boston Globe. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  18. ^ Kinzer, Stephen (March 18, 2022). "US military aid to Ukraine guarantees more suffering and death". StephenKinzer.com. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  19. ^ Kinzer, Stephen (July 11, 2022). "Biden moves US closer to confrontation with Russia". StephenKinzer.com. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  20. ^ Kinzer, Stephen (February 22, 2023). "Putin & Zelensky: Sinners and saints who fit our historic narrative". StephenKinzer.com. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
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