Gore Vidal really knows how to "cut the fat" when it comes to writing a book where every sentence is of importance and has some intrinsic value. In this compilation of essays, Vidal exposes how the criminals that run the USA government (with the help of the "free" media) have been fighting a "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" since the end of World War II against contrived (and made up) enemies so that they can expand government and further enslave U.S. "citizens."

Vidal also dedicates a good part of the book to Timothy McVeigh and how the media merely portrayed him as a deranged "lone nut" when in fact his bombing of the Oklahoma City building was primarily revenge for the massacre at Waco executed by the manly man Janet Reno. Of course, Vidal in no way endorses McVeigh's actions, he merely shows how the government and the media work together to disguise the facts.

Essentially, Vidal makes it clear that the war against drugs, communism, etc. have been all tools used to expand the criminal federal government. Unlike most people writing on these subjects, Gore Vidal does it in an eloquent and collected manner making "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" a pleasurable read despite the infuriating content.

Vidal against the US government--but is he right?

Some of this book is about Osama bin Laden and the war on terror, and some of it is about Timothy McVeigh. Vidal finds some similarity in their motives. But this is not so much a defense of McVeigh (or bin Laden) as it is an "appreciation"--that is, an appreciation of their frustration with the (sometimes) violent behavior of the United States government.

There are seven "chapters" (they are not numbered as such) amounting to seven essays by a past and present master of the form. Some of the material appeared in Vanity Fair or The Nation, and some of it was--Vidal suggests--not published because of prior censorship (after 9/11) by the corporate-sponsored American media.

Vidal argues (1) that McVeigh did not act alone; (2) he was not crazy or mentally deranged; and (3) what he did was at some level understandable. With the same logic, one could say that what bin Laden and Al Qaeda did was understandable; indeed Vidal intimates as much. He quotes McVeigh's psychiatrist as saying that McVeigh killed all those people in Oklahoma City partly in revenge for what the Janet Reno-led feds did at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and partly "to make a political statement about the role of the federal government and protest the use of force against the citizens." (p. 104)

Consequently, from his summer villa in the south of Italy, the one-time enfant terrible of American letters sees McVeigh and his heinous crime as a consequence of what our government is doing to us. He writes that "Since V-J Day 1945...we have been engaged in what the historian Charles A. Beard called 'perpetual war for perpetual peace.'" He adds that "each month we are confronted by a new horrendous enemy at whom we must strike before he destroys us."

In support of this contention, Vidal lists all the military operations that America has been involved in since WWII beginning with the Berlin Airlift (1948-49) to the bombing of Kosovo in 1999. It takes 20 pages to list them all. They include the Korean War, the Vietnam War, operation "Desert Storm," and the various "drug war" operations, and even some continental US operations with which I am not familiar. The credits the Federation of American Scientists with compiling the list.

It can be seen that this interpretation of American foreign and domestic policy is straight out of Orwell's 1984 in which Big Brother, in order to perpetually solidify his power and keep the citizenry in constant fear and distraction, maintained a state of constant war with a foreign enemy. This psychology works well on the tribal mind that we all share. We consciously and subconsciously feel that first comes defense of the nation (our tribe right or wrong!) against foreign enemies, and then, and only then, do we turn our attention to what our government is doing to us. However, if the war is perpetual, then we never confront our leaders because to do so would be unpatriotic. Vidal notes that only congresswoman Barbara Lee of California voted against giving President Bush additional powers to fight terrorism.

This mass psychology seems so simple and so totalitarian that we cannot believe (1) that it fools anybody, and (2) that our democratically-elected government would dare to use such a tactic. But Vidal is here to assure us that it's real, that the totalitarian state is in the making right before our very eyes. The culprits are the masters of corporations who have acquired the ability to buy and keep all politicians so that they might do the corporate bidding. Vidal notes that the present Bush administration is just the current instrument of this conspiracy (a somewhat unplanned, de facto and unconscious conspiracy, by the way) of socially conservative Christians, empire-dreaming neocons, and the corporate power structure. He observes, "The Bush administration...[is] eerily inept in all but its principal task, which is to exempt the rich from taxes..." while it goes about its "relentless plundering of the Treasury..." (pp. 10-11) I guess I should observe that this is in some sense "fortunate" since Bush's general incompetence will probably prevent him from being the first dictator of the United States--not that he doesn't otherwise have the Right Stuff.

Okay, the real question here is, what if Vidal is right? Are we headed the way of Imperial Rome, toward dictatorship and the inevitable decline and fall? Will our children and grandchildren live in a country under heavy surveillance while their standard of living plummets because of the weighty burden of maintaining an empire from which we gain little tribute, an empire maintained at a frightful cost in dollars and lives lost?

Personally I already see the decline of American power and influence. Already, as the Euro rushes past us in value (drug dealers in Latin America are reported as now preferring the Euro to the greenback--will Japanese investors be next?) we can see our civilization crumbling with the potholes in the streets, the growing slums of our cities with the homeless at nearly every downtown corner, with a looted treasury, a frightfully weak dollar, and a soon-to-be worthless social security. Who is watching the store? It used to be said that when the democrats get into office they give it away, while the republicans steal it. Now it would appear that there is little difference between one party and the other. There is only the subversion of democracy by the power elite. And how long can this republic in name only exist hated by most of the rest of the world? Shame, shame on you, our cowardly bought and sold politicians!

Okay, maybe the case is being overstated. (Whew--I hope so!) But I recommend you read Gore's rant as an introduction to this scary point of view and decide for yourself.

--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”

Angry at American politics? So is Gore! I like these essays because they can make me laugh and be angry at the sametime.

أعتقد أنه حان الوقت للتخلي عن دورنا الذي يذمه الجميع، كشرطي على العالم.

15 years after its publication, it remains incredibly relevant for our time.

Gore Vidal was outraged when he wrote this book, as well he should have been. Anger can be a good thing in driving a person to take (peaceful) action, particularly to speak out as is our primary right as free people.

The style of writing used by Vidal shows he is indignant, and I can't find fault with his message, but the delivery grated on me. It's the reason I can't give the book five stars.

Though Vidal was undoubtedly writing as a result of 9/11, more of the content of the book is about Timothy McVeigh's attack in Oklahoma City. The book is out to view motivation apart from the reaction of horror when awful events occur. Vidal sees a connection between Ruby Ridge, Waco, Oklahoma City and 9/11 in government actions that are anathema to the rights that Americans are given by the Constitution.

What struck me repeatedly is that Vidal was right on target in 2003 with his analysis, one fully supported by what has been learned since (see my review of Jane Meyer's "The Dark Side"). He rightly points out that the War on Terror at the expense of individual rights began in the Clinton years, and that the national security state began in 1947 with Truman. 9/11 gave the green light to what had been accelerating, but with caution, until that date.

The case of McVeigh puts me in mind of Edward Snowden. Both men were driven to action by outrage at actions taken by the government. Snowden, of course, took peaceful action and continues from a foreign land to promote his worthy cause in a sane way. McVeigh choose violence and killed innocent people with an equal dedication to protesting what he saw as injustice, but that took the path of insanity.

Vidal looks at McVeigh's motivation, apart from the insanity that it drove him to, and sees merit in it. Vidal correctly points out that the government and media will inevitably play up horror and play down reason and motivation whenever some horrific act occurs. This is because the public must be directed in a manner that will not cause reflection and action on well-founded criticism of what the government is doing.

And what is the government doing? Vidal believes it is betraying the ideas of liberty and justice, defying the principles that it is supposed to be guarding in favor of the pursuit of unlimited power, expansion of empire and the prerogatives of bureaucracy.

If you can put up with the irate, ranting nature of the text, this book is loaded with truth.

a bit of a polemic.

Vidal writes about the increase in the power of the police state in the U.S., among other topics. In particular he focuses on Waco and Ruby Ridge, and the Oklahoma City bombing that occurred after those incidents. His basic premise is that the increase in police power is damaging the fabric of American society, and that people shouldn't be surprised if this provokes violent responses. Overall, the book raises some interesting questions about the power structure in the United States, but at times Vidal skirts a little too close to conspiracy theories for my comfort.

I enjoyed this book ... Waco and the Oklahoma bombing feature strongly ... Struggled a little with the American Style of writing ... That's not a criticism of the book ... It's just a little different from the UK ... Much written in journalistic style ...

I was really not impressed with this book (short read) by Gore Vidal. His arguments are valid at the beginning, but then he loses his way as he excuses Timothy McVeigh and his terrorist act as he seems to throw the entire government into some vast conspiracy.

Not worth my time. Vidal may have written some great novels, but this diatribe is not worth the time.

You can tell how much anger and passion Vidal has about the topics in the book and he delivers excellent arguments. Vidal is an incredible essayist and writer in general and that shines here. The writing here is concise and snappy, in a very positive way. He knows when to craft the argument and when to simply lay out a giant table of US Military aggressions in the modern age and let that do work and speak for itself.

As I write this, the topics in the book are just as relevant, with things in general becoming even worse in regard to civil and individual rights and privacy, the use of drones, and the war on terror has never ended, in fact this year clearly showing it came home to America and will happily wage that war on American citizens.

How I wish we could hear Vidal speak on 2020.

Anyways, this is a quick but compelling read by one of the best writers of all time. Highly recommended.

Well written; knowledgeable and acerbically satirical.
A discussion of why America has enemies with particular focus on the FBI and ATF's abuse of the bill of rights during the Branch Davidian massacre and Timothy McVeigh and his motivations for the Oklahoma Bombing.
We all know that American Federal government adopts corrupt and immoral practices, Gore Vidal is in possession of the facts.