Review of Two Books by John Perkins

Book Reviews:

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Penguin Publishing, 2006
The Secret History of the American Empire, Dutton Books, 2007

John Perkins’ two books, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Confessions) and The Secret History of the American Empire (SHAE) contains as much international intrigue and espionage as a Tom Clancy novel. However, there is one remarkable difference. The Perkins’ books are not fiction.

Both books are memoirs of Perkins’ working life as an economic consultant for Chas T. Main Inc, a global consulting firm, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Perkins’ job was to travel throughout the third world and create economic development forecasts at the behest of the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These forecasts, however, were as much fantasy as they were fact. He was tasked to find the rosiest outlook he could to justify the building of a hydroelectric dam or a highway system to support the extraction the country’s recourses for the world market. He and his collogues would then convince the country’s leaders of the benefits of development to the county’s impoverished citizens and overall economic condition. The World Bank was ready to loan the millions of dollars to fund the projects. Along the way, American companies, like Bechtel, would inevitably get the contracts though bribes and other forms of underhanded persuasion.

The overall benefit for all this development always found its way into the pockets of wealthy citizens and American corporations. The net effect on the poor in the regions was disastrous. It was especially devastating to the indigenous people of South and Central America where Perkins had spent time as a Peace Corp volunteer in the few years previous to his employment at Main. It was his experience with the Peace Corp and his Calvinist, prep school upbringing in rural New Hampshire that targeted him for recruitment into the shadowy world of economic development.

The whole process resembled the workings of an extortion racquet. Money was lent, debt mounted to the point that the countries expended much of their gross national product to serve it, and then the demands were made. A request may be made for US military base or a company may desire to control a particular resource but the offer will inevitably come that the county’s leaders couldn’t refuse. It was this metaphor that inspired the moniker for his profession as an “economic hit man” (EHM).

Perkins recounts these scenarios, played in the seats of power in many third world countries, in Confessions. He described deals made in lucid detail with the elite of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Panama, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. He also wrote about the friendships he made along the way with members of the struggling middle class or the desperate poor. These encounters provided the backdrop for his internal struggles. He constantly questioned the morality of his profession. His determination to quit heightened as the consequences of the actions of his and his fellow EHM becomes more apparent. However, he continued to sell out. He wrote that the money, adventure and women were very seductive.

In Confessions and SHAE, Perkins describes the three-tier approach to the establishment of what he termed, the American Corprotocracy. The EHM were the first wave. Through bribes, coercion and falsification, countries and their resources were usurped and their people were economically subjugated for the profit of the few. If they were not successful, if a county’s leadership was too sophisticated or populist to fall in line, then the jackals were sent in. Jackals, a euphemism for CIA operatives (private or otherwise), did the dirty work. They insighted anti-government demonstrations through payoffs, corrupted the corruptible to perpetrate a government coup, or arranged for an assassination. The third tier was the military. American blood must spill when all else fails. It is the reason for America’s great and overwhelming military prowess. Iraq is an example of this last tier in action according to SHAE.

Confessions, relates a story of a time that the jackals used assassination as a tool of Empire. Perkins was sent to Panama to convince the then leader, Omar Torrijos to tow the line for the Corprotocracy. This US educated leader understood the motivations of empire and refused to comply. His previous activities in securing ownership of the Panama Cannel for his country infuriated the Corpotocarcy elites.

Perkins befriended Torrijos and together they developed a plan that was both truthful and directed to creating real economic growth for Panama. The plan was accepted and the Torrijos government began the campaign towards growth until his airplane went down in the Panamanian jungle. The CIA then placed Manuel Noriega into power.

Perkins struggled for years over his complicity in Torrijos’ death. Doing the right thing was the first step to Torrijos’ destruction. He knew it at the time and Torrijos did too. Here was a man who wanted to do good things for his people. He was a leader that could not be corrupted or deterred from doing that which the World Bank and the USA espouses as the reasons for economic aid. But this was nothing but lip service to a gullible first world citizenry. The assassination of Torrijos was a turning point in Perkins professional life, one of many he describes in Confessions.

SHAE recounts much of the Confessions memoirs but with more added historical context. Perkins elaborates on his work in Indonesia where he encounters a professional geisha girl at a hotel pool in the book’s first chapter. The geisha was trained from a little girl in the art of pleasing men. Though she was young, she was sophisticated in the ways of the elite. Her knowledge of the political-economic realities impressed Perkins, especially her pronouncement in the late 1970’s that oil would be the cause of the greatest land grab in history. Perkins dedicates the rest of his book in proving the young geisha as a profit.

Perkins writes in both books about his complicity in the Saudi dollar laundering scheme. He wrote that the agreement was for the House of Saud to funnel US dollars from oil sales back to the US through the purchase of US government securities. The Treasury department would then use the interest on these securities to hire US firms to build up the Saudi infrastructure. In return, the US would protect the power of the Saud family and the Saudis would accept nothing but US dollars for their oil. Perkins contends that this is typical of the quid-pro-quo that built the American Empire. Perkins describes many other stories from the front lines of the struggle for world economic domination by the US government and the corporations for which it serves.

There are, of course, many detractors to the stories Perkins tells. No one disputes that he was an EHM for Main or that he did what he said he did. His critics suggest that he drew the wrong conclusions about his and others’ activities. They dispute the involvement of the CIA or any government agency in his depictions. They say that the motivations of the World Bank and the IMF are not to assert US corporate control of the world economy but to help the underprivileged obtain the money they need to improve their lot. They site Perkins lack of real evidence and his use of anecdotal tales that only he can easily verify. His critics point to the recent debt relief efforts pushed by first world nations. They ask, why would an empire unilaterally remove their primary weapon for world domination? Perkins answered his critics at the end of SHAE.

The forgiveness of debt is the coup de grace. According the Perkins, the movement to forgive debt is a preventive strike against the third world weapon of nationalization. It’s a weapon of mass domination fired at a country tiring to impose its national soventry. The caveat to debt forgiveness is the requirement to privatize all the country’s utilities. The water systems, oil companies and infrastructure must be sold to private concerns before dollar one is forgiven. Debt forgiveness is not an egalitarian movement but the final pound of flesh, the offer they can’t refuse.

I too had some doubts after reading Confessions. Perkins wrote dialog throughout the book. Dialog renders a notion of truthfulness. Writing the exact words used in a conversation, say between Perkins and a jackal acquaintance, leaves no doubt as to the interpretation of motivations. However, I thought it was a very convenient device. How could he, after many years, remember word for word the content of a conversation or even what the other person was wearing? He mentioned that he kept a journal. Maybe he did or maybe it’s a tool to impress the reader.

Judgment as to the veracity of many of Perkins experiences are up to the reader as it is with any piece of writing where data and peer review are not involved. My take is that his overall conclusions, observations and testimony are true. You have only to look at the world as it is with a critical eye to see the manifestations of an American dominated economic empire. Poverty is worse now that ever before in modern times. Pollution is killing life, human and otherwise. Wealth is being concentrated in the pocket of proportionally fewer people. The flat world of Thomas Friedman is festooned with ivory towers where corporate scouts are on the lookout for the next money making opportunity.

The leaders of American government and corporations rotate personnel like the NFL on draft day. Many of the top men in US government over the past twenty-five years were also high-level players in the Corprotocracy. Richard Cheney was CEO of Halliburton. George Schultz, President Reagan’s Secretary of State, was CEO of Bechtel and Casper Weinberger was Bechtel’s senior council. Donald Rumsfeld was CEO of Sterile Pharmaceuticals and CEO of General Instrument Corporation, a worldwide information technology equipment company. Paul Wolfowitz moved from the Pentagon to Director of the World Bank, as did Robert McNamara forty years prior.

Is this evidence of a conspiracy? Is the Corprotocracy a living entity with a charter and formal lines of succession like the old time British Empire? Perkins’ answer is no. He admits that most of the men and now women who facilitate the expansion of the Corprotocarcy think they are doing good deeds, except for maybe the very few psychopaths, which Perkins says can be found in any walk of life. The Corprotocracy is built on the free market and a philosophy of government that believes in extreme laissez-faire principals (except where corporate interests are promoted) coupled with a fat and complacent U.S. citizenry.

This mix of realities produces a political -economic system that exploits the downtrodden for the resources that they happen to live on. The flow of world money has been an uphill torrent to the USA. The American and European high standard of living is supported on the backs of third world people and they are beginning to fight back.

Perkins wrote that the events of September 11, 2001 inspired him to publish his memoirs. He was paid to keep silent about his experiences as an EHM and he kept that agreement through the 1990’s. However, the attacks on 9/11 were in retaliation for the decades of EHM activities and the seizing of third world resources. We cannot forget that one of the targets was the World Trade Center, the central seat of the Corprotocracy. Perkins felt that he could not stay silent and I thank him for that.

All is not lost for those who believe in fair play and justice. Perkins is an optimist despite what has been written here about these books. He grew up believing in the virtues of American Democracy and the words written in the constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He is also a staunch capitalist. He feels that the free enterprise system is not inherently wrong. It can be a powerful force for change. His answer to the overwhelming problems of poverty, hunger and political strife is to make corporations into good planetary citizens. He points out in SHAE that the US Supreme Court granted US corporations the same rights and privileges as any individual US citizen. American companies took those rights and applied them copiously. However, they didn’t accept the responsibilities that go with them and it is time to call them on that neglect.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire are must-reads for any thoughtful American. The confusion over the troubles in today’s world congeals into clarity upon the realization that we in the USA are the modern equivalent of ancient Rome. However, unlike the early Roman’s, we the people have the power to change our destiny. Understanding the truth is the first step.