Friendly Fire; Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century

xvii, [3], 251, [1] pages. Notes. Additional Reading. Index. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads April 27, 2007 For Eric Green with Regards---Sweig. In 1945, the U.S. was the founding impulse behind the cornerstones of the international community--the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and most of all, the United Nations. Untainted by colonialism or fascism, heroic in warfare and idealistic at home, the U.S. presented itself as a paragon to inspire a less noble and divided world. Sixty years later, that perception had almost completely been reversed. America had, in fact, quietly sowed the seeds of its own decline in the eyes of the world in its own backyard. Anti-Americanism flourished among America's closest allies beyond the Americas in a way, and to a depth, not seen before. As this reaches a crucial tipping point, Julia E. Sweig offers a masterly and incisive history of what went wrong, and a feisty and compelling prescription for how to sort it out. Anti-Americanism, now a global phenomenon, was road tested in South America when most of the rest of the world was too distracted to notice or care. There, under the guise of anti-communism, we sponsored dictatorships, turned a blind eye to killing squads, and tolerated the subversion of democracy. Almost nobody knew, so it didn't really matter, right? Wrong on two counts. First, South America remembered. And second, encouraged by our success, we convinced ourselves that almost nobody knew, so it didn't really matter, right? Julia Sweig is an American writer and scholar. Sweig holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She is the author of the New York Times Best Seller Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight, which portrays Lady Bird's influence and power in the formidable political partnership at the center of the Johnson presidency. Sweig is also the executive producer, writer, and host of In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson, an eight-episode audio documentary produced with ABC News and Best Case Studios. She is the author of several books and is currently a non-resident senior research fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin. Sweig is a recognized expert and scholar of US-Latin American relations and, in addition to her books, author of numerous short and long form essays on American foreign policy, especially Cuba. She wrote a column on American politics for three years in Folha, Brazil's largest daily newspaper. Previously she served as the Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and also led the Aspen Institute's congressional seminar on Latin America. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. …