Stephen Kinzer Explained

Stephen Kinzer
Birth Date:4 August 1951
Alma Mater:Boston University (BA)
Known For:American author, journalist, and academic
Website:http://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

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.

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

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:

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. 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.[9]

Kinzer has been criticised for "help[ing] spread Assad's propaganda".[10] 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."[11] Clinton was referencing the Geneva I Conference on Syria, during which the major powers agreed on principles and guidelines for a power transition.[12]

In April 2018, he added: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.[13] [14]

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.[15] 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."[16] 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."[17] 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."[18]

Bibliography

TitleYearISBNPublisherSubject matterInterviews, presentations, and reviewsComments
Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala1982Doubleday1954 Guatemalan coup d'étatWritten with Stephen Schlesinger. Revised edition, 1999, Harvard University Press, .
Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua1991G. P. Putnam's SonsNicaraguan RevolutionRevised edition, 2007, Harvard University Press, .
Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds2001Farrar, Straus and GirouxTurkeyBooknotes interview with Kinzer on Crescent & Star, October 21, 2001, C-SPAN
2003John Wiley & Sons1953 Iranian coup d'état, Mohammad Mosaddegh, Mohammad Reza PahlaviPresentation by Kinzer on All the Shah's Men, October 8, 2003, C-SPAN
2006Times BooksUnited States involvement in regime changePresentation 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 It2008John Wiley & SonsPaul Kagame, Rwandan Civil WarPresentation by Kinzer on A Thousand Hills, June 18, 2008, C-SPAN
Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future2010Times BooksIran–U.S. relations, Israel–U.S. relations, Saudi Arabia–U.S. relations, Turkey–U.S. relationsPresentation by Kinzer on Reset, June 15, 2010, C-SPAN
2013Times BooksJohn Foster Dulles, Allen DullesQ&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 Empire2017Henry Holt and Co.Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, American imperialismPresentation by Kinzer on The True Flag, January 26, 2017, C-SPAN
2019Henry Holt and Co.Sidney Gottlieb, MK-ULTRAPresentation by Kinzer on Poisoner in Chief, October 3, 2019, C-SPAN

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Stephen Kinzer. Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
  2. Web site: Stephen Kinzer. nybooks.com. December 13, 2016.
  3. Web site: Stephen Kinzer. theguardian.com. December 13, 2016.
  4. Web site: Stephen Kinzer - The Boston Globe. bostonglobe.com. December 13, 2016. September 17, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180917155018/https://www.bostonglobe.com/contributors/skinzer. dead.
  5. Web site: Stephen Kinzer - Watson Institute. brown.edu. December 13, 2016.
  6. Book: Manufacturing Consent. Chomsky. Noam. Herman. Edweard S.. Noam Chomsky. Edward S. Herman. 2002. Pantheon Books. 978-0375714498.
  7. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/3/stephen_kinzer_on_the_us_iranian Interview about the United States and Iran
  8. Web site: Author Kinzer Charts 'Century of Regime Change'. NPR. April 5, 2006.
  9. Thomson . Susan M. . Review of A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It . International Journal . 2008 . 64 . 1 . 304–306 . 10.1177/002070200906400131 . 40204478 . 146485596 . 0020-7020.
  10. Web site: How Western academics help spread Assad's propaganda . 2023-05-05 . Middle East Eye . en.
  11. https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/02/18/the-media-are-misleading-public-syria/8YB75otYirPzUCnlwaVtcK/story.html The media are misleading the public on Syria
  12. Web site: The United Nations in the Heart of Europe - News & Media - Action Group for Syria - Final Communiqué - 30 June 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120710040540/http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpNewsByYear_en)/18F70DBC923963B1C1257A2D0060696B?OpenDocument. dead. July 10, 2012. July 10, 2012.
  13. 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) . stephenkinzer . 1129906333128568834 . 2019-05-18 . 2023-05-05 . en.
  14. Web site: Kinzer . Stephen . April 27, 2018 . Hoisting the false flag . 2023-05-05 . BostonGlobe.com . en-US.
  15. News: Stephen . Kinzer . March 9, 2023 . The incalculable moral cost of proxy wars . Boston Globe . 2023-05-05.
  16. Web site: Kinzer . Stephen . 2022-03-18 . US military aid to Ukraine guarantees more suffering and death . 2023-05-05 . StephenKinzer.com . en-US.
  17. Web site: Kinzer . Stephen . 2022-07-11 . Biden moves US closer to confrontation with Russia . 2023-05-05 . StephenKinzer.com . en-US.
  18. Web site: Kinzer . Stephen . 2023-02-22 . Putin & Zelensky: Sinners and saints who fit our historic narrative . 2023-05-05 . StephenKinzer.com . en-US.