Journalist’s stories make rousing read
Reporter: A Memoir By Seymour Hersh, PenguinRandomhouse, $55, hardback
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This is an inspiring read by probably the greatest investigative journalist of our time, and possibly all time.
He has won numerous awards, the first being the Pulitzer Prize for his exposure of the massacre of civilians by American soldiers in Mai Lai, Vietnam.
Always passionate in his pursuit of the truth, and fearless in his exposure of wrongdoing by politicians, presidents, state departments, and large corporates, his writings have shocked Americans, angered many of those exposed, but also made many feel ashamed.
About 20 years ago Naom Chomsky, one of the world’s most respected intellectuals and writers, wrote a book called Rogue Nation.
To the surprise of many Americans the nation was the United States. Calling it the biggest .. and worst imperial nation (Israel was another, though Chomsky is Jewish), he cited the many illegal and unjustified interferences in other countries — in Asia of course, but also Africa, the Middle East, Chile, Bangladesh, the West Indies and Chile.
Hersh reported in detail on most of these instances, and his investigative stories, which have never been refuted, make for chilling reading, especially the slaughter of thousands of innocents in Cambodia.
Then there were the plans to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Chilean president Allende, Noriega of Panama and others.
President Nixon and Henry Kissenger are revealed as serial liars. Hersh sums them up — “They were operating in a democracy, guided by a constitution, and among a citizenry who held their leaders to a reasonable standard of morality and integrity.
The dead and maimed in Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, Bangladesh, Biafra and the Middle East seemed not to count.”