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pzorging 's review for:
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
This is an amazing book. Lots of primary and secondary research on a horrifying part of world history: the loose series of massacres that the US instigated in the second half of the 20th Century. I'd been aware of some of this already - I'd heard of the killings in Indonesia and seen the Hollywood movie, an awareness of the killings in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and El Salvador, in Congo, Sudan, and South Africa - but Bevins points out the connections between these atrocities, temporally and in tactics. The massacre of a million supposed Communists in Indonesia showed right wing elements around the world that they could do this without any repercussions.
The hardest part of this book is the end. After he outlined throughout the book the vicious treatment of leftists around the world, Bevins tells us how they're doing now (or rather, in 2019/2020, when he finished writing the book). The survivors are broken men and women, many of them living in poverty and isolation. The ones who did the least worst are in Latin America and South Africa, where at least there was an effort at truth and reconciliation. In Indonesia, this effort was stifled by the government and the survivors experience abandonment by their government and the broader culture, both of which would rather forget their stories. I hope someday they will all get the justice they deserve.
The hardest part of this book is the end. After he outlined throughout the book the vicious treatment of leftists around the world, Bevins tells us how they're doing now (or rather, in 2019/2020, when he finished writing the book). The survivors are broken men and women, many of them living in poverty and isolation. The ones who did the least worst are in Latin America and South Africa, where at least there was an effort at truth and reconciliation. In Indonesia, this effort was stifled by the government and the survivors experience abandonment by their government and the broader culture, both of which would rather forget their stories. I hope someday they will all get the justice they deserve.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, Deportation