The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline

Rating:
Summary: Just the Facts
Review: After reading this book, all I can say is "Wow". After studying history for over 30 years as a former non-believer in conspiracy theories, I can state that this book has finally put all the pieces together. If you want to know what has been occuring behind the scenes in US domestic and foreign policy in the past 90 years, then you need to read this book. Although the book was written in 1988 (with an eye-opening 2002 up-to-date list of Council of Foreign Affairs members), after reading this book you can clearly make sense of what has happened in US and world geopolitics from 1988 through the present. Events subsequent to 1988 have certainly made this book nothing short of prophetic. That said, I would very much like to see an updated edition of this book, because events over the past 14 years have played out largely according to the Establishment's goals and desires.

This books makes sense of "Republican", "Democrat", "anti-Communist", "conservative", and "liberal" labels ascribed to Presidents and other public figures by the Establishment, and how these labels are usually used by the Estalishment to mislead the sheeple masses. I'm amazed that the masses in the US have been used as moronic pawns all these years, regardless of which party has been in power. How did Eisenhower come to power? How did Nixon come to power? Was Jimmy Carter just the simple peanut farmer--Washington outsider? Was FDR just an ordinary man who looked out for the little guy? Did Reagan's actions match up with his verbiage? This book gives you those answers.

This books sticks to facts--do not expect UFO alien abduction theories and the like in this book. Every fact is footnoted, and the most damning evidence comes straight from quotes from the key players themselves--no interpretation needed. All evidence is given in a straight-forward, non-hysterical, just-the-facts manner.

This book is a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: Just the Facts
Review: After reading this book, all I can say is "Wow". After studying history for over 30 years as a former non-believer in conspiracy theories, I can state that this book has finally put all the pieces together. If you want to know what has been occuring behind the scenes in US domestic and foreign policy in the past 90 years, then you need to read this book. Although the book was written in 1988 (with an eye-opening 2002 up-to-date list of Council of Foreign Affairs members), after reading this book you can clearly make sense of what has happened in US and world geopolitics from 1988 through the present. Events subsequent to 1988 have certainly made this book nothing short of prophetic. That said, I would very much like to see an updated edition of this book, because events over the past 14 years have played out largely according to the Establishment's goals and desires.

This books makes sense of "Republican", "Democrat", "anti-Communist", "conservative", and "liberal" labels ascribed to Presidents and other public figures by the Establishment, and how these labels are usually used by the Estalishment to mislead the sheeple masses. I'm amazed that the masses in the US have been used as moronic pawns all these years, regardless of which party has been in power. How did Eisenhower come to power? How did Nixon come to power? Was Jimmy Carter just the simple peanut farmer--Washington outsider? Was FDR just an ordinary man who looked out for the little guy? Did Reagan's actions match up with his verbiage? This book gives you those answers.

This books sticks to facts--do not expect UFO alien abduction theories and the like in this book. Every fact is footnoted, and the most damning evidence comes straight from quotes from the key players themselves--no interpretation needed. All evidence is given in a straight-forward, non-hysterical, just-the-facts manner.

This book is a must-read.

Rating:
Summary: The Truth Is Out There
Review: And James Perloff has uncovered it. This is a must read for anyone interested in politics, sociology, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism... The book is a masterpiece of puzzle solving. Perloff explains and documents the political and economic undercurrents that have shaped and manipulated the US government and our society as a whole. Every college undergrad should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!! I TREASURE THIS BOOK . I TELL ALL ABOUT IT TO
Review: BEST HISTORY BOOK IN THE WORLD EVER WRITTEN. IT BRINGS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO THE LIGHT OF THE TRUTH AND OUT OF THE DARKNESS SO AS NOT TO BE IGNORANT OF WHAT THIS GOVERNMENT IS DOING TO US AS A PEOPLE. ONE CAN SEE THAT THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT MEAN US ANY GOOD AT ALL!! THANK YOU MR. PERLOFF FOR EXPOSING AND UNCOVERING THE LIE THAT THIS GOVERNMENT KEEPS SHOVING DOWN OUR THROATS!!

Rating:
Summary: Perloff is a bit of a nut!
Review: Even though Mr. Perloff says that politicians using the "communist threat" is a bunch of BS, he is the consumate anti-communist who thinks that only the John Birch Society can save us! There is some info about the CFR that might be valuable, but it's difficult to know what might really be true and what is his personal opinion.

It's OK as an intro to the CFR, but the author is still living in the early fifties.

Rating:
Summary: My... [e-mail]
Review: For any one who remotly cares about America, read this book, stop supporting: the UN, DNC, RNC, WTO, and countless others. In the back of the book there is a CFR list from 1993, I believe, so you can see which famous persons are in the CFR. Remember, the CFR is to destroy national sovernignty. www.getusout.org join thr JBS www.jbs.com James does a better job than I could ever do to explain this emergency!

Rating:
Summary: Globalist agenda exposed but means of implemetation missing
Review: For people unaware of this organization, this in an OK introduction. I personally prefer the 'conspiracy' issue from the New American, which documents decades of CFR penetration in the federal government, tax-exempt foundations, and media(it's cheaper too).

This book was written by a member of the John Birch Society, so it attacks this organization from the conspiracy angle. The author asserts that this organization is a front group for the American Establishment, a collection of anti-American, globalist international bankers, industrialists and lawyers, mostly from the Northeast, who use the CFR as a recruiting ground for agents to be placed in influential positions in govt. and society to implement a globalist agenda.

The sources that the author uses are articles from Foreign Affairs, a publication by the CFR, excerpts from books written by CFR members, and of course some excerpts from books by Gary Allen, Antony Sutton, and Carrol Quigley. A rigorous investigation this isn't. The globalist aspirations by the members of this organization are beyond doubt, but the ability of this organization to exert IT'S OWN power is not really proven.

For example, when Wendell Willkie, lifelong Democrat and interventionist, got the 1940 Republican nomination for President, the author's analysis is that it was pretty fishy. Willkie later became a CFR member and was not an isolationist, therefore those CFR members were up to no good. Thomas Mahl's "Desperate Deception", an account of British covert operations in the Western hemisphere during WWII, attributes Willkie's nomination to the efforts of British intelligence, with the help of FDR and certain anglophile members of the American Establishment, so of whom were CFR members.

That is my biggest complaint about this book. It chronologically associates globalist and interventionist policies of the federal government with articles from Foreign Affairs or the fact that CFR members were in the government at the time. So what! Correlation does not prove causation. I personally agree with the author that the makeup of the CFR has an overwhelming globalist bias, and that they are constantly recruited into the government machinery regardless of which party is elected into the White House. But the CFR is not the 'conspiracy'. The people who finance the CFR and the President's campaign are the real power. In other words, CFR members don't lobby Presidents, elites who finance presidential campaigns and suggest people for Cabinet and sub-Cabinet positions do.

This book is good for establishing the fact that members of the Council on Foreign Relations appear inordinately often in our government, but it is not so good at explaining the dynamic behind this process. If you are aware of the activities of the CFR, this book will probably be rehash. If not, it may open your eyes to how our political system really operates.

Rating:
Summary: Moderately Good Overview of CFR History
Review: I'll start out by saying that this book is a somewhat useful overview of the Council on Foreign Relations, but I would also say that I have reservations as well. Perloff handles the early history of the CFR in some detail and writes very well about his subject. For that reason I gave the book 3 stars. However, as he progresses toward more recent history (1980 and on) he begins generalizing more and more and his bias begins to show.

The CFR was created in 1921 by wealthy old-line families and (primarily) Wall Street power brokers. Membership is invitation only and members follow a strict rule of 'everything is off the record' as far as what is discussed at meetings and dinners. Considering how many CFR members are in the government, the secrecy creates the first big problem. How can you have transparency in a democratic government if key figures are not allowed to reveal issues and strategies discussed 'off the record'. At the very least it creates a conflict of interest. The public record of the CFR is their publication 'Foreign Affairs' -- a very influential journal read by most policy makers in Washington.

To make his point, Perloff notes (p. 7) that as of early 1988 (publication year of the book) there have been 14 secretaries of state, 14 treasury secretaries, 11 defense secretaries, and lots of advisors and less senior officials throughout the legislative and executive branches of government. That's a pretty hefty number of individuals from one organization to occupy such powerful positions in just 67 years. Perloff also points out that many major changes in American policy were not only instigated by CFR members, but were published at some prior point in 'Foreign Policy'. Perloff contends that if you want a preview of foreign policy just pick up a copy of the CFR journal.

Perloff also contends that one of the CFR goals is a single world government. They supported the League of Nations and U.N. almost 100% of the time he says. Where I disagree with Perloff is the relentless references to the 'socialism' desired by the CFR. If you are going to use a label then use it correctly. Stalin's Russia was not socialist by any means. It was a dictatorship. So don't use 'socialism', 'communism' or 'democracy' when referring to a dictatorship. He also contends that the CFR helped oust elected leaders in Central America to put 'socialist' governments in their place. While I cannot address all of the situations in which the U.S. has intervened to the South, one cannot say that this was the case with Nicaragua. Our government unseated socialist Ortega through the training of vicious rebels who killed innocent civilians as well as Nicaraguan soldiers. And who assassinated Chile's President Allende (a progressive)? The U.S. was only too happy to help install a right-wing government after his death. Popularly elected leaders unwilling to bend to U.S. business interests have been removed in multiple coups for many decades.

Perloff seems to forget that the U.S. policy toward its southern neighbors flips back and forth, depending upon who is in the White House. We armed and aided Castro at first and then called him a dangerous man shortly thereafter. Did Castro con us? Well, if he did then the American people should have demanded that the CIA and State Department clean their houses of those who led us down that path. One day Noriega was our 'good buddy' in Panama; the next day he was a menace and we had to invade.

I think the real keys to the CFR are power and money. Perloff spends way too much time worrying about communism and too little time worrying about war profiteering and power grabs. Members of the CFR rarely miss opportunities to create wars for their corporate friends. Korea was certainly a case in point. The horrible mess we have in Iraq today is another example. It is a simple fact that international banks, chemical companies, and weapons-related industries made handsome profits from the bloody horrors of the two world wars. Under the CFR supported Dawes plan of 1924, Germany's I. G. Farben was loaned significant amounts of money by the Rockefeller National Bank after WWI. Who made Hitler's war machine possible? I. G. Farben of course. The American branch of Farben had CFR members on its board. While several German board members were prosecuted as war criminals at Nuremberg, none of the American members ever were.

One positive aspect about Perloff's book is that he doesn't get carried away with 'conspiracy' theories - and I am not a 'coincidence' theory kind of person either. To clarify, yes at times it can be said that the CFR conspires to influence American policy, but Perloff avoids the extremist views of other authors that state that the CFR is but one part of an ancient secret society plan to take over the world. Facts are so much more useful in creating change than theories any day. Skull and Bones is mentioned of course, but we don't have Perloff claiming that Blair and Bush assume alien form when in private like some CFR critics. (Yes, Virginia, there are books out there that propose that!)

And now we come to the major fault of the book. Perloff's last chapter regarding actions and solutions is a complete flop. Nothing personal against any member of the John Birch Society, but Perloff holds up membership in that group as one of his solutions. Huh? I don't think joining any group is necessarily a solution to reducing or eliminating the power of the CFR. The only way to effectively fight the undue influence the CFR has on our government is to expose them by writing to Congress, newspaper editorial pages, and talking about their aims to other citizens. Why? Because secrecy is the key to their success. It's the ultimate 'good old boy' system.

Rating:
Summary: "Need to Know Information"
Review: If you have ever felt as though someone powerful has hidden key information from you, this is the book for you. This book gives insight into the real powers of the country, and the world. The truth is sometimes hard to swollow, and this book is a jagged little pill of truth. The Shadows of Power is packed with arrogant confessions of guilt that are dotted throughout our history, as though "they" are daring us all to find out. Perloff takes no particular political side, but points out and describes the collusion and corruption of so call liberals and conservatives since the turn of the century, and the link(s) between communism and capitalism. The Shadows of Power, also describes the wealthy robber barons and their surprising vested interest in communism, and other forms of centralized power. Perloff, also sheds light on many so called heroes and their evil activities. The good news is, there have been heroes. Sadly, many of these heroes have been intentionally hidden and or ignored by mainstream media and historians. This book is not based on class warfare, instead it points out those men and women that have no or very little soul, and their impact on America and the world. The reader is told in detail of all this, in The Shadows of Power. Finally, if you only read one book in your entire life, this should be the one(aside from the Bible).

Rating:
Summary: The shocking truth!
Review: In case you have ever wondered what is going wrong with America then you REALLY need to read this book. It is quite an eye opener. After reading about the JFK assisination from other books (and the lingering question about why he was killed) then reading on the internet about Executive Order #11110 -- it all becomes plain. The money is what is behind the CFR and the CFR is behind the IRS, the Federal Reserve and the US Government. After hearing about the "Shadow Government" from other sources -- it becomes clear that James Perloff is talking about that very thing. It is also quite obvious that it doesn't matter if a Democrat or a Republican in the Whitehouse -- we are going to get the same result either way because neither party is "running the show."

This book is very well researched. It gives dates, names, places, photos, etc. It is not a conspiracy book that just says: "I feel this way..." or "I think it is this way..." It is a book that gives facts. Enlightening facts at that. It is a book that easily untangles the web of deception, monopolies, greed, money, politics, and power. If you have lived your life believing everything the mainstream "Establishment" news tells you then you DEFINITELY need to read this book. Things in America are not what they seem. There is more going on behind the scenes. MUCH more. And it is sinister.