Useful idiots : how liberals got it wrong in the Cold War and still blame America first
Annotations
Transcription of Annotations
Front endpapers include a list of people mentioned in the book: John Kerry, Walter Duranty, I.F. Stone, Couric, Jackson, M. Albright, Ortega, Carter, Gore, Sheen, Peter Collier, and Jeane Kirkpatrick. Notes state that Lenin coined the phrase 'useful idiots' and Reagan first used the term 'evil empire'. The Kennedy administration is identified as the high water mark of American anti-communism. It is noted that the Vietnam War provided proof for the American anti-war left that "U.S. was evil". The military is accused of not conducting itself intelligently, the press of taking sides, and some Democrats of wishing for a communist victory in Southeast Asia. Helen Caldicott is criticized for using the contrast communist vs. capitalist, instead of communist vs. free. Ted Koppel is described as an exquisitely tuned instrument of conventional wisdom. -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book.