Nick Turse
Author of Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam
About the Author
Nick Turse, an award-winning journalist and historian, is the author and editor of several books, including The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwar-fare (Haymarket Books), the managing editor of TomDispatch, and a fellow at the Nation show more Institute. show less
Image credit: Photo by Tam Turse
Works by Nick Turse
The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare (2012) 64 copies, 1 review
Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa (Dispatch Books) (2015) 49 copies, 2 reviews
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1975
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Education
- Columbia University (PhD | Sociomedical Sciences)
- Occupations
- writer
historian - Awards and honors
- Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction, 2009
James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, 2008 - Agent
- Melissa Flashman (Trident Media Group)
- Short biography
- Nick Turse is an award-winning journalist, historian, essayist, and the associate editor of the Nation Institute’s Tomdispatch.com. He is the author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 2008) and has written for The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, Adbusters, GOOD magazine, Le Monde Diplomatique (English- and German- language), In These Times, Mother Jones and The Village Voice, among other print and on-line publications.
Members
Reviews
3.5 Stars
A insightful and shocking expose of US armed forces during the Vietnam War. I had not read or listened to any books on this subject and this did make for grim but important reading and while I struggled through it, I feel I have gained a little insight to a war that I learned very little about in history class
This is a very well researched and written account and one I listened to on audio which I think might have been a tad easier had I sourced a hard copy of the book as I found the tone of the narrator was lifeless I struggled through this one. However the information is there and the author does an incredible job of painstakingly sourcing instances of war crimes though the government’s own records. I was appalled to read of the shocking accounts of the mounds of corpses, including women, children, and even babies, murdered by American troops in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai and this is something that will stay with me for a long time.
This is not an easy read, but I do think it is an important one in understanding what happened in Vietnam, if like me you have very little knowledge on this time in history.… (more)
A insightful and shocking expose of US armed forces during the Vietnam War. I had not read or listened to any books on this subject and this did make for grim but important reading and while I struggled through it, I feel I have gained a little insight to a war that I learned very little about in history class
This is a very well researched and written account and one I listened to on audio which I think might have been a tad easier had I sourced a hard copy of the book as I found the tone of the narrator was lifeless I struggled through this one. However the information is there and the author does an incredible job of painstakingly sourcing instances of war crimes though the government’s own records. I was appalled to read of the shocking accounts of the mounds of corpses, including women, children, and even babies, murdered by American troops in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai and this is something that will stay with me for a long time.
This is not an easy read, but I do think it is an important one in understanding what happened in Vietnam, if like me you have very little knowledge on this time in history.… (more)
This very short book (around 90 pages) is summary of the author's online articles. They follow slow progress of US war waging strategy from direct combat to proxy wars using incited and nations put under "cooperation" that get used as front-line meat instead of US soldiers, while they fight for US interest.
Basically what happens is that US co-opts the governments (via usual financial means, or in case they do not like them coups that put people that will work with US in power), builds logistic bases from where weapons and equipment are delivered to governments in question and remote air strikes (drones or fighter-bombers) are coordinated and finally US special operations or armed forces training teams are deployed to train and lead respected government forces in the field against US opposition.
So in total this is what is Moore's Utopia all about - use others to fight your battles. They are nothing more than expendable assets. And US does this very well, all done with cut-offs like mercenaries and black operations teams and consultants for plausible deniability when required. And if there is need, these "allies" can be also bombed, raided and degraded as required. This is world of constant warfare and constant tension and most importantly constant control over pressure points to make everyone bend to US interests as required.
All in all, wet dream of every country aspiring to control the world. And for all the masses out there the constant goal of defending freedom and democracy is on such constant move that after a few cycles everyone will be certain that there is enemy at every corner because everyone can be marked as enemy. Who is going to check the data, or remember what was said in the past.
What is troubling about all of this? It started as part of anti-terror operations, hunting the dangerous and ever elusive terrorists with every means possible. As such it de-evolved US diplomatic corps and basically made it rely more and more on use of military might for every problem(remember that old adage about people with hammers and every problem seen as a nail). With time, when your job is just twisting other nation's arms because you know they cannot strike back arrogance start to show up, and soon every issue is just _target for escalation. Because you only need just a bit more force - right?
This might work while hunting guerillas but soon appetites went up and peer nation was _targeted for the same scenario, this time with more heavily armed proxy forces. And believe me whoever planned this is feeling very bad, because problem with peer opponent is in the word peer.
So basically, while developing very high tech forces, US tied their own hands with no escape from constant escalation and seeing solution only through use of military might. It seems that all US institutions went through such level of militarization that it seems there are no non-military organizations involved in the international relations any more. What US seems to have achieved is to apply Israeli style militarism on a world level. And while I can understand Israel, because it is as it is due to its location and relations with neighbors, world level militarization is Metal Gear Solid level of dystopia.
As author notes - if you expect that military power will be successful, think again. Not a single COIN campaign in last 20-ish years finished as expected. Disaster.
And if you think author is against US, think again. He is worried about the way US so lightly chooses war over everything else, but he has no sympathy for US enemies, not for a second. And to make things more ridiculous he actually sees all the North African colored revolutions as spontaneous events :D this made me laugh, oh my.....
Very interesting book that today makes more sense than when it was published.
Highly recommended.… (more)
Basically what happens is that US co-opts the governments (via usual financial means, or in case they do not like them coups that put people that will work with US in power), builds logistic bases from where weapons and equipment are delivered to governments in question and remote air strikes (drones or fighter-bombers) are coordinated and finally US special operations or armed forces training teams are deployed to train and lead respected government forces in the field against US opposition.
So in total this is what is Moore's Utopia all about - use others to fight your battles. They are nothing more than expendable assets. And US does this very well, all done with cut-offs like mercenaries and black operations teams and consultants for plausible deniability when required. And if there is need, these "allies" can be also bombed, raided and degraded as required. This is world of constant warfare and constant tension and most importantly constant control over pressure points to make everyone bend to US interests as required.
All in all, wet dream of every country aspiring to control the world. And for all the masses out there the constant goal of defending freedom and democracy is on such constant move that after a few cycles everyone will be certain that there is enemy at every corner because everyone can be marked as enemy. Who is going to check the data, or remember what was said in the past.
What is troubling about all of this? It started as part of anti-terror operations, hunting the dangerous and ever elusive terrorists with every means possible. As such it de-evolved US diplomatic corps and basically made it rely more and more on use of military might for every problem(remember that old adage about people with hammers and every problem seen as a nail). With time, when your job is just twisting other nation's arms because you know they cannot strike back arrogance start to show up, and soon every issue is just _target for escalation. Because you only need just a bit more force - right?
This might work while hunting guerillas but soon appetites went up and peer nation was _targeted for the same scenario, this time with more heavily armed proxy forces. And believe me whoever planned this is feeling very bad, because problem with peer opponent is in the word peer.
So basically, while developing very high tech forces, US tied their own hands with no escape from constant escalation and seeing solution only through use of military might. It seems that all US institutions went through such level of militarization that it seems there are no non-military organizations involved in the international relations any more. What US seems to have achieved is to apply Israeli style militarism on a world level. And while I can understand Israel, because it is as it is due to its location and relations with neighbors, world level militarization is Metal Gear Solid level of dystopia.
As author notes - if you expect that military power will be successful, think again. Not a single COIN campaign in last 20-ish years finished as expected. Disaster.
And if you think author is against US, think again. He is worried about the way US so lightly chooses war over everything else, but he has no sympathy for US enemies, not for a second. And to make things more ridiculous he actually sees all the North African colored revolutions as spontaneous events :D this made me laugh, oh my.....
Very interesting book that today makes more sense than when it was published.
Highly recommended.… (more)
This book was a not easy to read, especially in a way of sitting down for long periods to absorb the material because of the disturbing subject matter. I found that 20-25 pages was my limit in any one reading. A very well written account of the American war crimes in Vietnam that have been hidden not only from the American public but to members of the U.S. Armed Forces (past and present). As a Army and Air Force veteran, this book was hard to read on multiple levels but it should be required for all Officer and NCO leadership training. Probably the two hardest facts to live with: How much misery and brutality was inflicted on the people of Vietnam and how unprofessional the American military was in training, planning, conducting and envisioning all operations in SE Asia in the 1960-70s.… (more)
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Topic is a very interesting: escalation from US side on Africa soil, strengthening and developing ever more militarized operations but claiming all the time nothing to see here in a manner reminiscent of Leslie Nielsen of Naked Gun fame.
The author did a deep dive, including calls and correspondence with military command for Africa, one that decided after a while to stop responding to any meaningful question.
So, what is actually going on in Africa? In all honesty, I doubt anyone can answer this question. US is constantly beefing up the forces in the area, and apparently, besides military or better said militarized approach from US foreign department, no actual civilians are involved from US side.
What is visible is that US develops nations (as in brings their own people to power - South Sudan, Lybia and Chad being horrendous examples) into proxies that are then used to conduct actual combat missions under US command. And, of course, NATO and other allies (Bulgaria, France, etc) are also brought in to bleed for the governor.
While reasons for this are obvious - land grab under pretenses, of the same kind we see in Eastern Europe these last few years - it is weird how all this assistance is treated as prevention to insurgency which is nowhere to be found [which reminds of enemy is all around us all the time hysteria, pre-emptive is the word so lets get 'em begore they get us..... I guess any demonstration or discontent with proxy is to be hammered down].
I have to admit that a lot of things are now clearer in retrospect, especially when we take into account the current stance of good part of Africa towards the West. African government hired mercenaries [from Russia] fighting rebels helped by Western secret services and their Eastern European mercenaries are just brushfires that might end up in a conflagration.
It is not that this is something new - Africa was used as a proxy battleground since WW2. The problem now is that one party involved (West) does not want to share anything, and if the solution is a complete destabilization and destruction, they are willing to sacrifice locals. It is as if West has decided to treat everything via total war approach, which is terrifying.
I mean, how else to explain sole deployment and employment of army organizations (engineering, army, navy, and black ops) in the area, other than dominating power establishing communication lanes to control the area and deny it to anyone else. There are no civil contractors used here, except again for military purposes.
Do note that the author criticizes US policy as it is, causing havoc without gaining long-term allies. The author just wants to get to the reason why. And this we will be happy to get in written form in next 50 to 100 years.
Mistakes are made, and US and allies have lost some of the foothold on the continent. Hope is that Africa won't again become a full-scale war hot spot as it was case in south of the continent in the 1980s. It seems that people reference history not to learn from it but to re-apply it.
Very interesting book, highly recommended.… (more)