Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11Many Americans believe that their own government is guilty of shocking crimes. Government agents shot the president. They faked the moon landing. They stood by and allowed the murders of 2,400 servicemen in Hawaii. Although paranoia has been a feature of the American scene since the birth of the Republic, in Real Enemies Kathryn Olmsted shows that it was only in the twentieth century that strange and unlikely conspiracy theories became central to American politics. In particular, she posits World War I as a critical turning point and shows that as the federal bureaucracy expanded, Americans grew more fearful of the government itself--the military, the intelligence community, and even the President. Analyzing the wide-spread suspicions surrounding such events as Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, Watergate, and 9/11, Olmsted sheds light on why so many Americans believe that their government conspires against them, why more people believe these theories over time, and how real conspiracies--such as the infamous Northwoods plan--have fueled our paranoia about the governments we ourselves elect. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Presidential Secrecy and the First World War | 13 |
2 Lying Us into War? The Second Battle of Pearl Harbor | 45 |
Red Spies and Red Hunters in the McCarthy Era | 83 |
The JFK Assassination and the Collapse of Trust in the 1960s | 111 |
Nixon Watergate and the Secret Government | 149 |
Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories from the 1970s to the 1990s | 173 |
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activists administration’s African Americans agents Alger Hiss American Presidency Project anti-interventionists anticommunist antigovernment attacks Barnes began believed Breitweiser British Bush administration Castro charges Church Committee CIA’s citizens COINTELPRO cold war committee’s communist Congress congressional conspiracy theories conspirators critics democracy Democratic documents drug Edgar Hoover enemies espionage evidence FBI’s fear federal files Flynn Papers folder foreign policy Garrison government’s Harry Elmer Barnes Hiss historians Hoover http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu Ibid intelligence investigation Iran-contra Iraq Japanese Jersey Girls Jim Garrison John Johnson journalists Kennedy assassination Kennedy’s killed knew later leaders Lindbergh McCarthy Meagher Papers memo military Morgan National Security Nixon November Nye Committee Oswald Pearl Harbor plot political president’s Quoted Reagan Republican revisionists Robert Roosevelt secret Senator September skeptics Soviet spies story terrorist theorists told Truman truth U.S. government United viewed March 20 wanted Warren Commission Warren Report Washington Watergate White House Wilson wrote X-Files York Zapruder film