I just finished John Perkin's book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" and I don't know whether to react with "duh!" or with something a little more cogent. It will probably be a bit of both, so please bear with me.
This is a tell-all book of his work to manipulate nations. His mandate was to create or leverage circumstances that would make these countries economically dependent which in turn made them pliable to political influences. These machinations were designed to create opportunities for Western governments to push their own economically and politically advantageous agendas often to the detriment of the target country. Think of it as the Jedi mind trick gone global ("You don't really want to privatize that industry, do you?" - cue gentle hand waving).
Again, I'm finding it really hard to not react with a typical "AND...?" This doesn't shock or unsettle me in today's world. In fact, I would have been surprised if this hadn't been occurring. Maybe this would have been more disturbing if it was the year 1968.
Beyond the conspiracy theories surrounding the World Bank, economic exploitation and manipulation have been in the negotiation toolbox for a long time. Both during and after the cold war it was recognized that the fight against communism (or any "ism" for that matter) was as much an economic fight as a political or security action in nature. Historians such as Walter LaFeber and William Williams viewed our efforts as straightforward expansions of the American empire via color TVs and Levi's. In short, the U.S. was engaged to either create or maintain access to markets for our currency, goods and services. Hegemony, thy name is dollar.
Although I do have to admit to not being particularly thrilled with the author. Perkins makes significant attempts to address his efforts as merely the unseemly results of his seduction. He uses that phrase and idea many times, both in his book and in his interviews. My problem is that for as often as he informs the reader of how smart and aware he is, he also attempts to paint a picture of how he was "trapped". His uninspired confessions to his acts are laughable, bordering on smarmy and self-serving (which is funny how almost everyone who does a tell-all book sees the "truth" just in time for publishing in 52 media markets and 17 languages).
I'm not sure I would recommend this book to anyone, unless they had just left a desert island after 60 years. So, unless another Japanese soldier emerges from hiding soon, I would leave this one on the shelf and just pay attention to CNN and Haliburton.