The Secret History of the American Empire

John Perkins’ career as an undercover U.S. government agent is stunningly documented in his “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” and then “The Secret History of the American Empire.” Take this journey with John through his shocking career and to real possible solutions he now teaches.

Note: Audio may take several seconds to start

John Perkins Text Excerpt:

Tom Park
What have we been up to? What really has been the game here in the last 20 years?

John Perkins
Well, yes we all have to take tremendous responsibility because we live very materialistic lives here. And we do this at tremendous expense to the rest of the world. So right now we are less than five percent of the world’s population and we consume more than 25 percent of its resources, create over 30 percent of the world’s pollution. Now that by any measure is a failed model. We can’t continue with it and we certainly can’t hold it our as a model for China to follow. China has 20 percent of the world’s population.

Tom Park
Of course, of course.

John Perkins
Or India which has 17 percent. Or Africa, Latin America, the Middle East. We can’t continue ourselves. We must change this. I’m about to become a grandfather for the first time, Tom, and I’m very aware that in order for my grandchild to inherit a stable, sustainable and peaceful world, every child on this planet must have that same expectation. We must make that happen. We have to understand that to have homeland security, we must define the homeland as being the entire planet. We are a very small community today on this globe. We need to recognize that and we need to realize that we all must to work together in making this a better place for everyone where there can be no starvation. 50 thousand people die every day of hunger and hunger related diseases. We must put an end to that. We have to.

Tom Park
But we’re under attack. Are we not? We are under attack right now in America.

John Perkins
Well, I haven’t seen it coming, you know. I feel under attack when I go in airports and have to go through those security lines. But yes, there is terrorism in the world. There is no question about that. And we must ask ourselves “what is the root cause of that terrorism?” Yes, there are fanatical leaders, dangerous people. There will always be a few crazies on this planet. There will be serial killers. There will be mad men. There will be fanatical leaders. But they never have a following of any significance unless there’s a real root cause for that. Tom, I’ve known a lot of terrorists, I’ve met more since these books were published. They’ve come to me. I have never met one that wants to be a terrorist.

Tom Park
Come on, tell us about this. Come on, sincerely! You’ve never met.. These are real terrorists you’ve met?

John Perkins
Yes.

Tom Park
You’ve never met one that wanted to be a terrorist?

John Perkins
Never! And I’m sure there are a few crazy people out there that want to be terrorists. But the terrorists that I have met are people whose lands have been flooded by hydroelectric projects or destroyed by oil companies. These are desperate people. These are people whose families are starving, and they don’t know of any alternative. A little bit like the minute men back during the time of the American Revolution.

Tom Park
Ooh, so true.

John Perkins
And yes they may have fanatical leaders, but they don’t want to be there. They don’t want to be fighting. They don’t want to be carrying guns. They want to be back on the farm. They want to be with their families And we’ve really forced them into this position and our life styles here have. Most Americans have really—We’ve closed our eyes to this. We don’t realize we have created this empire. We think foreign aid is altruistic. We say “well we’re giving billions of dollars to these countries, why are they so angry at us? Why do they treat us like this?” Well, we are not giving any money to these countries. Foreign aid is not altruistic. All most all of it, with a few exceptions, is used to support our corporations, to privatize, to enslave these countries, to exploit them, to bring them in as foals of the empire.