G. Edward Griffin is a writer and documentary film producer with many successful titles to his credit. Listed in Who’s Who in America, he is well known because of his talent for researching difficult topics and presenting them in clear terms that all can understand. He has dealt with such diverse subjects as archaeology and ancient Earth history, the Federal Reserve System and international banking, terrorism, internal subversion, the history of taxation, U.S. foreign policy, the science and politics of cancer therapy, the Supreme Court, and the United Nations.
Mr. Griffin is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he majored in speech and communications. In preparation for writing his book on the Federal Reserve System, he enrolled in the College for Financial Planning located in Denver, Colorado. His goal was not to become a professional financial planner but to better understand the real world of investments and money markets. He obtained his CFP designation (Certified Financial Planner) in 1989.
Mr. Griffin is a recipient of the coveted Telly Award for excellence in television production, the creator of the Reality Zone Audio Archives, and is President of American Media, a publishing and video production company in Southern California. He has served on the board of directors of The National Health Federation and The International Association of Cancer Victors and Friends. He is Founder and President of The Coalition for Visible Ballots, The Cancer Cure Foundation, and Freedom Force International.
An eye-opening look at the foundations, founders, and early actions of the U.N. I read this in eighth grade and have never approved of the U.N. since (although don't think that that means that this book is my only basis for disapproving of the U.N.--it was merely my initial starting point).
Griffin is a very simple writer. It will be easy for anyone to read this. Chapter 11 (part 3) is his most eloquent section. Communism/socialism isn't so great once you study its history. His citations are good.
There is a lot of information in this rather short work. It was well researched and the author is clearly passionate about exposing the less than savory aspects of this international body. However, it is important to learn and all facts are presented clearly and strongly for those that are new to the topic or just need a refresher.
Somewhat biased and nationalistic, but extremely informative with plenty of citation. Would be four stars if not for the occasional stupid arguments (like god-given rights).
Comparing this to G. Edward Griffin's other "Second Look" book–The Creature from Jekyll Island, dealing with the Federal Reserve–The Fearful Master is undoubtedly the inferior work. Taken on its own, his polemic against the United Nations is decent enough but not definitive. Griffin covers UN involvement in thwarting the secession of Katanga from Congo as an illustration of the organization's designs (a newer book would have used Rwanda or Bosnia instead). Then he covers a number of the sinister figures involved in the UN's founding, as well as the subversive globalist propaganda aimed at children by UNICEF and UNESCO. There's plenty of disturbing information presented here.
Griffin was a leading member of the John Birch Society, therefore this tract is strongly anti-communist. I take no issue with this, of course, except that he has a tendency here to reduce everything to a dualistic worldview with all evil emanating from the Reds. While there were plenty of dirty commies serving both openly and covertly in the US government, not all evil in the world emanated from Moscow, and not all enemies of the West were card-carrying members of the CPUSA. Griffin seems to ascribe Marxist sympathies to military-industrial complex figures like Dwight Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles, who were opposed to communism but were still fervent globalists. The book also fails to discuss NATO, the World Bank, the European Economic Community, or other systems of globalization. For that matter, he treats the UN as a postwar organization, divorcing it from its origin as the Allies of WWII, which were frequently referred to as the 'United Nations' as early as 1942. Therefore, capitalist democracy and Soviet communism are two heads of the same hydra, and UN globalism's true opposite is the ideologies of the Axis powers. Griffin won't go this far. But his beloved Jeffersonian-republican libertarianism is no less an artificial, man-made ideological construct than Marxist-Leninism. He also ignores the all-important racial aspect of history, laughably asserting that African 'states' will thrive if they adopt Western-style governments and economies. It's also worth pointing out that The Fearful Master is less than half the length of The Creature from Jekyll Island (which he wrote later), and more time to do the subject justice would have been an improvement.
This was one of the earliest books exposing the United Nations. It documents the racist UN and its war against Katanga. Few Americans know the sordid story of UN atrocities.
What Griffin has achieved is little more than nationalist drivel; not particularly well-written drivel either, mind you. I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy - that said, that's probably exactly who this book is geared towards. His thesis is that the UN is somehow communist. Last I checked, Bretton Woods and the IMF - institutions hell-bent on preserving American economics, which is to say capitalism, worldwide - were both formal arms of the UN System.
Furthermore, Griffin deigns to suggest a UN that could successfully subvert and even overtake the P5: permanent Security Council members. As much as I wish this were true, any amount of research done in good faith into the UN will tell you this is absolutely impossible. The UN has no source of independent revenue to allow such an action and there exists no secrecy in an organization composed primarily of individuals loyal to their homeland above ideals. Whenever the UN (that being the Secretariat, General Assembly, or programmes; not the UNSC) even suggests independence or goes against the wishes of Washington, the US threatens punitive action by refusing to pay its dues or, more often, using its veto power.
If you are truly looking for an insight into the UN, this isn't it. This is conspiracy, through-and-through.
It has been 50+ years since this book was written. And the world is very different. The main thesis of the author is that the UN is a communist inspired, communist controlled supranational organization. And he brings strong evidence for this. But today we know that the communism of the Soviet Union (and even China), the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist state; has failed, and the west has won. But I am quite sure that today the UN is still a socialist, a modern form of socialism, tool. The powers and principles of the UN are still there and they are toxic. Griffin in a YT video speacks of two conspiracies: the capitalist one and the communist one. He dose not have any proof that the two are connected, one and the same, but they are real and they fought each other. In the end the goal of the wining capitalist conspiracy is also socialism...