The Triumph

by John Kenneth Galbraith

Subtitulada por su autor «una novela de la Diplomacia Moderna», El triunfo es un libro profético acerca de la intervención de los servicios de inteligencia estadounidenses en Centroamérica. Publicado por primera vez en 1968, alcanzó extraordinaria resonancia y anticipó no poco de lo que luego sería trágica historia real. En palabras del propio autor: «Quería mostrar, por encima de todo, la cultivada y sumamente formalista falta de rectitud con que se tomaban las decisiones de política exterior, particularmente aquellas que concernían al comunismo en los países industrialmente subdesarrollados, donde aquél no tenía la más mínima importancia… Y los hechos posteriores vinieron a justificar mi decisión.

Durante muchos años en El Salvador, y luego mucho más evidentemente en Nicaragua, incluyendo el duradero episodio Irán-Contra, la amenaza del comunismo latinoamericano afectó a las más asequibles y, ay, más influyentes mentalidades de la política exterior. Ahora, con la perspectiva del tiempo, esta preocupación parece estúpida. Yo traté de describirlo así ya en aquella época».

Según el San Francisco Chronicle, se trata de «una obra divertida, irónica, sobre una seria cuestión: la monolítica, quizá peligrosamente arcaica maquinaria del Departamento de Estado y el laberinto de la diplomacia», mientras The Atlantic Monthly elogiaba «la irreverencia de Galbraith, su frío ingenio y su percepción de la actividad política de la que sólo una persona enterada podría burlarse de forma tan eficaz» y el Boston Globe indicaba: «Galbraith ha dirigido su talento hacia la ficción y presentado una novela que muchísimos lectores consumirán con diversión y sin duda cierto grado de ilustración... Casi no hay párrafo en el que no aparezca una muestra del ingenio de Galbraith».

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Economics

173 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

John Kenneth Galbraith was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism and democratic socialism. His books on economic topics were bestsellers in the 1950s and 1960s. A prolific author, he produced four dozen books & over a 1000 articles on many subjects. Among his most famous works was his economics trilogy: American Capitalism (1952), The Affluent Society (1958) & The New Industrial State (1967). He taught at Harvard University for many years. He was active in politics, serving in the administrations of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. He served as US Ambassador to India under John F. Kennedy.

He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice: one in 1946 from President Truman, and another in 2000 from President Clinton. He was also awarded the Order of Canada in 1997, and in 2001, the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, for strengthening ties between India and the USA.

Reviews

[Theresa Kulenkamp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extensive excerpts of this novel were published in the Saturday Evening Post (April 20, 1968). This satirical view of 20th century U.S. foreign policy in Latin America is too predictable to be enjoyable. Obviously written by an insider (author was U.S. Ambassador to India in the Kennedy administration) as he uses all the correct terms for State Department and DOD personnel and programs. Author much stronger in his non-fiction works (mostly about economics).

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Galbraith was a great writer of non-fiction and was quite entertaining as a teacher of political economy, he, like Bertrand Russell, is a very poor writer of fiction. This novel is sophomoric and predictable. Galbraith's heart was in the right place, but he should have simply written another critique of US foreign policy practices.

[Pam Snyder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little hard to get into. The author likes to give more background/historical/scene/information, rather than just tell a good story. It also reminds me how bureaucratic the 60's were (all men made the decisions and they weren't necessarily good or bad, they just too forever) and how frustrating politics & government can be.

[JohnM Koroly]

Wickedly funny black comedy about American foreign policy, Latin American politics, and human foibles. A bit too wordy at times, but Galbraith is a natural storyteller and always makes the jargon and nuance of politics serve the theme and narrative. Rather a jolting final sentence that dilutes some of the fun that had gone before, but realistic, though.

[Carly Svamvour]

This is one from our personal collection - I'm in the process of 'cataloguing' my books, in order of author's last name.

Obsessive! Heh! Heh!