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The Umbrella of US Power: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights & the Contradictions of US Policy
Chomsky observes the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a "Path to a Better World," while chronicling how far off the trail the United States is with respect to actual political practice and conduct. Analysing the contradictions of U.S. power while illustrating the real progress won by sustained popular struggle, Chomsky cuts through official political rhetoric to examine how the United States not only violates the UD, but at times uses it as a weapon to wield against designated enemies.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Noam Chomsky
979 books17.4k followersAvram Noam Chomsky is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. In addition to his work in linguistics, since the 1960s Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 7, 2024
Chomsky's works align important topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media.
In this short book, Chomsky debunks the crimes of the US since the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948, as well as the contradictions of the UD. Chomsky's handbook describes the international crimes committed by the US, such as The invasion of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; Israel’s illegal occupation; the Asylum rejection of Thousands of Haitians; Geopolitical interference in Central and South America;
On American soil, Chomsky also debunks some of the immoral actions committed by the American Government: The failed war on drugs; the Jail business; The African-American incarceration;
One of the book's strengths lies in Chomsky's ability to uncover the underlying motivations behind US foreign policy decisions, exposing the often hypocritical nature of US actions in the pursuit of geopolitical interests. However, it's possible to find Chomsky's critique overly harsh and dismissive of any positive contributions the US may have made in promoting human rights.
Furthermore, while Chomsky presents a compelling argument, his analysis overlooks the complexities of international relations and the constraints faced by policymakers. Overall, "The Umbrella of US Power" serves as a thought-provoking examination of the contradictions inherent in US foreign policy and its implications for global human rights.
In this short book, Chomsky debunks the crimes of the US since the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948, as well as the contradictions of the UD. Chomsky's handbook describes the international crimes committed by the US, such as The invasion of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; Israel’s illegal occupation; the Asylum rejection of Thousands of Haitians; Geopolitical interference in Central and South America;
On American soil, Chomsky also debunks some of the immoral actions committed by the American Government: The failed war on drugs; the Jail business; The African-American incarceration;
One of the book's strengths lies in Chomsky's ability to uncover the underlying motivations behind US foreign policy decisions, exposing the often hypocritical nature of US actions in the pursuit of geopolitical interests. However, it's possible to find Chomsky's critique overly harsh and dismissive of any positive contributions the US may have made in promoting human rights.
Furthermore, while Chomsky presents a compelling argument, his analysis overlooks the complexities of international relations and the constraints faced by policymakers. Overall, "The Umbrella of US Power" serves as a thought-provoking examination of the contradictions inherent in US foreign policy and its implications for global human rights.
November 28, 2018
This is Noam’s book about the how the US keeps the world from achieving the very things the US says it stands for. We say our country stands against aggressors and yet we freely invaded South Vietnam, bombed Laos and Cambodia, ignored the International Court of Justice ruling against US “unlawful use of force” against Nicaragua, and the list goes on. We say we are for democracy while thwarting democracy elsewhere. We are for human rights, and even the UN, except when that keeps us from doing what we secretly want to do. For example, the Declaration of the Vienna Conference became problematic when the Declaration “implied that any foreign occupation is a human rights violation.” If the US acted morally, that would make sense, but US couldn’t sign because Israel’s illegal occupation had to get a free pass. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a moral document that couldn’t get signed by the U.S. because, well, we and Israel do a lot of immoral stuff. There was a phrase about everyone having the right “to return to his country” which is just and great but not if you want Palestinians unable to return to their rightful lands and to sanction that obvious theft. The violations of Article 14 of the UD by the U.S. are many. It says, “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution” but Clinton quickly violated that with the Haitian boat people. The U.S. granted only 11 Haitians asylum out of 24,000 applications.
Now, let’s look at Cuba: 75,000 applications received and 75,000 Cubans granted asylum. This is the true munificence of the U.S. – we hate the threat of a good example. Had Cuba or Haiti succeeded as countries they might act as a good example and that has been intolerable to U.S. planners for decades. As Noam notes, “’worthy victims’ fall under Article 14, ‘unworthy victims’ do not. The categories are determined by the agency of terror and prevailing power interests.” When the UD recognized Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick thoughtfully referred to such basic rights as “a letter to Santa Claus.” Then let’s look at the UN; we owe an estimated $1.3 billion dollars of unpaid dues to them. The Senate knows this and yet votes “90-10 that the United Nations thank the United States for its contributions.” Every year the entire world votes through the UN against the two holdouts the U.S. and Israel about both Israel’s Occupation and the Cuba Embargo. When you read that Clinton recently saw Cuba as still a security threat it is hard not to laugh. Even, famed centrist historian Arthur Schlesinger said the actual threat of Cuba was “the spread of the Castro idea of taking matters into their own hands.” “Of 116 cases of sanctions used since WWII, 80% were initiated by the United States alone.”
“Freedom” in the U.S. media, means the economic freedom to screw people over everywhere – the freedom to get prisoners to fight your fires for only $1 per day, or to let Philip Morris become China’s largest advertiser. The freedom to make unlimited money by killing people even outside the weapon industry; 50 million Chinese children alive today will die from “cigarette-related diseases” according to an Oxford study. We all hear about the millions of people dead by Mao’s or Stalin’s Famine or the six million Jews because we were not responsible. That we don’t focus on our own crimes as well is, well, criminal. Noam notes we have more young people on death row than anywhere else in the world. Black incarceration has been labelled by two criminologists as “the new American Apartheid.” To place fear of all things black in perspective, note that “the Justice Department estimates the cost of corporate crime as 7 to 25 times as high as street crime.” Then remember the words of conservative Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “we are choosing to have an intense crime problem concentrated on minorities.” The War on Drugs has done nothing to change drug availability or street price, but it is a success because it serves it’s intended purpose, “the removal of elimination of disposable people. It also frightens the rest of the population, a standard device to induce obedience.” One more amazing book by Noam.
Now, let’s look at Cuba: 75,000 applications received and 75,000 Cubans granted asylum. This is the true munificence of the U.S. – we hate the threat of a good example. Had Cuba or Haiti succeeded as countries they might act as a good example and that has been intolerable to U.S. planners for decades. As Noam notes, “’worthy victims’ fall under Article 14, ‘unworthy victims’ do not. The categories are determined by the agency of terror and prevailing power interests.” When the UD recognized Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick thoughtfully referred to such basic rights as “a letter to Santa Claus.” Then let’s look at the UN; we owe an estimated $1.3 billion dollars of unpaid dues to them. The Senate knows this and yet votes “90-10 that the United Nations thank the United States for its contributions.” Every year the entire world votes through the UN against the two holdouts the U.S. and Israel about both Israel’s Occupation and the Cuba Embargo. When you read that Clinton recently saw Cuba as still a security threat it is hard not to laugh. Even, famed centrist historian Arthur Schlesinger said the actual threat of Cuba was “the spread of the Castro idea of taking matters into their own hands.” “Of 116 cases of sanctions used since WWII, 80% were initiated by the United States alone.”
“Freedom” in the U.S. media, means the economic freedom to screw people over everywhere – the freedom to get prisoners to fight your fires for only $1 per day, or to let Philip Morris become China’s largest advertiser. The freedom to make unlimited money by killing people even outside the weapon industry; 50 million Chinese children alive today will die from “cigarette-related diseases” according to an Oxford study. We all hear about the millions of people dead by Mao’s or Stalin’s Famine or the six million Jews because we were not responsible. That we don’t focus on our own crimes as well is, well, criminal. Noam notes we have more young people on death row than anywhere else in the world. Black incarceration has been labelled by two criminologists as “the new American Apartheid.” To place fear of all things black in perspective, note that “the Justice Department estimates the cost of corporate crime as 7 to 25 times as high as street crime.” Then remember the words of conservative Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “we are choosing to have an intense crime problem concentrated on minorities.” The War on Drugs has done nothing to change drug availability or street price, but it is a success because it serves it’s intended purpose, “the removal of elimination of disposable people. It also frightens the rest of the population, a standard device to induce obedience.” One more amazing book by Noam.
June 20, 2021
Although fact based, this book is cloyingly ideological and does not present a balanced perspective. Chomsky is out to make the US seem to be a wholly evil entity. This book is also boring.
January 6, 2008
Another quick and accessible read by Chomsky. Extremely clear and thought out arguments coupled with numerous examples of how the United States government tends to say one thing and do the exact opposite. In this case, human rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The governmental/corporate hypocrisy that Chomsky illuminates drips from this book like thick oil. Delicious!
February 5, 2015
Chomsky has the facts. The sinister side of the Marshall plan and the many many instances of US violations of the principles of the udhr.
American opposition to economic social and cultural rights is pointed out emphatically once more but the brevity of the work renders any serious exposition impossible
American opposition to economic social and cultural rights is pointed out emphatically once more but the brevity of the work renders any serious exposition impossible
December 14, 2016
Inspiring! No wait, the opposite of that. Depressing as hell. Eek.
A handy volume to have on hand the next time someone starts rattling off human rights violations in another country. It doesn't hurt to look in the mirror once in a while.
A handy volume to have on hand the next time someone starts rattling off human rights violations in another country. It doesn't hurt to look in the mirror once in a while.
March 10, 2022
This book is very good, my only criticism is that it is too short but I guess Chomsky has written longer books on American imperialism so i don’t mind the length. Other than that this book does a good job criticizing the administrations of Bush, Clinton, Reagan, and Carter. Well written.
April 4, 2020
" States are not moral agents; people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions. "
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Preamble:
" Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people.. "
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Preamble:
" Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people.. "
August 17, 2016
There always many things to learn when reading Chomsky even when his style gets fairly familiar. This is more of an essay than a book and it focuses entirely, in his regular way, on exposing the hypocrisy and double face of the government and governing classes of the USA, this time in relation to the universal declaration of human rights that the US pretends to enforce but only in relation to others.
Interestingly, as we approach a time when the second Clinton is likely to become president, the book examines occasions when the first and his administration were major violators of the UD.
Interestingly, as we approach a time when the second Clinton is likely to become president, the book examines occasions when the first and his administration were major violators of the UD.
July 12, 2011
A handy pamphlet that offers a quick look at human rights issues and the United States' pick-and-choose method of enforcing protections. Great presentation of information; certainly makes me want to pick up a few more in this series.
June 29, 2012
A nice brief book on the US contradictions to the UDHR, it would be a much larger book if it critiqued every contradiction but it is a nice start to get you thinking on the issue. Focused internationally rather than domestic issues.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews