Stephen Kinzer

During the 1980s, Kinzer covered revolutions and social upheaval in Central America and wrote his first book, Bitter Fruit, about military coups and destabilization in Guatemala during the 1950s. In 1990, The New York Times appointed Kinzer to head its Berlin bureau,{{cite web|url=https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/people/data/stephen_kinzer.html|title=Stephen Kinzer|publisher=Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs}} from which he covered Eastern and Central Europe as they emerged from the Soviet bloc. Kinzer was The New York Times chief in the newly established Istanbul bureau from 1996 to 2000.

Upon returning to the U.S., Kinzer became the newspaper's culture correspondent, based in Chicago, as well as teaching at Northwestern University. He then took up residence in Boston and began teaching journalism and U.S. foreign policy at Boston University. He has written several nonfiction books about Turkey, Central America, Iran, and the U.S. overthrow of foreign governments from the late 19th century to the present, as well as Rwanda's recovery from genocide.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

Kinzer also contributes columns to The New York Review of Books,{{cite web|url=http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/stephen-kinzer/|title=Stephen Kinzer|work=nybooks.com|access-date=December 13, 2016}} The Guardian,{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stephenkinzer|title=Stephen Kinzer|work=theguardian.com|access-date=December 13, 2016}} and The Boston Globe.{{cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/contributors/skinzer|title=Stephen Kinzer - The Boston Globe|work=bostonglobe.com|access-date=December 13, 2016|archive-date=September 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917155018/https://www.bostonglobe.com/contributors/skinzer|url-status=dead}} He is a Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.{{cite web|url=http://watson.brown.edu/people/visiting/kinzer|title=Stephen Kinzer - Watson Institute|work=brown.edu|access-date=December 13, 2016}}

Kinzer's reporting on Central America was criticized by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in their book Manufacturing Consent (1988), which cited Edgar Chamorro ("selected by the CIA as press spokesman for the contras") in his interview by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting describing Kinzer as "just responding to what the White House is saying".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kv_-bvCqgrEC&pg=PA382|title=Manufacturing Consent|author1-last=Chomsky|author1-first=Noam|author2-last=Herman|author2-first=Edweard S.|author-link1=Noam Chomsky|author-link2=Edward S. Herman|year=2002|publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn=978-0375714498}} In chapter 2 of Manufacturing Consent, Kinzer is criticized for deploying no skepticism in his coverage of the murders of GAM leaders in Guatemala and for "generally employing an apologetic framework" for the Guatemalan military state.

Kinzer has since that time criticized interventionist U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America and more recently, the Middle East.[http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/3/stephen_kinzer_on_the_us_iranian Interview about the United States and Iran], Democracy Now!, March 3, 2008 (video, audio, and print transcript) In Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq (2006), he critiqued U.S. foreign policy as overly interventionist.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5325069|title=Author Kinzer Charts 'Century of Regime Change'|publisher=NPR|date=April 5, 2006}} In a 2010 interview with Imagineer Magazine, he said:

{{quote|The effects of U.S. intervention in Latin America have been overwhelmingly negative. They have had the effect of reinforcing brutal and unjust social systems and crushing people who are fighting for what we would actually call "American values." In many cases, if you take Chile, Guatemala, or Honduras for examples, we actually overthrew governments that had principles similar to ours and replaced those democratic, quasi-democratic, or nationalist leaders with people who detest everything the United States stands for.{{Cite web|url=http://www.imagineermagazine.com/index.php/issue_archives/autumn/stephen_kinzer|title=Imagineer :: Stephen Kinzer|date=December 3, 2009|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091203105316/http://www.imagineermagazine.com/index.php/issue_archives/autumn/stephen_kinzer|archive-date=December 3, 2009}}}}

In his 2008 book A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man who Dreamed It, Kinzer credits President Paul Kagame for what he calls the peace, development, and stability in Rwanda in the years after the Rwandan genocide, and criticizes Rwanda's leaders before the genocide, such as Juvenal Habyarimana.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}} According to Susan M. Thomson, the "book is an exercise in public relations, aimed at further enhancing Kagame's stature in the eyes of the west", is one-sided due to heavy reliance on interviews with Kagame and even apologist.{{cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=Susan M. |title=Review of A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It |journal=International Journal |date=2008 |volume=64 |issue=1 |pages=304–306 |doi=10.1177/002070200906400131 |jstor=40204478 |s2cid=146485596 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40204478 |issn=0020-7020}}

Kinzer has been criticised for "help[ing] spread Assad's propaganda".{{Cite web |title=How Western academics help spread Assad's propaganda |url=http://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/how-western-academics-help-spread-assads-propaganda |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=Middle East Eye |language=en}} In a 2016 opinion piece, Kinzer wrote that Aleppo had been liberated by Bashar al-Assad's forces from the violent militants who had ruled it for three years, but that the American public had been told "convoluted nonsense" about the war. He added: "At the recent debate in Milwaukee, Hillary Clinton claimed that United Nations peace efforts in Syria were based on 'an agreement I negotiated in June of 2012 in Geneva.' The precise opposite is true. In 2012 Secretary of State Clinton joined Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel in a successful effort to kill Kofi Annan's UN peace plan because it would have accommodated Iran and kept Assad in power, at least temporarily. No one on the Milwaukee stage knew enough to challenge her."[https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/02/18/the-media-are-misleading-public-syria/8YB75otYirPzUCnlwaVtcK/story.html The media are misleading the public on Syria], February 18, 2016, The Boston Globe Clinton was referencing the Geneva I Conference on Syria, during which the major powers agreed on principles and guidelines for a power transition.{{cite web|url=http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpNewsByYear_en)/18F70DBC923963B1C1257A2D0060696B?OpenDocument|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710040540/http://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpNewsByYear_en)/18F70DBC923963B1C1257A2D0060696B?OpenDocument|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 10, 2012|title=The United Nations in the Heart of Europe - News & Media - Action Group for Syria - Final Communiqué - 30 June 2012|date=July 10, 2012}}

In April 2018, he added:

{{Quote|According to the logic behind American strategy in the Middle East—and the rest of the world—one of our principal goals should be to prevent peace or prosperity from breaking out in countries whose governments are unfriendly to us. That outcome in Syria would have results we consider intolerable.{{cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/04/12/the-doesn-even-care-about-syria-but-keep-war-going/8zj7aaBaOPltRApGzgyd9H/story.html|title=The US doesn't even care about Syria — but we keep the war going |first=Stephen| last=Kinzer|work=The Boston Globe}}}}Kinzer wrote that the 2018 Syrian Gas Attacks on Civilians in the Douma region was a "false flag" attack, suggesting the event was staged by either al-Qaeda, NATO, or Syrian Civil Defense.{{cite tweet |title=In case you fell for this one: chemical weapons monitors conclude that famous 2018 gas attack in #Syria was not an #Assad bombing--evidence shows "only plausible explanation" is "manual placement" by folks on the ground (al-Qaeda/#NATO/White Helmets) |user=stephenkinzer |number=1129906333128568834 |date=2019-05-18 |access-date=2023-05-05 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |date=April 27, 2018 |title=Hoisting the false flag |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/04/27/hoisting-false-flag/hRC63gFcq1zMUmd8UObqLM/story.html |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=BostonGlobe.com |language=en-US}}

Kinzer has opposed US support for Ukraine in response to the 2014 and 2022 Russian invasions, stating that the war is a proxy war provoked by NATO expansion.{{cite news |first=Stephen |last=Kinzer |date=March 9, 2023 |title=The incalculable moral cost of proxy wars |newspaper=Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/03/09/opinion/incalculable-moral-cost-proxy-wars/ |access-date=2023-05-05}} Kinzer said in March 2022, after Russia's initial invasion, that US provision of arms to Ukraine only "guarantees more suffering and death" and that it "provoke[s] Russia to respond by killing more Ukrainians."{{Cite web |last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |date=2022-03-18 |title=US military aid to Ukraine guarantees more suffering and death |url=https://stephenkinzer.com/2022/03/us-military-aid-to-ukraine-guarantees-more-suffering-and-death/ |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=StephenKinzer.com |language=en-US}} Kinzer believes that "for American strategic planners, this war has little to do with Ukraine. They see it as a battering ram against Russia. Since saving Ukrainian lives is not their priority, they view diplomacy as an enemy."{{Cite web |last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |date=2022-07-11 |title=Biden moves US closer to confrontation with Russia |url=https://stephenkinzer.com/2022/07/biden-moves-us-closer-to-confrontation-with-russia/ |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=StephenKinzer.com |language=en-US}} Kinzer has rejected the "villainous" depiction of Vladimir Putin, stating: "For years, we reveled in our moral superiority over colorful nemeses like Castro, Khadafi, and Saddam Hussein. Putin fits perfectly into this constellation."{{Cite web |last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |date=2023-02-22 |title=Putin & Zelensky: Sinners and saints who fit our historic narrative |url=http://stephenkinzer.com/2023/02/putin-zelensky-sinners-and-saints-who-fit-our-historic-narrative/ |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=StephenKinzer.com |language=en-US}}

• Timeline of United States military operations

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{official website|http://www.stephenkinzer.com}}
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927032701/http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/298/americas_century_of_regime_cha/ Interview with Kinzer]}} for Guernica Magazine
• {{C-SPAN|91275}}
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070702074512/http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2006/04/26 "Empirical Evidence"]}}, on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show, April 26, 2006
• [https://archive.org/details/GreatSpeechesAndInterviewWithStephenKinzerAndMarthaCardenas Interview with Stephen Kinzer and Martha Cardenas (mp3)] February 10, 2008

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Category:1951 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American historians

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:American foreign policy writers

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:American newspaper reporters and correspondents

Category:Boston University faculty

Category:Historians of the Central Intelligence Agency

Category:Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners

Category:The New York Times journalists

Category:Northwestern University faculty

Category:Brown University faculty

Category:Boston University alumni