1983, ISBN: 9780394485430

Gebundene Ausgabe, Erstausgabe

London: Macmillan, 1983. 224 pp, large 8vo (9 3/4" H). Inscribed on half-title page: "Best Wishes Peter Ustinov". Map endpapers, profusely illustrated in b&w and colou… Mehr…

London: Macmillan, 1983. 224 pp, large 8vo (9 3/4" H). Inscribed on half-title page: "Best Wishes Peter Ustinov". Map endpapers, profusely illustrated in b&w and colour with photographs and reproductions. "Russia has always been considered a sleeping giant by those frightened by the spectre of an awakened giant. But people forget that Russia was once very small at a time when Poland and Lithuania were very large, and that she was retarded by the invasion of the Golden Horde from Asia, to which she paid a humiliating tribute for several centuries. In other words, Russia's struggle for identity, and indeed for survival, was a protracted and heroic one against crushing odds, and her national character must be judged on such a basis, and not merely as a state which has subsequently occupied over one-sixth of the world's surface. She has been invaded far more often than she has invaded, and lost far more sons and daughters on her own soil than she has lost sons on foreign fields. This is then no apology, no devil's advocacy, but a detective story to the roots of a national character which often frightens and often mystifies, but the roots of which lie in the humanity and inhumanity which are common to all mankind." Minor edgewear, minor wrinkling at top/bottom of spine, light waviness to fore-edge of textblock, minor browning to edges of textblock. Dust jacket has very light rubbing.. Inscribed By Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good+., Macmillan, 1983, 3, New York. 1973. April 1973. Pantheon Books. 1st Edition. Very Good in Slightly Worn Dustjacket. ISBN:0394485432. 271 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Bill Allen. Jacket photograph courtesy Photo Pic, Paris. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s MY WAR WITH THE CIA is an eloquent account of his struggle for Cambodian independence - first against the French and then, for over two decades, against the United States. His is a remarkable memoir. As a child, he learned of the indignities and the humiliations suffered by his predecessors at the hands of the French colonialists. Picked by the French in 1941 at the age of eighteen to ascend the throne because they thought he was ‘a little lamb,’ he fought a successful ‘royal crusade for independence’ that was internationally recognized by the Geneva Peace Conference in 1954. Yet formal independence from the French was only the beginning of a more arduous struggle for Cambodia’s very survival. Though Sihanouk abdicated the throne in 1955, he did so in order to participate even more actively in his country’s political life. For the next fifteen years, his policies preserved Cambodia as an ‘oasis of peace’ in war-ravaged Indochina. These policies were often bitterly opposed by Washington, and his memoirs offer startling insights as to the reasons why. Vividly portraying American diplomatic and covert activities designed to undermine his neutralist policies, Prince Sihanouk describes the assassination attempts on his life, the ways in which United States aid weakened his power and corrupted his officials, and the ever-present CIA involvement with his domestic opponents. While not every detail of the historical record is available, this book, in Prince Sihanouk’s words, ‘proves unceasing and determined intervention of the United States in the internal affairs of my country and particularly the role of the Central Intelligence Agency.’ And it is a classic account of the tactics utilized by the world’s strongest power to force a small nation away from its chosen policy. The coup which toppled his government in March 1970 was the tragic culmination of these policies. inventory #6535 ISBN: 0394485432., 0<