Ivan's Place
In honor of the greatest moralist who never lived
Copyright © 2004 by Bill Becker

ENDLESS ENEMIES: The Making Of An Unfriendly World, by Jonathan Kwitny.
(1984) New York, Congdon & Weed, Inc.

NOTE: The Table of Contents follows the explanation.

While I am not familiar with all of America's great muckraking reporters, I would wager that Jonathan Kwitny deserves a place at the top of the list, along with I. F. Stone, of course. In 1984, Kwitny published a very important and comprehensive book about U.S. foreign policy, Endless Enemies: THE MAKING OF AN UNFRIENDLY WORLD. Soon after the book came out, Kwitny and his publisher, Congdon & Weed, were sued by former New York Times reporter Kennett Love. Kwitny had mentioned Love in the book, and not in a flattering manner. The suit was resolved in favor of Kennett Love. The monetary damages to be paid to Love by Kwitny, et. al. were decided in 1991 in a separate trial. My understanding then was that the judgment also led to the demise of Congdon & Weed.

In 1986, Penguin re-published the book. I didn't know about the original, Congdon & Weed version when I purchased and read the Penguin version, and when I learned that Kwitny would be at a book-signing in Santa Monica, CA, to promote the new edition, I naturally wanted him to sign my copy. I also hoped that he would explain why Chapter 10 was comprised almost entirely of blank pages.

And so he did. Because Chapter 10 was all about Kennett Love, and Love's lawsuit against Kwitny and Congdon & Weed was still ongoing, the pages describing Love's activities in Iran, as he reported on the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, were redacted, so as to include only an occasional "and," or "then." After the signing, however, Kwitny informed me that he had some remainders of the original Congdon & Weed edition, and I soon purchased a copy directly from him. Jonathan Kwitny died in 1998. Considering the 9-11 attacks that brought down the Twin Towers, I felt that my visitors should know something about America's less-than-honorable history in the region. Thus, on July 30, 2010, I posted Chapter 10: Upsetting the Balance: Iran and Afghanistan . Kennet Love died in May, 2013, so he was still alive when I posted Chapter 10. Because I had not been sued by Love, I can only surmise that he either had not seen Chapter 10 on my website, or, given the judgment in the above lawsuit, he decided not to sue me even if he had read it.

I learned today -- August 12, 2021 -- that Condon & Weed firm might have been purchased in October, 1985 by Contemporary Books, a Middle West publisher. (See the reference here.) I have not been able to find Contemporary Books on the Internet, so I do not know if it -- or its successors -- own the copyright. Thus, I will take my chances for now.

I also came upon the New York Times obituary notice of Jonathan Kwitny's death. The article mentions Jon's last book, about Pope John Paul II: "In it, Mr. Kwitny melded journalism and history to chronicle not merely a life but also the world events that surrounded the Pope's tenure." Considering the title of Chapter 21, "Lies: The Government and the Press," it is not surprising that The Times makes no mention of Endless Enemies. —— August 12, 2021.

Page updated August 19, 2021