Gareth Porter

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006.

Media, Hardliners Play Up North Korean Nuclear ‘Deception’ Claim

Just as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was about to leave for denuclearization negotiations in Pyongyang, a spate of media stories reported that North Korea is deceiving the Trump administration by seeking to hide some of its nuclear facilities. Those stories suggest an effort by some Trump administration officials, led by National Security Adviser John … Continue reading “Media, Hardliners Play Up North Korean Nuclear ‘Deception’ Claim”

An Elite Coalition Emerges Against a Trump-Kim Agreement

An implicit coalition of corporate media, Democratic partisans and others loyal to the national security state are actively hostile to any agreement that would endanger the continuation of the 70-year-old Cold War between the United States and North Korea. The hostility toward Donald Trump on the part of both corporate media (except for Fox News) … Continue reading “An Elite Coalition Emerges Against a Trump-Kim Agreement”

How Corporate Media Got the Trump-Kim Summit All Wrong

For weeks, the corporate media have been saying that the Trump-Kim summit could have only two possible results: Either Trump will walk away angrily or Kim Jong Un will trick him into a deal in which he extracts concessions from Trump but never commits to complete denuclearization. The idea that North Korea could not possibly … Continue reading “How Corporate Media Got the Trump-Kim Summit All Wrong”

How Corporate Media Are Undermining a US-North Korea Nuclear Weapons Deal

In an interview with Fox News on April 29, Donald Trump’s new National Security Adviser John Bolton tossed a grenade into the process of planning for the Trump-Kim summit. “We have very much in mind the Libyan model from 2003-2004,” he said in regard to the problem of North Korean denuclearization. It was a very … Continue reading “How Corporate Media Are Undermining a US-North Korea Nuclear Weapons Deal”

Back to the Future? Bolton, Trump, and Iranian Regime Change

Now that the Trump administration has derailed the Iran nuclear deal, the old issue of regime change in Iran is back again. National Security Adviser John Bolton is obviously the chief regime-change advocate in the administration, and there is every reason to believe he has begun to push that policy with Donald Trump in his … Continue reading “Back to the Future? Bolton, Trump, and Iranian Regime Change”

The Latest Act in Israel’s Iran Nuclear Disinformation Campaign

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim in his theatrical 20-minute presentation of an Israeli physical seizure of Iran’s “atomic archive” in Tehran would certainly have been the “great intelligence achievement” he boasted if it had actually happened. But the claim does not hold up under careful scrutiny, and his assertion that Israel now possesses a … Continue reading “The Latest Act in Israel’s Iran Nuclear Disinformation Campaign”

Did John Bolton Leak Intelligence To Sabotage a Trump-Kim Deal?

The still-unscheduled Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un summit offers the opportunity for a denuclearization deal that would avoid a possible nuclear war, but that potential deal remains vulnerable to a hostile corporate media sector and political elites in the United States. At the center of this hostility is national security adviser John Bolton, who’s not just … Continue reading “Did John Bolton Leak Intelligence To Sabotage a Trump-Kim Deal?”

Another Dodgy British Dossier: The Skripal Case

The British government shared what was supposedly a dossier containing sensitive intelligence to convince allies and EU member states to support its accusation of Russian culpability in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, England on March 4. But like the infamous 2003 “dodgy dossier” prepared at the direction of Prime Minister Tony … Continue reading “Another Dodgy British Dossier: The Skripal Case”

An Alternative Explanation to the Skripal Mystery

For weeks, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have insisted that there is “no alternative explanation” to Russian government responsibility for the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury last month. But in fact the British government is well aware that such an alternative explanation … Continue reading “An Alternative Explanation to the Skripal Mystery”

What Ken Burns Left Out of the Vietnam Story

The Vietnam War: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (Knopf, 2017; 640 pages) The companion coffee-table book to the 10-part PBS series by Ken Burns, The Vietnam War, is so closely tied to the series that it’s left ambiguous whether Ken Burns himself is the co-author or not. Burns is shown … Continue reading “What Ken Burns Left Out of the Vietnam Story”