Douglas Valentine on With Our Eyes Wide Open: Poems of the New American Century

On this edition of Parallax Views, writer Douglas Valentine is perhaps most known for his controversial research into the CIA and its covert operations. His most-well-known work is the heavily-footnoted The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam, which attempted to document particularly chilling Vietnam War operation undertaken by the Agency as overseen by William Colby (who, it should be noted, served as Director of the CIA from September 1973 to January 1976). Valentine has continued to explored the terrain of covert skullduggery in such works as The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs, The Strength of the Pack: The Personalities, Politics, and Espionage Intrigues that Shaped the DEA, and The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World.

It turns out, however, that this is only one accept of Valentine's work. He is also, as it were, a champion and author of poetry. On this edition of the program, he joins us to discuss the poetry anthology he edited, With Our Eyes Wide Open: Poems of the New American Century. In the course of this conversation Douglas explain how he became interested in poetry and how poetry connects to his broader concerns, namely the promotion of humanism and social justice. Additionally, Douglas reads a few poems from the aforementioned anthology and gives his thoughts on the passing of Toni Morrison. And, during the intro, we fill listeners in, just a bit, on his work pertaining to The Phoenix Program. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views!

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