Heroes

Front Cover
South End Press, 2001 - 633 pages
Pilger is the closest thing we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s. The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and used in the struggle against injustice.-The Guardian In Heroes, the first of his trilogy of books that includes Distant Voices and Hidden Agendas, John Pilger collects his most important writing on the Vietnam War, U.S. politics, Palestine, and the role of committed journalism. Heroes takes us to the front lines of numerous struggles for social justice around the world. Pilger looks at history from the standpoint of ordinary people and those whose stories are rarely heard in the mainstream media, whether the victims of U.S. napalm bombs in Vietnam, those suffering from the ongoing legacy of colonialism in Africa, or the civilians facing bombing in Iraq today. Each chapter, Pilger writes in a new Introduction, tries to make sense of events that have touched and influenced many lives, not least my own. John Pilger is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning journalist, documentary film maker, and author. Born in Australia and based in London, his audience-and subject matter-are truly international. He is a photographer using words instead of a camera, says Salman Rushdie. He writes regularly for The Daily Mirror, The Guardian, The Nation, and the New Statesman, and is a ZNet Commentator. Pilger's Awards include: Campaigning Journalist of the Year (1977), Journalist of the Year (1979), The George Foster Peabody Award (1990), the American Television Academy Award (Emmy) Award (1991), and the 1995 International de Television Award.
 

Contents

Uttering unlawful oaths
3
A new Britannia
27
VISITOR TO BRITAIN
47
Days of hope
49
Country folk
60
The miners
63
A little bit of humanity
67
Invisible people
74
JOI BANGLA Long live Bengal
321
Lakhs and crores
323
Watch out at the Oval
330
Thank you all so much for coming
340
Basket cases
350
PALESTINE
361
Exodus
363
Unspeakables
370

Anne Frank with a telephone
78
Cashing in
83
Fighting back
94
AMERICA
101
Heroes Chasing the dream The boys of Beallsville Sucker
103
Saviours Bobby Goerge Johnnie and Tim Jerry The Rock
120
UnAmericans For God and country Pyramid Lake is Dying On the road
156
VIETNAM
171
Dreamland
173
History as illusion
178
Hearts and minds
191
The last day
203
The price
231
The boat people
244
Follies
254
A noble cause
266
Revenge
275
Coming back
278
AFRICA
289
Skin deep
291
Smithers of the river
301
No story down there
311
Diaspora
375
Going home
379
CAMBODIA
383
Year Zero
385
Is there no pity?
414
Year One
428
Year Ten
438
AT THEIR RISK
461
A Prague spring
463
Heroes of the Soviet Union
473
THE AMERICAS VIETNAM AGAIN
481
The attack on El Salvador
483
Basta
493
MEDIA GAMES
507
A question of balance
509
You write We publish
543
RETURN TO AUSTRALIA
575
Beyond the frontier
577
Notes
599
Index
619
About South End Press
632
Copyright

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