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Queen of Chaos: The Misadventures of Hillary Clinton

Diana Johnstone

3.94 · Rating details · 95 ratings · 19 reviews

U.S. wars are getting repetitive. Always the same old scenario. The mainstream media alert public opinion to the latest "villain" supposedly threatening to slaughter "his own people." The U.S. does the job instead with its drones and missiles. The new "villain" is soon forgotten, but his country is left in a shambles, with competing fanatics vying to dominate the chaos. ...more

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Paperback, 175 pages

Published November 1st 2015 by Counterpunch (first published October 1st 2015)

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Hillary Clinton

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Dec 02, 2015 DH rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-election

Veteran journalist Diana Johnstone provides an election year takedown of Hillary Clinton's much-vaunted knowledge and experience. Johnstone indicts not only Clinton but the national security war machine of which Clinton has been a key player. From Ukraine to Kosovo to Libya "The Queen of Chaos" chronicles the mistakes and misdeeds of the woman who would be president. Johnstone leaves no stone unhurled nor pol unpunctured as she spells out, in chilling detail, just how bad things are in the world ...more

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Jan 18, 2016 Brian rated it really liked it

A very well-written and important book for our troubling times. I would recommend reading this in conjunction with Mike Lofgren's Deep State for those who are questioning why there seems to be no discernible difference between Democrats and Republicans with regard to U.S. foreign policy, especially involving the use of military force. Regardless of how you may feel about domestic policy issues (abortion, gay rights, racism, etc.), simply choosing a Republican or a Democrat will do little to ...more

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Jun 11, 2016 Irene rated it it was amazing

A must read for anyone who cares about the welfare of this country, our global relations - and the eminent war we would get dragged into should Hillary take office. Hillary in the Oval Office would be like Maleficent on the throne - the evil queen wants to rule the world and she will stop at nothing to gain that power. No corporation is too unethical, no government too corrupt if it will help Hillary conquer the world - in the name, at the sake of, the U.S. I had very little respect for the A must read for anyone who cares about the welfare of this country, our global relations - and the eminent war we would get dragged into should Hillary take office. Hillary in the Oval Office would be like Maleficent on the throne - the evil queen wants to rule the world and she will stop at nothing to gain that power. No corporation is too unethical, no government too corrupt if it will help Hillary conquer the world - in the name, at the sake of, the U.S. I had very little respect for the woman before reading this book. I have absolutely no respect whatsoever after having read it. The author does a great job outlining the growth of Hillary's career and lust for power, but Diana Johnstone also gives the reader a much needed history lesson of the events leading up to, and during the various coups manipulated by Hillary and the NATO War Machine. It's no secret that Hillary is guilty of various war crimes, namely in Benghazi, but it's not so well known of her very large role in the overthrowing of Honduras President, Manuel Zaleya - a man who was democratically elected and who tried to improve living conditions for the people of his country - without NATO/US intervention. He would have done just fine had Hillary not gotten her hands in the mix. As a result of her "help" - Honduras now has the highest crime rate in Central America. The police and government are more corrupt than the cartel. Children are being murdered by the thousands. This, from a woman who started her career as a "children's rights advocate." HYPOCRITE, is more like it! Honduras is just one among many countries she left in chaos. Libya. Kosovo. Yugoslavia. Afghanistan. And she keeps stirring the pot in Russia, poking a stick at Putin. She and her NATO buddies want to keep relations as rocky as possible between the US and Russia. Of course then she'll just blame Russia and we would have "no choice" but to invade. That would start WWIII. She is a menace who will drag us further into perpetual war. She is conniving, manipulative, and dangerous. God help us all if she takes office. I would not have voted for her anyway, I never did trust her, and will not ever trust her. I just wish more people would see how narcissistic she really is. She started out as GOP - campaigning for Goldwater. When it was more advantageous to her career, she switched sides and "became" a Democrat - yet she never really changed at all. I don't think it really matters to her what party she "represents" because she really represents no one but herself. A woman who claims to care about children's rights ("it takes a village...") - sent back thousands of Honduran children who fled to this country in fear of their lives because they were being slaughtered back home. She basically told the people of Honduras that their kids are not our problem. Even though their problem was HER FAULT! How this woman sleeps at night, I'll never know. She's no advocate for children. She's certainly no advocate for world peace or for friendly foreign relations. It's always been obvious that she wears the pants in the family - now she wants to wear the pants around the world. God help us all... ...more

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Oct 19, 2016 Owlseyes inside Notre Dame, it's so strange a 15-hour blaze and...30-minutes wait to call the firemen...and marked it as to-read

Recommends it for: Hadrian my american friend

Recommended to Owlseyes inside Notre Dame, it's so strange a 15-hour blaze and...30-minutes wait to call the firemen...and by: TRUTHSEEKER

Shelves: shallow-ambitious-woman, her-policy-leading-to-chaosevrywher, example-of-libya, remaking-world-equalschaos, politics, russia-low-hanging-fruit, russia-reset, regime-change, arab-spring, she-s-much-worse-than-obama

"As a Senator from New York, she supported the 2003 conquest of Iraq. As Secretary of State, her role in the destruction of the Libyan state was much more crucial. First of all, her pressure was important in getting Obama to wage this war. Second, she brags in her memoir Hard Choices of her diplomatic skill in building the NATO-Arab alliance that used the deceptive “no fly zone” U.N. resolution to overthrow and kill Gaddafi. More surreptitiously, she sabotaged efforts by African and South ...more

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Aug 01, 2016 decaffeinated rated it it was amazing

All criticisms of Hillary Clinton are, in her words, the product of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." However, as First Lady, then as the carpetbagging Senator from New York, then as United States Secretary of State, Clinton's record stands on its own. What she's said and done are indisputable fact and in the public record.

Diana Johnstone's book "Queen of Chaos" is not an election year hit piece like Dinesh D'Souza's "Hillary's America" -- as much as its detractors would like to peg it so. It is ...more

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Jul 01, 2016 Carolyn rated it really liked it

An excellent review of H. Clinton's crimes and warmongering, and also a great primer on the Balkan wars during Bill Clinton's presidency. Johnstone covers the other harridans who are the close mentors/collaborators of Clinton, particularly Madelaine Albright and Victoria Nuland. I recommend this book to the many "progressives" who are thinking of supporting Clinton for president. If they support her, these are the crimes that they are also supporting and I believe that they need to read this ...more

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Apr 21, 2016 Gregg Harcus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Book outline how Hillary really is a neocon.

She is willing to lie to get elected. Much of the mess in Africa and the Middle East can be traced back to Hillary and her regime changes. The book also discusses how the US is constantly trying to make other countries look and act like the US. The war party is made up of both GOP and Dems.

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Oct 07, 2016 Roman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: featured-reads, neoliberalism, politics

With the media bellowing and shrieking in outrage after every word uttered by Donald Trump amnesia seems to have set in causing a collective "inability" to highlight the fact that Hillary Clinton is a possibly psychopathic war mongering one percenter who serves the interests of Wall Street bankers, arms dealers, donors to her and Willie's "charitable" foundation and other nasty people with deep pockets. She also has an atrocious, and dangerous, political track record that the media conveniently ...more

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Jun 17, 2016 Anna Nicole Smith & Wesson rated it it was amazing

From Yugoslavia to Libya to Syria and beyond, the specter of Hillary looms large across US actions around the world. "Queen of Chaos" is a well organized, lucid exposé of some of the most egregious actions of El Clinton, whether at the State Department, as senator, or acting as Bill's expert on foreign policy. If you're interested in a dissident view of the ouster (murder) of Gaddafi in 2011, American blood-lusting after Syria circa 2013, or Western meddling in Ukraine from 2014 to present, look ...more

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Oct 27, 2016 Dr. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-and-owned

This book is more about the corrupt foreign policy of the 2 party system than it is about Hillary Clinton but she proves to be just as much of a mover and shaker as Cheney, Rumsfeld, the Bushes, or Obama.

It is a strong cup of tea to counteract the belief in American exceptionalism that has given us license to pursue our "interests" wherever we wish. It is brazen, highly researched, and offensive as all good non-fiction should be.

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Sep 10, 2016 Treesong rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

I have mixed feelings about Queen of Chaos. There were some moments when I wanted to give it five stars for its invaluable detailed description of the duplicitous “humanitarian” mass violence and chaos of U.S. foreign policy. There were other moments when I wanted to give it zero stars for its deeply offensive commentary on what it dismisses as “identity politics” (mostly LGBT rights, but also immigrant rights and multiculturalism). Ultimately, I decided that both the merits and the flaws needed I have mixed feelings about Queen of Chaos. There were some moments when I wanted to give it five stars for its invaluable detailed description of the duplicitous “humanitarian” mass violence and chaos of U.S. foreign policy. There were other moments when I wanted to give it zero stars for its deeply offensive commentary on what it dismisses as “identity politics” (mostly LGBT rights, but also immigrant rights and multiculturalism). Ultimately, I decided that both the merits and the flaws needed to be discussed, so I may as well write a full review.

Let me start by discussing the merits.

This book is a timely exploration of Hillary Clinton’s long and sordid history of support for aggressive military intervention overseas. It provides a searing critique of her role in our military interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Syria, and Honduras, as well as her antagonism toward Russia and anyone else who would seek to rival the United States’ influence in Eurasia and the world. Ultimately, the book is not about Hillary Clinton per se, but about the unofficial “War Party” (which includes both Democrats and Republicans) that uses “humanitarianism” as a justification for their aggressive acts of military intervention and destabilization of entire nations.

This central narrative of Queen of Chaos is both deeply disturbing and firmly rooted in the facts and evidence available to the public about the role of U.S. foreign policy in these international conflicts. I’ve read about most if not all of these U.S. interventions individually, but so far this is the first time I’ve seen them all summarized in a single volume. What was before more of a general impression for me is now a clear and explicit pattern of unthinkable and unnecessary mass violence. Hillary Clinton and her colleagues in the War Party have spent the past couple of decades causing chaos and violence in many nations simply because they wanted to enforce their economic agenda and their brand of American exceptionalism on the entire world.

This ongoing campaign of military interventions and support for extremist “rebels” is allegedly undertaken for humanitarian purposes. Its advocates allegedly believe that they are making the world a better place through their actions. Honestly, I suspect that many of them do believe their own rhetoric, though surely not all. Hillary Clinton and others establish a black-and-white scenario where a particular foreign leader is portrayed as the next genocidal Hitler and therefore “must go” so that his own people and his neighbors might be saved from the violence and oppression of his regime. Whatever actual harm may have been done by the accused leader is overshadowed by the exaggerated accusations against him and a whitewashing of whoever is opposing him. Complex internal and regional disputes are transformed into simplistic battles between “good” and “evil” –sometimes literally in those terms. Diplomatic resolution of the conflict is actively discouraged by the U.S. in favor of often-unilateral “intervention” and “consequences” for the target regime. The U.S. (often involving its NATO allies) then intervenes on behalf of the rebels with the ultimate goal being “regime change” and the implementation of “democracy” (a government favorable to the U.S.). The great irony, of course, is that the end result of these interventions is usually either a failed state or a new regime that is at least as repressive as the one overthrown by the U.S., both of which result in tremendous suffering and oppression — which is exactly what the strategy was allegedly trying to prevent.

What I like most about this book is this searing critique of the “War Party” and its pursuit of paradoxical “humanitarian” wars of aggression. Now, on to the flaws.

The first flaw that became apparent almost immediately was the tone. Yes, this is a book about acts of aggression that could quite reasonable be considered war crimes under international law. Yes, these acts resulted in much death and destruction. Yes, a harsh tone is entirely justified. As someone who picked up the book already aware of all of this, it was easy for me to understand why the author often adopted a snarky, derisive tone in her discussions of Hillary Clinton and everyone else associated with the War Party apparatus. At times, I felt myself being snarky and derisive right along with her. However, the tone in these sections of the book also left me feeling like this book is simply preaching to the choir. Would someone who picked up this book loving Hillary Clinton (or even begrudgingly voting for her as a “lesser evil”) have the patience to make it through enough of the book to become convinced by the author’s argument and evidence? Probably not. Given the title and subtitle of the book, I should have realized that the tone of the book would be unabashedly hostile toward Clinton, thus making it a difficult read for anyone who supports Clinton, whether enthusiastically or begrudgingly. However, I was really hoping to find a book that I could use to inform Clinton supporters about the down sides of her much-lauded “experience” in foreign policy. Given the tone, though, I’m not sure that this is the right book for that job. I found it informative, but I’m concerned that the audience who needs to read it most may be too put off by the tone to take the message to heart.

The second major flaw is in the way that the author handles “identity politics,” including but not limited to LGBT identities. This was the reason why I nearly stopped reading the book and came even closer to rejecting it as a book worthy of review. The author adopts a completely tone-deaf and downright offensive attitude toward the LGBT movement and its struggle for basic human rights and human dignity for LGBT people around the world. While she does in passing indicate vague support for human rights for LGBT people, she spends most of her time on the topic talking about how the L, G, B, and T of the movement are really disparate identities that don’t mesh well into a single community, and how the current emphasis on these identity’s struggles is just a distraction from the more serious work of stopping the imperialist wars of aggression described in the rest of the book. She ultimately just sounds jealous of the attention that such struggles are receiving in the U.S. currently while her own stuffy old brand of pre-intersectionality leftism is languishing on the dusty shelves of history. To be fair, I do agree with her that when Hillary Clinton and the War Party complain about how the Russian government treats their LGBT community, they are doing so in a thinly-veiled attempt to vilify Putin and Russia, thus justifying sanctions and other actions against Russia and its allies. However, she goes about expressing this concern in exactly the opposite way that she should in order to be heard. Her dismissive tone about LGBT concerns is deeply offensive. Mistreatment of the LGBT community in Russia is a very serious concern that she should not take so lightly. The fact that politicians in the U.S. are using it as a weapon in their twisted political games doesn’t make it any less serious of a concern. Failing to emphasize this point is in fact a way of lending support to anti-LGBT sentiment both in Russia and in the U.S.

The third major flaw is in the way that the author handles the leaders who have been targeted by Hillary Clinton and others in the War Party. Yes, it’s very valid and important to point out the way in which Clinton and others in the War Party demonize these leaders in order to mark them as valid targets for regime change. However, I’m concerned that the author may at times succumb to the very black-and-white thinking that she critiques in the War Party. In the author’s mind, Clinton et al are the villains, and men like Putin and Gaddafi and others are just hapless victims of the villains’ underhanded smear campaigns. This is a gross oversimplification of the situation that erases the suffering caused by these targeted politicians. Some of it is exaggeration and hype, but some of it is real. My take on the situation is that most if not all of the leaders targeted by the War Party are in fact problematic leaders. Most politicians in the upper echelons of government are in fact quite problematic. These politicians targeted by the U.S. for “regime change” are no exception. They have their problems, often serious ones. But the War Party exaggerates (and at times fabricates) these problems and uses them as an excuse for even more problematic acts of aggression.

Finally, on a more minor note, the book simply isn’t very well organized. The author does construct a very meaningful narrative about “humanitarian” wars and the War Party that instigates them, and this lends some sense of structure and purpose to the book. But she spends too much time bouncing back and forth between time periods and interventions rather than laying it all out as a single chronological narrative. Some back-and-forth would be acceptable, especially since the book exists at the crossroads between Hillary Clinton’s personal involvement and the larger political and historical forces that are at play beyond her. But I felt like the book could use another round of editing to make it a bit more concise and more chronologically organized rather than diverting time and again into tangential rants about material that had already been addressed earlier in the book.

At the end of the day, flawed as it is, this book will probably be a good read for a lot of people. The provocative title and subtitle will catch many people’s eyes, and some of them will learn some extremely important information about U.S. foreign policy and Hillary Clinton’s role in it. I just wish that it didn’t come along with all of the baggage mentioned above. If anyone can recommend another book that summarizes Hillary Clinton’s “misadventures” that is more accessible to people who currently support Clinton, then please let me know about it. In the meantime, there is definitely enough information in this book to help people understand why so many “progressive” voters in the United States simply can’t vote for someone who is actively working to spread war and chaos through the world in the form of these “humanitarian” interventions. ...more

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Oct 13, 2016 Alan Ireland rated it it was amazing

An excellent summation of American foreign policy since the end of Cold War I. It should be read by everyone, and especially by those who think that Hillary would make a better president than Donald. In reality, all that Hillary will deliver, if she achieves power, is more and more "humanitarian" war - and possibly World War III. Yes, the neocons in general, and Hillary in particular, are that crazy.

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Apr 01, 2016 Frank rated it really liked it

Effectively argues the likely destructiveness of a Hillary presidency (for voters who want peace) given her hawkish and blunder filled foreign policy track record.

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Jun 22, 2018 Jason von Meding rated it really liked it

Although the book is held together by a narrative about Hillary Clinton, at times that seems more opportunistic as the author clearly wants to talk much more broadly. Clinton embodies many of the foreign policy positions that make America a pariah in the view of much of the world, and she did more than her share of action as First Lady and Secretary of State. The most interesting things for me were the “misunderstanding Russia” part and the thread on how America uses females in power to push ...more

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Jul 07, 2019 ATX rated it really liked it

Shelves: hillary-clinton, politicians, politics

The value I found in this book is Hillary's track record while in office. The author goes to great lengths to give context by setting the stage via overall US policy. This is done to such extent, I came to suspect Hillary is merely a vehicle to indulge in a harsh critique of our rogue political system as it has been evolving over the past decades. It is worth the time to get some insight from abroad.

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Jan 19, 2018 Sam Dobson rated it it was ok

Author is a massive crank. Some problematic and downright disturbing views (Srebrenica genocide denial for example) in this book. Hilary Clinton is an awful person no doubt, but there are far better left critiques of her available that aren't full of complete bile.

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Jun 14, 2016 Mary rated it it was amazing

The star rating is because this book is so important, and so illuminating. I found it hard to read, but alm0st equally hard to put down. My major regret is that it didn't come out months earlier.

Like "The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu", this book is not entirely unbiased. You could argue that Johnstone is too lenient toward Qaddafi and Putin. But she is very clear and concise in describing what happened to Honduras, Libya, Serbia, and now Ukraine. And she is also very, very convincing. After ...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Greg Hunter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Reminds. Me of MLK ' s Beyond Vietnam speech in that it explains the context is US imperialism

HRC embodies US exeptionalism as a crackpot humanitarian playing her role as good cop vs the Republican crackpot realist as bad cop

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Feb 17, 2019 brian bixby rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The ultimate Washington insider, few politicians bring out such visceral reactions among voters. While this book didn't change my generally low opinion of Hillary Clinton it might open the eyes of some of her more enthusiastic fans.

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About Diana Johnstone

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“In the American oligarchy, the President is a temporary chairman of the board who is there to take responsibility for actions decided in private sessions. He is there to sell policy more than to make it.” — 2 likes

“Hillary trotted out her favorite image of a three-legged stool that upholds stable societies: “a responsive, accountable government; an energetic, effective private sector economy; and then civil society, which represents everything else that happens in the space between the government and the economy, that holds the values, that represents the aspirations.”

This “stool” is actually the image of the bland governance of a corporate society: a government responsive to the demands of finance capital, a capitalist economy, and private, unelected and well-funded organizations that will determine “our values”. Note what is missing: a vigorous political life, scrupulously independent media, and an education system that prepares intellectually alert and critical citizens.” — 1 likes

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