Greek, and Turkish intervention in Cyprus' internal affairs. Hitchens contends that the division of Cyprus in 1974 was orchestrated by Britain and the U.S. in order to prevent communist sympathizers from coming to power. InThe Elgin Marbles (1987), Hitchens weighed in on the emotionally-charged debate surrounding the appropriation of ancient Greek sculptures by Lord Elgin, the British envoy to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803. During this time, Lord Elgin used his position to gain permission from the Ottoman government to remove more than half of the remaining marble statues and friezes from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The marble statues were shipped to England and eventually sold by Lord Elgin to the British Museum, where they remain one of the most prized and popular attractions at that institution. In his book, Hitchens records the arguments for and against repatriation of the works of art and argues in favor of returning the marbles to Greece. In Blaming the Victims (1988), co-edited with Edward Said, Hitchens reiterates his long-standing advocacy for the Palestinian cause and addresses what he sees as the falsehoods perpetuated by the Western media on behalf of Israeli interests. Hitchens's discovery of his Jewish ancestry has not swayed his passionate support for the Palestinians. Instead, he believes that his Jewishness merely added new credence to his anti-Zionist position. Prepared for the Worst (1988) is comprised of essays that originally appeared in periodicals ranging from Mother Jones to the Nation. Among these pieces are compelling articles that focus on the harmful consequences of U.S. support for various right-wing regimes in Central America and the machinations behind the Iran-Contra scandal during U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration, a favorite recurring target of Hitchens's scorn. A second collection of journalistic pieces, For the Sake of Argument (1990), consists of essays on various political and literary topics, including a lengthy defense of controversial author Salman Rushdie, as well as denunciations of numerous public figures such as U.S. President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, author P. J. O'Rourke, and other neo-conservatives. In Blood, Class, and Nostalgia (1990), Hitchens argues that the so-called “special relationship” between England and the United States represents nothing less than a transfer of empire from the older nation to the newer one. He examines the roots of the American affinity for English culture and the insinuation of British interests in American foreign policy, illuminated by the writings of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, author Rudyard Kipling, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, among others. In The Missionary Position (1995), which was subsequently adapted into the television special Hell's Angels, Hitchens decries what he believes to be hypocrisy and dubious motivations of Mother Teresa, the revered Catholic nun whose charitable work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta, India, has received millions of dollars of support, money that Hitchens argues is largely unaccounted for. Hitchens contends that Mother Teresa's Hospital for the Dying, despite its generous funding, offers no real medical treatment for its patients—and that prayers and aspirin are prescribed even for the most severe cases and no physicians are in attendance. Furthermore, Hitchens suggests that Mother Teresa's neglectful treatment of desperately ill Indians conflicts with her personal use of well-known Western medical facilities. Hitchens also notes Mother Teresa's willingness to accept donations from questionable contributors such as the Duvaliers of Haiti and Charles Keating, who was implicated in the collapse of several U.S. savings and loans in the mid-1980s. In No One Left to Lie To (1999), Hitchens condemns Bill Clinton for political opportunism and abuse of presidential power. In particular, Hitchens charges that Clinton willingly executed a mentally-retarded Arkansas inmate to support his presidential aspirations and that Clinton used military actions to divert public attention from his sexual transgressions. Hitchens argues that Clinton used a “triangulation” strategy of espousing liberal causes while paving the way toward the enactment of conservative legislation, all the while gauging public opinion as the only measure of his actions. Hitchens believes that this sounded a death knell for progressive politics in the United States for years to come. Moreover, Hitchens argues that Clinton's prevarication assured that for the remainder of his term as president, he would be essentially powerless, a dangerous situation for the nation and the world. As much as Hitchens disapproves of Clinton, he reserves special ire for Henry Kissinger, whom he asserts should be convicted as a war criminal. In The Trial of Henry Kissinger (2001), Hitchens maintains that Kissinger's manipulative politics and complicity prolonged the Vietnam War, that Kissinger oversaw the assassination of Salvador Allende in Chile, and that Kissinger supported the overthrow of Archbishop Makarios in Cyprus. Unacknowledged Legislation (2001) is a collection of critical essays written in the last decade of the twentieth century, all concerned with authors who were either overtly political or who encountered politics in some way. Hitchens examines the works of several twentieth-century writers such as Dorothy Parker, Tom Wolfe, George Orwell, George Eliot, and Philip Larkin. In Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001), a manifesto written to an imaginary person, Hitchens portrays himself as a mentor figure who provides advice on how to live apart from the consensus and how to avoid the enemies of free will.

Critical Reception

As a staunch independent thinker and provocateur, Hitchens has made numerous enemies on both sides of the political spectrum. His trademark label pin, which reads “All the Right Enemies,” has attested to his combative self-sufficiency. Many critics have admired—and feared—his distinctive talent for using eloquent invective and ironic insinuation in his debates; even those who have opposed his leftist politics have admitted to deriving a certain enjoyment from his clever denunciations and ad hominem attacks. Nevertheless, Hitchens has been criticized for his tendency to provoke rather than to offer sustained analysis of any single problem. Several critics have noted that his rather brief volumes lack well-developed or coherent themes and are undermined by the omission of documentary evidence to support his claims. Some commentators have also accused Hitchens of obscuring or simply ignoring inconvenient facts that weaken his argument, while others have cited Hitchens's lack of historical perspective and analytical rigor as a significant flaw in his interpretation of past events. Though often praised for his confident posture, Hitchens has also gained notoriety for being ruthless in the eyes of some critics who feel that he has attacked innocent targets in his works, such as Mother Teresa. As an accomplished journalist, however, Hitchens has been respected for his determination to subvert media stereotypes and to expose the ironies and inconsistencies of Western government and foreign policy.