A Partial List of U.S. Aggression and Interventions

Following is are excerpts from William Blum's recent essay, US aggression and intervention, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, in The Guardian (CPA). For a complete description of these and other interventions, refer to his book, Killing Hope: CIA and Military Interventions since World War II. (See his web site for excerpts.)

Guatemala, 1953-1990s: A CIA-organised coup overthrew the democratically-elected and progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz, initiating 40 years of death-squads, torture, disappearances, mass executions, and unimaginable cruelty, totaling well over 100,000 victims — indisputably one of the most inhuman chapters of the 20th century. Arbenz had nationalised the US firm, United Fruit Company, which had extremely close ties to the American power elite. As justification for the coup, Washington declared that Guatemala had been on the verge of a Soviet takeover, when in fact the USSR had so little interest in the country that it didn't even maintain diplomatic relations with it. The real problem in the eyes of Washington, in addition to United Fruit, was the danger of Guatemala's social democracy spreading to other countries in Latin America.

British Guyana, 1953-64: For 11 years, two of the oldest democracies in the world, Great Britain and the United States, went to great lengths to prevent a democratically elected leader from occupying his office. Cheddi Jagan was another Third World leader who tried to remain neutral and independent. He was elected three times. Although a leftist — more so than Sukarno or Arbenz — his policies in office were not revolutionary. But he was still a marked man, for he represented Washington's greatest fear: building a society that might be a successful example of an alternative to the capitalist model. Using a wide variety of tactics — from general strikes and disinformation to terrorism and British legalisms, the US and Britain finally forced Jagan out in 1964. John F Kennedy had given a direct order for him to be outed as, presumably, had Eisenhower. One of the better-off countries in the region under Jagan, Guyana, by the 1980s, became one of the poorest. Its principal export became people.

Vietnam, 1950-73: The slippery slope began by siding with the French, the former colonisers and collaborators with the Japanese, and against Ho Chi Minh and his followers who had worked closely with the Allied war effort and admired all things American. Ho Chi Minh had written numerous letters to President Truman and the State Department asking for America's help in winning Vietnamese independence from the French and finding a peaceful solution for his country. All his entreaties were ignored. For he was some kind of communist. Twenty-three years, and more than a million dead, later, the United States withdrew its military forces from Vietnam. Most people say that the US lost the war. But by destroying Vietnam to its core, and poisoning the earth and the gene pool for generations, Washington had in fact achieved its main purpose: preventing what might have been the rise of a good development option for Asia. Ho Chi Minh was, after all, some kind of communist.

Brazil, 1961-64: President Joao Goulart was guilty of the usual crimes. He took an independent stand in foreign policy, resuming relations with socialist countries and opposing sanctions against Cuba. His administration passed a law limiting the amount of profits multinationals could transmit outside the country; a subsidiary of ITT was nationalised; he promoted economic and social reforms. US Attorney-General Robert Kennedy was uneasy about Goulart allowing "communists" to hold positions in government agencies. Yet the man was no radical. He was a millionaire land-owner and a Catholic. That, however, was not enough to save him. In 1964, he was overthrown in a military coup that had deep, covert American involvement. The official Washington line was ... yes, it's unfortunate that democracy has been overthrown in Brazil ... but, still, the country has been saved from communism. For the next 15 years, all the features of military dictatorship which Latin America has come to know were instituted: Congress was shut down, political opposition was reduced to virtual extinction, habeas corpus for "political crimes" was suspended, criticism of the President was forbidden by law. Trade unions were taken over by government, mounting protests were met by police and military firing into crowds, peasants' homes were burned down, priests were brutalised. Disappearances, death squads, a remarkable degree of depravity, torture ... the government had a name for its program: the "moral rehabilitation" of Brazil. Washington was very pleased. Brazil broke relations with Cuba and became one of the United States' most reliable allies in Latin America.

Dominican Republic, 1963-66: In February 1963, Juan Bosch took office as the first democratically elected President of the Dominican Republic since 1924. Here at last was John F Kennedy's liberal anti- communist, to counter the charge that the US supported only military dictatorships. Bosch's government was to be the long sought "showcase of democracy" that would put the lie to Fidel Castro. Bosch was true to his beliefs. He called for land reform; low-rent housing; modest nationalisation of business; and foreign investment provided it was not excessively exploitative of the country. A number of American officials and Congressmen expressed their discomfort with Bosch's plans, as well as his stance of independence from the United States. Land reform and nationalisation are always touchy issues in Washington, the stuff that "creeping socialism" is made of. In several quarters of the US press Bosch was red-baited. In September, the military boots marched. Bosch was out. The United States, which could discourage a military coup in Latin America with a frown, did nothing. Nineteen months later, a revolt broke out which promised to put the exiled Bosch back into power. The United States sent 23,000 troops to help crush it.

Chile, 1964-73: Salvador Allende was the worst possible scenario for a Washington imperialist. He could imagine only one thing worse than a Marxist in power — an elected Marxist in power, who honoured the constitution, and became increasingly popular. This shook the very foundation stones upon which the anti-communist tower was built: the doctrine, painstakingly cultivated for decades, that "communists" can take power only through force and deception, that they can retain that power only through terrorising and brainwashing the population. After sabotaging Allende's electoral endeavour in 1964, the CIA and the rest of the American foreign policy machine failed to do so in 1970, despite their best efforts. Over the next three years they left no stone unturned in their attempt to destabilise the Allende Government, paying particular attention to building up military hostility. Finally, in September 1973, the military overthrew the Government. Allende died in the process. Thus it was that they closed the country to the outside world for a week, while the tanks rolled and the soldiers broke down doors; the stadiums rang with the sounds of execution and the bodies piled up along the streets and floated in the river. The torture centres opened for business; subversive books were thrown to the bonfires; soldiers slit the trouser legs of women, shouting that "In Chile women wear dresses!"; the poor returned to their natural state; and the men of the world in Washington and in the halls of international finance opened up their cheque-books. In the end, more than 3,000 had been executed, thousands more tortured or disappeared.

Nicaragua 1978-89: When the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1978, it was clear to Washington that they might well be that long-dreaded beast — "another Cuba". Under President Carter, attempts to sabotage the revolution took diplomatic and economic forms. Under Reagan, violence was the method of choice. For eight terribly long years, the people of Nicaragua were under attack by Washington's proxy army, the Contras, formed from Somoza's vicious National Guardsmen and other supporters of the dictator. It was all-out war, aiming to destroy the progressive social and economic programs of the government, burning down schools and medical clinics, raping, torturing, mining harbours, bombing and strafing. These were Ronald Reagan's "freedom fighters". There would be no revolution in Nicaragua.

Panama, 1989: Washington's mad bombers strike again. December 1989, a large tenement barrio in Panama City wiped out, 15,000 people left homeless. Counting several days of ground fighting against Panamanian forces, 500- something dead was the official body count (what the US and the new US- installed Panamanian Government admitted to). Other sources, with no less evidence, insisted that thousands had died; 3,000-something wounded. Twenty-three Americans dead, 324 wounded. Question from reporter: "Was it really worth it to send people to their death for this? To get Noriega?" George Bush: "Every human life is precious, and yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it." Manuel Noriega had been an American ally and informant for years until he outlived his usefulness. But getting him was not the only motive for the attack. Bush wanted to send a clear message to the people of Nicaragua, who had an election scheduled in two months, that this might be their fate if they re- elected the Sandinistas. Bush also wanted to flex some military muscle to illustrate to Congress the need for a large combat-ready force, even after the very recent dissolution of the "Soviet threat". The official explanation for the American ouster was Noriega's drug trafficking, which Washington had known about for years and had not been at all bothered by.

Iraq 1990s: Relentless bombing for more than 40 days and nights, against one of the most advanced nations in the Middle East, devastating its ancient and modern capital city. 177 million pounds of bombs falling on the people of Iraq, the most concentrated aerial onslaught in the history of the world; using depleted uranium weapons and incinerating people, causing cancer. Chemical and biological weapon storages and oil facilities blasted, poisoning the atmosphere to a degree perhaps never matched anywhere; soldiers buried alive, deliberately. The infrastructure destroyed, with a terrible effect on health; sanctions continued to this day multiplying the health problems; perhaps a million children dead by now from all of these things, even more adults. Iraq was the strongest military power amongst the Arab states. This may have been their crime. Noam Chomsky has written: "It's been a leading, driving doctrine of US foreign policy since the 1940s that the vast and unparalleled energy resources of the Gulf region will be effectively dominated by the United States and its clients and, crucially, that no independent, indigenous force will be permitted to have a substantial influence on the administration of oil production and price."

El Salvador, 1980-92: Salvador's dissidents tried to work within the system. But with US support, the government made that impossible, using repeated electoral fraud and murdering hundreds of protesters and strikers. In 1980, the dissidents took to the gun, and civil war. Officially, the US military presence in El Salvador was limited to an advisory capacity. In actuality, military and CIA personnel played a more active role on a continuous basis. About 20 Americans were killed or wounded in helicopter and plane crashes while flying reconnaissance or other missions over combat areas, and considerable evidence surfaced of a US role in the ground fighting as well. The war came to an official end in 1992; 75,000 civilian deaths and the US Treasury depleted by US$6 billion. Meaningful social change has been largely thwarted. A handful of the wealthy still own the country, the poor remain as ever, and dissidents still have to fear right-wing death squads.

Haiti, 1987-94: The US supported the Duvalier family dictatorship for 30 years, then opposed the reformist priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Meanwhile, the CIA was working intimately with death squads, torturers and drug traffickers. With this as background, the Clinton White House found itself in the awkward position of having to pretend — because of all their rhetoric about "democracy" — that they supported Aristide's return to power in Haiti after he had been ousted in a 1991 military coup. After delaying his return for more than two years, Washington finally had its military restore Aristide to office, but only after obliging the priest to guarantee that he would not help the poor at the expense of the rich, and that he would stick closely to free-market economics. This meant that Haiti would continue to be the assembly plant of the Western Hemisphere, with its workers receiving literally starvation wages.

Yugoslavia, 1999: The United States set about bombing the country back to a pre-industrial era. It would like the world to believe that its intervention was motivated only by "humanitarian" impulses. Perhaps the above history of US interventions, can help one decide how much weight to place on this claim.

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