US Military Interventions Since World War II- Part One

World War II sealed British Empire as a declining imperialist forever, and opened the door for the United States to rise as the new superpower in the world. In July of 1944, in Bretton Wood in New Hampshire, 44 allied nations got together and established IMF and what is now called World Bank, under the power of the United States, which guaranteed a predicted American Century. The rise was emanating from the pillars of capitalism, and no regime in the world could expand capitalism to such high stages as it has been the case with the US. Of course, this had been prophesied by some, that such great capitalistic prominence could be achieved through force and domination of other nations. Internally, as it was prophesied again, each industry became a monopoly, or conglomerate of several companies in a monopolistic nature, and enormous capitals were amassed in the hands of a few, while the rest of the country continued gradual losing of resources. Overt policing with uniforms, and covert controlling, FBI, keeps people inline to protect riches of capitalists, while military and CIA conduct the same duties beyond the borders. Anyone who could become a role model, a leader, a national hero, or someone who puts societal benefits before personal advantages, such as Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, were uprooted, even if they were in the highest positions such as Kennedy brothers. In other countries, military and CIA covertly, if possible, and without regards to human dignity and even life, mow down any nationalistic or socialistic uprising, and replace it with corrupt and sadistic money hungry dictators. This has been the history of the world in the past seventy years.

After 9/11, George W Bush directly and pointedly spelled out the policy of the US towards other nations: “you are either with us or against us.” Only a few countries in the world dare not to bow before the master, due to either support of the vast majority of the population, or their strong military or nuclear capabilities. Not long ago, a man who claims to support the poor and leans towards the Left was overwhelmingly elected as the president of Mexico, after decades, if not centuries of puppet governments. A woman, whose husband works in a military design lab in California, with an angry tone and a blushed face declared: “guess what? So far our enemies have been Russia, North Korea, and Iran. Now we have to go to work to defend ourselves against Mexico too!” Brain washing of American people into believing that they are the most intelligent people on earth did not happen overnight, but by a successful systematic use of media. Edward Bernays created a business convincing people to buy what they don’t need, and to believe in what is hard to believe. Efficacious use of the machinery of self-righteousness, selfishness, nationalism, and racism, has made American and some European nations believe that they live in the best democracies provided to them by the best governments. These people believe that they are exceptional, and that is because of capitalism, which is magically (and wrongfully) called free market. The Deep State has made it a priority to control the media, and it effectively has. If consent of people cannot be achieved through these tactics, then it is manufactured, as it was pointed out by Noam Chomsky in his famous book with the same title. George Carlin once joked that Americans believe that they have a choice, while the choice is between two of the same things. There are two political parties controlling the government, which are basically the same in their politics. Movies are produced in Hollywood with the similar popularized genre. Radios play the same talk show or the same music. Any other media resemble each other, as if they are fed by the same source. However, there are many radio stations, TV channels, newspapers, to choose from. There are even many different bottles of water to select, all that taste the same, and regardless of many different brands they carry, they are all manufactured by one of the two, or a few, major soda manufacturers. Perception management is what was created by Bernays, under the pseudo name of public relations.

How could a country achieve all of these, having no restraint in destroying the whole world if necessary, in order to enrich the already wealthy and powerful, arming to the teeth, creating wars in other countries, increasing the disparity between the rich and the poor, and at the same time, enjoying faithful citizenry? Stupefying the populace is the subject of a different discussion. But maintaining imperialistic gestures towards other nations since the Second World War is the subject of a fascinating book authored by William Blum. The book “Killing Hope” examines interventions of the United States into other countries during this time. It is an essential read for those who bow before the supremacy of America and believe that if one cannot beat them should join them, as most nations of the world do. Of course, one cannot jump into the 1940s and years after, without having a brief examination of the history of the US prior to that time, such as the treatment of inhabitants of the new world by the invaders, friendship with a colonial power (France) to fight the other colonial power (England), slavery, attacking and subduing other lands, from Hawaii to Philippines to Cuba, and the list continues. In the introduction section of the book, some of the historical facts are mentioned. After discussing discontent of the slaveholders of the migration of slaves to northern states, which they related it to the slaves’ lack of appreciation and their genetic mental inferiority, the author mentions a famous surgeon and psychologist of the time: “The noted Louisiana surgeon and psychologist Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright argued that many of the slaves suffered from a form of mental illness, which he called ‘drapetomania’, diagnosed as the uncontrollable urge to escape from slavery. In the half of the 20^th century, this illness, in the Third World, has usually been called ‘communism’, (P. 13).”

Whenever and wherever there was a Leftist takeover of Western supported governments in the world, it was crushed bitterly by the US army, from Korea to Vietnam to Cambodia. American military intervention has always been very successful, as the military would destroy anything on sight, mercilessly. One can look at the pictures of North Korea before American troops pulled out, and the reason they pulled out as one of the military persons stated, there was no place left to bomb. The same game was played against China after its revolution. According to the book, some Tibetans were flown to a military base in Colorado Mountains secretly for guerrilla training. They were flown back afterwards in order to conduct guerrilla warfare against the communists. In addition, US Air Force undertook several missions to distribute bacteria-laden insects into China. Some captured American airmen testified in detail about their missions to Chinese government, which were broadcasted and Chinese officials complained internationally.  A committee of scientists from several countries, including Soviet Union, investigated the claim and reported about the attacks along with some pictures, in 600 pages. In that report, it is mentioned that the same bacterial warfare that was waged by Japanese during WWII, was mimicked by the US: “the last reference has to do with the bacteriological warfare experiment the Japanese had carried out against China between 1940 and 1942. The Japanese scientists responsible for the program were captured by the United States in 1945 and given immunity from prosecution in return for providing technical information about the experiment to American scientists from the Army biological research center at Fort Detrick, Maryland, (P. 26).”

In 1940s, when Filipinos were fighting the colonizing Spain, with a posture of helping natives to rid of the imperialist, US sent troops to Philippines and after defeating Spain, filled the vacuum. The brutality of the US army in cutting heads of those who decided to fight the new invader is well known. What America did in Vietnam and later in Korea, was learned in Philippines, such as ‘search and destroy’ and ‘pacification’: “The American military was meanwhile assuring a home for itself in the Philippines. A 1947 agreement provided sites for 23 US military bases in the country. The agreement was to last for 99 years. It stipulated that American servicemen who committed crimes outside the bases while on duty could be tried only by American military tribunals inside the bases… The Philippine government was prohibited from purchasing so much as a bullet from any arms source other than the US, except with American approval… By early 1950, the United States had provided the Philippines with over $200 million of military equipment and supplies, a remarkable sum for that time, and was in addition to the construction of various military facilities, (P. 41).”

There is a large section in the book describing criminal invasion of Korea by the United States. At the end, the author asks a question about the legitimacy of the internal conflict in Korea, between north and south, and then gives an example. that in similar situations in previous years United Nations acted to thwart hostilities, but in this case, US had full power to act in any way it could to turn North Korea into ruins: “once upon a time, the United States fought a great civil war in which the North attempted to reunite country through military force. Did Korea or China or any other foreign power send in an army to slaughter Americans, charging Lincoln with aggression? Why did the United States choose to wage full-scale war in Korea? Only a year earlier, in 1949, in the Arab-Israeli fighting in Palestine and in the India-Pakistani war over Kashmir, the United Nations, with American support, had intervened to mediate an armistice, not to send in an army to take sides and expand the fighting. And both these conflicts were less in the nature of a civil war than was the case in Korea. If the US/ UN response had been the same in these earlier cases, Palestine and Kashmir might have wound up as the scorched-earth desert that was Korea’s fate. What saved them, what kept the US armed forces out, was no more than the absence of a communist side to the conflict, (P. 55).”

Each chapter of the book deals with a part of the glob where US intervention has shattered hopes and has replaced it with dictatorship, torture, murder, and life in misery for majority, benefiting a small minority. One of the sections of the book deals with 1953 coup in Iran, which was orchestrated by Kermit Roosevelt in order to topple the legitimate government of Mossadegh who was supported by majority of people. His crime was his plan to nationalize the largest exporting mineral Iran had; black gold. The story is well known and the summary of it is presented in a few pages. What is more interesting to know with regards to today’s government in Iran and for the readers of this book is its last paragraph: “Where force might fail, the CIA turned to its most trusted weapon- money. To insure support for the Shah, or at least the absence of dissent, the Agency began making payments to Iranian religious leaders, always a capricious bunch. The payments to the ayatollahs and mullahs began in 1953 and continued regularly until 1977 when President Carter abruptly halted them. One ‘informed intelligence source’ estimates that the amount paid reached as much as $400 million a year; others thought that figure too high, which it certainly seems to be. The cut-off of funds to the holly men, it is believed, was one of the elements which precipitated the beginning of the end for the King of Kings, (P. 72)”.

One of the ayatollahs mentioned above was Kashani, who acted at the beginning of the time when Mossadegh became prime minister by supporting him. But later on, he received a large sum of money from Roosevelt to change direction 180 degrees. However, Mossadegh was not the only prime minister in the region who was popular among his countrymen and was openly working to better the life of his people. Suleiman Nabulsi was King Hussein’s prime minister in Jordan who desired relationship with Egypt during Nasser, and with the Soviet Union. The King dismissed him, and when people turned out in the streets and riot broke out, he declared martial law. American government assured him of US assistance by sending naval units: “Sometimes during this year the CIA began making secret annual payments to King Hussein, initially in the millions of dollars per year. The practice was to last for 20 years, with the Agency providing Hussein female companions as well. As justification for the payment, the CIA later claimed that Hussein allowed American intelligence agencies to operate freely in Jordan. Hussein himself provided intelligence to the CIA and distributed part of the payments to other government officials who also furnished information or cooperated with the Agency, (P. 90)”. The previous chapter had dealt with Syria, and after this paragraph it returns to Jordan’s neighbor again, where Hafez Assad starts economic relationship with the Soviets and angers Washington: “A few months later, it was Syria which occupied the front stage in Washington’s melodrama of ‘International Communism’. The Syrians had established relations with the Soviet Union via trade, economic aid, and military purchases and training. The United States chose to see something ominous in this although it was a state of affairs engendered in no small measure by John Foster Dulles, as we saw in the previous chapter. American antipathy towards Syria was heightened in August following the Syrian government’s exposure of the CIA- directed plot to overthrow it, (P. 90)”.

US government through its international secret service, CIA, has always ensured no democratic or nationalist government existed in any part of the world. In the 1950s, Sukarno became the leader of Indonesia. It was intolerable for the Agency and defaming him was the best way to topple him. When all failed, the largest military operation of CIA with the help of US military replaced Sukarno with the US puppet Suharto: “A substantial effort was made to come up with a pornographic film or at least some still photographs that could pass for Sukarno and his Russian girlfriend engaged in ‘his favorite activity’. When scrutiny of available porno films (supplied by the Chief of Police of Los Angeles) failed to turn up a couple who could pass for Sukarno…the CIA undertook to produce its own films … In other parts of the world, at other times, the CIA has done better in this line of work, having produced sex films of target subjects caught in flagrante delicto who had been lured to Agency safe-houses by female agents, (P. 102).”

On the chapter about British Guiana (known as Guyana) the author makes a general statement: “CIA work within Third World unions typically involves a considerable educational effort, the basic premise of which is that all solutions will come to working people under a system of free enterprise, class co-operation and collective bargaining, and by opposing communism in collaboration with management and government, unless, of course, the government, as in this case, is itself ‘communist’. The most promising students, those perhaps marked as future leaders, are singled out to be sent to CIA schools in the United States for future education, (P. 110).” This section continues with the leader of the country, Jagan, who was democratically elected for the second term and by a wide margin, coming to the US to receive economic aids: “But when Jagan, perhaps naively, mentioned his admiration for the scholarly, leftist journal, Monthly Review, it appears that he crossed an ideological line, which silently and effectively sealed his country’s fate… In February 1962, CIA helped to organize and finance anti-Jagan protests which used the newly announced budget as a pretext…. When it was time, in 1994, for the US government to declassify its British Guiana documents under the 30-year rule, the State Department and CIA refused to do so, reported the New York Times, because ‘it is not worth the embarrassment’, (P. 110,113).”

A chapter of the book is dedicated to Soviet Union. We know that the relationships between the US government and the governments of Turkey and Iran were very friendly, and both of these countries received any help, assistance and corroborations from the US government when needed. There is only a short reminder about these two countries in relation with the United States government, but it is important to note: “Beginning in the 1940s, the US military, the CIA and the National Security Agency regularly sent aircraft along the border of the Soviet Union to collect visual, photographic and electronic data of a military or industrial nature, particularly to do with Soviet missiles and nuclear capability. The increasingly sophisticated planes and equipment, as well as satellites, submarines, and electronic listening posts in Turkey and Iran, produced vast amounts of computer input…Some of the spy planes made it safely back to base (which might be Turkey, Iran, Greece, Pakistan, Japan or Norway) after being attacked, and even hit; others were downed with loss of life or with crew members captured by the Soviets, (P. 114).” Later, hundreds of radio stations supported by CIA and in various languages, all targeting Communism and Socialism [as well as nationalism] are discussed: “Many of the Russians who worked for the various stations, which broadcast at length about freedom, democracy and other humanitarian concerns, were later identified by the US Justice Department as members of Hitler’s notorious Einsatzgruppen, which rounded up and killed numerous Jews in the Soviet Union. One of these worthies was Stanislaw Stankievich, under whose command a mass murder of Jews in Byelorussia was carried out in which babies were buried alive with the dead, presumably to save ammunition. Stankievich wound up working for Radio Liberty. German war criminals as well were employed by the CIA in a variety of anti-Soviet operations, (P. 118).”

Killing Hope is an interesting fact finding book, some quotations from which are mentioned here. Only a small portion of this 470 pages book has been reviewed so far. This passage will continue by discussing more chapters of the book, as time allows. Therefore, other parts to this “part one” will be published momentarily.