Preface to
How many military conflicts
has the
What
Why
Why do not know
The truth is out there
Not new,
nor has it been hidden
It is
just not main stream
Everything
that I present can be found in the library here on campus
But very few Americans read
Allen Dulles—
Have
to make an effort
A paradigm shift—a change in perspective or worldview
Process—not pleasant
Similar to the experience of people who are dying
Denial
Then anger
Ten bargaining
Then depression
Last is acceptance
Essential point to understand that there is a
difference between
the common people of American and the
government—there are two
1)
2)
People of
foreign countries were more aware of this—they did not hold American
people responsible for actions of their government
This distinction between
the American people and the government is one that
most Americans do
not recognize
Americans identify with government and take
collective responsibility
Mark
Hertsgaard, The Eagle's Shadow:
Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World says
Distinction
essential to understand
One
America is the people of America
All the good of
Our rights, our freedoms, and our prosperity has been
secured by the common American people
Fighting elites of their own
country
Great Depression angered and
unified Americans—became revolutionary
Result—new balance of power
Americans not educated in this
Read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the 20th
Century
This is 99% of
Other
Sociologist C. Wright Mills in his
book The Power Elite characterizes
the Power Elite as
Includes:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Important to realize—all one in the same
Wright warns
Money chief value
Elites motives for acting
Proper paradigm of American people’s struggle
Fitsgerald "The rich are not
like you and me."
LA elite and American embassy
personnel very much alike
All elites alike
Elites
control
Going
to examine how elites pursued their agenda in Latin America
Elites do not represent American
people
Keep
reminding yourself that___________________________________
First--Why truth about
Public education system
What
is the basic purpose of the educational system?
Education
is not and can never be neutral or objective
Real
education is always dangerous to the powers that be who seek to maintain their
hold on power
American writer H.L. Mencken said:
Public schools were never intended to
produce educated individuals
Purpose
Teachers
follow curriculum guides
Wear rut in mind
Ruts
become filters
This purpose of the public education
system can be verified by looking at those who created the public it
In 1888, the Senate Committee on Education
Education cause of discontent
in workers
The corporate and political elites explicitly wanted an educational system
The men who designed, funded,
and implemented
system in the late 1800s and early 1900s, were very clear
about what they believed public
education should do.
Manufacture
children like nails
In
1889 the
Public education was not designed to educate us, but to get us ready to
fit into
the
social/political, corporate/industrial system
Indoctrination does not end with high school
We have been taught to believe and most people do believe that
education is the way to
solve all our problems
Research reveals educated
more war-like and slavish to political leaders
What is the reasons for this:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Jeff
Schmidt in his book Disciplined Minds
reveals that the people who are the
object of the
greatest indoctrination are Phd candidates
Must
be trusted since work alone and are leaders
Ivy
League Dunces
Reason
that most college professors have been educated to be liberal
Conclusion
Also, there is always a great deal of
pressure to conform—to be servants
of system—perpetuating the myths that maintain the status
quo
Rewarded
Punished
So the threat is that you either conform or you can lose your job
All
public education systems are going to be similar in whatever country
Two
advantages to US system
1)
2)
Disadvantage
to US system
The educational system
is just one part of the “perception management” system
Other major parts
of the system are
Major media
TV and movies
Propaganda
Conclusion
George Orwell’s book 1984
Conclusion to education and perceptions management
system
Population control
This is why most Americans do not know what the
We have examined “why you do not know what is really
going on in
US after WWII
Elites
in the
1)
2)
1) To perpetuate the military industrial complex
Created and perpetuated by
Elites like this kind of spending
1) It makes them wealthy
Incidents
that led to US involvement in every war since the Mexican War were
rigged or set up by our own government
Mexican War
Spanish American
War
WWI
WWII
1st
Gulf War
War is good for business
Rothschilds
War do not just happen
Examples how international banks,
corporations, and elites make money in war
Conclusion
FDR—
Examples of military spending
Why can’t the government stop this?
2) Another reason that the
elites like military spending is they always have
military muscle on hand to enforce
will
3) Prevents egalitarian
wealth
Cannot justify not using industrial
capacity
Keep industry
going without enriching masses
2) The second far-reaching
goal for the elites was to establish a global economic and
political hegemony
Policy Planning Study 23—top secret intradepartmental document
written in 1948
by George Kennan
“...we have about 50% of the
world’s wealth, but only 6.3% of its
population....In this situation, we
cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our task in the coming
period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain
this position of disparity....To do so, we will have to dispense with all
sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated
everywhere on our immediate national objectives....We should cease to talk
about vague and...unreal objectives such as human
rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization. The day is not
far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less
we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”
Analysis of Policy Planning statement 23:
1) Because we have half of the
world’s wealth but only little of the population,
we are going to be the object
of envy and resentment
2) Real task
3) We have to
deal in straight power concepts
4) Concentrate our attention everywhere on out
immediate national objectives
5) To do so—we have to
Dispense with
Sentimentality
and daydreaming
Cease to talk
about
Vague and unreal objectives
Idealistic
slogans hamper us—slow us down, impede us
What is
sentimentality; day-dreaming; vague and unreal objectives; and
idealistic slogans?
In 1948 US foreign policy objectives set—contrary to what American
people led to believe
Use power to
Objective should not be
hindered by
What were our national objectives?
Elite objectives—not the American people
Grand Area for world
control
Grand Area
Included:
Far East—especially
defeated
Former British empire which
was disintegrating
Rest of
Control much of world
Conclusion
about
What can stop us from
accomplishing our objectives?
1)USSR/Communism
The real threat was
George Kennan
What is
Social equality
Economic equality
The great “threat” of communism—successful example
That it would be successful
example
Spread around to other
countries which would be closed for business
2)
Nationalism
Independent
Democratic
Nationalistic
Nationalism
characterized by things like:
1)
2)
3)
4)
What kind
of Government
Why a
threat to US power elite?
Is
democracy bad for business—maximizing short run profits?
Is
democracy a threat to long range business prosperity and growth?
Why can’t corporations function
based on long termed profits?
Characteristics
of governments good for capitalism and business:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
What kind
of government is being described here?
Why?
This is
the reason that the
democratic governments in the 3rd world
Authoritarian
governments facilitate capital accumulation
Elites
already in control
US also destroys democracies
Kennan
US support LA
governments that use violence to protect our
resources
Only dictatorships have
the power
Kennedy—replace 9 civilian with military governments
Historian Thomas
Carothers, who served in the Reagan administration,
Lars Schoultz—correlation
between aid and torture
Most US aid is military aid
Tied aid
Phantom aid
US gives the kind of aid that helps
FAA created USAID
Frank Coffin
President
Eisenhower
Principle: Foreign aid
is largely________________
Taxpayer
Profits
Schoultz’s
findings confirmed by
Edward Herman
Correlation between aid and
favorable business environment
Relationship between
business, aid, and torture
What adds to or
subtracts from favorable business environment
So countries with high
receive
which
is used
Human rights abuse essential
to exploit
Propaganda
People must be controlled
Michael Parenti
How could the
Justified targeting 3rd world
democratic nationalism by claiming
They could do this because there is a similarity
So how do you tell them apart?
Duck test
Examples:
Peasant cooperatives
Labor Unions
Student Organizations
Political parties
Human rights organizations
Church groups
They are all communists
Lump them all together
US justified in
opposing if Communist
But not if just
want democracy
So they all have
to be communist
1963
Guatemalan Foreign Minister, Guillermo Toriello
All these
aspects of nationalism linked to Russian communism to justify destruction
The truth was hidden from the American
people
Conclusion:
For 50
years pursuing objective of elites
Objective
threatened by
All
labeled communism
Elites
control
Primary
purpose is to make money
Accomplished
by
getting rid of governments and people who interfere
Supporting
governments good for business
Capitalistic
dynamic to make money drives not only
Understand
this and you can understand all
1845 President Polk instigated a war with
1903
US sent the marines to
Haiti 1914-1934
Panama in 1901, 1908,
1912, 1918, 1925;
Guatemala 1920
El Salvador 1932
Stability is a key foreign
policy objective
Protecting
Examples of the extent of
Major General Smedley Butler,
twice awarded the Medal of Honor (1914, 1917),
commanded the marines in the operations to maintain order in
LA
In a speech he made in 1933 he said:
"War is just a
racket...
Good neighbor because
Effect the same
By 1954 dictators ruled in 13 out of 20 LA countries
1980 to Present—Elite Democracy
William I. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy : Globalization, US
Intervention, and Hegemony
Support elites in
LA who protect economic elites interests
Not democracy
How
would the
Created the CIA with power to
Covert operations
By 1953
Function
of the CIA
Ralph McGhee, a 25 year veteran of
the CIA, says in his book Deadly Deceits
that:
The CIA is not intelligence
agency
CIA is a covert action
agency—secret army of President
1) Acts as anti-intelligence
agency
James Bamford
2) secret
army
3) trains
foreign military in counterinsurgency warfare
Psychological
“no touch” torture
Kubark Interrogating
Manual 1962
Human
Resource Exploitation Training Manual 1983
4) propaganda
CIA's propaganda
network extensive
Operation
Mockingbird
Former CIA
director William Colby said
Cooperation
with media
Media—corporate
entity with close ties to CIA
Summary:
No history of supporting
democracy
Michael Parenti
Overthrow
The
Association for Responsible Dissent estimates that by 1987
William
Blum--American Holocaust
Public
propaganda:
Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles
Reality:
“There are no rules in such a
game. Hitherto accepted norms of human
conduct
do not apply....If the
concepts
of fair play must be reconsidered....We must learn to subvert,
sabotage and destroy our enemies by more clever, more
sophisticated,
more
effective methods than those used against us.”
End justifies the means
The
Provided economic aid to LA
To spark economic development
Strategy classic western
liberalism
But in LA did not work
1)
2)
3)
Military training and equipment for LA
military
1) Civic
Action Program
2)
Standardization if military equipment
3)
Counterinsurgency Training
a)
b)
Before
1960 LA military was trained and directed toward
After
1960 the
Origins
of the Death Squads in LA
The 1968 Tet Offensive in
Torture was routinely used in
the interrogation process
A former
military-intelligence officer in
Michael Uhl testified that
Ex-CIA agent John Stockwell
Program was highly successful
Ex-CIA director William Colby
admits
It was not important that many innocent people were killed
Death squads not new for US
Answer to problems facing LA
brought on by Cuban Revolution
US train LA military in
techniques of the program
Guatemalan officers trained
at the G-2 headquarters in the Guatemalan by CIA
Former chief of staff,
General Morales
General
Victores--military dictator from 1983 to 1986
So death squads
Edward Herman
Most of the counterinsurgency training given to LA military was done so
at the
In 1996 it was officially
admitted by the
Recently released training manuals
reveal
SOA has trained
Majority of human rights abusers in
LA were graduates of the School in
Senators Dewine and Voinovich
Assumption:
What is wrong with this
assumption?
Real purpose of the SOA
So has the SOA accomplished its purpose?
Edward Herman
Other Training and Assistance
More than 150 training
centers in the
100,000 each year
1) The Office of Public Safety's
Trained policemen from around
the world to combat communism
2)
3)
Other Agencies that Train or Equip LA Military
International Narcotics
Control (INC)
Funding of equipment, training, eradication and
other programs of the State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement (INL)
International Military Education and Training (IMET)
Funding for courses given
both in the
Expanded IMET
IMET that pays for training in non-combat subjects
Foreign Military Financing (FMF)
Grants and loans for defense articles, training and services
Drawdowns
Presidential authority to grant defense articles, training and services
from the
Foreign Military Sales (FMS)
Government-to-government sales of defense articles, training and services
Direct Commercial Sales (DCS)
Sales from
Leases
Defense articles leased by the
International Criminal Investigations and Training Program
(ICITAP)
Law-enforcement training provided by the Department of Justice
Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA)
Weapons, equipment and training for prevention and management of terrorism
Discretionary Funding
Counter narcotics support from the White House's Office for National Drug
Control Policy
Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities (EIPC)
A policy initiative, using funds from other programs, to improve militaries'
peacekeeping skills
Major
Non-Nato Ally (MNNA) Status
4)
Purpose
according to Condoleeza Rice is to "enhance the functioning of free trade
... and to make
They have already been implicated in 8 political murders and
disappearance of 2 students
15 countries send police to be trained by US personnel
SOA for police
5) Non-military government organizations
National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
Its main function is to undermine countries
that are not friendly to capitalism
Its job is to overthrow democracies, not to
promote them
Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the
legislation establishing NED, told the Washington Post in 1991
USAID
US State Department created in 1961 with the
supposed purpose of providing
Real purpose
6) NGOs Nongovernment Organizations
Freedom House
Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society
Open Society Georgia Foundation
Conclusion about government
and private NGOs
Conclusion
Since WWII, $200 billion, training 2.3
million from 80 countries
Primary purpose of training
Training foreign soldiers pushed after
Result in increase in human rights abuse
In LA this responsible for 80-90% of the
killing
Could not happen without acquiescence and
tax dollars of American people
Eisenhower
US's first major
involvement in LA was to overthrow the democratic government of Jacobo Arbenz
in
Dictatorship of General Jorge Ubico ruled
Rebellion in 1944
Juan José Arévalo was elected
President—85% of vote
Arévalo
Intellectual and educator
Inspired by FDR’s New Deal
Do things characterized as
independent nationalism
Good for democracy—bad for business
Jacobo Arbenz
Elected to the Presidency in 1950
Objectives:
1)“To convert
economy into a economically independent country;
2)to transform our nation from a
backward nation with a predominantly
feudal economy into a modern capitalist country; and
3)to accomplish this
transformation in a manner that brings the greatest
possible elevation of the living standard of the great mass
of people.”
Also,
foreign capital welcome as long as…
Arbenz's intent
Democracy is just as
threatening as communism
Strategy to achieve goals—import-substitution
industrialization
Expand purchasing power of
population
Land reform
United Fruit Company
(US owned corporation growing bananas)
1952 Agrarian Reform
Law
Expropriated
all idle land holdings over
Arbenz
even expropriated
Expropriated
100,000 peasants families received 1.5 million acres
Compensation by
governments bonds
This prompted the US to overthrow the
government of
Guatemala
Begin a reign of terror that would claim 200,000 lives
US denied any
responsibility or involvement
Perhaps
even more important is how the American people were manipulated to
fear
communists in
Bernays’ book Propaganda published in 1929
The decisive issue was the expropriation
of the land of the UFC
Threat of a good example
US State Department Official said
in 1954
Had Arbenz remained in office
His downfall
1)
2)
3)
In
Fidel
Castro
US would
not let these countries progress
As a consequence, the only thing
left was
CIA train 1400 Cuban exiles to
invade
CIA maintained
US aircraft
Kennedy
Invasion a disaster
Results:
Castro's army
Kennedy lied
Cuban exiles blame Kennedy
Kennedy felt deceived by CIA
MkUltra—mind control
Cuban Missile
Crisis Oct 1962
To deter the
Kennedy had three options
1)
2)
3)
Kennedy rejected diplomatic
solution
Turned down the simple
solution
Chose third alternative
Needlessly brought world
close to nuclear war
Khrushchev willing to accept
humiliation
1992 conference reveal how close
the world came to nuclear war
CIA was wrong
Other things that could have
trigger nuclear war
A CIA report said of
Castro explains
Kennedy
tried to get all LA countries to declare that
hemispheric security
It
was Kennedy who said in 1962 that
It
was Kennedy that made the position of the
US
Terrorism Against
3,500 Cubans killed
Attempts to kill Castro:
The Second Coming of Christ
Operation Mongoose—to disrupt Cuban
economy
Robert Kennedy
Objective was to make the Cuban
people suffer
Effect of
From 1959 to 1997
US carried out 5,780 terrorist acts
against
Killed 3,478 and disabled more than 2,000 people
Examples
Orland Bosch and Posada Carriles bombed
Cuban airliner killing 73 people
CIA knew but did nothing to stop
Both are now living freely in the
Hypocrisy of War on Terrorism
Richard Helms, direction of CIA
Body of Secrets by James Bamford
Operation Northwoods—create
pretexts to justify invasion of
US tries
to blame
Shark attacks
US
still classifies
Center for International Policy
What
the American people were told
Kennedy said
In 1964 the
Goulart's crimes:
Detect the pattern of kinds of governments US against
US conspired with military to seize
power
At first denied
Decisive victory for
freedom—making money
The military would institute a 20
year period of repression and torture
The official investigation of
the murder and torture in
the
first officials to introduce [torture] into
19 year old blame
Spend $2 billion to protect $1.6
billion
Plan Lazo
Terrorism against
The
Juan Bosch elected President
When Bosch would not come down hard on the Left
Failed Duck test
Nixon
Transferred from
Demonstrations using beggars
His motto was, "The precise
pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired
effect."
Kidnapped by the Tupamaros
At his funeral White House
spokesman, Ron Ziegler, said,
Most democratic country in LA
Allende, a socialist, threatened
Plot to overthrow began when Donald Kenadall of
Pepsi called President Nixon
Nixon called
CIA cable to US State Department
Ex-CIA chief John McCone
David Rockefeller
Kissinger would say
$10 million allotted to destroy
Chilean economy
Began plotting with military
for a coup of Allende
Nixon and Kissinger made it known that
The coup was carried out by General
Pinoche
Recently declassified secret documents reveal that the CIA may have
given
Pinochet's government the go-ahead to murder two
Charles Horman, 31, and Frank
Teruggi, 24,
One newly declassified memo said,
Retied
Chilean air force officer Rafael Agustin González
Kissinger's had meeting with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on
Torture not
important
The
Kissinger
Guzzetti
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller
Get over our "inordinate fear of
Communism"
Attempted to make human rights the fulcrum
of
In spite of the fact that very little was
actually done to support human rights in
LA—it had a significant impact in
LA
In the end the policy was a failure
Carter an aberration—wait out
Carter not willing to endure
instability
Reagan
Most of killing in LA took place while he was in
office
After he was elected but before he took office, he
sent a transition team to
Speech in 1983 called
Most of the massacres took place in the
1980's during the administration of Rios Montt
Reagan told the
Godfather of the death squads
Sandoval Alarcón
American Catholic missionary Sister Dianna Ortiz
Tortured—American in charge
of torture
SOA graduate
General Hector Gramajo
Gramajo
explained his new humanitarian policy
The
report of the UN Historical Clarification Commission
A million dollar a day for ten years
Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, Kirkpatrick,
Alexander Haig, Chief of Staff, said
The Massacre of Mazote
The Reagan administration did
everything they could to cover it up
No one in congress really wanted to
hear the truth anyway
Rationale
The military of
Killing of 6 Jesuit priests
Ambassador William Walker knew and
could have prevented
The Jesuit journal in El Salvador, the
Proceso,
compared how the
its satellites treated their
dissidents with the way the
Guatemalan journalist Julio Goday wrote that
A U.N. Truth Commission report
US create, trained, and covered up death
battalion
John Negroponte
Sandinistas in
Secretary of State George Shultz
called the Sandinistas a
If the Sandinistas succeed in
consolidating their power, then all the other LA countries will be
emboldened to follow—the threat of a good example
against and the kinds it supports
But us allies in
US allies
According to US foreign policy agenda,
why does this make sense?
Reagan said
Could not use US troops to invade
Morality and common sense of
Americans
Poll reveal 50% Americans would
take to the streets in protest
Power of American people if they
know
The other way was the Contras
Terrorist organized and funded by
the CIA--later called Nicaragua Democratic Force FDN
Made up of ex-National
Guardsmen
Poor Nicaraguans and Honduran made up the fighting
units
Recruit by kidnapping
Reagan would refer to them as the
"democratic resistance" and as "freedom fighters"
National guard
made up most of the unit commanders
CIA hired a
a positive
image for the Contra
Contra
purpose to wear out Nicaraguans
Its target were soft targets
Edgar Chamorro,
Ex-CIA John Stockwell
Former director of the CIA,
Stansfield Turner called the Contras terrorists
US Ambassador in
Number of dead
Total cost for US
1990 elections
US Strategy to demand elections
US
supports the opposition
Finances
opposition
Illegal
in the
Usually successful
Public
announcement that democracy triumphed
Sandinistas consent to
US influence enormous
Money
War and embargo would
continue
Nicaraguan people gave US
what wanted
US has used same tactics over
and over again throughout LA
But strategy worked
People tired or embargo and
war
Sacrifice of people
Hidden horror for American people
The sole criteria for judging
a country is whether it is open and friendly to capitalist investment
US will refer to these governments as
Negative label for governments unfriendly
to capitalism
Invasion of
Operation Just Cause
Drugs
were not the issue
Real issue was that the
government
on
Up to 4000 civilian deaths
House of Rep passed a resolution
commending Bush for his handling of the invasion
Passed 389 to 26
Just 8 months later on
Bush responded by saying that
Did the
Two threats
Guerillas
Drugs
George
W Bush
President Hugo Chávez—won Presidency by
huge majorities
US was involved in an attempt to overthrow
Chávez in May 2002
Why is US trying to get rid of Chávez?
Threat of a good example
Venezuela US’s 3rd
largest oil producer
Coup
on
Carried out by wealthy with
advice and consent of Otto Reich of US State Department
Pedro Carmona took over government
He immediately abolished the Congress, Supreme Court,
etc.—establishing a dictatorship
Every country in LA condemned the coup
as a violation of international law
Only the
Within two days the Coup was reversed by the people
Victory for people
Internet news
Not over yet
Miguel Bustamante Madriz
Next time
In Your Name: A Soldier's
Story by Stan Goff
Like
Myth
vs Reality
Michael Parenti
Myth
Reality
Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt.
Col., USAF wrote to President Bush
Summary
William Blum says it best—American foreign policy is
driven by four motives:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Harvard Professor, Samuel Huntington, wrote in his landmark
book, The
Clash of Civilizations, writes
Richard Cook served as a policy analyst for
the U.S. government from 1970 until 2007
Conclusion to US Involvement
in LA:
US brought about deaths in LA
Information is not in question
Truth painful experience
According to
international law, people still responsible
Daniel Goldhagen's 1996 book Hitler's Willing Executioners:
Ordinary Germans
and the Holocaust
Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson reminds us of
our responsibility in a
representative government
Edward Abbey
The worst
yet to come in the New World Order