ROGUE STATE: A GUIDE TO THE WORLD'S ONLY SUPERPOWER
"Bill Blum came by his title easily. He simply tested America by the same stan-dards we use to judge other countries. The result is a bill of wrongs-an especially well-documented encyclopedia of malfeasance, mendacity, and mayhem that has been hypocritically carried out in the name of democracy by those whose only true love was power."
--Sam Smith, Editor, The Progressive Review
"Whatever we think we know about US foreign policy, Rogue State makes it clear that we don't know nearly enough. This book's grisly content may seem to require a strong stomach, but reading its words is nothing compared to what has been done--and keeps being done--with our tax dollars and in our names. Whether we read Rogue State as a historical narrative or use it as a reference book, William Blum has put together a horrifying and infuriating piece of work. The footnoted information between these covers is enough to make any awake reader want to scream with rage. This is a truly subversive book because it demolishes the foundations of basic illusions about the United States of America as a world power."
--Norman Solomon, author and winner of the George Orwell Award
In Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, William Blum supplies facts about
· Why terrorists keep picking on the United States
· The numerous foreign leaders whose assassinations were plotted by the US
· How the US supported Pol Pot but helped incarcerate Nelson Mandela
·The US government's extensive connection to torture
· How the US has been a haven for foreign terrorists and human rights violators
· The War Crimes Tribunal that will never be: how the US squelched the charges of war crimes against its own and NATO's leaders in 1999
· How the US has perverted dozens of foreign elections-and much, much more.
SOME EXAMPLES
·Korea, 1945-53: After World War II, the United States suppressed popular progressive organizations, who had been allies in the war--at times with brutal force--in favor of the conservatives who had collaborated with the Japanese. As a result, the best opportunities to unify North and South were derailed. This led to a long era of corrupt, reactionary, and ruthless governments in the South and the huge, war-crime-filled American military intervention of 1950-53 in the "Korean War," which was far from the simple affair of North Korea invading South Korea on a particular day, which the world has been led to believe. In 1999, we learned that shortly after the war began, American soldiers machine-gunned hundreds of helpless civilians; among many other such incidents, hundreds were killed when the US purposely blew up bridges they were crossing.
·Marshall Islands, 1946-58: Driven by perceived Cold War exigencies, the United States conducted dozens of ICBM, nuclear bomb, and other nuclear tests on this trust territory in the Pacific, after forcing the residents of certain islands, notably Bikini Atoll, to relocate to other, uninhabited islands. In 1968, the former residents of Bikini were told by the Johnson administration that their island had been cleaned and was safe for habitation. Many went back, only to be told later that they had been subjected to massive doses of radiation and would have to leave again. In 1983, the US Interior Department declared that the islanders could return to their homes immediately--provided they ate no homegrown food until the late 21st century. They have never returned.
·France, 1947: Communist Party members had fought in the wartime resistance, unlike many other French who had collaborated with the Germans. After the war the Communists followed the legal path to form strong labor unions and vie for political office. But the United States was determined to deny them their place at the table, particularly since some unions were taking steps to impede the flow of arms to French forces seeking to reconquer their former colony of Vietnam with US aid. The US funneled very large amounts of money to the Socialist Party, the Communists' chief rival; sent in American Federation of Labor (AFL) experts to subvert the CP's union dominance and import scabs from Italy; supplied arms and money to Corsican gangs to break up Communist strikes, burn down party offices, and beat up and murder party members and strikers; sent in a psychological warfare team to complement all of these actions and used the threat of a cutoff of food aid and other aid--all to seriously undermine Communist Party support and prestige. It worked. A portion of the financing for these covert operations came from the funds of the Marshall Plan, which also helped finance the corruption of the Italian elections of 1948 (see below), and set up a special covert operations agency which later melded into the CIA. These are a few of the hidden sides of the Marshall Plan, which has long been held up to the world as a shining example of America's unselfish benevolence. At the same time, Washington was forcing the French government to dismiss its Communist ministers in order to receive American economic aid. "A little of our independence is departing from us with each loan we obtain."-Premier Paul Ramadier
·Italy, 1947-1970s: In 1947, the US forced the Italian government to dismiss its Communist and Socialist cabinet members in order to receive American economic aid. The following year and for decades thereafter, each time a combined front of the Communists and Socialists, or the Communists alone, threatened to defeat the US-supported Christian Democrats in national elections, the CIA used every (dirty) trick in the book and trained its big economic, political, and psychological-warfare guns on the Italian people, while covertly funding the CD candidates. And it worked. Again and again. This perversion of democracy was done in the name of "saving democracy" in Italy. American corporations also contributed many millions of dollars to help keep the left from a share of power.
·Greece, 1947-49: The United States intervened in a civil war, taking the side of the neo-fascists against the Greek left, who had fought the Nazis courageously. The neo-fascists won and instituted a highly brutal regime, for which the CIA created a suitably repressive internal security agency. For the next 15 years, Greece was looked upon much as a piece of real estate to be developed according to Washington's needs.
·Philippines, 1945-53: The US military fought against the leftist Huk forces even while the Huks were still fighting against the Japanese invaders in the world war. After the war, the US organized Philippine armed forces to continue the fight against the Huks, finally defeating them and their reform movement. The CIA interfered grossly in elections, installing a series of puppets as president, culminating in the long dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, for whom torture was la specialite de la maison (see Elections chapter).
·Iran, 1953: Prime Minister Mossadegh was overthrown in a joint US-British operation. Mossadegh had been elected to his position by a large majority of parliament, but he had made the fateful mistake of spearheading the movement to nationalize a British-owned oil company, the sole oil company operating in Iran. The coup restored the Shah to absolute power, initiating a period of 25 years of repression and torture, while the oil industry was restored to foreign ownership, with the US and Britain each getting 40 percent.
·Germany, 1950s: The CIA orchestrated a wide-ranging campaign of sabotage, terrorism, dirty tricks, and psychological warfare against East Germany. This was one of the factors which led to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The United States also created a secret civilian army in Germany, which drew up a list of 200 leading Social Democrats, 15 Communists, and various others who were to be "put out of the way" if the Soviet Union invaded. This secret army had its counterparts all over Western Europe as part of "Operation Gladio," developed by the CIA and other intelligence services, and not answerable for its actions under the laws of any state. After NATO was formed, Gladio came under its discreet aegis. "Gladiators" were responsible for numerous acts of terrorism in Europe, foremost of which was the bombing of the Bologna railway station in 1980, claiming 86 lives. The purpose of the terrorism was to place the blame for these atrocities on the left and thus heighten public concern about a Soviet invasion and at the same time discredit leftist electoral candidates. NATO feared that if the left came to power in the government of any of its members, they might pass legislation that would be a threat to the NATO installations or operations in that country.
·Guatemala, 1953-1990s: Humorist Dave Barry boils the Monroe Doctrine down to three simple precepts: (1) Other nations are not allowed to mess around with the internal affairs of nations in this hemisphere. (2) But we are. (3) Ha ha ha. A CIA-organized coup overthrew the democratically-elected and progressive government of Jacobo Arbenz, initiating 40 years of military-government death squads, torture, disappearances, mass executions and unimaginable cruelty, totaling more than 200,000 victims-indisputably one of the most inhumane chapters of the 20th century. The justification for the coup that has been put forth over the years is that Guatemala had been on the verge of the proverbial Soviet takeover. In actuality, the Russians had so little interest in the country that it didn't even maintain diplomatic relations. The real problem was that Arbenz had taken over some of the uncultivated land of the US firm, United Fruit Company, which had extremely close ties to the American power elite. Moreover, in the eyes of Washington, there was the danger of Guatemala's social-democracy model spreading to other countries in Latin America. Despite a 1996 "peace" accord between the government and rebels, respect for human rights remains as only a concept in Guatemala; death squads continue to operate with a significant measure of impunity against union activists and other dissidents; torture still rears its ugly head; the lower classes are as wretched as ever; the military endures as a formidable institution; the US continues to arm and train the Guatemalan military and carry out exercises with it; and key provisions of the peace accord concerning military reform have not been carried out.
--ROGUE STATE, ISBN 1-56751-194-5, 320 pages. Order direct for discount at $12.71, Common Courage Press, Phone: (207)525-0900 or 1-800-497-3207; Fax: (207) 525-3068, M-F 9am-5pm EST; or <orders-info@commoncouragepress.com>
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