Yugoslavia 1999 ----------- Um, there no longer is a Yugoslavia.
Source: William Blum,Killing Hope: U.S. Military
and CIA Interventions Since World War II
...and the CIA World Book
http://members.aol.com/bblum6/American_holocaust.htm
The United States carried out extremely serious interventions
into more than 70 nations in this period.
China, 1945-49:
Intervened in a civil war, taking the side of Chiang Kai-shek against
the Communists, even though the latter had been a much closer ally of
the United States in the world war. The U.S. used defeated Japanese
soldiers to fight for its side. The Communists forced Chiang to flee
to Taiwan in 1949.
Italy, 1947-48:
Using every trick in the book, the U.S. interfered in the elections
to prevent the Communist Party from coming to power legally and fairly.
This perversion of democracy was done in the name of "saving democracy"
in Italy. The Communists lost. For the next few decades, the CIA, along
with American corporations, continued to intervene in Italian elections,
pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars and much psychological warfare
to block the specter that was haunting Europe.
Greece, 1947-49:
Intervened in a civil war, taking the side of the neo-fascists against
the Greek left which had fought the Nazis courageously. The neo-fascists
won and instituted a highly brutal regime, for which the CIA created
a new internal security agency, KYP. Before long, KYP was carrying out
all the endearing practices of secret police everywhere, including systematic
torture.
Philippines, 1945-53:
U.S. military fought against leftist forces (Huks) even while the Huks
were still fighting against the Japanese invaders. After the war, the
U. S. continued its fight against the Huks, defeating them, and then
installing a series of puppets as president, culminating in the dictatorship
of Ferdinand Marcos.
South Korea, 1945-53:
After World War II, the United States suppressed the popular progressive
forces in favor of the conservatives who had collaborated with the Japanese.
This led to a long era of corrupt, reactionary, and brutal governments.
Albania, 1949-53:
The U.S. and Britain tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the communist
government and install a new one that would have been pro-Western and
composed largely of monarchists and collaborators with Italian fascists
and Nazis.
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.
Iran, 1953:
Prime Minister Mossadegh was overthrown in a joint U.S./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 and began a period
of 25 years of repression and torture, with the oil industry being restored
to foreign ownership, as follows: Britain and the U.S., each 40 percent,
other nations 20 percent.
Guatemala, 1953-1990s:
A CIA-organized 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 nationalized the U.S. 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 Russians had
so little interest in the country that it didn't even maintain diplomatic
relations. 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.
Middle East, 1956-58:
The Eisenhower Doctrine stated that the United States "is prepared
to use armed forces to assist" any Middle East country "requesting
assistance against armed aggression from any country controlled by international
communism." The English translation of this was that no one would
be allowed to dominate, or have excessive influence over, the middle
east and its oil fields except the United States, and that anyone who
tried would be, by definition, "Communist." In keeping with
this policy, the United States twice attempted to overthrow the Syrian
government, staged several shows-of-force in the Mediterranean to intimidate
movements opposed to U.S.-supported governments in Jordan and Lebanon,
landed 14,000 troops in Lebanon, and conspired to overthrow or assassinate
Nasser of Egypt and his troublesome middle-east nationalism.
Indonesia, 1957-58:
Sukarno, like Nasser, was the kind of Third World leader the United
States could not abide. He took neutralism in the cold war seriously,
making trips to the Soviet Union and China (though to the White House
as well). He nationalized many private holdings of the Dutch, the former
colonial power. He refused to crack down on the Indonesian Communist
Party, which was walking the legal, peaceful road and making impressive
gains electorally. Such policies could easily give other Third World
leaders "wrong ideas." The CIA began throwing money into the
elections, plotted Sukarno's assassination, tried to blackmail him with
a phony sex film, and joined forces with dissident military officers
to wage a full-scale war against the government. Sukarno survived it
all.
British Guiana/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 U. S. and Britain finally forced
Jagan out in 1964. John F. Kennedy had given a direct order for his
ouster, as, presumably, had Eisenhower.
One of the better-off countries in the region under Jagan, Guyana, by
the 1980s, was one of the poorest. Its principal export became people.
Vietnam, 1950-73:
The slippery slope began with siding with ~ French, the former colonizers
and collaborators with the Japanese, against Ho Chi Minh and his followers
who had worked closely with the Allied war effort and admired all things
American. Ho Chi Minh was, after all, some kind of Communist. He 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. Ho Chi Minh modeled the new Vietnamese declaration of
independence on the American, beginning it with "All men are created
equal. They are endowed by their Creator with ..." But this would
count for nothing in Washington. Ho Chi Minh 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
U.S. lost the war. But by destroying Vietnam to its core, and poisoning
the earth and the gene pool for generations, Washington had 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.
Cambodia, 1955-73:
Prince Sihanouk was yet another leader who did not fancy being an American
client. After many years of hostility towards his regime, including
assassination plots and the infamous Nixon/Kissinger secret "carpet
bombings" of 1969-70, Washington finally overthrew Sihanouk in
a coup in 1970. This was all that was needed to impel Pol Pot and his
Khmer Rouge forces to enter the fray. Five years later, they took power.
But five years of American bombing had caused Cambodia's traditional
economy to vanish. The old Cambodia had been destroyed forever.
Incredibly, the Khmer Rouge were to inflict even greater misery on this
unhappy land. To add to the irony, the United States supported Pol Pot,
militarily and diplomatically, after their subsequent defeat by the
Vietnamese.
The Congo/Zaire, 1960-65:
In June 1960, Patrice Lumumba became the Congo's first prime minister
after independence from Belgium. But Belgium retained its vast mineral
wealth in Katanga province, prominent Eisenhower administration officials
had financial ties to the same wealth, and Lumumba, at Independence
Day ceremonies before a host of foreign dignitaries, called for the
nation's economic as well as its political liberation, and recounted
a list of injustices against the natives by the white owners of the
country. The man was obviously a "Communist." The poor man
was obviously doomed.
Eleven days later, Katanga province seceded, in September, Lumumba was
dismissed by the president at the instigation of the United States,
and in January 1961 he was assassinated at the express request of Dwight
Eisenhower. There followed several years of civil conflict and chaos
and the rise to power of Mobutu Sese Seko, a man not a stranger to the
CIA. Mobutu went on to rule the country for more than 30 years, with
a level of corruption and cruelty that shocked even his CIA handlers.
The Zairian people lived in abject poverty despite the plentiful natural
wealth, while Mobutu became a multibillionaire.
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 nationalized; he promoted economic
and social reforms. And 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 who wore a medal of the Virgin around his neck. That,
however, was not enough to save him. In 1964, he was overthrown in a
military coup which 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 that
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, labor unions were taken over by government interveners,
mounting protests were met by police and military firing into crowds,
peasants' homes were burned down, priests were brutalized...disappearances,
death squads, a remarkable degree and depravity of 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 U.S. supported only military dictatorships. Bosch's government
was to be the long sought " showcase of democracy " that would
put the lie to Fidel Castro. He was given the grand treatment in Washington
shortly before he took office.
Bosch was true to his beliefs. He called for land reform, low-rent housing,
modest nationalization of business, and foreign investment provided
it was not excessively exploitative of the country and other policies
making up the program of any liberal Third World leader serious about
social change. He was likewise serious about civil liberties: Communists,
or those labeled as such, were not to be persecuted unless they actually
violated the law.
A number of American officials and congresspeople expressed their discomfort
with Bosch's plans, as well as his stance of independence from the United
States. Land reform and nationalization are always touchy issues in
Washington, the stuff that "creeping socialism" is made of.
In several quarters of the U.S. 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.
Cuba, 1959 to present:
Fidel Castro came to power at the beginning of 1959. A U.S. National
Security Council meeting of March 10, 1959 included on its agenda the
feasibility of bringing "another government to power in Cuba."
There followed 40 years of terrorist attacks, bombings, full-scale military
invasion, sanctions, embargoes, isolation, assassinations...Cuba had
carried out The Unforgivable Revolution, a very serious threat of setting
a "good example" in Latin America.
The saddest part of this is that the world will never know what kind
of society Cuba could have produced if left alone, if not constantly
under the gun and the threat of invasion, if allowed to relax its control
at home. The idealism, the vision, the talent were all there. But we'll
never know. And that of course was the idea.
Indonesia, 1965:
A complex series of events, involving a supposed coup attempt, a counter-coup,
and perhaps a counter-counter-coup, with American fingerprints apparent
at various points, resulted in the ouster from power of Sukarno and
his replacement by a military coup led by General Suharto. The massacre
that began immediately-of Communists, Communist sympathizers, suspected
Communists, suspected Communist sympathizers, and none of the above-was
called by the New York Times "one of the most savage mass slayings
of modern political history." The estimates of the number killed
in the course of a few years begin at half a million and go above a
million.
It was later learned that the U.S. embassy had compiled lists of "Communist"
operatives, from top echelons down to village cadres, as many as 5,000
names, and turned them over to the army, which then hunted those persons
down and killed them. The Americans would then check off the names of
those who had been killed or captured. "It really was a big help
to the army. They probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have
a lot of blood on my hands," said one U.S. diplomat. "But
that's not all bad. There's a time when you have to strike hard at a
decisive moment. "
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 honored the constitution, and became increasingly
popular. This shook the very foundation stones on 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 terrorizing and brainwashing
the population.
After sabotaging Allende's electoral endeavor in 1964, and failing to
do so in 1970, despite their best efforts, the CIA and the rest of the
American foreign policy machine left no stone unturned in their attempt
to destabilize the Allende government over the next three years, paying
particular attention to building up military hostility. Finally, in
September 1973, the military overthrew the government, Allende dying
in the process.
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 centers opened for business; the subversive
books were thrown into 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 check- books. In
the end, more than 3,000 had been executed, thousands more tortured
or disappeared.
Greece, 1964-74:
The military coup took place in April 1967, just two days before the
campaign for j national elections was to begin, elections which appeared
certain to bring the veteran liberal leader George Papandreou back as
prime minister. Papandreou had been elected in February 1964 with the
only outright majority in the history of modern Greek elections. The
successful machinations to unseat him had begun immediately, a joint
effort of the Royal Court, the Greek military, and the American military
and CIA stationed in Greece. The 1967 coup was followed immediately
by the traditional martial law, censorship, arrests, beatings, torture,
and killings, the victims totaling some 8,000 in the first month. This
was accompanied by the equally traditional declaration that this was
all being done to save the nation from a "Communist takeover."
Corrupting and subversive influences in Greek life were to be removed.
Among these were miniskirts, long hair, and foreign newspapers; church
attendance for the young would be compulsory.
It was torture, however, which most indelibly marked the seven-year
Greek nightmare. James Becket, an American attorney sent to Greece by
Amnesty International, wrote in December 1969 that "a conservative
estimate would place at not less than two thousand" the number
of people tortured, usually in the most gruesome of ways, often with
equipment supplied by the United States.
Becket reported the following: Hundreds of prisoners have listened to
the little speech given by Inspector Basil Lambrou, who sits behind
his desk which displays the red, white, and blue clasped-hand symbol
of American aid. He tries to show the prisoner the absolute futility
of resistance: "You make yourself ridiculous by thinking you can
do anything. The world is divided in two. There are the communists on
that side and on this side the free world. The Russians and the Americans,
no one else. What are we? Americans. Behind me there is the government,
behind the government is NATO, behind NATO is the U.S. You can't fight
us, we are Americans."
George Papandreou was not any kind of radical. He was a liberal anti-Communist
type. But his son Andreas, the heir-apparent, while only a little to
the left of his father had not disguised his wish to take Greece out
of the Cold War, and had questioned remaining in NATO, or at least as
a satellite of the United States.
East Timor, 1975 to present:
In December 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, which lies at the eastern
end of the Indonesian archipelago, and which had proclaimed its independence
after Portugal had relinquished control of it. The invasion was launched
the day after U. S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger had left Indonesia after giving Suharto permission to use
American arms, which, under U.S. Iaw, could not be used for aggression.
Indonesia was Washington's most valuable tool in Southeast Asia.
Amnesty International estimated that by 1989, Indonesian troops, with
the aim of forcibly annexing East Timor, had killed 200,000 people out
of a population of between 600,000 and 700,000. The United States consistently
supported Indonesia's claim to East Timor (unlike the UN and the EU),
and downplayed the slaughter to a remarkable degree, at the same time
supplying Indonesia with all the military hardware and training it needed
to carry out the job.
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 Guard 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 harbors, bombing and strafing. These were Ronald Reagan's
"freedom fighters." There would be no revolution in Nicaragua.
Grenada, 1979-84:
What would drive the most powerful nation in the world to invade a country
of 110,000? Maurice Bishop and his followers had taken power in a 1979
coup, and though their actual policies were not as revolutionary as
Castro's, Washington was again driven by its fear of "another Cuba,"
particularly when public appearances by the Grenadian leaders in other
countries of the region met with great enthusiasm.
U. S. destabilization tactics against the Bishop government began soon
after the coup and continued until 1983, featuring numerous acts of
disinformation and dirty tricks. The American invasion in October 1983
met minimal resistance, although the U.S. suffered 135 killed or wounded;
there were also some 400 Grenadian casualties, and 84 Cubans, mainly
construction workers.
At the end of 1984, a questionable election was held which was won by
a man supported by the Reagan administration. One year later, the human
rights organization, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, reported that Grenada's
new U.S.-trained police force and counter-insurgency forces had acquired
a reputation for brutality, arbitrary arrest, and abuse of authority,
and were eroding civil rights.
In April 1989, the government issued a list of more than 80 books which
were prohibited from being imported. Four months later, the prime minister
suspended parliament to forestall a threatened no-confidence vote resulting
from what his critics called "an increasingly authoritarian style."
Libya, 1981-89:
Libya refused to be a proper Middle East client state of Washington.
Its leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi, was uppity. He would have to be punished.
U.S. planes shot down two Libyan planes in what Libya regarded as its
air space. The U. S . also dropped bombs on the country, killing at
least 40 people, including Qaddafi's daughter. There were other attempts
to assassinate the man, operations to overthrow him, a major disinformation
campaign, economic sanctions, and blaming Libya for being behind the
Pan Am 103 bombing without any good evidence.
Panama, 1989:
Washington's 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 U.S. and the new U.S.-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 reelected 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; depleted uranium weapons incinerating people, causing
cancer; blasting chemical and biological weapon storage and oil facilities;
poisoning the atmosphere to a degree perhaps never matched anywhere;
burying soldiers 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 among the Arab states. This may
have been their crime. Noam Chomsky has written: "It's been a leading,
driving doctrine of U.S. 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. "
Afghanistan, 1979-92:
Everyone knows of the unbelievable repression of women in Afghanistan,
carried out by Islamic fundamentalists, even before the Taliban. But
how many people know that during the late 1970s and most of the 1980s,
Afghanistan had a government committed to bringing the incredibly backward
nation into the 20th century, including giving women equal rights? What
happened, however, is that the United States poured billions of dollars
into waging a terrible war against this government, simply because it
was supported by the Soviet Union. Prior to this, CIA operations had
knowingly increased the probability of a Soviet intervention, which
is what occurred. In the end, the United States won, and the women,
and the rest of Afghanistan, lost. More than a million dead, three million
disabled, five million refugees, in total about half the population.
El Salvador, 1980-92:
El Salvador's dissidents tried to work within the system. But with U.S.
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 U.S. 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 U.S. role in the ground fighting as well. The war came to an official
end in 1992; 75,000 civilian deaths and the U.S. Treasury depleted by
six billion dollars. 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 U.S. 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 is bombing the country back to a pre-industrial era.
It would like the world to believe that its intervention is motivated
only by "humanitarian" impulses. Perhaps the above history
of U.S. interventions can help one decide how much weight to place on
this claim.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html