The US Brings Democracy to the Mediterranean/2
During the Italian election campaign of 1948 the US extended and refined their menu of dirty tricks. They covertly financed the right-wing Christian Democrats and mounted elaborate media campaigns to discredit the left. American corporations spent millions of dollars to keep the Communists and Socialists out of power. This subversion of democratic elections was justified in the name of “saving democracy” in Italy. Eventually the communists made a modest comeback in Italian politics, thanks only to massive popular support.
The case of Greece was far worse. Beginning in the period 1946-49 the United States joined in the Greek civil war on the side of the neo-fascists against the Greek left, who had been the Americans’ loyal allies and reliable resistance fighters against the Nazis during the World War. The fascists won with American help and went on to become the dreaded “Greek colonels” regime which ruled with an iron fist between 1967 and 1974 until relieved under the pressure of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The fall of the junta was followed by the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic. The script for this grotesque nearly three-decade-long clown show was the familiar one: left-wing patriots liberate their country with US support; then the Americans turn on them and hand the country over to “reliable” fascists. American aversion to collectivist governments and enthusiasm for tutored right-wing dictatorships know no ends.
Asia Does Not Get Off Easy
The direction and ferocity of American intervention in Korea after the Second World War was no surprise. They suppressed Korean progressive elements who had been allies during the war in favor of ultra-conservatives who had collaborated with the Japanese, thus derailing the best possibilities of unifying the country. (They saw the possibilities for strategic US bases in Asia. There are still 30,000 US troops along the 38th parallel.) This suffocating of the left gave rise to a long series of corrupt, reactionary governments and, eventually the American-stimulated Korean War, laden with injustices, war crimes, not to mention American dead and wounded. Korea remains divided today and, not surprisingly, the United States continues to frustrate reunification.
Not to Bore You More, Here’s a Quick List
Blum’s book details many more cases of American interference in other people’s countries by means of propaganda, clandestine financing, bombing, assassinations and outright invasions. Their modus operandi is essentially the same in all cases, with varying degrees of ferocity. I don’t want to bore you, so I’ll just register the list here and let you google them yourself (or, better yet, buy the book):
- Marshall Islands, 1946-58
- Albania, 1949-53
- Eastern Europe, 1948-56
- Germany, 1950s
- Iran, 1953
- Guatemala, 1953-1990s
- Costa Rica, mid-1950s-1971
- Middle East, 1956-58
- Indonesia, 1957-58
- Haiti, 1959
- Western Europe, 1950s-60s
- British Guiana/Guyana, 1953-64
- Iraq, 1958-63 to the present
- Soviet Union, 1940s-1960s
- Vietnam, 1945-73
- Cambodia, 1955-73
- Laos, 1957-73
- Thailand, 1965-73
- Ecuador, 1960-63
- The Congo/Zaire, 1977-78
- France/Algeria, 1960s
- Brazil, 1961-64
- Peru, 1965
- Dominican Republic, 1963-65
- Cuba, 1959 to the present
- Indonesia, 1965
- Ghana, 1966
- Uruguay, 1969-72
- Chile, 1964-73
- South Africa, 1960s-1980s
- Bolivia, 1964-75
- Australia, 1972-75
- Portugal, 1974-76
- East Timor, 1975-99
- Angola, 1975-1980s
- Jamaica, 1976
- Honduras, 1980sç
- Nicaragua, 1978-90
- Philippines, 1970s-1990s
- Seychelles, 1979-81
- South Yemen, 1979-84
- South Korea, 1980
- Chad, 1981-82
- Grenada, 1979-83
- Suriname, 1982-84
- Libya, 1981-89 and afterward
- Fiji, 1987
- Panama, 1989
- Afghanistan, 1979-92 and afterward
- El Salvador, 1980-92
- Haiti, 1987-94
- Bulgaria, 1990-91
- Albania, 1991-92
- Somalia, 1993
- Peru, 1990s-present
- Mexico, 1990s-present
- Colombia, 1990s-present
- Yugoslavia, 1995-99
This is just to cite the most egregious examples… There are more.
How Does a Great Country Justify This Cruel and Unusual Behavior?
In the first place, the US government has never felt that they had to “justify” anything. They are, after all, Americans and, as God made them exceptional, they owe no explanations to anyone. This conviction of American exceptionalism is just as fatuous as “manifest destiny” or delivering democracy with Cruise missiles, but in the United States it passes for gospel.
What might be considered war crimes or crimes against humanity by less illuminated unfortunates, looks like mere business as usual to the top ranks of American democracy. Not only is it legitimate, it’s actually profitable for American corporations. Who could object to that?
Who’s Going to Propose a Remedy?
Recent US governments have been impressed by the fact that theirs is the most powerful country on in the world. That may be true; they are certainly well armed. But they seem to lose sight of three relevant facts:
- The United States is not the only powerful country on earth.
- They were equally well armed in Viet Nam, in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
- They have never had a commander in chief with the unique set of disqualifications embodied by President Donald Trump.
These examples of non-victories and leadership limitations remind us that there’s an element of hubris in American attitudes toward little countries with rich natural resources and/or strategic locations. What comes after hubris? It will be interesting to see how that plays out next time.
Read more rantings in my ebook, The Turncoat Chronicles.
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