Saturday, October 3, 2020

War Pigs

“Washington Bullets – A History of CIA, Coups and Assassinations,” by Vijay Prashad, 2020

This is a short book that details the many instances of bloodshed pursued by the U.S. around the world since 1945 and the development of the CIA, the IMF, the WTO, the U.N. and NATO.  Prashad shows how the long, bloody history of European and U.S. colonialism was a prelude.  It is a great primer that delves into multiple instances of taxpayer-funded murder and repression.  Prashad points out that the ‘cold war’ against the USSR turned into ‘hot wars’ against national liberation movements and socialist / progressive governments backed by the USSR.  After the USSR collapsed, it was directed at any government that the U.S. could not control. 

In nearly every instance the U.S. uses reactionary force – military, economic, religious, political, cultural – to crush popular movements and governments, all in the interest of corporate imperialism.  No international law prohibited violence against colonial subjects until 1977.  All this was done through Bretton Woods, the Marshal Plan, the ‘Washington Consensus,” SAPs and regime change.  Until it collapsed in 1991, the USSR provided a ‘shield’ against the U.S.  The U.S. was aided by locals:  “The factory owner, the baron, the landlord, the mafia and the priest…”  This is the story of one of the greatest hypocrisies on earth – U.S. ‘democratic freedom.’  Its international side is imperialism, which means war and bullets.

I’m going to ‘bullet point’ a list of actions since 1945 from the book.  The list is not exhaustive, nor cover more granular actions:

Year

Country

Involved

Method

Ind. Target

1898

Guam-Samoa

U.S.

Occupation

 

1898

Hawaii

U.S.

Occupation

 

1898

Puerto Rico

U.S.

Occupation

 

1945

Senegal

France

Massacre

 

1945

South Korea

U.S.

Occupation

Kim Il Sung

1946

Greece

U.S.- U.K.

Civil War

 

1946

Italy

U.S.

Election Interference

1946

Palestine

Israel

Occupation

 

1946

Vietnam

France

Occupation

Ho Chi Minh

1947

France

U.S.

Election Interference

1947

France

U.S.

Murders

CP

1947

Japan

U.S.

Election Interference

1948

Columbia

U.S.

Assassination

George Gaitan

1952

Kenya

U.K.

Occupation

Kenyatta

1953

British Guiana

U.K.

Invasion

Jagan

1954

Algeria

France

Occupation

 

1954

Guatemala

U.S.

Coup

Arbenz

1954

Iran

U.S.

Coup

Mosseddegh

1954

Malaysia

?

Occupation

 

1954

Vietnam

U.S.

Occupation

Ho Chi Minh

1956

Egypt

U.K.

War

Nasser

1956

Guinea Bissau-Cape Verde

Portugal

Massacre

 

1960

Guatemala

U.S.

Massacres

 

1961

Congo

U.S.

Assassination

Lumumba

1961

Cuba

U.S.

Invasion

Castro

1962

Dominican Republic

U.S.

Coup

Bosch

1962

Mozambique

Portugal

Civil War

 

1962

South Africa

U.S.

Covert Activities

Mandela

1962

Thailand

U.S.

Invasion

 

1963

Cuba

U.S.

Assassination

Castro

1963

Cuba

U.S.

Sanctions

Castro

1963

Guinea Bissau-Cape Verde

Portugal

Civil War

 

1963

Iraq

U.S.

Coup

Qasim

1963

U.S.

U.S.

Assassinations

 

1964

Brazil

U.S.

Coup

Goulart

1964

Guyana

U.S.

Coup

Jagan

1965

Columbia

U.S.

Assassinations

 

1965

Dominican Republic

U.S.

Invasion

 

1965

Indonesia

U.S.

Massacres

 

1965

Morocco

U.S.

Assassination

Mehdi Ben Barka

1965

Paraquay

U.S.

Assassinations

 

1965

Uruguay

U.S.

Assassinations

 

1966

Angola

U.S.- South Africa

Civil War

 

1966

Ghana

U.S.

Coup

Nkrumah

1966

Southwest Africa (Namibia)

U.S.- South Africa

Civil War

 

1966

Zambia

U.S. - South Africa

Civil War

 

1967

Bolivia

U.S.

Assassination

Che Guevara

1969

Laos

U.S.

Bombing

 

1969

South Yemen

U.S.

Covert Activities

 

1970

Cambodia

U.S.

Bombing

 

1970

Eritrea

U.S.

Covert Activities

 

1971

Bolivia

U.S.

Coup

Torres

1971

Sudan

U.S.

Coup

Mahjub

1972

Mozambique

Portugal

Massacre

 

1973

Chile

U.S.

Coup

Allende

1973

Guinea Bissau-Cape Verde

U.S.

Assassination

Amilcar Cabral

1975

Bangladesh

U.S.

Coup

 

1975

Chad

U.S.

Coup

 

1976

Argentina

U.S.

Assassinations

 

1976

Zaire (Congo)

U.S.

Financial Coup

 

1977

Pakistan

U.S.

Coup

 

1977

Peru

U.S.

Financial Coup

Garcia

1977

South Africa

U.S. - South Africa

Assassination

Steven Biko

1978

Iraq

U.S.

Coup

 

1979

Nicaragua

U.S.

Civil War

 

1979

South Korea

U.S.

Coup

 

1980

Afghanistan

U.S.

Civil War

 

1980

El Salvador

U.S.

Massacres

 

1980

Turkey

U.S.

Coup

 

1982

South Africa

U.S. - South Africa

Assassination

Ruth First

1983

Grenada

U.S.

Invasion

Bishop

1986

Libya

U.S.

Bombing

Gaddafi

1987

Burkina Faso

U.S.- French

Assassination

Sankara

1989

Panama

U.S.

Invasion

Noriega

1990

Iraq

U.S.

Invasion

 

1990

Iraq

U.S.

Sanctions

 

1991

Haiti

U.S.

Coup

Aristide

1993

Somalia

U.S.

Intervention

 

1996

Russia

U.S.

Election Interference

1999

Yugoslavia

U.S.-Germany-U.K.

Bombing

 

2002

Venezuela

U.S.

Attempted Coup

Chavez

2002

Venezuela

U.S.

Sanctions

 

2003

Afghanistan

U.S.

Invasion-Occupation

2003

Iraq

U.S.

Invasion

Hussein

2006

Lebanon

Israel

Invasion

 

2011

Libya

U.S. - NATO

Bombing

Gaddafi

2011

Syria

U.S.- U.K.

Civil War

Assad

2013

Tunisia

U.S.

Assassination

Chokri Belaid

2016

Brazil

U.S.

Coup

Rousseff

2016

Honduras

U.S.

Assassination

Berta Caceres

2016

Honduras

U.S.

Coup

 

2018

Iran

U.S.

More Sanctions

 

2019

Bolivia

U.S.

Coup

Morales

2019

Venezuela

U.S.

Attempted Coup

Maduro

Loose facts:  As part of the imperialist project, a former Nazi was put in charge of West German intelligence.  Saudi Arabia was encouraged to create the Muslim World League; Catholics were encouraged to extirpate liberation theology from the church; fundamentalist Protestants were encouraged to spread throughout Latin America.  Many NGO’s serve as an arm of imperial policy.  They virtually run Haiti now.  ‘Full spectrum dominance’ doesn't just involve 100s of bases and the biggest military and arms industry in the world, it involves support for wars against the Maoists in India; the FARC in Columbia; the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka; the Kurds in Turkey. 

A great introduction to this issue, which paints a picture that no one can miss.

Some prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left: “The Long Revolution of the Global South” (Amin);  “The Open Veins of Latin America” (Galeano); “The Lie of Global Prosperity,” “Value Chains – the New Economic Imperialism,” “The Secret History of the American Empire” (Perkins): “American Exceptionalism and American Innocence,” “The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution” (Prashad); “Tropic of Chaos” (Parenti); “Bad Money” (Phillips); “The Law of Worldwide Value” (Amin); “An Anthology of the Writings of Jose Carlos Mariategui,” “Blood Lake,” “Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire,” etc.

And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog

October 3, 2020

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