The U S A Has Become One Big Reservation

[Brave New World]

Could not agree more. I lived there for half my life and may go back after my present tour of duty in the UK is over. The anti-US sentiment that comes from those without a broad based knowledge of history tend to see the US as the oppressors and the totalitarian regimes such as the Soviets, Islamofascists, China, Venezuala as true freedomfighters looking out only for our good if only we would allow them to take over.

The problem is one of ignorance of history. If you have no knowledge of the past you cannot learn from it and the revisionists win the day. 1984 was a great novel because it understood this.

Ha ha - i would lodge the US as the aggressors there and elsewhere - ask most south americans (not the ones involved in oil) what they think of the States......the same US that has the rather dodgy record in the 20th century of having invaded and tried to overthrow the most soveriegn nations.

Their record in South America:

1916

Marines occupy the Dominican Republic, staying till 1924.

1916

Pancho Villa, in the sole act of Latin American aggression against the U.S, raids the city of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17 Americans.

"Am sure Villa's attacks are made in Germany." --James Gerard, U.S. ambassador to Berlin

1917

U.S. troops enter Mexico to pursue Pancho Villa. They can't catch him.

1917

Marines intervene again in Cuba, to guarantee sugar exports during WWI.

1918

U.S. Marines occupy Panamanian province of Chiriqui for two years to maintain public order.

1921

President Coolidge strongly suggests the overthrow of Guatemalan President Carlos Herrera, in the interests of United Fruit. The Guatemalans comply.

1925

U.S. Army troops occupy Panama City to break a rent strike and keep order.

1926

Marines, out of Nicaragua for less than a year, occupy the country again, to settle a volatile political situation. Secretary of State Kellogg describes a "Nicaraguan-Mexican-Soviet" conspiracy to inspire a "Mexican-Bolshevist hegemony" within striking distance of the Canal.

"That intervention is not now, never was, and never will be a set policy of the United States is one of the most important facts President-elect Hoover has made clear." --NYT, 1928

1929

U.S. establishes a military academy in Nicaragua to train a National Guard as the country's army. Similar forces are trained in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

"There is no room for any outside influence other than ours in this region. We could not tolerate such a thing without incurring grave risks... Until now Central America has always understood that governments which we recognize and support stay in power, while those which we do not recognize and support fall. Nicaragua has become a test case. It is difficult to see how we can afford to be defeated." --Undersecretary of State Robert Olds

1930

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo emerges from the U.S.-trained National Guard to become dictator of the Dominican Republic.

1932

The U.S. rushes warships to El Salvador in response to a communist-led uprising. President Martínez, however, prefers to put down the rebellion with his own forces, killing over 8000 people (the rebels had killed about 100).

! 1933

President Roosevelt announces the Good Neighbor policy.

1933

Marines finally leave Nicaragua, unable to suppress the guerrilla warfare of General Augusto César Sandino. Anastasio Somoza García becomes the first Nicaraguan commander of the National Guard.

"The Nicaraguans are better fighters than the Haitians, being of Indian blood, and as warriors similar to the aborigines who resisted the advance of civilization in this country." --NYT correspondent Harold Denny

1933

Roosevelt sends warships to Cuba to intimidate Gerardo Machado y Morales, who is massacring the people to put down nationwide strikes and riots. Machado resigns. The first provisional government lasts only 17 days; the second Roosevelt finds too left-wing and refuses to recognize. A pro-Machado counter-coup is put down by Fulgencio Batista, who with Roosevelt's blessing becomes Cuba's new strongman.

! 1934

Platt Amendment repealed.

1934

Sandino assassinated by agents of Somoza, with U.S. approval. Somoza assumes the presidency of Nicaragua two years later. To block his ascent, Secretary of State Cordell Hull explains, would be to intervene in the internal affairs of Nicaragua.

! 1936

U.S. relinquishes rights to unilateral intervention in Panama.

1941

Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia deposes Panamanian president Arias in a military coup-- first clearing it with the U.S. Ambassador.

It was "a great relief to us, because Arias had been very troublesome and very pro-Nazi." --Secretary of War Henry Stimson

1943

The editor of the Honduran opposition paper El Cronista is summoned to the U.S. embassy and told that criticism of the dictator Tiburcio Carías Andino is damaging to the war effort. Shortly afterward, the paper is shut down by the government.

1944

The dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez of El Salvador is ousted by a revolution; the interim government is overthrown five months later by the dictator's former chief of police. The U.S.'s immediate recognition of the new dictator does much to tarnish Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy in the eyes of Latin Americans.

1946

U.S. Army School of the Americas opens in Panama as a hemisphere-wide military academy. Its linchpin is the doctrine of National Security, by which the chief threat to a nation is internal subversion; this will be the guiding principle behind dictatorships in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Central America, and elsewhere.

1948

José Figueres Ferrer wins a short civil war to become President of Costa Rica. Figueres is supported by the U.S., which has informed San José that its forces in the Panama Canal are ready to come to the capital to end "communist control" of Costa Rica.

1954

Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, elected president of Guatemala, introduces land reform and seizes some idle lands of United Fruit-- proposing to pay for them the value United Fruit claimed on its tax returns. The CIA organizes a small force to overthrow him and begins training it in Honduras. When Arbenz naively asks for U.S. military help to meet this threat, he is refused; when he buys arms from Czechoslovakia it only proves he's a Red.

Guatemala is "openly and diligently toiling to create a Communist state in Central America... only two hours' bombing time from the Panama Canal." --Life

The CIA broadcasts reports detailing the imaginary advance of the "rebel army," and provides planes to strafe the capital. The army refuses to defend Arbenz, who resigns. The U.S.'s hand-picked dictator, Carlos Castillo Armas, outlaws political parties, reduces the franchise, and establishes the death penalty for strikers, as well as undoing Arbenz's land reform. Over 100,000 citizens are killed in the next 30 years of military rule.

"This is the first instance in history where a Communist government has been replaced by a free one." --Richard Nixon

1957

Eisenhower establishes Office of Public Safety to train Latin American police forces.

! 1959

Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba. Several months earlier he had undertaken a triumphal tour through the U.S., which included a CIA briefing on the Red menace.

"Castro's continued tawdry little melodrama of invasion." --Time, of Castro's warnings of an imminent U.S. invasion

1960

Eisenhower authorizes covert actions to get rid of Castro. Among other things, the CIA tries assassinating him with exploding cigars and poisoned milkshakes. Other covert actions against Cuba include burning sugar fields, blowing up boats in Cuban harbors, and sabotaging industrial equipment.

1960

The Canal Zone becomes the focus of U.S. counterinsurgency training.

1960

A new junta in El Salvador promises free elections; Eisenhower, fearing leftist tendencies, withholds recognition. A more attractive right-wing counter-coup comes along in three months.

"Governments of the civil-military type of El Salvador are the most effective in containing communist penetration in Latin America." --John F. Kennedy, after the coup

1960

Guatemalan officers attempt to overthrow the regime of Presidente Fuentes; Eisenhower stations warships and 2000 Marines offshore while Fuentes puts down the revolt. [Another source says that the U.S. provided air support for Fuentes.]

1960s

U.S. Green Berets train Guatemalan army in counterinsurgency techniques. Guatemalan efforts against its insurgents include aerial bombing, scorched-earth assaults on towns suspected of aiding the rebels, and death squads, which killed 20,000 people between 1966 and 1976. U.S. Army Col. John Webber claims that it was at his instigation that "the technique of counter-terror had been implemented by the army."

"If it is necessary to turn the country into a cemetary in order to pacify it, I will not hesitate to do so." --President Carlos Arana Osorio

1961

U.S. organizes force of 1400 anti-Castro Cubans, ships it to the Bahía de los Cochinos. Castro's army routs it.

1961

CIA-backed coup overthrows elected Pres. J. M. Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador, who has been too friendly with Cuba.

1962

CIA engages in campaign in Brazil to keep João Goulart from achieving control of Congress.

1963

CIA-backed coup overthrows elected social democrat Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic.

1963

A far-right-wing coup in Guatemala, apparently U.S.-supported, forestalls elections in which "extreme leftist" Juan José Arévalo was favored to win.

"It is difficult to develop stable and democratic government [in Guatemala], because so many of the nation's Indians are illiterate and superstitious." --School textbook, 1964

1964

João Goulart of Brazil proposes agrarian reform, nationalization of oil. Ousted by U.S.-supported military coup.

! 1964

The free market in Nicaragua:

The Somoza family controls "about one-tenth of the cultivable land in Nicaragua, and just about everything else worth owning, the country's only airline, one television station, a newspaper, a cement plant, textile mill, several sugar refineries, half-a-dozen breweries and distilleries, and a Mercedes-Benz agency." --Life World Library

1965

A coup in the Dominican Republic attempts to restore Bosch's government. The U.S. invades and occupies the country to stop this "Communist rebellion," with the help of the dictators of Brazil, Paraguay, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

"Representative democracy cannot work in a country such as the Dominican Republic," Bosch declares later. Now why would he say that?

1966

U.S. sends arms, advisors, and Green Berets to Guatemala to implement a counterinsurgency campaign.

"To eliminate a few hundred guerrillas, the government killed perhaps 10,000 Guatemalan peasants." --State Dept. report on the program

1967

A team of Green Berets is sent to Bolivia to help find and assassinate Che Guevara.

1968

Gen. José Alberto Medrano, who is on the payroll of the CIA, organizes the ORDEN paramilitary force, considered the precursor of El Salvador's death squads.

! 1970

In this year (just as an example), U.S. investments in Latin America earn $1.3 billion; while new investments total $302 million.

1970

Salvador Allende Gossens elected in Chile. Suspends foreign loans, nationalizes foreign companies. For the phone system, pays ITT the company's minimized valuation for tax purposes. The CIA provides covert financial support for Allende's opponents, both during and after his election.

1972

U.S. stands by as military suspends an election in El Salvador in which centrist José Napoleón Duarte was favored to win. (Compare with the emphasis placed on the 1982 elections.)

1973

U.S.-supported military coup kills Allende and brings Augusto Pinochet Ugarte to power. Pinochet imprisons well over a hundred thousand Chileans (torture and rape are the usual methods of interrogation), terminates civil liberties, abolishes unions, extends the work week to 48 hours, and reverses Allende's land reforms.

1973

Military takes power in Uruguay, supported by U.S. The subsequent repression reportedly features the world's highest percentage of the population imprisoned for political reasons.

1974

Office of Public Safety is abolished when it is revealed that police are being taught torture techniques.

! 1976

Election of Jimmy Carter leads to a new emphasis on human rights in Central America. Carter cuts off aid to the Guatemalan military (or tries to; some slips through) and reduces aid to El Salvador.

! 1979

Ratification of the Panama Canal treaty which is to return the Canal to Panama by 1999.

"Once again, Uncle Sam put his tail between his legs and crept away rather than face trouble." --Ronald Reagan

1980

A right-wing junta takes over in El Salvador. U.S. begins massively supporting El Salvador, assisting the military in its fight against FMLN guerrillas. Death squads proliferate; Archbishop Romero is assassinated by right-wing terrorists; 35,000 civilians are killed in 1978-81. The rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen results in the suspension of U.S. military aid for one month.

The U.S. demands that the junta undertake land reform. Within 3 years, however, the reform program is halted by the oligarchy.

"The Soviet Union underlies all the unrest that is going on." --Ronald Reagan

1980

U.S., seeking a stable base for its actions in El Salvador and Nicaragua, tells the Honduran military to clean up its act and hold elections. The U.S. starts pouring in $100 million of aid a year and basing the contras on Honduran territory.

Death squads are also active in Honduras, and the contras tend to act as a state within a state.

1981

The CIA steps in to organize the contras in Nicaragua, who started the previous year as a group of 60 ex-National Guardsmen; by 1985 there are about 12,000 of them. 46 of the 48 top military leaders are ex-Guardsmen. The U.S. also sets up an economic embargo of Nicaragua and pressures the IMF and the World Bank to limit or halt loans to Nicaragua.

1981

Gen. Torrijos of Panama is killed in a plane crash. There is a suspicion of CIA involvement, due to Torrijos' nationalism and friendly relations with Cuba.

1982

A coup brings Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt to power in Guatemala, and gives the Reagan administration the opportunity to increase military aid. Ríos Montt's evangelical beliefs do not prevent him from accelerating the counterinsurgency campaign.

1983

Another coup in Guatemala replaces Ríos Montt. The new President, Oscar Mejía Víctores, was trained by the U.S. and seems to have cleared his coup beforehand with U.S. authorities.

1983

U.S. troops take over tiny Granada. Rather oddly, it intervenes shortly after a coup has overthrown the previous, socialist leader. One of the justifications for the action is the building of a new airport with Cuban help, which Granada claimed was for tourism and Reagan argued was for Soviet use. Later the U.S. announces plans to finish the airport... to develop tourism.

1983

Boland Amendment prohibits CIA and Defense Dept. from spending money to overthrow the government of Nicaragua-- a law the Reagan administration cheerfully violates.

1984

CIA mines three Nicaraguan harbors. Nicaragua takes this action to the World Court, which brings an $18 billion judgment against the U.S. The U.S. refuses to recognize the Court's jurisdiction in the case.

1984

U.S. spends $10 million to orchestrate elections in El Salvador-- something of a farce, since left-wing parties are under heavy repression, and the military has already declared that it will not answer to the elected president.

1989

U.S. invades Panama to dislodge CIA boy gone wrong Manuel Noriega, an event which marks the evolution of the U.S.'s favorite excuse from Communism to drugs.

1996

The U.S. battles global Communism by extending most-favored-nation trading status for China, and tightening the trade embargo on Castro's Cuba.

Edited January 21, 2011 by Brave New World

[Realistbear]

I had noticed that you believe all kinds of crap, but fairy stories as well?

So you believe Christ was a fairy story? Some used to belive Trpy was a fairy tale too and that Julius Ceaser was a myth invented by early Catholics to sow their authority derived from ancient sources etc. How do you know any historical figure existed?

Even the Roman historians* acknowledge him and no one but a bigotted totalitarian would disgaree with anything he taught: love your enemy, forgive, feed the poor, clothe the naked, help your neighbour, serve others, do not steal......

_________________________

* Why did first century Roman historians think that Jesus existed and was crucified by Pontius Pilate?

The Roman historian Tacitus, in his Annals (ca. A.D. 115), referred to “Christus,” who “was executed at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius” (XV.44).

There are allusions to Christ in Roman times (see Bettenson 1961, 3-7). Pliny, governor of Bithynia, wrote the Roman emperor Trajan (ca. A.D. 112), asking for advice about how he should deal with Christians who made it a practice to meet on an appointed day to sing a hymn “to Christ as if to God” (Epistle of Pliny to Trajan X.96).

Writing about A.D. 120, Suetonius, a popular Roman writer, declared that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because they “were continually making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus” (Vita Claudii XXV.4). “Chrestus” is a corrupted form of Christos (Christ). Luke alluded to this situation in Acts 18:2.

Do you think these Roman historians were so sloppy as to not even check their own records when writing about Jesus?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Christ

[Bloo Loo]

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson

He always did ramble on a bit, that old Jeffers....

[Scott Sando]

So you believe Christ was a fairy story? Some used to belive Trpy was a fairy tale too and that Julius Ceaser was a myth invented by early Catholics to sow their authority derived from ancient sources etc. How do you know any historical figure existed?

Even the Roman historians* acknowledge him and no one but a bigotted totalitarian would disgaree with anything he taught: love your enemy, forgive, feed the poor, clothe the naked, help your neighbour, serve others, do not steal......

_________________________

* Why did first century Roman historians think that Jesus existed and was crucified by Pontius Pilate?

The Roman historian Tacitus, in his Annals (ca. A.D. 115), referred to “Christus,” who “was executed at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius” (XV.44).

There are allusions to Christ in Roman times (see Bettenson 1961, 3-7). Pliny, governor of Bithynia, wrote the Roman emperor Trajan (ca. A.D. 112), asking for advice about how he should deal with Christians who made it a practice to meet on an appointed day to sing a hymn “to Christ as if to God” (Epistle of Pliny to Trajan X.96).

Writing about A.D. 120, Suetonius, a popular Roman writer, declared that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because they “were continually making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus” (Vita Claudii XXV.4). “Chrestus” is a corrupted form of Christos (Christ). Luke alluded to this situation in Acts 18:2.

Do you think these Roman historians were so sloppy as to not even check their own records when writing about Jesus?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Christ

Christos means anointed one its not a individual but a title, there has been many christos, Mithra, horus, sol inviticus, adonis, bacchus, Dionysus, krishna, to name a few.

At its real root it means OIL, LARD, LORD.

[pepactonius]

+1

Exactly. Do they think a world run by the Russian mob or the Chinese commies would be preferable? God help us if the Arabs took over. Not that that is going to happen. I think the US will be just fine, it is Europe that I am concerned about - I think we will go the way of South America. If the Americans opened their borders to British immigration, I'd be gone in a heartbeat.

I thought the US was already a blend of Europe and Latin America, especially the West and Southwest. Some people here predict that the goings-on in Juarez will eventually spread to many cities in the US. Others look to the recent Argentine economy when trying to predict the financial future of the US.

If you want more proof, just go down to Home depot or Lowe's and look at the signs in the aisles.

[leicestersq]

"Indians" have very special privileges in the US. Top of the tree is positive discrimination. Tax free gambling rights. Don't forget the "Indians" (Northern Chinese and Mongolians) stole the lands in North America from the SA Mayans who were driven back accross the border into South America. The only "natives" in that part of the world are bears and squirrels etc.

The other great Empires are the Chinese, Russian and, possibly a 4th Reich if things go bad in Europe. I am certain you would not want to live under any of these totalitarian regimes.

Don't forget that your Norman Ancestors are directy responsible for the slaughter opf 25% of the native tribes of Saxons in the 11th and 12th Centures and how your great great granfather was in India passifying the Hindus. And on and on and on back to the dawn of civilisation.

Get real--this is a tough world and no one is lookng out for your freedom or rights.

Are those the same squirrels that came over here and took over here and confined the Red to Brownsea Island?

[Xurbia]

Land of the free, unless your a native or don't agree with what your been told.

The sooner the better this empire falls.

On balance America hasn't done a bad job. I'd rather live here than China. If China had America's power at the end of WW2 do you really think the world would have been so peaceful? Britain isn't so good either. It has so many security cameras that it's like one big open prison.

[PrivateerMk2]

Actually Christ came because we were all abusing the world. Watch the recentish film "Kingdom of Heaven" which seems to be about the Crusades but isn't. The point of the film is subtle and all to do with the common need fo all mankind--hence the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ is hated because he was a peacemaker and fascists hate peacemakers.

Are you sure it isn't because he's a fictionalised character used in rather unsophisticated attempts at mind control by a bunch of power-hungry child-rapists?

[gravity always wins]

Writing about A.D. 120, (ca. A.D. 115),(ca. A.D. 112).

Just look at the dates!

Its all made up propaganda over 100 years after the event.

Historic PR by the Romans it's all bollo*x.

[Realistbear]

Ha ha - i would lodge the US as the aggressors there and elsewhere - ask most south americans (not the ones involved in oil) what they think of the States......the same US that has the rather dodgy record in the 20th century of having invaded and tried to overthrow the most soveriegn nations.

Their record in South America:

1916

Marines occupy the Dominican Republic, staying till 1924.

1916

Pancho Villa, in the sole act of Latin American aggression against the U.S, raids the city of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 17 Americans.

"Am sure Villa's attacks are made in Germany." --James Gerard, U.S. ambassador to Berlin

1917

U.S. troops enter Mexico to pursue Pancho Villa. They can't catch him.

1917

Marines intervene again in Cuba, to guarantee sugar exports during WWI.

1918

U.S. Marines occupy Panamanian province of Chiriqui for two years to maintain public order.

1921

President Coolidge strongly suggests the overthrow of Guatemalan President Carlos Herrera, in the interests of United Fruit. The Guatemalans comply.

1925

U.S. Army troops occupy Panama City to break a rent strike and keep order.

1926

Marines, out of Nicaragua for less than a year, occupy the country again, to settle a volatile political situation. Secretary of State Kellogg describes a "Nicaraguan-Mexican-Soviet" conspiracy to inspire a "Mexican-Bolshevist hegemony" within striking distance of the Canal.

"That intervention is not now, never was, and never will be a set policy of the United States is one of the most important facts President-elect Hoover has made clear." --NYT, 1928

1929

U.S. establishes a military academy in Nicaragua to train a National Guard as the country's army. Similar forces are trained in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

"There is no room for any outside influence other than ours in this region. We could not tolerate such a thing without incurring grave risks... Until now Central America has always understood that governments which we recognize and support stay in power, while those which we do not recognize and support fall. Nicaragua has become a test case. It is difficult to see how we can afford to be defeated." --Undersecretary of State Robert Olds

1930

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo emerges from the U.S.-trained National Guard to become dictator of the Dominican Republic.

1932

The U.S. rushes warships to El Salvador in response to a communist-led uprising. President Martínez, however, prefers to put down the rebellion with his own forces, killing over 8000 people (the rebels had killed about 100).

! 1933

President Roosevelt announces the Good Neighbor policy.

1933

Marines finally leave Nicaragua, unable to suppress the guerrilla warfare of General Augusto César Sandino. Anastasio Somoza García becomes the first Nicaraguan commander of the National Guard.

"The Nicaraguans are better fighters than the Haitians, being of Indian blood, and as warriors similar to the aborigines who resisted the advance of civilization in this country." --NYT correspondent Harold Denny

1933

Roosevelt sends warships to Cuba to intimidate Gerardo Machado y Morales, who is massacring the people to put down nationwide strikes and riots. Machado resigns. The first provisional government lasts only 17 days; the second Roosevelt finds too left-wing and refuses to recognize. A pro-Machado counter-coup is put down by Fulgencio Batista, who with Roosevelt's blessing becomes Cuba's new strongman.

! 1934

Platt Amendment repealed.

1934

Sandino assassinated by agents of Somoza, with U.S. approval. Somoza assumes the presidency of Nicaragua two years later. To block his ascent, Secretary of State Cordell Hull explains, would be to intervene in the internal affairs of Nicaragua.

! 1936

U.S. relinquishes rights to unilateral intervention in Panama.

1941

Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia deposes Panamanian president Arias in a military coup-- first clearing it with the U.S. Ambassador.

It was "a great relief to us, because Arias had been very troublesome and very pro-Nazi." --Secretary of War Henry Stimson

1943

The editor of the Honduran opposition paper El Cronista is summoned to the U.S. embassy and told that criticism of the dictator Tiburcio Carías Andino is damaging to the war effort. Shortly afterward, the paper is shut down by the government.

1944

The dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez of El Salvador is ousted by a revolution; the interim government is overthrown five months later by the dictator's former chief of police. The U.S.'s immediate recognition of the new dictator does much to tarnish Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy in the eyes of Latin Americans.

1946

U.S. Army School of the Americas opens in Panama as a hemisphere-wide military academy. Its linchpin is the doctrine of National Security, by which the chief threat to a nation is internal subversion; this will be the guiding principle behind dictatorships in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Central America, and elsewhere.

1948

José Figueres Ferrer wins a short civil war to become President of Costa Rica. Figueres is supported by the U.S., which has informed San José that its forces in the Panama Canal are ready to come to the capital to end "communist control" of Costa Rica.

1954

Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, elected president of Guatemala, introduces land reform and seizes some idle lands of United Fruit-- proposing to pay for them the value United Fruit claimed on its tax returns. The CIA organizes a small force to overthrow him and begins training it in Honduras. When Arbenz naively asks for U.S. military help to meet this threat, he is refused; when he buys arms from Czechoslovakia it only proves he's a Red.

Guatemala is "openly and diligently toiling to create a Communist state in Central America... only two hours' bombing time from the Panama Canal." --Life

The CIA broadcasts reports detailing the imaginary advance of the "rebel army," and provides planes to strafe the capital. The army refuses to defend Arbenz, who resigns. The U.S.'s hand-picked dictator, Carlos Castillo Armas, outlaws political parties, reduces the franchise, and establishes the death penalty for strikers, as well as undoing Arbenz's land reform. Over 100,000 citizens are killed in the next 30 years of military rule.

"This is the first instance in history where a Communist government has been replaced by a free one." --Richard Nixon

1957

Eisenhower establishes Office of Public Safety to train Latin American police forces.

! 1959

Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba. Several months earlier he had undertaken a triumphal tour through the U.S., which included a CIA briefing on the Red menace.

"Castro's continued tawdry little melodrama of invasion." --Time, of Castro's warnings of an imminent U.S. invasion

1960

Eisenhower authorizes covert actions to get rid of Castro. Among other things, the CIA tries assassinating him with exploding cigars and poisoned milkshakes. Other covert actions against Cuba include burning sugar fields, blowing up boats in Cuban harbors, and sabotaging industrial equipment.

1960

The Canal Zone becomes the focus of U.S. counterinsurgency training.

1960

A new junta in El Salvador promises free elections; Eisenhower, fearing leftist tendencies, withholds recognition. A more attractive right-wing counter-coup comes along in three months.

"Governments of the civil-military type of El Salvador are the most effective in containing communist penetration in Latin America." --John F. Kennedy, after the coup

1960

Guatemalan officers attempt to overthrow the regime of Presidente Fuentes; Eisenhower stations warships and 2000 Marines offshore while Fuentes puts down the revolt. [Another source says that the U.S. provided air support for Fuentes.]

1960s

U.S. Green Berets train Guatemalan army in counterinsurgency techniques. Guatemalan efforts against its insurgents include aerial bombing, scorched-earth assaults on towns suspected of aiding the rebels, and death squads, which killed 20,000 people between 1966 and 1976. U.S. Army Col. John Webber claims that it was at his instigation that "the technique of counter-terror had been implemented by the army."

"If it is necessary to turn the country into a cemetary in order to pacify it, I will not hesitate to do so." --President Carlos Arana Osorio

1961

U.S. organizes force of 1400 anti-Castro Cubans, ships it to the Bahía de los Cochinos. Castro's army routs it.

1961

CIA-backed coup overthrows elected Pres. J. M. Velasco Ibarra of Ecuador, who has been too friendly with Cuba.

1962

CIA engages in campaign in Brazil to keep João Goulart from achieving control of Congress.

1963

CIA-backed coup overthrows elected social democrat Juan Bosch in the Dominican Republic.

1963

A far-right-wing coup in Guatemala, apparently U.S.-supported, forestalls elections in which "extreme leftist" Juan José Arévalo was favored to win.

"It is difficult to develop stable and democratic government [in Guatemala], because so many of the nation's Indians are illiterate and superstitious." --School textbook, 1964

1964

João Goulart of Brazil proposes agrarian reform, nationalization of oil. Ousted by U.S.-supported military coup.

! 1964

The free market in Nicaragua:

The Somoza family controls "about one-tenth of the cultivable land in Nicaragua, and just about everything else worth owning, the country's only airline, one television station, a newspaper, a cement plant, textile mill, several sugar refineries, half-a-dozen breweries and distilleries, and a Mercedes-Benz agency." --Life World Library

1965

A coup in the Dominican Republic attempts to restore Bosch's government. The U.S. invades and occupies the country to stop this "Communist rebellion," with the help of the dictators of Brazil, Paraguay, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

"Representative democracy cannot work in a country such as the Dominican Republic," Bosch declares later. Now why would he say that?

1966

U.S. sends arms, advisors, and Green Berets to Guatemala to implement a counterinsurgency campaign.

"To eliminate a few hundred guerrillas, the government killed perhaps 10,000 Guatemalan peasants." --State Dept. report on the program

1967

A team of Green Berets is sent to Bolivia to help find and assassinate Che Guevara.

1968

Gen. José Alberto Medrano, who is on the payroll of the CIA, organizes the ORDEN paramilitary force, considered the precursor of El Salvador's death squads.

! 1970

In this year (just as an example), U.S. investments in Latin America earn $1.3 billion; while new investments total $302 million.

1970

Salvador Allende Gossens elected in Chile. Suspends foreign loans, nationalizes foreign companies. For the phone system, pays ITT the company's minimized valuation for tax purposes. The CIA provides covert financial support for Allende's opponents, both during and after his election.

1972

U.S. stands by as military suspends an election in El Salvador in which centrist José Napoleón Duarte was favored to win. (Compare with the emphasis placed on the 1982 elections.)

1973

U.S.-supported military coup kills Allende and brings Augusto Pinochet Ugarte to power. Pinochet imprisons well over a hundred thousand Chileans (torture and rape are the usual methods of interrogation), terminates civil liberties, abolishes unions, extends the work week to 48 hours, and reverses Allende's land reforms.

1973

Military takes power in Uruguay, supported by U.S. The subsequent repression reportedly features the world's highest percentage of the population imprisoned for political reasons.

1974

Office of Public Safety is abolished when it is revealed that police are being taught torture techniques.

! 1976

Election of Jimmy Carter leads to a new emphasis on human rights in Central America. Carter cuts off aid to the Guatemalan military (or tries to; some slips through) and reduces aid to El Salvador.

! 1979

Ratification of the Panama Canal treaty which is to return the Canal to Panama by 1999.

"Once again, Uncle Sam put his tail between his legs and crept away rather than face trouble." --Ronald Reagan

1980

A right-wing junta takes over in El Salvador. U.S. begins massively supporting El Salvador, assisting the military in its fight against FMLN guerrillas. Death squads proliferate; Archbishop Romero is assassinated by right-wing terrorists; 35,000 civilians are killed in 1978-81. The rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen results in the suspension of U.S. military aid for one month.

The U.S. demands that the junta undertake land reform. Within 3 years, however, the reform program is halted by the oligarchy.

"The Soviet Union underlies all the unrest that is going on." --Ronald Reagan

1980

U.S., seeking a stable base for its actions in El Salvador and Nicaragua, tells the Honduran military to clean up its act and hold elections. The U.S. starts pouring in $100 million of aid a year and basing the contras on Honduran territory.

Death squads are also active in Honduras, and the contras tend to act as a state within a state.

1981

The CIA steps in to organize the contras in Nicaragua, who started the previous year as a group of 60 ex-National Guardsmen; by 1985 there are about 12,000 of them. 46 of the 48 top military leaders are ex-Guardsmen. The U.S. also sets up an economic embargo of Nicaragua and pressures the IMF and the World Bank to limit or halt loans to Nicaragua.

1981

Gen. Torrijos of Panama is killed in a plane crash. There is a suspicion of CIA involvement, due to Torrijos' nationalism and friendly relations with Cuba.

1982

A coup brings Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt to power in Guatemala, and gives the Reagan administration the opportunity to increase military aid. Ríos Montt's evangelical beliefs do not prevent him from accelerating the counterinsurgency campaign.

1983

Another coup in Guatemala replaces Ríos Montt. The new President, Oscar Mejía Víctores, was trained by the U.S. and seems to have cleared his coup beforehand with U.S. authorities.

1983

U.S. troops take over tiny Granada. Rather oddly, it intervenes shortly after a coup has overthrown the previous, socialist leader. One of the justifications for the action is the building of a new airport with Cuban help, which Granada claimed was for tourism and Reagan argued was for Soviet use. Later the U.S. announces plans to finish the airport... to develop tourism.

1983

Boland Amendment prohibits CIA and Defense Dept. from spending money to overthrow the government of Nicaragua-- a law the Reagan administration cheerfully violates.

1984

CIA mines three Nicaraguan harbors. Nicaragua takes this action to the World Court, which brings an $18 billion judgment against the U.S. The U.S. refuses to recognize the Court's jurisdiction in the case.

1984

U.S. spends $10 million to orchestrate elections in El Salvador-- something of a farce, since left-wing parties are under heavy repression, and the military has already declared that it will not answer to the elected president.

1989

U.S. invades Panama to dislodge CIA boy gone wrong Manuel Noriega, an event which marks the evolution of the U.S.'s favorite excuse from Communism to drugs.

1996

The U.S. battles global Communism by extending most-favored-nation trading status for China, and tightening the trade embargo on Castro's Cuba.

Germany has an equally attractive track record if you look back at the last 200 years. But none can match ourselves for brutal atavism with 2/3rds of the world's surface under our banner at one stage in the 19th Century. There are rumours that MI6 and the SAS have been involved in foreign subversion and even cooperated with the US on occasion. Especially during WW2 and throghout the "Cold War" when the Soviet Fascists were ruling over half of Europe with brutal force and Facsict police hired from former SS. Manhy were shot trying to escape from that regime into W Germany--the US and UK were both involved is assisting these people.

But for dispatching millions and causing suffering on a huge scale none can compare with the Chinese who, under Mao, killed 26 million--mostly poor peasants. The Russian fascists slaughtered almost as many from 1917 onwards with Germany coming in a poor third at around 11 million. I am certain US and UK subversion was involved in trying to thwart these people. I bet we even have subversives in Iran helping the Greens (anti Islamofascist freedom fighters) overthrow Armourdinnerjacket.

I think you will find your fascist friends have far higher body counts and we are still quite a way behind even though we have invaded more territory than every other nation on earth combined. The US do not even come close to our record.

If you would prefer to live under the fascists then I can see your hatred of the US. I do agree with you though--they are invaders and they entered Normandy in 1944 without permission of the regime then in power. They also invaded the Imperial Empire of Japan in 1945 without permission. The Banana Republic Fascists in SA were probably equally purterbed by US invasions and no doubt would have preferred their dictators to have continued their rule. I am sure the US will evetually de-colonise all those SA nations they continue to occupy as we did after our Empire vanished. Brasil will probably go independent within a decade followed by the Argies.

In the end you chose who you support and who you follow but to think your own country is not fighting for survival is to live in a liberal-fascist dream world.

Edited January 21, 2011 by Realistbear

[okaycuckoo]

So you believe Christ was a fairy story? Some used to belive Trpy was a fairy tale too and that Julius Ceaser was a myth invented by early Catholics to sow their authority derived from ancient sources etc. How do you know any historical figure existed?

I think he's taking issue with the Christ bit of Jesus Christ.

You forgot the most important part of his teaching - render unto caesar that which is caesar's - which actually gets to the bottom of that distinction.

[PrivateerMk2]

There's no disputing the existence of Yeshua ben Yusef, Nazerene nutjob and rabble-rouser.

The suggestion that he was anything other than a man, however, is simply ridiculous.

[numper]

YO Russell ........ " You the man/splendid fellow "

[Realistbear]

Are you sure it isn't because he's a fictionalised character used in rather unsophisticated attempts at mind control by a bunch of power-hungry child-rapists?

Child rapists like to use the lable "Christian" but lables and actions often diverge. Did you know Hitler was a Christian? He was christened in a Catholic Church as a baby. Therefore, the argument goes, everything he did was Christian.

Forest Gump summed it up in his saying: stupid is as stupid does.

Most mass murderers and rapists (Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin) were avowed atheists/ humanists. Thus to be an atheist/humanist is also to be a mass murderer or child rapist?

Illogical? Yup.

[gravity always wins]

Especially during WW2

I don't know if you are from these Islands but to compare the defense of these Islands and the steps we had to take to defend our very existence and that of Western Europe to the many other follies that took place during the rest of the twentieth century is wrong.

[Scott Sando]

There's no disputing the existence of Yeshua ben Yusef, Nazerene nutjob and rabble-rouser.

The suggestion that he was anything other than a man, however, is simply ridiculous.

Na, there was a Yeshua ben pandira but he was alive in 300 bc.

[Bloo Loo]

Germany has an equally attractive track record if you look back at the last 200 years. But none can match ourselves for brutal atavism with 2/3rds of the world's surface under our banner at one stage in the 19th Century. There are rumours that MI6 and the SAS have been involved in foreign subversion and even cooperated with the US on occasion. Especially during WW2 and throghout the "Cold War" when the Soviet Fascists were ruling over half of Europe with brutal force and Facsict police hired from former SS. Manhy were shot trying to escape from that regime into W Germany--the US and UK were both involved is assisting these people.

But for dispatching millions and causing suffering on a huge scale none can compare with the Chinese who, under Mao, killed 26 million--mostly poor peasants. The Russian fascists slaughtered almost as many from 1917 onwards with Germany coming in a poor third at around 11 million. I am certain US and UK subversion was involved in trying to thwart these people. I bet we even have subversives in Iran helping the Greens (anti Islamofascist freedom fighters) overthrow Armourdinnerjacket.

I think you will find your fascist friends have far higher body counts and we are still quite a way behind even though we have invaded more territory than every other nation on earth combined. The US do not even come close to our record.

If you would prefer to live under the fascists then I can see your hatred of the US. I do agree with you though--they are invaders and they entered Normandy in 1944 without permission of the regime then in power. They also invaded the Imperial Empire of Japan in 1945 without permission. The Banana Republic Fascists in SA were probably equally purterbed by US invasions and no doubt would have preferred their dictators to have continued their rule. I am sure the US will evetually de-colonise all those SA nations they continue to occupy as we did after our Empire vanished. Brasil will probably go independent within a decade followed by the Argies.

In the end you chose who you support and who you follow but to think your own country is not fighting for survival is to live in a liberal-fascist dream world.

the good part about dying is that it only happens once.

[Realistbear]

I think he's taking issue with the Christ bit of Jesus Christ.

You forgot the most important part of his teaching - render unto caesar that which is caesar's - which actually gets to the bottom of that distinction.

The rendering to Caeser was an illustration that the Kingdom of heaven was not the Kingdom of Caeser and the two are not to be mixed.

Stephen Hawking describes the source ( Kingdom of Heaven) as the cause of the big bang from which the binary universe came into being. We can explain matter as being nothing other than positive and negative particles but we cannot explain emotions, thoughts and purpose. The Christ part of Jesus is of the source or cause of the world of matter which is entirely mechanistic, binary and without ultimate purpose. It lives and dies and is no more. What Caesar does with it is ultimately inconsequential.

[Realistbear]

the good part about dying is that it only happens once.

Some believe there is a second death. The death of the material body followed by the death of the soul which then leaves nothing. This can only happen if matter is binary in nature as negative cancels out positive. Our bodies simply decay into nothing. But if there is a soulish side to our being (the source of our thoughts, emotions, ideas etc) it can only die if that which brought it into being elects to let it go into non-existence. If thought created it then thought can let it go.

[gravity always wins]

The thing with Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin was that they did exactly what it said on the tin total and utter tyrany with a big stick, my way or the highway

.

The problem with religion is it says one thing and does another especially the Cathoilics!

At least you know where you are with a maniacal dictator whereas when you are a South American or African who dies of HIV/AIDS because the Pope said contraception is a sin and that condoms didn't work any way you may be a bit confused or for example if your children starve to death because the Pope lectured you on condoms so you had more children than you could support thinking the church would be there to help but it wasn't there to help because all of the wealth of these churches are tied up in real estate and bonds and art works and palaces etc.

But hey ho at least Benedicts heart is in the right place, inspite of being a good little Nazi all those years ago, many of whom incidentally were aided and abetted in their escape at the end of WW2 by the Catholic Church who were so worried about the Communists they were prepared to jump in to bed with any old Tom dick or Nazi.

Religion, it does exactly the oposite of what it says on the tin.

[Realistbear]

Just look at the dates!

Its all made up propaganda over 100 years after the event.

Historic PR by the Romans it's all bollo*x.

Recent books on Shakespeare are accepted as historical. I am watching a program on tele about the Normans--and all of that was in 1066! The Jewish tradtion is to write things down--Dead Sea Scrolls are a good example. The Gospels writers recorded what was said at the time or very soon after. Why make something like that up?

BTW Tacitus's dates are:

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56 – AD 117)

Jesus died c. AD 30. Not the sort of fellow anyone would have written histories about until after his movement took off. They say there are a few thousand people in the world that are his followers.

[babesagainstmachines]

Jesus loves you

But I don't

[Brave New World]

Germany has an equally attractive track record if you look back at the last 200 years. But none can match ourselves for brutal atavism with 2/3rds of the world's surface under our banner at one stage in the 19th Century. There are rumours that MI6 and the SAS have been involved in foreign subversion and even cooperated with the US on occasion. Especially during WW2 and throghout the "Cold War" when the Soviet Fascists were ruling over half of Europe with brutal force and Facsict police hired from former SS. Manhy were shot trying to escape from that regime into W Germany--the US and UK were both involved is assisting these people.

But for dispatching millions and causing suffering on a huge scale none can compare with the Chinese who, under Mao, killed 26 million--mostly poor peasants. The Russian fascists slaughtered almost as many from 1917 onwards with Germany coming in a poor third at around 11 million. I am certain US and UK subversion was involved in trying to thwart these people. I bet we even have subversives in Iran helping the Greens (anti Islamofascist freedom fighters) overthrow Armourdinnerjacket.

I think you will find your fascist friends have far higher body counts and we are still quite a way behind even though we have invaded more territory than every other nation on earth combined. The US do not even come close to our record.

If you would prefer to live under the fascists then I can see your hatred of the US. I do agree with you though--they are invaders and they entered Normandy in 1944 without permission of the regime then in power. They also invaded the Imperial Empire of Japan in 1945 without permission. The Banana Republic Fascists in SA were probably equally purterbed by US invasions and no doubt would have preferred their dictators to have continued their rule. I am sure the US will evetually de-colonise all those SA nations they continue to occupy as we did after our Empire vanished. Brasil will probably go independent within a decade followed by the Argies.

In the end you chose who you support and who you follow but to think your own country is not fighting for survival is to live in a liberal-fascist dream world.

But are the Germans still doing it? Do we still spill the blood on innocent slaves from the colonies (Sure the yanks would like to claim Wilberforce for their own!)? Yes the Chinese have a horrific human rights record but they do not paint themselves as the land of the free - a land that sends its poor young to fight the good fight thousands of miles from home in an illegal, corporate motivated war!

The US are still at it: there is not a region of the world that in the last 50 years has not been affected by the neo colonialism hostility. Imagine if China or Russia flew half way round the world to start wars?!!!!!

The ills of the UK's foreign policy stems from our pitiful shadowing of them, in the mistaken belief they might give a shit about the UK.

Why the ****** do we spend billions still on the croney war?! Ah cause the bogeymen will bomb us all and send anthrax in the post.

To think of the US as different from China et al in standing for human rights is to look at the US through the eyes of a Westener. Talk to a Venuzuelan about the States and they would paint a far different picture, as i am sure the folk of New Orleans would when they were turned back at gun point by police as they tried to flee New Orleans.

And all i can see eminating from the states is a neo Christian fascism built on the foundations of rampant capitalism that consumes its own people be it moneterally on its own backyard or in foreign shores with illegal wars.

The hypocrisy of the US is what irritates and rankles.

[Scott Sando]

Recent books on Shakespeare are accepted as historical. I am watching a program on tele about the Normans--and all of that was in 1066! The Jewish tradtion is to write things down--Dead Sea Scrolls are a good example. The Gospels writers recorded what was said at the time or very soon after. Why make something like that up?

BTW Tacitus's dates are:

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56 – AD 117)

Jesus died c. AD 30. Not the sort of fellow anyone would have written histories about until after his movement took off. They say there are a few thousand people in the world that are his followers.

I bet there's no quote that says Jesus christ, I bet its Christos or a derivative.

[Scott Sando]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pgRUpDDrb0