Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace

NNOOAAMM CCHHOOMMSSKKYY
TURNING
THE TIDE
US Intervention in Central
America and the
Struggle for Peace
© Noam Chomsky 1999
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ESSENTIAL CLASSICS IN POLITICS: NOAM CHOMSKY
EB 0007 ISBN 0 7453 1345 0
London 1999
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TURNING THE TIDE
US Intervention in Central
America and the Struggle for
Peace
Noam Chomsky
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
4
Copyright  1985 by Noam Chomsky
Manufactured in the USA
Production at South End Press, Boston
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Chomsky, Noam
Turning the tide.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Central America—Politics and government—1979- . 2. Violence—Central
America—History—20th century. 3. Civil rights—Central America—History—20th
century. 4. Central America—Foreign relations—United States. 5. United States—
Foreign relations—Central America.
I. Title
F1 436. 8. U6 1985 327. 728073
ISBN: 0-7453-0184-3
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Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
5
Contents
Click on number to go to page
Introduction................................................................................. 8
1. Free World Vignettes .............................................................. 11
1. The Miseries of Traditional Life.............................................. 15
2. Challenge and Response: Nicaragua....................................... 21
3. Challenge and Response: El Salvador ..................................... 29
3.1 The Carter Years ............................................................ 29
3.2 Reagan Takes Command................................................. 35
4. Challenge and Response: Guatemala...................................... 49
5. The Reagan Administration and Human Rights........................ 54
6. The Contribution of the Mercenary States................................ 58
7. The Planning of State Terror.................................................. 63
8. The Miseries of Traditional Life: A Further Note ....................... 67
2. The Fifth Freedom.................................................................. 72
1. Rhetoric and Reality ............................................................ 73
2. The Perceptions of the Planners ............................................ 79
3. Latin America: “An Incident, Not An End”............................... 96
4. Planning For Global Hegemony............................................ 104
5. The Crimes of Nicaragua .................................................... 117
3. Patterns of Intervention ........................................................ 135
1. Defending our Sovereignty .................................................. 136
2. The Rule of Law and the Rule of Force................................. 143
3. The US and El Salvador in Historical Perspective ................... 152
4. Contemporary State Terrorism: the System
Established........................................................................... 156
5. The System Applied: Torturing El Salvador............................ 162
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6
5.1 Carter’s War ................................................................ 162
5.2 Duarte’s Role............................................................... 174
5.3 Towards “Democracy” in El Salvador .............................. 185
5.4 The Propaganda System Moves into High
Gear................................................................................. 186
5.5 The War Moves into High Gear ...................................... 193
5.6 Reaction at Home: Successful Terror and Its
Rewards ........................................................................... 196
6. Torturing Nicaragua ........................................................... 201
6.1 Before the Crisis........................................................... 201
6.2 The Proxy War............................................................. 203
6.3 The Elections and the Opposition ................................... 215
6.4 The Free Press at Work................................................. 219
6.5. A Glimpse into the Civilized World................................. 225
7. Elsewhere in the Region ..................................................... 229
7.1. Torturing Hispaniola .................................................... 229
7.2 Torturing Guatemala..................................................... 240
8. Human Rights, the Raising of the Living
Standards, and Democratization.............................................. 246
9. The Awesome Nobility of our Intentions................................ 253
4. The Race to Destruction........................................................ 267
1. The Threat of Global War.................................................... 268
2. The Nuclear Freeze Campaign: Successes and
Failures................................................................................ 277
3. The Lessons to be Drawn ................................................... 280
4. Defense Against the Great Satan: The Doctrine
and the Evidence................................................................... 296
4.1 Defending the National Territory..................................... 296
4.2 The Defense of Western Europe...................................... 298
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7
4.3 The Containment Doctrine............................................. 302
4.4 Containing the anti-Fascist Resistance: From
Death Camps to Death Squads ............................................ 304
4.5 Escalation of the Pentagon System: The
Pretexts and the Evidence ................................................... 315
5. The Roots of the Pentagon System....................................... 324
6. The Consequences............................................................. 337
7. Cold War Realities............................................................. 340
5. The Challenge Ahead............................................................ 345
1. The “Conservative” Counterattack ........................................ 346
1.1 Confronting the Threat of Democracy at
Home............................................................................... 346
1.2 The Attack against Labor............................................... 353
1.3 The Attack against Rights.............................................. 354
1.4 The Attack against Independent Thought......................... 357
1.5 Investing to Control the State: the Political
System of Capitalist Democracy ........................................... 362
1.6 “The Ultimate Target”: the Public Mind........................... 366
1.7 The Domestic Successes of “Conservatism” ..................... 368
2. The Opportunities for Constructive Action.............................. 371
2.1 The System of Control: its Points of
Weakness ......................................................................... 371
2.2 The “Shift to the Right”: Rhetoric and Reality................... 374
2.3 Turning the Tide........................................................... 383
Notes...................................................................................... 396
Introduction
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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Introduction
e live entangled in webs of endless deceit, often self-deceit,
but with a little honest effort, it is possible to extricate
ourselves from them. If we do, we will see a world that is
rather different from the one presented to us by a remarkably effective
ideological system, a world that is much uglier, often horrifying. We will
also learn that our own actions, or passive acquiescence, contribute
quite substantially to misery and oppression, and perhaps eventual
global destruction.
But there is a brighter side. We are fortunate to live in a society that
is not only rich and powerful—and hence, as any student of history
would expect, dangerous and destructive—but also relatively free and
open, perhaps more so than any other, though this may change if the
reactionary jingoists who have misappropriated the term “conservative”
succeed in their current project of diminishing civil liberties,
strengthening the power of the state, and protecting it from public
scrutiny. For those who are relatively wealthy and privileged, a very large
sector of a society as rich as ours, there are ample opportunities to
discover the truth about who we are and what we do in the world.
Furthermore, by international standards the state is limited at home in
its capacity to coerce. Hence those who enjoy a measure of wealth and
privilege are free to act in many ways, without undue fear of state terror,
to bring about crucial changes in policy and even more fundamental
institutional changes. We are fortunate, perhaps uniquely so, in the
range of opportunities we enjoy for free inquiry and effective action. The
significance of these facts can hardly be exaggerated.
W
Introduction
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
9
I want to consider here some aspects of the reality that is often
concealed or deformed by the reigning doctrinal system, which pervades
the media, journals of opinion, and much of scholarship.1
An honest
inquiry will reveal that striking and systematic features of our
international behavior are suppressed, ignored or denied. It will reveal
further that our role in perpetuating misery and oppression, even
barbaric torture and mass slaughter, is not only significant in scale, but
is also a predictable and systematic consequence of longstanding
geopolitical conceptions and institutional structures. There is no way to
give a precise measure of the scale of our responsibility in each
particular case, but whether we conclude that our share is 90%, or
40%, or 2%, it is that factor that should primarily concern us, since it is
that factor that we can directly influence. It is cheap and easy to deplore
the other fellow’s crimes in the manner of the official peace movements
of the so-called “Communist” states, or their counterparts in the West
who, with comparable sincerity, denounce the crimes of official enemies
while dismissing or justifying our own. An honest person will choose a
different course.
These are among the questions I want to examine here, concentrating
primarily on relations between the US and its southern neighbors—and
victims—in the post-World War II period, although the pattern that
emerges is by no means new and is not limited to this region.2
Chapter 1 is concerned with the grim reality of normal life for a large
majority of the population in our dependencies in Central America, and
with the consequences that regularly ensue, at our initiative and with
our crucial support, when efforts are undertaken to bring about
constructive change. In chapter 2, I will turn to the backgrounds for US
policy and the geopolitical conceptions that guide planners, as exhibited
in the documentary record and, more significantly, in the actual pattern
of events. Chapter 3 places these matters in the broader context of US
Introduction
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
10
history, both in Central America and elsewhere, and discusses recent US
policies in Central America in this context. In chapter 4, I will turn to
national security policy, the Cold War system of global management,
and the drift towards global war which is, in significant measure, a
result of US government programs that have little to do with security,
but are deeply rooted in the structure of power in our society and the
global concerns of dominant institutions. Finally in the last chapter, I
want to consider the domestic scene: the dedicated efforts that have
been undertaken by dominant elites to overcome the democratic revival
of the 1960s, and the opportunities that now exist to engage in
constructive work to deter terrible crimes, to reverse the race towards
global destruction, and to enlarge the sphere of freedom and justice.
Free World Vignettes
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
11
1. Free World Vignettes
ohn Jay, the President of the Continental Congress and the first
Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, held that “the people who
own the country ought to govern it.”1
His prescription is, in fact,
close to the reality. The United States is furthermore unusual in the high
degree of class consciousness among the business classes, the
extremely low degree of class consciousness (particularly in the current
period) on the part of workers, and the general conformity of the
intelligentsia. Since World War II, the United States has held a position
of dominance in world affairs with few if any historical parallels, though
long before, it had become the greatest industrial power by a large
margin. US elites were naturally aware of these conditions and
determined to exploit the expanded opportunities they offered. They
have engaged in careful planning, and have been willing to resort to
subversion and violence on an impressive scale to maintain or extend
their dominant position, which, according to the reigning doctrinal
system, is theirs by right, given the unique virtue of the state that they or
their representatives govern.
There are aspects of American history and institutions that lend
support to the pretensions of ideologues, but the full story is less
pleasant to contemplate, as many have recognized over the years. The
founder of the utopian Oneida community, John Humphrey, described
the US in 1830 as “a bloated, swaggering libertine . . . with one hand
whipping a negro tied to a liberty-pole, and with another dashing an
emaciated Indian to the ground.”2
At the turn of the century, as his
compatriots turned from slaughtering Indians to wiping out resisting
J
Free World Vignettes
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
12
“niggers” in the Philippines, Mark Twain gave his version of “The Battle
Hymn of the Republic”:3
Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword
He is searching out the hoardings where the strangers’ wealth
is stored
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death
has scored.
His lust is marching on.
If some Third World revolution today were to reenact US history, with
literal human slavery as well as decimation and brutal expulsion of the
native population, the reaction would be one of horror and disbelief. We
may recall, for example, that the first emancipation proclamation was
issued by the British governor of Virginia in 1775, and that slavery was
abolished in 1821 in Central America by nations to whom we must
teach lessons in “civilization,” according to Theodore Roosevelt and
other interventionists until the present day.4
The conquest of the
national territory and the exercise of US power in large areas of the
world also hardly merit the accolades of the faithful.
No region of the world has been more subject to US influence over a
long period than Central America and the Caribbean. The extent and
character of US influence are illustrated, for example, by the
establishment early in the century of a National Bank of Nicaragua in
which the New York Brown Brothers Bank held majority ownership; its
board of directors “met in New York and consisted entirely of Brown
Brothers’ US representatives, except for a token Nicaraguan” while US
banks received the revenues of the national rail and steamship lines and
a US-run commission required Nicaragua to pay fraudulent “damage
claims” that exceeded total US investment in the country for alleged
Free World Vignettes
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
13
“damages from civil disorder.” Or to take another case, a coup attempt
in Honduras in 1923 by a local client of the United Fruit company
(which virtually owned the country) led to US military intervention and a
settlement arranged by the State Department: “North American power
had become so encompassing that U.S. military forces and United Fruit
could struggle against each other to see who was to control the
Honduran government, then have the argument settled by the U.S.
Department of State.” The United Fruit client took power in 1932 “and
hand-in-hand with United Fruit ruled his country for the next seventeen
years.”5
Throughout modern history, much the same has been true.
We naturally look to the Central America-Caribbean region, then, if
we want to learn something about ourselves, just as we look to Eastern
Europe or the “internal empire” if want to learn about the Soviet Union.
The picture we see is not a pretty one. The region is one of the world’s
most awful horror chambers, with widespread starvation, semi-slave
labor, torture and massacre by US clients. Virtually every attempt to
bring about some constructive change has been met with a new dose of
US violence, even when initiated by Church-based self-help groups or
political figures who modelled themselves on Roosevelt’s New Deal. We
are, once again, living in such a period, in fact, the worst such period,
which is saying a good deal.6
The region evokes little attention inside the United States as long as
discipline reigns. The prevailing unconcern is revealed, for example, by
the treatment of Woodrow Wilson’s bloody counterinsurgency campaign
in the Dominican Republic—or lack thereof; it received its first detailed
scholarly examination after 60 years.7
Or consider the case of William
Krehm, Time correspondent in Central America and the Caribbean in the
1940s. His book on the region—a rare event in itself—was published in
Mexico in 1948 and then elsewhere in Latin America; the original
English version appeared 36 years later.8
The book jacket states that
Free World Vignettes
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
14
Time refused to publish much of what he submitted for fear of offending
large corporations, and that his book was regarded as too controversial
by American publishers. Lack of interest, the consequence of lack of
credible threats to US control at the time, might well suffice to explain
its unavailability. The two books just cited appeared in 1984, a time of
challenge to US dominance, hence much concern over the fate of the
region. Our lack of interest when the lower orders make no unseemly
noises should be a matter of no great pride.
The brutal and corrupt Somoza dictatorship had long been a reliable
US ally and a base for the projection of US power: to terminate
Guatemalan democracy in 1954, to attack Cuba in 1961, to avert the
threat of democracy in the Dominican Republic in 1965 and in El
Salvador in 1972.9
The fall of the dictatorship in 1979, along with a
renewed threat to the military regime in Guatemala and the growth of
popular organizations in El Salvador, led to increasing US intervention
and brought the region to the front pages. Let us consider the picture
that comes into focus with this renewed attention.
Free World Vignettes
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
15
1. The Miseries of Traditional Life
mong the many dedicated and honorable Americans who went to
see for themselves, one of the most impressive is Charles
Clements, a graduate of the US Air Force Academy and former
pilot in Vietnam, who was sent to a psychiatric hospital when he refused
to fly further missions. A committed pacifist, he went to El Salvador in
March 1982 and spent a year as the only trained physician in the rebel-
controlled Guazapa region 25 miles from San Salvador, a free...