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The Indonesian invasion of East Timor in December 1975 set the stage for the long, bloody, and disastrous occupation of the territory that ended only after an international peacekeeping force was introduced in 1999. President Bill Clinton cut off military aid to Indonesia in September 1999—reversing a longstanding policy of military cooperation—but questions persist about U.S. responsibility for the 1975 invasion; in particular, the degree to which Washington actually condoned or supported the bloody military offensive. Most recently, journalist Christopher Hitchens raised questions about the role of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in giving a green light to the invasion that has left perhaps 200,000 dead in the years since. Two newly declassified documents from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, released to the National Security Archive, shed light on the Ford administration’s relationship with President Suharto of Indonesia during 1975. Of special importance is the record of Ford’s and Kissinger’s meeting with Suharto in early December 1975. The document shows that Suharto began the invasion knowing that he had the full approval of the White House. Both of these documents had been released in heavily excised form some years ago, but with Suharto now out of power, and following the collapse of Indonesian control over East Timor, the situation has changed enough that both documents have been released in their entirety.

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Originally posted by SignyM:

You know, life for most Germans under Hitler was pretty OK (until they lost the war).

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Life in Chile under Pinochet was the same. So was life in Brazil under a series of military dictatorships, and in Israel where Jews live quite well while Palestinians are ground under the boot heel. So today, we (you and I) are in the in-group.

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It's not US being ground down. And its easy to say... where's the problem? I'm OK, you're OK. That smoky smell? Don't know. An exception. Not part of the system. It's far easier to see atrocities if you're not benefiting, and have no emotional ties to the ones being destroyed.

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I don't wish to defend the US

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I just don't see that the current US system can be compared to regimes like Stalin and Hitler. Simple really. You may be bad, you just aint that bad.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
SUKARNO, DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED PRESIDENT OF INDONESIA (1965)

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ARBENZ, DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF GUATEMALA (1954)

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JUAN BOSCH, DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (1963)

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AROSEMANA, DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR 1963

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Comparing any one dictator or system (as that put up in the beginning of this thread) to what the US has done isn't possible, we just don't have the numbers.

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A CIA-backed military coup installs Mobutu Sese Seko as dictator. Mobutu arrested and assasinated Patrice Lumumba. The hated and repressive Mobutu exploits his desperately poor country for billions.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
JUAN TORRES, DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT OF BOLIVIA 1971

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GOUGH WHITLAM, DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA 1973

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Originally posted by SignyM:BOSCH, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (AGAIN) 1965
A popular rebellion breaks out, promising to reinstall Juan Bosch as the country’s elected leader. The revolution is crushed when U.S. Marines land to uphold the military regime by force.

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Originally posted by Niki2:

Personally, I don't think we DO have any business involving ourselves in other nations. The self-defense thing is stupid; we've never had to defend ourselves against ANYONE, and have jumped into stuff because of "possible" attacks (or for financial and other reasons)--Remember the Bush Doctrine? It's given us excuse to invade other countries...not that we didn't do it before.

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GOUGH WHITLAM, DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA 1973
Yep, you read that correctly. It is commonly alleged- though not proven- that the Central Intelligence Agency influenced Kerr's decision to dismiss Whitlam. In 1966 Kerr had joined the Association for Cultural Freedom, a conservative group which was later revealed to have received Central Intelligence Agency funding. Christopher Boyce, an employee of a CIA civilian contractor and convicted Soviet spy, claimed that the CIA wanted Whitlam removed from office because he threatened to close US military bases in Australia, including Pine Gap. Boyce said that Sir John Kerr was described by the CIA as "our man Kerr".

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Originally posted by dreamtrove:
MAGONSDAUGHTER

It's far worse than it seems. We infiltrate everyone's democracy and economy. We were already at war with Japan, we were allied to Germany. Britain wasn't afraid of takeover from Germany, Germany was being run by Britain. Okay, I can't prove that last, but I'm not about to say it's not so, there's some damned peculiar things that I've seen. Now I'll step aside and let one of the people here who does know field that one. I figure they lurk.

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But I notice that pretty much all your cites come from one article - "A Timeline of CIA Atrocities" by Steve Kangas, published on his own homepage. In it's final paragraphs is this sentence. "The CIA should be abolished, its leadership dismissed and its relevant members tried for crimes against humanity."

Hardly an unbiased source.

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I'm just not so sure that the purpose, as you seem to think, was to crush liberty.

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"In a meeting including President Ford, Secretary of State Kissinger, Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, and CIA Director William Colby among others, U.S. intervention in Angola's civil war is discussed. In response to evidence of Soviet aid to the MPLA, Secretary Schlesinger says, "we might wish to encourage the disintegration of Angola.” Kissinger describes two meetings of the 40 Committee oversight group for clandestine operations in which covert operations were authorized: “The first meeting involved only money, but the second included some arms package."Beginning in 1975, CIA participated in the Angolan Civil War, hiring and training American, British, French and Portuguese private military contractors, as well as training UNITA rebels under Jonas Savimbi, to fight against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola led by Agostinho Neto. John Stockwell commanded the CIA's Angola effort in 1975 to 1976.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, Steve has a comprehensive list. A little TOO comprehensive.

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It's not to crush liberty Geezer. Haven't you been paying attention? It's to squeeze more labor and/ or resources out of the poor.

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Besides, how about the lack of individual liberty, free elections, press freedom, labor rights, and freedom from government corruption in the nations which had successful communist revolutions?

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I could find similar lists on some ultraconservative's site that prove that it was all a big communist plot.

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Instead I get my info from general reference sources which have no blatant bias.

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First, the bloodshed between factions would have been pretty much the same, or worse.

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Second, if the revolutions succeeded, many countries in those regions would now have the same levels of individual liberty, participatory democracy, press freedom, labor protection and lack of government corruption currently enjoyed by the people in Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and North Korea.

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The curtailment of individual liberties is radically adversely effecting the earning potential of workers.

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A Chinese worker could often make a great deal more by simply relocating, if they were allowed to do so.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Well, since you define communism as all of the above,...

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Not trying to prove it's "all" a capitalist plot...

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just that we had a hand in destroying quite a few nascent socialist democracies...

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Oh, the CIA factbook?

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"First, the bloodshed between factions would have been pretty much the same, or worse." Do you have any basis for that conclusion...?

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I guess the endless series of genocidal military leaders, the millions of dead, the hundred of thousands imprisoned and tortured were so much better, eh?

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As an alternate path, we could look at Brazil under Lula,

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Bolivia under Evo,

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Chile under Michelle Bachelet.

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There is, as I said, a depressing pattern about the whole thing. Poor people, colonies, push for a better life. Land. Shorter hours. Unionization. Education. The vote. Women's rights. National identity.

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But those conditions do seem prevelant in the nations which have communist governments.

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Never said you were. Just illustrating that sources could be found to fit any bias.

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And again, if the ones that suceeded in the 1950's-70's are any example, they'd have ended up being as dictatorial and unjust as any right-wing junta of colonels.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
'But those conditions do seem prevelant in the nations which have communist governments.' Really? I just provided about a dozen examples of non-communist tyr`nations which we installed in which all of the aforementioned hallmarks of tyranny exist.

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I just gave you several South American examples of where that DIDN'T happen...

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Making this list... which I will continue, as it isn't complete by a long shot... has taught me something.

There is, as I said, a depressing pattern about the whole thing. Poor people, colonies, push for a better life. Land. Shorter hours. Unionization. Education. The vote. Women's rights. National identity.

But there is always a group of people within those very same nations who push back: The wealthy. Colonial subalterns like "Emperor" Bao Dai who was willing to sell out his countrymen for a few scraps of power. Bankers. Plantation owners. Industrialists. Corporate representatives. Generals. People for whom land reform and unionization and education and democracy represent a REAL THREAT to their privileged way of life. It's not JUST the United States and its guns... someone has to be there to do the dirty work... the killing and terrorizing. Who better to do the dirty work than those who dread change? There's nothing like the frisson of wealth preservation to unleash the will to terrorize.

The point is that no matter how necessary the reform or honest the leadership, there is no law, no election, no movement, no revolution with 100% support. There will always be some against it: 10%, 50%, or sometimes (as in the beginning of the American War of Independence) 70%.

So if you're looking for a revolution like V, in which the soldiers put down their weapons under the gaze of thousands of people... well, maybe that happens once in a while but generally... no. I've learned that change which truly threatens the power structure usually is a messy business.

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The 8 years Reagan was in office represented one of the most bloody eras in the history of the Western hemisphere, as Washington funneled money, weapons and other supplies to right wing death squads. And the death toll was staggering–more than 70,000 political killings in El Salvador, more than 100,000 in Guatemala, 30,000 killed in the contra war in Nicaragua. In Washington, the forces carrying out the violence were called “freedom fighters.”

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when the U.S. government sent 10 Special Forces personnel to El Salvador to help General Jose Alberto Medrano set up the Organizacion Democratica Nacionalista (ORDEN)-the first paramilitary death squad in that country. These Green Berets assisted in the organization and indoctrination of rural "civic" squads which gathered intelligence and carried out political assassinations in coordination with the Salvadoran military.
Now, there is compelling evidence to show that for over 30 years, members of the U.S. military and the CIA have helped organize, train, and fund death squad activity in El Salvador. In [1982-1990] six Salvadoran military deserters have publicly acknowledged their participation in the death squads. Their stories are notable because they not only confirm suspicions that the death squads are made up of members of the Salvadoran military, but also because each one implicates U.S. personnel in death squad activity.... CIA-trained death squads roam the countryside, committing atrocities like that of El Mazote in 1982, where they massacre between 700 and 1000 men, women and children. By 1992, some 63,000 Salvadorans will be killed.

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In 1913 United Fruit established the Tela Railroad Company and shortly thereafter a similar subsidiary, the Trujillo Railroad Company. The railroad companies were given huge land subsidies by the Honduran government for each kilometer of track they constructed. The government expected that in exchange for land the railroad companies would ultimately build a national rail system, providing the capital with its long-sought access to the Caribbean. The banana companies, however, had other ideas in mind. They used the railroads to open up new banana lands, rather than to reach existing cities. Through the resultant land subsidies, they soon came to control the overwhelming share of the best land along the Caribbean coast. Coastal cities such as La Ceiba, Tela, and Trujillo and towns further inland such as El Progreso and La Lima became virtual company towns, and the power of the companies often exceeded the authority wielded in the region by local governments.

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Declassified documents, from the CIA Inspector General, begin with a heavily redacted 21 July 1984 cable to the National Security Council, stating that Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, head of the Honduras military, ordered the establishment of the 316th Military Intelligence Battalion (316 MI Bn) in Honduras 1987.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Eventually though, the CIA-backed dictator falls to the Sandinistas. Daniel Ortega became the leader of Nicaragua by revolution, but was formally elected in 1984 in elections certified to have been "free and fair".

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In March 1982 the Sandinistas declared an official State of Emergency. They argued that this was a response to attacks by counter-revolutionary forces.[34] The State of Emergency lasted six years, until January 1988, when it was lifted.

Under the new "Law for the Maintenance of Order and Public Security" the "Tribunales Populares Anti-Somozistas" allowed for the indefinite holding of suspected counter-revolutionaries without trial. The State of Emergency, however, most notably affected rights and guarantees contained in the "Statute on Rights and Guarantees of Nicaraguans.[35] Many civil liberties were curtailed or canceled such as the freedom to organize demonstrations, the inviolability of the home, freedom of the press, freedom of speech and, the freedom to strike.[35]

All independent news program broadcasts were suspended. In total, twenty-four programs were cancelled. In addition, Sandinista censor Nelba Cecilia Blandón issued a decree ordering all radio stations to hook up every six hours to government radio station, La Voz de La Defensa de La Patria.[36]

The rights affected also included certain procedural guarantees in the case of detention including habeas corpus.[35] The State of Emergency was not lifted during the 1984 elections. There were many instances where rallies of opposition parties were physically broken up by Sandinsta youth or pro-Sandinista mobs. Opponents to the State of Emergency argued its intent was to crush resistance to the FSLN. James Wheelock justified the actions of the Directorate by saying "... We are annulling the license of the false prophets and the oligarchs to attack the revolution."[37] On October 5, 1985 the Sandinistas broadened the 1982 State of Emergency and suspended many more civil rights. A new regulation also forced any organization outside of the government to first submit any statement it wanted to make public to the censorsip bureau for prior censorship.[38] Notably, emergency measures were already in place before 1982 under the FSLN. In December 1979 special courts called "Tribunales Especiales" were established to process trial of ex-Guardia and Contra rebels. These courts operated through relaxed rules of evidence and due process and were often staffed by new law students and inexperienced lawyers. Under these courts, up to 8,000 ex-Guardia members were tried. By 1986 only 2157 remained in incarceration, out of these, only 39 were left alive by 1989.

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Armed opposition to the Sandinista Government eventually divided into two main groups: ...and the Alianza Revolucionaria Democratica (ARDE) Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, a group that had existed since before the FSLN and was led by Sandinista founder and former FSLN supreme commander, Edén Pastora, a.k.a. "Commander Zero".[32] and Milpistas, former anti-Somoza rural militias, which eventually formed the largest pool of recruits for the Contras.

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Chinese Civil War. (1945-49): 2 500 000 [make link]
Bercovitch & Jackson: 100,000
Dan Smith: 1,000,000
Eckhardt: 1,000,000 from all causes
Small & Singer: 1,000,000 battle deaths
Wallechinsky: 1,200,000 battle deaths
Walker, Robert L., The Human Cost of Communism in China (1971): 1,250,000
Gilbert, citing Ho Ping-ti: 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 total deaths
Our Times: 3,000,000
Rummel:
War Dead: 1,201,000
Democide by Guomindang: 2,645,000
Democide by Communists: 2,323,000
Famine: 25,000
TOTAL: 6,194,000

People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong's regime (1949-1975): 40 000 000

Agence France Press (25 Sept. 1999) citing at length from Courtois, Stephane, Le Livre Noir du Communism:
Rural purges, 1946-49: 2-5M deaths
Urban purges, 1950-57: 1M
Great Leap Forward: 20-43M
Cultural Revolution: 2-7M
Labor Camps: 20M
Tibet: 0.6-1.2M
TOTAL: 44.5 to 72M

Jasper Becker, Hungry Ghosts : Mao's Secret Famine (1996)
Estimates of the death toll from the Great Leap Forward, 1959-61:
Judith Banister, China's Changing Population (1984): 30M excess deaths (acc2 Becker: "the most reliable estimate we have")
Wang Weizhi, Contemporary Chinese Population (1988): 19.5M deaths
Jin Hui (1993): 40M population loss due to "abnormal deaths and reduced births"
Chen Yizi of the System Reform Inst.: 43-46M deaths
Brzezinski:
Forcible collectivization: 27 million peasants
Cultural Revolution: 1-2 million
TOTAL: 29 million deaths under Mao

Daniel Chirot:
Land reform, 1949-56
According to Zhou Enlai: 830,000
According to Mao Zedong: 2-3M
Great Leap Forward: 20-40 million deaths.
Cultural Revolution: 1-20 million
Jung Chang, Mao: the Unknown Story (2005)
Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries, 1950-51: 3M by execution, mob or suicide
Three-Anti Campaign, 1952-53: 200,000-300,000 suicides
Great Leap Forward, 1958-61: 38M of starvation and overwork
Cultural Revolution, 1966-76: > 3M died violent deaths
Laogai camp deaths, 1949-76: 27M
TOTAL under Mao: 70M

Dictionary of 20C World History: around a half million died in Cultural Rev.
Eckhardt:
Govt executes landlords (1950-51): 1,000,000
Cultural Revolution (1967-68): 50,000
Gilbert:
1958-61 Famine: 30 million deaths.
Kurt Glaser and Stephan Possony, Victims of Politics (1979):
They estimate the body count under Mao to be 38,000,000 to 67,000,000.
Cited by G & P:
Walker Report (see below): 44.3M to 63.8M deaths.
The Government Information Office of Taiwan (18 Sept. 1970): 37M deaths in the PRC.
A Radio Moscow report (7 Apr. 1969): 26.4M people had been exterminated in China.
(NOTE: Obviously the Soviets and Taiwanese would, as enemies, be strongly motivated to exaggerate.)
Guinness Book of World Records:
Although nowadays they don't come right out and declare Mao to be the Top Dog in the Mass Killings category, earlier editions (such as 1978) did, and they cited sources which are similar, but not identical, to the Glaser & Possony sources:
On 7 Apr. 1969 the Soviet government radio reported that 26,300,000 people were killed in China, 1949-65.
In April 1971 the cabinet of the government of Taiwan reported 39,940,000 deaths for the years 1949-69.
The Walker Report (see below): between 32,2500,000 and 61,700,000.
Harff and Gurr:
KMT cadre, rich peasants, landlords (1950-51): 800,000-3,000,000
Cultural Revolution (1966-75): 400,000-850,000
John Heidenrich, How to Prevent Genocide: A Guide for Policymakers, Scholars, and the Concerned Citizen: 27M death toll, incl. 2M in Cultural Revolution
Paul Johnson doesn't give an overall total, but he gives estimates for the principle individual mass dyings of the Mao years:
Land reform, first years of PRC: at least 2 million people perished.
Great Leap Forward: "how many millions died ... is a matter of conjecture."
Cultural Revolution: 400,000, calling the 3 Feb. 1979 estimate by Agence France Presse, "The most widely respected figure".
Meisner, Maurice, Mao's China and After (1977, 1999), doesn't give an overall total either, but he does give estimates for the three principle mass dyings of the Mao years:
Terror against the counterrevolutionaries: 2 million people executed during the first three years of the PRC.
Great Leap Forward: 15-30 million famine-related deaths.
Cultural Revolution: 400,000, citing a 1979 estimate by Agence France Presse.
R. J. Rummel:
Estimate:
Democide: 34,361,000 (1949-75)
The principle episodes being...
All movements (1949-58): 11,813,000
incl. Land Reform (1949-53): 4,500,000
Cult. Rev. (1964-75): 1,613,000
Forced Labor (1949-75): 15,000,000
Great Leap Forward (1959-63): 5,680,000 democides
War: 3,399,000
Famine: 34,500,000
Great Leap Forward: 27M famine deaths
TOTAL: 72,260,000

Cited in Rummel:
Li, Cheng-Chung (Republic of China, 1979): 78.86M direct/indirect deaths.
World Anti-Communist League, True Facts of Maoist Tyranny (1971): 64.5M
Glaser & Possony: 38 to 67M (see above)
Walker Report, 1971 (see below): 31.75M to 58.5M casualties of Communism (excluding Korean War).
Current Death Toll of International Communism (1979): 39.9M
Stephen R. Shalom (1984), Center for Asian Studies, Deaths in China Due To Communism: 3M to 4M death toll, excluding famine.
Walker, Robert L., The Human Cost of Communism in China (1971, report to the US Senate Committee of the Judiciary) "Casualties to Communism" (deaths):
1st Civil War (1927-36): .25-.5M
Fighting during Sino-Japanese War (1937-45): 50,000
2nd Civil War (1945-49): 1.25M
Land Reform prior to Liberation: 0.5-1.0M
Political liquidation campaigns: 15-30M
Korean War: 0.5-1.234M
Great Leap Forward: 1-2M
Struggle with minorities: 0.5-1.0M
Cultural Revolution: .25-.5M
Deaths in labor camps: 15-25M
TOTAL: 34.3M to 63.784M
TOTAL FOR PRC: 32M to 59.5M
July 17, 1994, Washington Post (Great Leap Forward 1959-61)
Shanghai University journal, Society: > 40 million
Cong Jin: 40 million
Chen Yizi: 43 million in the famine. 80 million total as a result of Mao's policies.
Weekly Standard, 29 Sept. 1997, "The Laogai Archipelago" by D. Aikman:
Between 1949 and 1997, 50M prisoners passed through the labor camps, and 15,000,000 died (citing Harry Wu)
WHPSI: 1,633,319 political executions and 25,961 deaths from political violence, 1948-77. TOTAL: 1,659,280
Analysis: If we line up the 14 sources which claim to be complete, the median falls in the 45.75 to 52.5 million range, so you probably can't go wrong picking a final number from this neighborhood. Depending on how you want to count some of the incomplete estimates (such as Becker and Meisner) and whether to count a source twice (or thrice, as with Walker) if it's referenced by two different authorities, you can slide the median up and down the scale by many millions. Keep in mind, however, that official Chinese records are hidden from scrutiny, so most of these numbers are pure guesses. It's pointless to get attached to any one of them, because the real number could easily be half or twice any number here.
Perhaps a better way of estimating would be to add up the individual components. The medians here are:
Purges, etc. during the first few years: 2M (10 estimates)
Great Leap Forward: 31-33M (14 estimates)
Cultural Revolution: 1M (13 estimates)
Ethnic Minorities, primarily Tibetans: 750-900T (8 estimates, see below)
Labor Camps: 20M (5 estimates)
This produces a total of some 54,750,000 to 56,900,000 deaths. The weak link in this calculation is in the Labor Camp numbers for which we only have 5 estimates.
Notice that many early body counts (such as Walker) completely miss the famine during the Great Leap Forward, which was largely unknown in the west until around 1980. There are two contradictory ways to assess those early estimates which ignore the famine:
"If these are the numbers that they came up with without the famine, imagine how high the true number will be once you add the famine deaths."
"Can we trust any of these numbers? After all, if they missed such a huge famine, they can't have known very much about what was going on inside China."
... so this line of reasoning will get us nowhere. In fact, the median of the 7 estimate that predate 1980 is 45.7M, which is almost the same as the median of the 7 estimates that post-date 1980 -- 58M. (At this scale, a 12M difference counts as "almost the same".)


Tibet (1950 et seq.): 600 000
Chinese occupation. (For the most part, it's already been included in the numbers above.)
Free Tibet Campaign [ http://www.freetibet.org/info/facts/fact1.html]
Tibetans killed by the Chinese since 1950: 1,200,000
Died in prisons and labour camps between 1950 and 1984: up to 260,000
1959 Uprising: 430,000 died
K. in Reprisals: 87,000
Our Times: 1,200,000
Courtois: 600,000 - 1,200,000
Walker, Robert: 500,000-1,000,000 (all ethnic minorities)
Rummel: 375,000 democides inflicted on etnic minorities
... incl 150,000 Tibetans
Porter: 100,000 to 150,000.
Eckhardt:
1950-51 War: 2,000 civ.
1956-59 Revolt: 60,000 civ. + 40,000 mil. = 100,000
Harff and Gurr: 65,000 Tibetan nationalists, landowners, Buddhists killed, 1959
Small & Singer say that China lost 40,000 soldiers in Tibet between 1956 and '59.

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Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II (1939–45). It was executed by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), and in the context of the burgeoning Soviet–American Cold War (1945–91), one purpose of Operation Paperclip was to deny German scientific knowledge and expertise to the USSR and the UK.

Although the JIOA’s recruitment of German scientists began after the European Allied victory (8 May 1945), US President Harry Truman did not formally order the execution of Operation Paperclip until August 1945. Truman's order expressly excluded anyone found “to have been a member of the Nazi Party, and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism.” Said restriction would have rendered ineligible most of the scientists the JIOA had identified for recruitment, among them rocket scientists Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, and the physician Hubertus Strughold, each earlier classified as a “menace to the security of the Allied Forces”. To circumvent President Truman’s anti-Nazi order and the Allied Potsdam and Yalta agreements, the JIOA worked independently to create false employment and political biographies for the scientists. The JIOA also expunged from the public record the scientists' Nazi Party memberships and régime affiliations. Once “bleached” of their Nazism, the US Government granted the scientists security clearance to work in the United States. Paperclip, the project’s operational name, derived from the paperclips used to attach the scientists’ new political personæ to their “US Government Scientist” JIOA personnel files.

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The Gehlen Organization supplies the U.S. with its only intelligence on the Soviet Union for the next ten years.. However, much of the "intelligence" the former Nazis provide is bogus. Gehlen inflates Soviet military capabilities at a time when Russia is still rebuilding its devastated society, in order to inflate his own importance to the Americans (who might otherwise punish him). In 1948, Gehlen almost convinces the Americans that war is imminent, and the West should make a preemptive strike. In the 50s he produces a fictitious "missile gap."

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Originally posted by SignyM:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1945

Operation PAPERCLIP – While other American agencies are hunting down Nazi war criminals for arrest, the U.S. intelligence community is smuggling them into America, unpunished, for their use against the Soviets.

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The Gehlen Organization supplies the U.S. with its only intelligence on the Soviet Union for the next ten years...

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Originally posted by SignyM:
LAOS 1950-1973
The United States was involved in Laos since roughly 1950, first supporting the French colonial power and then fighting the popular Pathet Lao. Eventually the United States CIA will launch "the largest paramilitary operation in the history of the Agency", and more bombs will be dropped on Laos then four time the number of bombs dropped on Europe during all of World War II, creating a commercial airline front called CAT (later re-named to Air America), allegedly smuggling drugs to fund black ops.

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

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Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
This deliberate starvation, leading many desperate prisoners to resort to acts of cannibalism...

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Some of the most extreme violence took place in the southern province of Guangxi, where a Chinese journalist found a "disturbing picture of official compliance in the systematic killing and cannibalization of individuals in the name of political revolution and 'class struggle.'"[31] Senior party historians acknowledge that "In a few places, it even happened that 'counterrevolutionaries' were beaten to death and in the most beastly fashion had their flesh and liver consumed [by their killers]."[32] Not even the minor children of 'enemies of the people' were spared, as more than a few were tortured and bludgeoned to death, dismembered and some of their organs - hearts, livers, and genitals - eaten during 'human flesh banquets'.[33] As a result of this frenzied killing and 'obligatory cannibalism', an estimated 100,000 people were killed in Guangxi alone.[33]

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Originally posted by SignyM:
CUBA 1906-09, 1912, 1917-33
Troops in Cuba multiple times, in support of the usual American economic interests.

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PANAMA 1901-14, 1918-20, 1925, 1958, 1964, 1989-?
US troops sent in to support the usual American economic interests.

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URUGUAY 1947, 1965+
Bombers deployed in 1947.

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The US Office of Public Safety (OPS) began operating in Uruguay in 1965. The US Office of Public Safety trained Uruguayan police and intelligence in policing and interrogation techniques. US support continues through the military rule 1973-1985.

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HAITI 1914-1934
Military occupation "began on July 28, 1915, when 330 US Marines landed at Port-au-Prince on the authority of then President of the United States Woodrow Wilson to "protect American and foreign" interests." including the National City Bank of New York. During this time, large sums of money were extracted from the Haitian economy to repay foreign debt.

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PHILIPPINES 1898-1910
Seized from Spain in a war in which 600,000 were killed.

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SAUDI ARABIA
Continuing United States support for a monarchy which violates human rights and supports terrorism.

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ISRAEL
Continuing support for a government which systematically violates the human rights of Palestinians, holding them in an "open air prison" which is surrounded on all side, forbidden to import/ export any goods, routinely bombed and occasionally invaded by an overwhelmingly superior force.

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Have not listed all of our interventions, invasions, etc. For example, did not discuss our political support/ recognition of various regimes such as Franco's Spain, but will briefly discuss this list, respond to previous posts, and then move on to the effects of our economic policies.

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