Books like On Power and Ideology: The Managua Lectures

Benjamin Franklin defined “the father of the nation” as the man who “removed Natives to give his own people room.” De Tocqueville was impressed with how America’s nastiest violence didn’t stick to them morally. He said, it was impossible to destroy people with “more respect for the laws of humanity”. Of Washington’s merciless attack on the Iroquois in 1799, Noam writes, “Rarely have hypocrisy and moral cowardice been so explicit, and admired with such reverence for centuries.” Only in the 1960’s did this formerly secret part of our history come to light, leading Noam to see Leftist historical revisionism as another reason the 60’s mainstream counterculture had to be stopped by the elite (Trilateral Commission, etc.). “The primary concern of U.S. foreign policy is to guarantee the freedom to rob and exploit. Elsewhere I (meaning Noam) have referred to this as ‘the Fifth Freedom’, one that was not enunciated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” In the third world, the victim of the Fifth Freedom is usually the indigenous. National Security does not mean security of the People, it means security of the securing of the Fifth Freedom. “Successful independent development in a poor country subjected to U.S. control might inspire others facing similar problems to pursue the same course, so that the whole system of imperial domination will erode.” The American press continues to never mention the huge American security risk of “false alarms that could be perceived as Nuclear attacks in the range of 43 to 255 per year.” In just one case, Stanislav Petrov’s refusal of orders stopped a global nuclear war from being triggered. In 1786, Thomas Jefferson said the plan was to take both North and South America in time, and that the Spanish in Latin America were acting merely as placeholders for us. Simon Bolivar soon after referred to the U.S. as “destined to plague and torment the continent in the name of freedom.” Then Noam reveals an odious Woodrow Wilson private quote before he became President about how we will do what we want “even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process.” Wilson was soon to invade both Mexico and Hispaniola to begin their “outrage”. Then this book includes the most important paragraph from the 1948 George Kennan Planning Study (which every American should read), about how we should be an unapologetic empire and ignore all empathetic urgings about the victims. This chilling document was top secret for good reason. “The idea that the government has direct responsibility for the welfare of the people” was considered by planners such as George Kennan (actually considered a dove) to be communism. And communists are traitors. The job of the US in Latin America became “to eliminate the danger of independent political developments.” US planners have long known know the best way to stop nationalism is through “domestic military forces” – in other Noam books, he refers to this as the switch from external to internal security – a turn against one’s own population. The late 40’s planners had written that it would take 15 or 20 years for Russia just to get over “its war time losses” – naturally to keep the Cold War afloat, such info was kept from the American people. Noam brilliantly points out that from the US elite vantage point in post-war Europe, “the threat in Europe was Democratic politics” (Greece, and Italy) The threat was not Soviet aggression but any form of national capitalism plotting its own course. “They may spread the virus of independence, freedom and concern for human welfare, infecting regions beyond.” The US began a post-war “program, worldwide in scope, to destroy the anti-fascist resistance and popular organizations associated with it”. For example, US forces moved through Italy restoring fascists to power “while dispersing the resistance, which had fought courageously against six Nazi divisions.” Noam mentions the death toll of 30-40,000 peasant South Koreans on Cheju Island, due to US interference and Thailand’s U.S. sponsored candidate, Songkram who brought child slavery, and massive corruption. Having read over 40 books by Noam, this may be my favorite. This book is so densely packed with goodies that every American should read and know. Normally, I can distill any Goodreads book in one page of bullet points but this time it took me only to page 35! To continue this book review to the end would mean posting something five times this length, so I have cut it here. I used to think if Americans read one book it should be Howard Zinn’s People’s History. Now, I’d say read this book first because this book will tell you (get the new Haymarket reissue with the white cover) page for page, more truth about American History and Foreign Policy than any other single book I’ve read.