In July 1973 the detection of Nixon’s taping system would lead to the discovery of the Watergate cover-up, the indictment of key members of the White House staff and the end of the Nixon presidency. Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment. One of the original articles of impeachment addressed the concealment of the Cambodian bombing from Congress. When the impeachment was dropped so was the investigation into the secret bombing. ibid.
Last year Kissinger was enjoying a trip to Paris when a French judge served him with a subpoena to answer questions about US involvement in Chile thirty years ago. That issue was Operation Condor: a campaign of murder and torture conducted by the regime of Augusto Pinochet. ibid.
Early in 1970 Pepsi and IT&T were concerned about political developments in Chile ... [Salvador] Allende promised to nationalise Chile’s copper industry, a direct threat to IT&T and of concern to other American corporations. ibid.
After Schneider’s death Allende was elected, but the efforts of Kissinger and Nixon to overthrow Allende would ultimately succeed. In 1973 military forces launched a coup in Santiago, killing Allende. Augusto Pinochet would assume power and begin a reign of terror that would last seventeen years. The date was September 11th. ibid.
I can’t think of a time when we’ve had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian. Dick Cheney, CEO Halliburton Corporation 1998
The Middle East with two-thirds of the world’s oil ... is still where the prize ultimately lies. Dick Cheney
Is it a coincidence that American military positioning happens to take place in central Asia, the Persian Gulf and other oil-rich regions of the world? Is fighting terrorism the real motive? Or is Washington more interested in grabbing whatever oil reserves are left, fuelling terrorism and war as a result? But massive deployment requires massive manpower. The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror, 2005
Who is the biggest violator of the non-proliferation treaty? The United States of America. We signed a pledge that we would begin to disarm and we’re not doing it; we’re expanding our nukes. Who the hell are we going to nuke? Mike Gravel, 2009
It is essential that no country gain ascendancy over the United States in the development, manufacture and tactical use of Atomic weapons. Admiral William H P Blandy
Q) What right have you – when I mean you, I mean the CIA, the United States government, or any foreign power, what right do you have to do what you do in other countries?
A) National Security Interests ... That’s just tough ... We’ll intervene whenever we decide it’s in our national security interests to intervene. And if you don’t like it, lump it. Get used to it, world. We’re not going to put up with nonsense [democracy], and if our interests are threatened, we’re going to do it. Major John Hunt, CIA Chief of Operations South Americas
What we wanted to do was have a terror campaign. Howard Hunt, leader of CIA plot to oust Arbenz and later conspirator in Watergate break-in
The dirty little secret is that both Houses of Congress are irrelevant. America’s domestic policy is now being run by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve. America’s foreign policy is now being run by the International Monetary Fund. When the President decides to go to war, he no longer needs a declaration of war from Congress. Robert Reich, 7th January 1999 USA Today
Our foreign policy has made a wreck of this planet. I’m always in Africa ... And when I go to these places I see American policy written on the walls of oppression everywhere. Harry Belafonte
The people of Nicaragua were suffering oppression. This made us develop an awareness which eventually led us to commit ourselves to the struggle against the domination of the capitalists of our country in collusion with the US government, i.e. imperialism. Daniel Ortega
America is an empire. I hope you know that now. All empires, by definition, are bumbling, shambolic, bullying, bureaucratic affairs, as certain of the rightness of their cause in infancy, as they are corrupted by power in their dotage. Felix Dennis
I really think Chile was probably the bassist and most corrupt of all the actions, because it had nothing to do with national security. Seymour Hersh, author The Price of Power
It is the firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG [United States Government] and America’s hand be well hidden. CIA cable to Chile
The only reason Chile exists is because of Pinochet. What human price? Give me a break! Thousands? You count them. What thousands? Don’t talk to me about Truth Commissions. There aren’t thousands. Duane Clarridge, CIA Head of Chile Operations 1981-1984
We now know that Pinochet’s 1973 coup, which overthrew an elected government, rounded up 70,000 of its supporters, burnt their books, raped the women, tortured and murdered at least 10,000 people, was planned in the dear old democratic US by an intelligence agency which was set up ostensibly to protect democracy. The reason for the coup was that investors in Chile had become sick and tired of laws which tried, usually unsuccessfully, to keep prices down. Low prices meant low profits, and low profits for any length of time were intolerable. Paul Foot, No Time to Make Up
America is having a war with Libya and needs a local base. James Burke, Connections III: Feedback s3e1, BBC 1997
What I saw was that my own government was very much involved in what was going on in East Timor. We were providing most of the weaponry, helicopters, logistical support, food, uniforms, ammunition, all the expendables that the Indonesians needed. C Philip Liechty, Senior CIA Officer Indonesia 1975, televised interview
Suharto was explicitly given the green light to do what he did. ibid.
12 August 1953, Washington DC: A top secret meeting is convened at the White House. Its task: to deal with a brand-new security threat – a small country in South America – Guatemala. CIA Declassified: The Deadly Phantom Coup, Yesterday 2014
The decision is made – Arbenz must be removed. ibid.
The United Fruit brings in Bernays and he basically understood that what the United Fruit Company had to do was change this from being a popularly elected government that was doing some things that were good for the people there into this being very close to the American shore, a threat to American democracy. Being at a time in the Cold War when Americans responded to issues of the red scare and what communism might do. He was trying to transform this and brilliantly transform it into an issue of a communist threat close to our shores. Larry Tye, journalist Boston Globe
Iran 1953: The CIA mounted its first covert operation to overthrow a foreign government. The target was the prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh. He held power legitimately through his country’s parliamentary process. And he was popular. Bill Moyers, The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, 1987
Guatemala 1954: Flushed with success America’s Secret Government decided another troublesome leader must go. This time it was Jacobo Arbenz, the democratically elected President of Guatemala ... President Arbenz had admired Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his government voted often with the American position at the United Nations. But in trying to bring a new deal to Guatemala, Arbenz committed two sins in the eyes of the Eisenhower administration: first, when he opened the system to all political parties he recognised the communists too. Arbenz also embarked on a massive land reform program. Less than 3% of the landowners owned 70% of the land. ibid.
The US military, unlike any other, maintains a doctrine of global power projection: that it should have the ability, through roughly 800 overseas military bases, to intervene with deadly force absolutely anywhere on the planet. In a way, though, land forces are secondary; at least since World War II, the key to US military doctrine has always been a reliance on air power. The United States has fought no war in which it did not control the skies, and it has relied on aerial bombardment far more systematically than any other military – in its recent occupation of Iraq, for instance, even going so far as to bomb residential neighborhoods of cities ostensibly under its own control. The essence of US military predominance in the world is, ultimately, the fact that it can, at will, drop bombs, with only a few hours’ notice, at absolutely any point on the surface of the planet. No other government has ever had anything remotely like this sort of capability. In fact, a case could well be made that it is this very power that holds the entire world monetary system, organized around the dollar, together. David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years 2011