And some of the US' deals and dodginess propping up hideous regimes purely cos they were so right wing they couldn't be seen as Evil Commies (and cos they brutally repressed anyone in their own countries from any form of dissent or opposition to said brutal regimes in which communism would seem a far better option for government for those poor fucks that had to live in such totalitarian states) is hardly anything to be proud about, in my opinion. I'd be steering well clear of bringing up anything much to do with US policy in dealing with South American regimes if I were bigging up US "defence" policy
And to make it clear, I'm definitely not trying to suggest the UK was innocent in such matters cos it most certainly is not. Our government has plenty to answer to for its own part in supporting fascism overseas cos it suits their own agendas. Soviet communism was a Bad Thing but whether the ends justified the means in hastening its collapse is highly debatable, I'd say.
No arguments here shambles. The death squads in El Salvador which was American backed. At that time there was fear of the "Domino theory" that states would fall into the Soviet sphere until we had one at our border.
An author that recently passed away, a former US Army intelligence officer and former true believer discharged and wrote a book called "blowback." In the 50s
the US deposed the democratically elected head of state and replaced him with the Shaw. Then the 79' revolution took place a state that has funded terrorist organization and repressed its citizens. His point was that someday our meddeling in other countries afairs to insure a government friendly to the USA and our agenda (Iran was on the USSRs border). It started getting alot of attention post 911 as his predictions were seeming to come true
In 1967 in a military junta engineered by the CIA, the democratically elected PM of Greece was replaced by a military dictatorship. In addition to insituting a number of "reforms" like not allowed to dance in the street, outlawing certain genres of music, and almost going to war with their NATO "ally" Turkey over the Cyprus situation (you brits probably should had held on to that colony in the interest of peace), they were overthrown as a result of a popular uprising and alot of the greek ringleaders still sit in Greece's most notorious prison.
In Nicaragua, the right wing contras were in a civil war against the Sandanistas in power. Reagan was president at the time. Per our constitution, the legislature branch holds the purse strings so his adminstration had to find an alternative source for funding. The whole Iran contra scandal apparently involved cocaine being brought in from Colombia by government Jets and offloaded on USAF bases were it was sold to the American public to generate drug money. A boom for coke heads. The other part of this story was that 2 Nicaraguan nationals apparently found an entrepenerial resident of South central LA and using less problamatic methods for freeing coke from its base (Backing soda rather ether) they turned it into crack a cheap and marketable form of cocaine HCl.
This Crack epidemic spread to other US cities. Maybe the idea was that this drug was tailor made for the ghetto. At any rate their was a congressional inquiry: the Iran contra scandal, and the guilty party ( a government within a government was in effect created) was exhonorated. As a evil as drugs are, they are subservient to National security every time- Afganistan being a recent example.) So the parties involved were exonorated. The San Jose Mercury News broke the story about the drug connection if i'm not mistaken.
As far as soviet communism, my mom grew up under both German and then Communist occupation in Greece. The Communists killed my grandfather because he was a nationalist. During WWII communist and nationalist partisans were fighting the germans. In my moms sector, though, the Germans had an effective policy to stifle descent. if one german was killed 100 women and children would be machine gunned. This was an effective deterent but leaders in the communist faction got it in their heads that this would be a good recruitment tool, so killing German troops continued. Negotiations by anticommunists with the occupiers commenced. At any rate that policy was ended, otherwise i probably wouldn't be alive typing this. still there occupation was brutal and heavy handed- food preferntially went to troops. People were routinely interrogated and some would disapear.
After being liberated (thank you UK) as the country was trying to recover, the communist party in Greece saw this as an opportunity to take power (Yalta conference aside). My Grandfather, a nationalist, was assainated by the communists. Then the Communist Guerillas occupied that part of Greece (this was probably late 40s). Their occupation was brutal. Their is a movie called
Eleni that gives a taste of what life was like. They constantly feared for their life and suffered unspeakable hardships. John cusak stared in the film which is based on a true story. If the commies were hungry, kids or not, they would kick your door down and take any food you had. Lots of starvation and misery. They getting their arms through Bulgaria and had the intention of joining the soviet block. They were brutal. The local Greek Orthodox priest had 3 sons. His sons were taken- bones were broken, eyes were gouged out, fingernails removed and thrown in a ditch. The priest (they traditionally have long hair) was pulled out, fingernails removed, received a harsh beating, but they spared his eyes so he could watch his son's die as he was thrown in the pit with them. Thanks to the USA's Marshall Plan for Europe, the nationalist forces were eventually able to defeat the communists.
On my Dad's island, he left before the civil war, the Germans would pull all kinds of things like put mine fileds in parks, search you at random. People would disappear in the night. There was partisan activity on his Island but the local commander wasn't as heavy handed. having said that, people would hide food, my aunt and dad would go without food, sometimes days at a time because it was going to german troops.
Sorry for the big buzz kill. I could bring up occupation of a piece of Ireland- but the troubles of over for the most part (though the IRA got its Gun money probably mostly from the US Irish expats, maybe some from the sovs).
But the past is past, we should look to the future. Peace aint such a bad thing. We live in a better world but their is HUGE room for improvement. If I haven't put you to sleep yet, I think the answer rests in reaching out to each other, setting petty squables aside, and working together for a better world where people are free from coersion and tyrany. We should foster, encourage, not activly repress human rights. A just government derives its power from the people. It is my hope that BL doen't just disseminate acurate info and advance harm reduction, but can bring people together peacefully.
So God Save the Queen. No comment regarding Her current government- thats for you brits to decide. Then again a revolution every know and then aint a bad thing- but best done peacefuly, idealy by ballot.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")