Tibet and the CIA’s anti-China crusade

New Edition Articles from Workers World, including Sam Marcy’s 1959 “Class War in Tibet.” Updated to included reports from 2008.

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WW Publishers 55 W. 17 th St., 5th Fl, NY, NY 10011 212-627-2994 Tibet Section 1

Anti-China protest made in USA, not Tibet 1 Gary Wilson April 24, 2008 Cultural genocide: In Tibet or New Orleans? 2 Larry Hales April 10, 2008

Nepal’s revolutionaries stand with China 3 David Hoskins April 10, 2008

Cuba, Venezuela gov’ts denounce China bashing 4 April 10, 2008 Behind the anti-China Olympics campaign 5 Gary Wilson April 3, 2008 Tibet and the March 10 commemoration of the CIA’s 1959 ‘uprising’ 6 Gary Wilson March 27, 2008

Mundo obrero Tíbet y la conmemoración del ‘levantamiento’ de la CIA del 19 de marzo de 1959. 7 Gary WIlson 27 de Marzo Section 2 Bush greets the Dalai Lama Behind U.S. support for Tibetan feudalists 10 Deirdre Griswold June 2001 What’s CIA up to with the Dalai Lama? 12 Sara Flounders August 26, 1999 It was no Shangri-la: Hollywood hides Tibet’s true history 14 Gary Wilson December 4, 1997 That’s entertainment? It’s propaganda Tibet as it never was 18 Gary Wilson October 23, 1997 CIA ran Tibet contras since 1950s 22 Gary Wilson February 6, 1997 The Dalai Lama & the CIA 23 Editorial Class War in Tibet 24 Sam Marcy April 1059,

Note: This booklet has been updated. A new Section Two has been added with articles written in 2008. Also, Sam Marcy ‘s “Class War in Tibet” written in 1959 is the final entry. Reprinted from Workers World April 10, 2008 Cultural genocide: In Tibet or New Orleans? By Larry Hales has been flooded by Chinese migration by of “cultural genocide” was nearing its fifth showing data that are not denied even by decade? The Dalai Lama claims that China is the U.S., which show that most Chinese Jin says, “With the continuous social committing “cultural genocide” against the that go to Tibet usually stay for only a few progress and the advancement of produc- Tibetan people, and his claims and news years and that many who claim to live in tive forces, it’s a natural thing for some of the events unfolding in the regional Tibet only claim to do so in order to receive cultural phenomena that are attached to capital of Lhasa have captured a great deal higher pensions. relatively backward means of production of attention in the major media outlets in Western culture has infiltrated Tibet as to fade out of history. ... But the cultural the U.S. well, as it has many other societies around activities closely connected with the salt- The “cause” of Tibet and the accusation the world, but this is rarely looked upon transporting, such as singing and dancing, of “cultural genocide” are not new. “Free as “cultural genocide,” or even as cultural rituals and taboos, have been preserved.” Tibet” bumper stickers can often be seen imperialism. “We needn’t have to keep black slavery at peace rallies, and it would seem that the The Dalai Lama is a separatist, connected in the United States just in order to enjoy case of Tibet is a real national liberation to the old feudal relations that existed the Blues,” he said. “The disappearance of struggle of an oppressed people struggling in Tibet before 1959, and his claims that salt-transporting by yaks won’t lead to the for independence from an imperialist or Tibetan society was a free and open society vanishing of the cultural elements it gave colonial master. where people lived harmoniously is a mis- birth to.” He points out the millions of yuan, However, the issue of Tibet has been representation of history. Chinese currency, that have been and are foisted upon some sectors of the move- Historian Michael Parenti, in a piece being spent to maintain both the intangible ment in the U.S. in order to weaken China. titled “Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet and structural parts of Tibetan culture. The relationship between the U.S., with its Myth,” states: “Until 1959, when the Dalai This attempt at cultural preservation is aim to undermine the gains of the Chinese Lama last presided over Tibet, most of the greatly different than what happens in the revolution, and the Dalai Lama and his arable land was still organized into mano- U.S. The Hurricane Katrina tragedy and clique is an old one and goes all the way rial estates worked by serfs. These estates aftermath provide a clear illumination. back to the CIA manufactured “uprising” were owned by two social groups: the rich “The roots run deep in New Orleans” is a of 1959. secular landlords and the rich theocratic popular saying amongst Black New Orlean­ It is greatly ironic that the corporate lamas. ... ians. New Orleans is sacred ground, but media in the U.S., which operate as mouth- “Old Tibet has been misrepresented by this has not stopped local, state and federal pieces for the owners and rulers of U.S. some Western admirers as ‘a nation that officials from denying the right to return society, can use the Dalai Lama’s claim of required no police force because its people for evacuees, destroying public housing and “cultural genocide,” especially consider- voluntarily observed the laws of karma.’ entire neighborhoods, denying the right to ing that the U.S. has committed genocide In fact, it had a professional army, albeit a jobs and re-imagining and attempting to against Indigenous people and cut the small one, that served mainly as a gendar- rebuild the entire city for wealthy whites. Is ethnic/tribal ties to Africa of 40 million merie for the landlords to keep order, pro- this not cultural genocide? Black people. tect their property, and hunt down runaway The capitalist system cares nothing about At a 2002 talk sponsored by the Center serfs.” (www.michaelparenti.org) culture. Capitalism sees culture as a com- for Chinese Studies at the University of It is the destruction of the old mode of modity or subterfuge, something to use for California, Los Angeles, Barry Sautman production and property relations that profit or to undermine a people. Is this not pointed out, “The problems of Tibetans are angers the separatist movement that sur- what has happened to Black culture? typical of minorities in the era of large mod- rounds the Dalai Lama. The U.S. cares Take hip-hop culture, the musical aspect ern states.” Sautman is an associate professor nothing about Buddhism, Tibetan monks alone, and look at its history and its current of Social Science at the Hong Kong Uni- or Tibetan culture, so it never mentions state. Where hip-hop music is now from versity of Science and Technology. (www. how the culture has been preserved, or that where it was is the difference between self- international.ucla.edu) Tibet has been a part of China for centu- determination and a people determining Sautman argues that, though Chinese ries. their culture, and a system that is perpetu- culture has naturally influenced Tibetan Jin Zhigou, chief editor of the magazine ated by exploitation. culture, “By not defining cultural genocide China’s Tibet, says that the Dalai Lama Anyone with a scant knowledge of the the Tibetan exiles can label any changes and those that surround him use the fact history of the U.S. can see its hypocrisy from 1959 as cultural genocide, although that people are increasingly interested in when it comes to supporting the Dalai many of these changes could be expected to Tibetan culture to influence attitudes by Lama’s claim of “cultural genocide,” and have occurred without the issue of cultural crying “cultural genocide.” But what culture can see the real motive is to undermine the genocide arising.” would there be to spark anyone’s interest People’s Republic of China.  Sautman refutes the claim that Tibet if it were being wiped out and the process

1 workers world Reprinted from Workers World April 24, 2008 Anti-China protest made in USA, not Tibet

By Gary Wilson When size doesn’t matter political agenda being pursued by the U.S. Maybe it wasn’t the size of the event that media. It has nothing to do with the size of Most noteworthy about the protests in mattered to the big-business-controlled me- the protests. London, Paris and San Francisco that tar- dia in the U.S., but rather the message. Washington’s hidden role geted the Olympic Torch on its way to the FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Report- Beijing Olympics was their character. ing) has documented the censorship that The anti-China protests were planned Take the events in San Francisco on April dominates the U.S. media. It is a censorship in Washington, London and Paris, not in 9. The biggest numbers to turn out were imposed not by the government but by the Tibet or the Tibetan exile communities. not protesters. They were from the Chinese owners of the media. The political message In fact, Washington’s heavy role in the community—thousands according to an of an event determines whether it is cov- protests, using Tibet and Tibetans as a cover NPR report—and came to show their sup- ered in the news media or censored out. for an anti-China agenda, has spurred public port for China. There may have been nearly Most glaring has been the lack of cover­ criticism from no less than the former leader as many police—more than 3,000 accord- age of anti-war protests in all the U.S. media, of the Free Tibet Campaign. ing to city officials. from newspapers to television and radio. Patrick French, once the director of that The anti-China protests were small in Several FAIR reports showed the sys- group in London, wrote an opinion piece numbers. The Guardian (British) reported tematic way that the media have ignored or that the New York Times published on about 300 in San Francisco; other wire distorted all protests against the Iraq war, March 22. He said the exile community reports said simply hundreds. for example. Demonstrations that drew led by the Dalai Lama in India is making The small numbers might be a surprise hundreds of thousands not only got no outlandish demands and claims. if you’d followed the big news coverage attention in the days or weeks leading up to For example, part of what he calls the leading up to the event. No protest in them, but sometimes were never covered at Dalai Lama’s “Hollywood strategy” is to lay recent memory has received such major all or were only barely mentioned. claim to a so-called Greater Tibet, demand- media coverage in the week or two before The April 2003 FAIR magazine reported: ing territory never considered part of Tibet. it happened. Such media coverage gives the “In its news coverage in the period before Another example French gives is the impression that a big event is to take place. the invasion [of Iraq] began on March 19, claim made by the “Free Tibet” groups in The small numbers of anti-China pro- the New York Times played down opposi- London and Washington that 1.2 million testers might be attributed to the fact that tion to war and exaggerated support for Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese the protesters claimed to be representing George W. Bush’s Iraq policy—in ways that since the Dalai Lama regime was over- the interests of the people of Tibet, but they ranged from questionable to dishonest. ... turned in 1959. His own exhaustive re- were not themselves Tibetan. There were at “After the invasion began, when more search, he says, has turned up no evidence most a handful of Tibetans. than 100,000 people in New York City to back this claim. Actually, there are few Tibetans outside demonstrated on March 22, it was front- Such distortions and misinformation Tibet. The exile community is small—esti­ page news the next day in the Washington are put forward not by Tibetans in Tibet, mates put it at 100,000 to 200,000 at most— Post and the Boston Globe. But the New French says. They are put forward by those and almost all are in Nepal or India. So it is York Times, whose offices are two blocks with a hidden agenda who are behind the not Tibetans who are in London, Paris or away from where the anti-war march “Free Tibet” campaign. San Francisco, but non-Tibetans—mainly started, placed the story on page B11,” “The International Campaign for Tibet, North Americans or Western Europeans— FAIR concluded. based in Washington, is now a more pow- who are protesting against China, claiming The contrast with the coverage of the erful and effective force on global opinion that they speak for the Tibetans. anti-China protests today shows the than the Dalai Lama’s outfit in northern In- dia. The European and American pro-Tibet organizations are the tail that wags the dog of the Tibetan government-in-exile,” French wrote. Reprinted from Workers World April 10, 2008 Nepal’s revolutionaries stand with China

By David Hoskins “In the 1940s, Tibet was a feudal theoc- Nepal (Maoist), has waged a heroic struggle racy with a dual papacy—the Dalai Lama since 1996 against a brutal feudal monarchy While China gears up to host the 2008 and the Panchen Lama. By all accounts, similar to that of pre-revolutionary Tibet. Olympic Games in Beijing, U.S. imperialism the Dalai Lama was considered supreme in The similarity of their struggles has given the and its allies have embarked on a concerted political matters.” (“It was no Shangri-la: CPN(M) a hands-on perspective of the lies, campaign to undermine China’s global Hollywood hides Tibet’s true history,” WW, violations of sovereignty and violence that image and its ability to peacefully host the Dec. 4, 1997) imperialism is willing to perpetuate against Olympics. “The vast majority of the people of Tibet liberation movements. As workers sit in front of their televi- were serfs. A small part of the population, With this in mind, the CPN(M) issued a sion sets and watch the nightly news they about 5 percent, was slaves to the nobility. statement of unequivocal support for China are faced with an Orwellian contradiction “Women were considered inferior to in the face of U.S.-sponsored violence between the images that appear before their men,” Wilson reports. in that country. The statement “strongly eyes and the commentary of the newscast- Capital punishment and the whip were condemns the incident that put at risk the ers reporting on the story. The images common forms of punishment, according freedom and sovereignty of the Chinese clearly show rioters, many in monks’ robes, to Gorkar Mebon, the mayor of Lhasa in the people.” attacking motorcyclists and taxi drivers, 1950s. The U.S. and its imperialist allies support while shops are being burned to the ground. “After the overthrow of Tibetan feudal- a false “liberation” struggle in Tibet against The image of a peaceful Tibetan libera- ism, in 1959 the serfs opened an exhibition the Chinese government while opposing tion movement led by a benevolent spiritual of the torture instruments used against an authentic revolutionary movement in leader—the Dalai Lama—has been seared them,” Wilson says. Nepal against the remnants of an autocratic into the consciousness of many of the The Chinese Communist Party led a feudal monarchy. world’s workers, particularly young workers revolutionary struggle to help Tibetans In neither instance does imperialism and students. It is a carefully crafted image liberate themselves from this barbaric genuinely care about democracy, freedom It is also a lie. The image has helped feudal serfdom. Dalai and his allies have or human rights. In both instances the goal spearhead a multimillion dollar industry never forgiven the Chinese government for is to undermine China’s independence and that markets “Free Tibet” T-shirts and liberating the Tibetans. influence in the region and to ensure that paraphernalia and selling Dalai’s books the revolutionary momentum in Nepal extolling his versions of “peace” and world Nepal’s revolutionaries stand does not spread to India, Bangladesh or “ h ar m ony.” in solidarity with China Bhutan so that private property and capital- The feudal reality of Tibet was very differ- The revolutionary movement in neighbor- ist profits will be protected against the le- ent. Workers World’s Gary Wilson wrote a ing Nepal, led by the Communist Party of gitimate interests of the oppressed peoples. detailed history of Tibet:

3 workers world Reprinted from Workers World April 10 2008

Cuba, Venezuela gov’ts denounce China bashing

Cuba condemns campaign CNN accused of distorting Venezuela’s Chávez blames against China Olympics Tibet events U.S. for Tibet unrest By Prensa Latina By Prensa Latina By combined wire services Havana Havana On March 24, Venezuela’s socialist Presi- The Cuban government condemned the Chinese internauts (internet astronauts, dent Hugo Chávez charged that the United attempts to organize a politically motivated tr.) accused CNN and other Western media States was behind the violent protests in crusade to make the 2008 Olympic Games today of distorting violent actions in Tibet Tibet. He said the protests were aimed at in the city of Beijing, China, fail this year. aimed at damaging China’s image. trying to destabilize China. The Cuban National TV News Report Internauts, according to Xinhua news “The U.S. imperialists want to divide published a statement pointing out the Cu- agency, are using their personal Web sites China. And they’re causing problems ban authorities’ opposition to any interfer- and chat forums to publish real photos of there in Tibet,” Chávez said in his speech. ence in Chinese domestic affairs. the events in Tibet, which are later cut and “They’re trying to sabotage the Olympics “A media campaign is being carried out, edited by CNN and other media. in Beijing, and behind that is the hand of followed by actions destined to undermine A picture widely spread shows partici- imperialism.” international trust in the capacity of the pants in riots throwing stones and inflam- “We ask the world to support China to Chinese government to fulfill its commit- mable bottles against a military truck, but neutralize this plan, which aims to sabotage ments,” the text said. in CNN the image is cut, showing only a the Olympics,” he added. The Cuban statement added that “it is bunch of people running. “You see the images of the violence in evident these disturbances have been pre- Xinhua reported that it had tried to Tibet. Who is that against? Against China,” pared and promoted from abroad.” obtain some commentary on this from the Chávez said. “It’s the U.S. empire that wants CNN office in Beijing, but CNN’s phones to weaken China, because China is rising were either permanently busy or else no- up,” Chávez said. body answered the calls. Reuters, which could not just report this The slanderous way the information is news, added a commentary: “Leftists in presented also was highlighted by China Latin America see the Tibetan indepen- Daily, which showed how a German daily dence movement led by the Dalai Lama as newspaper published photos of clashes be- a pro-Washington group of conservative tween Nepalese police and youths, present- monks.” ing them as taken in Tibet. The Berlin Morning Post published a photo of a youth of the Han ethnic group— the majority in China—wounded in Lhasa, who the police rescued and took to a safe place, but daily reporters turned him into “a Tibetan insurgent arrested by the police.” Some Western media have intentionally omitted mentioning the cruelty of the riot- ers, revealing the media’s hypocrisy when talking of objectivity and impartiality, said Xinhua. These media have barely mentioned the five women store workers who were burned alive when the rioters set fire to the com- mercial outlet.

4 workers world Reprinted from Workers World April 3, 2008

Behind the anti-China Olympics campaign

By Gary Wilson years—the Cuban press generally refers to includes several former assistant secretaries RWB as an ultra-reactionary organization of the U.S. State Department and former Can there be any doubt that the U.S. with ties to counterrevolutionary terrorists. U.S. AID officials. government is behind the attacks on China At the time of the U.S. contra war against The Tibet Fund is another NED payee, targeting the 2008 Olympic Games in the Sandinista government, the RWB car- as is the Tibet Information Network Beijing? ried on operations against Nicaragua. and the Tibetan Literary Society, Barker The events that unfolded at the lighting of Today it also has operations targeting reports. Also getting funds from the NED the Olympic flame March 24 in Greece were Vene­zuela, Bolivia, Iran, People’s Korea, is the Tibetan Review Trust Society, which most revealing. A protest briefly disrupted and the Palestinians, according to a report publishes the English-only Tibetan Review the ceremonies. The news reports all said by French journalist Salim Lamrani. (“The magazine. Finally, Barker says, the NED that the protest was about Tibet. deceit of Reporters Without Borders,” ZNet. also set up the Voice of Tibet short-wave Three protesters were arrested, but then com) radio station. immediately released. None were Tibetan. RWB was merely fulfilling its contract About 38 percent of the U.S. govern- The three French men, it turns out, are all with the U.S. government when it carried ment’s nonmilitary China-related programs from a notorious right-wing organization out the little disruption of the Olympic are allocated through the NED. According that’s funded by the governments of France Games opening ceremony. It got maximum to the NED’s Web site, other recipients of and the United States as well as some of the publicity in the compliant U.S. media for its its China funds include the Gu-Chu-Sum richest capitalists in the world. They all are anti-China message. Movement of Tibet, the Tibetan Women’s employees of the outfit called Reporters Association and the Longsho Youth Move- Without Borders. NED: CIA of the 21st century ment of Tibet. Based in France, the group gets fund- The shadowy hand of the National All this raises more questions than ing from the U.S. government’s National Endowment for Democracy can be found answers about what is now happening in Endowment for Democracy as well as the in many of the anti-China reports over the China. Many events that are reported to be Soros Foundation and the Center for a Free last few weeks. about Tibet focus on the 2008 Olympics in Cuba. U.S. State Department Special Envoy The NED is a U.S. government agency Beijing. Like the disruption of the Olympic Otto Reich is a trustee of the Center. He that does in the post-Cold War era much torch lighting in Greece, the commentators was also the lawyer for the Bacardi liquor of what the CIA had been doing during quoted most frequently in the U.S. media dynasty that was kicked out of Cuba, along the U.S. counter-revolutionary operations are not Tibetans; most are from the U.S. with the hated dictator Fulgencio Batista. against the Soviet Union. In fact, that’s and say they are speaking for the Tibetans. The president of the Center is Frank Calzón, almost exactly how its role was described While there are problems in Tibet, some a former leader of the terrorist organization by the NED’s first acting president, Allen acknowledged by the Chinese government, Cuban American National Foundation. Weinstein, who said, “A lot of what we [the the anti-Olympics campaign appears to be NED] do today was done covertly 25 years based in Washington, not Tibet. Reporters Without Borders ago by the CIA.” (Washington Post, Sept. The current leaders of People’s China unmasked 22, 1991) have chosen what they call the market road “Reporters Without Borders Unmasked” In the U.S., little is known about the NED to socialism. They attribute their great is the title of a report by Diana Barahona except for its public relations handouts. The industrial boom to this policy. But capital- on Counterpunch.org. RWB has an “obses- big business-controlled press usually just ist market relations by their very character sion” with Cuba, which Barahona says can repeats what’s in those handouts. breed inequality and promote divisions be directly traced to its funding. What may Australian writer Michael Barker, in a among peoples, breaking down the bonds not be obvious is that the Center for a Free report last Aug. 13 published by Canada- of socialist solidarity. Nevertheless, China Cuba is a front organization for U.S. covert based Global Research, detailed at that time still retains strong traditions and political, operations against Cuba. It is completely the rise of groups aimed at breaking Tibet social and economic institutions based on funded by the U.S. Agency for International away from China, all of which were NED- its great revolutionary past. Development, an agency that has long funded. The question is to what extent rising in- fronted for U.S. covert operations. The International Campaign for Tibet, equalities may have facilitated the imperial- RWB does not just target Cuba, though for example, not only is funded by the ist campaign against China now focused on Cuba has been its primary target for many NED but also has a board of directors that Tibet. 

5 workers world Reprinted from Workers World March 17, 2008 Tibet and the March 10 commemoration of the CIA’s 1959 ‘uprising’ By Gary Wilson schools, hospitals, banks, power and com- within Tibet—all tied to the upcoming munications facilities and media organiza- Beijing Olympics. Has Tibet become the front line of a new tions. They set fire to passing vehicles, they This was followed by a call this past Janu- national liberation struggle? Or is something chased after and beat passengers on the ary for an “uprising” in Tibet, issued by or- else happening there? street, and they launched assaults on shops, ganizations based in India. The news report The U.S. news media are filled with stories telecommunication service outlets and from Jan. 25 said that the “Tibetan People’s about events unfolding in Tibet. Each news government buildings. Their behavior has Uprising Movement” was established Jan. 4 report, however, seems to include a note that caused severe damage to the life and proper- to focus on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The much of what they are reporting cannot be ty of local people, and seriously undermined beginning date for the “uprising” was to be confirmed. The sources of the reports are law and order in Lhasa. March 10. shadowy and unknown. If past practice is “‘Thirteen innocent civilians were burned At the time the call was issued, U.S. any indicator, it is likely that the U.S. State or stabbed to death in the riot in Lhasa on Ambassador to India David Mulford was Department and the CIA are their primary March 14, and 61 police were injured, six meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharam- sources. of them seriously wounded,’ said Qiangba sala, India. U.S. Undersecretary of State One frequently quoted source is John Puncog. Paula Dobriansky made a similar visit to Ackerly. Who is Ackerly? As president of the “Statistics also show that rioters set fire to Dharamsala last November. Dobriansky is International Campaign for Tibet, he and his more than 300 locations, including residen- also a member of the neocon Project for group appear to work closely with the U.S. tial houses and 214 shops, and smashed and a New American Century. She has been government, both the State Department and burned 56 vehicles. ... involved in the so-called color revolutions Congress, as part of its operations concern- “Qiangba Puncog also claimed that secu- in Eastern Europe. ing Tibet. During the Cold War, Ackerly’s rity personnel did not carry or use any lethal Phayul.com reports that the Tibet “Upris- Washington-based job was to work with weapons in dealing with the riot last Friday. ... ing” group’s statement says they are acting “dissidents” in Eastern Europe, particularly “The violence was the result of a con- “in the spirit of the 1959 Uprising.” Romania in 1978-80. spiracy between domestic and overseas A private international security agency in groups that advocate ‘Tibet independence,’ The 1959 uprising Washington, Harbor Lane Associates, lists according to Qiangba Puncog. ‘The Dalai Knowing more about the 1959 “uprising” Ackerly and the International Campaign for clique masterminded, planned and carefully might help in understanding today’s events Tibet as its clients, along with former CIA Di- organized the riot.’ in Tibet. rector and U.S. President George H.W. Bush “According to Qiangba Puncog, on March In 2002 a book titled “The CIA’s Secret and former Pentagon chief William Cohen. 10, 49 years ago, the slave owners of old War in Tibet” was published by the Uni- AP, Reuters and the other Western news Tibet launched an armed rebellion aimed versity Press of Kansas. The two authors— agencies all quote Ackerly as a major source at splitting the country. That rebellion was Kenneth Conboy of the Heritage Founda- for exaggerated reports about the clashes that quickly quelled. Every year since 1959, some tion and James Morrison, an Army veteran have just occurred in Tibet. For example, separatists inside and outside China have trainer for the CIA—proudly detail how the MSNBC on March 15 reported: held activities around the day of the rebel- CIA set up and ran Tibet’s so-called resis- “John Ackerly, of the International lion. ... tance movement. The Dalai Lama himself Campaign for Tibet, a group that supports “Any secessionist attempt to sabotage was on the CIA payroll and approved the demands for Tibetan autonomy, said in an Tibet’s stability will not gain people’s support CIA’s plans for the armed uprising. e-mailed statement he feared ‘hundreds of and is doomed to fail, he said.” The CIA put the Dalai Lama’s brother, Tibetans have been arrested and are being Gyalo Thodup, in charge of the bloody 1959 interrogated and tortured.’” Meeting in New Delhi armed attack. A contra army was trained by Qiangba Puncog, a Tibetan who is chair Whatever is taking place in Tibet has long the CIA in Colorado and then dropped by of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Govern- been in preparation. A conference was held U.S. Air Force planes into Tibet. ment, described the situation quite differ- in New Delhi, India, last June by “Friends of The 1959 attack was a CIA planned and ently at a March 17 press briefing in Beijing. Tibet.” It was described as a conference for organized coup attempt, much like the later According to china.org.cn, China’s state the breakaway of Tibet. Bay of Pigs invasion of socialist Cuba. The Web site, the Tibetan leader said that allies of The news site phayul.com reported at the purpose was to overthrow the existing Ti- the exiled Dalai Lama on March 14 “engaged time that the conference was told “how the betan government and weaken the Chinese in reckless beating, looting, smashing and Olympics could provide the one chance for Revolution while tying the people of Tibet burning and their activities soon spread to Tibetans to come out and protest.” A call to U.S. imperialist interests. What does that other parts of the city. These people focused was issued for worldwide protests, a march say about today’s March uprising, that’s on street-side shops, primary and middle of exiles from India to Tibet, and protests done in the same spirit? 6 workers world Reprinted from Workers World March 27, 2008 Tíbet y la conmemoración del ‘levantamiento’ de la CIA del 19 de marzo de 1959.

Por Gary Wilson forma muy distinta en una conferencia de pueblo y está destinado a fracasar”, dijo él. prensa en Beijing el 17 de marzo. ¿Se ha vuelto el Tíbet en la vanguardia de Según china.org.cn, el portal en la red Reunión en Nueva Delhi una nueva lucha de liberación nacional? ¿O de China, el líder tibetano dijo que el 14 de Lo que está teniendo lugar en el Tíbet ha es otra cosa lo que está pasando allí? marzo personas aliadas al exiliado Dalai sido preparado desde hace mucho tiempo. Los medios noticieros de EEUU están Lama “participaron en golpizas, robos, Una conferencia tuvo lugar en Nueva llenos con los eventos que se están de- destrozos e incendios irresponsables y sus Delhi, India, en junio pasado, auspiciada sarrollando en Tíbet. Cada reporte, sin actividades pronto se extendieron a otras por “Los amigos del Tíbet”. Fue descrita embargo, parece tener una nota diciendo partes de la ciudad. Esta gente se enfocó en como una conferencia para promover la que mucho de lo que están reportando no las tiendas callejeras, las escuelas primarias secesión del Tíbet. puede ser confirmado. Las fuentes de los y secundarias, hospitales, bancos, facili- El sitio de noticias phayul.com reportó reportes son turbias y desconocidas. Si dades de electricidad y comunicaciones en el tiempo en que ocurría esa confer- las prácticas del pasado son un indicio, es y organizaciones noticieras. Incendiaron encia, que “los Juegos Olímpicos podían probable que el Departamento del Estado y vehículos que transitaban, persiguieron proveer la oportunidad para que los la CIA sean las fuentes primarias. y golpearon a los pasajeros en la calle, y tibetanos salieran a protestar”. Se hizo un Una fuente citada con frecuencia es lanzaron asaltos contra tiendas, lugares llamado para que se hicieran protestas John Ackerly. ¿Quién es Ackerly? Como de teléfonos públicos, y edificios guber- mundialmente, una marcha de exiliad@s presidente de la Campaña Internacional namentales. Su conducta ha resultado en desde la India al Tíbet, y manifestaciones para el Tíbet, él y su grupo parecen trabajar daños severos a la vida y a la propiedad de dentro del Tíbet — todo ligado a las próxi- estrechamente con el gobierno de los personas locales, y han minado gravemente mas Olimpiadas en Beijing. EEUU, con el Departamento de Estado y el orden en Lhasa. Ese llamado fue seguido por otro lla- con el Congreso como parte de sus opera- ’Trece civiles inocentes fueron quema- mado este enero pasado para un “levan- ciones relacionadas con el Tíbet. Durante dos o apuñalados a muerte en el motín en tamiento” en el Tíbet, emitido por orga- la Guerra Fría, el trabajo de Ackerly era el Lhasa el 14 de marzo, y 61 policías resul- nizaciones basadas en la India. El reportaje de trabajar con los “disidentes” en Europa taron heridos, seis de ellos gravemente’, dijo noticiero del 25 de enero decía que el del Este, particularmente en Romania en Qiangba Puncog. “Movimiento de Levantamiento del Pueblo 1978-80. “Las estadísticas también muestran que Tibetano” fue establecido el 4 de enero Una agencia privada de seguridad inter- los amotinadores incendiaron más de 300 para enfocarse en los Juegos Olímpicos de nacional en Washington, Harbor Lane As- localidades, incluyendo casas residenciales Beijing de 2008. La fecha para empezar el sociates, cuenta con Ackerly y la Campaña y 214 tiendas, y destruyeron y quemaron 56 “levantamiento” iba a ser el 10 de marzo. Internacional para el Tíbet como clientes, vehículos. . . Cuando fue emitido el llamado, el junto al ex Director de la CIA y el Presi- “Qiangba Puncog también dijo que el embajador estadounidense para la India dente de los EEUU George H.W. Bush y el personal de seguridad no llevaba ni usaba David Mulford, se estaba reuniendo con ex jefe del Pentágono, William Cohen. ninguna arma letal al tratar el alboroto el el Dalai Lama en Dharamsala en India. La Prensa Asociada, Reuters y las demás viernes pasado. Subsecretaria de Estado Paula Dobriansky agencias del oeste, todas citan a Ackerly La violencia fue el resultado de una con- hizo una visita similar a Dharamsala en como la fuente más importante para re- spiración entre grupos locales y extranjeros noviembre pasado. Dobriansky es también portes exagerados sobre los conflictos que que abogan por la ‘independencia del Tí- miembra del Proyecto para un Nuevo Siglo están ocurriendo en Tíbet. Por ejemplo, bet’”, según Qiangba Puncog. “La camarilla Americano, una organización neoconser- MSNBC reportó el 15 de marzo: del Dalai ingenió, planeó y cuidadosamente vadora. Ella también ha estado involucrada “John Ackerly, de la Campaña Interna- organizó el alboroto”. en las llamadas revoluciones de colores en cional para el Tíbet, un grupo que apoya “Según Qiangba Puncog, hace 49 años en Europa del Este. las demandas por la autonomía del Tíbet, el 10 de marzo, los dueños de esclavos del Phayul.com reporta que el informe del dijo en una declaración enviada por viejo Tíbet, lanzaron una rebelión armada grupo del “Levantamiento” tibetano dice correo electrónico que temía que ‘cientos con el propósito de dividir el país. Esa re- que está actuando “en el espíritu del Levan- de tibetanos hayan sido detenidos y estén belión fue aplastada rápidamente. Cada año tamiento de 1959”. siendo interrogados y torturados’”. desde 1959, algunos separatistas dentro y Qiangba Puncog, un tibetano que es fuera de China han auspiciado actividades El levantamiento de 1959 presidente del Gobierno Regional Autóno- en ese día de rebelión. . . El saber más sobre el “levantamiento” mo del Tíbet describió la situación en una “Ningún intento secesionista de sabotear del 1959 nos podría ayudar a comprender la estabilidad del Tíbet ganará el apoyo del 7 workers world Reprinted from Workers World 27 de Marzo

mejor los acontecimientos de hoy en día en cia del Tíbet. El mismo Dalai Lama estaba El ataque de 1959 fue un intento de el Tíbet. en la nómina de pagos de la CIA y aprobó golpe de estado planeado y organizado En 2002 un libro titulado “La guerra los planes de la CIA para el levantamiento por la CIA, al igual que la invasión más secreta de la CIA en el Tíbet” fue publicado armado. tarde de Bahía de Cochinos contra Cuba por la Prensa de la Universidad de Kan- La CIA puso al hermano del Dalai Lama, socialista. El propósito era el de derrocar al sas. Los dos autores — Kenneth Conboy Gyalo Thodup, a cargo del sangriento gobierno tibetano de entonces y debilitar de la Fundación Heritage, y James Mor- ataque armado de 1959. Un ejército contra­ la Revolución China mientras que unía al rison, un entrenador veterano del ejército rrevolucionario fue entrenado por la CIA en pueblo tibetano a los intereses imperialistas estadounidense para la CIA — describen el estado de Colorado y luego des­plegado en estadounidenses. ¿Qué dice eso sobre el orgullosamente cómo la CIA organizó y en- el Tíbet por medio de aviones corriente levantamiento de marzo que está cabezó el llamado movimiento de resisten- de la Fuerza Aérea de los Estados Unidos. hecho en el mismo espíritu?

8 workers world Reprinted from Workers World

Tibet Section 2

Bush greets the Dalai Lama Behind U.S. support for Tibetan feudalists 10 Deirdre Griswold June 2001

What’s CIA up to with Dalai Lama? 12 Sara Flounders August 1999

It was no Shangri-la Hollywood hides Tibet’s true history 14 Gary Wilson December 1997

That’s entertainment? It’s propaganda Tibet as it never was 18 Gary Wilson October 1997

The Dalai Lama & the CIA 22 Editorial

CIA ran Tibet contras since 1950s 23 Gary Wilson February 1997

Class War in Tibet 24 Sam Marcy April 1959

9 workers world Reprinted from Workers World, June 7, 2001 Bush greets the Dalai Lama Behind U.S. support for Tibetan feudalists

By Deirdre Griswold nize his regime as the government of all Back in the 1930s the British, who had China, including Tibet. So how could it been trying for years to add Tibet to their Very few people who seek an audience argue later that Taiwan and Tibet weren't empire in India and had actually staged with the president of the United States part of China? several armed incursions made a pres- get one. Even heads of state have to line Unofficially and secretly, however, ent of an automobile to the Dalai Lama. up to see George W. Bush, who boasts of Washington has fomented the secession Since Tibet had no paved roads, the his short work day. of both Taiwan and Tibet ever since it auto had to be dismantled and carried to Nevertheless, Bush found time May became obvious that the revolution- Lhasa on draft animals. 23 for a meeting and photo opportunity ary regime in Beijing was here to stay. The nobles, upper-ranking lamas in with the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. As long ago as the 1950s, the Central monasteries and administrative officials, The Dalai Lama hasn't been in Tibet Intelligence Agency began training together made up less than 5 percent for over four decades. He left for India in Tibetan mercenaries at Camp Hale in of the population. Yet they owned all 1959 to become head of a "government the Rocky Mountains of Colorado (see of Tibet's farmland, pastures, forests, in exile" that represented the former Chicago Tribune of Jan. 25, 1997, and mountains and rivers as well as most Tibetan feudal ruling class. Newsweek of Aug. 16, 1999). livestock. The White House dismissed the date According to the famous "Pentagon The current Dalai Lama became part of the meeting with Bush-May 23, which Papers," the CIA made 700 flights over of this owning class when at the age of was being celebrated in China as the Tibet in the 1950s. Dropping mercenar- 2 he was taken from his family by the 50th anniversary of the day in 1951 when ies into the frozen vastness of Tibet monks to be groomed as a demigod. Tibet was declared peacefully liberated didn't work, however. So in recent Before that he was just a toddler named from feudalism and imperialist influ- years the anti-China forces here have Lhamo Toinzhub. ence-as a mere "coincidence." focused on a "Free Tibet" campaign that Serfs were really slaves belonging to Bush's sit-down with the Dalai Lama has made inroads in the United States landowners. According to a white paper came just two days after Taiwan's presi- with its well-financed and synchro- prepared in 1992 by the Information dent, Chen Shui-bian, had an unpre­ nized promotion of the Dalai Lama as a Office of the State Council of the People's cedented dinner meeting with about 20 deeply spiritual mystic fighting a soulless Republic of China (available online at members of the U.S. Congress. bureaucracy that oppresses his people. chineseculture.about.com): "Sometimes To the Chinese people, these two This view takes advantage of the fact they were traded as payment for debts. political acts embracing secessionist ele- that most people in this country know According to historical records, in ments are further proof that the Bush nothing about Tibet except that it has 1943 the aristocrat Chengmoim Norbu administration has embarked on a dan- pretty mountains. They are easy prey Wanggyai sold 100 serfs to a monk gerous anti-China strategy with serious for a slick campaign romanticizing the official at Garzhol Kamsa, in Zhigoin military implications. "spirituality" of feudal times. area, at the cost of 60 liang of Tibetan The Chinese people, however, have silver (about four silver dollars) per serf. Covert U.S. strategy a much more recent memory of what He also sent 400 serfs to the Gundelin vs. official stance it was like when all-powerful landlords Monastery as mortgage for a debt of Tibet has been under Chinese jurisdic- ruled the countryside. 3,000 pin Tibetan silver (about 10,000 tion since the 13th century. Today it is an silver dollars). autonomous republic within the People's Life for the serfs "Serf owners had a firm grip on the Republic of China. Nine out of 10 Tibetans were serfs at birth, death and marriage of serfs. Male The U.S. government's official stance, the time of the Chinese Revolution. They and female serfs not belonging to the even after the Chinese Communists owned no land and had no personal free- same owner had to pay 'redemption swept to power in 1949, has always been dom. Another 5 percent were hereditary fees' before they could marry. In some to recognize both Taiwan and Tibet as household slaves. cases, an exchange was made with a part of China. Their toil was backbreaking. man swapped for man and a woman for When Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek Education for the common people was woman. In other cases, after a couple was overthrown by the Chinese people unheard of. wedded, the ownership of both husband and fled the mainland to set up a U.S.- Conditions were so backward that the and wife remained unchanged, but their backed dictatorship on the island of wheel had no function except for saying sons would belong to the husband's Taiwan, Washington continued to recog- prayers. Roads didn't exist. owner and their daughters to the wife's 10 workers world Reprinted from Workers World

owner. Children of serfs were registered teed food or clothing. Often they had to murder said, "As people are divided into the moment they were born, setting their rely on money borrowed at usury to keep different classes and ranks, the value of life-long fate as serfs." body and soul together." a life correspondingly differs." The lives Serfdom, whether in Europe during of people of the highest rank of the upper the most backward feudal period or in Class law class, such as a prince or leading Living China more recently, was a ruthless sys- Tibetan law divided people into three Buddha, were calculated in gold equal tem of exploitation through usury and classes and nine ranks. Inequality was to the weight of the dead body. The lives corvee-unpaid labor that the landlords stipulated in the law. The codes said: of people of the lowest rank of the lower assessed on the serfs, like taxes. • It is forbidden to quarrel with a wor- class, such as women, butchers, hunt- The Chinese white paper continues: thy, sage, noble and descendant of the ers and craftsmen, were worth "a straw "Incomplete statistics indicate the exis- ruler." rope." tence of more than 200 categories of Servants who injured their masters • Persons of the lower rank who attack corvee taxes levied by the Gaxag (Tibetan would have their hands or feet chopped those of the upper rank, and a junior local government). The corvee assigned off; a master who injured a servant was official who quarrels with a senior by Gaxag and manorial lords accounted responsible only for the medical treat- official commit a serious crime and so for over 50 percent of the labor of serf ment of the wound, with no other com- should be detained." households, and could go as high as pensation required. 70-80 percent. • Anyone who resists a master's control A saying among serfs was, "All a serf "According to a survey conducted should be arrested." can carry away is his own shadow, and before the Democratic Reform, the • A commoner who offends an official all he can leave behind is his footprints." Darongqang Manor owned by Regent should be arrested." The Chinese Revolution eventually Dagzhag of the 14th Dalai Lama had a • Anyone who voices grievances at the ended serfdom in Tibet. Those among total of 1,445 ke [a ke is about one sixth palace, behaving disgracefully, should the former rulers who resisted demo- of an acre] of land, and 81 able-bodied be arrested and whipped." cratic change were then embraced by and semi-able-bodied serfs. They were Any socially conscious person in the the CIA--which according to the Chicago assigned a total of 21,260 corvee days United States knows that while everyone Tribune article gave a special retainer to for the whole year, the equivalent of an is supposedly subject to the same law, it the Dalai Lama of $180,000 a year dur- entire year's labor by 67.3 people. In is applied differently to rich and poor. ing the 1960s to keep a government in effect, 83 percent of the serfs had to do But in Tibet the law itself demanded dif- exile in Nepal. corvee for one full year. ferent punishment for the same crime Today's budget for this high-powered "The serfs engaged in hard labor year depending on class and rank. anti-China campaign has not yet been in and year out and yet had no guaran- The law concerning the penalty for revealed.

11 workers world Reprinted from Workers World, Aug 26, 1999 What’s CIA up to with Dalai Lama?

By Sara Flounders But is the Dalai Lama really apoliti- and Australia have been decimated. The cal? If so, why did this “holy man,” who rich variety of their cultures, music and On Aug. 14 the Dalai Lama—a reli- supposedly would not kill an insect, sup- religious beliefs have been ripped up, gious figurehead of Tibetan Buddhism– port NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia? stepped on and ridiculed. Native peoples was in New York’s Central Park. While in People concerned about social issues have been crushed all over the world by the city he also appear­ed at three sold- should know that, like Pope John Paul the very forces who today seem to be so out performances at the Beacon Theatre and other conservative religious leaders, respectfully in awe of Tibetan culture. plus other events—where wealthy indi- the Dalai Lama denounces abortion, all Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism would viduals could pay up to $1,000 a ticket to forms of birth control and homosexual- have been of little interest to U.S. or hear him speak. ity. British imperialism had it not been for He had official cooperation, including U.S. imperialism has much experience the great Chinese Revolution, which prominent news articles in each of the in using the religious sentiment of mil- swept away all the old, corrupt feudal three major dailies and subway posters lions of people. The CIA formed a bloc society. with directions to the park, compliments with the Pope, who has the allegiance of This was a revolution that involved of the New York City Transit Authority. hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics, mass movements of millions of poor According to the New York Times, the to over­turn socialism in Poland. It should peasants organizing to distribute the Dalai Lama’s every move was mapped come as no surprise that the Dalai Lama land and throw out the old landlords. out and scheduled by the U.S. State is also utilized by the CIA. This great social upheaval unleashed Department. Television crews from On the other hand, religious figures the creative energy and participation of around the world followed him. And who oppose U.S. policy are demonized a quarter of humanity. Yet the Western every news or feature story managed to or become targets of assassination—from media instead glorifies the old Tibet. push the issue of independence of Tibet Bishop Romero of El Salvador to reli- For over 100 years, the imperialist from People’s China. gious Muslims in Lebanon and Palestine. powers of Western Europe and Japan Puerto Rico has about the same size Last year Hollywood released two carved China into spheres of interest, just population as Tibet. Puerto Rico has major movies about Tibet. The Holly­ as Europe carved Africa into outright col- been a U.S. colony for over 100 years. wood studios love the Dalai Lama, who, onies. Washington opposed these special It has had many great and dynamic we are told, embodies the spirit and concession areas only because it wanted leaders. Why aren’t there similar mov- aspirations of the Tibetan people. The unrestricted access to all of China for U.S. ies, posters and concerts bank­rolled for rich conglomerates that now con­trol business. Puerto Rico’s leaders, just to take one Hollywood—Disney and TriStar—both­ In the 19th century, Britain, the domi- example? support the organization Free Tibet. nant power, fought two wars with the Rock bands, movie stars and politi- Hollywood glorifies the tiny Tibet­an Manchu Dynasty for the right to impose cians all honor the Dalai Lama and raise ruling class and its presumed idyllic­ past the sale of opium on China. In 1904 the call for a “free Tibet.” This State in the same way the movie “Gone With Britain launched a full-scale military Department campaign has confused the Wind” glorified slavery and the racist invasion of Tibet. In the Treaty of Lhasa, many people who are deeply interested ruling class in the old South. China was forced to grant two trading in freedom for political prisoners or in One of these movies, “Seven Years in areas to Britain and to pay huge mili- environmental issues. But under a slick Tibet,” was based on a book written by tary reparations to cover the cost of the cover, this campaign hides an unrelent- an Austrian Nazi, Heinrich Harrer. He British war. ing attack on the People’s Republic of was involved in some of the most brutal In 1949 the Red Army was close to China and the accomplishments of the crimes of the fascists in Austria. Harrer finally defeating the U.S.-supported Chinese Revolution. ended up in Tibet during World War II Kuomintang army led by General The Dalai Lama, with considerable on a secret mission for German impe- Chiang Kai-shek. Washington then help from the major corporate media, rialism, which was trying to compete plotted to let Tibet join the new United has become a cult figure. Ask anyone with British imperialism in Asia. He was Nations as an independent country. The who’s tuned in to the media. Even if accepted into the inner circle of the court effort failed because Tibet had been con- they hardly know anything about poli- life among the Tibetan sidered a Chinese pro­ vince for over 700 tics, they will tell you the Dalai Lama is nobility. years, and even the Kuomintang asserted a good, saintly person, a “holy man,” a that China had always included Tibet “spiritual force.” His new book, “The Art Imperialism vs. and the island of Happiness”—co-written with Howard Indigenous culture of Taiwan. C. Cutler—was promoted until it made All over the globe Indigenous societies Today as U.S. imperialism grows ever the best-seller list for 29 weeks. of North America, Latin America, Africa more aggressive, it is moving on several

12 workers world fronts to push for the separation of Tibet, where education is conducted in the Ti- In the Aug. 16 Newsweek magazine, Taiwan and the western province of betan language. Tibet now has 2,623 doc- an article entitled “A secret war on Xinjiang from China. tors, 95 municipal hospitals and 770 medi- the roof of the world—spooks, monks Just as in the Balkans and in the cal clinics. and the CIA’s covert gamble in Tibet” republics of the former Soviet Union, describes details of the CIA operation U.S. corporate forces support and Class struggle in Tibet from 1957 to 1965. encourage separatist movements to In 1949 the Chinese Revolution first es- Similarly, a major article in the Jan. break up and control whole areas of the tablished Tibet as an Autonomous Region 25, 1997, Chicago Tribune described the globe that had earlier broken free of with far more rights than it had under any special training of Tibetan mercenaries imperialist domination. previous Chinese government. Chinese at Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains in Communist Party policy was to wait until Colorado throughout the 1950s. Life in old Tibet conditions developed within the oppressed These mercenaries were then para- Pre-revolution Tibet was a completely classes of the Tibetan population to rise up chuted into Tibet. According to the underdeveloped region. It had no road and overthrow serfdom. famous “Pentagon Papers,” there were system at all. The only wheels were Serfdom was not outlawed until 1959, at least 700 of these flights in the 1950s. prayer wheels. It was an agricultural, ten years after the Chinese Revolution. Air Force C-130s were used, as later in feudal theocracy based on serfdom and This hap ­pened after a mass movement Vietnam, to drop ammunition and sub- slavery. had isolated the whole entourage of the machine guns. There were also special Over 90 percent of the population Dalai Lama. bases in Guam and Okinawa for training were landless serfs. They were tied to the It’s true, however, that Chinese Tibetan soldiers. land but owned nothing. Their children Communists challenged age-old customs Gyalo Thundup, the Dalai Lama’s were registered on the landlord’s prop- in Tibet. brother, ran the operation. This was hardly erty books. First of all, the Chinese government a secret. It was his claim to fame. There were no schools, except feudal paid wages to Tibetans who worked on The Chicago Tribune article was monasteries where a handful of young a large national road-building program. titled, “The CIA Secret War in Tibet.” As boys studied chants. Total enrollment This totally disrupted the custom of this article said so well, “Little about the in the old-style private schools was 600 servitude. Before this, a serf could only CIA skullduggery in the Himalayas is a students. Education for women was of survive by working for a landlord, not for real secret except maybe to the U.S. tax- course absolutely unheard of. There was wages but for food. payers who bankrolled it.” no health care. There was not one hospi- Even more revolutionary was the CCP The CIA gave a special retainer to tal in all of Tibet. policy of paying wages to children of the Dalai Lama throughout the 1960s One hundred noble families and the serfs and former slaves to attend school of $180,000 a year—a small fortune in abbots of 100 major monasteries—also and providing them with books, meals Nepal, where it had set up an army and from ruling families—owned everything. and housing. In desperately poor fami- virtual government in exile. Washington The Dalai Lama lived in the 1,000-room, lies even young children had had to work also set up special radio stations aimed 14-story Potala Palace. Traditionally he for the family to survive. This revolution- at Tibet projecting the Dalai Lama as a was chosen in his youth from outside ary policy gave economic leverage for the god-king. the ruling circles. He remained a pawn first time to the most oppressed layers of Ralph McGehee, who has written under the control of contending advisers this stifling class society. many exposés of CIA operations and from the nobility. maintains a web site, described in some For the average peasant, life was short CIA mobilizes ruling-class detail how the “company” promoted and miserable. Tibet had one of the high- resistance the Dalai Lama. The CIA’s National est rates of tuberculosis and infant mor- Starting in 1955 the CIA began to build a Endowment for Democracy provided tality in the world. counter-revolutionary army in Tibet, much money for the Tibet Fund, Tibet Voice Today Tibet has 2,380 primary schools, like the contras in Nicara­gua and, more and the International Campaign for along with several professional schools, recently, the financing and training of the Tibet. KLA in Kosovo.

13 workers world Reprinted from Workers World, December 4,1997

It was no Shangri-la Hollywood hides Tibet’s true history By Gary Wilson an administrative region in China. Britain decided that Tibet should come The Tibetan Autonomous Region under its influence along with India, With two major Hollywood movies of China today includes Tibet as it was Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and China. At about Tibet this year, the Tibetan region defined in 1911 at the fall of the Chinese that time, Britain sent an invading force of China is being put in an unusual spot- empire, plus an area called Chamdo. into Tibet. light. During the last days of the empire, Earlier British government expedi- The Tibetan people are just one of the Chamdo had been part of a province tions had reported that Tibet was rich many national minorities in China. Yet called Sikang. with natural resources and even said most people in the United States have Today’s Tibet includes the territory of that “masses of gold were lying around heard only of the Tibetans. “U,” where the Dalai Lama directly ruled, in the rivers.” They may have believed In China, there are 56 national min­ and the territory of Tsang, where the they had found another empire like the orities. Most of the population is Han. Panchen Lama ruled. Incan empire in what is now Peru, where Tibetans are the eighth biggest When the promoters of a “Greater Spanish conquistadors stole a wealth of nationality. In terms of numbers, Tibet­ Tibet” refer to Tibet, much more is gold. ans are about 4 million—or .39 percent included. They include large parts of According to the Encyclopedia of China’s population. adjacent provinces: Sichuan, Yunnan, Britannica, in July 1903 Lord Curzon, There are other nationalities in Tibet Gansu and Quinghai. This includes the viceroy of India, authorized Col. Francis itself, besides the Tibetans: Moinbas, oil-rich Tsaidam Basin. Younghusband and a military escort to Lopas, Naxis, Huis, Dengs and Xiaerbas. Today, about 1.8 million Tibetans cross the Tibetan border to negotiate a But only the Tibetans are stars in live in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. trade treaty. Hollywood. No, that’s not it. Common There are another 2.1 million Tibetans in “When efforts to begin negotiations Tibetans aren’t the stars of Hollywood the neighboring four provinces. failed,” the encyclopedia reports, “the films. The focus is almost exclusively While a greater part of the Tibetan British, under the command of Maj. Gen. on a very small group of Tibetans—the population lives outside Tibet in these James Macdonald, invaded the country former elite of Tibet and the person the neighboring provinces, this does not and slaughtered some 600 Tibetans media sometimes call the “god-king,” the make these other areas part of Tibet any at Guru. Younghusband moved on to Dalai Lama. more than the big Irish population in Chiang-tzu (Gyantze), where his second Hollywood’s fictional accounts are Boston makes Boston part of Ireland. attempt to begin trade negotiations also presented as based on historical fact. There has been a centuries-long migra- failed. He then marched into Lhasa, the That’s like saying the movie “Gone with tion of Tibetans into these areas, where capital, with British troops and forced the Wind” shows what the South was the Tibetans remain a minority popula- the conclusion of a trade treaty with the like during slavery, when really it is tion. Hans have also been migrating to Dalai Lama, Tibet’s ruler. This action only a glorification of the slave masters these neighboring provinces. brought him a knighthood in 1904.” and completely ignores life for African However, when the promoters of British journalist Alan Winnington Americans. “Greater Tibet” talk of Hans “penetrat- writes in his book “Tibet” that the treaty The Tibet movies are very much like ing Tibetan lands,” they are really talking “made Tibet as far as possible a British “Gone with the Wind.” They present the about these non-Tibetan provinces and a sphere of influence.” view of a defeated oligarchy, and ignore migration process that has occurred over Even then, Britain recognized Chinese the reality of those who are oppressed. centuries. “sovereignty” in Tibet—and sent a bill for The movie “Seven Years in Tibet” not The central government was weak 750,000 pounds to the central Chinese only glorifies feudal Tibet and its aristo- after the fall of the Chinese empire, and government for the expenses incurred in crats; it also makes a hero of a Nazi storm had little or no influence on domestic the invasion. trooper—Heinrich Harrer. affairs in Tibet. But Tibet was still con- Tibet then became an area of intrigue So what is the history of Tibet? And sidered part of China. and a pawn in the competition between why is it getting so much attention now? “No nation has ever publicly accept­ed the imperialist powers, particularly Tibet as an independent state,” writes A. Britain, czarist Russia and Germany. The For 700 years a part of China Tom Grunfeld in the history book “The 13th Dalai Lama, the one preceding the In the 13th century, Genghis Khan Making of Modern Tibet.” current Dalai Lama, worked closely with and the Mongolians unified China and the British. And until the victory of the founded the Yuan Dynasty. This includ­­ed Britain invades in 1903 Chinese Revolution in 1949, the Tibetan Tibet. For the next 700 years, Tibet was At the turn of the century, in 1903, aristocracy looked to Britain and India,

14 workers world even sending their children to British but land. Land was divided among three After the overthrow of Tibetan feu- schools in India. ruling groups: the monasteries, the lay dalism, in 1959 the serfs opened an According to Winnington, “When [the nobility and the Lhasa government,” exhibition of the torture instruments 13th Dalai Lama] died in 1933, Tibet Grunfeld says. used against them. The exhibition was was more and more becoming a British The Dalai Lama himself was never presented as a show on the “abuse of sphere.” from a ruling family, for that would have religion” and the execution of “evil deeds This is part of the reason Nazi given an individual family domination. under cloak of religion.” Germany sent an expedition to Tibet in Rarely did the Dalai Lama ever reach the 1930s. Its defeat in World War I had adulthood, with fierce disputes often Heinrich Harrer’s hidden role stripped Germany of its colonies. The leading to murder of the young ruler. During the rule of the 14th Dalai rise of the Nazi regime was driven in The aides to the Dalai Lama really Lama in the 1940s, Tibet was again a part by the big German capitalists’ need ruled the local government. The 13th center of intrigue. The German Nazis to expand and gain new colonies, new Dalai Lama was one of the few to have hoped to expand into Asia, particularly “spheres of influence.” survived into adulthood. into India, Nepal and Tibet, leaving the The vast majority of the people of penetration of China to their ally, impe- Reality vs. romanticized Tibet were serfs. A small part of the rialist Japan. view of Tibet population, about 5 percent, was slaves This is how Heinrich Harrer ended up Reports by the British and German to the nobility. in Tibet. His book on Tibet is imperialists, primarily, have created the Women were considered inferior to really a fictionalized account of his popular image of Tibet in the West. men. Polyandry—where one woman was adventures. Books like “Lost Horizon” by James the wife of several brothers—and poly- Who Harrer is and what his role Hilton and “Seven Years in Tibet” by gamy were common. was is of interest not just because of Heinrich Harrer promoted a romanti- As in every agricultural society, reli- the movie. Harrer by all accounts was cized view of Tibet. gion played a big role in Tibet. a teacher of the Dalai Lama and has Harrer’s book is the basis for the Tibetan Buddhism is a distinct branch remained a close adviser ever since. Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt. that incorporates ancient pre-Buddhist “It came as a bombshell five months Leaving aside for a moment the issue of beliefs. This makes it unique in many ago when the German magazine Stern Harrer’s role, what was Tibet like in the ways. reported that, as early as 1933, Harrer 1940s when the story takes place? But the ruling oligarchy controlled had been a Nazi, a member of the ruth- Because of its extreme isolation high religion and the interpretation of its less SA [storm troopers] and, later, the up in the Himalayas, Tibet might have meaning. Tibetan Buddhism was used as SS [elite protective guard],” according to looked exotic to an outsider. Tibet was a a means of repressing the serfs. a report in the October 1997 issue of the region with no roads, only horse trails. Much is made of the Tibetan Buddhist magazine Men’s Journal. The wheel was unknown. It was practi- prohibition against killing any life Harrer had always denied he had been cally untouched by industrialization. form, including animals or insects. But a Nazi. When he could no longer deny it, But Tibet was not that much different the death penalty was imposed under it was said that he had been a Nazi but from the rest of the world. It just hadn’t Tibetan law for killing a monk. he had only joined in order to further caught up to the 20th century. According to Gorkar Mebon, the his career as a mountain climber. This “The parallels between Tibet and mayor of Lhasa in the 1950s, when the claim did not hold up, since his 1933 medieval Europe are striking,” writes death sentence was administered in entry would not have helped his career in Grunfeld in “The Making of Modern Tibet before 1949 “it was in the form Austria, where he lived. The Nazi Party Tibet.” that made no person responsible for was illegal in Austria and had to operate In the 1940s, Tibet was a feudal theoc- the death: by hurling the person from a underground. racy with a dual papacy—the Dalai Lama precipice or sewing him in a yak skin and The Men’s Journal story is written by and the Panchen Lama. By all accounts, throwing him in a river. Lighter sentenc- someone who had seen Harrer as a hero the Dalai Lama was considered supreme es were of amputation of a hand, both and reluctantly came to the conclusion, in political matters. hands, a leg or both legs, the stumps after extensive research, that Harrer was Below the Dalai Lama were the aris- being sterilized with boiling butter.” a “150-percent Nazi” and had to have tocratic lords—owners of the estates, (“Tibet,” Winnington) been involved in some of the most brutal most descended from the ancient kings The whip was also a common form crimes in Austria in the 1930s. Harrer of Tibet before the Mongol invasion. of punishment, Mebon says.“If a person had first been recruited by Heinrich “Despite claims to the contrary, heredity had 300 strokes of it properly applied he Himmler, the second most powerful per- and ennoblement were the only avenues would almost certainly die afterwards.” son in the Third Reich. for joining the nobility,” Grunfeld writes. In this way it could be said that the gov- Harrer was part of the Dalai Lama’s “As in all agricultural societies, the ernment, in accordance with religious inner circle at the time of the Chinese Revo- source of power and wealth was not titles law, had directly killed no one. lution in 1949. At that time the Dalai Lama

15 workers world was a teenager who, by his own account, landed at Inchon in Korea and were local government. The Buddhist church knew nothing of the outside world. He was driving up the peninsula. Gen. Douglas continued to operate as it had before. completely dependent on his advisers. MacArthur was threatening to cross the Freedom of religion was guaranteed. Yalu River and carry the war into China. Reforms in Tibet were not compulsory. China’s liberation in 1949 President Harry Truman had ordered The Chinese People’s Liberation Army the Navy’s Seventh Fleet to encircle Tibet was changed forever did not go into Tibet in 1949. Taiwan and protect Chiang Kai-shek’s But Tibet was changed forever. The Chinese Communist Party was “jumping-off ground” for an attack Schools were built. Newspapers were committed to insuring the rights of all against China. There was talk that introduced. Telephones and a postal ser- national minorities. In fact, a Communist French-controlled Vietnam would also vice were begun. constitution was put forth in 1931 to be used as a base in a many-pronged Hospitals and movie theaters were show the principles that would be the invasion aimed at reversing the Chinese built. And for the first time, highways to basis for a socialist China. Revolution. the outside world were built. That constitution said that “all The Kwangming Daily, a Chinese When the Tibetan oligarchy says the Mongolians, Tibetans, Miao, Yao, newspaper, reported, “America and Chinese government did not respect Koreans and others living in the territory Britain have been making energetic Tibetan customs in the 1950s, this is of China shall enjoy the full rights to self- efforts to keep their control of Tibet so what they are referring to. determination.” that it may be used as a continental base The Chinese did violate local cus- The Chinese People’s Liberation Army for the invasion of China.” toms. Wages were paid to Tibetans who did not enter Tibet because its ranks The People’s Liberation Army worked building the roads. This dis- had few Tibetans. The policy was to advanced into the Chamdo area, which rupted the custom of servitude. Paying first win the Tibetan population to the was not part of Tibet at that time. In Tibetan children to attend school also Communist Party and its ideals. Then Chamdo, the PLA was confronted by the gave the serfs economic leverage against political power could be won from within Tibetan Army, sent there by the Dalai the age-old work practices as well as pro- Tibet. Lama. Its commander-in-chief was viding avenues for rising out of serfdom. But the Chinese Communist Party was Ngapo Nga-wang Jigme, a descendant of Some of the old aristocracy of Tibet not given a chance to carry out such a Tibetan kings and a top Tibetan noble. were like Ngapo Ngawang Jigme and saw slow policy. Tibet immediately became It was not much of a battle. Many of that serfdom had to be ended, but others the target of not only the British imperi- the Tibetan Army soldiers—serfs forced resisted change. These are the Tibetan alists but the United States imperialists into service by the nobility—went over nobility who turned to the United States as well. to the side of the PLA. The battle was and the CIA. There were many reasons for the quickly over. In 1955 or possibly earlier—the date interest in Tibet. One State Department Ngapo Ngawang Jigme expected varies according to different sources— expert even suggested that in the age of death as the normal outcome of defeat. the CIA began to build a counter- rocket warfare, Tibet was the ideal center The PLA surprised him by treating him revolutionary army in Tibet. The Dalai for controlling all of Asia. well and giving him long lectures on Lama’s older brother, Gyalo Thondup, George Merrell, the top officer at the the New China’s policies toward minor coordinated this operation from a base U.S. Embassy in India, wrote, “Tibet is in nationalities, such as Tibetans. He liked in India. a position of inestimable strategic impor- what he heard. Contrary to the popular image of non- tance both ideologically and geographi- Within a year, Ngapo Ngawang Jigme violence that has been built up around cally.” (“The Making of Modern Tibet,” was the deputy commander-in-chief the Dalai Lama and his supporters, this Grunfeld) for the PLA forces in Tibet. He became CIA mercenary force was armed and But Tibet was the focus of so much atten- a leader not only of Tibet but also the murderous. It included contra-style tion primarily because of the Communist Chinese Communist Party. His account death squads. revolution in China. The United States had of the battle and his conversion can be The Tibetan mercenaries were trained launched a fierce war to “take back” China. found in Anna Louise Strong’s book at Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains At the time of the Chinese Revolution, the “Tibetan Interviews.” in Colorado. They were then para- Tibetan oligarchy was in a panic. They sent The Communist government in China chuted into Tibet by the CIA’s Civil Air out appeals to Britain, the United States did not enter Tibet in the way an imperi- Transport. According to the Pentagon and India for military aid. alist power would. No immediate chang- Papers, there were at least 700 of these es were introduced in Tibet. Serfdom flights in the 1950s; these same Air Force U.S. forces in Korea march remained and would not be outlawed C-130s were later used for CIA opera- toward China until 1959. tions in the Vietnam War. The mercenar- There were reports that Washington The Chinese policy was to win over ies were dropped in with submachine was preparing to recognize Tibet as a the population to end serfdom. guns and ammunition, according to sovereign state. In June 1950, U.S. forces There had been no change in the a detailed report in the Jan. 25, 1997,

16 workers world Chicago Tribune. the Tibetan aristocrats’ claim to be the China is a state with a considerable More details of this operation are Tibetan “government in exile.” number of nationalities. And if there is given in “Presidents’ Secret Wars—CIA Some contend that since the merce- one aspect where the People’s Republic and Pentagon Covert Operations Since nary army’s leadership was in the hands of China stands out for its progressive World War II,” by John Prados. Also, of four of the Dalai Lama’s six top aides, character, it is its policy with respect to “The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence,” he had been at the center of planning the national minorities. by Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks, armed attack. Tibet has been a part of China for cen- has some information on the CIA in Whatever the truth about that, turies. It is not a province that was pur- Tibet. the CIA and the U.S. government has chased, like the United States did with After several years of isolated attacks remained the main force keeping alive Alaska. It is not a conquered territory a and assassinations, this CIA-trained the so-called government in exile. That thousand miles away like Hawaii. squad attacked a PLA barracks in Lhasa. is true to this day. According to ex-CIA The kind of self-determination pro- This is commonly portrayed in the U.S. employee Ralph McGehee, who has writ- posed by the “Tibetan government in media as a popular uprising. But a secret ten many exposés of the agency, the CIA exile” and the Dalai Lama would be a neo- U.S. State Department study called this has stepped up its Tibetan contra opera- colony of imperialism and a dagger aimed a “wild exaggeration.” (“The Making of tions in recent years, working closely at the heart of China. Modern Tibet,” Grunfeld) with the Dalai Lama’s brother. There are unlimited possibilities for The “rebellion” was confined almost self-determination within the framework exclusively to Lhasa, the Dalai Lama’s An internal matter of the multinational state of China, or headquarters. Residents of Tibet’s second The issue of Tibetan self-determi- any other relationship that is mutually biggest city didn’t even hear of the events nation is an internal affair for China worked out between the Chinese govern- until a month later. and no one outside. The right of self- ment and the Tibetans in the spirit of The mercenary army apparently determination depends on the conditions socialist solidarity. But it is a problem kidnapped the Dalai Lama at that time of the time when it is raised and the that is exclusively theirs to work out. and took him to India. They needed international situation, which can be of the Dalai Lama to give legiti­macy to enormous significance.

Photo: Tubdain During the 1959 democratic reform in Tibet, emancipated serfs and slaves were given land and houses. Photo shows them burning all the documentary evidence binding them to their masters.

17 workers world Workers World, October 23, 1997 That’s entertainment? It’s propaganda Tibet as it never was

By Gary Wilson and the Mongolians unified China and Tibet as an independent state,” writes A. founded the Yuan Dynasty. This includ­­ed Tom Grunfeld in the history book “The With two major Hollywood movies Tibet. For the next 700 years, Tibet was Making of Modern Tibet.” about Tibet this year, the Tibetan region an administrative region in China. of China is being put in an unusual spot- The Tibetan Autonomous Region Britain invades in 1903 light. of China today includes Tibet as it was At the turn of the century, in 1903, The Tibetan people are just one of the defined in 1911 at the fall of the Chinese Britain decided that Tibet should come many national minorities in China. Yet empire, plus an area called Chamdo. under its influence along with India, most people in the United States have During the last days of the empire, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and China. At heard only of the Tibetans. Chamdo had been part of a province that time, Britain sent an invading force In China, there are 56 national min­ called Sikang. into Tibet. orities. Most of the population is Han. Today’s Tibet includes the territory of Earlier British government expedi- Tibetans are the eighth biggest nation- “U,” where the Dalai Lama directly ruled, tions had reported that Tibet was rich ality. In terms of numbers, Tibet­ans and the territory of Tsang, where the with natural resources and even said are about 4 million—or .39 percent of Panchen Lama ruled. that “masses of gold were lying around China’s population. When the promoters of a “Greater in the rivers.” They may have believed There are other nationalities in Tibet Tibet” refer to Tibet, much more is they had found another empire like the itself, besides the Tibetans: Moinbas, included. They include large parts of Incan empire in what is now Peru, where Lopas, Naxis, Huis, Dengs and Xiaerbas. adjacent provinces: Sichuan, Yunnan, Spanish conquistadors stole a wealth of But only the Tibetans are stars in Gansu and Quinghai. This includes the gold. Hollywood. No, that’s not it. Common oil-rich Tsaidam Basin. According to the Encyclopedia Tibetans aren’t the stars of Hollywood Today, about 1.8 million Tibetans Britannica, in July 1903 Lord Curzon, films. The focus is almost exclusively live in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. viceroy of India, authorized Col. Francis on a very small group of Tibetans—the There are another 2.1 million Tibetans in Younghusband and a military escort to former elite of Tibet and the person the the neighboring four provinces. cross the Tibetan border to negotiate a media sometimes call the “god-king,” the While a greater part of the Tibetan trade treaty. Dalai Lama. population lives outside Tibet in these “When efforts to begin negotiations Hollywood’s fictional accounts are neighboring provinces, this does not failed,” the encyclopedia reports, “the presented as based on historical fact. make these other areas part of Tibet any British, under the command of Maj. Gen. That’s like saying the movie “Gone with more than the big Irish population in James Macdonald, invaded the country the Wind” shows what the South was Boston makes Boston part of Ireland. and slaughtered some 600 Tibetans like during slavery, when really it is There has been a centuries-long migra- at Guru. Younghusband moved on to only a glorification of the slave masters tion of Tibetans into these areas, where Chiang-tzu (Gyantze), where his second and completely ignores life for African the Tibetans remain a minority popula- attempt to begin trade negotiations also Americans. tion. Hans have also been migrating to failed. He then marched into Lhasa, the The Tibet movies are very much like these neighboring provinces. capital, with British troops and forced “Gone with the Wind.” They present the However, when the promoters of the conclusion of a trade treaty with the view of a defeated oligarchy, and ignore “Greater Tibet” talk of Hans “penetrat- Dalai Lama, Tibet’s ruler. This action the reality of those who are oppressed. ing Tibetan lands,” they are really talking brought him a knighthood in 1904.” The movie “Seven Years in Tibet” not about these non-Tibetan provinces and a British journalist Alan Winnington only glorifies feudal Tibet and its aristo- migration process that has occurred over writes in his book “Tibet” that the treaty crats; it also makes a hero of a Nazi storm centuries. “made Tibet as far as possible a British trooper—Heinrich Harrer. The central government was weak sphere of influence.” So what is the history of Tibet? And after the fall of the Chinese empire, and Even then, Britain recognized Chinese why is it getting so much attention now? had little or no influence on domestic “sovereignty” in Tibet—and sent a bill for affairs in Tibet. But Tibet was still con- 750,000 pounds to the central Chinese For 700 years a part of China sidered part of China. government for the expenses incurred in In the 13th century, Genghis Khan “No nation has ever publicly accept­ed the invasion.

18 workers world Tibet then became an area of intrigue tocratic lords—owners of the estates, of punishment, Mebon says.“If a person and a pawn in the competition between most descended from the ancient kings had 300 strokes of it properly applied he the imperialist powers, particularly of Tibet before the Mongol invasion. would almost certainly die afterwards.” Britain, czarist Russia and Germany. The “Despite claims to the contrary, heredity In this way it could be said that the gov- 13th Dalai Lama, the one preceding the and ennoblement were the only avenues ernment, in accordance with religious current Dalai Lama, worked closely with for joining the nobility,” Grunfeld writes. law, had directly killed no one. the British. And until the victory of the “As in all agricultural societies, the After the overthrow of Tibetan feu- Chinese Revolution in 1949, the Tibetan source of power and wealth was not titles dalism, in 1959 the serfs opened an aristocracy looked to Britain and India, but land. Land was divided among three exhibition of the torture instruments even sending their children to British ruling groups: the monasteries, the lay used against them. The exhibition was schools nobility and the Lhasa government,” presented as a show on the “abuse of in India. Grunfeld says. religion” and the execution of “evil deeds According to Winnington, “When [the The Dalai Lama himself was never under cloak of religion.” 13th Dalai Lama] died in 1933, Tibet from a ruling family, for that would have was more and more becoming a British given an individual family domination. Heinrich Harrer’s hidden role sphere.” Rarely did the Dalai Lama ever reach During the rule of the 14th Dalai This is part of the reason Nazi adulthood, with fierce disputes often Lama in the 1940s, Tibet was again a Germany sent an expedition to Tibet in leading to murder of the young ruler. center of intrigue. The German Nazis the 1930s. Its defeat in World War I had The aides to the Dalai Lama really hoped to expand into Asia, particularly stripped Germany of its colonies. The ruled the local government. The 13th into India, Nepal and Tibet, leaving the rise of the Nazi regime was driven in Dalai Lama was one of the few to have penetration of China to their ally, impe- part by the big German capitalists’ need survived into adulthood. rialist Japan. to expand and gain new colonies, new The vast majority of the people of This is how Heinrich Harrer ended up “spheres of influence.” Tibet were serfs. A small part of the in Tibet. His book on Tibet is population, about 5 percent, was slaves really a fictionalized account of his Reality vs. romanticized to the nobility. adventures. view of Tibet Women were considered inferior to Who Harrer is and what his role Reports by the British and German men. Polyandry—where one woman was was is of interest not just because of imperialists, primarily, have created the the wife of several brothers—and poly- the movie. Harrer by all accounts was popular image of Tibet in the West. gamy were common. a teacher of the Dalai Lama and has Books like “Lost Horizon” by James As in every agricultural society, reli- remained a close adviser ever since. Hilton and “Seven Years in Tibet” by gion played a big role in Tibet. “It came as a bombshell five months Heinrich Harrer promoted a romanti- Tibetan Buddhism is a distinct branch ago when the German magazine Stern cized view of Tibet. that incorporates ancient pre-Buddhist reported that, as early as 1933, Harrer Harrer’s book is the basis for the beliefs. This makes it unique in many had been a Nazi, a member of the ruth- Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt. ways. less SA [storm troopers] and, later, the Leaving aside for a moment the issue of But the ruling oligarchy controlled SS [elite protective guard],” according to Harrer’s role, what was Tibet like in the religion and the interpretation of its a report in the October 1997 issue of the 1940s when the story takes place? meaning. Tibetan Buddhism was used as magazine Men’s Journal. Because of its extreme isolation high a means of repressing the serfs. Harrer had always denied he had been up in the Himalayas, Tibet might have Much is made of the Tibetan Buddhist a Nazi. When he could no longer deny it, looked exotic to an outsider. Tibet was a prohibition against killing any life it was said that he had been a Nazi but region with no roads, only horse trails. form, including animals or insects. But he had only joined in order to further The wheel was unknown. It was practi- the death penalty was imposed under his career as a mountain climber. This cally untouched by industrialization. Tibetan law for killing a monk. claim did not hold up, since his 1933 But Tibet was not that much different According to Gorkar Mebon, the entry would not have helped his career in from the rest of the world. It just hadn’t mayor of Lhasa in the 1950s, when the Austria, where he lived. The Nazi Party caught up to the 20th century. death sentence was administered in was illegal in Austria and had to operate “The parallels between Tibet and Tibet before 1949 “it was in the form underground. medieval Europe are striking,” writes that made no person responsible for The Men’s Journal story is written by Grunfeld in “The Making of Modern the death: by hurling the person from a someone who had seen Harrer as a hero Tibet.” precipice or sewing him in a yak skin and and reluctantly came to the conclusion, In the 1940s, Tibet was a feudal theoc- throwing him in a river. Lighter sentenc- after extensive research, that Harrer was racy with a dual papacy—the Dalai Lama es were of amputation of a hand, both a “150-percent Nazi” and had to have and the Panchen Lama. By all accounts, hands, a leg or both legs, the stumps been involved in some of the most brutal the Dalai Lama was considered supreme being sterilized with boiling butter.” crimes in Austria in the 1930s. Harrer in political matters. (“Tibet,” Winnington) had first been recruited by Heinrich Below the Dalai Lama were the aris- The whip was also a common form Himmler, the second most powerful per- son in the Third Reich. 19 workers world Harrer was part of the Dalai Lama’s landed at Inchon in Korea and were Reforms in Tibet were not compulsory. inner circle at the time of the Chinese Revo- driving up the peninsula. Gen. Douglas lution in 1949. At that time the Dalai Lama MacArthur was threatening to cross the Tibet was changed forever was a teenager who, by his own account, Yalu River and carry the war into China. But Tibet was changed forever. knew nothing of the outside world. He was President Harry Truman had ordered Schools were built. Newspapers were completely dependent on his advisers. the Navy’s Seventh Fleet to encircle introduced. Telephones and a postal ser- Taiwan and protect Chiang Kai-shek’s vice were begun. China’s liberation in 1949 “jumping-off ground” for an attack Hospitals and movie theaters were The Chinese People’s Liberation Army against China. There was talk that built. And for the first time, highways to did not go into Tibet in 1949. French-controlled Vietnam would also the outside world were built. The Chinese Communist Party was be used as a base in a many-pronged When the Tibetan oligarchy says the committed to insuring the rights of all invasion aimed at reversing the Chinese Chinese government did not respect national minorities. In fact, a Communist Revolution. Tibetan customs in the 1950s, this is constitution was put forth in 1931 to The Kwangming Daily, a Chinese what they are referring to. show the principles that would be the newspaper, reported, “America and The Chinese did violate local cus- basis for a socialist China. Britain have been making energetic toms. Wages were paid to Tibetans who That constitution said that “all efforts to keep their control of Tibet so worked building the roads. This dis- Mongolians, Tibetans, Miao, Yao, that it may be used as a continental base rupted the custom of servitude. Paying Koreans and others living in the territory for the invasion of China.” Tibetan children to attend school also of China shall enjoy the full rights to self- The People’s Liberation Army gave the serfs economic leverage against determination.” advanced into the Chamdo area, which the age-old work practices as well as pro- The Chinese People’s Liberation Army was not part of Tibet at that time. In viding avenues for rising out of serfdom. did not enter Tibet because its ranks Chamdo, the PLA was confronted by the Some of the old aristocracy of Tibet had few Tibetans. The policy was to Tibetan Army, sent there by the Dalai were like Ngapo Ngawang Jigme and saw first win the Tibetan population to the Lama. Its commander-in-chief was that serfdom had to be ended, but others Communist Party and its ideals. Then Ngapo Nga-wang Jigme, a descendant of resisted change. These are the Tibetan political power could be won from within Tibetan kings and a top Tibetan noble. nobility who turned to the United States Tibet. It was not much of a battle. Many of and the CIA. But the Chinese Communist Party was the Tibetan Army soldiers—serfs forced In 1955 or possibly earlier—the date not given a chance to carry out such a into service by the nobility—went over varies according to different sources— slow policy. Tibet immediately became to the side of the PLA. The battle was the CIA began to build a counter- the target of not only the British imperi- quickly over. revolutionary army in Tibet. The Dalai alists but the United States imperialists Ngapo Ngawang Jigme expected Lama’s older brother, Gyalo Thondup, as well. death as the normal outcome of defeat. coordinated this operation from a base There were many reasons for the The PLA surprised him by treating him in India. interest in Tibet. One State Department well and giving him long lectures on Contrary to the popular image of non- expert even suggested that in the age of the New China’s policies toward minor violence that has been built up around rocket warfare, Tibet was the ideal center nationalities, such as Tibetans. He liked the Dalai Lama and his supporters, this for controlling all of Asia. what he heard. CIA mercenary force was armed and George Merrell, the top officer at the Within a year, Ngapo Ngawang Jigme murderous. It included contra-style U.S. Embassy in India, wrote, “Tibet is in was the deputy commander-in-chief death squads. a position of inestimable strategic impor- for the PLA forces in Tibet. He became The Tibetan mercenaries were trained tance both ideologically and geographi- a leader not only of Tibet but also the at Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains cally.” (“The Making of Modern Tibet,” Chinese Communist Party. His account in Colorado. They were then para- Grunfeld) of the battle and his conversion can be chuted into Tibet by the CIA’s Civil Air But Tibet was the focus of so much atten- found in Anna Louise Strong’s book Transport. According to the Pentagon tion primarily because of the Communist “Tibetan Interviews.” Papers, there were at least 700 of these revolution in China. The United States had The Communist government in China flights in the 1950s; these same Air Force launched a fierce war to “take back” China. did not enter Tibet in the way an imperi- C-130s were later used for CIA opera- At the time of the Chinese Revolution, the alist power would. No immediate chang- tions in the Vietnam War. The mercenar- Tibetan oligarchy was in a panic. They sent es were introduced in Tibet. Serfdom ies were dropped in with submachine out appeals to Britain, the United States remained and would not be outlawed guns and ammunition, according to and India for military aid. until 1959. a detailed report in the Jan. 25, 1997, The Chinese policy was to win over Chicago Tribune. U.S. forces in Korea march the population to end serfdom. More details of this operation are toward China There had been no change in the given in “Presidents’ Secret Wars—CIA There were reports that Washington local government. The Buddhist church and Pentagon Covert Operations Since was preparing to recognize Tibet as a continued to operate as it had before. World War II,” by John Prados. Also, sovereign state. In June 1950, U.S. forces Freedom of religion was guaranteed. “The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence,” by

20 workers world Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks, has of four of the Dalai Lama’s six top aides, number of nationalities. And if there is some information on the CIA in Tibet. he had been at the center of planning the one aspect where the People’s Republic After several years of isolated attacks armed attack. of China stands out for its progressive and assassinations, this CIA-trained Whatever the truth about that, character, it is its policy with respect to squad attacked a PLA barracks in Lhasa. the CIA and the U.S. government has national minorities. This is commonly portrayed in the U.S. remained the main force keeping alive Tibet has been a part of China for cen- media as a popular uprising. But a secret the so-called government in exile. That turies. It is not a province that was pur- U.S. State Department study called this is true to this day. According to ex-CIA chased, like the United States did with a “wild exaggeration.” (“The Making of employee Ralph McGehee, who has writ- Alaska. It is not a conquered territory a Modern Tibet,” Grunfeld) ten many exposés of the agency, the CIA thousand miles away like Hawaii. The “rebellion” was confined almost has stepped up its Tibetan contra opera- The kind of self-determination pro- exclusively to Lhasa, the Dalai Lama’s tions in recent years, working closely posed by the “Tibetan government in headquarters. Residents of Tibet’s second with the Dalai Lama’s brother. exile” and the Dalai Lama would be a neo- biggest city didn’t even hear of the events colony of imperialism and a dagger aimed until a month later. An internal matter at the heart of China. The mercenary army apparently kid- The issue of Tibetan self-determi- There are unlimited possibilities for napped the Dalai Lama at that time and nation is an internal affair for China self-determination within the framework took him to India. They needed the Dalai and no one outside. The right of self- of the multinational state of China, or Lama to give legiti­macy to the Tibetan determination depends on the conditions any other relationship that is mutually aristocrats’ claim to be the Tibetan “gov- of the time when it is raised and the worked out between the Chinese govern- ernment in exile.” international situation, which can be of ment and the Tibetans in the spirit of Some contend that since the merce- enormous significance. socialist solidarity. But it is a problem nary army’s leadership was in the hands China is a state with a considerable that is exclusively theirs to work out.

21 workers world Workers World, Feb. 6, 1997

CIA ran Tibet contras since 1950s

By Gary Wilson After the uprising failed, the Tribune Tibetan independence. And a key player reports, the Dalai Lama went into exile in the new operation is none other than While the CIA’s contra death squads in India where the CIA set up and trained the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother. in Central America are generally well the Tibetan contra army. Already, three bombs are known to known in the United States, its opera- The Tribune writes that “Air Force have been detonated in Tibet this year. tions in the Tibetan region of China are pilots working with the CIA” asked The most recent was on Dec. 25 outside a virtually unknown. potential recruits one question: Do you Chinese government office in the Tibetan According to a Jan. 25 report in the want to kill Chinese? capital of Lhasa. Chicago Tribune, “Little about the CIA’s These recruits were trained at U.S. Ever since the victory of the socialist skullduggery in the Himalayas is a real military bases in Okinawa, Guam and revolution in Russia in 1917, the capital- secret anymore except maybe to the U.S. Colorado. They were then dropped into ist powers have glorified tyrants thrown taxpayers who bankrolled it.” the Tibetan region of China by “American over by workers. To the Western press, The Tribune report is titled “The pilots who would later carry out [secret] the Russian czar, a brutal and cruel dic- CIA’s secret war in Tibet.” It is the first operations in Laos and Cambodia during tator, became a near poet-king. major report on this contra operation the Vietnam War,” the Tribune reports. The prevalence of anti-communism in a corporate-owned newspaper in the “By the mid-1960s, the CIA had as a near religion in the United States United States, although this news has switched its strategy from parachuting has made it easy to sell slave masters as been reported many times in the pages of commandos into Tibet to setting up the humanitarians. The Dalai Lama is not Workers World newspaper. Chusi Gangdruk, a grizzled army of 2,000 much different from the former slave Tibet has become a chic topic. It is a ethnic Khamba fighters, at secret bases owners of the Confederate South. favorite of the rich conglomerates that across the border in pro-U.S. Nepal,” the He was an owner of slaves until 1959. control Hollywood, including Disney and Tribune reports. He ruled over a harsh feudal serfdom. TriStar, which are making movies about The Tribune report adds: “`For years, And while the Dalai Lama says he will it. the only way Tibetans could get a hearing no longer own slaves and he will no lon- Actors like Richard Gere have become in the world’s capitals was to emphasize ger claim his royal rights over the serfs of vocal champions of Tibet’s over­thrown our spirituality and helplessness,’ said Tibet, it’s only because the Tibetan work- supreme ruler, the Dalai Lama. Jamyang Norbu, a leading Tibetan intel- ers and peasants have won their freedom While they like to quote extensively lectual who joined the guerrillas briefly as and won’t let the oppressive conditions from the Dalai Lama’s rarefied speeches a teenager. `Tibetans who pick up rifles return. about his noble intentions and his pacific don’t fit that romantic image we’ve built China had a successful socialist revo- nature, none will honestly confront the up in Westerners’ heads.’” lution. Every day since that victory, the real history. It matters less what the The Dalai Lama has always refused former exploiters have been overtly and Dalai Lama says than what he does. to answer any questions about his ties to covertly trying to foment a counter-revo- Up until the time when his rule was the CIA, the Tribune writes, even though lutionary overturn. overthrown, the Tibetan region of China much of the contra operation in India While the socialist state was crushed was dominated by a feudal oligarchy. was coordinated by “his elder brother, a in the Soviet Union, it hasn’t been in While most of the population lived in businessman named Gyalo Thondup.” China, even though the socialized char- extreme poverty, the Dalai Lama lived The Tribune report claims that U.S. acter of the economy has been diluted by richly in the 1,000-room, 14-story Potala government support for the Dalai Lama’s widespread capitalist investment. Palace. contra operations ended in the 1970s. None know this better than the U.S. In 1950, the Chinese People’s But those familiar with U.S. covert oper- ruling class. Liberation Army entered Tibet. They ations around the world don’t buy it. It’s the reason that Clinton’s new secured the borders and controlled for- Ex-CIA employee Ralph McGehee, secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, eign affairs. The Dalai Lama continued to who authored many exposés of the declared a “hard line” against two coun- live in his palace. But in 1959, the Dalai CIA, says that the CIA is a prime mover tries in her first news conference Jan. 24: Lama led a bloody uprising against the behind the new 1990s campaign pro- China and Cuba. Chinese government. moting the cause of the Dalai Lama and

22 workers world Workers World, Jan. 23, 1997

Editorial The Dalai Lama & the CIA

No government agency has been more But now, according to Ralph McGehee, turned up recently leading a well-publi- directly peopled by members of the capital- author of many exposés of the CIA and cized march from the Chinese Embassy in ist ruling class than the Central Intelligence compiler of a large electronic database Washington to New York. Agency. Set up to do the dirty political about the agency, the CIA is escalating such Radio Free Asia, a U.S. mouthpiece, work of the Cold War, it was the creation operations around the world. started broadcasting to China last Septem- of rich white men from the “best” fami- McGehee gives details about what he ber. It will eventually be heard in Tibet, lies and schools. Typical is George Bush, sees as a growing CIA campaign to needle Burma, Cambodia, Laos, north Korea and a CIA director from a rich oil-connected China by promoting the cause of the Dalai Vietnam. Connecticut/Texas family who went on to Lama and Tibetan independence. All this is still in the realm of propagan- become president. In this country, all kinds of pro-Tibetan da. But that is not the only weapon being The CIA’s objective has been to promote groups have sprung up. It seems strange used. Three bombs are known to have been U.S. imperialism. Its methods have been this cause should stir much passion here, detonated in Tibet this year. The most wily as well as brutal. The defection of a considering that its heroes are a medieval recent was on Dec. 25 outside a Chinese number of agents during the 1960s-70s theocracy that would take Tibet in the government office in the Tibetan capital of period of political upheaval shed light on same horrible direction the Taliban have Lhasa. the agency’s trick of setting up rival unions, moved Afghanistan. But it’s getting a lot of There are many genuine movements of human-rights organizations, societies of all backing and feeds on anti-communism, the the oppressed for self-determination. Do kinds that sounded liberal, even progres- closest thing to an official religion in this those who are organizing the lamentation sive, but were controlled by the U.S. ruling country. over Tibet care about the oppression of class. With their access to almost unlimited McGehee calls the National Endowment Puerto Rico, for example, or the subjuga- funds, contacts, and approval in the impe- for Democracy a “CIA surrogate.” He says tion of Black, Latino and Native peoples rialist media, they undermined working- it has provided money to the Tibet Fund, inside the United States? And, while they class and popular organizations. Tibet Voice, the International Campaign champion the former Tibetan rulers, do For a while, the CIA’s fronts were so for Tibet, and other projects. The CIA-front they care about the ordinary Tibetan peo- exposed-”burned,” in the trade-that it American Society for a Free Asia sponsored ple, mostly peasants, whose lives improved seemed to have pulled back from this kind a tour by Thubten Norbu, eldest brother of greatly after liberation from the rule of this of work. the Dalai Lama, back in the 1950s. Norbu parasitic caste in 1959?

23 workers world Workers World, April 1959

Class War in Tibet

By Sam Marcy right to maintain the Chinese Army with- arena of world struggle, and quietly pur- in its borders. suing its independent destiny. When the Chinese Communists And this is as it should have been. For From an abstract point of view it marched into Tibet some 10 years ago, it was patently obvious that there was no would seem that the application of the they didn’t attempt to overturn the mass support at least none that we in the Leninist slogan of self-determination for ossified social and political institutions West knew of, for revolutionary social- Tibet, even up to and including the right characteristic of this feudal, theocratic ist reconstruction of the country, at the of separation, is the correct principle to state. A military, bureaucratic overturn time. But this rightly cautious policy of apply. But the world struggle does not of social relations without the support of the Chinese, and their respect for nation- permit it. If U.S. imperialism can spend the masses has all too frequently brought al minorities within the framework of the millions and millions of dollars in the results contrary to those Chinese Republic, cannot be viewed as form of the Seventh Fleet, with its guided desired. ends in themselves regardless of all con- missiles and A-bombs to “guard” the tiny Take the example of some of the states sequences. islands Quemoy and Matsu, what would of Eastern Europe, such as The rebellion that took place last the U.S. do in the case of a “free” and Hungary, where the Soviet army over- month, and which may still be in prog- “independent” Tibet? Merely to pose the turned the capitalist relations, without ress, is a grim reminder that we are not question is to answer it. mass popular support. To this day these living in the epoch of isolated states, rel- The correct answer to the question countries are standing invitations to capi- atively self-sufficient national economies of Tibet we believe lies in this: that the talist counter-revolution. and a world system, whose economic Socialist rights of 650 million people The Chinese, we believe, used sound and political bonds are relatively loose. involved in building a new social order judgment in 1950, when they simply Imperialism long ago put an end to that. are far greater than the bourgeois-dem- made Tibet an autonomous region within We are now living in the epoch where ocratic rights of an ancient, ossified, and the Chinese Republic. They subsequently two social systems are in mortal combat, decadent nobility disguised in the form signed an agreement with the Tibetan and where one or the other must emerge of a theocracy, even though they may government, which gave the Chinese as victor. There can be no such thing still command the greater portion of the People’s Republic control over no more under these circumstances as a “free” population at this time. han the foreign policy of Tibet, and the “independent” Tibet, removed from the

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