NOAM CHOMSKY TURNING THE TIDE US Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace ESSENTIAL CLASSICS IN POLITICS: NOAM CHOMSKY EB 0007 ISBN 0 7453 1345 0 London 1999 The Electric Book Company Ltd Pluto Press Ltd 20 Cambridge Drive 345 Archway Rd London SE12 8AJ, UK London N6 5AA, UK www.elecbook.com www.plutobooks.com © Noam Chomsky 1999 Limited printing and text selection allowed for individual use only. All other reproduction, whether by printing or electronically or by any other means, is expressly forbidden without the prior permission of the publishers. This file may only be used as part of the CD on which it was first issued. TURNING THE TIDE US Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace Noam Chomsky 4 Copyright 1985 by Noam Chomsky Manufactured in the USA Production at South End Press, Boston Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Chomsky, Noam Turning the tide. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Central America—Politics and government—1979- . 2. Violence—Central America—History—20th century. 3. Civil rights—Central America—History—20th century. 4. Central America—Foreign relations—United States. 5. United States— Foreign relations—Central America. I. Title F1 436. 8. U6 1985 327. 728073 ISBN: 0-7453-0184-3 Digital processing by The Electric Book Company 20 Cambridge Drive, London SE12 8AJ, UK www.elecbook.com Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky 5 Contents Click on number to go to page Introduction................................................................................. 8 1. Free World Vignettes .............................................................. 11 1. The Miseries of Traditional Life.............................................. 15 2. Challenge and Response: Nicaragua....................................... 21 3. Challenge and Response: El Salvador ..................................... 29 3.1 The Carter Years ............................................................ 29 3.2 Reagan Takes Command................................................. 35 4. Challenge and Response: Guatemala...................................... 49 5. The Reagan Administration and Human Rights........................ 54 6. The Contribution of the Mercenary States................................ 58 7. The Planning of State Terror.................................................. 63 8. The Miseries of Traditional Life: A Further Note ....................... 67 2. The Fifth Freedom.................................................................. 72 1. Rhetoric and Reality ............................................................ 73 2. The Perceptions of the Planners ............................................ 79 3. Latin America: “An Incident, Not An End”............................... 96 4. Planning For Global Hegemony............................................ 104 5. The Crimes of Nicaragua .................................................... 117 3. Patterns of Intervention ........................................................ 135 1. Defending our Sovereignty .................................................. 136 2. The Rule of Law and the Rule of Force ................................. 143 3. The US and El Salvador in Historical Perspective ................... 152 4. Contemporary State Terrorism: the System Established........................................................................... 156 5. The System Applied: Torturing El Salvador............................ 162 Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky 6 5.1 Carter’s War ................................................................ 162 5.2 Duarte’s Role............................................................... 174 5.3 Towards “Democracy” in El Salvador .............................. 185 5.4 The Propaganda System Moves into High Gear................................................................................. 186 5.5 The War Moves into High Gear ...................................... 193 5.6 Reaction at Home: Successful Terror and Its Rewards ........................................................................... 196 6. Torturing Nicaragua ........................................................... 201 6.1 Before the Crisis........................................................... 201 6.2 The Proxy War............................................................. 203 6.3 The Elections and the Opposition ................................... 215 6.4 The Free Press at Work................................................. 219 6.5. A Glimpse into the Civilized World................................. 225 7. Elsewhere in the Region ..................................................... 229 7.1. Torturing Hispaniola .................................................... 229 7.2 Torturing Guatemala..................................................... 240 8. Human Rights, the Raising of the Living Standards, and Democratization .............................................. 246 9. The Awesome Nobility of our Intentions................................ 253 4. The Race to Destruction........................................................ 267 1. The Threat of Global War.................................................... 268 2. The Nuclear Freeze Campaign: Successes and Failures................................................................................ 277 3. The Lessons to be Drawn ................................................... 280 4. Defense Against the Great Satan: The Doctrine and the Evidence................................................................... 296 4.1 Defending the National Territory..................................... 296 4.2 The Defense of Western Europe...................................... 298 Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky 7 4.3 The Containment Doctrine............................................. 302 4.4 Containing the anti-Fascist Resistance: From Death Camps to Death Squads ............................................ 304 4.5 Escalation of the Pentagon System: The Pretexts and the Evidence ................................................... 315 5. The Roots of the Pentagon System....................................... 324 6. The Consequences............................................................. 337 7. Cold War Realities............................................................. 340 5. The Challenge Ahead............................................................ 345 1. The “Conservative” Counterattack ........................................ 346 1.1 Confronting the Threat of Democracy at Home ............................................................................... 346 1.2 The Attack against Labor............................................... 353 1.3 The Attack against Rights.............................................. 354 1.4 The Attack against Independent Thought......................... 357 1.5 Investing to Control the State: the Political System of Capitalist Democracy ........................................... 362 1.6 “The Ultimate Target”: the Public Mind........................... 366 1.7 The Domestic Successes of “Conservatism” ..................... 368 2. The Opportunities for Constructive Action.............................. 371 2.1 The System of Control: its Points of Weakness ......................................................................... 371 2.2 The “Shift to the Right”: Rhetoric and Reality................... 374 2.3 Turning the Tide........................................................... 383 Notes...................................................................................... 396 Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky Introduction 8 Introduction e live entangled in webs of endless deceit, often self-deceit, but with a little honest effort, it is possible to extricate W ourselves from them. If we do, we will see a world that is rather different from the one presented to us by a remarkably effective ideological system, a world that is much uglier, often horrifying. We will also learn that our own actions, or passive acquiescence, contribute quite substantially to misery and oppression, and perhaps eventual global destruction. But there is a brighter side. We are fortunate to live in a society that is not only rich and powerful—and hence, as any student of history would expect, dangerous and destructive—but also relatively free and open, perhaps more so than any other, though this may change if the reactionary jingoists who have misappropriated the term “conservative” succeed in their current project of diminishing civil liberties, strengthening the power of the state, and protecting it from public scrutiny. For those who are relatively wealthy and privileged, a very large sector of a society as rich as ours, there are ample opportunities to discover the truth about who we are and what we do in the world. Furthermore, by international standards the state is limited at home in its capacity to coerce. Hence those who enjoy a measure of wealth and privilege are free to act in many ways, without undue fear of state terror, to bring about crucial changes in policy and even more fundamental institutional changes. We are fortunate, perhaps uniquely so, in the range of opportunities we enjoy for free inquiry and effective action. The significance of these facts can hardly be exaggerated. Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky Introduction 9 I want to consider here some aspects of the reality that is often concealed or deformed by the reigning doctrinal system,