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U.S. Imperialist Foreign Policy

In the last week, a huge offensive has been launched in Canada to try and win over public opinion in support of the U.S. "War Against Terrorism", unleashed in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. Public opinion polls clearly demonstrate the reluctance of Canadians to simply follow U.S. foreign policy despite all the hype and sentiment. But they are being deliberately misinterpreted to create an impression that the Canadian people will support whatever military aggression the U.S. is preparing. In fact, opinion polls have consistently shown that while Canadians feel the deepest sympathy for the American people, especially those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks, they do not support more innocent lives being lost whether in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world.

Besides misrepresenting public opinion in this way, another approach has been to criticize those who are questioning American foreign policy and the role it played in the September 11th attacks. Dismissing these questions as knee-jerk anti-Americanism, or more commonly, as if those who are raising them are blaming the victims, does nothing to address the issue. The simple reality is that any examination of U.S. foreign policy in just the years since the end of the Second World War reveals that the American government has been complicit in, engineered or committed countless acts of terrorism in every corner of the globe.

To further this discussion, in this and future issues Modern Communism will provide some information about U.S. imperialist foreign policy over the past five decades.

Guatemala

In 1952, the newly-elected government of Jacobo Arbenz introduced and passed the Agrarian Reform Law. In a country where 2 per cent of the population controlled over 70 per cent of all fertile land, this law was aimed at large plantation owners, providing for the expropriation of land not being cultivated, and its redistribution to the peasantry. This was taken as a direct affront by the United Fruit Company (UFC), which was both the largest landowner and employer in Guatemala.

For decades, the UFC had bought up vast tracts of land, not for cultivation, but to ensure it did not fall into competitors' hands. The UFC had close ties to the American establishment: Foreign Secretary John Foster Dulles was a company stockholder and legal advisor; Dulles' brother Allan, director of the CIA, was a past president of UFC; as was the former CIA director, Walter Bedell Smith.

Within two years of the passage of the reform law, a CIA plan to remove Arbenz and replace him with the pro-American Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas was underway. The CIA trained a small force of right-wing Guatemalans opposed to the Arbenz government in Honduras (on property owned by the UFC). Their invasion was launched from Honduras. The plan was that the Guatemalan people would join them, rising up against the "communist" Arbenz. However, when the popular uprising never materialized, the CIA provided radio services which broadcast false information about people joining the militia. The U.S. also pressured two of its closest allies- the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua and the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic - to provide bombers and begin a series of air raids over Guatemala. These threw the army and population into a panic, and killed hundreds of civilians. The army joined forces with the invaders, and the Arbenz government fell. John Foster Dulles subsequently told the American people that these events in Guatemala had ensured the demise of "the evil purpose of the Kremlin to destroy the inter-American system."

The Congo

Belgium granted independence to the Congo on June 30, 1960. In other newly-independent African countries, especially the nations of West Africa, there was a European-trained African elite ready to take over the reigns of power, with the assistance of their former colonial masters. However, the situation in the Congo was different. Belgium had enforced one of the most ruthless colonial regimes in Africa, and had not permitted any advanced education of the Congolese people until 1954.

There has been a great deal of debate over why Belgium relinquished control over the Congo. There were tens of thousands of Belgians living in the country; they controlled the civil service and police force; and Belgian mining companies had grown rich by exploiting the minerals and labour of the Congo. Some historians contend that while Belgium had no choice but to relinquish official control, the prospect of a huge power vacuum after they pulled out made it easier for them to protect their interests. There were deep internal divisions within the country, and rather than facing the prospect of the Congolese uniting in a national liberation struggle against them, the Belgians preferred to use these divisions to their advantage.

One of the few Congolese leaders capable of uniting the divided country was Patrice Lumumba, who was elected the Congo's first Prime Minister following independence. Lumumba immediately had to cope with the colonial legacy, including the almost immediate secession of the province of Katanga. This region was rich in copper, uranium, cobalt, gold and diamonds and was of vital interest to the Belgians and to the Americans, who also had mining companies there. Katanga was led by Moise Tshombe, who was from one of the few wealthy African families in the Congo and was backed by Belgian copper interests. Lumumba, who had built a government of national unity, regarded Tshombe as the agent of the largest foreign mining company in the country, the Union Miniere.

Lumumba turned first to the United Nations for help in quelling the secessionists, and when that failed, to the Soviet Union. Not surprisingly, the U.S. leapt on this, with the Kennedy administration describing Lumumba as a "Soviet stooge". The Americans increased their involvement in the Congo, winning over the head of the country's armed forces, Joseph Mobutu. Lumumba was forced out of his post after he lost control of the armed forces and Mobutu took over control of the country. Nevertheless, Lumumba remained the most popular politician in his country, and indeed, in Africa.

In 1961, the Mobutu government, armed to the teeth and backed financially by both the United States and Belgium, turned Lumumba over to the Tshombe regime in Katanga. Lumumba was murdered. While it was denied at the time, it has since become clear that the CIA played an active role in his assassination. Documents released decades later indicate that CIA operatives had a plan in place by the end of 1960 to assassinate him, a plan authorized directly by CIA Director Dulles.