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U.S. Imperialist Foreign Policy

Modern Communism continues its examination of U.S. imperialist activities around the world since the Second World War.

Iran

Following the Second World War, Britain was still the Western power with the most influence in Iran and most access to its oil resources. However, the Americans were beginning to expand their involvement in the Middle East, and were interested in Iran, both because of its strategic location (close to the Soviet Union) and its oil wealth.

In the early 1950s, Mohammad Mosaddeq rose to power in Iran, against the wishes of the British-backed Shah, Reza Khan Pahlavi. The Americans were extremely hostile to the Mosaddeq government, which was both anti-imperialist and anti-monarchist. Mosaddeq, a nationalist, built a coalition that included the communist-leaning Tudeh Party. When the Shah tried to have Mosaddeq dismissed, through various provisions of the country's constitutional monarchy, the move was greeted with mass protests and the Shah had to back down.

However, conflicts between Mosaddeq, his government and the Shah escalated, to the point that when the Americans intervened to broker a coup in 1953, the Shah welcomed the idea. An initial attempt was unsuccessful and the Shah ended up fleeing first to Baghdad and then to Rome. Nevertheless, the CIA remained active in financing anti-Mosaddeq demonstrations in Iran. An international boycott of Iranian oil, led by the Americans, put further economic pressure on Mosaddeq. In 1953, his government collapsed and, with American support, the Shah returned.

An oil agreement signed in 1954 effectively divided control of Iran's oil equally between the British and Americans, with some other European companies holding the balance of power. The American share of the industry had been virtually non-existent before the restoration of the Shah. To further shore up the American position, the CIA became involved in propping up the Shah's regime, at the time one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world.

In 1957, the Shah founded SAVAK, the Iranian secret police force entirely trained by the CIA. SAVAK was responsible for the murder, torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Iranian communists and progressives. The elimination of the Iranian left created an opposition vacuum. This was filled by religious leaders who opposed the Shah on the grounds that he was secularizing Iran. The most powerful among them was the Ayatollah Khomeni, who had been exiled by the Shah in 1964, but led a resistance movement from outside the country.

This movement grew steadily and, in 1979, the Shah was overthrown by a mass popular uprising. The CIA scrambled to cobble together an American-backed coalition that would be acceptable to the Iranian population, but their efforts failed. By February, Khomeni had built a secular-religious coalition government, although within a few months he was in total control.

Vietnam

From the summer of 1961, the U.S. government began covertly supporting the government of South Vietnam in its war against insurgents who were supported by the Democratic Government of Vietnam in the north. By 1964, the administration of President Lyndon Johnson was looking for an excuse to escalate its involvement in the region. However, domestic public opinion was largely opposed to sending American troops to get embroiled in another war in Asia.

In July 1964, the American destroyer Maddox was dispatched to the Gulf of Tonkin on a secret mission designed to trigger North Vietnam's coastal radar. It was accompanied by two South Vietnamese destroyers. On July 31, the first skirmish between North Vietnamese forces and the Maddox took place within North Vietnam's territorial waters. Information about the incident was not widely reported as President Johnson was heading into an election campaign and did not want it widely known that the U.S. navy was engaged in actions against a country with which the Americans were not officially at war.

On August 4, during a fierce storm, the two South Vietnamese destroyers accompanying the Maddox opened fire in international waters on what they claimed were North Vietnamese attack ships. It was later revealed that the captain of the Maddox radioed that no attack vessels could be seen and quite possibly weather conditions were interfering with the ship's radar. It was also possible the entire incident was a fabrication, as no evidence has ever been produced to substantiate the claims of a North Vietnamese attack.

Nevertheless, without any confirmation, President Johnson went on television, announced that an attack had taken place and that U.S. military aircraft were responding. Within a few days of the "attack", Johnson had received a joint resolution from Congress that was a de facto declaration of war. The U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalated and continued for another decade. In the end, three million Vietnamese lost their lives, while millions more were injured, and the economy of Vietnam was largely destroyed.