Cambodia, 1955-73

Prince Sihanouk was yet another leader who did not fancy being an American client. After many years of hostility toward his regime, including assassination plots and the infamous Nixon/Kissinger secret carpet bombings of 1969-70, Washington finally overthrew Sihanouk in a coup in 1970. This was all that was needed to impel Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge forces to enter the fray. Five years later, they took power. But the years of American bombing had caused Cambodias traditional economy to vanish. The old Cambodia had been destroyed forever.

Incredibly, the Khmer Rouge were to inflict even greater misery upon this unhappy land. And to multiply the irony, the United States supported Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge after their subsequent defeat by the Vietnamese (See Pol Pot chapter).

Laos, 1957-73

The Laotian left, led by the Pathet Lao, tried to effect social change peacefully, making significant electoral gains and taking part in coalition governments. But the United States would have none of that. The CIA and the State Department, through force, bribery and other pressures, engineered coups in 1958,1959 and 1960. Eventually, the only option left for the Pathet Lao was armed force. The CIA created its famous Armee Clandestine- totaling 30,000, from every corner of Asia-to do battle, while the US Air Force, between 1965 and 1973, rained down more than two million tons of bombs upon the people of Laos, many of whom were forced to live in caves for years in a desperate attempt to escape the monsters falling from the sky. After hundreds of thousands had been killed, many more maimed, and countless bombed villages with hardly stone standing upon stone, the Pathet Lao took control of the country, following on the heels of events in Vietnam.

Thailand, 1965-73

While using the country to facilitate its daily bombings of Vietnam and Laos, the US military took the time to try to suppress insurgents who were fighting for economic reform, an end to police repression and in opposition to the mammoth US military presence, with its huge airbases, piers, barracks, road building and other major projects, which appeared to be taking the country apart and taking it over. Eventually, the American military personnel count in Thailand reached 40,000, with those engaged in the civil conflict-including 365 Green Beret forces-officially designated as advisers , as they were in Vietnam.

To fight the guerrillas, the US financed, armed, equipped and trained police and military units in counter-insurgency, significantly increasing their numbers; transported

government forces by helicopter to combat areas; were present in the field as well, as battalion advisers and sometimes accompanied Thai soldiers on anti-guerrilia sweeps. In addition, the Americans instituted considerable propaganda and psychological warfare activities, and actually encouraged the Thai government to adopt a more forceful response. 17 However, the conflict in Thailand, and the US role, never approached the dimen sions of Vietnam.

In 1966, the Washington Post reported that In the view of some observers, continued dictatorship in Thailand suits the United States, since it assures a continuation of American bases in the country and that, as a US official put it bluntly, is our real interest in this place. 18

Ecuador, 1960-63

Infiltrating virtually every department of the government, up to and including the second and third positions of power, along with an abundant use of dirty tricks, enabled the CIA to oust President Jose Maria Velasco because of his refusal to go along with US Cuba policy and because he did not clamp down hard on the left domestically; and when his replacement also refused to break relations with Cuba, a military leader in the pay of the CIA gave him an ultimatum, which he acceded to.

The Congo/Zaire, 1960-65, 1977-78

In June 1960, Patrice Lumumba-legally and peacefully-became the Congos first prime minister after independence from Belgium. At Independence Day ceremonies before a host of foreign dignitaries, Lumumba called for the nations economic as well as its political liberation, recounting a list of injustices against the natives by the white owners of the country. The man was obviously a communist . And obviously doomed, particularly since Belgium retained its vast mineral wealth in Katanga province, and prominent Eisenhower administration officials had financial ties to the same wealth.

Eleven days later, Katanga seceded; in September Lumumba was dismissed by the president at the instigation of the United States; and in January 1961 he was assassinated, with CIA involvement, after Eisenhower had requested that Lumumba should depart from this life. There followed several years of civil conflict and chaos and the rise to power in 1965 of Mobutu Sese Seko, a man not a stranger to the CIA. Mobutu went on to rule the country (which he renamed Zaire) for more than 30 years, with a level of corruption and cruelty that shocked even his CIA handlers. The Zairian people lived in abject poverty despite the countrys extraordinary natural wealth, while Mobutu became a multibillionaire.

In both 1977 and 1978, the Carter administration rushed exten-sive military aid to Zaire, including airlifting Moroccan troops, to help Mobutu quell rebel uprisings and remain in

power. President George Bush was later to remark that Mobutu was our best friend in

Africa .19

France/Algeria, 1960s

The CIA apparently supported a French military coup in Algeria to block that countrys independence in the face of French president Charles de Gaulles determination to grant independence. The US was concerned that an independent Algeria would have a communist government. Washington also hoped that the repercussions would topple de Gaulle, who was a major obstacle to American hegemonic plans for NATO. A few years later, evidence indicates, the CIA was involved in an aborted plot to assassinate the French president.

Brazil, 1961-64

President Joao Goulart was guilty of the usual crimes: he took an independent stand in foreign policy, resuming relations with socialist countries and opposing sanctions against Cuba; his administration passed a law limiting the amount of profits multinationals could transmit outside the country; a subsidiary of ITT was nationalized; he promoted economic and social reforms. And Attorney General Robert Kennedy was uneasy about Goulart allowing communists to hold positions in government agencies. Yet the man was no radical. He was a millionaire land owner and a Catholic who wore a medal of the Virgin around his neck. That, however, was not enough to save him. In 1964, he was overthrown in a military coup which had covert American involvement and indispensable support. The official Washington line was...yes, its unfortunate that democracy has been overthrown in BraziL.but still, the country has been saved from communism.

For the next 15 years, all the features of military dictatorship which Latin America has come to know and love were instituted: Congress was shut down, political opposition was reduced to virtual extinction, habeas corpus for political crimes was suspended, criticism of the president was forbidden by law, labor unions were taken over by government interveners, mounting protests were met by police and military firing into crowds, peasants homes were burned down, priests were brutalized...there were disappearances, death squads, a remarkable degree and depravity of torture. The government had a name for its program: the moral rehabilitation of Brazil.

Washington was very pleased. Brazil broke relations with Cuba and became one of the United States most reliable allies in Latin America.

Peru, 1965