Amnesty International estimated that by 1989, Indonesian troops had killed 200,000 people out of a population of between 600,000 and 700,000. The United States stood virtually alone in the world in its consistent support of Indonesias claim to East Timor, and downplayed the slaughter to a remarkable degree, at the same time supplying Indonesia with all the military hardware and training it needed to carry out the job. Despite denials to the contrary, Washington continued this military aid up to and including the period of extensive massacres of pro-independence Timorese in 1999 by Indonesian soldiers and their militia allies.31

In 1995, a senior official of the Clinton administration, speaking of Suharto, said: Hes our kind of guy. 32

Angola, 1975-1980s

The United States, China and South Africa supported one side of the civil war, while the Soviet Union and Cuba supported the other side. It dragged on bloodily, horribly and pointlessly for decades, and simmers yet, perhaps half a million lives lost, widespread hunger and what is said to be the highest amputee rate in the world, caused by the innumerable land mines. In the early years Henry Kissinger personally prevented what might well have been a peaceful solution, but the man was wholly obsessed with countering Soviet moves anywhere on the planet-significant or trivial, real or imagined, fait accompli or anticipated. In the 1990s, Washington tried to rein in its client, Jonas Savimbi, head of UNITA, to keep him from prolonging the war, but it would have been immensely better for the people of Angola if the US had not intervened at all in Angolan politics beginning in the early 1960s. The Russians would then have had no interest. Nor Henry Kissinger.

Jamaica, 1976

Prime Minister Michael Manley got on Washingtons bad side: by supporting the wrong faction in Angola, by establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, and by going up against the transnational aluminum companies. The United States employed many tactics in an attempt to defeat Manleys bid for reelection in 1976, but failed. 33

Honduras, 1980s

The US turned Honduras into an instant colony in the early 1980s, a military base with thousands of American troops, to support counter-insurgency operations in El Salvador and Guatemala, and, above all, to serve as a staging area, supply center and refuge for the Contras and their war against the Nicaraguan government. Inasmuch as the uninterrupted continuance of such operations required a quiescent population, the US gave the Honduran military and police the training, arms, equipment and funds needed to efficiently suppress dissidents-the anti-American types (who mockingly referred to their

country as the U.S.S. Honduras), those involved in solidarity campaigns for the Salvadoran rebels and the Sandinistas of Nicaragua and those striving for social change within Honduras, though still far from becoming a guerrilla threat.34 American diplomats, observed the New York Times in 1988, exercise more control over domestic politics in Honduras than in any other country in the hemisphere, and in private that fact is universally acknowledged here. 35

Nicaragua, 1978-90

When the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1978, it was clear to Washington that they might well be that long-dreaded beast- another Cuba . Under President Carter, attempts to sabotage the revolution took diplomatic and economic forms. Under Reagan, violence was the method of choice. For eight terribly long years, the people of Nicaragua were under attack by Washingtons proxy army, the Contras, formed from Somozas vicious National Guardsmen and other supporters of the dictator. It was all-out war, aiming to destroy the progressive social and economic programs of the government, burning down schools and medical clinics, raping, torturing, mining harbors, bombing and strafing. These were the charming gentlemen Ronald Reagan liked to call freedom fighters .

In 1990, the US seriously interfered in national elections, resulting in the defeat of the Sandinistas.36

As with Cuba, well never know what kind of progressive society the Sandinistas might have created if allowed to live in peace and not have to spend half their budget on fighting a war. Oxfam, the international development organization, said that from its experi-ence of working in 76 developing countries, Nicaragua under the Sandinistas was exceptional in the strength of that governments commitment...to improving the condition of the people and encour-aging their active participation in the development process. 37

A decade after returning to the rule of the free market, Nicaragua had become one of the poorest nations in the hemisphere, with more than half its people suffering from malnutrition and with illiteracy widespread.

Philippines, 1970s-1990s

Another scenario of poverty, social injustice, death squads, torture, etc. leading to wide-ranging protest and armed resistance...time once again for the US military and CIA to come to the aid of the government in suppressing such movements. In 1987 it was revealed that the Reagan administration had approved a $10 million, two-year plan for increased CIA involvement in the counter-insurgency campaign.38 The CIA undertook large-scale psychological warfare operations and US military advisers routinely accompanied Philippine troops during their maneuvers.39 The Philippines has long been

the most strategic location for US war-making in Asia, the site of several large American military bases, which have been the object of numerous protests by the citizens. In 1991, the US embassy informed the media that embassy polls indicated that 68 percent, 72 percent, even 81 percent of the Philippine people favored the bases. The polls, however, never existed. I made the numbers up, an embassy official conceded.40

Seychelles, 1979-81

The countrys leader, France Albert Rene, amongst other shortcomings in the eyes of Washington, was a socialist, pursued non-alignment, wanted to turn the Indian Ocean into a nuclear-free zone and was not happy that his island nation was the home of a US Air Force satellite tracking station. For this he was the object of various US destabilization conspiracies beginning in 1979. In November 1981, the CIA reportedly was behind a mercenary invasion of the island nation, which originated in South Africa and got no further than an armed battle at the Seychelles airport.41

South Yemen, 1979-84

Partly to cater to the wishes of next-door Saudi Arabia, and partly as Cold-War reflex, the US supported paramilitary forces in South Yemen to undermine the government, which was perceived as the proverbial Soviet satellite , as opposed to North Yemen, which was seen to be the proverbial pro-Western good guys. North and South had been fighting on and off for years. The US sent North Yemen military aid and trained paramilitary forces to blow up bridges and carry out other acts of sabotage in the South. In March 1982, a 13-man paramilitary team was captured in the South; under torture, they confessed (honestly) to a CIA training connection and 12 were executed; the operation soon came to an end. Reagans CIA Director, William Casey, a genuine anti-Soviet primitive, had been convinced that the South Yemenis were part of a Soviet-run international ter-rorist network, along with Cubans, the Italian Red Brigades and the IRA. 42 In reality, since 1979, the Soviet Union had been providing military support and advisers to both North and South, sometimes at the very same time, and even helped North Yemen to put down a leftwing guerrilla movement. 43 In 1990, North and South combined into one country, the Republic of Yemen. The Cold War as vaudeville.

South Korea, 1980

In May, the United States-which had the first and last word on matters military in South Korea-acting on a government request, released some South Korean forces from the combined US-Korean command to be used by military strongman Chun Doo Hwan to suppress an uprising of students and workers in the city of Kwangju.44 The protestors were pressing for an end to martial law, the arrest of dissidents and their families and friends, fraudulent elections, torture and unmet social needs. A brutal crackdown followed, estimates of the death toll ranging between several hundred and 2,000, with a