From: Charlie Stross (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Wed Nov 21 2001 - 12:54:19 MST
On Wed, Nov 21, 2001 at 07:56:25AM -0800, Brian D Williams wrote:
> I am well aware that we backed regimes that from a retrospective
> were bad for their peoples, I was in the Philipines during the
> reign of Ferdinand Marcos, and a good friend in high school after
> winning a science fair was a guest of the Shah of Iran, but you
> completely ignore why.
>
> We were involved in a cold war with the former Soviets, Democracy
> vs Totalitarianism for the fate of the world. Since we could not be
> everywhere at the same time we had little choice but to back anyone
> who opposed the Soviets, in most countries they were the only
> choice.
Which is why the CIA organised a coup in 1953 that ousted a
democratically elected prime minister (in Iran) and installed
an hereditary dictatorship, huh? (Clue: the previous Iranian
government was not a Soviet proxy.)
It had a hell of a lot more to do with cheap oil, and taking
over the former British and French spheres of interest in the
middle east (acquired during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire
in the 1918-1930 period) than with anything as long-term and
enlightened as combating communism.
_That_ particular pigeon came home to roost with a vengeance
in 1979 (although the signs suggest that Iran is settling
down again).
The picture of "democracy vs totalitarianism" is a cosy, comforting
one but by no means universally true. In fact, much of what went
on during the Cold War was more along the lines of an imperial
power-grab, as US companies moved into the power vacuum left
behind by the withdrawl of the former colonial powers and then
lobbied for backup from the State Department.
This isn't to exculpate the Soviets -- who were in it for
whatever they could get -- but if you look at a polar projection
map of the world, centred on the North Pole, as it looked in 1960
in terms of alliances, it looks *very* different from the Mercator
projection so common in Western school rooms. Clue: which projection
do you think was hanging in the Kremlin?
> These things have to be considered in their historical context.
Absolutely! And the sad fact is, history as taught in the US appears
to be about as accurate as the history taught in Japanese or German or
Russian schools, or preached in mosques ... i.e., not very.
-- Charlie
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:12:05 MST