[Peace-discuss] Letter to DI

[David Green]

     David Johnson (12-2) innocently writes that “two
of
the nations who have done the most to combat genocide
and fascism over the past half century wind up
defending themselves from accusations of these very
things.” A few examples scratch the surface:

	Going beyond 3-4 million Vietnamese dead, Ed Herman
writes that prior to Cambodia’s killing fields
(1975-78), the U.S. Air Force dropped over 500,000
tons of bombs on rural Cambodia, killing scores of
thousands, creating a huge refugee problem, and
radicalizing the countryside.” Following Pol Pot’s
ouster by the Vietnamese, his forces “found a safe
haven in Thailand, a U.S. client state” for the next
15 years, protected by U.S. authorities.

	Stephen Shalom explores Indonesia’s genocide in East
Timor, which killed 200,000, a quarter of the
population: “When Congressional restrictions prevented
Carter from providing jets to Jakarta in 1978, he used
Israel as a conduit” to send U.S. warplanes to
Suharto.

	Israeli Jeff Halper summarized the U.S.-Israel
relationship: “Israel is the subcontractor for
American arms to the Third World. There is no terrible
regime . . . that does not have a major military
connection to Israel.” Walter LaFeber summarized the
Central American genocide (1979-91): “The minimum is
200,000 (40,000 in Nicaragua, 75,000 in El Salvador,
75,000 in Guatemala, 10,000 in Honduras).” All of
these killing machines were supplied by Israel.

	Business Week (12/8/80) explored the relationship:
“The Latin American market has developed rapidly
following the Carter Administration’s decision to
prohibit U.S. arms sales to right-wing regimes.”
Israel was a leading supplier to Argentina (during the
time of the neo-Nazi generals, who killed over a
thousand Jews), Chile (Pinochet), Guatemala (during
the Mayan genocide), and South Africa (during
neo-fascist apartheid).

	It is Johnson’s right to sanitize history. It is mine
to counter with illustrations of an unflattering
reality that persists.