And don't you dare deny this: Fidel Castro in a damned sight better than our "allies" the Saudis. You don't believe that? Let me ask every gentleman reading this: If you were forced at gunpoint to choose, where would you prefer to live - Cuba or Saudi Arabia? If you're attempting to prove a foolish political point by answering "Saudi Arabia", that's fine; I'll accept your answer. Now let me ask that same question to the ladies: Where would YOU choose to live? Saudi Arabia? Where women have virtually no rights whatsoever? I didn't think so. HEY GUYS! Where would have your sister or your mother live? Saudi Arabia? Really??? Medication time!
Compared to the Saudi Royal Family, Fidel Castro is starting to look more and more like Thomas Jefferson.
The fact of the matter is that the United States has gotten really cozy in the past with vicious despots far worse than Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez. The Shah of Iran comes immediately to mind. In 1953 the Central Intelligence Agency of Dwight D. Eisenhower overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran - or "Persia" as it was then called. They swiftly installed Reza Pahlavi who ruled by means of murder, torture and intimidation for a quarter of a century. The birth of violent Islamic extremism can be traced to the CIA-engineered coup of 1953. It somehow seems like poetic justice that the Shah would become their first real victim in 1979 when he was forced to flee the country in fear of his life. Two score and sixteen years later, the world is still paying a severely heavy price for Eisenhower's disastrous foreign policy. Just ask the poor, suffering people of Guatemala.
By 1955 the Guatemalan people were into their tenth year of a very real and flourishing democracy. The people were beginning to prosper in ways they could scarcely have dreamed about a mere decade before, and literacy rates were rising at a speed unheard of in most Latin-American Countries of that era. There was only one problem: the government of Jacobo Arbanz had this silly notion that the farmland that grew the fruit, their main export, should be controlled by the people - not the American-owned, United Fruit Company - so they nationalized that land. Bad mistake. John Foster Dulles, who was Eisenhower's Secretary of State, owned mucho stock in the Delmonte Canned Fruit Company. The CIA was again called in to do the dirty work. Goodbye Democracy! Hello Despotism! Fifty-four years later, Guatemala is a dictatorial cesspool. Thanks, Ike!
By the way, I don't buy Delmonte products. You shouldn't either. Food for thought - no pun intended.
The brutal Somoza family (the folks who put the nasty in dynasty) ruled Nicaragua for generations. President Roosevelt once famously said of the elder Somoza, "He may be a son-of-a-b*tch; but he's our son-of-a-b*tch" (Although it is no secret to anyone who regularly reads this site that I am a great admirer of FDR, I'll be the first to admit that he was far from perfect). In 1979 Anastasia Somoza was overthrown by Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas bringing, to that country the first real (albeit imperfect) democracy in living memory. Two years later the government of Ronald Reagan began an eight year military campaign against the Nicaraguan people, forcibly trying to return them to totalitarianism - in direct violation of the Boland Amendment. The very fact that Reagan was never impeached still rankles all these years later.
On his historic visit to China in 1972, Richard Nixon insisted on going out of his way to be filmed and photographed with an ailing Mao Tse Tung. Did meeting with one of the twentieth century's worst tyrants prove that Nixon hated America? Of course it didn't! Watergate proved that all by itself.
And while we're on the subject of American leaders coddling these awful thugs, just look at the 1982 video image at the top of this piece. That is Reagan envoy Donald Rumsfeld (remember him?) embracing our then-ally, Saddam Hussein.
And whom do you think it was that Franklin Roosevelt tried to negotiate with in good faith at the Yalta and Tehran conferences as World War II drew to a close - Nadya Kominish? Yakov Smirnov? It was Josef Stalin, the man who is in serious competition with Adolf Hitler for the title, "Most Despicable Human Being of the Past Two-Thousand Years".
Call it a silly hunch on my part, but I have a feeling that in the long scheme of things, Barack Obama's acceptance of a book and a handshake from Hugo Chavez is no imminent threat to the peace and security of the free world. Appeasing the likes of Saddam Hussein, Reza Pahlavi and the Somoza Clan, on the other hand, was a very real threat.
The president made this country proud on his mission to Trinidad last week. Isn't it a neat thing to once again have a chief-executive with an I.Q. in the triple digits? I sure think so!
Compared to the Saudi Royal Family, Fidel Castro is starting to look more and more like Thomas Jefferson.
The fact of the matter is that the United States has gotten really cozy in the past with vicious despots far worse than Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez. The Shah of Iran comes immediately to mind. In 1953 the Central Intelligence Agency of Dwight D. Eisenhower overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran - or "Persia" as it was then called. They swiftly installed Reza Pahlavi who ruled by means of murder, torture and intimidation for a quarter of a century. The birth of violent Islamic extremism can be traced to the CIA-engineered coup of 1953. It somehow seems like poetic justice that the Shah would become their first real victim in 1979 when he was forced to flee the country in fear of his life. Two score and sixteen years later, the world is still paying a severely heavy price for Eisenhower's disastrous foreign policy. Just ask the poor, suffering people of Guatemala.
By 1955 the Guatemalan people were into their tenth year of a very real and flourishing democracy. The people were beginning to prosper in ways they could scarcely have dreamed about a mere decade before, and literacy rates were rising at a speed unheard of in most Latin-American Countries of that era. There was only one problem: the government of Jacobo Arbanz had this silly notion that the farmland that grew the fruit, their main export, should be controlled by the people - not the American-owned, United Fruit Company - so they nationalized that land. Bad mistake. John Foster Dulles, who was Eisenhower's Secretary of State, owned mucho stock in the Delmonte Canned Fruit Company. The CIA was again called in to do the dirty work. Goodbye Democracy! Hello Despotism! Fifty-four years later, Guatemala is a dictatorial cesspool. Thanks, Ike!
The brutal Somoza family (the folks who put the nasty in dynasty) ruled Nicaragua for generations. President Roosevelt once famously said of the elder Somoza, "He may be a son-of-a-b*tch; but he's our son-of-a-b*tch" (Although it is no secret to anyone who regularly reads this site that I am a great admirer of FDR, I'll be the first to admit that he was far from perfect). In 1979 Anastasia Somoza was overthrown by Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas bringing, to that country the first real (albeit imperfect) democracy in living memory. Two years later the government of Ronald Reagan began an eight year military campaign against the Nicaraguan people, forcibly trying to return them to totalitarianism - in direct violation of the Boland Amendment. The very fact that Reagan was never impeached still rankles all these years later.
On his historic visit to China in 1972, Richard Nixon insisted on going out of his way to be filmed and photographed with an ailing Mao Tse Tung. Did meeting with one of the twentieth century's worst tyrants prove that Nixon hated America? Of course it didn't! Watergate proved that all by itself.
And while we're on the subject of American leaders coddling these awful thugs, just look at the 1982 video image at the top of this piece. That is Reagan envoy Donald Rumsfeld (remember him?) embracing our then-ally, Saddam Hussein.
And whom do you think it was that Franklin Roosevelt tried to negotiate with in good faith at the Yalta and Tehran conferences as World War II drew to a close - Nadya Kominish? Yakov Smirnov? It was Josef Stalin, the man who is in serious competition with Adolf Hitler for the title, "Most Despicable Human Being of the Past Two-Thousand Years".
Call it a silly hunch on my part, but I have a feeling that in the long scheme of things, Barack Obama's acceptance of a book and a handshake from Hugo Chavez is no imminent threat to the peace and security of the free world. Appeasing the likes of Saddam Hussein, Reza Pahlavi and the Somoza Clan, on the other hand, was a very real threat.
The president made this country proud on his mission to Trinidad last week. Isn't it a neat thing to once again have a chief-executive with an I.Q. in the triple digits? I sure think so!
Tom Degan
Goshen, NYwww.tomdegan.blogspot.com
SUGGESTED READING:
The Declassified Eisenhower
by Blanche Weisen-Cooke
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