The Timeline of American Hegemony

Submitted by Edwin on Fri, 05/01/2009 - 04:04

Antiisgood Blog - The US maintains to this day over a dozen direct dependencies, the largest of which is Puerto Rico. Its military forces are active over most of the globe: at last audit about 226 countries have US military troops, 63 of which host American bases, while only 46 countries in the world have no US military presence - a projection of military power that makes the Roman, British, and Soviet empires pale in comparison.

The bulk of this document will deal with what is alternatively referred to as “neo-colonialism”, “hegemony”, “proxy rule”, or “informal empire”: roughly, a system of “dual elite” political rule, in which domestic elites (the proxy) recieve backing from (are dependent on - to varying degrees) a foreign elite, and in return protect (to varying degrees) the foreign power’s interests in the country (security, economic, or domestic political interests).

This is, at least, the framework within which I use the terms - as it is generally accepted by students of history. To take an explanation cited by Ariel Cohen as “One of the more successful attempts made to create a coherent theory of empires” in Russian Imperialism:

“Empire is a relationship, formal or informal, in which one state controls the effective political sovereignty of another political society. It can be achieved by force, by political collaboration, by economic, social, or cultural dependence. Imperialism is simply the process or policy of establishing or maintaining an empire.”

–Michael Doyle, Empires

As a point of reference formal American imperialism begins (or not - one would have to completely ignore the genocide of the native population, African and Native-American slavery, rapid and continuous expansion of the national borders through war, rapid and continuous expansion of mercantilism through war and the threat of war, the ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples, the mid 1800s mercantilist state established in Nicaragua, etc.) with the aquisition of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Phillipines after the Spanish-American War of 1898. It’s a good point to remember how that war started: part hoax, part sensationalized, war mongering “journalism”, and of course much talk about the brutality of the enemy and the necessity of our intervention on behalf of the suffering - in this case on behalf of the Cubans and their savage treatment at the hands of the tyrannical Spaniards: much better for them to suffer at our hands.

Old habits die hard.

For the sake of what has become a very very poor attempt at brevity, or in recognition of the precedent set by the Nuremberg Tribunal and principles laid out under the UN charter, these notes will mostly focus on post-WWII history - though it would seem imperative to include interventions that fly in the face of the popular misconception that the United States ended its imperial project at the end of the Spanish-American war. There were military involvements during the 1890s by the USG in Argentina, Chile, Haiti, Hawaii, Nicaragua, China, Korea, Panama, Samoa, in extremely brutal labour conflicts within the nation, and something akin to a war on working Americans waged by the National Association of Manufacturers that will otherwise go undiscussed. The Phillipines makes a decent representative example of the US’ first official exercise in colonial imperialism and formal empire [*], also referred to as “civilizational imperialism” - a project we’re presently repeating.

“Lest this seem to be the bellicose pipedream of some dyspeptic desk soldier, let us remember that the military deal of our country has never been defensive warfare. Since the Revolution, only the United Kingdom has beaten our record for square miles of territory acquired by military conquest. Our exploits against the American Indian, against the Filipinos, the Mexicans, and against Spain are on a par with the campaigns of Genghis Khan, the Japanese in Manchuria and the African attack of Mussolini. No country has ever declared war on us before we first obliged them with that gesture. Our whole history shows we have never fought a defensive war. And at the rate our armed forces are being implemented at present, the odds are against our fighting one in the near future.”

–Major General Smedley D. Butler, America’s Armed Forces: ‘In Time of Peace’, 1935

1898-1914: The Phillipines

1903-1936: Panama

1904-1978: Dominican Republic

1915-1934: Haiti

1912-1979: Nicaragua

1917-1920: Russian Civil War

1932-1972: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

1936-1958: America

1940: The McCollum Memo.

1942-1945: Japanese-American internment.

1945-1974: Greece.

1945-1960s: China. Tibet. Taiwan.

1945-1952: South Korean Occupation, Cheju Island, the Korean War

1945-1994: Vietnam: “Remember! Only you can prevent forests.”

1945-Present: Projection of American Nuclear Power

1946-1954: Phillipines

1946-1996: Marshall Islands.

1949-1961: Burma

1948-1976: Italy.

1948-1956: Peru

1949: Syria

1949-1953: Ukraine

1949-1976: Thailand

1950-?: Congress for Cultural Freedom/International Association for Cultural Freedom

1950: Puerto Rico

1950s-1970s: United States

1950-1975: Spain

1952-1959: Cuba

1952-1992: South Korea

1953: Costa Rica

1953-1979: Iran

1950-1952: Albania

1950-1952: Poland

1950s: Japan

1953: Segue: explosion of the first Russian hydrogen bomb; Destalinization begins; the McCarthy Era

1953-1996: Guatemala

1954-1965: Pakistan

1955-1958: Indonesia - Operation HAIK

1956-1976: Jordan

957-1975: Laos.

1957-1986: Haiti

1957: Syria

1958-1973: Cambodia

1958: Lebanon

1959: Iraq

1959-Present: Cuba

1960-1963: Ecuador

1960-Present: Congo

1961-Present: Diego Garcia

1962: Brazil

1962-Present: Guyana

1962-1975: Paraguay

1962-1977: Chile

1962-1989: South Africa

1962-1979: The Enemy of Communists are Islamic Fundamentalists are Our Kind of Bastards

1963-1979: Iraq *

1964: Brazil

1964: Panama

1963-1994: Malawi

1964-1971: Uruguay

1965-1987: Phillipines - the Democratizing Virtues of “Constitutional Authoritarianism”

1965: Indonesia.

1966-1967: Guatemala

1966: Ghana

1967: Bolivia; Assassination of Ernesto Guevara

1967: Detroit, Michigan

1968: El Salvador

1968-2000: Peru

1970s: Mexico

1971: Pakistan East and West, or ‘Don’t squeeze Yahya’ [*] [*]

1971: Uganda

1971-1978: Bolivia

1972: Philippines

USG backs overthrow of Philippine republic.

1972-1976: Ecuador

1973: Oman

1973-Present: The “War on Drugs”

1973: Uruguay

1973-1978: Afghanistan

1974: Pine Ridge, South Dakota

1974-1976: Portugal

1974-Present: The Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act

1975: Australia

1975-1992: Angola

1975-1999: East Timor: the Indonesian Occupation

1975-?: US backs thehmer Rouge.

1975-Present: Morocco

1976: Operation CONDOR

Plan CONDOR, Part Deux

1976-1980: Jamaica

1976-1984: Mozambique

1976-1983: Argentina

1977-1978: Ethiopia; Somalia; the Ogaden Swap

1978-2002: Kenya

July 3, 1979-1989: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Operation CYCLONE

1979: Greensboro Massacre.

1979-2001: Sudan

1979-1990: Nicaragua, “The Threat of a Good Example.”

1980s: Iran-Contra; the CIA and the Crack Trade

1980s: Romania

1980: Grenada

1980: Guyana. Fun with FOIA.

1980-1992: El Salvador

1980-1989: Liberia [2]

1962 and 1980.

1980: The Nojeh Coup and the origins of the Iraq-Iran war.

1980-1988: The Gulf War, Genocide of the Kurds

1980-Present: Turkey

Turkey becomes a long-running top recipient of US foreign military aid shortly after the 980 coup, upon which time the new regime passes several laws banning cultural and literary expression of Kurdish identity: the Kurdish language becomes illegal, as were Kurdish broadcasts, publications, and other means of cultural expression - everything down to Kurdish first names (until August 2002, when such restrictions began being lifted with some relationship to reality under European pressure, though still not much).

Out from under the harsh state repression a Kurish seperatist movement forms in 1984, which the Turkish government duly attempts to wipe out with violence. Throughout the conflict, which by any standard is an explicit campaign of outright cultural genocide, Turkey remains a top recipient of US military support. In fact military aid escalates through the counter-insurgency campaign, in which some of the most brutal tactics are largely dependent on lethal resources generously delivered by the USG.

The war against Kurdish society and the PKK forcibly evacuated anywhere between 500,000 to 2,000,000 Kurds and killed over 30,000; Turkish military razed entire villages as part of the force evacuation program, burning nearly all Kurdish villages in southeast Turkey to the ground by the end of the campaign. Uncritical, unconditional support for Turkey continued despite ongoing political repression and numerous human rights abuses, including the use of torture, “virginity exams”, and racist governmental policies.

The PKK in the meantime has the onerous distinction of being considered freedom fighters when in Iraq and terrorists when in Turkey, demonstrating once again Western politicians’ inability to just call an indigenous nationalist movement an indigenous nationalist movement.

After the capture of the PKK’s top leader the conflict diminished in intensity, but the conflict remains largely unsettled in terms of general Turkish repression of the Kurdish population.

Human Rights Watch: Turkey: Weapons Transfers and Violations of International Law, 1995

1981: Libya

Two Libyan jets shot down in 1981. Evidence of CIA involvement dates back to the early 70s and extends into the late 90s.

1982-84: Lebanon

1982-8marines expel PLO and back Phalangists and Navy bombs and shells Muslim positions.

1982-1990: Chad

1982: Guatemala

1982-1983: Surinam ^

1983: Guatemala

1983: Grenada

1984-1990: Honduras

1986: Libya