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At a meeting of the National Security Council on March 4, 1953, Eisenhower wondered aloud why it wasn't possible "to get some of the people in these downtrodden countries to like us instead of hating us."
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Dulles had two lifelong obsessions: fighting Communism and protecting the rights of multinational corporations.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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because he had such an ingrained and perhaps exaggerated faith in democracy, he did nothing to repress it.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Americans have always been idealists. They want their country to act for pure motives,
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Stephen Kinzer |
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From the vantage point of history, however, it is clear that most of these operations actually weakened American security. They cast whole regions of the world into upheaval, creating whirlpools of instability from which undreamed-of threats arose years later.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Caught up in the all-encompassing idea of their country's "manifest destiny," they convinced themselves that American influence abroad could only be positive and that anyone who rejected it must be bad."
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Stephen Kinzer |
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All that this country desires is that the other republics on this continent shall be happy and prosperous," Theodore Roosevelt declared, "and they cannot be happy and prosperous unless they maintain order within their boundaries and behave with a just regard for their obligations toward outsiders."
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Stephen Kinzer |
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McKinley was known above all for his inscrutability. He gave almost all the people he met the impression that he agreed with them, and rarely allowed even his closest advisers to know what he was thinking.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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the idea of using the Roman Catholic clergy to turn Guatemalans against Arbenz. Catholic priests and bishops in Guatemala, as in other Latin American countries, were closely aligned with the ruling class, and they loathed reformers like Arbenz.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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the battle in defense of natural resources.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Until this episode, many Americans had believed that their soldiers were different from others, operating on a higher moral plane because their cause was good.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Most American-sponsored "regime change" operations have, in the end, weakened rather than strengthened American security."
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Countries that have the power to interfere in foreign lands almost always do so.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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One of the most immutable patterns of history is the rise and fall of empires and great nations. Some Americans, however, believe their country to be so far beyond comparison with any other country or empire that has ever existed that it has passed beyond the reach of history.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Americans overthrew governments only when economic interests coincided with ideological ones.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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modern Afghan history shows that "an ounce of nation-building prevention will be worth a pound of military-operation cure."
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Stephen Kinzer |
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The central reason that Bush rejected the ambitious option of long-term engagement in Afghanistan, however, was that his attention was focused elsewhere. He understood the importance of stabilizing Afghanistan and would certainly have been happy to capture bin Laden and his henchmen, but his zeal for these projects paled beside his obsession with Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Had we to do it over again," he said in an interview sixteen months after the invasion, "we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success."
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Stephen Kinzer |
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the idea of invading Iraq was first urged on him after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, he could not fail to recognize it as a way to have his revenge, complete the job his father had begun, and redeem his family's honor.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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If it were possible to control the course of world events by deposing foreign governments, the United States would be unchallenged. It has deposed far more of them than any other modern nation. The stories of what has happened in the aftermath of these operations, however, make clear that Americans do not know what to do with countries after removing their leaders. They easily succumb to the temptation to stage coups or invasions but turn q..
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Stephen Kinzer |
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President Johnson soon Americanized the war that resulted in the death of a generation.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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The shah did not tolerate dissent and repressed opposition newspapers, political parties, trade unions, and civic groups. As a result, the only place Iranian dissidents could find a home was in mosques and religious schools,
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Like many American "regime change" operations, Operation Ajax seemed like a success at first."
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Nixon pressed him relentlessly, and also because the anti-Allende project fit perfectly with his view of the world and of America's place in it.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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He projected American power through regional allies like Iran, Zaire, and Indonesia, and turned a blind eye as dictators in those countries oppressed and looted with abandon.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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We used to be the fucker," one of Anaconda's lawyers lamented. "Now we're the fuckee."
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Stephen Kinzer |
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As Allende was trying to withstand the American campaign, he also faced intense pressure from groups of workers and peasants whose revolutionary passion he had helped to awaken.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Yet Haq was also an outspoken nationalist. His dream was that once the Taliban was overthrown, it would be replaced by a regime free of all outside influence.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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This upheaval came while the region was still recovering from the shock of the Islamic revolution in Iran, which radically reshaped the strategic map of the Middle East and Central Asia.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Whatever doubts the Americans had about the wisdom of embracing Zia were overwhelmed by their determination to intensify the rebellion in Afghanistan.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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To all of this the CIA agreed. It subcontracted to Pakistan the job of directing the Afghan rebellion.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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Each of these four coups was launched against a government that was reasonably democratic (with the arguable exception of South Vietnam), and each ultimately led to the installation of a repressive dictatorship.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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They led to the fall of leaders who embraced American ideals, and the imposition of others who detested everything Americans hold dear.
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Stephen Kinzer |
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The Saudis were already deeply involved in Pakistan. They had sent Zia large sums of money to open religious schools catering to both impoverished Pakistanis and Afghan refugees. To ensure that these schools taught only the puritanical Wahhabi form of Islam and that students were not exposed to such corrupting subjects as history or science, they also sent hundreds of mullahs, Koran readers, and religious teachers.
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Stephen Kinzer |