So spoke Ronald Reagan, the favourite to be the next president of the United States. The words were uttered ten years ago when the US was in Vietnam Reagan was the highest hawk in the sky. He hasn't changed much since.
After Soviet Afghanistan he called for blockade of Cuba and for the US to arm the Afghan rebels. criticised Carter's press ahead with the neutron bomb and the B-1 bomber.
He likes to quote former President Roosevelt: 'We must be the greatest arsenal of democracy'. His favourite television programme is. 'Mission Impossible in which every agents save the world for democracy.
A fool Reagan may be, but he is a dangerous fool.
The prospect of him becoming US president is part of the nightmare. Other elements include the continuing presence in Downing Street ot coldwarrior Margaret Thatcher and the possible - remote though it appears at the moment - election victory in West Germany of Shranz Strauss who was a propaganda officer for the Nazis during the last world Wal:
Knock-out Imagine the three of them holding. humanity in their hands. It reads like an advertisement for a nuclear fallwould be a mistake to personalise the Keazan. Thatcher, representatives of their capitalist societies; apparently the ruling class, or at least significant parts of it, feels they are necessary.
To appreciate why, a quick glance at post Second World necessary.
After the war the US was the undisputed champion of the world. Its development of the atom and then the nuclear bomb gave it a knock-out punch none could match. try had emerged unscathed from the and flying invasion of La naval He has decision not to week US Joseph Walla hostilities.
too much. and Strauss are respective and order. Between months.
War history is it wanted.
The coununlike the Soviet Union which during the states This allowed the US to act as the policeman of the world, demanding Israel, obedience to its own version of law Africa, and 1970 the US intervened in Third World countries at a rate of once every 14 Then came Vietnam which was not just a military and political defeat but which, within the US itself, led to a deep questioning as to the morality of American military might imposing 'democracy' whenever and wherever A more subtle approach was needed, one developed in the 'geopolitical' strategy of Kissinger and Nixon. At its centre was the promotion of reliable in strategically important regions of the world; countries like Indonesia, Greece, Brazil and Iran, whose job was to safeguard their region in the interests of imperialism.
This left the US free to conduct covert operations and to 'destabilise' governments of which it disapproved.
and the CIA-inspired there in 1973, was the classic example.
What this left out of consideration was the attitude of the inhabitants of these 'reliable' states. The overthrow of the fascist regime in Portugal, the emergence of liberation movements in southern. Africa, the fall of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, Junta, and of Somoza in Nicaragua all suggested that however much the US favoured these regimes, South direct military intervention their survival could not be guaranteed.
Where the Kissinger strategy really collapsed was in the vital oil region of the Middle East.
The contradictions policy became apparent with coup Arab-Israeli war in 1973 and the use the Arabs made of the oil weapon. The US - dependent on Israel as a bastion of Western imperialism, but needing to secure the co-operation of the Arabs — had to perform a delicate balancing operation.
David 'peace' treaty is all but dead. of the Greek The fall rest of the • without steady capabilities within US the Carter's Camp control, Life dwindling.
of the Shah and the radicalising effect this has had on the region has brought the "geopolitical' method to a crisis point. And alongside this there has been the growth in the military of the Soviet Union, capability which is largely defensive but which does make it difficult for the US to openly intervene to impose its authority on a rebellious world.
Henry Kissinger recently summed up the crisis of imperialism:
I happen to agree with President Carter that the danger to America is the gravest in the modern period. We are sliding towards a world out of our relative military • declining, with our economic increasingly vulnerable
----- pull-quotes -----
'IF it takes a real blood- bath then let's get it over