LARRY ROMANOFF -- Spreading Democracy the American Way List of US-Installed Democracies, Worldwide, 1776-2019

Spreading Democracy the American Way

List of US-Installed Democracies, Worldwide, 1776-2019

By Larry Romanoff

Global Research, November 29, 2019

Region: USA

Theme: History, Intelligence

That’s the entire list. You can see that it’s blank. But how can that be? We all know that the US has freed dozens of nations from their evil and repressive governments, and installed loving democracies where people lived happily ever after, swamped with freedoms and overwhelmed with human rights. We know this because we’ve read and heard it hundreds, or maybe thousands, of times. It’s in all the US history books. We’ve seen it in so many movies and even read it in comic books when we were kids. It must be true. So why is the list empty? How can that be?

Sadly, the list is empty because everything we were told was a lie. It is often said that if you tell a lie five times, most people will believe it; the US as a “defender of democracy” is one of those lies. Almost any American can put together a list of 20 or 30 instances where the US removed a dictatorship, “freed” the people and installed a democracy, and that entire list will be nothing more than a fabricated fairy-tale since even a casual glance at the facts on the ground reveal something quite different. For all the talk about promoting democracy and freedom, there is no instance – NO instance – where the US has ever removed a dictatorship and replaced it with any kind of benevolent government, electoral democracy or otherwise. You may be aware of the statements by Major-General Smedley Butler who claimed that during his 33 years as a US Marine, he functioned simply as “a gangster for capitalism” and that all wars were bankers’ wars. On the topic of the US government installing democracies in the world, Butler himself denied such a thing had ever occurred, and said further, “The U.S. has routinely destroyed democracy throughout the globe while its leaders claimed to be spreading democracy.”

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But if the US didn’t install “democracy” in all those places, what did they do? Well, while preaching democracy, freedom and human rights at home, the US government was actually running around the world installing dictatorships – about 50, at last count. Not only that, while boasting at home about defending democracy, the CIA and military were actually undermining and destroying functioning democracies and replacing them with dictatorships. Iran is one of the most obvious of these, where the CIA arranged the overthrow of the beloved leader of a perfectly-functioning electoral democracy and installed Shah Reza Pahlavi as one of the most brutal dictators in modern history. In 2000, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stated:

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“In 1953 the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran’s popular Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The coup was clearly a setback for Iran’s political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs”.

Yeah. No kidding.

Empire, Intervention, and the Intentional Sacrifice of U.S. Soldiers

by Jacob G. Hornberger

November 29, 2019

The march of death. Taken during the March of Death from Bataan to Cabana Tuan prison camp. May 1942. (Defense depart., USMC 114538, # 127-GR-111-114538, National Archives).

On April 9, 1942, 12,000 U.S. troops paid the price of U.S. empire and intervention when they surrendered to Japanese forces at Bataan, Philippines. During the resulting “Bataan death march,” 600 of them died, and then another 1,000 died after they were transported to Japanese POW camps.

The Constitution called into existence a limited-government republic. No Pentagon, no CIA, and no NSA. Just a relatively small military force. No foreign military empire, no foreign colonies, and no U.S. military bases in foreign countries. That system lasted for more than a century.

By the same token, the original foreign policy of the United States was one of non-intervention in the affairs of other nations. No coups, foreign wars of aggression, foreign aid, state-sponsored assassinations, alliances with foreign regimes, or regime-change operations. That system too lasted about a century.

Notwithstanding the horrors of slavery, America’s limited-government structure and its non-imperialist, non-interventionist foreign policy were among the factors that led to the greatest and longest surge  in liberty, peace, prosperity, and standards of living in history.

The Spanish American War

The turn toward empire and intervention began with the Spanish American War, a watershed event that would lead to those 12,000 U.S. troops surrendering to Japanese forces almost 45 years later. The argument was that in order to be a great nation, America needed to acquire overseas colonies, just like the British and Spanish Empires.

During the Spanish-American War, Filipinos were fighting for independence from Spain. The U.S. government intervened in the conflict, with the ostensible aim of helping the Filipinos win their independence. It was a lie, one that the Filipinos discovered soon after Spain capitulated. In fact, the real aim of U.S. officials was simply to replace Spanish rule with U.S rule.

The Filipinos decided to keep fighting, this time for independence from the United States. U.S. forces brutally put down the revolt, killing and torturing hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in the process. After the U.S. conquest of the Philippines, U.S. officials took military control over the islands, constructed many military bases, and stationed thousands of U.S. troops there.

That’s why those 12,000 U.S. troops were there when Japan attacked the islands. The turn toward empire and intervention in 1898 put U.S. forces there and had kept them there for more than four decades of U.S. colonial rule.

World War I

The Spanish American War was followed by U.S. intervention into World War I. There had been no invasion of the United States. Nonetheless, President Wilson decided that he would intervene in the war with two aims: (1) to put a permanent stop to European wars by defeating Germany decisively; and (2) making the world “safe for democracy.” To accomplish is war aims, Wilson had to conscript (i.e, force) American men into fighting his war.

It was a disaster, and the American people knew it. More than 50,000 American men were killed in combat, and for nothing. Despite the total victory achieved against Germany, within a short time Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party rose to power in Germany, and war clouds were forming over Europe once again. So much for Wilson’s “war to end all wars” and to “make the world safe for democracy.”

World War II

Not surprisingly, the American people were overwhelmingly dead-set against U.S. involvement in another European war. President Franklin Roosevelt said he was too, as reflected by his statement to the American people during his 1940 presidential campaign, “I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”

It was a lie. In fact, Roosevelt was secretly trying to do everything he could to embroil the United States in the war.