Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

The Fifth Freedom
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
108
terminology of US ideological discourse will understand that it is no
contradiction when James Chace, editor of Foreign Affairs, cites “our
efforts to destabilize a freely elected Marxist government in Chile” as an
illustration of the efforts of Nixon-Kissinger Realpolitik “to seek
stability.” 54 Destabilization in the interest of stability makes perfect
sense in the age of Orwell. The problem, when noted, is placed under
the rubric of “irony in mainstream commentary, including much
scholarship. 55
NSC 48/1 proceeds to develop the conventional explanation found in
secret documents of the period for US participation in the French war
against Indochina, then the US takeover of that war. The reasoning,
which extends directly to Latin America, merits attention. Despite
references by Eisenhower and others to Vietnam’s resources, Indochina
was not of major concern in itself. Rather, its importance derived from
the context of the domino theory. This theory has two versions. One,
invoked when there is a need to frighten the public, warns that if we
don’t stop them there, they’ll land in California and take all we have. As
expressed by President Lyndon Johnson at the height of US aggression
in Vietnam:
There are 3 billion people in the world and we have only 200
million of them. We are outnumbered 15 to one. If might did
make right they would sweep over the United States and take
what we have. We have what they want.
“If we are going to have visits from any aggressors or any enemies,”
Johnson said in a speech in Alaska, “I would rather have that aggression
take place out 10,000 miles from here than take place here in
Anchorage,” referring to the aggression of the Vietnamese against US
forces in Vietnam. Therefore, as he had warned 20 years earlier, we