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

The Fifth Freedom
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
113
conspirator. If this flood of evil doctrines and pernicious examples should
extend over the whole of America, what would become of our religious
and political institutions, of the moral force of our governments, and of
that conservative system which has saved Europe from complete
dissolution?” One of the Czar’s diplomats warned that “we must work to
prevent or defer this terrible revolution, and above all to save and fortify
the portion [of the Christian world] which may escape the contagion and
the invasion of vicious principles,” namely, “the pernicious doctrines of
republicanism and popular self-rule.” 63
The contemporary heirs of Metternich and the Czar are animated by
similar fears, and have even adopted similar rhetoric—in Kissinger’s
case, perhaps with full awareness—as the United States took over the
role of the Czar in the 19th century as the defender of “civilization”
against the yellow dwarves and others whose pretensions threaten the
“disparity.”
Note incidentally that the US achieved its major objectives in
Indochina: it is a mistake to describe the Vietnam war simply as a US
“defeat,” as is commonly done, a fact that became evident as the war
reached its peak of violence in the late 1960s. The devastation of
Indochina by US violence guarantees that it will not be a model for
anyone for a long time to come, if ever. It will be lucky to survive. The
harsh and cruel measures undertaken by the US in the past decade are
intended to ensure that this partial victory is maintained. 64 Meanwhile,
behind the “shield” provided by the destruction of South Vietnam, then
much of Indochina, the US worked to buttress the second line of defense
by supporting a military coup in Indonesia in 1965 that wiped out
hundreds of thousands of landless peasants (a development much
applauded by Western liberals as vindication of the war against
Vietnam), backing the imposition of a Latin American-style terror-andtorture
state in the Philippines in 1972, etc.