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

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
147
the US for “free and honest government”—and incidentally, “for the
protection which must be assured American citizens and American
interests in Nicaragua.” Pursuant to these aims, the Marines landed to
support the rebels—officially, “to protect U.S. lives and property.” They
succeeded in “ushering in twenty-five years of chaos,” John Booth
observes, a period of “destabilization and destruction,” terminating in a
brutal and murderous six-year war that “added additional burdens to the
reeling nation’s woes just as the Great Depression began, thus still
further taxing political institutions and the economy,” and leaving as
their legacy “a political monster—the National Guard in the hands of
Anastasio Somoza Garcia.” The Guard was “an instrument potentially
capable of crushing political opposition with greater efficiency than ever
before in that nation,” as it did in the years that followed with
enthusiastic support from Washington. 17
Millet’s characterization of Philander Knox’s charges is appropriate
today, for example, with respect to the statement by the President that
the US war against Nicaragua will continue until the Sandinistas “keep
their promise and restore [sic] a democratic rule. And have elections.” 18
Note incidentally the clear statement by President Reagan, reiterating
earlier Administration stands, that the purpose of the attack is to force a
change in Nicaragua’s internal order, not to defend El Salvador against
“armed attack.” More recently, the pretense has been dropped and the
President has made it plain that the purpose is to “remove” the existing
government “in the sense of its present structure” and make it “say
‘uncle’.” 19 The military is no less frank. General Paul Gorman, on retiring
from his position in command of US forces in Central America, informed
Congress that “I don’t think overthrow is feasible in the near future”
though in another year or more the contras, whom he praised as
“freedom fighters” whose goal is to oust the Sandinistas, might be able
“to march into Managua.” 20