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

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
252
unknown cause in 1954 and has mysteriously persisted since. The
hostility to democracy on the part of American planners, and the reasons
for it, are well-understood among serious commentators on US policy
(see chapter 2, section 5): the fifth Freedom is regularly threatened
when governments are responsive to the needs of their own population,
instead of the transcendent needs of Big Brother. Meanwhile leading
American political scientists engage in childish prattle about “the overall
effect of American power on other societies”: namely, “to further liberty,
pluralism, and democracy”; “The conflict between American power and
American principles virtually disappears when it is applied to the
American impact on other societies,” 197 so that we must conclude, to
judge by the historical record, that “American principles” include torture,
massacre, starvation, slavery, enrichment of the foreign investor, and
fervent opposition to democracy when the results cannot be guaranteed.
Nor should we be surprised when President Reagan describes the
vicious and corrupt President Marcos of the Philippines as a man
“pledged to democracy,” or when Vice-President Bush toasts the dictator
for his “service to freedom and to our country,” with the words: “We
stand with you . . . We love your adherence to democratic principle and
to the democratic processes.” 198 In accordance with their conception of
“democracy,” why not?