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

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The Race to Destruction<br />

Classics <strong>in</strong> Politics: <strong>Turn<strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Tide</strong> <strong>Noam</strong> <strong>Chomsky</strong><br />

313<br />

employed, adopted and exported [<strong>the</strong>se ideals and methods] to Central<br />

America—to El Salvador and Guatemala, where <strong>the</strong> death squads which<br />

are <strong>the</strong> weapons of dictatorship can be seen <strong>in</strong> operation today. That is<br />

<strong>the</strong> true legacy of Fascism.” Klaus Barbie’s group <strong>in</strong> Bolivia <strong>in</strong>cluded<br />

“some of <strong>the</strong> most savage and professional killers of <strong>the</strong> Italian ultraright,<br />

accompanied by romantic worshippers of <strong>the</strong> swastika from<br />

Germany, France and even Switzerland.” They brought with <strong>the</strong>m <strong>the</strong><br />

“technologies of repression” designed by <strong>the</strong> Nazis:<br />

Barbie <strong>in</strong>troduced <strong>the</strong> fully-developed concentration camp to<br />

Bolivia, and lectured on <strong>the</strong> use of electrodes applied to <strong>the</strong><br />

human body to extract confessions, a technique first developed by<br />

Gestapo <strong>in</strong>terrogators <strong>in</strong> France. Toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> Italian terrorist<br />

Stefano delle Chiaie, he organised <strong>the</strong> squads of mercenary thugs<br />

which held down Bolivia by murder and <strong>in</strong>timidation, and which<br />

are seen perform<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> same task <strong>in</strong> El Salvador today. Not only<br />

<strong>the</strong> Bolivian dictatorship but General P<strong>in</strong>ochet <strong>in</strong> Chile, <strong>the</strong> officers<br />

who directed <strong>the</strong> ‘dirty war’ <strong>in</strong> Argent<strong>in</strong>a <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1970s, and today’s<br />

exponents of counter-terror <strong>in</strong> Central America have drawn deeply<br />

on <strong>the</strong> skills and services of this very special immigration from<br />

Europe.<br />

The Barbie story, <strong>the</strong>y write, “connects <strong>the</strong> Third Reich <strong>in</strong> Germany to<br />

<strong>the</strong> military regimes of South and Central America, which leads from one<br />

age of Fascism to ano<strong>the</strong>r.” El Salvador recruited “<strong>the</strong> men and expertise<br />

for its death squads among those who had learnt <strong>the</strong>ir trade” from <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

Nazi tutors <strong>in</strong> Argent<strong>in</strong>a, Chile and Bolivia. The Italian fascist murderer<br />

Stefano delle Chiaie—who is suspected of eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> worst terrorist<br />

atrocity <strong>in</strong> Europe s<strong>in</strong>ce World War II, <strong>the</strong> bomb<strong>in</strong>g at a Bologna railroad

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