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

The Fifth Freedom
will felt for it. It is not simply by reason of its high character as a
civilized state, nor because reason, justice, and equity are the
invariable characteristics of the dealings of the United States. It is
because, in addition to all other grounds, its infinite resources
combined with its isolated position render it master of the
situation, and practically invulnerable as against any or all other
powers.
Much of the subsequent history of the region is elegantly summarized
in these lines, as it is in a confidential memorandum of 1927 by Under-
Secretary of State Robert Olds, expressing US policy goals in Nicaragua
as the US once again sent the Marines:
The Central American area down to and including the Isthmus of
Panama constitutes a legitimate sphere of influence for the United
States, if we are to have due regard for our own safety and
protection . . . Our ministers accredited to the five little republics
stretching from the Mexican border to Panama . . . have been
advisors whose advice has been accepted virtually as law . . . we
do control the destinies of Central America and we do so for the
simple reason that the national interest absolutely dictates such a
course . . . We must decide whether we shall tolerate the
interference of any other power [i.e., Mexico] in Central American
affairs or insist upon our own dominant position. If this Mexican
maneuver succeeds it will take many years to recover the ground
we shall have lost . . . Until now Central America has always
understood that governments which we recognize and support stay
in power, while those which we do not recognize and support fall.
Nicaragua has become a test case. It is difficult to see how we
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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