Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library
Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library
Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library
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OBJECTIVITY AND LIBERAL SCHOLARSHIP<br />
searching analysis" that the new, liberal, revitalized State Department was trying<br />
to encourage, Hilsman cites a study directed to showing how the United<br />
States might have acted more effectively to overthrow the Mossadegh government<br />
in Iran. Allen Dulles was "fundamentally right," according to Hitsman,<br />
in judging that Mossadegh in Iran (like Arbenz in Guatemala) had come to<br />
power (to be sure, "through the usual processes of government") with "the<br />
intenti<strong>on</strong> of creating a Communist state"-a most amazing statement <strong>on</strong> the<br />
part of the State Department chief of intelligence; and Dulles was fundamentally<br />
right in urging suppOrt from the United States "to loyal anti-Communist<br />
elements" in Iran and Guatemala to meet the danger, even though "no invitati<strong>on</strong><br />
was extended by the government in power," obviously. Hilsman expresses<br />
the liberal view succinctly in the distincti<strong>on</strong> he draws betv{een the Iranian subversi<strong>on</strong><br />
and the blundering attempt at the Bay of Pigs: "It is <strong>on</strong>e thing ... to help<br />
the Shah's supporters in Iran in their struggle against Mossadegh and his<br />
Communist allies, but it is something else again to sp<strong>on</strong>sor a thousand-man<br />
invasi<strong>on</strong> against Castro's Cuba, where there was no effective internal oppositi<strong>on</strong>."<br />
The former effort was admirable; the latter, bound to fail, "is something<br />
else again" from the point of view of pragmatic liberalism.<br />
In Vietnam liberal interventi<strong>on</strong>ism was not properly c<strong>on</strong>ducted, and the<br />
situati<strong>on</strong> got out of hand. We learn more about the character of this approach<br />
to internati<strong>on</strong>al affairs by studying a more successful instance. Thailand is a<br />
34 case in point, and a useful perspective <strong>on</strong> liberal American ideology is given by<br />
the careful and informative work of Frank C. Darling, a Kennedy liberal who<br />
was a CIA analyst fo r Somheast Asia and is now chairman of the political science<br />
department at DePauw University.40<br />
The facts relevant to this discussi<strong>on</strong>, as Darling outlines them, are briefly as<br />
follows. At the end of World War II the former British minister, Sir Josiah<br />
Crosby, warned that unless the power of the Thai armed forces was reduced,<br />
"the establishmem of a c<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>al governmem would be doomed and the<br />
return of a military dictatorship would be inevitable." American policy in the<br />
posrnrar period was to support and strengthen the armed forces and the police,<br />
and Gosby's predicti<strong>on</strong> was borne out.<br />
There were incipiem steps towards c<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>al governmem in (he immediate<br />
posrnrar period. However, a series of military coups established Phibun<br />
S<strong>on</strong>gkhram, who had collaborated with the Japanese during the war, as premier<br />
in 1948, aborting these early efforts. The American reacti<strong>on</strong> to the liberal<br />
governmems had been ambiguous and "temporizing." In c<strong>on</strong>trast, Phibun<br />
was immediately recognized by the United States. Why? "Within this increasingly<br />
turbulent regi<strong>on</strong> Thailand was the <strong>on</strong>ly nati<strong>on</strong> that did not have a<br />
Communist insurrecti<strong>on</strong> within its borders and it was the <strong>on</strong>ly country that<br />
remained relatively stable and calm. As the United States c<strong>on</strong>sidered measures<br />
to deter Communist aggressi<strong>on</strong> in Southeast Asia, a c<strong>on</strong>servative and anti<br />
Communist regime in Thailand became increasingly attractive regardless of its