Deterring Democracy [Paperback]

Chomsky manages to continually surprise us with the horrors rich nations inflict on poorer nations. He graphically describes US interference in countries struggling for social and economic change. I read this while living in Nicaragua and came to understand why the US insists on maintaining its control on rich-in-resources countries. Chomsky uncoveres the paranoia of US governments and their cruel role in the destruction of weaker victims. It is a hard book to deal with, but is one of the easier ones to read. I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in US foreign policy, its motives and reasoning. It covers many areas of the world where the US actively set out to undermine social democratic movements, governments or people.

Deterring Democracy is Professor Noam Chomsky's cutting analysis of the 1980s, the decade that filmmaker Oliver Stone (in the film Wall Street) sarcastically wrote as being defined as, "Greed is good."

Though Chomsky's book looks at many aspects of post-World War II United States foreign policy, such as how Germany and Japan were reshaped to suit the needs of exporters, it's primary focus is on Central America. Chomsky chooses this geographic region for logical reasons: the U.S. has, through the centuries, marketed - branded, even - itself as being a fearless promoter of peace and justice; this has, in many ways, been its raison d'etre. Even today, the U.S.'s Manifest Destiny can still be seen in action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Throughout the 1980s, the U.S. had a relatively free hand in Central America (beyond the reach of the Soviet Union); therefore, how the U.S. acted in it's own 'backyard' when given carte blanche should be most instructive. Following the argument, if the U.S. actively promotes democracy, then countries like El Salvador and Honduras et al should have flowered into democratic paradises.

This did not happen. Using independent research, eyewitness testimony and the official internal planning record, Chomsky conclusively demonstrates that these countries became death-squad democracies, under U.S. tutelage. Tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of people were routinely tortured and executed, as government policy. Intimidation and brutality were common-place. Millions were displaced. The mainstream mass media colluded in surpressing these unpleasant facts from the U.S. public, whilst promoting an image of President Ronald Reagan as a great and fearless promoter of democracy, unafraid to stand up to the imperialist communist aggressors.

Perhaps most revealing is the comparisson Chomsky draws betwixt how dissidents were treated in the Russian dominated Eastern European countries like Poland and how dissidents were treated in the U.S. dominated countries like Guatemala; and also, how the media portrayed the struggle for democracy against the Kremlin-backed thugs of Eastern Europe, compared to how the media portrayed the struggle against Washington-supported gangsters of Central America (the former were brave people to be celebrated and courted by the Whitehouse, the latter were assassinated or otherwise 'disappeared').

Written on the eve of the first Gulf War, Deterring Democracy also has a few chapters on the Middle East, Iraq and Israel/Palestine specifically.

More in-depth than Hegemony or Survival, easier to read than Year 501, Deterring Democracy covers pretty much all the bases you would expect, including a brief look at the media, adapted from his (and Edward Herman's) previous excellent book, Manufacturing Consent. Whilst this lacks the immediate contemporary relevance of Hegemony or Survival, Deterring Democracy might well stand the test of time of time better.

Chomsky's analysis suggests that the aim of US government policy over the last century has been two-fold. Firstly, it has been to create a global/domestic framework most favourable to the materialisation of local elite and business interests irrespective of the stark ethical costs involved. This translates into active oppression of independent nationalism all over the world and shocking campaigns of state-sponsored international terror. Secondly, in order to do this successfully, the government must manufacture sufficient domestic consent by legitimising these awful actions in the name of humanism, protection from evil dictators and other such 'just causes'. Whilst the hypocrisy clearly stinks, in portraying the US as a clandestine fascist state Chomsky threatens to undermine his credibility. However, by backing up his findings with detailed documentation and analysis it is hard not to take him seriously and conclude that the corridors of power are indeed nowhere near as benign as the ideals that we carry. My only criticism of this book is the sometimes repetitive nature of some of the key arguments. Chomsky has a tendency of going over old ground, perhaps with the aim of focusing attention on his core themes, but with the end result of diluting their impact. Nonetheless, this is a trivial point and shouldn't detract from peering into what is a truly insightful and at times disturbing window into the reality of US foreign policy.