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FEA'IURE

iMyth #Z—Nuclear Weapons have only been used twice.

The United States has used nuclear ,

weapons 22 times since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most of us have never heard of this. but the facts are ,drawn I primarily from a US. Defense Department study. i If a killer putsa gun to your head and asks for your wallet. has he used the gun‘.’ Yes. Even if he doesn’t pull the trigger. he has still used the gun'. In this way the US. has used nuclear weapons over and over again since I945. And. as the chart shows. usually this loaded gun has been pointed at Third World. non-nuclear. not even conventionally strong na- tions. If 3 ' ' . Daniel» Ellsberg isIa former Marine captain-and militaryfconsultant to the Rand Corporation. in the early l960‘s he was the highest ranking civilian in the US. Pentagon to read and revise I America’s overall nuclear war. plan. Ellsberg was interviewed about this secret history'of nuclear threats by Current Magazine in June. I98I. Current: Would a President seriously consider using nuclear weapons against a country that didn‘t possess them? first; there’s .hqw Harry

the CSi'iViets; Third,

. (with (the exception-of; Ford) has I had an occasion in an ongoing. urgent ,‘crises to direct serious preparations for imminent US. in-

itiation of tactical nuclear warfare,

preparations in every case "leaked" to the enemy. and in seyeral cases accompanied by secret. explicit. official threats... Presidents buy these weapons because .1 Expect .to use them, based unit ; of a largely secret historyLWhiEh they and their adversaries know better than the

American public does—of how past '

presidents threatened their use. and often with some signiﬁcant success.

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Myth #3—The main reason for our nuclear weapons is to deter the Soviet * Union.

The description of US. nuclear threats goes some way to debunking this myth. If the US. and its allies have nuclear weapons primarily to deter the USSR. then why are we usually threatening Third World na- tions with them‘.’ The US. uses nuclear weapons to control its empire; that is. the people at home. and the people in its colonies abroad. The USSR does the same thing. but it started much later and it has a smaller empire to worry about.

The notion ofa U.S. empire started back in WWII with an inﬂuential group of American industriaIiSts cal- led the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

The'CFR was. and perhaps still is. the most important organization of business leaders in the US. As WWII broke the backs of the major Euro— pean powers. members of the CFR realized that the US. would likely emerge from the war with its in- dustrial heartland unscathed. allowing

it to become the most powerful nation -

on earth.

One CFR member. multimil- lionaire publisher Harry Luce (Time. Life and Fortune magazines). blatant-

. ‘ .tzredistctt lOttaears:9f..AnJcri.can- I

ontrol over the world in a I941 Life

,editorial eptitled “The American

Century“.

Luce wrote that it was time “to ac- cept wholeheartedly our duty and our opportunity as the most powerful and vital nation in the‘ world. and in consequence to exert upon the world the full impact of our inﬂuence. for such purposes as we see ﬁt and by such means as we see fit."

Luce could make such a bold forecast because ‘he was also \a member of an exclusive CFR/US. State Department planning group which was creating American strategy for the post-war period. The group was calledvthe War and Peace Studies Programme. and it met for six years

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Continued from page 6

starting in 1939. , Massachusetts Institute of

Technology professor Noam

Chomsky picks up the story:

' “(The members ofthe Programme) knew. certainly by I94I-42. that the war was going to end with the United States in a position of enormous global dominance. The question was: “How do we organize the world?“

They drew up a concept known as (irand Area Planning. ' where the Grand Area is defined as the area which. in their

necessary

terms. was

“strategically for world control".

In order for the US economy to prosper without internal changes (a crucial point which comes through in all the discussions of this period). without any redistribution of wealth or power or modification of struc- tures. the War and Peace Programme determined that the minimum area strategically necessary for world con— trol included the entire Western hemisphere. the former British empire which they were in a process of dis- mantling. and the Far East. That was the minimum. and the maximum was the universe" (from-a speech at the

Polytechnic of Central London. Manchester Guardian. June 2l. I9XI.)

If the US. was going to maintain power worldwide and yet avoid a revolution at home. it would have to control enough of the world’s resources to support a wealthy elite at home and dish out some scraps for

/ social programs to defuse dissent.

Henry Luce also phrased this blunt- ly in his Life editorial: “Tyrannies may require a large amount of living space. But Freedom requires and will require far greater living space than Tyranny.“

With a large enough domain, the United States (like other efficient em- pires in'history such as Rome and England) would be able to afford a\ high degree of freedom at home'while being ruthlessly repressive abroad.

The American empire reached its peak in the early 1970’s. when the fol-

aIIies received

lowing American

military aid and training from the US. Argentina. Bolivia. Bra/i1. Chile. Columbia. Dominican

Republic. Greece. (iuatcmala. Haiti. Indonesia. Iran. Mexico: Morrocco. Nicaragua. Paraguay. Peru. Philip— pines. Portugal. Saudi Arabia. Spain. South Korea. South Vietnam. Tunisia. Turkey. Uruguay. and Venezuela. (All were reported as us- ing some degree of government sanc- tioned torture.)

But how was the United States go— ing to control its (irand Area? It couldn‘t possibly afford a massive standing arm) to police the biggest empire in history.

The significance of nuclear weapons becomes clear.

Imagine the strategic importance of a weapon which would make it un- necessary for US. troops to be everywhere (which they could not be). Yugoslavia shoots down an American spy—plane in its airspace? Threaten to blow it off the map (I946). Guatemala elects a popular Christian Democrat that the US. doesn‘t like Sponsor a coup d'etat and back it up with nuclear—equipped 8-29 bombers (I954). This is what nuclear weapons are for.

“My feeling was then.“‘ wrote former President Eisenh0wer in his memoirs. “and still remains. that“ it would be impossible for the US. to maintain the military commitments which it n0w sustains around the world did we not possess atomic weapons and the will to use them when necessary." (from Eisenhower. MANDATE FOR'CHANGE. I963. page I80).

Since nuclear war may break out at

any time. nuclear weapons have the added advantage of keeping one’s own domestic population on a war. footing all the time. ready to make any sacrifice. In the USSR. freedom is sacrificed. in the US. 50 cents out of every tax dollar is sacrificed to the military.

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