Professor: The good news, class, is that the secret to understanding our country’s foreign policy is that there is no secret. You simply have to understand that America strives to dominate the world for both economic and ideological reasons. Once you understand that, much of the confusion, contradiction, and ambiguity surrounding our policy fades away. To express this striving for world dominance numerically, we must consider the following: since the end of World War 2, the United States has endeavored to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, most of which were democratically elected, grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries, waged war in some 30 countries, attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders, dropped bombs on the people of some 30 countries, suppressed dozens of populist and nationalist movements in every corner of the world.
Student: Professor, what do all the terrible things you mentioned have to do with freedom and democracy?
Professor: They have to do with making sure that foreign countries are ruled by people friendly to Washington. These leaders are receptive to American corporations coming into their country and having at least as many rights as the native enterprises. So, for our corporations, it means an abundance of freedom and democracy.
Animation by Neema Sky. Written by William Blum. Voice-over by David George, Debra Blum. Produced and directed by Charles Mauch and William Blum. For more information about the kind of freedom and democracy that Washington has and continues to bring to the world, visit <killinghope.org>. The text above is a partial transcript of the video.
| Print