Eisenhower
Next week, I'll write about our unending war / the permanent war / war without end. (I don't know what to call it yet.) Meanwhile, here are some remarks made by Eisenhower while president. I think they are interesting in light of some of his actions, namely his support for coups in Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954.
[Supposedly the 1953 coup was organized by a CIA agent in Iran, Kermit Roosevelt, and involved concern over the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry. Roosevelt described his activities in his book Countercoup: The struggle for the control of Iran (McGraw-Hill, 1979). As a result of the coup, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi ("The Shah") returned to power and ruled for about twenty-five years, until the situation deteriorated and he fled the country. About ten months later, the Iranians seized and held hostage around 50 Americans. (Rarely is any connection between the coup and the hostage 'crisis' discussed.)
United States' support for the coup in Guatemala is documented, for example, in Killing hope: U.S. military and CIA interventions since World War II (William Blum, Common Courage Press, 2004) and online. The coup supposedly benefited U.S. businesses, including the United Fruit Company, whose name was later changed to Chiquita.]
As I say, here are the quotes:
"Third: Any nation's right to form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.
Fourth: Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.
And fifth: Any nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations."
"We care nothing for mere rhetoric.
We are only for sincerity of peaceful purpose attested by deeds."
"It is a moment that calls upon the governments of the world to speak their intentions with simplicity and with honesty.
It calls upon them to answer the questions [sic] that stirs the hearts of all sane men: is there no other way the world may live?"
"The details of such disarmament programs are manifestly critical and complex. Neither the United States nor any other nation can properly claim to possess a perfect, immutable formula. But the formula matters less than the faith--the good faith without which no formula can work justly and effectively.
The fruit of success in all these tasks would present the world with the greatest task, and the greatest opportunity, of all. It is this: the dedication of the energies, the resources, and the imaginations of all peaceful nations to a new kind of war. This would be a declared total war, not upon any human enemy but upon the brute forces of poverty and need." [President Johnson would declare his domestic War on Poverty 11 years later: "This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America," January 8, 1964.]
"The test of truth is simple. There can be no persuasion but by deeds."
All quotes are from the "Chance for Peace Speech," 1953; all emphases are in the original.
[Supposedly the 1953 coup was organized by a CIA agent in Iran, Kermit Roosevelt, and involved concern over the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry. Roosevelt described his activities in his book Countercoup: The struggle for the control of Iran (McGraw-Hill, 1979). As a result of the coup, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi ("The Shah") returned to power and ruled for about twenty-five years, until the situation deteriorated and he fled the country. About ten months later, the Iranians seized and held hostage around 50 Americans. (Rarely is any connection between the coup and the hostage 'crisis' discussed.)
United States' support for the coup in Guatemala is documented, for example, in Killing hope: U.S. military and CIA interventions since World War II (William Blum, Common Courage Press, 2004) and online. The coup supposedly benefited U.S. businesses, including the United Fruit Company, whose name was later changed to Chiquita.]
As I say, here are the quotes:
"Third: Any nation's right to form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.
Fourth: Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.
And fifth: Any nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations."
"We care nothing for mere rhetoric.
We are only for sincerity of peaceful purpose attested by deeds."
"It is a moment that calls upon the governments of the world to speak their intentions with simplicity and with honesty.
It calls upon them to answer the questions [sic] that stirs the hearts of all sane men: is there no other way the world may live?"
"The details of such disarmament programs are manifestly critical and complex. Neither the United States nor any other nation can properly claim to possess a perfect, immutable formula. But the formula matters less than the faith--the good faith without which no formula can work justly and effectively.
The fruit of success in all these tasks would present the world with the greatest task, and the greatest opportunity, of all. It is this: the dedication of the energies, the resources, and the imaginations of all peaceful nations to a new kind of war. This would be a declared total war, not upon any human enemy but upon the brute forces of poverty and need." [President Johnson would declare his domestic War on Poverty 11 years later: "This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America," January 8, 1964.]
"The test of truth is simple. There can be no persuasion but by deeds."
All quotes are from the "Chance for Peace Speech," 1953; all emphases are in the original.
posted by a librarian at 8:48 AM
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