One of the parts of the Cold War was that the establishment used propaganda in advancing deception about the Cold War. The establishment is made up of the power elite in international finance, business, and professions in the Western Hemisphere and Europe. Even Edith Kermit Roosevelt believed that there was a socialist conspiracy to harm the world including the U.S. Constitution. Edith was a rabid anti-Communist who did not care about the real interests of the ordinary working human beings of the world. Edith was a rabid communist. She even organized pro-Vietnam War rallies in Washington alongside Rev. Carl McIntyre. Her family worked for the CIA. When you look at the bigger pictures, things stand out. We see that the Morgans, the Mellons, the Rockefellers, and others having huge influence in American economic including political circles in the early 20th century. The Western establishment further controlled U.S. foreign policy, especially after FDR died. The Wall Street insiders Kennan, Acheson, Bohlen, Lovett, Harriman, and McCloy were Harry Truman’s trusted advisors. Harry Truman created the CIA by signing the National Security Act of 1947. Truman allowed China to be taken by Mao's Communism when he or Truman claimed to be so anti-Communist. We know that the Truman Doctrine created the basis for American preventive actions and interventionist against any nation that was going Communist. One example was when Harry Truman was active in giving aid to the reactionary Greeks in the Greek civil war of 1947. Harry Truman did some legitimate things domestically (like desegregating the Armed Forces via Executive Order 9981, he wanted national health insurance, he tried to end the Haft-Tarpley Act), but on foreign policy matters, he was highly lax in opposing colonialism or imperialism. The Cold War intensified when the Communists took over Czechoslovakia in February of 1948 and the Berlin Blockade began on June 24, 1948. Mao Zedong took over China by September of 1949. NATO was ratified in the same year as well. In February 1950, Joseph McCarthy begins his Communist witch hunt. The members of the American Security Council aided Senator McCarthy. McCarthy believed that a vast Communist conspiracy threatens the world. Joseph McCarthy was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1946. He was right that human beings have the right to peacefully and vigorously disagree with Communism from a philosophical or ideological standpoint. He is wrong to try to ruin folks' lives and human free speech rights, because of someone's views on economic or political issues. We have the freedom of expression for a reason here. The Adams Chronology, even toned down, cited 48 instances of pressure being put on Army officials by McCarthy and Cohn, to attempt to secure preferential treatment for Schine, including regarding Schine's postings, and demands for frequent passes for Schine, not only weekends but weeknights, even during basic training. It also showed Cohn threatening to "wreck the Army," if his petulant demands for Schine's company were not granted. In the final analysis, FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover agitated that movement as a means to eliminate more progressive voices in American society under the guise of anti-Communism. It was during the 1950's where McCarthyism violated human civil liberties. Even if you disagree with Communism, being a Communist in America is not illegal at all. When he started to accused Generals like General George C. Marshall and military leaders (he tried to humiliate a decorated WWII General Ralph Zwicker at a hearing on February 18 in New York City) of being sympathetic to Communists, then the Eisenhower administration has a license in their mind to publicly oppose McCarthy. Ironically in response to the McCarthyite hysteria, the Eisenhower Supreme Court ironically did something about it. The high court threw out state sedition laws that were on the books in 33 states. It affirmed the right to assert the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and that an assertion of the privilege could not be used as a confession of guilt. It cut back the Federal loyalty program, it threw out a number of Smith Act convictions, and, finally, it threw out a contempt-of-Congress conviction. This allowed the curtailing the powers of Congressional committees to conduct investigations that strayed far beyond legitimate oversight or law-making. Leading Pilgrim Society members would be founders and leaders of the Royal Institute for International Affairs, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Councils, Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission, the Atlantic Institute of International Affairs, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations, the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade and Economic Council, the U.S.-China Business Council, the America-China Society, the Americas Society, etc. Therefore, the Western establishment exploits the economic systems of capitalism and communism as a means to rule over the major functions of society in general. The CFR, since the end of World War II, has in fact been the most important foreign policy engine promoting Anglo-American corporate Imperialism around the world, utilizing laissez faire Capitalism as their weapon, and not Communism. So, we should have a fair economy, strong nation-states, and call for the government to promote and protect the general welfare of all of its citizens.
Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuzinck's book and documentary on the Secret History of the United States are excellent except with a few shortcomings. One of the greatest shortcomings was its depiction of President John F. Kennedy. Oliver Stone in the documentary claimed that JFK was some Cold War liberal hawk in 1960. Nothing can be further from the truth. The truth is that even in the 1950's, then Senator John F. Kennedy, wanted independence in Algeria, he wanted an end to colonialism, he and rejected imperialistic aspirations for Vietnam. He disagreed with Eisenhower and the Dulles' brothers efforts in Africa, Algeria, and Vietnam. There were establishment figures even in the Kennedy administration, but John F. Kennedy was never a Council on Foreign Relations member at all. Oliver Stone assumed that Operation Mongoose began in November of 1961 in trying to assassinate Castro. In reality, Operation Mongoose didn't go into effect until February 1962. This was wen CIA officer Ted Shackley arrived in Miami to take over the JM/Wave station. And as the CIA Inspector General’s report on the Castro assassination plots reveals, the killing of Castro was never part of the Mongoose operation. Oliver Stone blames the Missile Crisis on Mongoose. When someone is reading The Kennedy Tapes that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s agenda was really to attain a first-strike capability in order to deal with the question of Berlin. The Showtime documentary was also error prone about Kennedy and Vietnam. The book and the documentary claimed that JFK wanted to stand up to the Communists in Vietnam. On the other hand, JFK has only 15,000 advisers against the combined forces of the Vietcong and North Vietnam. John F. Kennedy by 1963 wanted to seek détente with the Russians and the Cubans. Lyndon Johnson escalated military Western involvement of troops in Vietnam. He allowed the first combat troops landing at Da Nang in March of 1965. This was two months after Johnson's inauguration. American troops peaked in about 1967 with ca. 540,000 combat troops. The Tet Offensive in January of 1968 was a failure of American intelligence warning the troops about it. The Vietnamese attacked almost every major city in South Vietnam including the State Department compound in Saigon via the Tet Offensive. America won the offensive, but public opinion came against the war. LBJ finally wanted to have a diplomatic solution to end the war before the 1968 election. Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon used China Lobby activist Anna Chennault as a back channel to the leaders of South Vietnam to get them to boycott Johnson’s peace talks by promising a better deal for them under a Nixon presidency, thus sabotaging the possibility of an “October Surprise” peace deal that would clinch the presidential election for Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. LBJ found this out by Nixon via a Wall Street banker in Nixon's camp including via NSA and FBI wiretaps. LBJ kept silent about it for the good of the country (after he confronted Nixon. Nixon lied about it. LBJ talked about it with Secretary of State Dean Rusk, National security adviser Walt Rostow and Defense Secretary Clark Clifford on Nov. 4, 1968, the day before the election). In private, Lyndon Johnson said that Nixon had done treason with him blocking the peace settlements in Vietnam. During the Cold War, we see the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Fred Hampton, and others. During the Cold War, reforms to have better health care, alternative energy, and other reforms have been harmed by a hostile political climate. The Left from the 1970's onward was greatly splintered in their power base via the conservative establishment's resurgence.
Richard Nixon had a huge role in the Cold War indeed. Richard Nixon was a strange legacy. He was involved in the secret bombing of Cambodia. William Shawcross' "Sideshow" documents about how the illegal, secret operation caused horrendous implications. It caused the fall of Prime Minister Sihanouk to General Lon Nol. Sihanouk then supported the communist rebels called the Khmer Rouge. They disposed Lon Nol in 1975. The Khmer Rouge later executed one of the greatest extermination programs in history. The overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile was a key moment during the Nixon era. Nixon and National Security adviser Henry Kissinger were concerned with Allende's coming to power in Chile. They wanted to pressure the CIA as a means to come up with some way to stop his election. The CIA led the operation with their field officer David Phillips to give millions of dollar to an anti-Allende propaganda campaign in the Chilean election of 1970. Chile had a history of being a democratic country and Allende won the election fairly. David Rockefeller (whose family had a strong interest in Anaconda Copper) and John McCone (a board member of ITT) caused great financial ties to the economics of Chile. Both lobbied the White House. Nixon wanted the CIA Director Richard Helms to sabotage Allende. Allende came to the UN in a speech on December 1972 to expose U.S. interference in Chile. Salvador Allende was patriotic. By 1970, the president of the Chilean branch of Nelson Rockefeller's vast IBEC conglomerate, owned Chile's largest newspaper chain (El Mercurio), largest granary, and largest chicken farm, as well as the Pepsi bottling operation in Chile. Kissinger was, of course Nelson Rockefeller's former advisor, and Helms, as CIA chief, simply took orders from the Establishment. The Chilean government unanimously passed a constitutional amendment to allow Chile to nationalize all copper mines. This action was not illegal. In retaliation, American economic blockades harmed the Chilean economy. The coup began with strikes and a revolt. The establishment supported General Augusto Pinochet or a dictator to rule Chile in September 11, 1973. Operation Condor allowed reactionaries to assassinate dissident in Latin America. Richard Nixon's downfall was Watergate. He wanted to get rid of files implicating him in political corruption. So, he authorized the creation of a team of burglars in June 1971 led by ex-CIA operative E. Howard Hunt. However, their black-bag operations ran aground when part of the team was captured inside the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate building on June 17, 1972, beginning the foundering of Nixon’s Presidency which ended with his force resignation on Aug. 9, 1974. One positive thing that Richard Nixon did was recognizing China and getting arms agreements with the Soviets via the SALT or the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty. SALT I was signed in July 1972. Even reactionaries opposed Nixon on that issue like Albert Wohlstetter, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Paul Nitze (which started the modern neo conservative movement in the 1970's). Each of them created a group called the Committee on the Present Danger. These extremists falsely believed that Russia was ahead of America in the arms race. Nixon tried to execute some détente. April 17, 1975 was the date when North Korea defeats South Vietnam. The reactionaries tried to influence Gerald Ford to be more extreme on foreign policy issues. Two of the hardliners in the Ford administration was White House chief of Staff Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. During the late 1970's declined rapidly its military strength, its economic strength, and its political power. In that time period, individuals close to Rockefeller interests continued their Cold War agenda like Opus Dei William Colby, Knight of Malta William Casey, Knight of Malta Edwin Feulner, Henry Kissinger, and Zbigniew Brzezinski (a man who worked closely to the Knights of Americares).
It is no secret that we should always have a close eye on government. Institutional corruption is not only found in corporations or private institutions. It is found in many sectors of the government as well. It is not fair or right for the government to bailout the super banks of the elite and enabled their fraud at the expense of the poor and middle class. Some have called this reality socialism for the rich and cut throat, sink or swim capitalism for everyone else. There has been a malignant merging or synergism between D.C. politicians and giants companies. We know we have a problem when the government spies on virtually every American and threatened to assassinate or indefinitely detain American citizens overseas. We know that President Barack Obama is not to be blamed for all of the evils in the world, but some of his policies are very similar to George W. Bush. President Barack Obama has continued many of the programs from Bush and Cheney from the Patriot Act to drone attacks in foreign lands that have killed innocent men, women, and children. There is still great inequality and harm to constitutional or human freedoms now. Mainstream Republican and Democratic parties are nearly identical on core issues. Each of them want to trample basic human liberties, they agree with launching preemptive wars of aggressive, they want to redistribute the nation's wealth from the people into the super-rich (even some Democrats want to cut much of the social safety net), bailing out the big banks, funded by huge big corporate interests, etc. A new Pew poll shows that only 3 in 10 Americans trust their own government. Similar numbers have existed in other polls that spread across the political spectrum and demographic groups. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from 2011 found that 76% of Americans believe that the country’s current financial and political structures favor the rich over the rest of the country. The Washington Post reported in 2011 that Congress was less popular than communism, BP during the Gulf oil spill or Nixon during Watergate. Now, we know about the weaknesses about Communism, but more and more we see the weaknesses of laissez faire cut throat capitalism as well. One of the reasons for our economic issues is that the world is too commercialized in the sense that the lust for wealth was glamorized instead of the love of God & our neighbors. We can't love money since money is a tool. It is neither man nor God. Some have manipulated capitalism into a socially destructive avenue of imperialism and economic exploitation. Not everything should be treated as a commodity in the marketplace. Economic excess and hedonism financially contributed to the great depressions and recession throughout world history. You can't have freedom without justice like social justice. Capital is never superior to Labor for there is a dignity in Labor. True spirituality including a living Christianity cannot live within laissez faire capitalism.
The new Paul Ryan Budget proposal is extremist and cruel of course. The plan wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act as a means to fund for his proposal. His plans calls for massive cuts to real social programs like Medicaid, college grants, etc. He wants future Medicare patients to bear more of the program's cost, which is extreme. He claims that he wants to balance the budget in 10 years by simply cutting spending and avoiding further tax increases. Frankly, increasing tax is never some sin nor it is immoral. It is not illegal to do it either. His plan might not be passed with Democrats controlling the Senate. Some Democrats have their proposal with increasing tax on the rich and spending on domestic programs. It is expected to have trouble passing in the GOP-dominated House. Paul Ryan wants his plan to cut $4.6 trillion in the span of over 10 years. “On the current path, we’ll spend $46 trillion over the next 10 years. Under our proposal, we’ll spend $41 trillion,” Ryan said. “On the current path, spending will increase by 5 percent each year. Under our proposal, it will increase by 3.4 percent. He has an obsession with a partial privatization of Medicare since he wants human beings who are under 55 now with a government subsidy to buy health insurance on the open market. Critics of the plan say the subsidies won’t grow with inflation fast enough and would shove thousands of dollars in higher premiums on to seniors before very long. Cuts to Medicaid will harm the poor. Paul Ryan's plan reduces the number of income tax brackets from six to two, with marginal rates set at 10 percent and 25 percent. It is expected to stick to Ryan’s past tax proposals as well by repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax, cutting the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent, and converting the corporate tax code to an “international” system. There are estimates that his plans will give 3 trillion dollars in tax giveaways to the wealthy. Under his plan, the federal government loses a total of 7 trillion dollars in revenue according to the Center for American Progress Tax and Budget Policy Director Michael Linden. The majority of the revenue will go the richest Americans and corporations. Reducing the corporate income tax to 25 percent would provide a tax break of more than $1 trillion; further tax changes would result in even bigger cuts. Trillions more would go to the wealthy. Ryan offers no tax loopholes that he would end. The reality is that government spending is not radically going up as it has plateaued since President Barack Obama took office. Some stimulus can lead into a further economic recovery. The budget of Ryan will result in devastating cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), women, infant, and children programs, and other parts of the social safety net that keep millions of people out of poverty each year. Massive budget cuts will harm economic growth in America. Austerity has not worked in Europe as you can see and it will not work in the United States of America. The Republicans have grown the deficit and debt with tax breaks for the super-rich, the Iraq War, the bailout, and other things. Therefore, it is hypocritical for them to lecture on deficit hawk actions. I am not a deficit hawk since I believe that compassion for the poor is superior to the debt. There are some good news since the economy is growing and the unemployment rate is decreasing. The over 200,000 job growth in the month of February is positive. That is good news. Yet, we have a long way to go.
By Timothy
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