THE United States is today engaged in its most extensive world-wide operations since the Vietnam war. While American fleet Nicaragua, thousands of US troops engaged 'manoeuvres' in Honduras.
Simultaneously. ands of US troops are taking part in the 'Operation Brightstar' Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and Oman. troops deployed in El Salvador and Lebanon, and a US 'training' team is helping French troops in Chad.
The military build-up in the third world goes hand in hand with the military against the Soviet Union MX missiles, cruise and Pershing, the Stealth Bomber and the rest. In this global offensive the other imperialist ticular the Thatcher government, have shown themselves only too willing allies.
The of States to world-wide operations is to some observers inexplicable, or perhaps a quirk of Reagan's personality. behind the United States' world wide offensive there is a profound and deadly logic. In anravel it, we have to look at the situation which the United States faced before and after the Vietnam war.
United States imperialism was taken off guard by the victory of the Cuban revolution in 1959. the Castro leadership team rapidly moved in a socialist direction during 1960-61, the leaders became convinced that world communism' was about to make a series of advances through guerrilla struggles in the third Response Their response was to unleash a massive offensive colonial revolution. This included L'S involvement in the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah's government in Ghana in 1963, the CIA's operation against the government in the Congo and US connivance in the boody counterrevolutionary coup in Indonesia in 1965. It involved the despatch of 40,000 US marines Dominican Republic in 1965 to overthrow a rather mild socialist government.
But most of all it included the decision to commit all the US's might to destroying the aamese revolution. was effectively taken by President Kennedy in 1961. It not Lyndon Johnson, the decision to commit the Green Berets special forces and begin the huge build up of US troops. 1964 were 500,000 troops in Vietnam.
The war in Vietnam rapidly became a crucial test of strength between world imperialism and the colonial revolution. The huge military the menaces in thoussecond in escalation the and in parthe United military order to As American political significance. unbeatable military might. against the Tshombe front to the VietThis decision Clear was he, who took was lost.
By US cess of troops. Nonetheless, American aircraft carriers patrol off Nicaragua and the Lebanon firepower, including the bombing of North Vietnam and the secret bombing of Cambodia, was not because the United States' leaders possessed important resources or significance. Rather, the outcome of the struggle had an immense was attempting to demonstrate would feel the full weight of its destroyed by a combination of military reverses and the struggle of the US anti-war movement. In particular, the 1968 Tet offensive myth that the United States was winning the war. The Vietnamese struggle right into the working class areas of the capital Saigon and temporarly captured the norBy the early 1970s it became clear that the Vietnam expedition President Nixon gradually attempted to disengage from Vietnam through the pro.
"Vietnamisation' building up the South Vietnamese puppet army and withdrawing US when the South Vietnamese army collapsed in the spring of 1975, and when Vietnamese army octhat year, the shock to the United among leading American politi cians set in — the 'post-Vietnam syndrome' as US security advisor mood was widespread among the US population at large. No one was prepared to countenance furBrzezinski, a pathological anticommunist, set out to reverse this 1970s the US leaders became convinced that new and sustained attacks on its interests were under quent doubling of oil prices, had been a sharp blow to imperialism's interests in the Middle East. Now, a succession which developed a seige mentality among US leaders.
In 1976 Cuban troops flown to Angola to prevent the destruction of the MPLA government by South Africa. Without dinated with the Soviet Union. Soviet backing for the revolution Soviet influence in the against the Shah of Iran struck a mammoth blow to US interests in East. This blow was compounded by the victory of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua in 1979.
The growing reversal of isolaCarter involved two major decisions for US global strategy. The first was the creation of the Rapid strike force designed to put hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the field within weeks. The second was to attempt to counter threats to the United States in the third world by intensifying the For the United States, it is irrelevant whether or not the Soviet Union is the direct inspiration behind the new revolutions.
What matters is that in any case the Soviet Union utilises anti-imperialist strengthen its own global strategic position, prepared for its own reasons to give financial and military aid to nationalist or movements coming into collision with imperialism.
States' thrust is aimed at pushing back both the nationalist and revolutionary enemies and any potential backers.
In order to deal with the colonial revolutionaries, necessary for the US to develop a nuclear superiority to create maximum military, diplomatic flexibility. Only from an overall position of strength can the United States • world-wide interests.
measureably result.
result.
Threat threat to come revolution in ships, Cycl the Danger breakthroughs moreover The revolutionary The United counter-revolutionary of imperialism perialism tionalist protect its The conflict between the third world and imperialism is imdeepened by the world economic recession, which has hit the semi-colonial countries particularly hard. High interest: rates in the West have dried up loan funds for the third world. Huge foreign debts have piled up in all the third world countries. Austerity and misery are the Further outbursts against the result of this global debt bondage will be an inevitable The most direct and ominous US imperialism has however through the Central America.
The Central American dictatorderisorily called 'banana republics', are among the most rotten of the regimes backed by imperialism. Their ruling classes are uniquely vulnerable to a sustained and organised attack. But they also have a vital strategic role Panama Canal, are crucial to US more importance is the spark rebellion in Mexico, and indeed throughout Latin America It is an horrendous prospect for a revolution in 1979, backed up by the overthrow of the Gairy regime in Grenada, proved a turning point in the situation in the both El Salvador and Guatemala developed apace, putting on the agenda a regional revolutionary tion of imperialism winning such regime has understood that if the capitalist rule in El Salvador and revolution remains the most immediate danger for imperialism, enemies remain to be dealt with.
pushing through the anti-imperialist movements in Africa, the war in Chad and an ongoing struggle in the whole of Southern Africa remain a constant danger. And the refusa of the Palestinian Lebanese masses to accept defeat remains a constant sore.
So there is no early end in sight for the United States' worldwide adventures. The two thirds of the world exploited by imcan be offered no economic sops in a period of capitalist crisis; the upsurge of narevolutionary movements is relentless. In the absence of a credible carrot only the stick will do. War in the third world is the order of the day.
Socialist Action 9 September 1983