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What Uncle Sam Really Wants, Noam Chomsky, 1986-1992, 111 pages. Historical Society Library Pamphlet Collection 92-3298. Dewey 327.73, ISBN 1878825011

This may be the single best Chomsky book. What's most important is here, concise.

The U.S. Government wants continuing profit for investors, by plundering the rest of the world p. 72-74, 77, including plundering the nonrich in the U.S. pp. 73, 76, 79-80, 82-84, 86-91, 97-98. To this end, we kill millions of people we know are, or suspect of, opposing corporate control. (By proxy if possible, p. 57. We fund and arm militaries, paramilitaries, and security forces all over the world, so that our friends the military officers can stage coups if the elected government fails to serve investors. "Before the coups, we were very hostile to the governments, but continued to send them arms [that is, to send arms to friendly military officers]" pp. 30-31, 51-52, 54-56, 69. Such as in
Latin America pp. 18-20, 28-33, 57, 72, 82,
Central America pp. 17, 19, 54, 72, 96, 100,
Guatemala pp. 17-18, 1954 & 1963 p. 21, 25, 30, 46-50,
El Salvador pp. 21, 23, 25, 34-40, 46, 70, 87,
Nicaragua pp. 21, 23, 25, 34, 40-46, 49, 51-52, 54, 56, 60, 66, 68-69, 77, 81, 86,
Honduras pp. 35, 54,
Panama pp. 17, 50-56, 60, 81-82,
Costa Rica pp. 20-21, 43, 45, 47,
Grenada 1983 p. 22-23, 56, 77,
Haiti pp. 11, 54,
the Dominican Republic pp. 11, 1963 & 1965 p. 21, 30-31, 54,
Brazil 1964 pp. 21, 31-33, 71,
Chile 1973 pp. 21, 24, 31-32,
Argentina pp. 32, 41,
Colombia p. 17,
Venezuela p. 17,
Mexico p. 71,
Cuba p. 72, 96,
Florida 1818 p. 30,
Indochina pp. 23-24, 56-60, 85, 100,
Vietnam pp. 12-13, 16-17, 22, 26, 56-60, 70, 85-88, 96, 98,
Cambodia pp. 58-59, 61, 70,
Laos 1960s p. 22, 57, 59, 70, 85,
Thailand pp. 58-59, 84-86,
Indonesia 1965 pp. 31, 54-55, 58, 61-62,
East Timor p. 58, 61-62,
Philippines 1972 pp. 27, 54, 58,
Japan pp. 17, 25-27, 84,
South Korea pp. 17, 26, 58, 84,
Taiwan p. 84,
China p. 55, 59, 84-85,
Middle East p. 27, 88,
Iran 1953 p. 21, early 1980s p. 31, 68-69,
Iraq pp. 54-55, 60-68, 77, 82,
Lebanon p. 64,
Palestine p. 65, 88-89, 100,
Pakistan p. 86,
Afghanistan p. 86,
Africa p. 73,
North Africa p. 14,
Zaire pp. 54-55, 66,
Namibia p. 66,
Angola p. 66,
Italy pp. 15-16, 24,
France pp. 18, 85,
Eastern Europe p. 71-72,
Romania pp. 54-55, 70-71,
Greece p. 16
.)

Torture and murder by the U.S. or its proxies are of no interest at home. p. 34-37, 40, 43, 46, 49, 52-54, 58-60, 62, 64, 66-69, 73, 75, 82-83, 85, 88, 93-95. The Carter administration even persuaded the media to downplay the story of the rape and murder of four American nuns by U.S.-armed, -trained, and -funded Salvadoran armed forces. p. 36.

Financial control by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank is easier than military control. In exchange for a loan, a country's economy is controlled for foreign investors; services for the people are cut. p. 32-33, 43-44, 71, 73, 76. Brazil has a wealth of natural resources, and has industrial development. It should be rich. Thanks to the 1964 coup and following "economic miracle," its people are destitute. One-third of Brazil's education budget goes to school meals. The kids would otherwise not eat. p. 33.

Our leaders have succeeded rather well at their assigned chores. pp. 28, 61.

Every U.S. president since WWII has been involved in war crimes. p. 32.

Peasants are the main victims, along with labor organizers, students, priests, newspapermen, or anyone suspected of working in the interests of the people. pp. 15, 22, 25, 34-37, 40, 49-52, 58, 87-88.

The U.S. government officials and business elite know they're much wealthier than most of the world. They're afraid of losing that status. So they do all they can so that poor countries remain poor suppliers of free raw materials and cheap labor, and to keep poor Americans obedient laborers p. 14. Huge military expenditures; cutbacks in social services. Don't even /speak/ of human rights, living standards, or democratization. pp. 8-11, 29, 43, 46-48, 51-52, 56-57.

The U.S. Government defines "Communism" as, "the idea that the government has direct responsibility for the welfare of the people." --George Kennan, head of the State Department planning staff, 1950. p. 10. Any supplier country infected by this heresy, must be crushed, brutally. pp. 11-16, 18-23. The weaker and poorer a country is, the more dangerous it is /as an example/. If a tiny, poor country like Grenada can succeed in bringing about a better life for its people, some other place that has more resources will ask, "why not us?" pp. 22-25, 42-48, 51-52, 56-57, 78.

Diplomacy risks compromise. Military conquest ensures domination. p. 74-75, 89. This is why George W. Bush rushed to war in Iraq, forestalling any risk of a peaceful defusement of the crisis. pp. 60-68, 75. The U.S. blocked all attempts at a political settlement of the Vietnam conflict, which risked successful development of Vietnam outside U.S. influence. pp. 57-60. No lawful path could stop the very low-level social revolution in Laos in the 1960s, but secret genocide by bombing worked well. p. 22. The U.S. dismissed possibilities for a peaceful resolution of the Cold War, which would have left intact the actual Soviet threat, which was never military but political: the idea that the government has direct responsibility for the welfare of the people. pp. 78-82. The sole military threat of the USSR was ballistic missiles--which the U.S. made no effort to curtail. p. 78.

The parts of the U.S. economy that are able to compete internationally are primarily the state-subsidized ones: capital-intensive agriculture, high-tech industry, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, etc. pp. 13, 15, 87.

Until 1968, the U.S. led the world in oil production. We didn't need Mideast oil. We wanted to control Mideast oil as a lever of world power, and to direct the profit to U.S. and British corporations. pp. 27, 67.

OUR INFLUENCE

No one protested President Kennedy's terrorist campaigns against Cuba and Vietnam. Not until Southeast Asia was awash in blood. Twenty years later, when Reagan hinted he'd like to send a few marines to get Central America in line, Americans shouted, "Like hell you will!" so loudly, Reagan had to make do with CIA operations (some of them illegally funded). p. 96-97. Sustained, organized dissent is effective. The struggle for freedom is never over. The people of the Third World need our help. We can provide them with a margin of survival by internal disruption in the United States. There's a growing Third World at home. pp. 98-101.


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