Noam Chomsky on U.S. Foreign Policy: Secret Bombing of Cambodia, Haiti (3/8) (1995)

December 8, 1995 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/10/noam-chomsky-and-christopher-hitc...

Cambodia became a constitutional monarchy under King Norodom Sihanouk. When French Indochina was given independence, Cambodia lost official control over the Mekong Delta as it was awarded to Vietnam. The area had been controlled by the Vietnamese since 1698 with King Chey Chettha II granting Vietnamese permission to settle in the area decades before.

In 1955, Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father in order to be elected Prime Minister. Upon his father's death in 1960, Sihanouk again became head of state, taking the title of Prince. As the Vietnam War progressed, Sihanouk adopted an official policy of neutrality in the Cold War although he was widely considered to be sympathetic to the Communist cause. While visiting Beijing, he was ousted in 1970 by a military coup led by Prime Minister General Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak with the back-up support of the United States. The King urged his followers to help in overthrowing the pro-United States government of Lon Nol, hastening the onset of civil war. Soon the Khmer Rouge rebels began using him to gain support.

Between 1969 and 1973, Republic of Vietnam forces and U.S. forces bombed and briefly invaded Cambodia in an effort to disrupt the Viet Cong and Khmer Rouge. Some two million Cambodians were made refugees by the war and fled to Phnom Penh. Estimates of the number of Cambodians killed during the bombing campaigns vary widely, as do views of the effects of the bombing. The US Seventh Air Force argued that the bombing prevented the fall of Phnom Penh in 1973 by killing 16,000 of 25,500 Khmer Rouge fighters besieging the city. However, journalist William Shawcross and Cambodia specialists Milton Osborne, David P. Chandler and Ben Kiernan argued that the bombing drove peasants to join the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia specialist Craig Etcheson argued that the Khmer Rouge "would have won anyway", even without US intervention driving recruitment, although the US indirectly played a minor role in the growth of the Khmer Rouge.

The 1991 Haitian coup d'état took place on 29 September 1991 when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, elected 8 months earlier in the Haitian general election, 1990--1991, was deposed by the Haitian army. The coup was led by Army General Raoul Cédras, Army Chief of Staff Phillipe Biamby and Chief of the National Police, Michel François. Aristide was sent into exile, his life only saved by the intervention of US, French and Venezuelan diplomats.

Emmanuel Constant later reported that US Central Intelligence Agency agents were present with Cedras at the army headquarters during the coup, although the CIA denied prior knowledge. The CIA "paid key members of the coup regime forces, identified as drug traffickers, for information from the mid-1980s at least until the coup." Cédras and François had received military training in the United States.

Aristide's actions against drug smuggling may have contributed to his overthrow. After the coup (led by Raoul Cédras), members of the new coup regime, notably Chief of National Police Michel François, were accused of drug smuggling at a much greater rate. A 1992 US State Department report noted that Aristide was "planning new policies and institutions to combat narcotics trafficking, [and] his ouster...crippled narcotics control efforts in Haiti." An internal 1993 US Congress memo stated that "all those jailed for drug-trafficking have been released and...Michel Francois has personally supervised the landing of planes carrying drugs and weapons." The US later indicted François but was unable to secure his extradition from Honduras.

A coup attempt against Aristide had taken place on 6 January, even before his inauguration, when Roger Lafontant, a Tonton Macoute leader under Duvalier, seized the provisional President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and declared himself President. After large numbers of Aristide supporters filled the streets in protest and Lafontant attempted to declare martial law, the Army crushed the incipient coup.

The coup was condemned by both the United Nations General Assembly and the Organization of American States in October 1991, and throughout the coup regime's existence the only state to recognise the regime was Vatican City. The 31 July 1994 United Nations Security Council Resolution 940 authorised a United States-led multinational force under unified command and control to restore Aristide to office, under Operation Uphold Democracy.

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[rhensterz]

@ricojay86 well, 2 million of my people died because of these american bombings. Why shoot the messenger when he is telling the truth?

[justicelevi]

@ricojay86 difficult to stomach some of our history eh?

[GiantSandles]

@jeffmagic32 >How could he have any idea what was happening while sitting in his Harvard ivory tower?

MIT, actually.

And yeah, he was wrong to discount it; but the fact still remains that there's no meaningful sense in which you could say he supported the Khmer Rouge if he didn't know what was happening.

[jeffmagic32]

@GiantSandles

How could he have any idea what was happening while sitting in his Harvard ivory tower? Those who did see it with their own eyes - brave journalists and refugees - were discounted as "unreliable" by propagandist Noam Chomsky. Even today, he has admitted no wrong doing. The man is a coward of the worst sort.

[blada41]

U need help don't say that's Haiti fake

[blada41]

Some images not Haiti fake guys

[GiantSandles]

@jeffmagic32 So, he supported the Khmer Rouge but didn't know what the Khmer Rouge were doing. That pretty much would mean that he didn't really support the Khmer Rouge in any meaningful sense, certainly not in the sense that one would think from reading your comment.

[jeffmagic32]

@GiantSandles

Distortions at Forth Hand from the June 25, 1977 issue of the Nation magazine is a prime example. In that article he and fellow traveller Edward Herman support those who claimed that no genocide was taking place in Cambodia under Khmer Rouge rule. They describe refugee testimony as untrustworthy, while praising those who take Khmer Rouge statistics at face value. Reading the article should make any informed and decent person's skin crawl.

[GiantSandles]

@jeffmagic32 Any evidence that Chomsky supported the Khmer Rouge?

[jeffmagic32]

@rhensterz that number is communist propaganda. The US was responsible for a huge number of deaths - about 500,000. Of course, the Chomksy supported Khmer Rouge killed 4 timed that many people.

[plo5522]

Wow



[michaelbade]

One of the few people who still tell the truth and get away with it.