Mercenaries used in Nicaragua during Thatcher years
"we are plunderers… we go into primitive countries in order to destroy for power and money" Philip Roettinger CIA Station Chieft During 1954 Guatemala overthrow, ( similar concept, same guy but does not contain the quote)
Mau Mau uprising - British government acknowledges abuses and torture, further sources, Guardian
"Well, first of all, I think that in foreign policy, the differences are not easily discernible by party" President Clinton commenting on the British parties, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1995, book I Page 453
(Military Aid "is... a powerful influence in orienting the recipient nations toward US policy. Foreign armed forces which are supplied with US equipment will look to the US for replacement and maintenance. In addition to contributing to the internal order and integrity of the countries concerned, moderate security forces maintained by those nations offer several benefits to the US against the contingency of war." Foreign Relations of the United States, Volume 3 By United States. Department of State 1947 Page 217.
"Between 1983 and 1985, government death squads summarily executed an estimated 5,000 alleged criminals in Indonesian cities. In 1989 the President boasted that the killings were deliberate government policy: "shock therapy" to bring crime under control" (extended quote than from the book) Refworld, website
Britain's Support for Indonesia and arming
"In 1997, British forces were serving in 71 countries, including such regimes as those in Bahrain, Brunei, Colombia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia" Hansard , House of Lords, 21 July 1997, WA145–7
"In 1995–96 over 90 countries received police or military training from Britain, including the regimes in China, Guatemala, Indonesia and Kenya" Hansard , House of Lords, 31 July 1997, WA78–80
"The reason why the ITO never saw the light of day is that in its conception it was too universalist in scope, too democratic in outlook, to serve the needs of the elitist mentality which could not contemplate an institutional setting in which the rich countries might mingle on equal terms with the poor." Nasser Adams( Ex UN) World's Apart The North-South Divide and the International System
"Our so-called foreign aid program, which is really not foreign aid because it isn’t aid to foreigners but aid to us, is an indispensable factor in carrying out our foreign policy." John Foster Dulles Memorandum of discussion, State Department, 25 October 1956, FRUS , 1955–57, Vol. X, p. 118.
"In my view our general rule should be that we use our aid program to achieve the three major strategic objectives to which aid might contribute: viable independence; an increased concentration on domestic affairs; and a long term dependence on the West" Foreign Policy In The US 1961–1963, Vol. IX, Page 262, Memorandum from the President’s Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to President Kennedy
"A judicious mixture of military and economic aid is a way of carrying on a continuing relation with two groups that are powerful and important in nearly every underdeveloped country: the would-be economic planners and the military." Foreign Policy In The US 1961–1963, Vol. IX, Page 345.
"he (Eisenhower) had heard from some of our South American friends that all our aid merely perpetuates the ruling class of many countries and intensifies the tremendous differences between the rich and poor" Memorandum of conversation, 30 June 1960, FRUS, 1958–1960, Vol. XII, p. 677.
"between 1982 and 1991 the agencies procured about £1.20 of UK goods and services for every £1 contributed by the UK to the agencies" House of Commons, Hansard , 13 June 1995, Col. 502.
"The richest fifth of the world’s population account for 84.7 per cent of world gross national product (GNP), while the poorest fifth have only 1.4 per cent" UNDP, Human Development Report 1994 , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994, Page 63
Dharam Ghai and Cynthia Hewitt de Alcantara, ‘Globalisation and social integration: Patterns and processes’, Occasional Paper No. 2 , UN Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva, July 1994. (Type in a download PDF)
"Increasing reliance on and liberalization of markets has profoundly altered the
economic and political context for social integration. It has contributed to major
changes in the configuration of power relations among different social groups and countries. For instance, it seems clear that the organized working class has been greatly weakened, while transnational enterprises, owners of capital, and some managerial and professional groups have been significantly strengthened." Page 4
"it has also driven down wages and contributed to increases in unemployment, poverty and inequalities, and thus to accentuation of economic insecurity" Page 4
"Recent years have been marked by a clear trend toward intensification of poverty
and inequality in most regions of the world." Page 8
"Ironically, the impoverishment of increasing numbers of people throughout the world — and often their growing inability to meet even the most basic requirements for food, water, shelter, education, medical attention — occurs during a period when the incomes of the very rich have risen markedly." Page 9
"Transnational enterprises are the predominant actors in the continuing process of global economic integration, controlling almost 75 per cent of all world trade in commodities, manufactured goods and services" Page 5
"It has already been noted that national governments — North or South, East or
West — forced by liberalization and deregulation to strengthen the competitive
position of their economies in the global arena, must (like local governments) increasingly adopt measures which attract foreign capital and which furthermore cheapen production for export." Page 15
"This development is reflected in a growing inability to protect the national industrial sector, to sustain wages at levels considered adequate by organized labour, and to maintain social security provisions which symbolize the hard-won gains of working people" Page 16
"At present, there is thus a worldwide tendency for national governments to lose their authority to regulate some of the most important variables in the national economy… governments are often perceived as having abdicated their responsibility to defend national projects, preferring to ally themselves with powerful foreign patrons than with their own political supporters." Page 16-17
"The dramatic increase in the level of discipline accepted by developing countries through their acceptance of all the multilateral trade agreements resulting from the Uruguay Round and the binding of their tariff schedules has significantly reduced the flexibility of governments in the use of trade and domestic policy instruments. Consequently, many WTO members will not be able to emulate the development strategies pursued successfully by many countries in the past and will need to adapt to the constraints and opportunities of the new system" UNCTAD, Trade and Development Report 1994 , UN, New York, 1994, Page XII. (Type in and download PDF)
"Short of famine, unless some minimum of popular aspirations for material improvement can be satisfied, and unless the terms of access and exploitation persuade governments and peoples that this aspect of the international economic order has "something in it for them," concessions to foreign companies are likely to be expropriated or subjected to arbitrary intervention. Whether through government action, labor conflicts, sabotage, or civil disturbance, the smooth flow of needed materials will be jeopardized. Although population pressure is obviously not the only factor involved, these types of frustrations are much less likely under conditions of slow or zero population growth." National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (NSSM200), The Kissinger Report Page 40. (Or type in and download PDF from Web)
"Finally, providing integrated family planning and health services on a broad basis
would help the U.S. contend with the ideological charge that the U.S. is more interested in curbing the numbers of LDC people than it is in their future and well-being" National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (NSSM200), The Kissinger Report Page 112. (Or type in and download PDF from Web)
"Our petroleum policy toward the United Kingdom is predicated upon a mutual recognition of a very extensive joint interest and upon a control, at least for the moment, of the great bulk of the free petroleum resources of the world... Recognising these realities, it is the view of the United States government that US–UK agreement upon a broad, forward-looking pattern for the development and utilization of petroleum resources under the control of nationals of the two countries is of the highest strategic and commercial importance" Diplomatic Papers By United States, 1945 Vol VIII, The Near East and Africa Department of State, Memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Petroleum Division ( Loftus ) to the Assistant Chief of the Division of British Commonwealth Affairs ( Pool )
"They now know what real bombing means, in casualties and damage; they know now that within 45 minutes a full size village can be practically wiped out and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured by four or five machines which offer them no real target, no opportunity for glory as warriors, no effective means of escape." David Omissi, The Guardian, 19 January 1991, Cambridge ( Not a primary source), Iraq revolt
"on two occasions while I was in office British residents had to arrange for the deposition of unpopular rulers ... On both occasions, it was done without bloodshed and the results were beneficial; but Britain could not carry out this responsibility indefinitely." Michael Stewart, Life and Labour: An Autobiography , Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1980, Page 232–233
".Along with arms sales generally goes an advisory position, generally goes the spare parts position, generally goes an ability to influence how those arms are used... I could make a good case that if you wanted to control the use of those arms, one of the best ways to do it us by providing the arms and then controlling the spare parts. We did that with Iran" Hearings Before and Special Reports Made By Committee On Armed Services Of The House Of Representatives On Subjects Affecting The Naval And Military Establishments 102 Congress 1991 first session Page 928, General Norman Schwarzkopf
"The relationship between the two countries [the US and Saudi Arabia]... is unique among all our international relationships. There is no country in this section of the world in which we have this particular type of relationship ... It arises from the genuine personal friendships between our respective peoples." Foreign Relations of the United States By United States. Department of State, 1950 Vol V, The Near East, South Asia and Africa
"When asked by officials of other Arab states what they should do to improve their relations with the United States, [Saudi government representative] Sheikh Yusuf might simply tell them to behave as Saudi Arabia did" State Department memorandum, 7 February 1957, FRUS , 1955–1957, Vol. XIII
"Every country has the right to develop its political structure in accordance with its culture, heritage and traditions. The ruling family, government and people have an impressive record. We are encouraged by the democratically elected National Assembly in Kuwait since the election in 1992." Jeremy Hanley, Hansard , House of Commons, 23 October 1995, Col. 803
"War crimes will stop when human nature changes." Douglas Hogg Hansard , House of Commons, 2 November 1994, Col. 1558.
Unverified Sources
"I have never concealed from you my belief that a little shooting in Indonesia would be an essential preliminary to effective change’"
"It seems pretty clear that the Generals are going to need all the help they can get and accept without being tagged as hopelessly pro-Western, if they are going to be able to gain ascendancy over the Communists. In the short run, we can hardly go wrong by tacitly backing the Generals." Foreign office
"I sense the Armed Forces which I shall be leaving behind when I retire are moving back towards the kind of worldwide role conducted by the Armed Forces that I joined. They are going to be involved in places around the world that we believed unthinkable a few years ago. " Sir Peter Inge, ‘The roles and challenges of the British armed forces’, RUSI Journal , February 1996,
"considering the great difference which as yet exists between the average standard of living of the British people and that of the vast majority of colonial peoples, it is not easy for the latter to understand why the former regard themselves as making any sacrifice at all. there are here obvious seeds of discontent and unhappy relations if public pronouncements are not very carefully considered and handled" T. Lloyd to Treasury, 26 July 1948, BDEE , Ser. A, Vol. 2, Part II, p. 72. 55. E. Bevin to C. Attlee, 4 October 1947,
"we get a five to one return on investment in Africa, through our trade, investment, finance and aid ... We’re not aiding Africa by sending them aid. Africa’s aiding us." Andrew Young former US representative to the UN
"We have in WTO a virtual emergence of a World Parliament enacting international laws on matters which have remained under national jurisdiction so far ... the continuing erosion of the authority and jurisdiction of nation states will work largely and decisively against the interest of the large, silent, deprived majorities in the polities of developing countries, particularly those where there is a functioning democratic apparatus. The minority elites who constitute the ruling establishments in the Third World are the ones who are extending a warm welcome to WTO in the name of globalisation and integration with the world economy. For them, even a secondary or tertiary role in the new world order symbolised by WTO is a welcome prospect." Third World Resurgence , No. 60, August 1995,
"they really only have one place to go now and that’s the World Bank and the IMF and he who pays the piper calls the tune. They are going to have to conform to Western-style, capitalist, open-market philosophies, which is hugely exciting." Richard Ellis, ‘Business blossoms on a blighted continent’, Sunday Times , 15 May 1994.
"A change, gradual or sudden, in Kuwait’s government will not necessarily threaten Western access to Kuwaiti oil. Even if nationalist-reformist elements gained full power, or if Kuwait fell wholly under UAR [United Arab Republic comprising Syria and Egypt] hegemony, those in control would continue to want Western markets for the oil. However, Western control over, and profits from, oil production would be reduced , and eventually some form of nationalization would be likely" Memorandum from the Board of National Estimates to Director of Central Intelligence Dulles, 16 March 1959, FRUS , 1958–1960, Vol. XII, Page 785
"I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas ... I am strongly in favour of using poisoned [sic] gas against uncivilised tribes ... It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses; gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected" Winston Churchill
"Our strategic and security interests throughout the world will be best safeguarded by the establishment in suitable spots of ‘police stations’ fully equipped to deal with emergencies within a large radius. Kuwait is one such spot from which Iraq, South Persia, Saudi Arabia and the Persi an Gulf could be controlled. It will be well worth while to go to considerable trouble and expense to establish and man a ‘police station’ there." Busk to Garrab 27th of June 1947 memorandum FO 371/61592
" [The UN] provides a way of presenting to the peoples of Asia and the Middle East schemes which, if presented outside the United Nations, might be suspect as an attempt to impose Western supervision "Permanent Under-Secretary’s Committee, ‘The United Kingdom and the United Nations’, 25 April 1950, DBFPO , Calendar to Series II, Vol. II
"because they could not otherwise justify the predominant role which the United States must now play in international affairs and carry American public opinion with them in support of it" G. Jebb to A. Eden, 12 January 1953, FO 371/107032, No. 1, BDEE , Series A, Vol. 3, Part I
"The governments of the Lebanon and Jordan, knowing themselves threatened by [Egyptian president] Nasser’s subversive tactics in their own countries, asked for help from the West. The United Nations observers on the spot denied that there was subversive activity by Nasser in either country. The Secretary-General, Mr Hammarskjold, supported his observers. Ignoring this myopic tendency, the United States landed forces in the Lebanon and the United Kingdom flew troops into Jordan, without prior reference to the United Nations. This action was necessary if the right to live [sic] of these two small countries was to be preserved; it was unquestionably against the terms of the Charter as interpreted at the time of our intervention at Port Said [Suez]. Since the United Nations observers were already on the spot and proclaiming that the motives for Anglo-American intervention did not exist, it was rather more heinous" Anthony Eden, Full Circle Page 13
"Whenever the [Western] powers are determined to get a given vote through either the Security Council (ie, the Gulf crisis and sanctions against Libya) or the General Assembly (ie, rescindment of the Zionism is racism resolution), governments are warned. If they do not ‘behave’ they will not get debt relief, World Bank capital projects, easier IMF ‘adjustment conditionalities’ or urgently-needed hard currency IMF credit to pay oil bills. Reduction or cut-off in bilateral aid is an additional threat." Erskine Childers, ‘United Nations Mechanisms for Intervention and Prospects for Reform’, Paper presented to the Life and Peace Institute, Sigtuna, Sweden, May 1992
"Colonial policing is a background which tends to be suitable for humanitarian intervention as aid missions involve the spreading of a [sic] humanitarian message, much as the colonialism of the 17th and 18th centuries was encouraged by the spreading of the message of Christianity." British Army Staff College Research Paper, ‘Can the UN, the military and non-governmental organisations work together?’, draft, undated
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