AMERICAN IMPERIALISM
JORGENSEN, LAWRENCE C.
Adam Roehrig, maternal grandfather of LCJ. Among the millions,
he died in the great "Influenca Epidemic" of 1918-1920.
"You (white people) lack credibility in what you say. And so long as you feel no need to present a credible and comprehensive understanding of man’s history, the governments of the societies in which you live will see no need to have credibility in what they do." -- Vine DeLoria, Jr. (Sioux)
Here is to understanding and credibility...
"I bring you the stately matron named Christendom, returning bedraggled, besmirched and dishonored from pirate-raids in Kiao-Chow, Manchuria, South Africa and the Philippines, with her soul full of meanness, her pocket full of boodle and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Giver her soap and a towel, but hide the looking glass." -- Mark Twain
"A Salutation speech from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, taken down in short-hand by Mark Twain, December 31, 1900." Mark Twain: A Pen Warmed Up In Hell. Harper and Row, Anderson, Ed., 1972.
Battle Hymn of the Republic – brought down to date ... 1900
Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the sword;
He is searching out the hoardings were the stranger’s wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on.
*****
In a sordid slime harmonious, Greed was borne in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom – and for others’ goods and itch –
As Christ died to men holy, let men die to make us rich –
Our god is marching on. -- Mark Twain. Ibid.
The late historian, Arnold Toynbee, after a lifetime devoted to the study of Civilization, had these observations on the role of the United States in the modern world (1961).
"America is today the leader of a world-wide anti-revolutionary movement in the defense of vested interests. She now stands for what Rome stood for. Rome consistently supported the rich against the poor in all foreign communities that fell under her sway; and since the poor, so far, have always and everywhere been far more numerous than the rich, Rome’s policy made for inequality, for injustice, and for the least happiness of the greatest number."
-- Arnold Toynbee. American and World Revolution. London: Oxford University Press, 1961
Well if an American Indian, a British historian and Mark Twain are all a bit suspect, how about a couple of Marine Generals, former Commandants of the United States Marine Corps?
Major General Smedley D. Butler, United States Marine Corps:
There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to ... It may seem odd for me, a military man, to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to do so. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service, and during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession, I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
. . .
Thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for National City Bank boys (Citicorp) to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1902 to 1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. In China in 1927, I helped see to it that the Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
. . .
During those years, I had as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals and promotions. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate his racket in three city districts. I operated on three continents.
Originally published in Common Sense, November, 1935. Quoted in Felix Greene’s The Enemy,
Vantage Books, New York, 1971.
Thirty-one years later, another retired United States Marine Corps Commandant, General David M. Shoup, made the following remarks during a 1966 speech in Los Angeles concerning United States’ actions in Third World countries.
I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own. One that they design and want, one that they fight and work for. And if, unfortunately, their revolution must be of the violent type because the "haves" refused to share with the "have nots" by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don’t want and above all don’t want crammed down their throats by Americans.
The entire speech was reprinted in the Congressional Record for February 20, 1967.
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