U.S. Occupation

In a March 1985 talk at Harvard, Noam Chomsky once more mentioned the "Grand Area" planning of the US foreign policy developed in the 1940s. The "Grand Area" among other areas was to include "western and southern Europe and the oil-producing regions of the Middle East; in fact it was to include everything, if that were possible." Also, Chomsky said; "In the real world, US global planning has always been sophisticated and careful, as you'd expect from a major superpower..."

In the core of this "sophisticated and careful" planning one finds the need for a US occupation of the "Grand Area." The dictionary "definition" of occupation is: "The holding and control of an area by a foreign military force." The key notions even in this strict definition are: "control" and "military force." So, the US in order to control the Grand Area had to use military force. The "beauty" of this planning is that the military force does not need to be "foreign", i.e. American, it could be a "proxy" military force, namely the military force of the very same peoples that are under US control.

Of course, this is not a US invention. In history there are many examples of proxy military forces. One example is the "janissaries" of the Ottomans, young men of the occupied people under complete control of the occupiers ready to kill their own people. A more recent example is the "security battalions" that the Nazis built from the occupied peoples in almost all the European countries that they occupied. As a matter of fact, it was the remnants of these same "security battalions" that the US used to initiate its control of the Grand Area.

So, basing the occupation of the Grand Area on the proxy armies formed from the occupied, the US adopted two types of occupation, according to the demands of the various geopolitical situations in the course of time. One might call the first the "benign" type of occupation, the second being the usual "harsh" type of occupation. During benign occupation there is no need for torture, kilings, etc. During harsh occupation torture, killings, etc are overt. and the order of the day. Yet, in both types the control is the same.

To illustrate how this process of sequential periods of benign and harsh occupations functions, let us take the case of Greece, a geopolitically "interesting" part of the Grand Area.

The Nazi occupation in Greece ended in October 12 of 1944. A few weeks later the British occupied the country, following a provocation that Churchill concocted on December 4 of 1994 by killing Greeks during a demonstration in Athens. That (transitional) British occupation lasted up to 1947. That year the US snatches the baton from the British and the US occupation of Greece begins and is still going on. The first 5 years up to 1952 the occupation is of the (extremely) harsh type. The occupying army is Greek but the commander is General James Van Fleet of the US Army. A network of nazi-type concentration camps is established in which tens of thousands of young males, thought to be unwiilling to follow orders, are kept imprisoned and tortured for years. Against the general population (starting with the British and then taken over by the Amaricans) the security police, paramilitaries and the judicial system are released. The night raids in homes, disappearances, torture, murders, and executions after kangaroo trials result in some 160,000 people killed.

The control of the country was complete. A State Department memorandum, dated August 4, 1949, with a certain George McGhee speaking, reads: "(It) would be necessary to bear in mind the political consequences of negative decisions on Greek industrial development projects. It might be desirable to reduce the doses of American aid to Greece, so that the Greek standard of living would gradually be brought DOWN to a level which the economy of the country could support. However, this process would have to be carried out gradually and very carefully to avoid violent or unfavorable political reaction in Greece. It would have to be accompanied by some plan for large-scale EMIGRATION." (Emphasis added). "Further along in the memorandum still another astonishing remark by another State Department official appeared: 'Mr. Dort commented that Greece will achieve economic viability at some level, and that WE do have to decide what that level will be'."(Again, emphasis added). Meanwhile, the US started to systematically build a corps of elites in the Greek society that were willing to take orders from the US. The most vital part of that corps were the military. It was tragically comic to observe these military people, many of advanced age, strive to learn English, so that they could be chosen by the US boss for "responsible" positions up the military ladder. This goes on to this day. It is important to understand the extremely important role that the English language has played in the US occupation of the Grand Area. English has become a tool of "enslavement."

In the civilian sector of Greek society the, above mentioned, "doses of American aid" created a politico-economic elite that were the proxy managers of the country for the benefit of the US. Among the people chosen by the US were the top members of the Nazi "security battalions." A couple of their offspring are still members of the Greek parliament today. Most of the children of this elte were sent to US universities, preferably Harvard, and are now back, ready to inherit the "job" of their parents. Also, as usual, the intellectuals were more than eager to fill the ranks of the "friends" of the US. Take the example of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, the intellectual-politician, who, as General James Van Fleet was inspecting some Greek army units, told him: "General, here is your army!" Unbelievable? No, it is going on, silently, all over the world right this minute.

This phase of harsh (or brutal) occupation lasted to about 1952, when the execution of Nikos Belogiannis took place and the publicity seemed to be counterproductive for the US, with the Picasso drawing of Belogiannis holding the famous carnation, etc. Besides, the Greeks little by little were joining the ranks of the consumers. Thus, the next phase for a benign type of occupation was prepared and in 1955 the US chooses Constantine Karamanlis, an up to "then little known politician" as Prime Minister of Greece. Thus starts the first part of the Karamanlis saga which was to last up to 1963, when Lambrakis (of the "Z" film) is murdered in Salonica by the US through the efforts of the palace. It seems that Karamanlis was ousted because he started making the fatal mistake; not to obey US orders. He fled to Paris and lay low for more than a decade. After the murder of Lambrakis the Greeks start to resist the US occupation, even in its benign type. They react by voting for a center-left government under George Papandreou, father of Andreas Papandreou. The Americans sense the change in the attitude of the population and in 1965 topple the government, by literally buying out a sufficient number of parliamentary deputies to negate a vote of confidence. The man who did the job for the Americans was Constantine Mitsotakis, a Cretan politician. After this, which the Greeks consider as treason, Mitsotakis lies low for almost 3 decades. In the early 90s he becomes prime minister of Greece! Also, during the 90s for the entire decade almost every summer he has played host to his bosom friend George Bush, former President of the US, his wife Barbara, and more than a dozen assorted Bush relatives. The moment of the announcement of the indictment of Milosevic by the International War Crimes Tribunal on May 27, Mitsotakis and his daughter Dora (45) were with Milosevic, another bosom friend (and possibly a business associate) of Mitsotakis'. This we enjoyed on our TV screens on the evening news. Dora waits her turn to be the prime minister of Greece, as this period it is the turn of Costantine Karamanlis (43), a nephew of the older one, to be prime minister, in the next few months. These dynasties are US created pools of proxy managers for the periods of benign occupation.

Let us return to 1965. The Greek population still continues to make an unacceptable mistake. They are ready to elect a government that is not acceptable to the US. The US government sees the writing on the wall and initiates the phase of the harsh version of the occupation in 1967 through a dictatorship by a group of brutal and not very bright colonels. The concentration camps, the torture chambers, etc. are in full blast again. This lasts for 7 years up to 1974, when the dictatorship of the colonels is terminated by the US. It is instructive to dwell for a second on the "carefulness" of the US planners during the hours that followed the departure of the dictators from early in the morning up to the middle of the night, when Karamanlis (who by now has regained the favor of the US) arrives at the airport of Athens from his exile in Paris. For all those hours there was no official Greek government, the population was out in the streets celebrating and there was no one to be in control of the military forces. Lo and behold, Evangelos Averof, a rightist politician, appears at the Greek Ministry of Defense (the Greek Pentagon) and takes the leadership of the armed forces. Averof had no official or other qualification to justify his act, however during WWII he was an agent for the OSS (the parent of the CIA). One has to grant it to the US planners, no loose ends. Then from 1974 Greece enters again the benign phase of the occupation with Karamanlis, Andres Papandreou, et al, as proxy managers. This is holding up to the present. The US occupation of Greece has lasted for 52 years! Turkey, Thailand. South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Central America, etc. have gone and are going through the same process.

When the US decides that it is time to have "peace" in Kosovo-Yugoslavia, then this means that the US is ready to initiate the familiar cycles of benign-harsh occupation of these areas. The proxy military leadership and the proxy political managers may already have been chosen by the US. The physical destruction of both areas from the bombing is already depressing. However, equally depressing is the fact that these populations will soon lose their dignity by entering the cycle of US occupation.

Is there no hope? Of course there is! It is to be found in the radicalization of the American people.