Steven, you are probably right that such a situation would make me want to shoot someone. However, there is a difference between such outrage and an understanding of geopolitical reality. Can you blame those who had been through World War II for being determined not too make the same mistakes that had caused so much generalized bloodshed, and such peril to the world? By 1948, it was clear that the emerging problem was the Soviet Union, which had reneged on promises concerning its zone of influence, and suspended liberties in Central and Eastern Europe. Recall that during the War we had been willing to support the Soviet regime, and that when Churchill was questioned about this he responded that if the Hitler invaded Hell he would at least make a comment favorable to the Devil in the House of Commons. The new threat was Stalin, and a state such as Iran was on the front line. In the prevailing situation, supporting the Shah was like the choice of supporting Stalin earlier. You can draw the rest out for yourself....
The main effect of training foreign security services was to professionalize them and make them less likely to use expedients like torture. However, so many charges have been thrown around about that that it may be futile to argue about when I am not prepared with an array of documentation, so I will decline to try to prove it...
I am sure that we made mistakes, for example in Guatemala, and that we should be big enough to admit them. That has no bearing on the general proposition that one deals with existing regimes, even if one has to hold one's nose, and tries to assess the options "on the ground"....
Democracy is partly dependent upon having a social order that will support it. The problem in the Third World is not with the color of the skin, but the stage of social development, which is sometimes not conducive to democratic institutions. You are quite right about wallowing in a "feudal and colonial sink", and I believe that it is possible to accelerate the process of democratization. But look at what has happened in Haiti, for example. Our "nation building" is a failure, because the society is too primitive to thrive under democratic institutions, and merely devolves into warring factions. You must know, in the Phillippines, how fragile democracy is. Whether pushing a country towards democracy will enhance its viability, or cause it to fall apart, is a judgment call, and we must allow some leeway for those who had to make it... |
