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Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia

David Vine (Goodreads Author)

4.12 · Rating details · 100 ratings · 14 reviews

The American military base on the island of Diego Garcia is one of the most strategically important and secretive U.S. military installations outside the United States. Located near the remote center of the Indian Ocean and accessible only by military transport, the base was a little-known launch pad for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and may house a top-secret CIA priso ...more

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Hardcover, 288 pages

Published April 1st 2009 by Princeton University Press (first published March 1st 2009)

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Apr 02, 2017 Raghu rated it it was amazing

We often come across essays showing us how the present times we are living in is the best that mankind has ever seen in terms of material well-being, human rights, justice and freedom. The arguments for this contention are compelling and I do believe they are valid. However, if you belong to small minorities living in forgotten places on earth, without much power and clout, their reality can be quite different. Especially when big, powerful nations are arrayed against them, these minorities migh We often come across essays showing us how the present times we are living in is the best that mankind has ever seen in terms of material well-being, human rights, justice and freedom. The arguments for this contention are compelling and I do believe they are valid. However, if you belong to small minorities living in forgotten places on earth, without much power and clout, their reality can be quite different. Especially when big, powerful nations are arrayed against them, these minorities might as well be living in the past few centuries, in so far as the way they are treated and how their rights are trampled upon. This happens repeatedly in the world even as the rest of us enjoy the fruits of the 21st century benevolence. This book tells the story of one such tiny minority, the Chagossians, who were forced out of their idyllic homeland in the Indian Ocean so that the US can build a military base in Diego Garcia and project power over the Indian Ocean. They are the original inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago, halfway between India and Mauritius.

The book traces the history of the Chagos archipelago and its people briefly and then goes on to show how it became a strategic hub in the foreign policy machinations of the Cold War era during the 1960s. The islands belonged to Mauritius at that time. But Mauritius itself was still a British colony, looking for independence. UK arm-twisted Mauritius saying that independence can be granted only on condition that Chagos will be detached from Mauritius for a sum of £3 million. Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who would eventually become prime-minister of Mauritius, accepted it. The tragedy was that the Chagossians had no idea what was going on.

Diego Garcia had a superb natural harbor and was strategically placed in the Indian Ocean to control the shipping lanes through which oil was transported. A major military base there would be ideal to project power across the Indian Ocean. But Britain was a declining world power and was in no position to play that role. Cold War-era geopolitics abhorred vacuums and so the US decided to step in. But how do you convert an island inhabited by native people into one which is a pure military base without any of them? This dirty job was outsourced to Britain and they executed it with all the experience gained in their long years of treacherous colonialism in India and Africa.

International law even in the 1960s mandated that the interests of the territory’s permanent residents must be deemed paramount. So, the US and UK decided to pretend that the Chagossians were not a traditional people of the islands with permanent roots and homes. Instead, they were deemed a floating group of people who came to work in these islands as transient population. Consequently, they did not come under the UN-mandated safeguards. This ruse was used to evict all the Chagossians from the islands through many devious methods. For example, people who were away from the islands to places like Mauritius for medical treatment, were not allowed to return home because the ‘island is now closed and they can’t go home’. British officials also restricted supplies to the islands. So, Chagossians remaining on the islands were forced to leave as supplies of food, medicines and other necessities dwindled. Towards 1973, US officials forced the remaining islanders to board overcrowded cargo ships and deposited them on the docks of Seychelles and Mauritius without compensation or assurance of a home or a livelihood. The islanders had many pet dogs. They were forced into sealed sheds and gassed and burned in front of their already-traumatized owners waiting to be deported.

The Chagossians were not really welcome in either Seychelles or Mauritius. They suffer discrimination and racism till today in both countries. In Mauritius, they found themselves at the bottom of the pile with the British-French descendants on top, the mixed and Indian races in the middle and the Afro-Mauritians at the bottom. The Chagossians are victims of racism and discrimination at the hands of the British, French and Indian races. In Seychelles, most people are of mixed African and European descent. Since most people have African ancestry, racism is somewhat less. Still , people of darkest skin are discriminated against. Till today, the Chagossians have not been able to return home and are forced to live in poverty and disease.

Why was it necessary to evict the Chagossians even though they lived a good 150 miles from the bases in Diego Garcia? The US has a total of 5300 bases, 1000 of which are overseas. Not everywhere the native population was totally evicted as it happened in Diego Garcia. What is the reason for doing so? Ideally, all imperial powers, who keep foreign bases, would like total control of their bases for the following reasons:
The most serious reason is the possibility that a host nation may make the base temporarily unavailable during a crisis. The other major risk is that posed by the people living outside the base - the native population - which could revolt against the base or press the UN for self-determination of the land where the base is situated. Other risks are espionage from the locals through sexual and romantic liaisons with the base personnel. This is why the base generally imports contract labor from outside the country to work on the base instead of hiring locals, which in itself can become a source of tension. A simple solution, if one can implement it, would then be to evict all natives from the land and possess total control. Surely, the US wouldn’t have been able to do that in their 287 bases in Germany or the 130 in Japan or the 106 in S.Korea. But the hapless natives of Diego Garcia and Chagos were easy pickings.

Can we justify these reasons for the eviction of the Chagossians? Stuart Barber, the civilian naval planner who dreamed up the “Strategic Island Concept” and identified Diego Garcia as a desirable base site, was himself shocked when he later learned about what happened to the Chagossians. In a letter to the ‘Washington Post’, in 1991, he called what the British and the US did to the Chagossians an ‘inexcusably inhuman wrong’. He said that there was no good reason to evict them and that the natives could be safely allowed to remain even in the east side of the Diego Garcia atoll. And certainly in North Chagos. He estimated that even if $100,000 is paid as compensation per family, the US is just looking at a cost of only $40-50 million, a fraction of the cost of the base itself. Barber, as the intellectual god-father of the Diego Garcia project, realized that the cost to secure the base as an asset, was met not by Americans, nor by Britons, but by the islanders, dispossessed without warning or compensation, their fate concealed in layer upon layer of officially sanctioned lies.

This book is much more than just an account of one military base. It is an assessment of modern-day post colonial empires, the US empire in this case. It incorporates ethnographic research as well as research on geopolitical issues. The author has engaged many of the displaced islanders and US military experts in conversation in writing this book. Above all, it is written with great compassion for the Chagossians.

David Vine, the author, poses a soul-searching question for all of us at the end. He asks us if most of us aren’t complicit in the Chagossians’ exile and suffering. It is our security concerns and way of life which contribute towards such militarization, war and death. He implores us to be conscious of our part in this story of empire and exile every time we pump gas, pay taxes and return to the safety and comfort of our homes.

A powerful book of deep research and humanitarian concern.

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Sep 08, 2020 Johann Brandstatter rated it it was amazing

A very thoroughly researched book on an international crime. The author used often very diplomatic language but he was still very effective in delivering the message. A people have been made homeless. Worse, they were dumped without their consent, without means of subsistence in a foreign country, that was just as ill-prepared to deal with them.
The criminals, as so often in history, the almighty United Staes of North America using as a bullyboy the fading Empire that was called the UK. The res ...more

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Jan 19, 2021 Thavakumar Kandiahpillai rated it really liked it

There are two major issues raised in this book - US military expansion and the plight of the Chagossians. The latter of course, arose from the former.

The author writes passionately about the first issue. His arguments are well made but given the geopolitical realities, there is very little that will change in the near future. The US is not going to give up its military dominance.

The second issue is linked to the first by the US base at Diego Garcia. If the option was available, the base should ...more

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Aug 29, 2018 Gwen rated it liked it

Island of Shame presents in-depth research in two areas: how Diego Garcia came to be a U.S. military base, and the expulsion of the resident Chagossians and their subsequent fate. The story of the Chagossians focuses on the injustices and human rights violations perpetrated by the U.K. at the behest of the U.S. Vine compares what happened in Diego to other expulsions and expansion of military installations in several locations. The basic information is quite valuable, but unfortunately much of t ...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Lianne Burwell rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, library

This book is an extensively researched book about the island of Diego Garcia, as well as the other islands in the Chagos archipelago, which came to the attention of the US in the sixties as a possible military base. How the US colluded with and paid the UK to take control of the islands, and to evict all the people living there, and what happened to the people.

The author says he tries to be balanced in his coverage, but there is little opportunity for balance. The natives were dumped in other is ...more

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May 21, 2009 Peter rated it really liked it

This book details the history of how the United States with the help of the Brisih displaced the native Chagossians of Diego Garcia in order to develop a military base in the Indian Ocean which would prove to be a picvot point for projecting American military power into the Middle East and Asia.

This story is told in the First person so that a reader can get a ground level feeling for how the US and British (during the 1960's and 70's conspired to deprive the native Chagossians of Life, liberty a ...more

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Nov 06, 2013 Pablo rated it really liked it

A well written and exhaustively researched book. While allegedly the UK fought the Malvinas/Falklands War to free these islands at the same time they didn't care about the dispossessed islanders of the Chagos Archipielago. The difference was that the falklanders were the descendants of those who illegaly took the Malvinas from Argentina while the Chagossian people were descendants of slaves. ...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Summer rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2016

This book was really enlightening. I didn't know anything about Diego Garcia before I read this book and now I want to research more to see what has happened to the Chagossians since the book was published. Vine did a great job of showing the personal side of this as well as the political side. Highly recommend. ...more

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Jul 22, 2016 Neil rated it really liked it

Brings it all out into the open as to how fucked up the uk government and U.S really are ... To displace islanders from a once peaceful paradise THEIR HOME !! And to be told they cannot return is beyond words .....

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Jul 22, 2009 Kara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: militarism-empire, anthro

truly an ethnography of empire. impressively comprehensive research.

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Jun 09, 2009 Jill rated it it was amazing

Fearless, accessible, terrifying and important. Thank you, David Vine.

BUY this book: all author's royalties go directly to the legal fight for this displaced population. ...more

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Jul 09, 2009 Paul rated it really liked it

This is a very enlightening read on the plight of the Chagosians and American imperialism. I'm glad that I read it. ...more

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Aug 25, 2013 Kaia rated it really liked it

Really good book about a history of people that you usually wouldnt hear about.

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Dec 13, 2012 David added it

Example of what not to do.

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About David Vine

David Vine

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David Vine is Professor of Anthropology at American University in Washington, DC. David’s newest book, The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State, will launch in October. The United States of War is the third in a trilogy of books about U.S. wars and struggles to make the United States and the world less violent and more peaceful. ...more