Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

by Noam Chomsky

Chomsky notes that, among other grounds for Nuremberg punishment -- based upon either direct or indirect involvement in atrocities and war crimes -- are Truman’s counter-insurgency campaign in Greece; Eisenhower’s role in the Guatemala coup; Kennedy’s invasions of Cuba and Vietnam; Johnson’s invasion of the Dominican Republic; Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia; Ford’s support for the invasion of East Timor; Carter’s support for the genocide in East Timor and his administration’s activities in Nicaragua (where, for example, it helped to spirit Somoza’s National Guard out of the country in planes with Red Cross markings, a war crime, in order to establish them elsewhere); Reagan’s activities in Central America and his administration’s support for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon; Bush’s invasion of Panama and activities in Nicaragua; and Clinton’s missile strikes against Iraq, the Sudan, and Afghanistan.