diff --git a/us_atrocities.md b/us_atrocities.md index c99f074..ac3b792 100644 --- a/us_atrocities.md +++ b/us_atrocities.md @@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ - In 1967 in Greece, the CIA installed [Georgios Papadopoulos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgios_Papadopoulos), a CIA agent and former nazi collaborator, as the military ruler of Greece. He's seen today as an relic of authoritarianism , xenophobia, and anti-communism. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgios_Papadopoulos) -- In 1956, Radio Free Europe(a CIA funded propaganda outlet) incites [Hungary to revolt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956) by broadcasting Khruschev’s Secret Speech, in which he denounced Stalin. It also hints that American aid will help the Hungarians fight. This aid fails to materialize as Hungarians launch a doomed armed revolt, inviting a major Soviet invasion. The conflict kills 7,000 Soviets and 30,000 Hungarians. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956) +- In 1956, [Radio Free Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Liberty)(a CIA funded propaganda outlet) broadcasts Khruschev’s Secret Speech, which played a role in the [Hungarian revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956), and also hinted that American aid will help the Hungarians fight. The US fails to provide any military aid to Hungary in their ensuing conflict with the Soviet Union. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956) - From 1948 onwards, the CIA under [Allen Dulles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Dulles) developed a program of media manipulation called [Project Mockingbird](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird), having major influence over the media, including >25 newspapers. The usual method was placing reports developed from intelligence provided by the CIA to cooperating or unwitting reporters, or employing media directly as american assets.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird) @@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ - In 1947, in [Greek civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Civil_War) and ensuing [right wing military junta of 1967-74](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_military_junta_of_1967%E2%80%9374), Truman and the CIA provided money, 74,000 tons of military equipment, and advisors to support anti-communist Greek dictators with deplorable human rights records. Support for right-wing dictatorships in Greece and Turkey were funded and sold under the [Truman Doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Doctrine), an anti-soviet foreign policy platform, despite the fact that it was Yugoslavia who provided support to the Greek labor movement rebels, and not the Soviet Union.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_military_junta_of_1967%E2%80%9374) - During the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, eight unarmed Italian civilians, including an eleven year old girl, were killed by U.S. troops. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canicatt%C3%AC_massacre) - US soldiers killed 73 unarmed Italian and German prisoners of war in Santo Pietro, Italy on July 1943. The survivors were then shot at close range, directly through the heart. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscari_massacre) -- The [Rheinwiesenlager](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwiesenlager) (Rhine meadow camps) were a group of 19 US prison camps built in the Allied-occupied part of Germany to hold captured German soldiers at the close of the Second World War, holding between one and almost two million surrendered Wehrmacht personnel. Prisoners held in the camps were designated Disarmed Enemy Forces and not POWs, to avoid international treaty regulations. Between 3,000 to 10,000 died from starvation, dehydration and exposure to the weather elements because no structures were built inside the prison compounds. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwiesenlager) +- The [Rheinwiesenlager](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwiesenlager) (Rhine meadow camps) were a group of 19 US prison camps built in the Allied-occupied part of Germany to hold captured German soldiers at the close of the Second World War, holding between one and almost two million surrendered Wehrmacht personnel. Prisoners held in the camps were designated Disarmed Enemy Forces and not POWs, to avoid international treaty regulations. Throughout the summer of 1945, the [International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Committee_of_the_Red_Cross) was prevented from visiting prisoners in any of the Allies' *Rheinwiesenlager*. Visits were only started in the autumn of 1945, at a time when most camps had closed or were closing. During their visits, the delegates observed that German prisoners of war were often detained in appalling conditions. They drew the attention of the authorities to this fact, and gradually succeeded in getting some improvements made."[[7\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwiesenlager#cite_note-7) Between 3,000 to 10,000 died from starvation, dehydration and exposure to the weather elements because no structures were built inside the prison compounds. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheinwiesenlager) - A study by Robert J. Lilly estimates that a total of 14,000 civilian women in England, France and Germany were raped by American GIs during World War II.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes#cite_note-66). It is estimated that there were around 3,500 rapes by American servicemen in France between June 1944 and the end of the war and one historian has claimed that sexual violence against women in liberated France was common.[2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes#cite_note-bbcNormandy-68) - In July, 1945, the predecessor to the CIA, the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), under the name [Operation Paperclip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip), rescued and recruited 1,500 Nazi scientists, engineers, and spies. These included [Reinhard Gehlen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Gehlen), Hitler’s master spy who had built up an intelligence network in the Soviet Union, SS intelligence officers Alfred Six and Emil Augsburg (who massacred Jews in the Holocaust), [Klaus Barbie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie#US_intelligence_and_Bolivia) (the "Butcher of Lyon", who was used by the US to further anti-communist efforts in europe), [Otto von Bolschwing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bolschwing) (the Holocaust mastermind who worked with Eichmann) and SS Colonel [Otto Skorzeny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny) (a personal friend of Hitler’s). The policy of collaboration with nazi spies was deemed necessary to counter the threat from the USSR. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip) - In February 1945, 527 airplanes of the [United States Army Air Forces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Air_Forces) (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of [high-explosive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-explosive) bombs and [incendiary devices](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incendiary_device) on the city of [Dresden, Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden), killing ~25,000 civilians.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden) @@ -180,14 +180,14 @@ - Starting in 1957, in the wake of the US-backed [First Indochina War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Indochina_War), The CIA carries out approximately one coup per year trying to nullify Laos’ democratic elections, specifically targeting the [Pathet Lao](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathet_Lao), a leftist group with enough popular support to be a member of any coalition government, and perpetuating the [20 year Laotian civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laotian_Civil_War). In the late 50s, the CIA even creates an "Armee Clandestine" of Asian mercenaries to attack the Pathet Lao. After the CIA’s army suffers numerous defeats, the U.S. drops more bombs on Laos than all the U.S. bombs dropped in World War II. A quarter of all Laotians will eventually become refugees, many living in caves. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laotian_Civil_War) - From 1955-1975, the US supported French colonialist interests in Vietnam, set up a puppet regime in Saigon to serve US interests, and later took part as a belligerent against North Vietnam in the [Vietnam War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War). U.S. involvement escalated further following the 1964 [Gulf of Tonkin incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident), which was later found to be staged by Lyndon Johnson. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities (see [Vietnam War casualties](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties)). Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000[[29\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#cite_note-Hirschman-30) to 3.8 million.[[50\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#cite_note-Obermeyer_2008-52) Some 240,000–300,000 [Cambodians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_people),[[51\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#cite_note-Heuveline.2C_Patrick_2001-53)[[52\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#cite_note-Banister.2C_Judith_1993-54)[[53\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#cite_note-Sliwinski_1995_42.2C48.2Bcomment-55) 20,000–62,000 [Laotians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_people),[[50\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#cite_note-Obermeyer_2008-52) and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict, with a further 1,626 missing in action. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War) - In the beginning of the Korean war, US Troops killed ~300 South Korean civilians in the [No Gun Ri massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri_massacre), revealing a theater-wide policy of firing on approaching refugee groups. Trapped refugees began piling up bodies as barricades and tried to dig into the ground to hide. Some managed to escape the first night, while U.S. troops turned searchlights on the tunnels and continued firing, said Chung Koo-ho, whose mother died shielding him and his sister. No apology has yet been issued. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri_massacre#Killings) -- The US intervened in the [1950-53 Korean Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War), on the side of the south Koreans, in a proxy war between the US and china for supremacy in East Asia. South Korea reported some 373,599 civilian and 137,899 military deaths, the US with 34,000 killed, and China with 114,000 killed.[[16\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-ROK_Web-16) The Joint Chiefs of staff issued orders for the retaliatory bombing of the People's republic of China, should south Korea be attacked. Deadly clashes have continued up to the present day. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#U.S._threat_of_atomic_warfare) +- The US intervened in the [1950-53 Korean Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War), on the side of the south Koreans, in a proxy war between the US and china for supremacy in East Asia. South Korea reported some 373,599 civilian and 137,899 military deaths, the US with 34,000 killed, and China with 114,000 killed.[[16\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-ROK_Web-16) Overall, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs—including 32,557 tons of napalm—on Korea, more than they did during the whole Pacific campaign of World War II.[[305\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-Walkom2010-307)[[306\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-japanfocus.org-308) The Joint Chiefs of staff issued orders for the retaliatory bombing of the People's republic of China, should south Korea be attacked. Deadly clashes have continued up to the present day. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#U.S._threat_of_atomic_warfare) - In 1949 during the resumed [Chinese Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War), the US supported the corrupt Kuomintang dictatorship of Chiang Kaishek to fight against the Chinese Communists, who had won the support of the vast majority of peasant-farmers and helped defeat the Japanese invasion. The US strongly supported the Kuomintang forces. Over 50,000 US Marines were sent to guard strategic sites, and 100,000 US troops were sent to [Shandong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandong). The US equipped and trained over 500,000 KMT troops, and transported KMT forces to occupy newly liberated zones as well as to contain Communist-controlled areas.[[51\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War#cite_note-nat-54) American aid included substantial amounts of both new and surplus military supplies; additionally, loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars were made to the KMT.[[59\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War#cite_note-62) Within less than two years after the Sino-Japanese War, the KMT had received $4.43 billion from the US—most of which was military aid.[[51\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War#cite_note-nat-54)[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War#Resumed_fighting_.281946.E2.80.931950.29) - The U.S. installed [Syngman Rhee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngman_Rhee),a conservative Korean exile, as President of South Korea in 1948. Rhee became a dictator on an anti-communist crusade, arresting and torturing suspected communists, brutally putting down rebellions, killing 100,000 people and vowing to take over North Korea. Rhee precipitated the outbreak of the [Korean War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War) and for the allied decision to invade North Korea once South Korea had been recaptured. He was finally forced to resign by mass student protests in 1960.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngman_Rhee) - Between 1946 and 1958, the US [tested 23 nuclear devices at Bikini Atoll](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_testing_at_Bikini_Atoll). Significant fallout caused widespread radiological contamination in the area. Afterwards both locations proved unsuitable to sustaining life, resulting in starvation and requiring the residents to receive ongoing aid. Virtually all of the inhabitants showed acute symptoms of radiation syndrome. A handful were brought to the US for medical research and later returned, while others were evacuated to neighboring Rongerik Atoll and kili Island. When the majority returned 3 years later, radion levels were still unacceptable. Similar incidents occurred elsewhere in the Marshall Islands during this time period. Due to the destruction of natural wealth, Kwajalein Atoll's military installation and dislocation, the [majority of natives currently live in extreme poverty](http://hellomarshallislands.weebly.com/poverty.html), making less than 1$ a day. Those that have jobs, mostly work at the US military installation and resorts.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_testing_at_Bikini_Atoll),[2](http://hellomarshallislands.weebly.com/poverty.html) - US Troops committed a [number of rapes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Japan) during the battle of Okinawa, and the subsequent occupation of Japan. There were 1,336 reported rapes during the first 10 days of the occupation of Kanagawa prefecture alone.[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Japan) American Occupation authorities imposed wide-ranging censorship on the Japanese media, including bans on covering many sensitive social issues and serious crimes such as rape committed by members of the Occupation forces.[2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Japan#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDower1999412-32) - From 1942 to 1945, the US military carried out a [fire-bombing campaign of Japanese cities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Japan), killing between 200,000 and 900,000 civilians. One nighttime fire-bombing of Tokyo took 80,000 lives. During early August 1945, the US [dropped atomic bombs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki) on [Hiroshima](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima) and [Nagasaki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagasaki), killing ~130,000 civilians, and causing radiation damage which included birth defects and a variety of genetic diseases for decades to come. The justification for the civilian bombings has largely been debunked, as the entrance of Russia into the war had already started the surrender negotiations earlier in 1945. The US was aware of this, since it had broken the Japanese code and had been intercepting messages during for most of the year. The US ended up [accepting a conditional surrender from Hirohito](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan), against which was one of the stated aims of the civilian bombings. The dropping of the atomic bomb is therefore seen as a demonstration of US military supremacy, and the first major operation of the Cold War with Russia. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raids_on_Japan) -- In 1918, the US took part in the [allied intervention in the Russian civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War), sending 11,000 troops to the in the Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok regions to support the repressive regime of [Tsar Nicholas II of Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russia). He was a brutal dictator, and an anti-semite who supported pogroms. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) +- In 1918, the US took part in the [allied intervention in the Russian civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War), sending 11,000 troops to the in the Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok regions to support the anti-bolshevik, monarchist, and largely anti-semitic [White Forces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_movement). [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) - In 1900 in China, the US was part of an [Eight-Nation Alliance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-Nation_Alliance) that brought 20,000 armed troops to China, to defeat the Imperial Chinese Army, in the the [Boxer Rebellion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion), an anti-imperialist uprising. [1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion)