Reexamining History with Chomsky: New World Order & the Grand Area
Noam Chomsky:
"Incidentally part of this [US] program I should say beginning actually
in 1943/44 was to undermine the anti-fascist resistance almost
everywhere – first in Italy. The first place where the U.S. and British
forces penetrated. The Italian resistance was holding down nearly half a
dozen German divisions and parts of Italy were beginning to reconstruct
an independent society and all of this was dismantled as the U.S. and
British forces moved through the peninsula and pretty much reinstated
the traditional order, including fascist sympathizers and similar
programs were adopted in other parts of occupied Europe as the United
States took over, including Germany. In fact Kennan at one point, top
postwar planner, said that the West ought to “wall off”, that’s his
phrase „wall off“ Western Germany from the eastern zone because the
danger or what they regarded as danger of the labor-based - what they
called communist - policies affecting the West, might affect them.
In Italy where there was a strong communist party and it was probably
gonna win the first 1948 election, the U.S. poured enormous resources
into making sure that they wouldn’t win that election, making it very
clear to Italians in many ways that if they allow the communists to take
control they’d be in deep trouble. One state department official said
the policies have to be clear enough, so that the dumbest wop can
understand; we are going to strangle them, unless they vote the right
way in their first free election. In Greece at first the British moved
in, and they faced a strong, they tried to crush the anti-fascist
resistance, they weren’t able to do it. The Americans came in to join
them and there was a major war, where probably a 160 000 Greeks were
killed. The end result was a restoration of something like the
traditional society, including fascist elements and the tragedy of
Greece goes on from there. Later in the 1960s there was a real outright
fascist coup in Greece, a military fascist coup strongly supported by
the U.S., continuously supported until it was overthrown by the Greeks
in the mid 70s."
