The Emperor Has No Clothes A Practical Guide for Environmental and Social Transformation (5 page)

In light of these comparisons I would argue
that Eisenhower hit the nail on it’s head and his predictions and
the founders fears have been realized (a further discussion of this
will be presented in the last section). In my estimation the United
States military is extremely over built. [7] [8]

[7]
The
activities of UfCO was not an isolated incident. In the early
1950's Iran had a democracy with a weak king which was destabilized
using the same methods as were employed by UFCO. Kermit Roosevelt
who was in the CIA directed it and installed the Sha.

[8]  The problem was that the Iranians
wanted to be payed half of the net profits from the sale of the oil
originating in their country.  The oil refinery in Iran was
owned by BP but the British were short of funding after world war
II so a deal was made with the CIA to take over the project. 
The CIA had lots of money derived from captured Japanese war booty.
This money did not need to be OK'd by congress.

This situation could be rectified if the
funding that governs its size were scaled to the amounts being
spent by other nations, perhaps a ceiling of 120% of the next
largest. If the arithmetic is done for this level of funding, our
budget would be around $128 billion freeing up $588 billion of
public funds that could be used for other purposes such as
education, infrastructure, research, medical care, etc. Not only
would a colossal amount of funding become available for directly
beneficial purposes but it would also increase our security. If the
numbers of nuclear weapons are considered they pose a grave threat
to life on planet earth. American, Russian, and European
climatologists have all warned that if around 200 megatons of bombs
were exploded the large quantity of aerosol particles and
combustion products would alter world wide temperatures and cause a
protracted climate change. This type of alteration in the climate
would impair the growth of plants eliminating the source of food
for human beings and animal life. Moreover, the aerosol particles
produced by nuclear bombs are comprised of radioactive fallout
which would cause widespread contamination of the earths surface
and water. Barbara W. Tuchmanviii performed an extensive historical
analysis of a number of wars embracing the period from Troy to
Vietnam. The results of this research enabled her to identify a
number of typical types of flawed thinking that occurs by those who
are in power. One of these is the propensity for politicians to use
force if they feel confident that it will succeed. Another source
of folly she identified is to trade the greater for the lessor. If
we consider the recent wars in the Middle East it seems unlikely
that they would have been undertaken if the distribution of
military potential was not so asymmetric. With respect to the
second source of folly, if the trillions of dollars [9] spent on
these wars, loss of world standing, and the corruptive nature of
these activities upon American society are compared to the benefits
accrued to our nation as whole, there is no doubt that the greater
was sacrificed for the lessor.

9.
A Harvard University study estimates that the total cost of
the Afghanistan and Iraq wars will cost the United States taxpayer
$4 - $6 trillion dollars when the medical and disability costs are
added to the $2.3 trillion in direct military expenditure. In
addition to our own military deaths, the October 2006 medical
journal Lancet estimated with a 95% confidence level that there has
been 654,965 war related civilian deaths in Iraq. This doesn’t
appear to be the “surgical military operations” with “low
collateral damage” that was presented by the United States
government in its press releases.

Lets consider The United Fruit Company [UFCO]
as a case study of how commercial enterprises can manipulate our
political system to provide public resources for their own
purposes. UFCO originated from mergers of three companies, The
Boston Fruit Company started by Captain Lorenzo D. Baker in 1885,
International Railways of Central America founded by Minor Keith,
and Samuel Zemurray's fruit company. After the merger UFCO
possessed extensive land holdings throughout the Caribbean and
Central America. Historically the general mode of operation of the
three root companies was to make deals with a dictator in control
of a country in order to gain concessions, usually for reduced tax
liabilities, below par land acquisitions, and control of labor
costs (in Guatemala workers were paid $0.50 per day). These
concessions were obtained through various corrupt means. Thomas
McCann who worked for UFCO for about 20 years summarized its
Guatemalan enterprise as follows: “Guatemala was chosen as the site
for the companies earliest development activities at the turn of
the century because a good portion of the country contained prime
banana land and because at the time we entered Central America,
Guatemala’s government was the weakest, most corrupt and most
pliable. In short, the country offered an “ideal investment
climate,” and United Fruit’s profits there flourished for fifty
years. Then something went wrong, a man named Jacobo Arbenz became
President.”ix

Arbenz described UFCO’s activities in
Guatemala as “All the achievements of the Company were made at the
expense of the impoverishment of the country and by acquisitive
practices. To protect its authority it had recourse to every
method; political intervention, economic compulsion, contractual
imposition, bribery and tendentious propaganda, as suited its
purposes of domination. The United Fruit Company is the principal
enemy of progress of Guatemala, of its democracy and at effort
directed at it’s economic liberation.” The American historian Cole
Blasier wrote in the Hovering Giant: U.S. Responses to
Revolutionary Change in Latin America, “In the past, UFCO and it’s
sister companies had bribed politicians, pressured governments and
intimidated opponents to gain extremely favorable concessions.”x If
we consider the activities of Mr. Zemurray prior to the merger of
the three companies when he became CEO of UFCO the types of
business practices just described above were normal for him. In
1905 he wished to expand his business in Honduras where he planned
to buy land, build a railroad to the coast and obtain concessions.
The concessions he desired were comprised of a low rate of taxation
that would be frozen and a exemption from import duties. At this
time Honduras was bankrupt and President Magill Davila was
negotiating a bailout deal with a New York bank. One of the
conditions for the loan was that an agent of the bank would take
control of the treasury. Mr. Zemurray found out about this and
realized that the concessions he desired would not be available if
an agent from a bank was in charge of the treasury. He decided that
a person who would be sympathetic to his business goals was needed
and found an enemy of the incumbent president named Manuel Bonilla
who he outfitted with a surplus navy ship (the Hornet) and
additional armaments suitable for land warfare . Shortly thereafter
a revolution took place in Honduras and Manuel Bonilla became
president. President Bonilla gave Mr. Zemurray extremely favorable
concessions. Later in 1915 Mr. Zemurray bought up large tracts of
land in the Motagua valley along the boarder of Guatemala. In 1930
UFCO bought out Zemurray’s complete holdings for $31.5 million in
UFCO stock making him the companies largest stock holder. In 1933
he used his stock to obtain the position of managing director of
the company.

In the early 1950's the company became aware
that things were changing, the impoverished and disenfranchised
populous was no longer satisfied with the status quo which created
a climate where agents of change could flourish. The result was the
election of the Jacobo Arbenz government that enacted legislation
and started a program to attenuate domination of the country by
UFCO. The program instituted was to build a road that terminated at
the Atlantic coast, and an electric power plant, thereby,
eliminating the monopolies possessed by American interests. At this
time UFCO's transportation monopoly was comprised of the railroad
(IRCA) and the only Guatemalan Atlantic port at its terminus Puerto
Barrios. Ownership of Puerto Barrios also provided UFCO with the
further advantage of being able to restrict the handling of sea
freight to its own ships (it owned 50 ships for this purpose), or
on infrequent occasions to outside shipping vendors it approved of.
According to the International Development Bank the freight rates
that were being charged were the highest in the world. The
situation that existed would no longer support a staged coup as was
implemented in 1905. Therefor, UFCO's management decided to induce
the United States Government to use its power to maintain its
corporate hegemony within the country. In order to accomplish this
task one of the best PR men of the time was hired (Edward Bernays)
and also a number of well connected liberal lobbyists. These
lobbyists had contacts in the CIA the senate, congress, and the
State Department notably, John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State,
his brother Allen Dulles Director of CIA, as well as an earlier
director of the CIA Walter Bedell Smith, who later was Under
secretary of State with Dulles [10]. After Dwight Eisenhower was
elected to the presidency Mr. Zemurray realized it was now
essential to expand his influence into the right wing faction of
the Republican Party, again he engaged a well connected PR firm,
John Clements and Associates. Mr Clements was also Vice President
of the jingoistic Hearst Publications. He was also editor of The
American Mercury a McCarthyite propaganda sheet as well as being
related to Senator Joseph McCarthy.

10. After Walter Bedell Smith left the U.S.
Government he obtained an executive position with UFCO.

The strategy that UFCO employed to garner
support and protection of it’s overseas interests by the United
States government was to create and amplify fears about the spread
of communism. The basic underlying theme they used was the
Guatemalan governments program of land reform. [11]

11. UfCO owned 550,000 acres in Guatemala it
had 15% of this land under cultivation initially the Guatemalan
government wanted approximately 209,000 acres and later upped it to
386,901 acres, the company was offered compensation equivalent to
the land values it provided on it’s tax returns. At this time UFCO
was paying $150.000 per year in taxes, 1 cent per banana stem and
nothing on its property.

The land reform program was used by UFCO’s PR
people to create the fantasy that it was engendered by communists
supported by the Soviet Union. The public relations campaigns
employed for this purpose were comprised of two elements. The first
element was aimed at the general American public to create a
supportive climate that was essential for governmental decision
makers to operate in. The second was specifically targeted and
tailored for U.S. government decision makers. The PR effort
targeted on the decision makers was augmented by intensive
lobbying. During the Truman administration the PR effort was
comprised of a “confidential” news letter that was circulated to
250 journalists, congressmen, institutions such as the Council on
Foreign Relations, and congressional offices.

The press PR effort was augmented by free
junkets for newsmen of prestigious publications such as Time,
Newsweek, Scripps-Howard newspapers, United Press International,
San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Harold, US News and Word Report, The
New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and in some Latin publications.xi
UFCO produced 4 or 5 of these junkets a year taking up to 10
reporters each time. They were very carefully orchestrated to
present a favorable impression of the company and support it’s
assertions of benevolence. No expense was spared on these PR
junkets in one year $500,000.00 was spent on these which was a very
large sum at that time (in 1950 the average price of a house was
$8,450). Dozens of officials in the U.S. Congress and Senate were
induced to act in a favorable manner to UFCO, they often read
company prepared PR on the Senate and Congressional floor and into
the congressional record. After the Eisenhower administration took
office, UFCO retained John Clements who had a list of 800
influential decision makers. In 1952 Clements was paid $35,000.00
to write a 235 page anonymous “study” titled “Report on Guatemala -
1952" for UFCO. This document was bound in a manner similar to that
used for official documents and sent to the 800 people on his list.
Excerpts from this document later appeared in speeches presented at
the UN, a State Department White paper, and other official
documents. Clements was also a friend and business partner of
Nicaraguan President Somoza. In 1954 UFCO's efforts bore fruit, the
democratic Arbenz government fell as a result of US engendered
attacks [12] from Honduras, and was replaced with a dictator.

12. UFCO provided training and staging areas
on it property for the “liberation army” as well as $64,000 in
cash. The aftermath of their activities were decades of military
dictatorships that maintained their position through a continuous
rain of terror with an estimated 150,000 - 200,000 persons
killed.

Upon examination of the examples already
given we can characterize several traits that are common to a greed
based system. The individuals controlling these large enterprises
embody a vision that is restricted to activities primarily focused
on maximum gain and ignore the wider impacts of their actions. In
order to accomplish this goal every means is used: co-opting of
public resources, externalizing costs, manipulation of the
political/regulatory system, exploitation of its working force, and
the direct or indirect use of force. One of the primary tools used
to produce a climate suitable for gaining these ends is to produce
PR that is often disingenuous. In his 1928 book “Propaganda” Mr.
Bernays described the goals of these PR campaigns as “The conscious
and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions
of the masses is an important element in a democratic society.
Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an
invisible government which is the true ruling power of our
country.....it is the intelligent minorities which need to make use
of propaganda continuously and systematically”.