stabilise the 'third world'. The fall of the Shah dealt the most China and Vietnam, a war which further weakens the entire system Today 1979 HAS WITNESSED the continuing inability of imperialism to devastating blow to the United States since the fall of Saigon.
there is a war between North confrontations in southern Africa, civil wars rage in Uganda and Chad, and Belgian paratroopers have gone to aid Mobutu in Zaire. and South Yemen, Alter announcing that the United States would not proceed with the procurement ou much-detested neutron bomb, President Carter has authorised the production and stockpiling of neutron bomb thus permitting instantaneous production of complete bombs at any future date.
of new nuclear We DOES opposed to the SALT agreement, and a member of the Coalition for Peace Through Strength, pro-military All of these developments have been accompanied by a shift in attitudes about the use of military intervention to solve US political-economic difficulties Whereas after Vietnam many leaders argued that we should spurn military means in favour of diplomatic and economic measures in future third world crises, today many of these same figures are suggesting that intervention may be appropriate in some situations.
If the Angola crisis of 1975 (when Congress Caricipation in the civil war there can voted block be seen as the high point in the pendulum's swing towards interventionism, then the Zaire crisis of 1978 (when Carter placed the 82nd Airborne Division on alert for possible deployment in Zaire's embattled Shaba Province) was the mid-point in its swing back in the opposite direction.
As one State Department official said at the time, 'We are now at the Tonkin Gulf stage in Africa' And while it would be foolish to predict a repetition of the Vietnam entanglement - with many thousands of US troops involved in a protracted ground war — it is not so unrealistic to envision a US "lightning strike' topple a radical Arab regime that blocks US oil supplies or to overcome some other threat to US economic "survival".
By now you must be asking: why this dramatic upturn mintarism interventionism at this time? Of course, there is no simple of definitive explanation for what is obviously a complex and challenging situation, but I will try identity al cast some underlying causes.
First, US military preparedness has become a major political issue, in that potential presidential candidates such as Senator Jackson and Ronald Reagan nave usea me soviet unreal Issuc Le embarrass and Carter.
And since Carter feels that the com- electorate might be vulnerable to such "scare' tactics, he has moved steadily to the right on military issues - thus forcing his rivals to release even more alarming statements in order to stay in the game These developments suggest that the "Soviet threat' will be a maior issue in the 1980 presidential election and, thus, will trigger a continuing increase in hawkish, Cold War rhetoric.
Next, we can discern a split within US ruling circles on foreign policy issues that tends to be expressed through the debate over the Pentagon budget. This split revolves around the question of US how best to preserve US global power in the wake of the Vietnam disaster.
Whereas some leaders — those in the business and financial community - emphasise the solidarity of the capitalist world (especially the 'trilateral' Western Europe, and Japan) in the face US mounting underdeveloped world, other leaders particularly those in the security bureaucracy - emphasise th expansion of US military strength and the 'containment' of Soviet power The former group (which I have elsewhere called the "Traders') believe that the USSR will become increasingly dependent on Western technology and thus will be less prone to challenge US interests, while the latter group (which I call the "Prussians') argues that only a massive build-up in US military powe will discourage moves.
And while this debate normally takes place behind the closed to corporate board rooms and government offices, during the annual debate over the US defence budget, when the hard-liners release exaggerated data on Soviet strength in order to win congressional and support for higher military spending.
And given the already mentioned, naturally tends ever-increasing military budgets Economic factors also play a role in this process. Inflation in the defence industries is running at about twice the rate as in the economy as a whole, with discredit President And since curb inflation, arms producers need missi'es more than they services ("butter').
• especially powers of North America, Such demands the national rights).
against and OLIC mentalists, etc.
aggressive Soviet Following doors of it surfaces regularly Already, political climate this process to result In race. | the result that arms firms must receive larger slice of the federal budget pie (their principal source of income merely to stay in place.
Carter has vowed to reduce the federal deficit in order to increases in military spending can only come at the expense of cutbacks in social services.
Such cutbacks have been opposed by unions, minorities, and urban leaders, thus touching off a bitter debate over national priorities (or, as this debate is usually described, guns vs butter). To ensure their success in this struggle, the have launched multi-million dollars 'scare campaign to convince American voters that the and bombers. (guns" need basic socia There are also some sectors of the population which feel threatened by the political gains made by women, blacks, chicanos, gays and other minorities in the 1960s, and who, thus, yearn for a conrormust, repressive atmosphere of the 1950s.
constituencies are naturally receptive to calls for a new Cold War and tend to link 'military preparedness with other conservative causes (anti abortion, anti-Equal Rights Amendment, anti-affirmative action, anti-gay If I am correct in this analysis, we can expect that any further tilt towards a war footing in this country will be accompanied by increasing repression reluctant sectors of the population - labour, feminists, blacks minorities, environthe announcemen! resumed diplomatic ties between the US and the Peoples Republic of Chine, the American Press was full of speculation US-PRC military alliance aimed at the Soviet Union Washington has given its approval to the sale of advanced French and British arms to China, and the sale of US arms is sure to follow. And while Carter asserted that the normalisatior of ties with a contribution to world peace, it is obvious that any moves toward a formal or informal military alliance would be viewed with extreme unease in Moscow and could result in a further escalation of the global arms
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of post-capitalist states. discuss Soviet foreign policy.
The only joy for imperialism has come from the war between We review the growing world political crisis over the next six pages and analyse its broader implications. Next week we shall