Cold-War America: COINTELPRO, CIA, and Covert Operations
Cold-War America: COINTELPRO, CIA, and Covert Operations
Introduction
Cold war is the name given to the relationship that happened between the USA and the USSR. The cold war happened after world war two. The cold war created controversies between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States policy contributed a lot to the cold war. It led to the spread of communism in Eastern Europe. This forced Russia to call for a revolution so as to overcome the problems caused by United States policy. The collapse of Germany in 1945 trigged the cold war. There were several causes of the cold war. First, the cold war resulted from the disagreement for post war Europe and Far East. The superpowers had different views on the perspective of postwar Europe. This created more conflicts among the countries. For example, United States, Europe and Germany had different views on post Europe war. Also, countries had different interests and this resulted to cold war. The Soviet Union and the west had different interests and ideologies. The thesis statement is the American Cold-War and the operations of COINTELPRO, CIA, and Covert during the cold war.
Cold-War America: COINTELPRO, CIA, and Covert Operations
Counter intelligence program (Cointelpro) is a term used to refer to a collection of covert and illegal plans that were conducted by the United States Federal bureau of investigation. The organization was aimed at investigating and disrupting any political organizations in United States that interfered with the policies established. The federal bureau of investigation used covert operations to prevent the political organization from causing chaos. The cointelpro operation started being used in 1956.The FBI argued that the main aim was protecting national security and preventing violence. Also, the organization was focused at maintaining social and political order (Friedman, 2005, p 50). The cointelpro targeted organizations and groups that caused disruption in the country by rejecting the policies set.
The Cointelpro played various roles during the cold war. First, cointelpro was made to expose and disrupt any activities that were carried out by the black nationalists. During the cold war, various groups faced threat from the enemies. For example, organizations and unions in the country faced threat. This made it difficulty for the groups to live in the country. The problems resulted from communism. The cointelpro was indented to expose any activities of the black nationalists that were aimed at disrupting the society. This made it easy for the residents to thrive in the country. In addition, the Cointelpro was supposed to misdirect and discredit actions of the black nationalists. It was also supposed to neutralize actions of organizations that caused conflict in the society. The black nationalists and organizations threatened the Native Americans, communists and labor leaders. The organization worked together with FBI to prevent Black Nationalist from causing chaos in the society. The organization later collapsed after the FBI identified other surveillance methods
“Cointelpro exposed and disrupt activities of Black Nationalist”
“Counter intelligence program refers to a set of covert operations conducted by FBI” (Friedman, 2005, p 60).
The United States government helped overthrow many governments using the central intelligence agency. The US government helped overthrow the Iran, Chile and Argentina government. The government contributed in overthrowing the Iran, Chile and Argentina government and replaced them with new ones. The central intelligence agency worked with the UK government to overthrow the Iran government in 1953.The government was led by Prime Minister Mohammad mossadegh. The prime minister tried to nationalize the petroleum industry in the country. The plans affected the profits of the angli Iranian oil company. This forced the United States government and the United Kingdom government to overthrow the government. The Iran citizens voted in 1951 to nationalize the petroleum industry.
Anti communism and other countries thought that the plan would allow socialist Iran to become friendlier with the Soviet Union. The nationalization of the petroleum fields in the country resulted to conflicts and the US government and other governments fought hard to replace the current government. The US government wanted to ensure that the socialist Iran were not friends with Soviet Union. Apart from overthrowing the Iran government, the United States government helped overthrow the government of Chile. The United States government established covert operatives in Chile to avoid a Marxist government from coming to power. The US government did not want the government of Chile to spread propaganda. This forced the US government to overthrow the government so as to ensure enough security. “The prime minister wanted to take control of the petroleum industry in the country” (Friedman, 2005, p124). Also, the United States government helped overthrow the government of Argentina.
The government of Argentina was overthrown in 1976.Though the Argentina government wanted the American government to help prevent the operations for a coup in the country. The United States government did not help the government. Instead, the United States government contributed in overthrowing the Argentina government so as to ensure the country did not interfere with US activities. Operation condor is said to be a campaign of political repression that involved assassination and intelligence operations. The operation condor was created in 1975 by the right wing dictatorship of South cone. The plan was aimed at eliminating socialists and communists who influenced and views to control the opposition movements against the government. Examples of condor members were Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The centre intelligence agency targeted countries like Brazil, Chile and Argentina. This is because the countries acted as a threat to the communist policy established by the United States government. Pinochet Files are files that contain information about the role of Pinochet and the effects. The documents outlined the US policy and its relation with Chile. “Pinochet files are collection of documents that contain the US policy”
“Operation condor is a campaign of political repression that involves assassination and intelligence operations”
“Operation condor targets socialists and communists who went against the government of United States” (Friedman, 2005, p124).
The Torture at Abu Gharaib and the Massacre at My Lai analyze the effects of war on citizens. The authors have discussed the consequences of Vietnam War and the Iraq war. The authors argue that the Vietnam War caused problems to women and children. The Vietnam War caused deaths and many women were raped. Also, the Vietnam War caused suffering to the citizens (Friedman, 2005, p310). “There weren’t any friendlies in the village. The orders were to shoot anything that moved.”
The torture at Abu Gharaib analyzes how the US soldiers abused Iraq citizens. The US soldiers caused the Iraq citizens to suffer and also caused deaths. The two articles show how the current war in Iraq has caused harm to the citizens and the country. The war has caused loose of life and other antisocial behaviors like rape (Friedman, 2005, p512). For example, the quotes below show how the Iraq citizens surfed.
“Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;”
“Pouring cold water on naked detainees;”
“Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;”
“Threatening male detainees with rape;”
This has caused suffering to the citizen. Also, the war has caused economic crisis in the country and poor living conditions. In the article the torture at Abu Gharaib the author shows how Iraq citizens are exposed to poor living conditions. This is shown by the following quote.
“In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Gharaib, twenty miles west of Baghdad”
“was one of the world’s most notorious prisons, with torture, weekly executions, and vile living conditions” (Friedman, 2005, p512)
Conclusion
The cold war resulted after the collapse of Germany in 1945.united states and other countries had different opinions and this triggered the cold war. Cointelpro played an important role during the cold war. Cointelpro helped eliminate activities that interfered with the policy set by the United States. The organization targeted organizations that interfered with the policy set. The United States government helped overthrow the government of Chile, Argentina and other governments. This is because the countries were a threat to the United States government. The Torture at Abu Gharaib and the Massacre at My Lai analyze the effects of war on citizens. The Vietnam War and the Iraq war affected citizens in different ways. They caused deaths and suffering to the citizens. The articles explain how the Iraq war has affected the citizens.
Reference
Friedman, J.S.The secret histories: hidden truths that challenged the past and changed the world. Picador, 2005, page 310,512,50, 60, 124
Is this your assignment or some part of it?
We can do it for you! Click to Order!
