humanitarian imperialism

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Thu Sep 16 13:10:06 PDT 1999


On Thu, 16 Sep 1999, Doug Henwood wrote:


> The relevant point here is that the the CIA used the IRC to get
> liberals and social democrats who might otherwise have objected to
> U.S. Vietnam policy in the 1950s and early 1960s to sign on. And
> their rhetorical strategy was to emphasize humanitarian concerns,
> specifically refugees and medical aid. Rhetoric and strategy have
> hardly changed over the last 40 years

Interestingly, I think Vietnam was the last time before Kosovo that the "farther" sectors of the left and right converged to such an extent in their opposition to the liberal center (defined as "farther" just by virtue of being opposed to the entire mainstream). It was also the age of the "end of ideology" -- i.e., the last time the centrist ideology seemed to be so completely dominating

Michael

__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com



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