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go to hell with Nixon
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Indonesia 1958: Nixon, the CIA, and the Secret War
What is not generally known about the complex Indonesian struggle is the role that was played by the then Vice President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, and the bitter aftermath that involved the sudden ouster of Allen Dulles' protege, Frank Wisner, who at that time was the head of the clandestine arm of the CIA. After Watergate, when Anthony Lukas wrote in his book Nightmare, about the growing mistrust between Nixon and the Director of Central Intelligence, Richard Helms, he could have added that since the 1958 Indonesian rebellion there were many in the CIA who made a career of hating Nixon because of what he had done to Frank Wisner, among others.
The Indonesian campaign began rather casually as so many CIA ventures do. Few if any ever originate at the top.
During an unguarded conversation in Washington the Indonesian military attache mentioned earlier made it known to certain U.S. military acquaintances that there were many prominent and strong people in Indonesia who would be ready to rise against Sukarno if they were given a little support and encouragement from the United States. It happened that one of those U.S. military friends he talked to was not a military man at all, but a member of the CIA. The provocative words got back to Frank Wisner, then the Deputy Director of Plans. He was in charge of the CIA's clandestine activity and he authorized agents to follow up on that first conversation.
The Indonesian attache was wined and dined and encouraged to talk more. Reasons for the attache's return to Indonesia on official business were successfully arranged. He was accompanied by CIA agents traveling under the cover of "U.S. military" personnel. During this visit they spoke with rebel leaders. They learned enough about the potential strength of this opposition to encourage the CIA to set in motion its biggest operation up to that date.
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Watergate, Anti Vietnam War Protests and U.S. Imperial Failure
According to Robert Haldeman, the former chief of staff to Nixon, “Without the Vietnam war there would have been no Watergate.”
The secret bombing of Cambodia ran from March 1969 until August 1973. Nixon set up an elaborate system of deception to hide the bombing from the public.
During the first 14 months of the campaign, the US conducted more than 3,630 B-52 raids, dropping over 110,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia.
When the bombing ended, the US had dropped a total of 257,465 tons of explosives on Cambodia. The country began a descent into hell that would culminate with the tragedy and horror of the Khmer Rouge regime.
While the dirty war was starting in the US, in Vietnam the CIA implemented a new “pacification” programme called Operation Phoenix, the goal of which was to destroy the “infrastructure” of the Vietnamese opposition. Phoenix agents assassinated at least 20,000 people.
Between 1969 and 1972, as Nixon made war in the name of peace, an estimated 400,000 Vietnamese soldiers died in combat. There are no reliable statistics on civilian dead and wounded, though one estimate is 165,000 civilian casualties in South Vietnam alone for each year of Nixon’s presidency.
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