How the World Works

(Ann) #1

economic colony, basically part of the Third World.
The third bloc is the US-dominated, dollar-based one. It was
recently extended to incorporate Canada, our major trading partner,
and will soon include Mexico and other parts of the hemisphere
through “free trade agreements” designed primarily for the interests
of US investors and their associates.
We’ve always assumed that Latin America belongs to us by right.
As Henry Stimson [Secretary of War under FDR and Taft,
Secretary of State under Hoover], once put it, it’s “our little region
over here, which never has bothered anybody.” Securing the dollar-
based bloc means that the drive to thwart independent development
in Central America and the Caribbean will continue.
Unless you understand our struggles against our industrial rivals
and the Third World, US foreign policy appears to be a series of
random errors, inconsistencies and confusions. Actually, our leaders
have succeeded rather well at their assigned chores, within the
limits of feasibility.

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