(By Bill Moloney, Hilton Head, S.C.) Judging by media coverage one must conclude that our entire nation is totally riveted by the absolutely shocking idea that the Russians may have interfered in our recent Presidential election. Investigations are being conducted by the FBI, the Senate, the House, and national media outlets for which nothing else is of remotely comparable importance. Various luminaries including Dick Cheney have stated that such a dastardly deed should be viewed as an “Act of War”.
The premise underlying all this outrage is that nothing like this wickedness of meddling in another country’s political processes has ever occurred before, except perhaps when perpetrated by evil communists, or ex-communists like Vladimir Putin.
The problem, with both the outrage and the premise is that they bear no resemblance whatsoever to the actual historical record which clearly demonstrates that electoral and political manipulation of other countries has long been routine not just for nasty tyrants but also for (gasp!) the United States of America as well.
As illustrated by the following highlight reel, American “interventions” didn’t stop at just influencing elections but also included the outright overthrow of governments deemed “unfriendly” to U.S. “national interests”.
1948 Italy When there appeared a real danger of the huge Communist Party winning national elections the infant CIA authorized Allen Dulles to dispatch personnel and large amounts of cash to energize the Christian Democratic Party and insure the victory of Alcide de Gasperi.
1953 Iran When the demogic premier Mohammed Mosadegh threatened Western oil interests Dulles- now CIA director- sent Teddy’s grandson Kermit Roosevelt to organize a Coup and install the much more malleable young Shah Reza Pahlevi.
1954 Guatemala Choosing to view the Left-wing politics of Jacobo Arbenz as incompatible with the Monroe Doctrine Dulles orchestrated another Coup that sent the uncooperative “EL Presidente” packing and replaced him with a right-Winger more to our liking.
1962 Cuba Humiliated by the Bay of Pigs disaster Robert Kennedy authorized three separate plots aimed at the overthrow and assassination of Fidel Castro- all abject failures including the infamous “Exploding Cigar” gambit.
1963 South Vietnam Though he keenly regretted the unintended murder of the Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem, John Kennedy nonetheless had approved his overthrow by a group of Buddhist generals.
1973 Chile In another CIA aided “Night of the Generals” President Salvador Allende , Latin America’s first elected Marxist was overthrown and replaced by Augusto Pinochet.
To take a broader view of specifically electoral meddling it is useful to consult the massive study done by Professor Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University , which was recently (Dec. 21,2016) described in a lengthy article by Nina Agrawal in the Los Angles Times. As related in Levin’s highly detailed data base in the period 1946-2000 the United States intervened in no less than 81 foreign elections. By comparison our erstwhile Russian rivals intervened in 36 elections.
Almost always these interventions were done secretly by either the CIA or KGB and almost invariably were conducted through a third party or “cut-out” thus enabling the U.S. or Russian governments to maintain “deniability” should their meddling be exposed publically as often was the case.
U.S. interventions in two countries- Russia and Israel- are of particular interest.
In 1996 Bill Clinton endorsed a 10.2 billion dollar International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan to Russia in full knowledge that large amounts of this money would be diverted by Boris Yeltsin to overwhelm his political opponents in that year’s Presidential election.
Interestingly- as reported by the New York Times– a similar strategy was employed to influence the Russian presidential election in 2012 whereby large amounts of American cash was funneled through American sponsored “Non- Governmental Organizations “(NGOs) operating within Russia and ending up in the hands of Vladimir Putin’s electoral opponents. Putin won the election anyways, but did not forget who had aided his opponents, and perhaps he then resolved to one day “return the favor”.
That U.S. election meddling can be aimed at friends as well as foes is well illustrated by two incidents involving Israel.
In 1999 Bill Clinton sent James Carville, and other top Democratic strategists to Israel to assist Labor Party candidate Ehud Barak in his successful campaign to defeat Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 2013 the U.S. State Department gave $349,000 to an Israeli NGO called “One Voice Movement.” The purpose of the NGO and the money was ostensibly to promote “Middle East Peace” but in fact both were mainly devoted to the electoral defeat of Benjamin Netanyahu. All of this was revealed in a bipartisan U.S. Senate Committee report that condemned the State Dept. noting that its’ actions “while not strictly illegal were nonetheless entirely inappropriate’.
So what is the real reason for the endless hysteria about “Russian meddling” emanating from the Democratic Party and its media allies? Historical amnesia? Hypocrisy? No, it is most basically the inability, the unwillingness to accept the results of the November election and the passionately felt imperative to pin the blame on anyone but themselves, while also doing everything possible to damage what they see as the absolutely unacceptable and illegitimate presidency of Donald Trump.
William Moloney’s columns have appeared in the Wall St. Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, and Human Events.
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