Thursday, September 27, 2007

1 America's Allies

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THE FRIENDLY DICTATORS Meet the Friendly Dictators - three dozen* of America's most embarrassing "friends", a cunning crew of ...

2 MAXIMILIANO HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ

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General of El Salvador "It is a greater crime to kill an ant than a man," said General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, a firm beli...

3 FULGENCIO BATISTA

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President of Cuba Cuban Army Sergeant Fulgencio Batiste, first seized power in a 1932 coup. He was FDR's handpicked dictator to countera...

4 RAFAEL LEONIDAS TRUJILLO

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President of the Dominican Republic The U.S. occupied the Dominican Republic in 1916 and created the National Guardto put Rafael Leonidas ...

5 GENERAL HUMBERTO BRANCO

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President of Brazil In 1961, Time magazine called Brazil's domestic politics "confused" and said the country was "also ad...

6 COLONEL HUGO BANZER

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President of Bolivia In 1964, the New York Times wrote of Bolivia: "No country in the Western Hemisphere is more dependent on Washingto...

7 ANASTASIO SOMOZA, SR. AND JR.

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Presidents of Nicaragua The Marines invaded Nicaragua in 1912 and stayed until 1933, fighting but never defeating the revolutionary Augusto ...

8 GENERAL JORGE RAFAEL VIDELA

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President of Argentina Soon after the coup that brought him to power in 1976, General Jorge Rafael Videla began Argentina's dirty war. A...

9 GENERAL EFRAIN RIOS MONT

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President of Guatemala "A Christian has to walk around with his Bible and his machine gun," said born-again General Efrain Rios Mo...

10 ROBERTO SUAZO CORDOVA

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President of Honduras Honduras was the original "Banana Republic," its history inextricably intertwined with that of the U.S.-base...

11 FRANÇOIS & JEAN CLAUDE DUVALIER

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Presidents-for-Life of Haiti In 1957 François "Papa Doc" Duvalier became Haiti's President-for-Life, establishing a strategic ...

12 ALFREDO STROESSNER

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President-for-Life of Paraguay Alfredo Stroessner came to power in 1954, but European correspondents who visited Paraguay during his rule us...

13 GENERAL AUGUSTO PINOCHET

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President of Chile On July 2, 1986, 18 year old Carmen Gloria Quintana was walking through a Santiago slum when she and photographer Rodrigo...

14 GENERAL MANUEL NORIEGA

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Chief of Defense Forces, Panama The U.S. command post for covert Latin American operations is located in the Canal Zone where a series of fi...

15 VINICIO CEREZO

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15 VINICIO CEREZO President of Guatemala According to Amnesty Intemational, "arbitrary arrest, torture, 'disappearance' and ...

16 ALFREDO CRISTIANI

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President of El Salvador General Hernandez Martinez's 1932 anti-communist purge (see card 2), was carried out on behalf of EI Salvador...

17 CHIANG KAI-SHEK

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President of Taiwan The Chinese civil war pitted Mao Tse-Tung's Communists against Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists. The U.S. backed C...

18 NGO DINH DIEM

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President of South Viet Nam Ngo Dinh Diem oppressed the Vietnamese people so badly that many of them turned to the communists for protection...

19 PARK CHUNG HEE

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President of South Korea Free and open expression has not come easily to South Koreans. Beatings, torture and execution of the regime's ...

20 FERDINAND MARCOS

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President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos began his career with a bang: At age 21, convicted of gunning down Julio Nalundasan, his fathe...

21 MOHAMMED ZIA UL-HAQ

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President of Pakistan In 1979, when General Mohammed Zia Ul-Haq executed his elected predecessor, Zulfigar All Bhutto, and declared martial ...

22 SIR HASSANAL BOLKIAH

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The Sultan of Brunei To illegally fund what they referred to as the "Democratic Resistance" in Nicaragua, Oliver North and former ...

23 GENERAL SITIVENI RABUKA

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Commander, Armed Forces of Fiji On April 30th, 1987, General Vemon P. Walters, the CIA's "typhoid Mary" of coup making, slippe...

24 GENERAL SUHARTO

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President of Indonesia Indonesia is a totalitarian state and its uncontested ruler for over 20 years, General Suharto, is one of the most br...

25 HALIE SELASSIE

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Emperor of Ethiopia Emperor Halie Selassie was deeply distressed when the Italians conquered Ethiopia in 1935. But that may have been becaus...

26 IAN SMITH

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Prime Minister of Rhodesia Ian Smith promised the whites who elected him Prime Minister of Rhodesia in 1962: "If in my lifetime we have...

27 P. W. BOTHA

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President of South Africa P.W. Botha's first term as President was aptly called a "constitutional coup d'etat" by the Sout...

28 GENERAL SAMUEL DOE

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President of Liberia Perhaps Samuel Doe's rule is best summed up by his changing physique. When he came to power in a bloody 1980 coup, ...

29 MOBUTU SESE SEKO

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President of Zaire When Zaire's first elected President, Patrice Lumumba, appeared to be getting too close to socialism, U.S. companies ...

30 MOHAMMAD REZA PAHLEVI

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Shah of Iran, King of Kings 1953 was a busy year for Allen Dulles. Even as he readied the CIA for a coup in Guatemala (see card 9), his agen...

31 HUSSAN II

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King of Morocco Like his former ally, the Shah of Iran, King Hussan II of Morocco spares himself no earthly delight. He has seven principal...

32 ADOLF HITLER

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Chancellor of Germany As German bombs fell on London and Nazi tanks rolled over U.S. troops, Sosthenes Behn, president and founder of the U....

33 GENERAL FRANCISCO FRANCO

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President of Spain General Francisco Bahamonde Franco was not the most popular leader in Spain during the early 1930s. A man of humble origi...

34 ANTONIO DE OLIVEIRA SALAZAR

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Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio de Oliveira Salazar must have been upset when the Allies won the WW II and he had to take the autographed...

35 GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS

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Prime Minister of Greece When President Lyndon Johnson offered a solution to the Greek Ambassador for the dispute between Greece and Turkey ...

36 TURGUT OZAL

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Prime Minister of Turkey Turgut Ozal was elected prime minister of Turkey in 1983, after several years of harsh military rule. But while fre...

About the Authors*

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DENNIS BERNSTEIN is the Executive Producer of "Undercurrents," heard daily on WBAI in New York, and nationally on the Pacifica Rad...