A long view
Much of the globe is coming to terms with the reality that the US government sees no limit to the use of violence and deadly force in pursuit of its own interests. International law, sovereignty, and human rights were shattered with the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, by US military forces.
Even superficial fact-checking immediately debunked the stated reasons for this invasion. And if there was any doubt, President Trump made clear that he alone is the arbiter of the use of force, unrestrained by laws, treaties, or decency.
At the same time, many people are getting an education on the long and violent relationship between the US and our neighbors. The Monroe Doctrine codified the colonial project and gave a “legal” framework for invasions, assassinations, and torture against people from Mexico to Argentina. In the last 200 years, the US has had more than 100 military actions, including invasions of Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Grenada, and Venezuela
The kidnapping of President Maduro was exactly 36 years after the arrest of Manuel Noriega. In 1989, George H.W. Bush ordered an invasion of Panama that resulted in more than 500 deaths and the “arrest” on January 3, 1990, of Noriega, who had taken refuge in the Vatican embassy. Today, it is impossible to imagine Trump would be stopped at the Vatican door.
It is important to understand this history of empire-building. But it is also important to understand the resistance to it if we are to find our way to a future based on respect, peace, and justice.
While the US is able to exert massive military force, we, the people, also have power. The most vivid example of this power is often described by authoritarians as “the Viet Nam syndrome.”
For many people, the resistance to the Vietnam War is reduced to a few good movies and stale images of mass demonstrations. But the reality of the resistance to that war was vibrant, imaginative, multi-dimensional, and established that when people insist on peace, governments are forced to stop shooting.
The power of the movement to end that war created a political climate that greatly reduced US military actions for almost two decades. Certainly, the US continued to engage in “covert” actions, lying, propaganda, and assassinations. But not the use of US military force against another country.
Right-wing political and military leaders argued that the country had to shatter this “Viet Nam syndrome.” This is behind the call by Hegseth to restore the warrior culture. Hegseth is the result of years of strategic efforts to restore the US willingness to engage in war.
The right wing systematically worked to overcome this Vietnam syndrome. The first effort was in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan, whose response to the Iranian Hostage Crisis was to threaten massive bombing. In reality, he and much of the military were reluctant to engage Iran’s large, well-equipped army. But in 1983, Regan took a small, sure step and ordered a military invasion of Grenada, a nation the size of Detroit. With overwhelming force, the progressive, young, charismatic leader Maurice Bishop was murdered.
Bishop represented the emerging leadership across the Americas, often inspired by a combination of Marxism and Liberation Theology. His death was a signal to other countries that the US would not allow these ideas to develop and was prepared to use the military to ensure it.
In response, a small group of Christian peace activists at the 1983 annual meeting of the New Abolitionist Covenant drafted “A Promise of Resistance,” vowing to physically obstruct any U.S. invasion. Within a few months, this letter became the “Pledge of Resistance,” signed by thousands of people. For the next decade, the ideas, organizations, and actions inspired by the document are credited with preventing a direct military invasion by Regan into Central America.
The Pledge had power because it was embedded in a context of the massive disruptions to the US war machine in Vietnam. This resistance challenged the basic foundation of the US Empire, calling for disarmament, new human relationships, and concrete steps for peace, putting the needs of people and the planet before profit.
As Trump calls upon the worst of the American past, we who long for a better world have a legacy of critical courage to help guide us to that better future.