USA: The Ruthless Empire

With this book, Daniele Ganser has succeeded in conveying historical background knowledge in a compact form, making it easy to read, especially for young people. This is absolutely necessary in view of increasing skepticism toward US policy with uninterrupted transatlantic propaganda in the media.

—Karl-Heinz Peil, FriedensJournal

In his interesting book, Ganser describes in detail the role of the US war machine in enforcing the empire’s claims to power.

—Tilo Gräser, Sputnik

Dr. Phil. Daniele Ganser, Swiss historian and peace activist, is one of the outstanding contemporary thinkers who fight against general memory loss by profoundly reappraising historical events and making their findings available to the people in a clear and understandable language.

—Afsane Bahar, Neue Rheinische Zeitung

The great thing about Daniele Ganser’s books is that they provide solid facts that can be verified at any time, encouraging the reader to draw their own conclusions. In his journey through U.S. history, marked by numerous crimes against humanity, genocides, wars of aggression, and other abysses, the author always appeals to the principle of the human family that unites us all.

—Richard-Heinrich Tarenz, Wild Magazin

"Daniele Ganser’s USA: The Ruthless Empire is interesting and worth reading—because the author does not practice one-dimensional criticism of the USA. He consistently appeals to principles and ideals: UN ban on the use of force, mindfulness and what he calls the human family."

—Erich Gysling, Infosperber

Every war begins with a lie, as Ganser’s many examples comprehensively demonstrate. But he also emphasizes that there have always been people guided by ethical values and that in the current peace movement, it is important to maintain these values. In my opinion, this book belongs in every school, university and city library.

—Christiane Borowy on KenFM

A book absolutely worth reading. It opens eyes, creates consternation and shows the only viable way: The path to the future must be a peaceful one!

—Angelika Gutsche in Freitag

I dedicate this book to all the people who reject war, terror, torture, and war propaganda from the bottom of their hearts and who are committed to peace.

Copyright © 2020 by Daniele Ganser

English translation of this edition © 2023 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-5107-7678-4

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Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER 1: THE USA POSES THE GREATEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE

Gallup Surveys 67,000 People in 65 Countries

Since 1945 the US Has Bombed More Countries than Any Other Nation

Eisenhower Warns Against the Military-Industrial Complex

US Military Spending Sets World Record

Lockheed Martin Is the Largest Arms Manufacturer in the World

The United States Is a Nuclear Power

The United States Has over 700 Military Bases in Foreign Countries

The United States Has More than 200,000 Troops Stationed Abroad

Occupied Countries Resist

CHAPTER 2: THE USA IS AN OLIGARCHY

300,000 Superrich Run the Empire

There Are 100 Million Poor People in the USA

There Are 540 Billionaires in the USA

The End of the American Dream

The Superrich Determine Politics

US Voters Have Little Influence on Politics

CHAPTER 3: THE AMERICAN INDIAN WARS

The Great European Powers Divide America among Themselves

1607: The English Establish Jamestown

The Export of Tobacco to London

The Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic

1776: The Declaration of Independence

The Fight against the British Empire

1846: The War against Mexico

The Destruction of the Indigenous Population

1890: The Massacre at Wounded Knee

Four Million Native Americans Dead

CHAPTER 4: THE EXPLOITATION OF SLAVES

The Abduction of 12 Million Africans

1865: The Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery

The Ku Klux Klan Wants White Supremacy

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Strengthens the Civil Rights Movement

CHAPTER 5: NORTH AMERICA IS NOT ENOUGH

1898: The Explosion of the USS Maine

1898: The Conquest of Cuba and Puerto Rico

1893: The Coup d’État in Hawai’i

1898: The Conquest of the Philippines

Major General Smedley Butler’s Warning

CHAPTER 6: THE USA AND WORLD WAR I

1914: The Beginning of the First World War

The Merchants of Death Profit from the War

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913

1915: The Sinking of the Lusitania

1917: The USA’s Entry into the First World War

US War Propaganda against Germany

Reparations and the Treaty of Versailles of 1919

CHAPTER 7: THE USA AND WORLD WAR II

1933: The Reichstag Fire

The Principle of the Human Family Is Betrayed

The USA Supplies Adolf Hitler with Oil

Henry Ford Supplies the Wehrmacht with Military Vehicles

1940: The Reelection of President Roosevelt

1941: The USA Halts Oil Deliveries to Japan

The USA Surveils Japanese Radio Traffic

1941: The Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor

The US Congress Declares War on Japan and Germany

Admiral Kimmel and Lieutenant General Short are Dismissed

The Ongoing Debate Over Pearl Harbor

The USA Drops Nuclear Bombs over Japan

The USA Does Not Open the Second Front until 1944

CHAPTER 8: COVERT WARFARE

1947: The USA Establishes the National Security Council

1948: The CIA Manipulates the Elections in Italy

1953: The CIA Overthrows the Government in Iran

1954: The CIA Overthrows the Government in Guatemala

1961: The CIA Assassinates Prime Minister Lumumba in Congo

1961: The Assassination of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic

1963: The Assassination of President Diem in Vietnam

1970: The Assassination of General Schneider in Chile

1967: Che Guevara Is Shot in Bolivia

1961: The CIA’s Assassination Attempts on Fidel Castro

CIA Director Allen Dulles Directs the Killers

1961: The CIA’s Illegal Attack on Cuba

1961: Kennedy Fires CIA Director Allen Dulles

CHAPTER 9: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY

November 22, 1963: Crime Scene, Dallas

The Fairy Tale of the Mad Lone Perpetrator Lee Harvey Oswald

1964: The Warren Commission Report

1967: Jim Garrison Reopens the Case

The CIA Claims That There Was No Conspiracy

The Revenge of CIA Director Allen Dulles

CHAPTER 10: THE VIETNAM WAR

1954: France Loses Its Indochina Colony

Vietnam Is Split into Two Parts

1964: The Lie about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident

The USA Uses Napalm on Babies and Buddhists

1970: The Peace Movement and the Kent State Massacre

1965: The USA Overthrows President Sukarno in Indonesia

The My Lai Massacre Is Uncovered

The Secret War against Cambodia and Laos

The Brits and the USA Arm the Khmer Rouge in Thailand

CHAPTER 11: THE IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR

1981: The USA’s Secret War against Nicaragua

Congress Prohibits a Coup d’État in Nicaragua

The NSC Opens a Secret Bank Account in Switzerland

The CIA and the Cocaine Trade

Saddam Hussein Invades Iran and Uses Poisonous Gas

The USA Sells Weapons to Iran Despite Embargo

The Iran-Contra Affair Shakes Public Trust

The Conspirators Are Not Sentenced to Jail

1991: The Nayirah Testimony and the War against Kuwait

CHAPTER 12: THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

A New Pearl Harbor

2004: The Failed Kean and Hamilton Investigation

Total Failure of US Air Defense

Millions in Profits with Put Options

The Blowing Up of WTC7

Explosives Are Found in the Dust of the Twin Towers

The Towers Were Loaded with Asbestos

CHAPTER 13: THE SO-CALLED WAR ON TERROR

2001: The Attack on Afghanistan

Combat Drones Revolutionize Warfare

2003: The Illegal Attack on Iraq

How the Leading Media Spreads War Propaganda

The USA Produces the Greatest Show in the World

The Alternative Media Strengthens the Peace Movement

CHAPTER 14: THE DIGITAL EMPIRE

1990: The Fiche Scandal in Switzerland

The Surveillance of Citizens in China

Surveillance of Citizens in the USA

1994: The Internet Revolutionizes the World

2018: Google Earned $30 Billion

Facebook Displaces Newspapers Printed on Paper

2016: Facebook and the Election of Donald Trump

The Cambridge Analytica Scandal Is Exposed

2016: Cambridge Analytica and Brexit

Microtargeting Influences Voting in Switzerland

2001: The Founding of Wikipedia

The Dark Side of Wikipedia

CHAPTER 15: THE FIGHT FOR EURASIA

Divide and Rule

Russia Is Just a Regional Power

NATO’s Eastward Expansion Angers Russia

2014: The USA’s Coup d’État in Ukraine

2014: The USA Bombs Syria

1839: The Humiliation of China in the Opium War

China Has the Largest Army in the World

China Has the Second-Largest Economy in the World

2013: The New Silk Road

CHAPTER 16: CONCLUSION

Chronology

Notes

Literature

Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the research of many other people from whom I was privileged to learn. My first thanks go to US linguist Noam Chomsky, who has been critical of US imperialism for decades and whom I met in the United States. Don’t just rely on conventional accounts of history and political science textbooks—go to the original sources and read the monographs that were written by specialists, memoranda on national security and similar documents, Chomsky advises in his books, and he emphasized it during our personal meeting in his office in Boston. I have followed this advice and profited greatly from it.¹

I would also like to thank the US journalist William Blum—who unfortunately recently passed away—for his critical work on the CIA’s covert operations, and whom I met in Washington and London. My thanks also go to the US Americans John Prados, Richard Gage, and David Ray Griffin, who have critically examined the history of the United States and whom I met in Switzerland and in the States. In Germany, where I have given many lectures on international politics in recent years, I would like to thank the journalists Dirk Müller, Mathias Bröckers, Jürgen Todenhöfer, Rainer Mausfeld, Ken Jebsen, Jens Wernicke and Michael Lüders, because they have never shied away from openly criticizing US imperialism.

In Europe, little is said about US imperialism, even though it has a tremendous influence on international politics. Many know of its existence, but they don’t dare to talk about it because they fear personal disadvantages. Even at schools and universities, US imperialism is rarely taught or discussed. Therefore, I wrote this book for young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five who want to learn more on the subject of US imperialism. My aim was to write in such a way that anyone without prior knowledge could understand the book. I translated all quoted texts myself. Whenever I cite a quotation or a number, I refer to the source I used in an endnote. This way everyone can verify all the information contained in this book.

Much has been written about the USA. This book is just one perspective among many possible perspectives. Some of the people from whom I learned a great deal, I was never able to meet in person because they had already passed away. These include US Senator Frank Church of Idaho, who published a very important investigation into Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assassinations. I would also like to thank the Jewish pacifist Murray Polner, who collected and published voices from the US peace movement. Furthermore, I would like to thank US photographer Robert Stinnett, whose research has shed a whole new light on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into World War II. I would also like to thank the courageous and astute US District Attorney Jim Garrison of New Orleans, who investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Although these authors are no longer with us, their work lives on in their writing.

My thanks also go to my home country, Switzerland, where I was born in 1972 and where I have always been able to live in peace. In Switzerland, I was able to attend excellent schools, where I was inspired by dedicated teachers, and I was privileged to meet many exciting people. Hikes in the beautiful mountains and calm moments next to a sparkling lake gave me strength and inspiration. I would like to thank my wonderful wife Bea, who has always encouraged me to continue along my path to the best of my knowledge and conscience—even when I was lecturing at universities, where I came under pressure for voicing my research results on US imperialism, which is a highly loaded topic. I would like to thank our two children Julia and Noah, because their joy of life shows how wonderful life can be. I would also like to thank my mother Jeannette Ganser, my sister Tea Ganser, and my father Gottfried Ganser—who died in Lugano in 2014—as well as my wife’s parents, Hans and Käthy Schwarz. The support of my wonderful family strengthens my peace research profoundly.

A big thank you goes to Dominik and Yvonne Graf for generously supporting my research and whose courage is an inspiration to others. My great thanks also go to my longtime friends Sherpa Hänggi, Tobi Portmann, Marcel Schwendener, Dane Aebischer, Yves Pierre Wirz, Philipp Schweighauser, Laurenz Bolliger, Nick Beglinger, Raymond Schärer, Andreas Zimmermann, Tobi Sutter, Urs Beyeler, and Dani Morf. Peace is very important to all of us and it always forms the basis for exciting discussions. My thanks also go to Alexandre Robaulx de Beaurieux and Dirk Wächter for creating the graphics. I would like to thank my publisher Stephan Meyer for his support in the production and distribution of the book. I thank Orell Füssli Verlag in Zurich, which also published my books NATO Secret Armies (2008), Europe in the Oil Rush (2012), and Illegal Wars (2016), for their many years of good cooperation.

This book was first published in German in April 2020. Thereafter it was translated into French, Italian, and now also into English. I want to thank Stephen Klyne for translating my book into English and Martin Kopatschek for covering the translation costs. My warm thanks also go to Tony Lyons and Hector Carosso from Skyhorse Publishing in New York for publishing USA: The Ruthless Empire. The English text is identical to the German original, apart from the chapter on the conflict in Ukraine.

INTRODUCTION

I wrote this book with the intention of strengthening the peace movement. The peace movement includes all the people who reject war and terror and who oppose lies and war propaganda. Peace movements have always existed in countries around the world, including the United States. To prove this point, I frequently quote people of the US peace movement throughout this book. Among them is the African American civil rights activist and pastor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who called for nonviolent resistance against the oppression of African Americans and against the illegal war in Vietnam, and women’s rights activist Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who as a member of Congress voted against US participation in World War I and World War II, and former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden, who exposed citizen surveillance. Members of the peace movement have always oriented themselves according to their conscience and never just followed public opinion. They publicly rejected war and the lies therein, even when they held a minority opinion. Some members of the peace movement were shot and killed, like Martin Luther King. Others were defamed as traitors and whores, like Jeannette Rankin. Edward Snowden had to leave the US and now lives in Moscow. Their example has inspired other people to take a stand against war, terror, and war propaganda, even when doing so is difficult and takes courage.

The United States is the greatest danger to world peace. But with all criticism of the 300,000 superrich Americans who run the US empire, the peace movement must never be about fostering hatred among nation-states. Many of the 330 million US inhabitants are committed to peace and reject imperialism. They may not hold leading positions in the White House, nor do they dominate Congress, but they are passionately committed to a better and more peaceful world. They are teachers, artists, environmentalists, civil rights activists, yoga teachers, writers, gardeners, and much more. They are hardly known, but everyone in the peace movement has an influence because everything is connected to everything else.

In all of my research I am guided by the following three principles: the UN Prohibition of Violence, mindfulness, and the human family. The UN ban on violence was enacted in 1945 and prohibits the threat or use of violence in international politics. Unfortunately, this ban has been forgotten, and many people have never even heard of it. That is why I often mention it in my books and in lectures, because it is a very important instrument of the peace movement. The principle of mindfulness is also a gem for the peace movement, because humanity has been deceived and confused by war propaganda far too often. However, it needn’t be so. When we learn to observe our own thoughts and feelings from a calm distance by practicing mindfulness, we can gain clarity. There is no need to believe everything the media tells us. Mindfulness can help us realize that we are not our thoughts and feelings. We are clear consciousness in which these thoughts and feelings arise and later dissolve, just like clouds in the sky.

The principle of the human family was particularly important to me in writing this book. Unfortunately, throughout history we have repeatedly excluded and killed individual members. We have divided ourselves and devalued each other on the basis of nationality, religion, skin color, gender, and income. During the infamous witch hunts, women were accused of sorcery as they were excluded from the human family and burned. During the Indian Wars in North America, Indigenous people were excluded from the human family. They were labeled as savages, driven out, and killed. In the slave trade, Africans were excluded from the human family. They were labeled as animals, defamed, and exploited. During the Second World War, Jews were excluded from the human family—they were called unworthy of life and were put into concentration camps, where they were gassed. The Vietnamese people were called termites by US soldiers in the Vietnam War, during which they too were excluded from the human family and bombed with napalm. In the course of the so-called war on terror, Afghans were called terrorists, excluded from the human family, and killed.

The pattern is clear as it repeats itself: The principle of the human family continues to be violated by excluding and devaluing a particular group of people and then killing them. It is evident that our appearances differ, as do our faiths, nationalities, levels of education, languages, and income levels. In terms of those attributes we are not equal and we never will be, but that does not justify any use of violence. Our world is definitely facing the problem of various hostilities getting out of control. Humans are specialists in marginalizing others, explains Dutch zoologist Frans de Waal. Humans demonize people of other nationalities or religions and this, in turn, generates fears and anger. We are quick to call them savages or animals and suddenly it is legitimate to eliminate the savages, because we no longer feel that they deserve sympathy.¹

In April 2004, the public learned that US soldiers had tortured Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. US war propaganda had instilled in American soldiers that Iraqis were bad people, which caused the soldiers to exclude the Iraqis from the human family, which had concrete consequences: US soldier Lynndie England had led a naked Iraqi inmate around the prison at Abu Ghraib. Another Iraqi prisoner was forced to balance on a crate while wearing a black hood and with wires attached to his body. The US soldiers threatened him with fatal electrocution if he were to fall off the crate. For Europe, these horrific images depicting sex, torture and humiliation were shocking, Die Welt commented. The Abu Ghraib scandal was a drastic illustration of what can happen when the people of an entire nation, in this case the Iraqis, are excluded from the human family.²

In the face of such violence and brutality, one must not conclude, however, that we humans are incapable of living together peacefully. We very well can, and we do so in millions of different places every day. Let us first examine our attitude toward peace itself, for too many of us think of it as impossible, President John F. Kennedy declared in one of his speeches. Too many of us think it is impossible to achieve, but that is a dangerous and defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable, that mankind is doomed, that we are in the grip of forces we cannot control. But this is not true, and Kennedy knew it. Our problems are man-made. Therefore they can be solved by men. The greatness that the human mind can achieve is determined by man himself.³

Inspirational figures outside the United States have also shaped the peace movement. In India, lawyer and pacifist Mahatma Gandhi, who is a great role model for me personally, repeatedly emphasized the principle of the human family. All humanity is one family, Gandhi said. He always used a calm and friendly tone in his protests, free from anger and hatred. Despite their brutal advance, Gandhi did not refer to the Indian police, the Indian government, or the British colonial power as enemies. I never consider anyone my enemy, Gandhi declared. All of you are my friends. I want to enlighten and change hearts.⁴

I firmly believe that the peace movement will be stronger in the twenty-first century if it is guided by the principles of the human family, mindfulness, and the UN Prohibition of Violence. Division on the basis of nation, religion, skin color, gender, educational degree, or level of income should be replaced by the insight that all people belong to one and the same human family. You as a reader belong to the human family, no matter where you come from or what your story is. I, the author of this book, also belong to the human family, as do all the people mentioned in this book, victims and perpetrators alike. Together we should learn not to kill each other, because all life is sacred.

CHAPTER 1

THE USA POSES THE GREATEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE

The United States of America has been the empire since 1945. The term empire is used to describe the most influential and powerful country of a given time in terms of economic, political, and military power. The USA prints the US dollar, which is currently the most important world reserve currency. It is a nuclear power, has the highest military expenditures, is home to the largest defense corporations, and boasts the most military bases in foreign countries. The US is a veto power in the UN Security Council and thus can prevent itself from being condemned by the UN Security Council when it illegally bombs other countries and violates the UN ban on violence. Furthermore, the US is in command of NATO, the world’s largest military alliance, which currently includes twenty-nine European and North American member states.

Anyone interested in international politics, history, and peace cannot ignore the empire, because the US has had either a direct or an indirect influence on almost every major conflict of the last 100 years and is continuing to shape the wars of the present. An empire is easy to spot—just count the aircraft carriers. The US has eleven nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, more than any other country in the world. The cover of this book features the USS George Washington, a symbol for US military supremacy. The newest US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, was inaugurated by President Donald Trump in 2017. Due to its propulsion by nuclear power, it can stay at sea for decades without ever having to refuel. At $13 billion, the USS Gerald Ford is the most expensive warship ever built. By contrast, China currently only has two aircraft carriers, while France, Great Britain, and Russia each have but one.¹

Empires rise and fall; they do not last. The Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the French Empire, and the British Empire were once great and fearsome. Today however, they no longer exist. The US empire, too, will one day crumble and be replaced by a different power structure. When and how that will happen is currently unknown. When nations spend too much on armaments, they are likely to overexert themselves, warns British historian Paul Kennedy. A nation then resembles an old man, trying to do a job that is beyond his strength.²

Gallup Surveys 67,000 People in 65 Countries

Which country poses the greatest threat to world peace today? The US polling institute Gallup, headquartered in Washington, DC, posed this intriguing question as part of a global survey conducted in 2013. Gallup has been conducting annual global surveys on the state of the world since 1977, but it was not until the new millennium that the US pollsters dared to ask this loaded question, as a result of radio listeners requesting it be posed. The survey polled more than 67,000 people in 65 different countries during September–December 2013, while President Barack Obama was serving his term in office. The question was posed across the globe and the results were very clear.

Of those surveyed, 24 percent—in other words, about a quarter of the world’s population—considered the US to be the greatest threat to world peace. The BBC commented that this was bad news for the US but not entirely surprising. The second most dangerous country, the Muslim nuclear power Pakistan, ranked far behind the US with 8 percent of the votes. China placed third among the most dangerous countries. Merely 5 percent of respondents rated the world’s most populous country as the most dangerous. Communist Party–controlled China shared this third place with Israel (5%), North Korea (5%), Afghanistan (5%) and Iran (5%). The countries that followed were also considered major threats to world peace: India (4%), Iraq (4%), Japan (4%), Syria (3%), Russia (2%), Australia (1%), Germany (1%), Palestine (1%), Somalia (1%), South Korea (1%), and the United Kingdom (1%).³

The same Gallup poll also wanted to know: If there were no national borders, which country would you prefer to live in? With 38 percent, a clear majority of respondents answered that they would choose to live in the same country they currently live in. The majority of people do not want to emigrate, but would rather live close to their respective families. Almost all of them feel attached to the culture, language, landscape, and food of their native country. For those people who do want to emigrate, however, the United States was the most desirable destination country with 9% of respondents’ votes, followed by Australia (7%), Canada (7%), Switzerland (6%), France (4%), Germany (4%), the UK (4%), and Italy (3%).

For the US to be perceived as the greatest threat to world peace in 2013 was not an entirely new development. I think to most Europeans, America currently appears to be the most dangerous country in the world, British historian Arnold Toynbee had said as early as 1971, without having any empirical data from a survey to fall back on. Considering that America is undoubtedly the most powerful country in the world, there is something very frightening about the transformation of the American image over the past thirty years, Toynbee said, as he was writing while the Vietnam War was ongoing. It is probably even more frightening for the great majority of the human population who are neither Europeans nor North Americans, but Latin Americans, Asians and Africans, for time and again, he said, the United States has intervened in the domestic affairs of other countries with ruthless violence. Therefore, Toynbee said, the United States is a nightmare.⁴

After Donald Trump took office in January 2017, the perception of the US did not improve. Concerns about US power and influence have risen in many countries around the world, while trust in the US president has plummeted, US polling firm Pew found in August 2017. Pew had surveyed people from thirty different countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. This global survey was first conducted in 2013 during the Obama presidency, and then again in 2017 while President Trump held office in the White House. The US was already considered a major threat to the world under President Obama, but after President Trump moved in, distrust in the US increased even further.

In 2017 Pew found that In 21 of the 30 countries surveyed, the number of people who rate the US as a serious threat to their own country has increased, with people from neighboring countries Mexico and Canada ranking the US as a greater threat than China or Russia. In other NATO countries like Germany, France, the UK, and Holland, participants of the survey in 2017 also rated the US as more dangerous than in 2013. What is more, Pew found that women in Australia, Canada, Japan, France, and the United Kingdom rated the US as a greater danger than men surveyed in those same countries. Similarly, the survey found that people who voted for left-wing parties in the UK, Sweden, South Korea, and Australia considered the US to be a greater danger than people who voted for right-wing parties in the same countries.⁵

Recent research from Germany confirms this critical view of the United States. According to a study conducted by Forsa Gesellschaft für Sozialforschung und Statistische Analysen (Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis) and published in 2018, 79 percent of Germans consider US President Donald Trump to be the greatest threat to world peace. Only 13 percent perceived Russian President Putin to pose a greater danger to the world. Eight percent of respondents found both equally frightening. The US’s reputation in Germany has been steadily declining over recent years. After our loss in World War II, the US went from being viewed as an admirable victor and protective power to being viewed more critically by Germans surprisingly fast, the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung commented on the Forsa study. According to German study director Manfred Güllner, perception of the US took a major hit after George W. Bush entered the White House in 2001. By the time of the Iraq war, he was seen as a far more dangerous warmonger than Putin. The Germans had still trusted Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton.⁶

More recent surveys confirm this perception of the United States. Germans see the US as the greatest threat to peace, ahead of North Korea, Turkey and Russia, announced the Security Report 2019, which has been conducted annually since 2011. As part of this representative population survey, over 1,200 Germans aged sixteen and over were surveyed by the Center for Strategy and Higher Leadership in Cologne. Almost half of the respondents said they felt that they were living in particularly uncertain times. "The Security Report 2019 clearly shows: There is one central factor that scares German citizens. It is the USA under Donald Trump’s leadership," study director Klaus Schweinsberg stated when commenting on the results.⁷

The survey found that more than 56 percent of Germans see the US as the greatest threat to world peace. In the previous year, 2018, it had been 40 percent. At that time, the majority considered North Korea to be the greatest threat. Study director Schweinsberg described the ascension of the US to the top of the list of greatest threats, and the ousting of North Korea, as a sad career. Other observers of this development were not entirely surprised. There have always been Germans that viewed American politics and society critically. US culture is often perceived as superficial and their foreign policy as egotistical, RTL commented. In East Germany, this impression is felt even more strongly than in the West.⁸

Since 1945 the US Has Bombed More Countries than Any Other Nation

Thousands of people in many different countries consider the US to be the greatest threat to world peace by far. Why is this so? The answer is obvious: it is because the US is the empire, and historically, the rise to imperial supremacy has always been based on violence. This belief in violence is reflected in the fact that, contrarily to almost all other Western countries, the death penalty is still carried out in the United States. More importantly, since 1945 no other nation has bombed as many countries as the Americans have. No other country has overthrown governments in as many countries as the US has. Since 1945, no other country has waged as many covert wars as the US and no other nation in the world maintains military bases in so many foreign countries, often despite the disapproval of local citizens. It has become embarrassing to be American, Paul Craig Roberts commented. He served in Ronald Reagan’s administration as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and became a fierce critic of the White House after leaving politics. Our country has had four criminal presidents in a row: Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump.⁹

US historian Gabriel Kolko, who taught at York University in Toronto, Canada, correctly states that the US is the country that fought the most wars in the second half of the twentieth century. It is due to this repeated and constant use of force that the US is now classified as the greatest threat to world peace. Historical data reveals that the US has used force, overtly or covertly, against the following countries since 1945. It should be noted at this point, however, that this is not the complete list.

Figure 1. Since 1945, the United States has waged the most wars against other countries.

Former president Jimmy Carter was correct in 2019 when he stated with regret that the United States of America is the most belligerent nation in the history of the world. Of its 242-year existence as a nation, a mere sixteen years have been spent without war, then ninety-four-year-old Carter observed critically during a church service in Georgia.¹⁰

Eisenhower Warns Against the Military-Industrial Complex

War is a business. Military expenditures include all expenses incurred when a country maintains armed forces and wages war. This includes the procurement and maintenance of weapons such as aircraft carriers, tanks, and landmines. The defense industry, in turn, profits from these expenditures because it manufactures the products. Military spending also includes expenditures for military research and development. Further included in the military budget are expenditures attributed to the intelligence services to surveil foreign militaries and increasingly also the domestic population. In addition, military spending, of course, also includes expenses for war operations in foreign countries and for training and equipping foreign soldiers in war zones.

A large part of military spending relates to personnel costs, such as wages and pensions for military personnel. At the time of the Vietnam War, all men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five in the United States were subject to mandatory military service, and registration was compulsory. Many young men protested because they did not want to be deployed to Vietnam for war. To weaken these protests, conscription was suspended in the US in 1973 and a professional army was introduced on a voluntary basis. Much like Ikea employees have a contract with the furniture store, US soldiers today are paid contract workers for the Pentagon. This has greatly reduced the incidence of protests.

Dwight Eisenhower was the general who, during World War II, led the US forces against Adolf Hitler in Europe. He was subsequently elected president and moved into the White House in 1953. As an insider, he knew the military, as well as politics and the defense industry, from firsthand experience and warned against the so-called military-industrial complex in his farewell address. Eisenhower meant the tight network between the defense industry, intelligence agencies, Pentagon, lobbies, politics, and the media. The arms industry will always try to influence politicians in order to secure arms contracts and sell their products. Pentagon employees also have a vested interest in war because without war they are out of work.

Unfortunately, Eisenhower’s warning was not heard. Jobs, jobs, jobs, President Donald Trump tweeted after he had signed a massive arms supply deal worth some $350 billion with Saudi Arabia in 2017. After the US had sold F-15 fighter jets to the emirate of Qatar for $12 billion that same year, the Qatari ambassador to the US enthusiastically tweeted that this would create 60,000 new jobs across 42 US states.¹¹

In his farewell address on April 17, 1961, Eisenhower warned that the US has a permanent arms industry of enormous proportions. This combination of a vast military establishment and a massive defense industry represents a new experience in the United States, the outgoing president stressed, warning that the defense industry could gain a dominant influence over policy. In the bodies of government, we must guard against unauthorized interference, solicited or not, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for catastrophic increases in misplaced power exists today and will continue to pose a problem. Disarmament in mutual respect and trust is still a valid imperative, the former general said. "Together we must learn how to settle our differences with reason and honest