“Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower 1945
The image is a black and white photo of a large pile of human skulls and bones in front of a barbed-wire fence.
The great works of Eisenhower while president of the US
Funding, and arming, paramilitary death squads to keep the price of super essential things like, like bananas, low by having the CIA create a coup in Guatemala. The resulting 40 year ethnic cleansing of Guatemalan natives. Project Ajax in Iran that over-threw their government for the Sha. Operation Haik which attempted to coup Indonesia in 1958. Purging the government of dissenters under the auspices of them being gay, and basically making the burgeoning lavender scare policy. Was instrumental in the formative days of what became the Vietnam war. Created, and authorized, policy that basically gave the US DOD and CIA cart blanche to interfere with foreign powers in the interest of the US’s industry.
These are just the things I can come up with off the top of my head.
We have to distinguish between the Dulles Brothers and Eisenhower. The brothers were two of the biggest gangsters to ever step foot in DC. Because they were allowed to run operations without the knowledge of the president and they lied and manipulated presidents is not completely clear what Eisenhower knew.
do you also buy that Reagan was unaware of the issues with the Iran contra too?
Kennedy would end up firing Allan Dulles because he had tricked Kennedy into Bay of Pigs. These guys had a reputation for misleading presidents.
Bush didn’t know the WMDs were a lie!
He probably didn’t know. Bush shuffled Cheney off to the margins and had Rummy resign in 2006 when he realized that he had been manipulated. From then on he leaned heavily on Condoleeza Rice. But the main thing is that the Dulles brothers were long gone.
He also initially opposed the removal of Mossadegh, went against Israel, France, and Britain to defend anticolonial efforts in Egypt, ended the Korean War, and cut support to the pro-US dictator Batista, which was extremely helpful to Castro’s victory.
The past is rarely simple. Men are capable of great mistakes and great evil while also being capable of great good and virtue. Not even getting into questions of institutional inertia.