A Rare Indictment of US Atrocities


By Gary G. Kohls

British playwright Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. For me, his acceptance speech was an important glimpse into and sort of a summary of — the innumerable documentable U.S. war crimes that were facilitated by the multinational corporations, national security apparatus and political and military leaders that shaped American foreign policy since World War II.

True patriots must be honest about the dishonorable, dark side of their own nations. In the case of the United States and its willing accomplice, his own Great Britain Pinter (who died in 2008) saw that reality clearly.

Playwright Harold Pinter. (Photo credit: Huntington Theatre Company)

Playwright Harold Pinter. (Photo credit: Huntington Theatre Company)

There are obvious parallels between Pinter’s powerful speech and Martin Luther King Jr.’s courageous “Beyond Vietnam” speech of April 4, 1967, almost four decades earlier. Both indicted American foreign policy, but while King focused on the Vietnam bloodbath then being waged by President Lyndon Johnson Pinter concentrated on the slaughters in Central America under President Ronald Reagan and on the Iraq War, which was launched by President George W. Bush with the smooth-talking help of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In Pinter’s Nobel speech, after reflecting on some of his own plays and their often ambiguous grasp of what is real and what is not the playwright declared that in the realm of history and politics, “As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?”



“My contention here is that the U.S. crimes in the same period have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognized as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now.


“Direct invasion of a sovereign state has never in fact been America’s favored method. In the main, it has preferred what it has described as ‘low intensity conflict.’ Low intensity conflict means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on them in one fell swoop.


The Nicaraguan Slaughter

Recalling a particularly egregious case under President Ronald Reagan, Pinter said: “The tragedy of Nicaragua was a highly significant case. I choose to offer it here as a potent example of America’s view of its role in the world, both then and now. I was present at a meeting at the U.S. embassy in London in the late 1980s. The United States Congress was about to decide whether to give more money to the Contras in their campaign against the state of Nicaragua.

“I was a member of a delegation speaking on behalf of Nicaragua but the most important member of this delegation was a Father John Metcalf. The leader of the U.S. body was Raymond Seitz (then number two to the ambassador, later ambassador himself).

“Father Metcalf said: ‘Sir, I am in charge of a parish in the north of Nicaragua. My parishioners built a school, a health center, a cultural center. We have lived in peace. A few months ago a Contra force attacked the parish. They destroyed everything: the school, the health center, the cultural center. They raped nurses and teachers, slaughtered doctors, in the most brutal manner. They behaved like savages. Please demand that the U.S. government withdraw its support from this shocking terrorist activity.’


“‘Innocent people, indeed, always suffer.’ Finally somebody said: ‘But in this case “innocent people” were the victims of a gruesome atrocity subsidized by your government, one among many. If Congress allows the Contras more money further atrocities of this kind will take place. Is this not the case? Is your government not therefore guilty of supporting acts of murder and destruction upon the citizens of a sovereign state?’

“Seitz was imperturbable. ‘I don’t agree that the facts as presented support your assertions,’ he said. As we were leaving the Embassy a U.S. aide told me that he enjoyed my plays. I did not reply. I should remind you that at the time President Reagan made the following statement: ‘The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.’



Denouncing ‘Subversion’

Pinter continued, “The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the U.S. government, a dangerous example was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self-respect, neighboring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things. There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.

“I spoke earlier about ‘a tapestry of lies’ which surrounds us. President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a ‘totalitarian dungeon.’ This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment. But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government. There was no record of torture. There was no record of systematic or official military brutality.


“Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Atlacatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass. It is estimated that 75,000 people died.





A Memory Hole

Referring to the extraordinary ability of the U.S. government and the U.S. media to whitewash these bloody realities, Pinter said: “Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to U.S. foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn’t know it.






Moral Questions

Given this grim reality, Pinter asked: “What has happened to our moral sensibility? Did we ever have any? What do these words mean? Do they refer to a term very rarely employed these days conscience? A conscience to do not only with our own acts but to do with our shared responsibility in the acts of others? Is all this dead? Look at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever.


“What does the media say about them? They pop up occasionally a small item on page six. They have been consigned to a no man’s land from which indeed they may never return. At present many are on hunger strike, being force-fed, including British residents. No niceties in these force-feeding procedures. No sedative or anesthetic. Just a tube stuck up your nose and into your throat. You vomit blood. This is torture.

“What has the British Foreign Secretary said about this? Nothing. What has the British Prime Minister said about this? Nothing. Why not? Because the United States has said: to criticize our conduct in Guantanamo Bay constitutes an unfriendly act. You’re either with us or against us. So Blair shuts up.




“Therefore if any American soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in the Marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court have his address if they’re interested. It is Number 10, Downing Street, London.





Dr. Gary G. Kohls is a retired physician who is involved in peace, nonviolence and justice issues and therefore resists fascism, corporatism, militarism, racism and all other movements that are violent and anti-democratic.


4 comments for “A Rare Indictment of US Atrocities

  1. Solon
    February 9, 2014 at 22:09


    SINCE World War II?

    Is that an inclusive SINCE or a starting point since?

    The carpetbombing of Germany that destroyed 131 cities and incinerated 600,000 German civilians; and the carpetbombing of Japan that killed another hundred thousand civilians, were war crimes and crimes against humanity. They were not collateral damages and death, they were deliberate and even calculated and rehearsed attacks on working class civilians. Erich Mendelsohn, “the Jewish architect” who had just designed and built Chaim Weizmann’s luxury residence in Rehovoth, relocated to USA where he designed “German Village” at Dugway, in Utah. His expertise was drawn upon to devise a way to penetrate the unique construction of German worker’s housing.

    Neither the USA nor the Jewish community has ever been held to account for their part in committing these crimes against humanity.

    btw, how many Jews died in the carpetbombing of Germany?

  2. Ole Ullern
    February 7, 2014 at 12:47

    Hey Consortiumnews,

    Your DONATE button does NOT WORK now. – Thought I’d let you know, as that doesn’t pay. You just lost $20 from me, anyway. Fix it, and you’ll still have it. Or tell me how.

    Love your work.


  3. Joseph
    February 6, 2014 at 18:51

    Well put and well deserved. And with the mass media and elections controlled by gold, so it will remain. This empty suit of armor will stand until toppled, probably sooner by the rapacious folly of its plutocracy than by its ever-expanding external foes. The future of democracy is elsewhere.

  4. lgillooly@aol.com
    February 6, 2014 at 14:12

    I agree.. It makes me sick when people talk about American exceptionalism as if we are a chosen people by the almighty to decide what is best for the whole world and answer to no one.
    The only thing exceptional that I can see is arrogance and ignorance.

Comments are closed.