Gore Vidal’s Book Interview

AlterNet has an interview with Gore Vidal called The Last Defender of the American Republic?. The interview covers the publication of his latest book Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got To Be So Hated and explains the reasoning behind his stance of anti-imperialism and answers the notion that “[s]ome might take that to be a suggestion that America had it coming on September 11.” The answer is logical. The people don’t deserve it, but the government certainly brought it on us. The answer is the same as that given by most clear-thinking examiners of history in the twentieth century.

“I don’t think we, the American people, deserved what happened. Nor do we deserve the sort of governments we have had over the last 40 years. Our governments have brought this upon us by their actions all over the world. … Americans have no idea of the extent of their government’s mischief. The number of military strikes we have made unprovoked, against other countries, since 1947-48 is more than 250. These are major strikes everywhere from Panama to Iran. … Americans are either not told about these things or are told we attacked them because . . . well . . . Noriega is the center of all world drug traffic and we have to get rid of him. So we kill some Panamanians in the process. Actually we killed quite a few.”

He addresses specifically the media blackout in the U.S. and the complicity of the media machine in keeping it that way. Else more Americans would be aware of the atrocities committed under their flag in the rest of the world. And, quite predictably, “…people in the countries who are recipients of our bombs get angry.” This is what happened in Afghanistan 20 years ago and is happening once again in that same place. He says the reason for the recent attacks there is quite plain: “this is an imperial grab for energy resources”. Unocal, among others had engineered a deal with the Taliban to run the pipeline from the Caspian oil reserves to the coast, for expedited delivery to the U.S., the proper recipient of these resources, of course. “Whichever big company could cash in would make a fortune. And you’ll see that all these companies go back to Bush or Cheney or to Rumsfeld”.

He’s asked whether he thinks just the “U.S. government is a ‘source of evil’” or whether he can “imagine forces of religious obscurantism … [that] … might do bad things to us, just because they are also evil?” This softball question is easily handled, because, really, only a fanatic would suggest that the U.S. was the only source of evil. The U.S. is, overall, a force that is detrimental to the interests and lives of many on this planet, but they are not alone. They are just the most powerful right now. He addresses the misconceptions promulgated in the American mind, that:

“What isn’t true is that people like [bin Laden] just come out of the blue. You know, the average American thinks we just give away billions in foreign aid, when we are the lowest in foreign aid among developed countries. And most of what we give goes to Israel and a little bit to Egypt.”

I have personally encountered this notion that the U.S. gives and gives and gives, but it isn’t backed up by fact. It’s a desire, a wish, a belief in the principles that the U.S. should employ, but, in fact, does not. Almost any foreign action by the U.S. is in the interests of domestic corporations and extension of U.S. hegemony. In many cases, the foreign aid is directly tied to reciprocal investment in U.S. military hardware using that money. Vidal cites the example of Guatemala, whose government was overthrown because they dared try to tax United Fruit.

“Now, if I were a Guatemalan and I had the means to drop something on somebody in Washington, or anywhere Americans were, I would be tempted to do it. Especially if I had lost my entire family and seen my country blown to bits because United Fruit didn’t want to pay taxes. Now, that’s the way we operate. And that’s why we got to be so hated.”

But that isn’t how the U.S. citizenry sees the U.S. as operating, so it continues. Because that type of imperialism can also create quite a comfortable life at home for those that benefit from these actions, it becomes simple to ignore what is done because it is done somewhere else and has no observable effect on the individual in the U.S. The ethicality or morality of the way this easy life was carved out is just not an interesting issue to most.

As for the President himself, what does Vidal think? It’s actually very interesting. He notes that Bush is not the idiot even his own administration is happy to let people think he is, but that his success is more tied up in the average attitude of the American people and their brainwashing by U.S. media power.

“Anybody who could get up and make that speech to the American people is not himself an idiot, but he’s convinced we are idiots. And we are not idiots. We are cowed. Cowed by disinformation from the media, a skewed view of the world, and atrocious taxes that subsidize this permanent war machine.”

What solution does he propose? First of all, pull back the U.S. military from everywhere for “[w]e are not the world’s policeman.” Second, have a “populist constitutional convention”, as allowed by the Constitution. This country is long overdue for a revolution. At such a congress, which he describes as “least bloody” solution, “… we can do anything, we can throw out the whole executive, the judiciary, the Congress.”