USA Quotes

43 quotes

Freelance journalist S. Hersh in nov. 1969 broke the news that a year and a half earlier US forces had massacred up to 500 civilians in the village of My Lai nicknamed Pinkville for its strong enemy sympathies. Babies, pregnant women and old people had been scalped and mutilated as command of the situation broke down. Not a single shot had been clearly fired at US forces. Indicative of the growing dehumanization of this time, and resembling US attitudes towards the Japanese in WW2 65% of Americans told pollsters they were not bothered by the news of massacre. The only officer found guilty was given a partial pardon by Nixon public opinion strongly in favor.

Similar atrocities occurred in neighboring El Salvador, where US trained troops stabbed de-capitated, raped and machine gunned 767 civilians in the village of El Mozote in late 1981, including 358 children under age 13. Congress ended up funneling almost $6 billion to this tiny country making it the largest recipient of US foreign aid per capita in the world. Wealthy landlords were running the right-wing death squads that murdered thousands of suspected leftists. The death toll from the war reached 70,000.

When truman finally met with robert oppenheimer in October 1945, he asked him to guess when the russians would develop their own atomic bomb. Oppenheimer did not know. Truman responded that he knew the answer: "never." Clearly surprised by the president's truculent ignorance and frustrated that he did not understand the seriousness of the evolving crisis, Oppenheimer blurted out, "mr. President, I feel I have blood on my hands." Truman responded with anger. Truman: I told him the blood was on my hands and to let me worry about that. Afterwards, Truman told dean acheson... Truman: I don't want to see that son of a bitch in this office ever again. Oppenheimer was later attacked by right-wing conservatives as an agent of the Soviet Union, and subjected to numerous investigations by the f. B. I. in 1954, his security clearance was revoked. His real crime in the eyes of american authorities was opposing building the new hydrogen bomb, which he considered a weapon of genocide.

It was the American war against the poor of the earth, the most easily killed, the collateral damage. As was asked at the beginning, was it really about fighting communism or was it a misunderstood or disguised motivation? It was George Kennen, America's leading early cold war strategist, who went to the heart of the matter in a memorandum written in 1948: 'with 50% percent of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality, and daydreamings. We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards and democratization. We are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.'

I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And in as much as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

In 1996, in a state referendum, Californians voted 55% to embed a colorblind amendment in their state constitution:
«The State shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.»
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The Democratic legislature, however, wants to be rid of this amendment as it outlaws the kind of racial and ethnic discrimination in which Sacramento wishes to engage.
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If this passes...<...> — there will be racial and ethnic discrimination, as in the days of segregation. Only the color of the beneficiaries and the color of the victims will be reversed. And that is the meaning of the BLM revolution, which might be encapsulated: «It’s our turn now!»