By Peter Kuznick and Oliver Stone
Published by Gallery Books
Made into a ten part documentary by the Showtime network
In my first review of Oliver
Stone and Peter Kuznick’s Untold History
of the United States, I argued against Stone’s claim that the world would
be a better place had Henry Wallace become President. In looking at the rest of this work, Stone also argues that
if John F. Kennedy was not assassinated, and had Al Gore become president, the
world would also be a better place.
My point was that change happens
because of mass movements like the labor and civil rights movements. The general trend of capitalist
governments has remained constant through so-called liberal and conservative
administrations.
The many crimes of the United States government
While this central theme remains
constant in the Untold History, there
are some redeeming characteristics to this work. One of the primary points this book uncovers is the history
of horrendous and violent crimes committed in the name of the United States
government. We see the effects of
the millions of people who died as a result of U.S. wars against the people of
Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
We see the vicious policies the U.S. government needed to carry out in
their wars against Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama, Pakistan, Indonesia, and
Cambodia.
Another theme of this book is the
exposure of the seemingly mindless insanity of the U.S. drive to amass tens of
thousands of nuclear weapons. The
government’s explanation for this policy is the belief, by government
officials, that the U.S. can win a nuclear war.
Aside from the fact that a
nuclear war would mean the death of hundreds of millions of human beings, there is another basic problem with this
point of view. Some of the people
responsible for the invention of the atomic bomb explained that this weapon
could, one day, end all human life on this planet.
A nuclear war could generate a
mushroom cloud so large that it might block sunlight from reaching the
earth. Without sunlight, plants
will not grow and human life would eventually vanish. In other words, the policy of developing nuclear weapons is
a policy to end human life on this planet altogether.
These facts underscore the
argument that no significant change will come about by supporting liberal or
conservative capitalist politicians.
Politicians who supported these policies will not transform this nation
into a place where there are harmonious relations between capitalists, and workers
and farmers throughout the world.
The First and Second World Wars
Oliver Stone continued his
narrative in their Untold History arguing
how he is critical of the participation of the United States in the First World
War. However, with respect to the Second
World War, Stone argued that the United States needed to become involved sooner
than they did. This review will
give the reasons why the U.S. engaged in both wars, and how this participation
in no way benefitted working people.
First we might look at Oliver
Stone’s rationalizations for his arguments. Stone gave evidence showing how the JP Morgan bank had large
outstanding loans to Britain. He
also showed how armaments manufacturers reaped in huge profits during the First
World War. Stone concluded that
these were the primary reasons for the U.S. participation in that war.
Clearly the facts Stone presented
are true. However, Stone ignores
another basic fact. That is how
after the First and Second World Wars, the United States became the world’s
superpower. By dominating the
world economy, United States corporations were able to gouge out much more in
profits than by merely receiving payouts on British loans.
The facts show that prior to both
world wars, the British Empire that once ruled the world, was falling
apart. Shortly before the First
World War, revolutions erupted in Mexico, Iran, China, and Tsarist Russia.
Germany, Japan, and the United
States were the emerging capitalist powers that attempted to take control of
the markets once dominated by British capitalists. As I pointed out in my first review, it was the Soviet Union
that defeated Nazi Germany. Most
of the Japanese forces were tied down in Asia where they encountered fierce
resistance. The United States
entered the Second World War at a time when Germany and Japan were loosing the
war.
Understanding this, we can see
why the United States made a temporary alliance with the Soviet Union. Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union were
at war with Germany and Japan.
After the Second World War the U.S. government continued to view the
Soviet Union as a problem because it existed outside of the capitalist world.
Kuznick and Stone’s mistaken view of the Soviet Union
For Kuznick and Stone, the Soviet
Union was merely a developing nation that could have co-existed with the
capitalist system in the United States.
They view the fact that the U.S. amassed tens of thousands of nuclear
weapons to defend itself from the Soviet Union as irrational. In fact, the Stalinist government that
betrayed the Russian Revolution wanted nothing more than to have peaceful
relations with the United States.
These policies started with Joseph Stalin’s idea of “Socialism in one
country,” and continued with the policies of “Peaceful coexistence,” “Détente,”
and “Perestroika.”
Vladimir Illyich Lenin had a
different view of the capitalist world.
Lenin wrote a pamphlet titled: Imperialism,
the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Lenin
understood that the capitalist system would always be an obstacle to human
development and worked to advance an international political movement to
advance the interests of workers and farmers. This is the kind of movement that we continue to need
today.
When we look at the efforts of
the government officials in the Soviet Union from this perspective, it is no
wonder that their efforts to peacefully coexist with capitalism in the United
States ended in a dismal failure.
In their efforts to make deals
with imperialist powers, the Soviet Union worked to compromise workers
struggles throughout the world.
After the Second World War there were workers uprising all over the
globe. In the United States,
unions shut down entire industries demanding an improved standard of
living.
The Soviet Union had considerable
influence within the workers movement because of the prestige of the Russian
Revolution. Yet the Stalinist
Soviet government preferred to make deals with imperialists and worked to
compromise the struggles of workers throughout the world.
When the Soviet Union collapsed,
U.S. imperialists no longer had that government to contain the struggles of
workers throughout the world. For
this reason the capitalists of United States effectively lost the cold war.
As a result of this new
situation, governments in Latin America are acting more independently of the
United States. Working people have
staged massive uprisings throughout the Middle East.
The U.S. war against the people
of Iraq was clearly aimed at creating a stable environment for oil to be
extracted from the Middle East and sent to the imperialist powers. That war only created an environment
where working people are determined to create political movements where they
can live with dignity.
What would a rational political movement look like?
Before we consider an alternative
to Kuznick and Stone’s view of the world we might look at a few facts. Working people and farmers produce
literally everything we need and want.
The clothes we wear, the food we eat, the transportation we use, the
health care and education we need, all are supplied by working people and
farmers all over the world. Yet, because of the instability of the capitalist system, our standard
of living has been deteriorating for the past thirty years.
The idea that the capitalist
media refuses to even consider, is the idea that the very people who produce
the things we need and want, are the same people who have the potential to
transform the world. Yes, working
people have the potential to run the economy in harmony with the environment,
using fewer natural resources. We
can do this while working to eliminate alienation, making our day to day lives
inspiring. Just think about it. If we worked collectively to improve
the standard of living in the world, think of what might be accomplished.
Without the drive to maximize
profits, working people could easily eliminate poverty. Many diseases might be eliminated by
merely allowing people to live more healthful lives. Education wouldn’t be seen has a chore needed to “get
ahead,” but as a lifetime pursuit to enrich everyone’s lives.
The pro-capitalist media pundits
view this political orientation as absurd. However, if we learn anything from the book The Untold History of the United States, we
learn about the horrendous loss of life of millions due to the natural
functioning of the capitalist system.
I’m confident that working people
have the potential to see through the mindlessness of the capitalist system and
create governments that view human needs as more important than profits.
