Confronting Government Lies

Confronting Government Lies by Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn delivered this address to the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston on June 28, 2003, arguing that knowledge of history is the only defense against government deception. He opens with the premise that a person ignorant of history is like someone "born yesterday," vulnerable to any authority who claims war is necessary. History, he says, cannot prove what is true today but can supply skepticism by revealing patterns. Zinn's central claim is that government interests and popular interests diverge, a fact acknowledged by political philosophers like Rousseau, Adam Smith, and James Madison. He argues the Constitution was written by fifty-five wealthy men in Philadelphia to protect slaveowners, merchants, and land speculators, not "we the people." He cites Shays' Rebellion of 1786, in which Massachusetts farmers, many Revolutionary War veterans, surrounded courthouses to stop foreclosures, as true democracy in action. He quotes General Henry Knox's letter to George Washington expressing alarm that the farmers believed their war service entitled them to equal wealth, arguing this fear drove the Constitutional Convention's aim of "law and order" rather than popular representation. He then catalogs a lineage of presidential war lies: James Polk claiming American blood was shed on American soil to justify war with Mexico, challenged by young Congressman Abraham Lincoln's "spot resolutions"; William McKinley's claim of civilizing and Christianizing Filipinos; Woodrow Wilson's promise to make the world safe for democracy; Harry Truman calling Hiroshima a "military target"; John Kennedy's denial of involvement in the Cuban invasion; Lyndon Johnson's deceptions from the Gulf of Tonkin onward; Dwight Eisenhower's denial of overflights before a pilot was shot down over the Soviet Union; and Bill Clinton's 1998 bombing of Iraq over weapons of mass destruction. Zinn identifies the common denominator behind all these justifications, whether framed as manifest destiny, civilizing missions, anticommunism, or antiterrorism, as economic, territorial, and political expansion, which he calls imperialism. He illustrates this with the Spanish-American War, in which Cuba was "liberated" from Spain only to have American corporations, banks, and the Guantánamo naval base take Spain's place. Turning to the 2003 Iraq war, Zinn quotes a Kennedy School professor's description of American "global hegemony" and Charles Krauthammer's "benign imperialism," contrasting them with Secretary of War Elihu Root's earlier claim that the American soldier is "the advance guard of liberty and justice." He notes that promised Iraqi crowds cheering liberation instead chanted "No to Saddam, no to Bush," pointing out that the United States had supported Saddam Hussein during his worst atrocities, including the 1991 suppression of the Shiite rebellion that produced mass graves. He recounts a Reuters dispatch describing U.S. troops in Ramadi playing Wagner's "Rite of the Valkyries" before raids, echoing Apocalypse Now. Zinn then details the unraveling claims about weapons of mass destruction: the White House press secretary's assertion that weapons existed "for a fact," Vice President Cheney's claim on Meet the Press that Saddam had reconstituted nuclear weapons, Donald Rumsfeld's claim to know their location, and George Bush's statement on Polish television that the weapons had been found. He notes that alleged evidence, forged documents, "drones of death" that were model airplanes, "decontamination trucks" that were fire trucks, and "mobile germ labs" used for artillery balloons, all proved false. He discusses the power imbalance between government and citizens, including the detention of twenty million noncitizens without constitutional rights, and questions polling showing majority support for Bush despite media dominance, citing a Thomas Friedman column noting 90 percent opposition among people he met. Zinn argues public opinion is volatile, citing the collapse of support for Bush's father after the Gulf War and the reversal of Vietnam War opinion between 1965 and 1967, which he attributes to gradual public realization of being lied to. He lists international precedents of sudden governmental collapse: the Philippines, Indonesia, Portugal, Spain, Russia, East Germany, Argentina, and South Africa under apartheid, where Nelson Mandela became president. Zinn calls for impeachment of Bush as constitutionally legitimate, contrasting Congress's willingness to impeach Nixon and Clinton with its refusal regarding the Iraq war. He argues military power has limits, citing American failure in Korea and Vietnam despite nuclear weapons, and Soviet failure in Afghanistan and against Poland's Solidarity movement. He connects military spending to domestic neglect, citing a Boston teacher's letter about layoffs amid war spending, and describes cuts to veterans' funding despite Gulf War veterans' high rates of death and disability. He closes by describing cultural resistance: poets, the play Lysistrata performed globally, Aeschylus's The Persians in New York, the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, Michael Moore's Stupid White Men, and Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, framing these as evidence that truth and art possess unstoppable power. He cites the worldwide February 15th demonstrations against the Iraq war, invoking Arundhati Roy's phrase "globalization of resistance," and ends by affirming that small individual acts of dissent accumulate into transformative social movements.

By Howard Zinn · Genre: Political Commentary, Historical Analysis, Essay · 6,952 words

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General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Boston, Massachusetts, June 28, 2003.

In 2003, talk of empire had become fashionable again. In January, the United States had again invaded Iraq and begun an occupation that would last for years and lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths. Zinn spoke at numerous rallies and events to build opposition to the war and place it in the context of the long history of governments deceiving the public in the interests of US empire.

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government deception · political accountability · media criticism · disinformation · historical truth · propaganda · critical thinking · public discourse · transparency · civil liberties · democracy · whistleblowing

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