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Part I: The Price of Empire (1945–1979)

1945–1953: The Atomic Age and Korea

The Atomic Bombings of Japan (August 1945)

The last act of WWII was the first act of the American Empire.

The Deaths:

  • Hiroshima (August 6, 1945): 140,000 dead by the end of 1945
  • Nagasaki (August 9, 1945): 70,000–80,000 dead by the end of 1945
  • Combined Total by 1950: 340,000+
  • Long-term (Including Cancers): 450,000+
  • 90% were Civilians women, children, elderly, and 20,000+ Korean forced laborers

The Lie They Told You: Truman claimed an invasion of Japan would cost "1 million American lives." That number appeared after the war in his 1955 memoirs.

Actual pre-bombing military estimates: 40,000–50,000 U.S. casualties (Joint War Plans Committee, June 1945; MacArthur estimate). Japan was already defeated, blockaded, 64 cities firebombed, the Soviet Union was about to enter the war.

Japan was actively seeking surrender through the USSR, asking only to keep the Emperor.

The U.S. knew this. They read the cables (MAGIC intercepts). After the bombings, the U.S. let Japan keep the Emperor anyway.

The Real Reason: Intimidate the Soviet Union. The Cold War started over Japanese civilian corpses.

Who's Responsible

The Villains:

  • Harry Truman: Ordered the bombings despite knowing Japan sought peace
  • James Byrnes: Secretary of State, pushed Truman to reject Japanese peace overtures
  • Leslie Groves: Manhattan Project director, needed to justify $2 billion in spending
  • The Dulles Brothers (John Foster & Allen) — Already positioning for Cold War dominance

What Their Own Generals Said:

  • Admiral William Leahy (Truman's Chief of Staff): "The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender."
  • General Dwight Eisenhower: Opposed the bombings as "unnecessary."
  • Admiral Chester Nimitz: "The atomic bomb played no decisive part in the defeat of Japan."

The Cost: $2 billion for the Manhattan Project ($30+ billion in 2026 dollars) — which could have funded universal healthcare for every American for a year.

The Iran Coup: Operation AJAX (1953)

The first CIA coup. The template for everything that followed.

What Happened?

Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized Iran's oil industry in 1951. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC, later BP) had been stealing Iranian oil since 1901, and paying Iran a fraction of profits while extracting billions. Iranian workers lived in slums. British employees had luxury housing, clubs, and apartheid-style segregation.

Mossadegh said: "Our oil, our country, we should control it."

The AIOC and the British could've cut their losses and leave, or negotiated a more equitable deal with Mossadegh. Instead, they decided to just get rid of Iran's democratically elected leader.

Britain couldn't overthrow him alone.

They pitched the CIA: "He's opening the door to communists." (He wasn't. Mossadegh was anti-Soviet and rejected Soviet oil concessions.) But the Eisenhower administration bought the lie.

Who's Responsible?

The Villains:

  • Dwight Eisenhower: Approved the coup
  • John Foster Dulles: Secretary of State. His law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, represented Standard Oil and Gulf Oil. He had a personal financial stake in protecting oil concessions.
  • Allen Dulles: CIA Director. John Foster's brother. Same law firm, same oil company clients. Ran the operation.
  • Kermit Roosevelt Jr: CIA operative who executed Operation Ajax on the ground. Grandson of Theodore Roosevelt. Bribed military officers, clerics, and street thugs with $1 million in CIA cash.

The Corporations: After the coup, Iran's oil was carved up:

  • Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (BP): 40%
  • Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon): 7%
  • Standard Oil of New York (Mobil): 7%
  • Standard Oil of California (Chevron): 7%
  • Texaco: 7%
  • Gulf Oil: 7%
  • Royal Dutch Shell: 14%
  • Compagnie Française des Pétroles: 6%

American oil companies got 40% of Iran's oil for the first time in history. That's what the coup was for.

The Cost in Lives:

  • 300+ Iranians killed during the coup
  • Mossadegh imprisoned, then under house arrest until death (1967)
  • The Shah's secret police (SAVAK, trained by the CIA) tortured and killed thousands over 26 years
  • The 1979 Iranian Revolution was direct blowback — Iran has been hostile to the U.S. for 47 years because of what the Dulles brothers did for oil company profits
  • Total Downstream Deaths: Tens of thousands under the Shah, then the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988, 1 million+ dead — U.S. armed both sides), then sanctions, then the 2026 Iran War

The Dollar Cost:

  • Operation Ajax: $1 million (1953 dollars)
  • Propping up the Shah (1953–1979): Billions in military aid
  • Iran-Iraq War (U.S. involvement): Billions more
  • 2026 Iran War (so far): $29+ billion Pentagon estimate, $40+ billion in consumer fuel costs
  • Long-Term Cost of the 1953 Coup: Incalculable — we are still paying for it today
What Could Have Been:

A democratic Iran that's allied with the West, with nationalized oil funding Iranian development.

Instead:

We got 70+ years of dictatorship, revolution, hostage crises, proxy wars, and sanctions. Now, we're in a criminal war so Trump can hide his Epstein connection (too late, we know), and so Netanyahu finally gets his 'Make a Wish' after 40 years (dude finally found his idiot).

The Korean War (1950–1953)

The Deaths:

  • Korean Civilians: 2–3 million (majority in the North)
  • Chinese Soldiers: 180,000–400,000
  • North Korean Soldiers: 200,000–400,000
  • South Korean Soldiers: 137,000
  • U.S. Soldiers: 36,574 killed, 103,000 wounded
  • Other UN Forces: ~3,000 killed
  • Total: Approximately 3 million dead

What the U.S. Did:

  • Bombed North Korea until there was literally nothing left to bomb. General Curtis LeMay: "We burned down every town in North Korea." 85% of all buildings destroyed.
  • Dropped 635,000 tons of bombs + 32,557 tons of napalm (more than the entire Pacific theater of WWII)
  • Targeted Civilian Infrastructure: dams, irrigation systems, and power plants
  • No Gun Ri Massacre: U.S. soldiers killed 200–300 South Korean refugees (July 1950)
  • The U.S. divided Korea in 1945 (along the 38th parallel, with no Korean input), creating the conditions for war
Who's Responsible?

The Villains:

  • Harry Truman: Committed U.S. forces without a Congressional declaration of war (called it a "police action")
  • Douglas MacArthur: Wanted to use nuclear weapons on China. Truman fired him, but the damage was done.
  • Curtis LeMay: Architect of the bombing campaign.
    • Later said: "We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea... and some in South Korea too."
  • Dean Acheson: Secretary of State, designed the containment policy that justified intervention
  • John Foster Dulles: Visited the 38th parallel weeks before the war; his role in encouraging South Korean aggression remains debated

The Corporate Beneficiaries:

  • Lockheed: Fighter aircraft
  • Boeing: B-29 bombers (same planes that firebombed Japan)
  • General Dynamics: Weapons systems
  • Douglas Aircraft: Military transport
  • DuPont: Napalm manufacturing
  • The Korean War launched the permanent military-industrial complex Eisenhower later warned about

The Dollar Cost:

  • Direct Military Spending: $341 billion (inflation-adjusted to 2026: ~$4 trillion)
  • Veterans' Care: Ongoing for decades
  • Maintaining 28,500 Troops in South Korea (1953–Present): Hundreds of billions over 73 years
What Could Have Been:

A unified, democratic Korea.

Instead:

We got a divided peninsula, 73 years of military standoff, nuclear weapons development, and a North Korean population still suffering from U.S. bombing's destruction of their agricultural infrastructure.

Guatemala: Operation PBSUCCESS (1954)

What Happened?

President Jacobo Árbenz, democratically elected, implemented land reform. His government redistributed unused United Fruit Company land to 100,000 landless peasant families. He offered to pay United Fruit the value the company had declared on its own tax filings ($1.185 million). United Fruit demanded $16 million, proving they'd been cheating on taxes for years.

United Fruit's Response: Get the CIA to overthrow the government.

Who's Responsible?

The Villains:

  • Dwight Eisenhower: Approved the coup
  • John Foster Dulles: Secretary of State. His law firm Sullivan & Cromwell represented United Fruit Company. Direct financial conflict of interest.
  • Allen Dulles: CIA Director. Also connected to United Fruit through Sullivan & Cromwell. Ran the coup.
  • United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands International): Owned 42% of Guatemala's arable land, used only 2.6%. Preferred keeping land idle over letting peasants eat.
  • Sam Zemurray: United Fruit president who lobbied aggressively for the coup
  • Edward Bernays: United Fruit's PR consultant, "father of public relations," ran a propaganda campaign painting Árbenz as communist
  • Thomas Corcoran: United Fruit lobbyist, former FDR advisor, connected the company to CIA
  • John Moors Cabot: Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, brother was a director on United Fruit's board
The Cost?

The Cost in Lives:

  • Árbenz overthrown June 1954, replaced by military dictator Carlos Castillo Armas
    • Who reversed land reform, and peasants lost everything
  • Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996): 200,000 people were killed and 45,000 more people "disappeared"
  • Mayan Genocide (1981–1983): U.S.-backed dictator Ríos Montt killed 30,000+ Indigenous Maya in 18 months. Reagan called him "a man of great personal integrity."
  • Total Dead: 200,000+ Guatemalans over 42 years of violence directly caused by a CIA coup protecting a banana company (Banana Republic)

The Dollar Cost:

  • Operation PBSUCCESS: $2.7 million (1954 dollars)
  • Decades of military aid to Guatemalan dictatorships: Hundreds of millions
  • Reparations Owed: $100 billion (platform estimate)
What Could Have Been:

A democratic Guatemala with land reform, a growing middle class, reduced poverty.

Instead:

We got four decades of military dictatorship, genocide, and a refugee crisis that continues today, and then Americans blame Guatemalans for fleeing to the U.S. border.

1954–1965: The Coups Multiply

Congo: The Lumumba Assassination (1960–1961)

What Happened?

Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was murdered with CIA complicity on January 17, 1961. Seven months after independence from Belgium.

Why?

Lumumba wanted Congo's vast mineral wealth (cobalt, copper, diamonds, and uranium) to benefit the Congolese people, not Western mining companies. He sought help from the Soviet Union when the West refused to support him against Belgian-backed secessionists in the mineral-rich Katanga province.

Who's Responsible?

The Villains:

  • Dwight Eisenhower: Authorized the CIA to "eliminate" Lumumba.
    • CIA Director Allen Dulles told station chief Larry Devlin: "We wish to give every possible support in eliminating Lumumba."
  • Allen Dulles: CIA Director (again). Personally directed the operation.
  • Larry Devlin: CIA station chief in Congo, coordinated with Lumumba's enemies
  • Joseph Mobutu: CIA-backed military officer who seized power, renamed the country Zaire, and ruled as dictator for 32 years (1965–1997)
  • Belgian Mining Interests: Union Minière du Haut-Katanga

The Corporate Beneficiaries:

  • Union Minière (Belgian mining): Protected their Katanga operations
  • American Metal Climax (AMAX): U.S. mining company with Congo interests
  • Subsequent Resource Extraction: Western companies (including those sourcing cobalt for modern electronics) have profited from Congo's instability ever since

The Cost in Lives:

  • Lumumba tortured and murdered (January 1961)
  • Mobutu dictatorship (1965–1997): Thousands killed, $5 billion stolen
  • Congo Wars (1996–2003): 5.4 million dead (deadliest conflict since WWII, rooted in Mobutu-era destabilization)
  • Ongoing conflict in eastern Congo: Millions more displaced, resource extraction continues
  • Total downstream deaths attributable to U.S. intervention: Millions
The Dollar Cost:
  • CIA Operations in Congo: Classified (estimated tens of millions in 1960s dollars)
  • Propping up Mobutu for 32 Years: Billions in U.S. aid
  • Reparations Owed: $300 billion (platform estimate; it's conservative given scale of extraction)

Indonesia (1965–1966)

What Happened?

The CIA supported General Suharto's military coup against President Sukarno. The U.S. provided kill lists of suspected communists to the Indonesian military.

The Deaths:

  • 500,000 to 1,000,000 communists, suspected communists, ethnic Chinese, and labor organizers massacred in 6 months
  • One of the worst mass killings of the 20th century
  • The CIA provided the names. The Indonesian military did the killing.
Who's Responsible?

The Villains:

  • Lyndon B. Johnson: President during the coup
  • The CIA: Provided lists of Communist Party members to Indonesian military
  • General Suharto: Carried out the massacres and ruled as a dictator until 1998
  • U.S. Embassy in Jakarta: Compiled and shared kill lists (confirmed by declassified documents)

The Corporate Beneficiaries:

  • Freeport-McMoRan: Got access to Papua's Grasberg mine (world's largest gold mine, 3rd largest copper mine) under Suharto. It's still operating today.
  • U.S. Oil Companies: Suharto opened Indonesia's oil sector to Western investment (Caltex/Chevron, Mobil, etc.)
  • International Mining and Timber Companies: Suharto handed out resource concessions like party favors

The Dollar Cost:

  • CIA Operations: Classified
  • Military Aid to the Suharto Regime (1966–1998): Billions
  • Reparations Owed: $350 billion (platform estimate, includes East Timor genocide below)

East Timor (1975–1999)

What Happened?

  • Suharto's Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975.
  • This was one day after President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited Jakarta and gave the green light.
  • The U.S. supplied 90% of Indonesia's weapons.

The Deaths:

  • 200,000 East Timorese Were Killed (out of a population of 680,000 — nearly 1 in 3)
  • Starvation, massacres, and forced displacement
  • The Santa Cruz Massacre (1991): Indonesian troops killed 250+ peaceful protesters. It was caught on camera by journalist Max Stahl. The world saw it, but nothing happened for 8 more years.

The Villains:

  • Gerald Ford: Approved the invasion
  • Henry Kissinger — Gave Suharto the go-ahead in Jakarta meeting (December 5, 1975)
  • Every Subsequent President through Clinton: Continued arms sales to Indonesia throughout the genocide
  • Arms Manufacturers: Supplied the weapons used in the killing

1955–1975: The Indochina Catastrophe

The Vietnam War (1955–1975)

The longest, most destructive, and most thoroughly lied about war in American history until Afghanistan.

The Deaths:

  • Vietnamese Civilians and Soldiers: 3,000,000+
  • U.S. Soldiers: 58,220 killed, 153,000+ wounded
  • South Vietnamese Soldiers: 250,000+ killed
  • Combined Total: 3.4 million+

The Scale of Destruction:

  • Bombs Dropped: 7.5 million tons (more than all of WWII combined — all theaters, all countries)
  • Agent Orange: 20 million gallons of herbicide sprayed over 4.5 million acres. 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed.
    • 500,000+ children born with birth defects. Effects still ongoing in 2026.
  • Napalm: Dropped on villages, forests, and people
  • My Lai Massacre (March 1968): U.S. soldiers killed 504 unarmed civilians, women, children, and the elderly.
    • The cover-up lasted a year.
    • Only one soldier was convicted (Lt. William Calley) and sentenced to life. He only served 3.5 years of house arrest.

The Lies:

  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident (August 1964): Johnson claimed North Vietnamese boats attacked U.S. destroyers.
    • The second "attack" never happened.
    • Declassified NSA documents confirmed it was fabricated.
    • Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving Johnson blank-check war authority. Sound familiar?
  • Pentagon Papers (1971):
    • Daniel Ellsberg leaked classified documents proving the government had been lying to the public about the war for years.
    • They knew it was unwinnable, but kept sending soldiers to die anyway.
  • Body Count Lies: Military inflated enemy kill numbers to show "progress." Civilian deaths were counted as enemy combatants. Sound familiar?
Who's Responsible?

The Villains:

  • Dwight Eisenhower: Started U.S. involvement (military advisors and funding French colonialism)
  • John F. Kennedy: Escalated to 16,000 "advisors," authorized covert operations
  • Lyndon B. Johnson: Fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin, escalated to 500,000+ troops
  • Richard Nixon:
    • Promised "peace with honor." (utter bullshit)
    • Secretly bombed Cambodia and Laos (Operation Menu)
    • prolonged war 4+ years for political advantage. This was treason.
      • The "Chennault Affair": Nixon, along with Kissinger, sabotaged Johnson's 1968 peace talks with North and South Vietnam to help win the election.
  • Henry Kissinger:
    • National Security Advisor/Secretary of State.
    • Architect of the secret bombing campaigns (Operation Menu).
    • Sabotaged Johnson's 1968 peace talks with North and South Vietnam. He committed treason to get a gig within the Nixon Administration.
    • Received the Nobel Peace Prize. (The other recipient, Le Duc Tho, refused to accept it.)
  • Robert McNamara:
    • Secretary of Defense under JFK and LBJ.
    • Knew the war was unwinnable, and admitted it decades later.
    • Millions of people (including 58,000 Americans) died on his watch while he had private doubts.
  • William Westmoreland:
    • General, commanded U.S. forces.
    • Demanded more troops.
    • Promised that victory around every corner. (Sound familiar?)
  • Walt Rostow: National Security Advisor who convinced LBJ to escalate this catastrophe
  • McGeorge Bundy: National Security Advisor and escalation architect

The Corporate Beneficiaries:

  • Dow Chemical: Manufactured napalm and Agent Orange. Profited from chemical weapons that are still causing birth defects 50 years later.
  • Monsanto: Also manufactured Agent Orange. Later became the world's largest GMO seed company (acquired by Bayer in 2018). Never paid a cent in reparations to Vietnamese victims.
  • Bell Helicopter (now Bell Textron): The Huey helicopter became the symbol of the war. Bell made billions.
  • General Dynamics: Fighter aircraft and weapons systems
  • Boeing: B-52 bombers that carpet-bombed Vietnamese cities
  • Lockheed: Military aircraft
  • Honeywell: Manufactured cluster bombs
  • McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing): F-4 Phantom fighters
  • Brown & Root (became KBR, Halliburton subsidiary): Construction and logistics in Vietnam.
    • The same company that would later get no-bid contracts in Iraq.

The Dollar Cost:

  • Direct Military Spending: $168 billion (1975 dollars) = approximately $1 trillion adjusted to 2026
  • Veterans' Care (Ongoing): Hundreds of billions more
  • Total Estimated Cost: $1.5–2 trillion (inflation-adjusted)
  • Opportunity Cost: At its peak, Vietnam consumed 9.5% of GDP. That money could have funded universal healthcare, free college, and a national housing program at the same time.

The Secret War in Laos (1964–1973)

The most bombed country in history, and most Americans have never heard of it.

The Deaths:

  • 50,000–200,000 Laotians Were Killed by U.S. bombing
  • Hmong Secret Army:
    • 15,000–17,000 were killed fighting as CIA proxies
    • 30,000–40,000 were killed in post-war reprisals
    • 100,000+ became refugees

The Scale:

  • 2 million Tons of Bombs: more than all bombs dropped in WWII
  • 580,000 Bombing Missions: one planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 9 years
  • 270 million Cluster Bomblets dropped.
  • 80 million Remain Unexploded: they're still killing people in 2026 (300+ casualties per year)

The U.S. bombed Laos in secret. Congress was not informed. The country was neutral.

The Villains:

  • Richard Nixon: Escalated the bombing
  • Henry Kissinger: Designed the campaign (Operation Menu)
  • The CIA: Ran the entire operation through Air America (a CIA front airline also implicated in the opium trade)

The Dollar Cost:

  • Bombing Campaign: $17 billion (1970s dollars, ~$130 billion adjusted)
  • UXO (Unexploded ordnance) Clearance Needed: $2+ billion (current U.S. funding: a pittance at $15–20 million/year)
  • Reparations Owed: $3 billion (platform estimate)

The Cambodia Bombing (1969–1973) and the Khmer Rouge

What Happened?

Nixon and Kissinger secretly bombed Cambodia (a neutral country) beginning in 1969. Operation Menu. Congress didn't know. The American public didn't know.

The Deaths:

  • U.S. Bombing Killed: 100,000–500,000 Cambodian civilians
  • Destabilization from Bombing Directly Enabled the Rise of the Khmer Rouge
  • Khmer Rouge Genocide (1975–1979): 1.7–2.5 million killed (25% of the population)
  • U.S. Responsibility:
    • The bombing radicalized the population
    • Destroyed rural life
    • Drove people to the Khmer Rouge.
    • Then the U.S. supported the Khmer Rouge at the UN after Vietnam overthrew them.

The Villains:

  • Richard Nixon: Ordered the secret bombing
  • Henry Kissinger: Planned it. Later supported Khmer Rouge recognition at the UN.
  • Alexander Haig: Deputy National Security Advisor and helped coordinate
  • Every President Who Supported the Khmer Rouge at the UN — Carter and Reagan

The Dollar Cost:

  • Bombing Campaign: ~$7 billion (1970s dollars)
  • Downstream Cost of Khmer Rouge Era: Incalculable
  • Reparations Owed: Included in the $1 trillion Indochina total (platform estimate)

Chile: The Pinochet Coup (September 11, 1973)

What Happened:

Salvador Allende, the democratically elected socialist president of Chile, was overthrown in a CIA-backed military coup on September 11, 1973. He died in the presidential palace during the assault with a machine gun in his hands.

Why: Allende nationalized copper mines owned by U.S. corporations (Anaconda Copper and Kennecott) and ITT Corporation's telephone monopoly. Nixon told CIA Director Richard Helms to "make the economy scream."

The Villains:

  • Richard Nixon: Ordered the CIA to prevent Allende from taking power (1970), then to destabilize his government
  • Henry Kissinger: Directed the operation.
    • His quote: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people."
  • Richard Helms: CIA Director, received the order to "make the economy scream"
  • General Augusto Pinochet: Led the coup then ruled Chile as dictator for 17 years
  • ITT Corporation: Offered the CIA $1 million to prevent Allende's inauguration
  • Anaconda Copper Company: Lobbied for intervention to protect nationalized mines
  • Kennecott Copper: Same as Anaconda
  • Milton Friedman and the "Chicago Boys"
    • University of Chicago economists who designed Pinochet's economic "shock therapy."
    • Chile became the laboratory for neoliberal economics: privatization, deregulation, gutting social programs.
    • The playbook later imposed on the entire developing world through the IMF.

The Cost in Lives:

  • 3,200+ People Were Killed by Pinochet regime
  • 40,000+ People Were Tortured (including in the National Stadium, Colonia Dignidad, and Villa Grimaldi)
  • 200,000+ People Were Exiled
  • 30,000 People Were "Disappeared" across the broader Southern Cone
    • Operation Condor: a U.S.-backed network of right-wing dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia that coordinated assassination and torture of leftists across borders

The Dollar Cost:

  • CIA Destabilization of Allende: $10+ million (documented)
  • Military Aid to Pinochet: Hundreds of millions
  • Reparations Owed: $50 billion (platform estimate)

RUNNING TOTAL: 1945–1979

Lives Lost (Conservative)

Conflict/Intervention Deaths
Atomic bombings (Japan) 450,000+
Korean War 3,000,000+
Iran coup (1953) + downstream 300+ (coup), tens of thousands (Shah era)
Guatemala coup + civil war (1954–1996) 200,000+
Congo/Lumumba (1961) + downstream Millions (Congo Wars)
Indonesia massacre (1965–66) 500,000–1,000,000
East Timor genocide (1975–1999) 200,000
Vietnam War 3,400,000+
Laos Secret War 50,000–200,000 + ongoing UXO deaths
Cambodia bombing + Khmer Rouge 2,200,000–3,000,000
Chile coup + Operation Condor 33,000–63,000+
SUBTOTAL (1945–1979) ~10–12 MILLION DEAD

_Not Included: Argentina (30,000 disappeared), Brazil military dictatorship, Dominican Republic invasion (1965), Greece coup (1967), Bolivia coups, Paraguay, Uruguay, and dozens of smaller interventions._

Dollars Spent (Inflation-Adjusted to 2026)

Category Cost
Korean War (direct) ~$4 trillion
Vietnam War (direct + veterans) ~$1.5–2 trillion
Laos bombing ~$130 billion
Cambodia bombing ~$50+ billion
Cold War military budget (1948–1979, non-war) ~$15 trillion
CIA covert operations (all countries) Classified (estimated hundreds of billions)
Military aid to dictatorships Hundreds of billions
SUBTOTAL (1945–1979) ~$20+ TRILLION

The Villain Scoreboard (1945–1979)

INDIVIDUALS:

  • Harry Truman: Atomic bombs, Korean War, and CIA creation
  • Dwight Eisenhower: Iran coup, Guatemala coup, and Congo,
    • warned about military-industrial complex while building it
  • John Foster Dulles: Secretary of State, Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer, oil company interests, and authorized coups in Iran and Guatemala
  • Allen Dulles: CIA Director, brother of John Foster, same law firm, same oil interests, ran coups in Iran, Guatemala, and Congo
  • John F. Kennedy: Vietnam escalation and the Bay of Pigs
  • Lyndon B. Johnson: Gulf of Tonkin fabrication, Vietnam escalation to 500,000 troops, and Indonesia massacre complicity
  • Richard Nixon: Vietnam prolongation, secret Cambodia/Laos bombing, and the Chile coup
  • Henry Kissinger:
    • Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Chile, East Timor, Bangladesh, and Angola.
    • By body count, one of the most prolific architects of mass death in the 20th century
    • Died in 2023 at age 100, with no accountability.
    • Nobel Peace Prize winner.
  • Robert McNamara: Vietnam architect who knew the war was unwinnable
  • Curtis LeMay:
    • Architect of bombing campaigns in Korea and Vietnam.
    • Previously firebombed Tokyo (100,000 killed in one night).
    • Once said he would've been "prosecuted as a war criminal" if the U.S. had lost WWII.

CORPORATIONS:

  • United Fruit Company / Chiquita: Guatemala coup
  • Anglo-Iranian Oil / BP: Iran coup
  • Standard Oil / Exxon, Mobil, and Chevron: Iran coup and global oil control
  • ITT Corporation: Chile coup
  • Anaconda Copper / Kennecott: Chile coup
  • Dow Chemical: Napalm + Agent Orange (Vietnam)
  • Monsanto (now Bayer): Agent Orange
  • Bell Helicopter / Textron: Vietnam
  • Boeing: Korea and Vietnam bombing
  • Lockheed: Korea and Vietnam
  • General Dynamics: Korea and Vietnam
  • Honeywell: Cluster bombs
  • Brown & Root / KBR / Halliburton: Vietnam logistics (then Iraq, 30 years later)
  • Freeport-McMoRan: Papuan gold mines under Suharto
  • DuPont: Napalm, munitions

What $20 TRILLION Could Have Built (1945–1979)

During the period when the U.S. was spending $20+ trillion on wars, coups, and the Cold War military machine, peer nations were building:

  • Universal Healthcare (UK's NHS founded 1948, expanded across Europe by 1960s)
  • Free University Education (Germany, Scandinavia, and France)
  • National High-Speed Rail (Japan's Shinkansen, 1964 and France's TGV planning in 1970s)
  • Public Housing (Vienna's social housing, UK council housing, and Singapore's HDB)
  • Robust Social Safety Nets (Scandinavian model and German co-determination)

The U.S. chose bombs.

The rest of the developed world chose hospitals, trains, and schools.

The Result: Americans in 2026 pay more for healthcare, education, and housing than any nation on Earth, and get worse outcomes.

That's not a coincidence. That's the price of empire.

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