I’m not excusing any bad things that the American government has done throughout the years, but one aspect of being a superpower is that you do everything to maintain that power and you always act in your own best interest.
And that includes terrible things that don’t age well…and probably some current things that we’ll learn about later, as well…
Unfortunately, that’s how the world works.
Folks on AskReddit talked about the bad things America has done that many people don’t know about.
Let’s take a look.
1. Coup.
“It’s shocking how many Americans don’t know about the Iranian coup of 1953 where the US orchestrated an overthrow of the democratically elected government in favor of a dictator.
Said dictator remained in power until being overthrown in 1979 during the Islamic revolution. Americans are taught that the 1979 revolution was when a bunch of radicals took over, but really they were ousting a US-backed dictator.”
2. Yup.
“Allowing corporations to be classified as people so that lobbyists control the country, every war that we’ve ever participated in, the mass execution of Native Americans to obtain the land.”
3. Terrible.
“The Sand Creek Mass**re.
Troops attacked a native American village without provocation and brutally m**dered and scalped them, totaling about 400. There’s accounts saying they cut open a pregnant woman and scalped the fetus and one where a mother and her two children k**led themselves because they didn’t want to be brutally k**led by the Americans.
It’s disgusting and more people should know about it.”
4. Witch hunt.
“Not as bad as a lot of things and not so much something the US did, but the Lavender Scare. Happened alongside the Red Scare, same concept but with gay/queer folks.
Basically a witch hunt, and if you were even suspected of being queer you could lost your job and be blacklisted from most other jobs. This impacted so many people and many were driven to s**cide or were m**dered.
Along with the handling of the HIV/AIDS crisis, which deserves more attention, the US does not have a great history with queer people.”
5. Forgotten history.
“The Tulsa race mass**re of 1921 really happened.
I never learned about it in school and thought it was fiction until a couple of years ago.”
6. Banana republics.
“The Banana Wars.
American Banana Companies hired mercenary armies and overthrew governments of Central American countries multiple times for more bananas and most of the governments the banana companies made were military dictatorships.
This continued for 30 years and a lot of people d**d.”
7. A whole lot…
“Most South American countries should be holding the US accountable for a whole lot.
1954 Guatemala – The CIA overthrows the democratically elected Jacob Arbenz in a military coup. Arbenz is replaced with a series of fascist dictators whose bloodthirsty policies will k**l over 100,000 Guatemalans in the next 40 years. None of them were democratically elected.
1959 Haiti- The U.S. military helps “Papa Doc” Duvalier become dictator of Haiti. Not democratically elected
1961 Ecuador – The CIA-backed military forces the democratically elected President Jose Velasco to resign. Vice President Carlos Arosemana replaces him; the CIA fills the now vacant vice presidency with its own man. (who was a rightwing nut and was not democratically elected)
1963 Dominican Republic – The CIA overthrows the democratically elected Juan Bosch in a military coup. The CIA installs a repressive, right-wing junta. (not democratically elected)
1963 Ecuador – A CIA-backed military coup overthrows President Arosemana, whose independent (not socialist) policies have become unacceptable to Washington. A military junta assumes command. (not democratically elected)
1964 Brazil – A CIA-backed military coup overthrows the democratically elected government of Joao Goulart. Puts a military junta in power (Not democratically elected) and later it is revealed that the CIA trains the death squads of General Castelo Branco (who was one of the fascist dictators US puts in power).
1965 Dominican Republic- A popular rebellion breaks out, promising to reinstall Juan Bosch as the country’s elected leader. The revolution is crushed when U.S. Marines land to uphold the military regime by force. The CIA directs everything behind the scenes. Openly protect fascist dictator that they had put in power AGAINST the wishes of the people.
1971 Bolivia – After half a decade of CIA-inspired political turmoil, a CIA-backed military coup overthrows the leftist President Juan Torres. In the next two years, dictator Hugo Banzer will have over 2,000 political opponents arrested without trial, then tortured, r**ed and executed. (The dictator is not democratically elected either)
1973 Chile – The CIA overthrows and assassinates Salvador Allende, Latin America’s first democratically elected socialist leader. The CIA replaces Allende with General Augusto Pinochet, who will torture and m**der thousands of his own countrymen in a crackdown on labor leaders and the political left. (not democratically elected).”
8. Not cool.
“Perhaps the greatest ‘D**k Move’ in American history was after the Spanish American war.
During the war the US had made contact with various independence groups in the Philippines and offered them help if they rose against the Spanish government.
After the war, instead of giving the Philippines their independence, the US took over, let the Spanish go, and started attacking the independence groups because they were a threat to American rule. It was easy because the US knew who they were and where they were
Imagine if after landing in Normandy and freeing Paris, the US had let the Na**s go, claimed Northern France, and started m**dering the French Resistance.”
9. Bloodthirsty.
“In 1964, A CIA-backed military coup in Brazil overthrows the democratically elected government of Joao Goulart.
The junta that replaces it will, in the next two decades, become one of the most bloodthirsty in history. General Castelo Branco creates Latin America’s first death squads, or bands of secret police who hunt down communists and political opponents for t**ture, interrogation and m**der.
Later it is revealed that the CIA trained the death squads. Thousands were t**tured, and hundreds were k**led.”
10. Shady business.
“Just look up the declassified documents from the ‘School of the Americas’ I think at Fort Bragg and the rules for t**ture the USA came up with to teach all the Central and South American governments to use.
Remember start your day with freshly recharged batteries kids.
F**king disgusting.”
11. The Red Scare.
“Bands of secret police who hunted down Communists.
During the Cold War, the US backed any government that opposed Communism because the leadership determined it was the greatest threat to democracy.”
12. All kinds of bad stuff.
“Throw a dart at a map aiming at any central or South American country, and we’ve arranged a coup there to install dictators or right wing politicians friendly to opening their countries’ resources to American multinational corporations.
Start with Guatemala as a good jumping off point to understand whether or not we are the “good guys.””
13. Awful.
“In a lot of southern states even up into the 1970s, Black people would be sterilized without consenting or even being informed when they would go under for an unrelated procedure.
This was meant to help curb the growing Black population.
Look up a “Mississippi appendectomy”.”
14. “Healthcare.”
“For 40 years, under the guise of “providing healthcare” the United States Government intentionally left syphilis untreated in members of the African American community in order to study the long term effects of allowing the disease to fester. The test subjects were explicitly lied to and told not to seek treatment outside the study.
This wasn’t some 1800s or some Jim Crow s**t. This was from 1932-1972. There was not even an official apology until 1996. And not a single person went to jail over it. And thanks to something called “Sovereign Immunity” and “Qualified Immunity” the victims were not even allowed to sue for damages.”
15. Panama.
“1989 Panama.
The U.S. invades Panama to overthrow a dictator of its own making, General Manuel Noriega. Noriega has been on the CIA’s payroll since 1966, and has been transporting drugs with the CIA’s knowledge since 1972.
By the late 1980s, Noriega’s growing independence and intransigence have angered Washington … so out he goes. (Noriega was not democratically elected and his removal was not done by democratic means either, just US being US)”
16. CIA activity.
“1973 Chile.
The CIA overthrows and assassinates Salvador Allende, Latin America’s first democratically elected socialist leader.
The CIA replaces Allende with General Augusto Pinochet, who will torture and m**der thousands of his own countrymen in a crackdown on labor leaders and the political left.”
17. The bombing.
“The MOVE bombing in Philadelphia in 1985.
Nearly 500 police officers attacked the communal home of black separatist group MOVE, occupied by 8 adults and 5 children.
After a firefight with the occupants, police bombed the building from a helicopter, “targeting a fortified, bunker-like cubicle on the roof of the house,” and setting the house on fire in the process.”
18. Insult to injury.
“The land mount Rushmore is carved into is considered sacred to the Native American Sioux tribe, and was supposed to be part of their reservation.
Then someone found gold on it, and it got tossed onto the ever-growing pile of broken treaties with Native Americans. The battle that took place over this became the Wounded Knee Massacre, where American troops k**led hundreds of unarmed women, children, and men.
Oh, and then we carved a bunch of our presidents faces into the mountain, almost as if to add insult to injury.”
19. Tejanos.
“During the Mexican American war, people called Tejanos who lived in what is now Texas helped the US fight the Mexican government. When Texas was finally annexed, southern slave owners kicked out the Tejanos who fought in the war.
This was especially evil, since there were Tejanos who helped the US in some major battles, like the Alamo. There are a lot of details I’m leaving out, but a YouTuber named Kraut made an excellent video about the Mexican-American border that goes into more detail about this stuff.”
20. A big scandal.
“The US government through the CIA imported coc**ne in order to fund the Iran-Conta affair.
That coc**ne was allowed to be turned into crack and spread in black communities while the money went to overthrow democratically elected governments in South America.”
21. Stock market.
“The stock market is a lie.
Hedge funds are allowed to naked short-selling companies to the ground (basically creating and selling counterfeit shares of other companies) and the SEC and DTCC are complicit in allowing it to happen.
This allows institutions to manipulate a stock’s price by altering the supply and blasting it on the news cycle.”
22. A tragedy.
“The American bison slaughter.
In 1800, there were an estimated 30-60 million bison in America, ranging from North Carolina to California, although mostly they were concentrated on the Great Plains.
By 1900, there were 325 left on earth.
They came through and slaughtered them by the thousands per day. People going west just used them for target practice and left the carcasses to rot. The idea was that the more bison died, the more Indians starved and the more open range for homesteading.
If it wasn’t for a small herd in Yellowstone that became protected when the national park was established in 1872, bison would be extinct.”
23. A stain on our history.
“After the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States sent people of Japanese ancestry (112,000 approx.) to internment camps and seized all their assets without any due process.
When the war was over, these people were destitute.
It wasn’t until 1988 that the US acknowledged that this had been a violation of these people’s rights. Whoever was alive at the time received $20K in reparations.”
24. Sad.
“The mass forced sterilization of Native American women in the 1970s, without their knowledge or consent.
Women would go into IHS under the impression that they were receiving an unrelated surgery. Years later, some of these women would try to have children and find out that a hysterectomy was performed on them without their knowledge, and for some, their entire uteruses were removed.
Why? The US government targeted full blooded Native women, claiming that they were doing them a favor by not allowing them to reproduce.”
25. Land theft.
“The Western Shoshone land theft in Nevada.
The most prominent parts of this took place in the last 50 years. The last big court battle was in 2012.
The government basically said that since the Shoshone did not violently fight against the bureau of land management and white ranchers it meant that they ‘voluntarily’ gave up the land—ignoring there was a treaty signed.
Meanwhile, Native Americans are considered trustees of the government (alongside the mentally unstable a minor children), so guess who was their official voice to object? The Secretary of the Interior….who also runs the bureau of land management. It gets worse.
The Indian Claims Commission awarded the Shoshone what amounts to less $1.05 per acre for the land that was ‘voluntary acquiesced’. The Shoshone wanted to object, but guess what? They are trustees and the government who wants this issue to go away is the one who also gets to speak for them. So the Secretary of the Interior accepted the settlement despite the mass objection.
Then the Supreme Court several years later essentially said the Shoshone waived the right to bring any case based on this land grab because they had already been paid once the Secretary accepted it in their behalf.
The total paid? $26 million
The total land lost? 25 million acres, 40,000 square miles or 101,000 square kilometers. Most of the state of Nevada and large portions of Utah and California.
What happened next? 64% of the US total gold production now comes from mines on these lands subsequently leased by the bureau of land management, the largest of which destroyed a thousand years old sacred Shoshone religious, cultural and burial site. This was approved just days after the final court battle. It was built in 2008.
This Shoshone land is the second-largest gold producing area in the entire world.”
What are some more awful things that the U.S. has done that most people aren’t aware of?
Talk to us in the comments.
Thanks in advance!
