On the Death of George H.W. Bush

December 3, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

As we go to press, it seems that different sections of society, especially among the ruling class, are seeking to take advantage of this occasion to advance their vision of American society, and its role in the world. Stay tuned to revcom.us for more on this.

At the same time, it is important to remember that Bush I, as head of the CIA and then president of the USA, among other top positions, was a war criminal, presiding over all kinds of murderous things the U.S. did against the people, both here and all around the world. George H.W. Bush served in different capacities as part of the ruling class of U.S. imperialism. He was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1971 to 1973; chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1973 to 1974; director of the CIA from 1976 to 1977; vice president in the Ronald Reagan administration from 1981 to 1989; and president of the United States from 1989 to 1993.

The revcom.us American Crime series documents some of these crimes carried out when George H. W. Bush was CIA head, vice president, and president, including those he was directly involved in:

American Crime Case #95: Reagan's Butcher Carries Out Genocide in Guatemala

In the early 1980s, following a U.S.-backed coup by General José Efraín Ríos Montt, the Guatemalan military systematically destroyed more than 600 indigenous Mayan villages in the highlands of the country.

American Crime Case #87: Operation Condor 1968-1980s: U.S.-Directed Campaign of Political Assassination and State Terror in Latin America

The U.S. secretly organized, financed, and directed a campaign of political repression, torture, disappearances, and assassinations code-named Operation Condor.

American Crime Case #79: Ronald Reagan’s Honduras—The Atrocities of “Battalion 316”

The U.S. military and CIA trained, financed, and covered up the crimes of “Battalion 316”—a Honduran military death squad which carried out a campaign of torture, murder, and state-sponsored terror against the Honduran people during the 1980s.

American Crime Case #76: U.S.-UN Sanctions on Iraq—“A Legitimized Act of Mass Slaughter”

From 1990 until 2003, the U.S. and the United Nations imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iraq. The results were catastrophic for millions of Iraqis, especially for the young, the sick, and the elderly.

American Crime Case #43: The U.S. Invasion of Panama, 1989-1990

On December 20, 1989, the U.S. military invaded Panama with 27,684 troops and 300 aircraft, killing thousands of civilians and removing Manuel Noriega and his Panamanian Defense Force from power. Half of the neighborhood of Chorrillos—which had a pre-invasion population of approximately 25,000—was literally destroyed by U.S. troops and civilian residents were victims of direct attacks.

American Crime Case #38: The U.S. Backs El Salvador’s Death Squad Government, 1980 to 1992

Throughout the decade of the 1980s into the early 1990s, the U.S. government backed, trained, and financed the reactionary government and military of the Central American country of El Salvador in its murderous counterinsurgency war that killed tens of thousands of workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, artists, and others and forced hundreds of thousands to flee into exile.