Washington's regime change gets a makeover

Washington's regime change gets a makeover


Back in the day, the US government openly backed dictators who were pro US and pro free market. It was part of the Cold War era where the US trained, financed and supported military dictators and governments that committed heinous crimes against their populations, such as in Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Brazil. However, the bloody trail left behind by Washington's henchmen resulted in the US government shifting gears in how it supported or implemented regime change. Today the new method is known as Democracy Promotion

Otto Reich's Legacy of White Propaganda

Otto Reich's Legacy of White Propaganda


In the 1980s, the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy planted editorials in major newspapers, intimidated reporters and even employed psychological warfare experts from the Pentagon in order to garner public support for its controversial, costly and violent Contra War in Central America. Behind this effort was Otto Reich, a Cuban-American diplomat and anti-communist crusader. Although the Office of Public Diplomacy became the sacrificial lamb of the Iran Contra Scandal following a congressional investigation, Reich moved on unscathed to become US ambassador to Venezuela and Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. The legacy of white propaganda in the 1980s paved the way for similar manipulation of the media in the run-up to the Iraq War