The Biden administration hypocritically portrays the U.S. as the leader of world forces advancing “democracy” against “authoritianism,” holding global forums to propagate these ideas, yet targets the People’s Republic of China with boycotts of the Olympics, Cuba with the continuation of a 60-year blockade, and other nations with covert and overt support for factions seeking to overthrow their governments. This quiz looks beneath the veneer of U.S. democracy and considers the role of the U.S. and especially the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in advancing policies of “freedom and democracy” in the Middle East and other regions in the post–World War II era.
1. Acting on behalf of the U.S. government, the CIA played a decisive role in overthrowing governments throughout the world. Which of the following leaders was not driven from power by CIA conspiracies?
a. Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran (1953)
b. Patrice Lumumba in the Congo (1960)
c. Mikhail Gorbachev in the USSR (1991)
d. Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala (1954)
2. After WWII, the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies employed Nazis and other fascists and Japanese imperialist war criminals because
a. they wanted to let bygones be bygones.
b. they sought to use the fascists’ and imperialists’ experience and knowledge in fighting Communists and other anti-fascists and anti-imperialists in fighting the cold war.
c. they thought that the death penalty for these fascist war criminals was inhumane.
d. they were closet fascists themselves.
3. Successive U.S. administrations supported the right-wing Iraqi Baath party and the later Saddam Hussein Baath dictatorship
a. to subvert a socialist-oriented military government in the 1960s.
b. to fight the Communist Party of Iraq.
c. to launch a war against Iran in the 1980s.
d. All of the above
4. Marxists see U.S. policy in the Middle East as which of the following?
a. An attempt to control the oil, water, and territory of an important region in terms of the global economy
b. Under the influence of Saudi Arabia
c. A real desire to create a secular democratic government in Iran and all other countries
d. Under the influence of Israel
5. Marxists propose which of the following alternatives to U.S. policies in both the Middle East and other regions?
a. Support for regional economic development that will bring nations together
b. Support for workers parties, trade and other mass organizations that will enable the people to fight for and defend their rights
c. Opposition to both U.S. military interventionism and CIA conspiracies to control the region for U.S. capital
d. All of the above
Answers here.
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