10

Controlling “Enemy Territory”

Some concern was felt in elite circles over the Reagan administration’s decision to exceed the SALT II limits. In the military authorization bill of October 1986, both Houses of Congress called on the Executive to comply with SALT II, in the interest of national security. A few weeks later, the Reagan administration announced that it was proceeding to exceed the SALT limits. An administration spokesman explained: “Congress is out of town and the summit in Iceland is past, . . . so what’s holding us back”?1 In other words, the cop is looking the other way, so why not rob the store? In actual fact, Congress is “out of town” even when it is in town, as the administration knows very well, and it is not too difficult for a gang of street fighters to ride roughshod over the generally pathetic opposition, which is in fundamental agreement with their objectives despite occasional tactical objections.

It is hardly surprising that the Iran-contra hearings became a forum for contra propaganda. Contra supporters at least have the courage of their convictions, while the opposition, with largely tactical objections, had long surrendered any moral basis for their critique and could therefore only look on in embarrassed silence at the flow of “patriotic” tirades.

The attitude of the statist reactionaries of the Reagan administration towards their domestic enemy, the general public, is demonstrated by the large increase in the traditional resort to clandestine operations to evade public scrutiny, as discussed earlier. Their contempt for Congress—meaning, whatever limited role the public plays in the political system through its elected representatives—was revealed dramatically in the Iran-contra hearings, particularly during Oliver North’s testimony. The public reaction was also illuminating. While elite elements were disturbed by this glimpse of the face of fascism, there was a notable, if brief, wave of popular enthusiasm, This was widely interpreted as an expression of popular antagonism towards the role and behavior of Congress, perhaps rightly, though we should recall that the public “trust Congress over Reagan when it comes to solving the nation’s major problems by nearly a 2-1 margin.” But at a deeper level, the immediate public response illustrates the insight of the 18th century European Enlightenment that the value and meaning of freedom are learned through its exercise, and that the instinctive desire of “all free peoples to guard themselves from oppression” (Rousseau) may be repressed among a subordinated population, effectively removed from the political system, disengaged from the struggle against state and other authority, and in general, objects rather than agents.2 In the absence of organizational forms that permit meaningful participation in political and other social institutions, as distinct from following orders or ratifying decisions made elsewhere, the “instinct for freedom” may wither, offering opportunities for charismatic leaders to rally mass popular support, with consequences familiar from recent history.

The attitude of the state authorities towards the public is revealed still more clearly by what one Reagan official called “a vast psychological warfare operation” designed to fix the terms of debate over Nicaragua, a vast disinformation campaign called “Operation Truth”—Goebbels and Stalin would have been amused. The campaign was largely successful, along with similar operations with regard to Libya, international terrorism, the arms race, and numerous other matters. The pioneers of modern totalitarianism would also have nodded their heads in approval over the formation of a State Department Office of Public Diplomacy, reported to be controlled by Elliott Abrams under the supervision of the National Security Council, dedicated to such maneuvers as leaking “secret intelligence [that is, constructions of state propaganda disguised as intelligence] to the media to undermine the Nicaraguan government.” This “vast, expensive and sophisticated worldwide campaign aimed at influencing international opinion against the Sandinistas,” and crucially, designed to control the media and public opinion at home and to “influence congressional debate in favor of the rebels” attacking Nicaragua, is explained in a March 1985 “15 page mega-memo” from Oliver North to Robert McFarlane, given little notice in the media that were one prime target of the enterprise. The Office of Public Diplomacy was “one of the least known but perhaps must influential programs of the Reagan administration.”3

These measures to control “the public mind,” in the terminology of the Public Relations industry, were quite successful in setting the agenda of discussion and fixing its narrow bounds. A senior U.S. official “familiar with the effort” describes the enterprise as “a huge psychological operation of the kind the military conducts to influence a population in denied or enemy territory.” The terms are well chosen to express the perception of the public and Congress within contemporary “conservatism”: enemy territory.