[chumich1]

Recently read both Legacy of Ashes and The Jakarta Method. The declassified documents directly from the CIA should damn them to the grave. The United States in the post WW2 period turned rightful fear and skepticism of the USSR into violent paranoia, subverting democracy anywhere people dared assert control over natural resources or accept participation of socialist/communist political parties.

Whether they did it at the direction of business interests isn't too important. The result of a bloody Cold War in the 3rd World was a cheap non-unionized labor force where organizing for better wages and conditions is dangerous and often illegal.

A better world was possible. The Non-Aligned Movement attempted to thread the needle between the US and the Soviet Union, but the CIA's mission was to make sure there was no 3rd option.