Noam Chomsky

American linguist, philosopher and political commentator who has been particularly prolific in demystifying US foreign policy.

The new world order - Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky discusses the New World Order - tri-polar economically, three major economic powers, the United States still the biggest, but declining, relatively, but uni-polar militarily, one military force.

The following is a transcript of a speech given at a benefit for The Middle East Children's Alliance (president, Barbara Lubin) and KPFA radio (manager, Pat Scott).

The topic, as you saw, is The New World Order with primary concern for the Middle East.

Knowledge, morality and hope: The social thought of Noam Chomsky - Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers

Cohen and Rogers analyse the various facets of Noam Chomsky's political philosophy.

Knowledge, Morality and Hope: The Social Thought of Noam Chomsky

1990-1991: The Gulf War

Noam Chomsky on the 1991 US and UK war with Iraq following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.


When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United Nations Security Council immediately condemned Iraq and imposed severe sanctions on it. Why was the UN response so prompt and so unprecedently firm? The US government-media alliance had a standard answer.

1989-today: The War on Drugs

Noam Chomsky on the 'war' on drugs that Western governments have been allegedly pursuing since 1989. In reality, their response to the drug trade has depended very much on who is doing it...


The war on (certain) drugs

1948-1991: US intervention and war in South East Asia

Noam Chomsky's very brief account of US military, economic and "diplomatic" action in Indochina in the last half of the 20th century

The US wars in Indochina fall into the same general pattern as the interventions in Latin America such as Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua,

1940-1989: The Cold War

Noam Chomsky explains the nature of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union before its collapse in 1989.


How the Cold War worked

1986: The Iran-Contra Affair

Chomsky's brief account of the US selling arms to Iran via Israel in order to fund far-right paramilitary contras in Nicaragua.

The major elements of the Iran/contra story were well known long before the 1986 exposures, apart from one fact: that the sale of arms to Iran via Israel and the illegal contra war run out of Colonel Oliver North's White House office were connected.

1970-1987: The contra war in Nicaragua

Noam Chomsky's account of the US-backed “contra” counter-insurgency in Nicaragua against the left-wing government brought to power on the back of a popular mass movement from below.

It wasn't just the events in El Salvador that were ignored by the mainstream US media during the 1970s. In the ten years prior to the overthrow of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, US television - all networks - devoted exactly one hour to Nicaragua, and that was entirely on the Managua earthquake of 1972.

1944-1989: The coup and US intervention in Guatemala

Noam Chomsky on the US intervention and coup following the 1944 revolution which overthrew Guatemala's brutal dictator.

Making Guatemala a killing field

1970-1990: The war of counter-insurgency in El Salvador

Noam Chomsky on the ultra-violent war of the right-wing regime in El Salvador against grassroots resistance of workers, peasants and liberation theologists – socialist clergymen and women.

The crucifixion of El Salvador
For many years, repression, torture and murder were carried on in El Salvador by dictators installed and supported by the US government, a matter of no interest in the US. The story was virtually never covered. By the late 1970s, however, the government began to be concerned about a couple of things.

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