The Research Apparatus of U.S. Imperialism
Klare, Michael
In order to administer an empire efficiently it is necessary to construct an apparatus for collecting, analyzing, and acting upon information concerning foreign territories. From the Roman to...
...Scientific Laboratory, installations which together have plant facilities worth over half a billion dollars, and an annual operating budget, in 1966, of $265 million--an amount which exceeds the total educational budget of many states...
...The elite's consciousness has been reflected in the organization and operation of every major institution in the United States: the corporations, the agencies of government, and labor unions have all been modified in the interests of overseas expansion...
...University research was therefore geared toward the destruction of industrial societies and was manifest in the policy of massive nuclear retaliation...
...also DoDIAC for information on counterinsurgency...
...The need for sophisticated modern weaponry has led to the creation of quasi-autonomous university research installations entirely dependent upon military contracts...
...the line of aerospace corporations along Massachusetts Route 128 and MIT's Lincoln Lans...
...Since 1900, and especially after World War II, the American power elite has become extremely conscious of the need to develop such a research apparatus in order to better manage the burgeoning U.S...
...Through their participation in the consortium, universities gain substantial research contracts as well as lucrative leaves of absence and consulting fees for the professors...
...As a consequence, some of the research installations began to approach in size and budget the universities of which they were nominally a part...
...In the interests of security, many of these installations (like MITl's Lincoln Laboratories) were usually administratively as well as geographically remote from their parent academic institution...
...Since World War Two, specialized schools have been set up, like Columbia University's School of International Affairs, to train experts in "international administration" for the government agencies engaged in overseas operations...
...power elite...
...From the Roman to the British empires, ruling elites have found it necessary to create institutions capable of supporting such operations, and to establish a professional caste skilled in the arts of language, foreign trade and international politics to conduct these activities...
...7 Agribusiness and the United Fruit Company in Mexico...
...A table of such centers would include: Applied Physics Laboratory of John Hopkins University (FCRC for systems engineering on missiles, propulsion, and navigational satellites...
...Consequently, we would like to ask our subscribers, especially those on campuses, to send us copies of all reports on articles in local or student newspapers containing information on university warfare research...
...Buenos Aires: Ediciones I -ggua, 1966...
...the Center for Research in Social Systems (CRSS) of the American University (FCRC for research on psychological operations...
...Defense industry corporations, whose executives usually dominate think tank boards of directors, gain access to classifiedPage 3 information and the opportunity to 'evaluate objectively' the projects they are trying to sell to the government...
...We hope that this special issue of Viet-Rport will provoke new investigations of university ties with the Pentagon...
...The modern American university, in fact, constitutes the nucleus of the research apparatus of American imperialism...
...and similar linkages...
...This research apparatus was originally constructed during the Second World War, when many universities collaborated with the War Department in the establishment of the large scientific installations which did much of the wartime weapons research...
...The scientists and administrators associated with these installations had meanwhile come to enjoy positions of some influence and prestige at the centers of power in Washington and at the Pentagon, positions that they were naturally loathe to abandon...
...collecting and processing the information needed for policy formulation...
...Massive retaliation gave way to a policy of counterinsurgency as Kennedy took the reins of power, and behavioral scientists at the universities were enlisted in the effort to channel and control the direction of change in the developing nations...
...We cannot understand the operation of American imperialism until we thoroughly expose the activities of the university-dominated research apparatus...
...7 In the Valley of the Jolly..Ho..Ho..Ho...
...Increasingly however, the research institutions and the think-tanks are developing programs in military "software"--the mind-control techniques of "special warfare" and counterinsurgency...
...9 I IPage 2 erations of the CIA and other agencies...
...This postwar development was in full accord with the needs of the American power elite...
...the Ordnance Research Laboratory of Penn State University (FCRC for research and development of torpedoes...
...This, in essence, is what the U.S...
...Columbia University's President, Grayson Kirk, for instance is a Director of the Socony Mobil and IBM Corporations, as well as a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Asia Foundation...
...providing "cover" for secret opThe NACLA NEWSLETTER is published ten times a year by the NORTH AERICAN CONGRESS ON LATIN AERICA (NACLA...
...the indoctrination of native elites...
...the training of highly - skilled managerial personnel...
...The trustee or administrator of a research institute is more than likely an executive of a defense industry located in the nearby industrial park, and at the same time a consultant to the Pentagon bureau which administers contracts in this field...
...UNIVESIT WAR RESEARCH Subscribers to the NACLA Newsletter received with their last issue a copy of the VIET-PORT Special Issue on University-Condacted War Research...
...For a complete list of these installations see the current issue of Viet Report...
...The niversity of California at Berkeley, for instance, operates the Atomic Energy Commissiols Lawrence Radiation Laboratory and the Los Alamos (N.M...
...Most of the relationships which link together the components of the research nexus are informal, or the kind that go on behind the doors of closed boards of trustees meetings...
...The academic world in particular has been reconstructed to aid in the administration of our new empire...
...This new emphasis reflects the changing concerns of the power elite: earlier social science research projects were focused on "deterent strategies" and "war-gaming," reflecting the preoccupation with nuclear defense against the Soviet Union...
...and the Ballistic Missile Radiation AnalysisPage 4 Center of the University of Michigan (DoDIAC for information on ballistic missile phenomena...
...By the end of the war, many of these research establishments--originally planned as temporary operations--had developed into sizeable institutions, with extensive facilities and administrative staffs...
...Imperialism...
...NACLA seeks to publish reports of the results of all such investigations...
...Since these researchers enjoyed the confidence of the generals, and since for the most part their activities were financed by the govennment, it is not -suprising that after the war many of the larger research establishments were reorganized as permanent institutions...
...As defense appropriations soared, ambitious researchers--many of them associated with defense contractors as consultants--were able to secure impressive research contracts from the government...
...We must turn this process upside-down in order to identify the infrastructure of the U.S...
...Working at such laboratories, university scientists achieved many of the technological advances brought about under the pressure of war, including the atom bomb, modern radar, and the earliest missiles...
...Green Giant...
...these include: technological innovation -- particularly in the area of sophisticated weaponry...
...But the people whose interests they are serving are those of the elite which finances and plans the operations...
...The foundations are directly controlled by the power elite, however, as in the case of the think tanks, interlocking directorships link them to the boards of trustees of universities and to the boards of major corporations...
...The overseas operations of this research apparatus are usually cloaked in the guise of humanitarian concern for the welfare of underdeveloped or primitive societies...
...And as America's empire has expanded further into the Third World, universities have been called upon to utilize their expertise to gather and interpret information on unfamiliar societies, and to assist in the penetration and manipulation of these societies...
...Cathy McAffee, in the current issue of Viet-Report, describes the process as follows: 'Through such a consortium, the government can buy top scientific talent, bypassing low civil service salaries and avoiding accountability to Congress...
...This research was generally carried on at semi-autonomous research installations like ichigan's Willow Run Labs, the University of Calirornia's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Laboratory...
...Following World War II, the American empire was concentrated in Western Europe...
...in the late 1950's and the early 1960's, however, the focus of empire shifted to the Third World, and the universities retooled to provide the necessary materiel and personnel for the domination of underdeveloped and unfamiliar societies...
...and directly administering the government's overseas operations...
...Minimum contribution for annual subscription: $5.00...
...Book Review by Lois Reivich Gkegorio Selser, eionaie en Adrrica Latina: l PtAon Z las t icas sociologicas...
...This spirit o cooperation that marks the operations of the research aparatus is not surprising when one discovers that the trustees of the universities themselves are more often than not the chairmen of the corporations whicn stand to profit most from the university's research activities...
...Often the independent "think tanks" like RAND and the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) act as the middleman in this comfortable arrangement...
...When one penetrates into this research nexus, the distinctions between the various academic and non-academic components disappear altogether...
...The foundations are also closely allied with various government agencies, and the use of such foundations as "conduits, for CIA funds is already well established...
...In This Issue...
...military coeunand seeks to do in Vietnam -in this case with the South Vietnam NLF...
...Without such an apparatus, no empire can deal with the human conflicts inherent in domination and exploitation...
...The Colonel attempts to destroy the Algerian liberation movent y recontriucting, and then destroying, the "infrastructure" of the National Liberation Front (NLF...
...Ultimately, this task is akin to that performed by the French paratroop Colonel in the film The Battle of Algiers...
...In this case, the dominant institution is the non-profit foundation, which disburses the bulk of funds available for research in the social sciences...
...6 The Choco Great Lakes Plan...
...Most o the research installations are engaged in research on military hardware,, i.e., the equipment and weaponry needed for waging conventional wars...
...The ranks of the Peace Corps, of university field-training programs in antrhopology and sociology, and of the "cross-cultural" programs of foundations are full of Americans who sincerely believe they are acting in the interests of native peoples...
...These are the Federal Contract Research Centers (FCRC's) and the Department of Defense Information Analysis Centers (DoDIAC's), which concentrate their research activities on problems of particular interest to the government...
...By expanding their "research" activities, universities now perform several functions which are crucial to the maintenance of the empire...
...threatening this empire was the Soviet Union...
...To meet the demands of empire, the 19th century college was transformed into a multiversity with specialized schools of business, law, diplomacy, journalism, languages, and government...
...4 Cultural Congress in Havana...
...The Research Apparatus of U.S...
...Please address this material as follows: Attention: Michael Klare NACLA P.O...
...1 Espionage in Latin America...
...Nevertheless, over the years, many of the university research facilities have acquired a special relationship with the government, as permanent military research installations...
...These interlocking relationships are characteristic of all major American universities, but they are particularly apparent in cases where large research installations have been erected: the nexus of Stanford University, the Stanford Research Institute and the Stanford Industrial Park...
...the Hudson Laboratory of Columbia University (FCRC for research on anti-submarine warfare...
...8 Recommended Readings...
...In the area of software research, as in the case of hardware research, a nexus of institutions has been constructed by the power elite to carry out the research activities needed for the administration of the empire...
...Box 57, Cathedral Station New York, New York 10025...
Vol. 1 • January 1968 • No. 10
