Societies are a fabric of a whole. The foundations of domestic, foreign and military policies are the same. in his article “Facing History and Ourselves: Full Spectrum Dominance from White Supremacy to Hiroshima & Nagasaki,” Joseph Gerson explains that since the beginning of the genocide of Native Americans, the building of the American economy on the backs and blood of enslaved people, the conquering of colonies, and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki holocausts, racism and full spectrum dominance have served as mutually reinforcing foundations of empire. The brutal police murders of George Floyd and others in recent months, the approaching 75th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings underline the urgent needs for profound political and social change.
The article cites Fredrick Douglass who argued that “as long as white supremacy lay at the root of American foreign affairs, the country could never achieve its noble aims abroad.” It details the economic, military and racial forces that have fueled U.S. foreign military conquests beginning with Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam, through the decision to target cities with “densely packed workers’ home” with nuclear weapons to ensure U.S. post-war dominance in northern China, Manchuria and Korea.
Today the cries of protesters in our streets and the A-bomb survivors insist that another world is possible. The path away from institutionalized racism and murderous full spectrum dominance leads through profound social, economic, political, spiritual, intellectual and military change.
Dr. Joseph Gerson is President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security and Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau. His books include With Hiroshima Eyes: Atomic War, Nuclear Extortion and Moral Imagination and Empire and the Bomb: How the U.S. Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World.
