Zinn attempted to debunk the belief that "the United States was the way we were brought up to believe in school; the United States was the world's boy scout."
Zinn explained "the myth of the Cold War" as a set of excuses made by the United States government from the end of World War II until 1989, mainly that "[its] foreign policy was fueled by the existence of the Soviet Union."
The "imperialistic, militaristic, and expansionist" actions that America took during the Cold War were not a product of communism but of centuries-old practice, according to Zinn. "There is a perpetual logical error we make," Zinn said. "If the other side is bad, then we must be good."
Most people think that the Cold War began in 1945, Zinn said. But Zinn explained that the Cold War began in the late 1910s.
"When Lenin dissolved the constitutional assemblies, Wilson was outraged," Zinn said. President Woodrow Wilson responded by dissolving the constitutional assembly in Haiti after the Haitians refused a constitution written for them by the United States.
Zinn explained that when he was a student, his history courses omitted the methods the U.S. used to gain territory. "We weren't told that an Indian civilization was living there, that we had to exterminate them or drive them out," he said. "It was only after I got out of the classroom and began to read for myself that I began to see we took these places by force."
As evidence for his claim that "America has always been imperialistic, militaristic, and expansionist," Zinn cited the Congressional hearing that took place after the Bay of Pigs invasion. According to Zinn, Secretary of State Dean Rusk told Congress that military action by the United States was nothing new-Rusk catalogued 103 instances of American military intervention before 1895.
"Is it possible that there were unlofty motives behind [America's] expansion?" Zinn asked. "Yes."
Zinn said that humanitarian goals were merely a pretext for America's involvement in the Spanish-American War. According to Zinn, America fought the war to establish an American sphere of influence in Cuba. The thinking went, Zinn said, that if America won, it would create new markets. "From that point on, Cuba becomes an economic vassal of the United States," Zinn said.
According to Zinn, President Theodore Roosevelt had disingenuous motives for entering the war. Zinn noted that Roosevelt is honored on Mt. Rushmore, and asked, "What is he doing up there ... and how can we get him down?"
Speaking to the objection that America entered the Spanish-American War over the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine, Zinn asked why Spain would actively invite American participation in the war by sinking one of its ships. The Maine, Zinn said, was just an excuse for Roosevelt. Zinn added that a Congressional investigation 50 years after the war concluded that an engine problem most probably caused the explosion.
Yet, Zinn said, an essential question remains: "Why send the Maine into Havana Harbor?"
"History is interesting, because it leads elsewhere," he added. "What were our ships doing off the coast of Vietnam?"
Zinn attributed America's involvement in Vietnam to money, not communism. He cited documents referring to southeast Asia. "When you look behind the rhetoric and the contention you saw tin, rubber, and oil," Zinn said. President John F. Kennedy had called Vietnam an important piece of real estate, he claimed. "It's like we're playing Monopoly," he said.
Zinn described reading the Gulf War commemorative issues of Time and Newsweek, "looking to see how many Iraqi casualties there were." Zinn said he was unable to find the statistic in either magazine. According to Zinn, when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell was asked for the statistic, Powell said that it was not his concern.
Zinn told the audience that America would only change its policies if it were forced to do so. "We have a very big job to do if American citizens are going to change this into a decent country," he said.
Michael Schlossman '04 said he enjoyed Zinn's talk. "Zinn showed us how the ideals America espouses are often misused to justify aggressive, imperialistic action on [America's] part."