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Agus Sudibyo

Berulang kali rezim Orde Baru berusaha memadamkan pengaruh Soekarno. Hubungan antara Orde Baru dengan Soekarno memang hubungan yang menarik. Sejak awal kepemimpinannya, Soeharto memandang faktor Soekarno sebagai ancaman bagi legitimasi kekuasaannya. Soeharto bukan hanya memaksa Soekarno untuk turun dari kekuasaan, namun juga menggusur kekuatan-kekuatan soekarnois dari panggung pemerintahan dan militer.

Uniknya, setelah Soekarno meninggal pada 21 Juni 1970, situasi tidak semakin membaik bagi Orde Baru. Jasad yang tak berdaya itu justru meninggalkan pengaruh yang semakin merepotkan Orde Baru. Soekarno sebagai institusi politik, ideologi dan sebagai dramatic-person dalam memori kolektif bangsa Indonesia seakan-akan menjadi hantu yang membuat penguasa Orde Baru tak pernah tidur nyenyak. Maka tak henti-hentinya dilakukan usaha untuk memutus mata rantai pengaruh Soekarno dalam kehidupan birokrasi, militer, serta dalam kehidupan masyarakat. Segala sesuatu yang berbau Soekarno selalu dicurigai, ditekan, bahkan kalau perlu diberangus. Rezim Orde Baru secara sistematis dan kontinu menggunakan perangkat-perangkat kekuasaannya untuk melakukan apa yang disebut sebagai desoekarnoisasi.

Karantina politik
Soekarno meninggal dalam status tahanan rumah. Sungguh tragis nasib Sang Proklamator ini di pengujung hidupnya. Ia digiring dalam sebuah karantina politik, diasingkan dari berbagai hal yang membuatnya merasa bermakna, yakni anak-istri, teman seiring, pengikut-pengikut setia, kerumunan massa dan pidato-pidato yang menggairahkan. Bahkan, untuk sekadar menyalurkan hobi berjalan-jalan dan membaca surat kabar pun Soekarno sempat tak diizinkan.

Seperti yang telah diwasiatkan almarhum, keluarga Soekarno hendak memakamkan almarhum di Batu Tulis, Bogor. Namun, sebagai penguasa Orde Baru, Soeharto berkehendak lain. Bagi Soeharto, Bogor terlalu dekat dengan Jakarta dan pemakaman Bung Karno di sana dikhawatirkan suatu hari dapat menimbulkan dampak negatif bagi Orde Baru. Soeharto juga menolak usul pemakaman Bung Karno di taman makam pahlawan di Jakarta. Blitar, nun jauh di sana, tempat asal orangtua Bung Karno, dianggap "aman" untuk memakamkan Putra Sang Fajar.

Upacara pemakaman Soekarno dilaksanakan dengan sederhana dan singkat. Teks pidato pemerintah yang dibacakan Jenderal M Panggabean dibuat sedapat mungkin seimbang dalam menggambarkan kebaikan dan keburukan Bung Karno. Namun, Soeharto juga menunjukkan penghormatannya terhadap Soekarno dengan mengumumkan hari berkabung nasional, sekaligus menggelar upacara pemakaman secara militer.

Dalam hal ini, Soeharto tampak sangat hati-hati dan memperhitungkan benar dampak keputusan yang diambilnya pada momentum kematian Soekarno. Soeharto sadar masyarakat masih banyak yang mengidolakan Soekarno, dan dalam kondisi seperti ini, mengontrol secara ketat proses pemakaman Soekarno dapat menimbulkan gejolak yang tidak menguntungkan. Prioritas Soeharto lebih pada upaya menghindari situasi eksplosif yang bisa muncul akibat suasana emosional di kalangan pendukung Soekarno. Dengan kata lain, Soeharto berusaha untuk mengontrol sekaligus menghormati pengaruh Bung Karno, sebuah taktik yang dipertahankan selama memimpin Orde Baru.

Prediksi Soeharto akan situasi eksplosif itu cukup masuk akal. Kematian Soekarno begitu menggemparkan masyarakat. Ribuan orang berbondong-bondong untuk memberi penghormatan terakhir bagi Soekarno. Media massa memberitakan bagaimana ratusan ribu manusia menyemut di jalan-jalan yang dilalui rombongan jenazah Bung Karno dari Lapangan Udara Bugis Malang, menuju Kota Blitar, Jawa Timur. Harian Kompas (22/6/1970) menggambarkan Kota Blitar yang kecil dan sederhana mendadak sontak menjadi penuh sesak oleh manusia. Orang-orang dari berbagai daerah datang dengan menggunakan mobil, truk, angkutan umum, sepeda motor, sepeda bahkan berjalan kaki untuk menyaksikan pemakaman Soekarno.

Meskipun demikian, masyarakat sesungguhnya menyambut kematian Soekarno dengan gamang. Situasi politik waktu itu membuat masyarakat tidak berani terang-terangan mengekspresikan kesedihan atas meninggalnya Soekarno. Meskipun telah diumumkan hari berkabung nasional, masyarakat Blitar baru berani mengibarkan bendera setengah tiang setelah ada instruksi dari Gubernur Jawa Timur M Noer. Mereka berani keluar rumah, bergerombol dan memperbincangkan apa yang terjadi setelah orang-orang dari luar daerah berdatangan untuk menyaksikan pemakaman Soekarno. (Kompas, 23/06/70)

Suasana serupa juga terjadi di Jakarta. Warta Minggu (5/7/70) memberitakan sedikit sekali pejabat tinggi, pemimpin masyarakat, instansi atau perusahaan yang berani memasang iklan belasungkawa di surat kabar. Warta Minggu mencatat mereka yang berani memasang iklan duka cita adalah DPP PNI, DPP IPKI, Keluarga Yayasan Rehabilitasi Sosial BU NALO, Keluarga Sudarmoto Djakarta, PT Hotel Indonesia Internasional, Brigdjen H Sugandhi, DPP Djamiatul Muslimin Indonesia, DPP GMNI, Fraksi PNI DPR GR dan PPK Kosgoro. "Jang lain2 mungkin 'tidak berani' pasang iklan, atau tidak melihat keuntungannja jang njata," tulis Warta Minggu.

Setelah Soekarno wafat, represi terhadap hal-hal yang berbau Soekarno justru semakin meningkat. Pada awal dekade 1970-an, diskusi tentang Bung Karno sangat dibatasi. Sebuah larangan tak resmi diberlakukan terhadap publikasi tulisan-tulisan politik Bung Karno. Nama presiden pertama Indonesia ini jarang, atau bahkan tidak pernah sama sekali, disebut-sebut oleh unsur-unsur rezim Orde Baru. Meskipun keyakinan bahwa Soekarno adalah perumus Pancasila begitu mengakar kuat dalam skema pemahaman mayoritas bangsa Indonesia, referensi yang mengaitkan Bung Karno dengan Pancasila hampir sepenuhnya diingkari oleh pemerintahan Orde Baru.

Praktik desoekarnoisasi itu merupakan kontinum dari politik yang dijalankan Orde Baru pada saat-saat sebelumnya. Konsolidasi politik pasca-G30S/1965 bukan hanya dilakukan dengan membersihkan tubuh birokrasi dan militer dari unsur-unsur PKI dan simpatisannya, namun juga dari unsur-unsur soekarnois. Amputasi politik dalam skala masif dialami kalangan loyalis Soekarno di berbagai tingkatan birokrasi dan militer. Ada yang sekadar digeser posisinya, dipecat, dipenjarakan, bahkan ada yang turut dilenyapkan dalam huru-hara politik yang penuh darah itu.

Lewat fusi paksa selepas tahun 1973, PNI sebagai simbol kelembagaan yang paling langsung dari Soekarno, dipaksa meleburkan diri dalam wadah yang justru lebih sempit, Partai Demokrasi Indonesia (PDI). Orang-orang PNI yang masih Soekarnois tak diberi pilihan lain, bahkan teror-teror langsung dan sistematis dialami aktivis-aktivis PNI di pusat dan terutama sekali di daerah yang berusaha melakukan perlawanan.

Rezim Orde Baru juga sempat melarang penggunaan gambar dan simbol Soekarno dalam kampanye Pemilu 1987, meskipun pelarangan ini terbukti tidak efektif. Pelarangan gambar Soekarno ini merupakan ekspresi permukaan dari tindakan sistematis rezim Orde Baru untuk menggunakan status legal-formalnya guna menyudahi eksistensi Soekarno sebagai ideologi dan institusi politik. Demikian juga ketika Orde Baru menghalangi usaha Rachmawati Soekarno untuk mendirikan Universitas Bung Karno tahun 1984. Yang terakhir dan paling fenomenal, rezim Orde Baru secara kasar menggusur Megawati Soekarnoputri dari pucuk pimpinan PDI tahun 1996.

Pancasila dan Bung Karno
Khalayak nasional pernah dibikin heboh oleh artikel berjudul Proses Perumusan Pancasila Dasar Negara di Sinar Harapan, 3 Agustus 1981. Artikel ini ditulis Nugroho Notosusanto yang ketika itu sebagai Kepala Pusat Sejarah Militer ABRI. Dalam artikelnya, Nugroho menyatakan Soekarno bukan orang pertama yang merumuskan lima prinsip Pancasila. Menurut Nugroho, perumus utama Pancasila adalah Muhammad Yamin, Supomo, baru kemudian Soekarno. Peran Soekarno hanyalah dalam hal memunculkan istilah Pancasila. Bertolak dari premis ini, Nugroho juga menggugat keabsahan tanggal 1 Juni 1945 sebagai hari lahirnya Pancasila.

Menarik untuk dicatat, premis yang merupakan reevaluasi terhadap sejarah Pancasila ini paralel dengan perubahan kebijakan rezim Orde Baru. Soeharto kemudian menghapus peringatan lahirnya Pancasila pada tanggal 1 Juni, dan melarang semua bentuk peringatan pada tanggal itu. Meskipun menimbulkan keberatan dari berbagai pihak, rezim Orde Baru secara terang-terangan justru mengabsahkan premis Nugroho. Tahun 1982, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan mengembangkan artikel Nugroho itu menjadi sebuah booklet 69 halaman yang dijadikan bacaan wajib bagi para guru pengajar pelajaran Pendidikan Moral Pancasila (PMP).

Ada hal yang kurang relevan dalam tulisan Nugroho. Perumusan Pancasila adalah proses sejarah yang terjadi tahun 1945, namun Nugroho menghubung-hubungkannya dengan apa yang terjadi pada dekade 1960-an. Nugroho menegaskan, generasi muda perlu diberi tahu pengalaman sejarah Orde Lama di mana ideologi marxisme-leninisme berkembang, agar mereka tidak mengulangi salah langkah pada masa itu, semata-mata hanya karena tidak tahu. Nugroho juga melihat pencabutan kekuasaan pemerintahan dari Soekarno oleh MPRS tahun 1967 adalah "faktor yang menjulang tinggi" di dalam persoalan pengamanan Pancasila dari ancaman ideologi marxisme-leninisme sebagaimana yang dimaksud oleh Ketetapan MPRS No XXV/ MPRS/1966.

Selanjutnya, menurut Nugroho, penghormatan terhadap jasa-jasa Soekarno seharusnya tidak membutakan mata masyarakat terhadap "kenyataan bahwa selama zaman Orde Lama itu, Bung Karno memberikan keleluasaan bergerak kepada PKI, dan bahkan mendukung partai itu dengan menyingkirkan kekuatan-kekuatan Pancasilais yang dapat mengimbangi kaum komunis..."

Perlu dipertanyakan apa relevansi ditampilkannya "tafsir" sejarah itu. Sebab Nugroho tidak sedang berbicara tentang ancaman komunisme terhadap Pancasila, atau "kesaktian" Pancasila dalam menghadapi berbagai rongrongan. Proses perumusan Pancasila notabene berhenti pada 18 Agustus 1945 ketika PPKI mengesahkan UUD 1945, dan tentu saja berbeda dengan "proses perjalanan Pancasila sebagai dasar negara". Nugroho terlalu jauh masuk dalam pembahasan tentang sepak terjang politik Soekarno sehingga sedikit keluar dari konteks bahasan lahirnya Pancasila.

Di sisi lain, Nugroho juga menegaskan rumusan Pancasila 1 Juni 1945 rentan terhadap ancaman komunisme. Nugroho menunjukkan bagaimana tokoh PKI seperti DN Aidit dan Nyoto pernah menggunakan sila internasionalisme, salah satu sila dalam Pancasila rumusan 1 Juni, untuk mendukung ide-ide komunismenya. Sebuah kesimpulan yang simplistik. Legitimasi atas rumusan Pancasila 1 Juni juga datang dari berbagai pihak, dengan latar belakang dan alasan yang berbeda dengan yang diutarakan tokoh PKI tadi.

Dua minggu setelah artikel Nugroho itu dimuat, Institut Soekarno-Hatta mengumumkan "Deklarasi Pancasila" yang berisi penegasan bahwa tanggal 1 Juni merupakan hari lahirnya Pancasila. Deklarasi ini ditandatangani 17 tokoh masyarakat yang sebagian mempunyai latar belakang antikomunis. Mereka di antaranya adalah Jusuf Hasyim (pemimpin PPP), Usep Ranawijaya (pemimpin senior PDI), HR Dharsono (mantan Sekretaris Jenderal ASEAN) dan Jenderal (Purn) Hugeng. Deklarasi ini dibacakan di Monumen Soekarno-Hatta, Jalan Proklamasi Jakarta pada pukul 00.00, 17 Agustus 1981. Sebuah pemandangan yang menarik. Sejumlah tokoh dengan otoritas politik yang tinggi melakukan perlawanan simbolis terhadap seorang ahli sejarah yang baru saja menggugat sebuah versi sejarah. Kompetensi akademis dilawan secara politis.

Dalam kacamata Brooks, tindakan Nugroho di atas mendapat restu pemerintah, sebagai bagian dari usaha untuk menciptakan "keseimbangan" perspektif tentang Soekarno. Peningkatan idealisasi terhadap Soekarno di kalangan loyalis Soekarno dan generasi muda, diimbangi dengan usaha-usaha untuk menegaskan makna penting Soekarno dalam konteks sejarah. Kebangkitan kekuatan nostalgis terhadap Soekarno dan semakin kuatnya mitos-mitos tentang Soekarno sekitar tahun 1978 cukup mengkhawatirkan Orde Baru sehingga Nugroho diinstruksikan untuk melakukan counter dengan menciptakan gambaran-gambaran yang negatif tentang Soekarno.

Meskipun premis-premisnya sempat memicu kontroversi, Nugroho dipromosikan pemerintah menjadi Rektor UI tahun 1982. Setahun kemudian, Nugroho diangkat menjadi Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. Dalam jabatan yang terakhir ini, Nugroho pernah diinstruksikan Soeharto untuk merevisi pelajaran sejarah sekolah dengan menekankan instabilitas politik di era kepemimpinan Soekarno tahun 50-an. Berawal dari sinilah kemudian bermunculan konstruksi-konstruksi unfavourable tentang Soekarno dalam buku teks sejarah.

Konstruksi unfavourable tentang Soekarno diidentifikasi Leigh dalam buku teks Tiga Puluh Tahun Indonesia Merdeka. Buku ini terdiri dari empat volume: volume 1 dan 2 menjelaskan sejarah era kepemimpinan Soekarno. Volume 1 (1945-1949) diawali dengan sampul foto Soekarno membacakan Proklamasi Kemerdekaan 1945. Dalam kacamata Leigh, foto yang memperlihatkan Soekarno sedang menundukkan pandangannya ini cenderung menafikan kharisma Soekarno. Buku ini terdiri dari 254 halaman dilengkapi dengan foto atau gambar. Namun, foto Soekarno hanya dimunculkan 14 kali dan menurut Leigh rata-rata berupa foto yang sulit diamati karena berukuran kecil atau foto dengan sudut pengambilan yang kurang tepat.

Leigh membandingkannya dengan foto-foto Letkol Soeharto. Di antaranya adalah foto yang menonjolkan wajahnya, serta foto yang menunjukkan dia sedang di tengah-tengah kerumunan prajurit, yang menggambarkan peran pentingnya dalam Serangan Oemoem I Maret 1949 di Yogyakarta. Foto yang lain berupa foto sepenuh halaman Soeharto dengan para veteran perang, serta foto Soeharto dengan Sultan Yogyakarta. Foto-foto ini, menurut Leigh, memperteguh citra Soeharto sebagai militer yang bersih dan sosok pemimpin yang terpercaya.

Periode 1945-1949 merupakan puncak karier Soekarno sebagai negarawan maupun politisi. Namun, eksistensi Soekarno justru dikecilkan atau dikeluarkan dari teks resmi pemerintah yang membahas sejarah periode itu. Eksklusi terhadap eksistensi Soekarno bersandingan dengan inklusi terhadap eksistensi militer di era revolusi fisik, dengan penonjolan peranan Soeharto pada momentum Serangan Oemoem 1 Maret.

Satu fakta yang sangat menarik juga ditemukan Leigh dalam soal-soal ujian untuk materi sejarah tingkat sekolah dasar. Dalam soal-soal pilihan berganda itu, Soekarno ternyata banyak ditempatkan pada pilihan jawaban yang salah untuk pertanyaan-pertanyaan seputar Pancasila, perjuangan melawan penjajah, dan penumpasan pemberontakan pascakemerdekaan. Sebaliknya, Leigh tidak menemukan satu pun soal ujian yang menempatkan nama Soeharto dalam pilihan jawaban yang salah. Fakta ini menurut Leigh dapat berdampak buruk terhadap persepsi siswa terhadap peranan Soekarno maupun Soeharto dalam sejarah.

Meminjam istilah Cornelis Lay, Soekarno bukan saja terus bertahan sebagai ideologi dan pemikiran politik, namun dari waktu ke waktu mendapatkan impor energi yang semakin besar dari kegagalan Orde Baru dalam merumuskan ideologi yang ingin mereka bangun.

* Agus Sudibyo

Peneliti pada Institut Studi Arus Informasi Jakarta, menulis buku Citra Bung Karno, Analisis Berita Pers Orde Baru

As we’ve seen, in earlier articles on these imperialistic rulers (Part 1, Part 2), the British and American ruling cabal decided that the energy of choice for the world would be oil and natural gas (not coal) –just as the drugs of choice would be alcohol and tobacco.

To overcome the problem of his oil holdings being broken apart by the US government in 1911, John Rockefeller set out to control the world’s energy reserves. World War I was the strategy of the world oil cartel (Standard, Shell, British Petroleum) to take over the colonies of France, Holland, Spain and Portugal. The engines of war now ran on petroleum-based products, so ownership of oil could determine who won or lost a war –therefore who would rule the world. Oil, instead of gold, became the token of power.

By 1919, the Oil Empire, not based on countries or nations, but on private corporations, ruled the world.

The Big Three oil cartel, which controlled oil in the Persian Gulf and southeast Asia areas, wanted to gain control over the vast oil reserves in the southern part of the Soviet Union. They financed the fascist regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan with the hope that they would invade and control Russia. The Oil Rulers planned to defeat the German, Italian, and Japanese regimes and take control of the oil reserves in the Soviet Union. The Rockefeller circle also planned to take control of Persian Gulf oil from the British-Persian Oil cartel and seize control of southeast Asian oil from Royal Dutch Shell.

The United States was brought into the second world war when in July 1941, President Roosevelt signed an embargo to stop all shipping to Japan. This was said to be in retaliation for the Japanese invasion of French Indo-China. Roosevelt’s US embargo cut off the Japanese oil supply, which would have quickly shut down Japan’s entire economy. In late November 1941 the Japanese sent a written “war warning” through diplomatic channels to Washington, demanding that the embargo be stopped, or else American sites in the Pacific would be attacked in retaliation. That formal diplomatic warning was ignored and the US made no reply. Just two weeks later the Japanese bombed the American embargo ships located in Pearl Harbor.

In 1939 and ‘40, the Germans and Italians did not attack Russia as the Big Three had planned. Instead, German General Rommel rushed across North Africa to grab the Suez Canal and control all oil shipping through the canal. Rommel then planned to drive through to Persia and toss out the British from the British-Persian oil fields. Meanwhile, after a failed attack on Russia in 1939, the Japanese swept through Southeast Asia and seized all the oil holdings of Royal Dutch Shell. With the defeat of Japan in 1945, most of those Royal Dutch fields came under the control of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.

Hitler had planned to capture the oil fields in Romania by 1939 so Germany would have its own supply of oil. This was accomplished. Then Rommel was to have captured the oil fields in Persia by 1941, the oil fields in Russia in 1942. Only then would Hitler have sufficient fuel for prosecuting a war with the United States. But less than a week after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese convinced Hitler to declare war on the United States. Hitler agreed only if the Japanese would attack Russia, since German troops were now bogged down in Russia and Hitler would gain strategic advantage if the Russians had to defend themselves from Japan on their eastern flank. When the Japanese failed to attack Russia, Hitler was driven out of Russia and now was without a fuel source. The Romanian oil fields in Ploesti were insufficient for Germany to carry on a war on two fronts, and Germany’s war effort began to collapse.

The last major German campaign was the Battle of the Bulge, in which Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt was to attack the invading allies with his tanks, then capture the Allied fuel dumps. This would stop the American and British forces and obtain the necessary fuel for Germany to continue its war effort. But General Eisenhower ordered the Allied fuel dumps burned and Germany was defeated.

At the end of World War II, the British-Persian Oil Company controlled the vast oil fields in Iran. The Persians had declared their alignment with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi “Aryan Race” movement and were fully expecting German General Rommel to come rushing across Africa and “free” them from the British. They had even proclaimed their alignment with Hitler by changing the name of their country from Persia to “Aryan,” (or “Iran” in the Farsi language), but the Germans failed to save them.

To take control of Persian Gulf oil from the British, in 1954 Kermit Roosevelt, nephew of Franklin, led an American CIA coup to take control of Iran and place in power the American-backed Shah of Iran. The Shah expelled the British, and Rockefeller’s Standard Oil now had control of the British-Persian petroleum fields.

In the early 1950s, Occidental Petroleum’s Armand Hammer, a satrap of the Rockefellers, negotiated a deal with Russian dictator Joseph Stalin to buy his oil –thus effectively stealing it from the Russian people. Russian oil was then sold on the world market at a much higher price than Stalin could get by marketing it himself, because few countries were willing to buy oil from Stalin.

Occidental Petroleum and Russia built two large pipelines, from the Russian oil fields down along both sides of the Caspian Sea, terminating in the old British-Persian –now Standard Oil– oil fields in Iran. For the next 45 years, Russia secretly sent its oil out through those pipelines and Standard Oil sold the oil on the world market at the “West Texas Crude” price by calling it Iranian oil. For almost fifty yeas most Americans have been using Russian oil in their cars.

Standard Oil refineries, which produce gasoline from crude oil, are located at large sea ports like San Francisco, Houston or Los Angeles, not near any of the large American oil fields. Most oil from the Persian Gulf is shipped in oil tankers to those large American refinery-ports.

In 1979, the Standard Oil-backed Shah of Iran was thrown out by a British-backed coup and the long-time British asset, Ayatollah Khomeini, put into power. The flow of Russian oil through Iran suddenly stopped. Other oil pipelines were constructed through Iraq and Turkey. The Russian oil was now called OPEC Arabian-Middle Eastern oil and marketed at the even higher “spot market” price. So in 1979, in America and Europe, we suddenly experienced gasoline shortages and huge increases in the price of gasoline. Also in 1979 Standard Oil-Russian oil interests tried to secure an alternate, short, safe oil pipeline route from Russia through neighboring Afghanistan, but this only resulted in a prolonged war and the project was abandoned.

When the new British-controlled regime in Iran came into power, the Rockefeller-influenced US government immediately threatened to seize $7.9 billion of Iranian assets located in the US On November 4, 1979 Iranian “terrorists” captured and held hostage 65 Americans. Essentially, Standard Oil was being blackmailed by the hostage strategy. After lengthy negotiations, the Rockefeller-created President Jimmy Carter approved the electronic transfer of 7.9 billion dollars from US accounts to the Iranian regime on January 20, 1981.

On Wednesday January 27, 1988, as announced in the Wall Street Journal, Standard Oil merged with British Petroleum. This actually represents Standard Oil’s buyout of British Petroleum, the name of the newly merged company being BP-America. The Wall Street Journal did not see fit to mention worries about the world-wide predatory marketing practices of a deceptively titled Standard Oil regime.

During the last 13 years, BP-America has merged with, or controls, all of the old Standard Oil “mini-companies” which existed before the original breakup by the US government in 1911. The new Standard Oil regime is now known as BP-AMOCO, and few people in the world realize what has happened. It’s now possible to understand why British Prime Minister Blair has become the spokesman for the new wars against terrorism (actually the war for Caspian Sea and Iraq oil).

At the end of WWII, General Douglas MacArthur became the military Governor of Japan. MacArthur’s assistant was Laurence Rockefeller, one of John D. Rockefeller’s four grandsons. As the second world war was drawing to a close, the US was preparing for a massive invasion of the Japanese home islands.

The military had stockpiled vast supplies of weapons and munitions on the island of Okinawa. Some sources claim that with Vice-governor Laurence Rockefeller’s assistance most of the armaments were sold to the leader of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, for something like one US dollar and Ho’s “goodwill.” One might wonder why these expensive and critical military supplies were “given” to the North Vietnamese.

To answer that question we have to go to an almost unknown study in the 1920’s prepared by a man named Herbert Hoover, later to become President of the United States. The study showed that one of the world’s largest oil fields ran along the coast of the South China Sea right off French Indo-China, now known as Vietnam. This was before offshore drilling had been invented and before a man named George Herbert Walker Bush was to become the CEO of a world-wide offshore drilling company.

In 1945, Vietnam was still a colony of the French. Laurence Rockefeller, it appears, had given the extensive store of weapons to Ho Chi Minh with the hope that Vietnam would drive out the French so that Standard Oil would be able to take over the as yet undeveloped offshore fields. In 1954, Vietnamese General Giap finally defeated and drove out the French at Dien Bien Phu with weaponry provided by the US. However, Ho Chi Minh reneged on the deal since he could read too, and he was well aware of the Hoover resource report and knew there was a vast supply of oil off the Vietnamese coast.

“In the 1950’s a method of undersea oil exploration was perfected which used small explosions deep in the water and then recorded the sound echoes bouncing off the various layers of rock below. The surveyor could then determine the exact location of the arched salt domes which hold the accumulated oil beneath them. But if this method were used off the Vietnam coast on property Standard didn’t own or have the rights to, the Vietnamese, the Chinese, the Japanese and probably even the French would quickly run to the United Nations and complain that America was stealing the oil, and that would shut down the operation.

”In 1964, after Vietnam was divided into North and South, and the contrived Gulf of Tonkin incident, several US aircraft carriers were stationed offshore of Vietnam and the ‘war’ was started. Every day jet planes would take off from the carriers, bomb locations in North and South Vietnam, and then using normal military procedure when returning would dump their unsafe or unused bombs in the ocean before landing back on the carriers. Safe ordnance drop zones were designated for this purpose away from the carriers.

“Even close-up observers would only notice many small explosions occurring daily in the waters of the South China Sea and thought it was only part of the ‘war’. The US Navy carriers had begun Operation Linebacker One, and Standard Oil had begun its ten year oil survey of the seabed off of Vietnam. And the Vietnamese, Chinese and everybody else around, including the Americans, were none the wiser. The oil survey hardly cost Standard Oil a nickel, the US taxpayers paid for it.” (Marshall Douglas Smith, 2001, Black Gold Hot Gold, Ch. 3).

So twenty years later and 57,000 Americans and half a million Vietnamese dead, Standard Oil had enough data and the war in Vietnam could end. Nelson Rockefeller’s personal assistant, Henry Kissinger, represented the US at the Vietnam/Paris Peace talks and won a Nobel Peace Prize in the bargain.

After the dust had settled from the war, Vietnam divided their offshore coastal area into numerous oil lots and allowed foreign companies to bid on the lots, with the proviso that Vietnam got a percentage of the action. Norway’s Statoil, British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Russia, Germany and Australia all won bids and began drilling within their areas. Strange it was that none of them struck oil. However, the lots which Standard Oil bid for and won proved to have vast oil reserves. Their extensive undersea seismic research appears to have paid off.

Unfortunately, Big Oil’s greed has not abated a whit. The American and British rulers have a new imperialistic strategy by which they hope to gain total control of the world’s energy supplies and the strategic Eurasian land mass. First, they sell armaments to a regime (for example, Panama, Iraq, Yugoslavia/Kosovo, Afghan/Pakistan/Taliban Mujaheddin, Saudi Arabia). Then, they demonize the regime to which they sold the armaments and declare war on it (e.g. Panama Invasion, Gulf War, UN Kosovo war, Afghanistan war, Iraq War). After the war, they station permanent military bases in the country and use the military bases to control the energy resources in the surrounding countries. Current US foreign policy is governed by the doctrine of “full-spectrum dominance”: the US must control military, economic and political developments everywhere.

“If you want to rule the world, you need to control oil. All the oil. Anywhere.” (Monopoly, by Michel Collon).

This new strategy began with the Panama invasion, next created the so-called Gulf War, continued with the UN-sanctioned war in the Balkans, and now expands with the new wars against terrorism (Afghanistan, the Philippines, Iraq, and beyond). On January 20, 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that he was willing to deploy US military forces in “another 15 countries” if that is what it takes to combat terrorism. The reason the so-called “war against terrorism” began in Afghanistan is because it is critical to the US-British rulers’ plans to control the Caspian Sea area oil and gas.

The UN-sanctioned war in the Balkans was all about oil and the pipeline easement for Caspian Sea oil to Western European markets through Kosovo to the Mediterranean Sea. When Yugoslavia refused to play ball with the International Monetary Fund, the US and Germany began a systematic campaign of destabilization, even using some of the veterans of Afghanistan in that “war”. Yugoslavia was broken up into compliant statelets, and the former Soviet Union was contained. The outcome: the de facto US occupation of Kosovo –where America built its largest military base since the Vietnam War.

The Caspian Sea area has proven oil reserves of fifteen to twenty-eight billion barrels plus estimated reserves of 40-178 billion, a total of 206 billion barrels –16 percent of the earth’s potential oil reserves (compared to Saudi’s 261 billion barrels of oil and America’s own 22 billion barrels). Even at today’s low prices, that could add up to $3 trillion in oil. With the Saudi regime tottering –an aging king about to die, widespread internal corruption creating calls for revolutionary overthrow– and a new source of oil and gas in the Caucasus, the Standard Oil suzerainty is looking to create a new regime in Saudi Arabia and develop a new center of operations in Southern Asia –think Iraq.

The huge oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea must either be moved west to European markets or south to Asian markets. The western route is to move oil from Chechnya, across the Black Sea and through the Bosporus to the Mediterranean, but the narrow Bosporus channel is already clogged with oil tankers from the Black Sea oil fields. An alternate route would be to move the tankers from the Black Sea, bypassing the Bosporus, up the Danube River and then through a very short pipeline across Kosovo to the Mediterranean at Tirana, Albania. However, that process was stopped by the Chinese who have supplied and armed the Albanians, as a client state, since 1949.

The other difficulty with the western route is that Western Europe is a tough market, characterized by high prices for oil products, an aging population, and increasing competition from natural gas. Furthermore, the region is fiercely competitive, now being serviced by oil from the Middle East, the North Sea, Scandinavia, and Russia. Western Europe is not a very attractive market, because substantial infrastructure would have to be developed to bring that oil from the Caspian to an already overly-competitive European market.

The only other ways to get Caspian Sea oil and gas to Asian markets is through China, which is too long a route, or through Iran, which is politically and economically inimical to US-Standard Oil objectives.

As soon as the Soviets discovered the vast Caspian Sea oil fields in the late 1970’s, they attempted to take control of Afghanistan to build a massive north-south pipeline system to allow the Soviets to send their oil directly through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean seaport. The result was the decades long Soviet-Afghan war. The Standard Oil-influenced U.S. government saw the danger of a Russian north-south pipeline and the CIA trained and funded armed terrorist groups, including Osama bin Laden, who defeated the Soviets in the late 1980’s.

The Russians then tried to control the flow of oil and gas through its monopoly on pipelines. The Southern Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union –Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan– saw through this Russian monopolistic ploy and began to consult with Western companies.

The Standard Oil-influenced US government now plans to thrust further along the 40th parallel from the Balkans through these Southern Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union. The US military has already set up a permanent operations base in Uzbekistan. The so-called anti-terrorist strategy is clearly designed to simultaneously consolidate control over Middle Eastern and South Asian oil, and contain and neutralize the former Soviet Union. With that strategy, Afghanistan is exactly where they need to be.

Russia, realizing its weaker position vis-a-vis the United States, has been making noises as if it fully agreed with the US incursions in Afghanistan. But Russia has joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. China is using the SCO to try to align Russia economically and politically towards China and northeast Asia. Russia’s membership in the SCO is an attempt to maintain its traditional hegemony in Central Asia. The underlying rationale of the SCO is the control of its members’ enormous reserves of oil and gas.

Despite the misgivings of Russia, China, India, or any other nation, Afghanistan and Iraq will now become the base of operations in destabilizing, isolating, and establishing control over the South Asian regimes and the Middle-East. [Note that Iran stands between Iraq and Afghanistan and you can understand why bush included Iran in the “Axis of Evil.”] After the conquest of this area is complete and the permanent military posts are set up, they will begin construction of a pipeline through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to deliver petroleum to the Asian market.

UNOCAL, the spearhead for Standard Oil interests, has been trying to build the north-south pipeline through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean for several decades. In 1998, the California-based UNOCAL, which held 46.5 percent stakes in Central Asia Gas (CentGas), a consortium that planned an ambitious gas pipeline across Afghanistan, withdrew in frustration after several fruitless years. The pipeline was to stretch 1,271 km from Turkmenistan’s Dauletabad fields to Multan in Pakistan at an estimated cost of $1.9 billion. An additional $600 million would have brought the pipeline to energy-hungry India.

In the spring of 2001,