Vijay Prashad
On 2 January 2000, Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. died. The New York Times
reported the next day that Zumwalt left behind two principle legacies, his
attempt to desegregate the US Navy in the 1970s and his order to spray Agent
Orange in Vietnam (which led to the death of his son, Lt. Elmo Zumwalt III,
among countless others). I want to add a third legacy, one felt each day in the
Indian Ocean: his statement, as Chief of Naval Operations, in 1974 that the
creation of a denuclearized ‘zone of peace’ in the Indian Ocean was a ‘very
dangerous idea.’
Zumwalt’s statement came in light of Afro-Asian pressure against such
institutions as the US base at Diego Garcia (7.18s and 72.24e) in the Chagos
Archipelago, smack dab in the center of the Indian Ocean. Currently, the base is
home to, at least, the following units: (1) The 630th Air Mobility Support
Squadron (which maintains the Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space
Surveillance system). (2) The 18th Space Surveillance Squadron. (3) The 613th
Air Support Squadron (it offered logistical support to 1991 Desert Storm, 1996
Desert Strike, 1997 Desert Thunder, and 1998 Desert Fox, as well as ongoing
operations in Iraq). (4) The 22nd Space Operations Squadron (the Diego Garcia
Tracking Station, to assist in the operation of Department of Defense satellites
that ‘provide enhancement to conventional forces’ (as the DoD reports). (5) Navy
Support Facility (a liaison for the Japan Self Defense Force as well as
coordinator of US Navy activities in the Indian Ocean). (6) The 7th Fleet (which
is responsible for over 52 million miles of ocean, from San Diego to Diego
Garcia, with a forward-deployed force at Yokusuka, Japan, and Diego Garcia). (7)
The Naval Central Meteorology and Oceanography Detachment (to provide
information to the US Navy). Diego Garcia is a monument to Zumwalt at a time
when the US Navy seems to be on the defensive (for example, at Vieques, Puerto
Rico).
In December 1999, the US turned over the Panama Canal to its owners. It
seems, in some measure, as if the US is ready to demobilize its forward
positions and remove itself from some of its bases across the globe. This is
what it looked like in 1991 when the Filipino people refused to allow the US to
use its Subic Bay facility. It looked like that too in Japan with the uproar
over Okinawa, as it does now at Vieques. Is the iron hot for making the waters
peaceful? Will Diego Garcia join these familiar names as the US pulls up the
stakes on the island? Clinton pledges himself to a New Humanitarianism, to a
time of peace. Yet, as outmoded ships return home, cutting-edge vessels quietly
take their place at forward positions. (The US withdrew Southern Command from
Panama to Puerto Rico, one example of this re-arrangement, rather than
retrenchment).
On 27 May 1999 the Senate of the Philippines approved the Visiting Forces
Agreement that allowed US troops to resume large-scale military exercises and to
use its docks. This was an augmentation of a deal struck by Admiral Charles
Lawson (Commander of the US Pacific Fleet) and Lisandro Abadia (Philippines
Chief of Staff) in November 1992, which allowed US ‘ship visits, aircraft
transits, [and] small unit exercises.’ Since September 1997 the Japanese
government has violated Article 9 of its 1946 Constitution in its more
aggressive use of the Jiei-tai (Self-Defense) Forces and in the potential
US-Japan Theater Missile Defense project (which revokes the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty). The US Navy seems keen to dominate the Indian Ocean further,
making the idea of the ‘zone of peace’ all the more remote. With the May 1998
nuclear tests in India and Pakistan, it looks unlikely that the US will
willingly leave these waters. The Senate’s cancellation of CTBT was not alone in
sending a message of renewed US imperialism to the world; places like Diego
Garcia already do so.
Most people in the US know little of the US Navy’s role in the Indian Ocean.
Few know that there was once a very real initiative to stop the entrenchment of
the waters, the ‘zone of peace’ concept. The Cairo Non-Aligned Summit (1964)
recommended ‘the establishment of denuclearized zones’ in those oceans of the
world as yet without nuclear weapons. This followed the 1959 Antarctic Treaty
and the 1963 Treaty of Tlatelelco (to keep Latin America free of nuclear
weapons). By 1970, the Lusaka Non-Aligned Summit took a more forthright position
and called upon all states to ‘respect the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace from
which Great Power rivalries and competition, as well as bases’ be excluded.
The US government ignored this declaration and signed a treaty with Britain
in 1966 to make Diego Garcia available for a US base. The British pullout of the
Indian Ocean, the crisis of the Suez and the Vietnam imbroglio drew the US
toward this strategic island. By 1974, Admiral Zumwalt told the US Congress that
the Indian Ocean has ‘become a focal point of US foreign and economic policies
and has a growing impact on our security.’ The context of the oil crisis weighed
heavily on the US Congress (so much so that some expected US military engagement
in the region — this was to come some decades later). Zumwalt noted that the
USSR stood atop the ‘central part of the West’s energy jugular down to the
Persian Gulf’ (this was a decisive exaggeration). Two other historical events
are of significance: the war to liberate Bangladesh of 1971 and the 1973 Yom
Kippur War. In both the US played a significant role (in 1971, the 7th Fleet
sailed up the Bay of Bengal to help prop up the corrupt Pakistani regime in what
was to become Bangladesh).
The Indian Ocean Zone of Peace notion was an affront to Zumwalt, who told the
US Congress that ‘a permanent presence is mandatory’ since the USSR was trying
to ‘Finlandize’ the Afro-Asian littoral. He was in favor of an additional fleet,
so that use of the Pacific Fleet in the region would not provide a ‘dangerous
vacuum in US presence through the Western Pacific region.’ Indeed, this is the
case today, as the US base at Diego Garcia offers logistical support to
nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed military ships as well as aircraft — all of
which allow the US to threaten and cajole the powers in the region into its
submission.
To join the campaign against Diego Garcia send an email to [email protected].