March 16, 2025

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Section 2:

[1] U.S. Agency for International Development. (n.d.). USAID history. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/aboutus/usaidhistory. “President Kennedy recognized the need to unite development into a single agency responsible for administering aid to foreign countries to promote social and economic development. On November 3, 1961, USAID was born and with it a spirit of progress and innovation.”

[2] U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. (n.d.). USAID and PL–480, 1961–1969. Retrieved from https://history.state.gov/milestones/19611968/usaid. “Kennedy sought both to improve the administration of U.S. assistance and refocus aid to meet the needs of the developing world. In September 1961, Kennedy signed into law the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (Public Law 87–195), which mandated the establishment of a single agency for the coordination of foreign assistance.”

[3] U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. (n.d.). USAID and PL–480, 1961–1969. Retrieved from https://history.state.gov/milestones/19611968/usaid. “Johnson authorized food aid shipments to nations in order to allow recipients to redirect spending for military equipment or for security purposes.”

[4] U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. (n.d.). USAID and PL–480, 1961–1969. Retrieved from https://history.state.gov/milestones/19611968/usaid. “The administration also negotiated PL–480 agreements with countries in an attempt to dissuade these leaders from accepting assistance from U.S. adversaries. Johnson used PL–480 agreements as leverage in securing support for U.S. foreign policy goals, even placing critical famine aid to India on a limited basis, until he received assurance that the Indian Government would implement agricultural reforms and temper criticism of U.S. policy regarding Vietnam.”

[5] U.S. Agency for International Development. (n.d.). USAID history. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/aboutus/usaidhistory. “Our objective is to support partners to become selfreliant and capable of leading their own development journeys. We make progress toward this by reducing the reach of conflict, preventing the spread of pandemic disease, and counteracting the drivers of violence, instability, transnational crime, and other security threats.”

[6] U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. (n.d.). USAID and PL–480, 1961–1969. Retrieved from https://history.state.gov/milestones/19611968/usaid. “While PL–480 commodities continued to serve humanitarian aims, the program had limitations as a tool of U.S. foreign policy, especially given Congressional reductions in foreign aid outlays by the end of the decade.”

[7] U.S. Agency for International Development. (n.d.). USAID history. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/aboutus/usaidhistory. “In the 1990s, USAID's top priority became sustainable development, or helping countries improve their own quality of life. During this decade, USAID tailored development assistance programs to a country's economic condition.”

[8] U.S. Agency for International Development. (n.d.). USAID history. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/aboutus/usaidhistory. “With the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in full swing, USAID was called on to help those two countries rebuild government, infrastructure, civil society, and basic services such as health care and education.”

[9] Anderson, S. R., FelbabBrown, V., Feltman, J., Grown, C., Hansen, M., Ingram, G., Pepinsky, T., Pipa, A. F., Qargha, G. O., Reynolds, M. E., Shah, S., & Signé, L. (2025). The implications of a USAID shutdown. Brookings Institution. Retrieved from [URL]. “USAID programming that prevents and diffuses conflict and counters Moscow’s misinformation and disinformation campaigns is an important tool to mitigate Russia’s pernicious influence.”

[10] Anderson, S. R., FelbabBrown, V., Feltman, J., Grown, C., Hansen, M., Ingram, G., Pepinsky, T., Pipa, A. F., Qargha, G. O., Reynolds, M. E., Shah, S., & Signé, L. (2025). The implications of a USAID shutdown. Brookings Institution. Retrieved from [URL]. “The Trump administration’s reported plans to abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by presidential fiat raise serious questions of constitutional law.”

[11] Anderson, S. R., FelbabBrown, V., Feltman, J., Grown, C., Hansen, M., Ingram, G., Pepinsky, T., Pipa, A. F., Qargha, G. O., Reynolds, M. E., Shah, S., & Signé, L. (2025). The implications of a USAID shutdown. Brookings Institution. Retrieved from [URL]. “In a 2017 analysis, 11 of the 15 largest trading partners of the U.S. were former recipients of aid.”

[12] U.S. Agency for International Development. (n.d.). USAID history. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov/aboutus/usaidhistory. “After the atrocities on 9/11, however, USAID’s obligations grew significantly and immediately—by 70% between 2001 to 2003—because policymakers in Congress and presidential administrations recognized that addressing poverty, improving health, and supporting economic growth overseas made America safer at home.”

Section 3:

[13] Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. (2016). Winning the Peace – USAID and the Demobilization of the Nicaraguan Contras. “AID was asked to do it by Congress because they wanted to get it away from the CIA and from the NSC [National Security Council] because of all that had just gone on in the IranContra affair.” (p. 2)

[14] Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. (2016). Winning the Peace – USAID and the Demobilization of the Nicaraguan Contras. “The feeling was that, if the Contras were disarmed and disbanded immediately, then they wouldn’t be out there as a potential pressure to be reactivated if the peace process broke down.” (p. 3)

[15] Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. (2016). Winning the Peace – USAID and the Demobilization of the Nicaraguan Contras. “We were heavily criticized by some who were the big supporters of the Contras about the tight oversight and accountability systems we put in place.” (p. 8)

[16] Newsweek. (2025, February 7). Map shows countries welcoming USAID shutdown. “The White House ordered a 90day suspension of U.S. foreign aidfunded projects globally, to ascertain if they aligned with 'American interests' and 'American values.'” (p. 2)

[17] Caracas Chronicles. (2025, February 11). USAID’s Funding Freeze Meets AntiNGO Law in Venezuela. “As some Venezuelan NGOs are preparing to become clandestine over the new law, others are dealing with the unexpected effects of the USAID freeze just a few weeks before the ‘antisociety law’ comes into effect.” (p. 4)

[18] Caracas Chronicles. (2025, February 11). USAID’s Funding Freeze Meets AntiNGO Law in Venezuela. “The entire execution of our program has been diminished and, to some extent, paralyzed by the uncertainty.” (p. 5)

[19] Cuban News Agency. (2025, February 3). https://cubasi.cu/en/news/venezuelanoppositiondiverted116milliondeliveredusaid. Venezuelan Opposition Diverted $116 Million Delivered by USAID. “Disclosed files from the U.S. embassy in Venezuela indicate that farright Venezuelan opposition figure and fugitive from justice Carlos Vecchio received US$116 million through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).”

[20] Cuban News Agency. (2025, February 3). https://cubasi.cu/en/news/venezuelanoppositiondiverted116milliondeliveredusaid. Venezuelan Opposition Diverted $116 Million Delivered by USAID. “These funds were supposedly allocated 'as development assistance for Venezuelans living in Venezuela,' and were intended to reach them through various NGOs. However, the management of these funds lacked transparency, and they were misappropriated. It later emerged that these NGOs were linked to other Venezuelan politicians and their relatives, who live abroad without working.”

[21] Cuban News Agency. (2025, February 3). https://cubasi.cu/en/news/venezuelanoppositiondiverted116milliondeliveredusaid. Venezuelan Opposition Diverted $116 Million Delivered by USAID. “The FBI is trying to determine the whereabouts of approximately US$1 billion managed between 2018 and 2020 under this pretext, which was provided by USAID. According to journalistic sources and media reports, only 2% of that amount was properly used.”

[22] Center for Preventive Action. (2024, October 9). Venezuela Crisis. Council on Foreign Relations. “U.S. sanctions since 2017 have crippled Venezuela’s economy, contributing to hyperinflation, food insecurity (9.3 million affected), and mass migration (over 7 million fled).” (p. 1)

[23] Center for Preventive Action. (2024, October 9). Venezuela Crisis. Council on Foreign Relations. “The U.S. State Department maintains deep concerns regarding Maduro’s human rights record, over which he is being investigated for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).” (p. 4)

[24] Center for Preventive Action. (2024, October 9). Venezuela Crisis. Council on Foreign Relations. “Even after Maduro allowed limited Red Cross aid in 2019, U.S. sanctions blocked critical imports, deepening reliance on foreign aid.” (p. 4)

[25] U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2024, March 28). Ukraine: Status of foreign assistance (Report No. GAO24106884). “State, USAID, Treasury, and USDA identified $44.1 billion in foreign assistance as allocated in response to the crisis in Ukraine.” (p. 3)

[26] U.S. Agency for International Development. (2017). Ukraine: Transition initiatives. “USAID/OTI’s goal is to enable vulnerable communities in eastern Ukraine to actively participate in, benefit from and advocate for Ukraine’s transition to a prosperous, unified and democratic state.” (p. 2)

[27] U.S. Agency for International Development. (2017). Ukraine: Transition initiatives. “USAID/OTI helps local government reform processes, such as eprocurement and onestop Administrative Service Centers that link Ukrainians to their government in constructive ways.” (p. 2)

[28] Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. (2016). Winning the Peace – USAID and the Demobilization of the Nicaraguan Contras. “We trained them in democracy and gave them enough faith that they could achieve their purpose through an election instead of through the guns, through the rebellion.” (p. 14)

[29] Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. (2016). Winning the Peace – USAID and the Demobilization of the Nicaraguan Contras. “I bet we trained enough barbers to cut all the hairs in Central America every day.” (p. 13)

[30] Shulzhenko, D., & York, C. (2025, January 31). US foreign aid transformed Ukraine. Its suspension threatens decades of work. The Kyiv Independent. “With the stroke of a pen, U.S. President Donald Trump last week put a freeze on projects that have helped Ukraine become freer and more democratic since the earliest days of its independence in 1991.” (p. 2)

[31] Caracas Chronicles. (2025, February 11). USAID’s Funding Freeze Meets Anti-NGO Law in Venezuela. “Nearly 90% of regional media funding relies on grants, with advertising accounting for only 310% of their revenue.” (p. 7)

[32] Graham, M. (n.d.). USAID in Afghanistan. CounterPunch. “With a grant of $51 million dollars between 198494, [USAID] funded the University of Nebraska’s Afghanistan Studies Center and its leader Thomas Gouttierre, who produced a series of now infamous textbooks for schoolchildren.” (p. 1).

[33] Graham, M. (n.d.). USAID in Afghanistan. CounterPunch. “One group of mujahidin attack 50 Russian soldiers. In that attack 20 Russians were killed. How many Russians fled?” (p. 2).

[34] Graham, M. (n.d.). USAID in Afghanistan. CounterPunch. “Dal [is for] Religion (din). Our religion is Islam. The Russians are the enemies of the religion of Islam.” (p. 2).

[35] Graham, M. (n.d.). USAID in Afghanistan. CounterPunch. “By the time the United States had taken over the attack on Afghanistan from the Soviet Union, it was clear that this kind of shortsighted brainwashing had been a major force in shaping the fanatical worldviews of a generation of Afghan refugees—boys who would grow up to become members of the Taliban.” (p. 2).

[36] Madsen, W. (2014, April 8). USAID: A history of front companies acting on behalf of the CIA. Intrepid Report. “In the 1980s, when Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Jr., spent time in Pakistan, USAID opened up a major office in Islamabad that distributed ‘nonlethal aid’ to Afghan mujaheddin refugees in Pakistan, particularly in Peshawar.” (p. 3).

[37] Madsen, W. (2014, April 8). USAID: A history of front companies acting on behalf of the CIA. Intrepid Report. “Some of the USAID assistance was also reportedly used to buy weapons for the Afghan mujaheddin but some of the weapons ended up in the hands of Pakistani Muslim radicals intent on ousting Pakistani dictator Muhammad Ziaul Haq. Other USAID money ended up paying for expensive automobiles for leading Afghan mujaheddin commanders in Pakistan.” (p. 3).

[38] Graham, M. (n.d.). USAID in Afghanistan. CounterPunch. “By the time the United States had taken over the attack on Afghanistan from the Soviet Union, it was clear that this kind of shortsighted brainwashing had been a major force in shaping the fanatical worldviews of a generation of Afghan refugees—boys who would grow up to become members of the Taliban.” (p. 2).

[39] U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (n.d.a). Our Work | Syria. Archived Content. “USAID stabilization programming supports three overarching policy objectives: I. The enduring defeat of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). II. The removal of Iranian forces and proxies from Syria. III. Implementation of UNSCR 2254: The United States will not provide any reconstruction funding to regimeheld areas in Syria until it ceases to be a state sponsor of terrorism; does not threaten its neighbors; verifiably dismantles and surrenders its weapons of mass destruction; creates conditions for the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of refugees and internally displaced persons; and holds accountable those who have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity.” (para. 3).

[40] U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (n.d.a). Our Work | Syria. Archived Content. “The project also helps support the White Helmets, the heroic first responders operating in an active warzone, under deliberate targeting by the Syrian regime and Russia.” (para. 6).

[41] Madsen, W. (2014, April 8). USAID: A history of front companies acting on behalf of the CIA. Intrepid Report. “The contract to CAI was awarded as part of the State Department’s ‘Civil Society Support Program,’ the same program that has been used by the CIA to foment rebellions in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Iran, and other countries.” (p. 1).

[42] Graham, M. (n.d.). USAID in Afghanistan. CounterPunch. “In 2009, Pakistani journalists Ahmed Quraishi and Shireen Mazari reported that the CAII headquarters in Peshawar was being used as a front for Blackwater/Xe mercenaries (aka the ‘CIA’s private army’) to stage raids into the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.” (p. 3).

[43] Madsen, W. (2014, April 8). USAID: A history of front companies acting on behalf of the CIA. Intrepid Report. “In the 1980s... USAID money was funneled through the National Endowment for Democracy to the Nicaraguan contras, again in violation of a specific law prohibiting such assistance.” (p. 6).

[43] Berger, M. (2014, August 4). The U.S. used HIV prevention workshops in Cuba as a front to foment dissent. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamberger/theususedhivpreventionworkshopsincubaasafronttof “USAID considered HIV prevention workshops the 'perfect excuse' for covert, antigovernment activities, the AP found.” (para. 1)

[44] Berger, M. (2014, August 4). The U.S. used HIV prevention workshops in Cuba as a front to foment dissent. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamberger/theususedhivpreventionworkshopsincubaasafronttof “USAID's young agents posed as tourists to visit college campuses... One operative told the AP that HIV prevention workshops were the 'perfect excuse' for spurring antigovernment activities: the idea was to use the workshops as a pretext for teaching organizing tactics among potential political activists.” (para. 8)

[45] Berger, M. (2014, August 4). The U.S. used HIV prevention workshops in Cuba as a front to foment dissent. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamberger/theususedhivpreventionworkshopsincubaasafronttof “USAID defended the program in a statement to the AP, saying it 'enabled support for Cuban civil society while providing a secondary benefit of addressing the desire Cubans expressed for information and training about HIV prevention.'” (para. 9)

[46] Al Jazeera. (2014, August 5). Aid groups slam secret US scheme in Cuba. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/8/5/aidgroupsslamsecretusschemeincuba “The use of an HIV workshop for intelligence purposes is unacceptable. The US government should never sacrifice delivering basic health services or civic programmes to advance an intelligence goal.” (para. 6)

[47] Al Jazeera. (2014, August 5). Aid groups slam secret US scheme in Cuba. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/8/5/aidgroupsslamsecretusschemeincuba “Documents prepared for the USAIDsponsored programme called the HIV workshop the 'perfect excuse' to conduct political activity.” (para. 10)

[48] Al Jazeera. (2014, August 5). Aid groups slam secret US scheme in Cuba. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/8/5/aidgroupsslamsecretusschemeincuba “It may have been good business for USAID’s contractor, but it tarnishes USAID’s long track record as a leader in global health.” (para. 11)

[49] Al Jazeera. (2014, August 5). Aid groups slam secret US scheme in Cuba. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/8/5/aidgroupsslamsecretusschemeincuba “The programme 'enabled support for Cuban civil society, while providing a secondary benefit of addressing the desires Cubans express for information and training about HIV prevention.'” (para. 7)

[50] Berger, M. (2014, August 4). The U.S. used HIV prevention workshops in Cuba as a front to foment dissent. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamberger/theususedhivpreventionworkshopsincubaasafronttof “Cuba has long accused the U.S. and other foreign countries of trying to foment unrest via civil society programs—and this latest scandal fits nicely into the narrative.” (para. 13)

[51] Berger, M. (2014, August 4). The U.S. used HIV prevention workshops in Cuba as a front to foment dissent. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamberger/theususedhivpreventionworkshopsincubaasafronttof “Critics are worried that Cuba could use the USAID example to further discredit health programs, including HIV prevention, as a dangerous front for seditious activity.” (para. 14)

[52] National Security Archive. (2021, February 10). U.S.Cuba: Secrets of the 'Havana Syndrome'. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefingbook/cuba/20210210/se...statedepartmentciamishandledmysteriousmaladiescuba “The Department of State’s response to these incidents was characterized by a lack of senior leadership, ineffective communications, and systemic disorganization.” (para. 5)

[53] National Security Archive. (2021, February 10). U.S.Cuba: Secrets of the 'Havana Syndrome'. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefingbook/cuba/20210210/se...statedepartmentciamishandledmysteriousmaladiescuba “CIA informs [Acting Assistant Secretary Francisco] Palmieri of its decision to withdraw personnel from Havana for the foreseeable future.” (p. 6)

Section 4:

[54] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign ‘aid’ organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder.” (p. 2)

[55] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“In response, the highly popular, democratically elected Iranian prime minister (and TIME magazine's Man of the Year in 1951), Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalized all Iranian petroleum assets. An outraged England sought the help of her World War II ally, the United States. However, both countries feared that military retaliation would provoke the Soviet Union into taking action on behalf of Iran. Instead of sending in the Marines, therefore, Washington dispatched CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt (Theodore's grandson). He performed brilliantly, winning people over through payoffs and threats. He then enlisted them to organize a series of street riots and violent demonstrations, which created the impression that Mossadegh was both unpopular and inept. In the end, Mossadegh went down, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. The proAmerican Mohammad Reza Shah became the unchallenged dictator. Kermit Roosevelt had set the stage for a new profession, the one whose ranks I was joining.” (pp. 20–21)

[56] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“For three decades, Friedman and his followers had methodically exploited moments of shock in other countries—foreign equivalents of 9/11, starting with Pinochet’s coup on September 11, 1973. What happened on September 11, 2001, is that an ideology hatched in American universities and fortified in Washington institutions finally had its chance to come home.” (p. 10)

[57] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“Nine parties, mainly from Eastern Europe, heard Andrei Zhdanov report that the world had been divided into two ‘camps,’ the ‘imperialist and antidemocratic camp,’ whose ‘fundamental leading force is the United States’ … and the ‘antiimperialist, democratic camp,’ which ‘draws support from the working class and democratic movement in all countries …’” (pp. 9–10)

[58] DeSilver, D. (2025, February 6). What the data says about U.S. foreign aid. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/shortreads/2025/02/06/whatthedatasaysaboutusforeignaid/

“In fiscal 1963, international assistance amounted to about 4.7% of total federal outlays, according to archived data from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). But the share steadily fell as the Cold War ground on, bottoming at 0.6% of total outlays in fiscal 1989. (The OMB figures are slightly different from the ones on ForeignAssistance.gov due to differing methodologies, though the overall trend remains the same.)”

[59] DeSilver, D. (2025). What the data says about U.S. foreign aid. Pew Research Center.

“$14.4 billion of that total [the ‘macroeconomic foundation for growth’ category] was direct monetary support to the Ukrainian government in its war with Russia.”

[60] DeSilver, D. (2025). What the data says about U.S. foreign aid. Pew Research Center.

“Israel, regularly one of the top aid recipients, got $3.3 billion in military aid in fiscal 2023, on par with recent years.”

[61] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/trumpspushtoshutdownusaidshowshowinternationaldevelopmentisalsoaboutstrategicinterests

“Other countries like Russia or China may occupy the space left by what was the largest international aid program in the world.” (p. 2)

[62] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

“This shift could result in the U.S. losing its influence in regions like Africa, South America and Asia, where the country distributed aid to a number of nongovernmental organizations, aid agencies and nonprofits.” (p. 3)

[63] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

“USAID funds programs that benefit millions of people, from supporting peace agreements in Colombia to fighting the spread of HIV in Uganda.” (p. 2)

[64] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“Claudine told me that there were two primary objectives of my work. First, I was to justify huge international loans that would funnel money back to MAIN and other U.S. companies (such as Bechtel, Halliburton, Stone & Webster, and Brown & Root) through massive engineering and construction projects. Second, I would work to bankrupt the countries that received those loans (after they had paid MAIN and the other U.S. contractors, of course) so that they would be forever beholden to their creditors, and so they would present easy targets when we needed favors, including military bases, UN votes, or access to oil and other natural resources.” (p. 18)

[65] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“Claudine and I openly discussed the deceptive nature of GNP. For instance, the growth of GNP may result even when it profits only one person, such as an individual who owns a utility company, and even if the majority of the population is burdened with debt. The rich get richer and the poor grow poorer. Yet, from a statistical standpoint, this is recorded as economic progress.” (Chapter “In for Life”, p. 19)

[66] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“For every $100 of crude taken out of the Ecuadorian rain forests, the oil companies receive $75. Of the remaining $25, threequarters must go to paying off the foreign debt. Most of the remainder covers military and other government expenses — which leaves about $2.50 for health, education, and programs aimed at helping the poor. Thus, out of every $100 worth of oil torn from the Amazon, less than $3 goes to the people who need the money most, those whose lives have been so adversely impacted by the dams, the drilling, and the pipelines, and who are dying from lack of edible food and potable water.” (Prologue, p. 10)

[67] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“Because of EHM projects, Ecuador is awash in foreign debt and must devote an inordinate share of its national budget to paying this off, instead of using its capital to help the millions of fits citizens officially classified as dangerously impoverished. The only way Ecuador can buy down its foreign obligations is by selling its rain forests to the oil companies.” (Prologue, p. 9)

[68] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“The Bush administration immediately seized upon the fear generated by the attacks not only to launch the ‘War on Terror’ but to ensure that it is an almost completely forprofit venture, a booming new industry that has breathed new life into the faltering U.S. economy.” (p. 12)

[69] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“To kickstart the disaster capitalism complex, the Bush administration outsourced, with no public debate, many of the most sensitive and core functions of government—from providing health care to soldiers, to interrogating prisoners, to gathering and ‘data mining’ information on all of us.” (p. 13)

[70] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“To cite just three statistics that show the scope of the transformation, in 2003, the U.S. government handed out 3,512 contracts to companies to perform security functions; in the twentytwomonth period ending in August 2006, the Department of Homeland Security had issued more than 115,000 such contracts. The global ‘homeland security industry’ — economically insignificant before 2001 — is now a $200 billion sector. In 2006, U.S. government spending on homeland security averaged $545 per household.” (p. 13)

[71] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“When ‘aid’ came from the First World, it would not come without conditions. As the president of the World Bank, Eugene Black, wrote in 1960, ‘Economic aid should be the principle means by which the West maintains its political and economic dynamic in the underdeveloped world.’ Contempt sometimes manifested itself in condescension. When the First World overly romanticized the darker nations as childlike or overly cultured, it did not see its people as human, fallible, contradictory, and historical.” (p. 9)

[72] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“To supply the emergent tire industry, Leopold II’s Free State, therefore, sucked the life out of the rubber vines and murdered half the Congo’s population in the process (between 1885 and 1908, the population declined from twenty million to ten million).” (p. 18)

[73] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“Cuba sent thirtyyearold Guy Perez Cisneros as its representative, and he fought doggedly for an expansive interpretation of human rights, helped along the way by the Panamanian delegation, which offered the decisive draft declarations on education, work, health care, and social security.” (p. 10)

[74] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“It was Africa, particularly the Congo, that made Leopold II one of the richest people on the planet, and it enabled the Belgian economy to become the sixth largest in the world (after Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and Holland)…The Congo Free State, as Leopold II ironically fashioned it, was eighty times the size of Belgium.” (p. 17)

[75] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“Between 1876 and 1915, a handful of European imperial states controlled a full quarter of the globe’s land, with Great Britain and France in possession of far more than Germany, Belgium, Italy, and the states of the Iberian Peninsula (the U.S. directly controlled a small amount, but it held sway over all the Americas).” (p. 19)

[76] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“If a worker did not work hard, the officer would cut off their hand; one district official received 1,308 hands in one day from his subordinates.” (p. 17)

[77] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“And again, in 1947, when the people of Madagascar demanded their freedom, formed the Mouvement Democratique de la Renovation Malagache, and rose in revolt, the French forces countered them with bloodthirsty violence and killed tens of thousands. The guerrilla war continued, until the French had to concede some power to the Malagasy people, but only after a decade of repression and deceit.” (p. 5)

[78] DeSilver, D. (2025). What the data says about U.S. foreign aid. Pew Research Center.

“Foreign Military Sales program, approved foreign nations can buy American weapons, ammunition, equipment and services, with the U.S. government acting as a broker or intermediary (and sometimes with government financing). In fiscal 2024, such sales totaled $117.9 billion, up from $80.9 billion in fiscal 2023, according to the State Department.”

[79] DeSilver, D. (2025). What the data says about U.S. foreign aid. Pew Research Center.

“Direct commercial sales totaled $200.8 billion in fiscal 2024, up from $157.5 billion in fiscal 2023.”

[80] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

“Canada’s role in this unfolding situation remains uncertain. With the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as head of the Liberal Party and the upcoming federal election, it’s unclear what will happen to Canada’s international development strategy going forward. Under Stephen Harper, the country’s international development strategy was closely tied to expanding trade with developing countries based on maximizing the value of extractive economies and a strong defence policy. This approach aimed to bring value not only to the recipient country of aid, but to Canada as well.”

[81] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“People who say such things often hold diplomas certifying that they are well educated. However, these people have no clue that the main reason we establish embassies around the world is to serve our own interests, which during the last half of the twentieth century meant turning the American republic into a global empire. Despite credentials, such people are as uneducated as those eighteenthcentury colonists who believed that the Indians fighting to defend their lands were servants of the devil.” (p. 19)

[82] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“They have brought us to a point where our global culture is a monstrous machine that requires exponentially increasing amounts of fuel and maintenance, so much so that in the end it will have consumed everything in sight and will be left with no choice but to devour itself.” (p. 5)

[83] Perkins, J. (2004). Confessions of an economic hit man. BerrettKoehler Publishers.

“And if by chance the jackals fail, as they failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, then the old models resurface. When the jackals fail, young Americans are sent in to kill and to die.” (p. 10)

[84] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“It was in 1982 that Milton Friedman wrote the highly influential passage that best summarizes the shock doctrine ‘ONLY A CRISIS—ACTUAL OR PERCEIVED—PRODUCES REAL CHANGE. WHEN THAT CRISIS OCCURS, THE ACTIONS THAT ARE TAKEN DEPEND ON THE IDEAS THAT ARE LYING AROUND. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.’” (p. 140)

[85] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“The goal of this 'softeningup' stage is to provoke a kind of hurricane in the mind: prisoners are so regressed and afraid that they can no longer think rationally or protect their own interests. It is in that state of shock that most prisoners give their interrogators whatever they want—information, confessions, a renunciation of former beliefs. One CIA manual provides a particularly succinct explanation: 'There is an interval—which may be extremely brief—of suspended animation, a kind of psychological shock or paralysis. It is caused by a traumatic or subtraumatic experience which explodes, as it were, the world that is familiar to the subject as well as his image of himself within that world. Experienced interrogators recognize this effect when it appears and know that at this moment the source is far more open to suggestion, far likelier to comply, than he was just before he experienced the shock.' The shock doctrine mimics this process precisely, attempting to achieve on a mass scale what torture does one on one in the interrogation cell. The clearest example was the shock of September 11, which, for millions of people, exploded ‘the world that is familiar’ and opened up a period of deep disorientation and regression that the Bush administration expertly exploited.” (p. 16)

[86] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“For economic shock therapy to be applied without restraint—as it was in Chile in the seventies, China in the late eighties, Russia in the nineties and the U.S. after September 11, 2001—some sort of additional major collective trauma has always been required, one that either temporarily suspended democratic practices or blocked them entirely.” (p. 11)

[87] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“The corporatist alliance is in the midst of conquering its final frontiers: the closed oil economies of the Arab world, and sectors of Western economies that have long been protected from profit making—including responding to disasters and raising armies. Since there is not even the veneer of seeking public consent to privatize such essential functions, either at home or abroad, escalating levels of violence and ever larger disasters are required in order to reach the goal.” (p. 19)

[88] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

“development relationships are shaped by both the interests of donors and those of recipient populations and organizations.”

[89] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

“the American move to eliminate USAID could be seen as one that prioritizes national security and economic goals over traditional global humanitarian concerns.”

[90] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

“Governments steer the wheel of international development according to their political ideologies and interests, regardless of the shock this may generate among citizens.”

[91] Prashad, V. (2007). The darker nations: A people’s history of the third world. The New Press.

“An unequal conflict fought as equal redoubles the inequality. The Cold War was a long penalization of socialism.” (p. 8)

[92] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“Before Hurricane Katrina, the school board had run 123 public schools; now it ran just 4. Before that storm, there had been 7 charter schools in the city; now there were 31. New Orleans teachers used to be represented by a strong union; now the union’s contract had been shredded, and its fortyseven hundred members had all been fired.” (p. 5)

[93] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“New Orleans was now, according to The New York Times, 'the nation's preeminent laboratory for the widespread use of charter schools,' while the American Enterprise Institute, a Friedmanite think tank, enthused that 'Katrina accomplished in a day . . . what Louisiana school reformers couldn't do after years of trying.' Public school teachers, meanwhile, watching money allocated for the victims of the flood being diverted to erase a public system and replace it with a private one, were calling Friedman's plan 'an educational land grab.” (pp. 5–6)

[94] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

“Trump said USAID had ‘been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out,’ while Tesla CEO and special government employee Elon Musk said it was ‘time for it to die’.”

[95] DeSilver, D. (2025). What the data says about U.S. foreign aid. Pew Research Center.

“The Trump administration’s recent moves to freeze foreign aid and shutter the primary agency that distributes it have thrown a spotlight on a relatively small, yet enduringly controversial, piece of federal spending.”

[96] DeSilver, D. (2025). What the data says about U.S. foreign aid. Pew Research Center.

“Only 26% of Americans said that promoting and defending human rights in other countries should be a top priority, and even fewer (18%) said that about promoting democracy in other nations.” (p. 7)

[97] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

[98] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

“Direct commercial sales totaled $200.8 billion in fiscal 2024, up from $157.5 billion in fiscal 2023.”

[99] Duenas, N. (2025). Trump’s push to shut down USAID shows how international development is also about strategic interests. The Conversation.

[100] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

[101] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

[102] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

“And if by chance the jackals fail, as they failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, then the old models resurface. When the jackals fail, young Americans are sent in to kill and to die.” (p. 10)

[103] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

[104] Klein, N. (2007). The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books.

[105] DeSilver, D. (2025). What the data says about U.S. foreign aid. Pew Research Center.

Extra Credit

[106] U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. (n.d.). USAID and PL–480, 1961–1969. Retrieved from https://history.state.gov/milestones/19611968/usaid. “With the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in full swing, USAID was called on to help those two countries rebuild government, infrastructure, civil society and basic services such as health care and education. The Agency began rebuilding with an eye to getting the most bang out of its funding allocations. It also began an aggressive campaign to reach out to new partner organizations – including the private sector and foundations – to extend the reach of foreign assistance.”

[107] Morgenstern, E. M., & Brown, N. M. (2022, January 10). Foreign assistance: An introduction to U.S. programs and policy (CRS Report No. R40213). Congressional Research Service. https://crsreports.congress.gov. “Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, foreign aid has increasingly been associated with national security policy”

[108] Morgenstern, E. M., & Brown, N. M. (2022, January 10). Foreign assistance: An introduction to U.S. programs and policy (CRS Report No. R40213). Congressional Research Service. https://crsreports.congress.gov. “ Foreign aid dropped from 5% of discretionary budget authority in FY1979 to 2.4% in FY2001, before rising sharply in conjunction with U.S. activities in Afghanistan and Iraq starting in FY2003, as well as the launch of a global HIV/AIDS response effort…As previously discussed, since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, foreign aid funding has been closely tied to U.S. counterterrorism strategy, particularly in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Global health initiatives, the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and growth in counter-narcotics activities have driven funding increases over the same period. The Budget Control Act of 2011, and the drawdown of U.S. military forces in Iraq, and to some degree Afghanistan, led to a notable dip in aid obligations in FY2013, but aid levels rose again in FY2015 with efforts to address the crisis in Syria, counter ISIS activities, and provide for humanitarian efforts.”

[109] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "The pausing of aid immediately sent shockwaves across the planet, not least in the international media, many of which, unbeknownst to their readers, are totally dependent on financing from Washington. In total, USAID spends over a quarter of a billion dollars yearly training and funding a vast, sprawling network of more than 6,200 reporters at nearly 1,000 news outlets or journalism organizations, all under the rubric of promoting ‘independent media.’"

[110] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "Oksana Romanyuk, the Director of Ukraine’s Institute for Mass Information, revealed that almost 90% of the country’s media are bankrolled by USAID, including many that have no other source of funding."

[111] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "Anti-government Cuban media have been plunged into a similar predicament. Miami-based CubaNet published an editorial asking readers for money. ‘We are facing an unexpected challenge: the suspension of key funding that sustained part of our work.’"

[112] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "A 97--page USAID document was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The document revealed a vast operation to censor and suppress wide swaths of the internet, including Twitch, Reddit, 4Chan, Facebook, Twitter, Discord and alternative media websites. There, USAID lamented, users were able to build communities to create “populist expertise” and develop opinions and viewpoints that challenge official U.S. government narratives."

[113] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "Chief among the methods USAID outlines to suppress independent media is what it calls ‘advertiser outreach’ – in effect, threatening advertisers into cutting ties with smaller websites to throttle them financially."

[114] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. “USAID suggests directing the public towards mainstream, corporate sources of information and “psychologically inoculating” them against inconvenient facts that challenge U.S. power by “prebunking” information before people see it. Prebunking includes “discrediting the brand, the credibility and reputation of those making false allegations”—in other words, a state-directed attack against alternative media and critics of the U.S. government.”

[115] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "The Department of Defense, meanwhile, fields a giant clandestine army of at least 60,000 people whose job is to influence public opinion, the majority doing so from their keyboards. A 2021 exposé from Newsweek described the [DoD] operation as, ‘The largest undercover force the world has ever known,’ and warned that this troll army was likely breaking domestic and international law."

[116] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "The Twitter Files further exposed the Department of Defense’s shadowy actions. It showed how the DoD worked with Twitter to carry out a Washingtonrun influence project across the Middle East, even as the app claimed it was working to shut down foreign-backed disinformation operations."

[117] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "At least USAID’s demise has done at least one good thing; it has exposed vast swathes of global media for what they are: imperial propaganda projects of the United States."

[118] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "USAID has also created a number of covert apps aimed at regime change. The most notorious of these was Zunzuneo, often described as Cuba’s Twitter. The idea was to create a successful messaging and news app to dominate the Cuban market, then slowly drip-feed the population anti-government propaganda and direct them to protests and ‘smart mobs’ aimed at triggering a color-style revolution."

[119] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "Between 1996 and 2000, Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori ordered the forced mass sterilization of 300,000 mostly indigenous women. USAID donated some $35 million to the program, now widely understood to constitute a genocide. No American official has faced any legal repercussions."

[120] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "In Uruguay, USAID’s Dan Mitrione taught police how to use electricity on different sensitive areas of the body, the use of drugs to induce vomiting and advanced psychological torture techniques. Mitrione wished to demonstrate on live subjects, so he would kidnap beggars from the streets and torture them to death."

[121] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "The notorious Guatemalan police, complicit in the country’s genocide of the Mayan population, also relied heavily on USAID for training. By 1970, at least 30,000 police officers had undergone counterinsurgency training, organized and paid for by USAID."

[122] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "The cuts to USAID, therefore, have highlighted that the United States has consciously created a vast matrix encompassing thousands of journalists worldwide, all producing pro-U.S. content."

[123] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "Leila Bicakcic, CEO of Center for Investigative Reporting (a USAID-supported Bosnian organization), admitted, on camera, that ‘If you are funded by the U.S. government, there are certain topics that you would simply not go after, because the U.S. government has its interests that are above all others.’"

[124] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "While the press may be lamenting the demise of USAID-backed media, many heads of state are not. “Take your money with you,” said Colombian President Gustavo Petro, “it’s poison.”"

[125] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, shared a rare moment of agreement with Petro. ‘Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up,’ he wrote, explaining that: ‘While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizing movements. At best, maybe 10% of the money reaches real projects that help people in need (there are such cases), but the rest is used to fuel dissent, finance protests, and undermine administrations that refuse to align with the globalist agenda.’"

[126] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "In 1973, Senator Ted Kennedy wrote a letter to the CIA, directly asking if they were using USAID to carry out operations in Southeast Asia. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger himself responded in the affirmative. For that reason, former CIA officer John Kiriakou labeled USAID as little more than a ‘propaganda adjunct of the agency.’"

[127] Macleod, A. (2025, February). USAID falls, exposing a giant network of US-funded "independent" media. MintPress News. Retrieved from https://www.mintpressnews.com/usaid-media-funding-cuts-indepdent-news/289093/. "Investigations from MintPress News have revealed how the highest echelons of top social media apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, TikTok, and Reddit, are filled with former officials from the CIA, USAID, and other national security agencies."