9781310988639_

Even if the Americans have themselves had a record of sometimes interfering in elections in other countries, they have every right to be upset that Russia interfered in their presidential elections, as all the intelligence agencies have agreed happened. Interestingly, president Trump has chosen to believe Putins word, although he is ex and probably still KGB, while dismissing the evidence provided by 17 of his own intelligence agencies, but thats another issue.
Anyway, the difference between what the Russians did to the USA in their democratic elections and normal "interference" is that the US and Russia are currently the two most powerful superpowers in the world and if one can gain unchallenged influence throughout the world because it has its surrogate in power as the head of the other superpower, it would be terrible for the rest of us. Especially if the one that ends up with total power is Russia!
For Russia is by no means a liberal democracy and thus their holding sway over what happens in smaller and weaker states would be tragic for people in the free world, who could see the freedoms to which they had become accustomed, being gradually diminished.
I have been there and speak from personal experience. This was during the "cold war" era in my small island of Jamaica which lies only 90 miles away from Cuba was forced to go through four years of turmoil because the democratically elected government of the day decided it preferred the Cuban system of government and the socialist philosophy to the Westminster system of government under which it had gained power. And the Cubans were only too happy to assist them in every way possible to take away our freedoms. For after all, Jamaica being the largest and most influential island in the English speaking Caribbean, would give them great leverage in their quest to have the then USSR dominate the entire region.
So we saw our island being flooded by thousands of Cubans supposedly coming in to assist in agricultural development and the health service. They however were under the command of a general named Ulysses Estrada who was allegedly the head of their intelligence agency, the DGI. Also assisting the Cubans but covertly, was the Russian KGB and I know that as a fact as I did have an encounter with one. On the other side was the American CIA which had allegedly heeded the opposition partys cry for help, but they apparently operated very covertly, for although I was often on the frontlines, I never encountered a CIA agent on the ground.
However, looking back now, I say without apology THANKS TO THE AMERICAN CIA FOR ASSISTING US, FOR IF THEY HADNT, JAMAICA TODAY WOULD PROBABLY BE LIKE VENEZUELA where food shortages, hyper-inflation, no press freedom, government sponsored aggression and the silencing of the opposition are the order of the day. Worse yet, we could be like Cuba itself. I have visited that country four times since 1980, because of its physical beauty and the fact that I have close family there. Their life is one of absolute misery and the younger ones who were born after the revolution, do not even know that there is an alternative world in which people can criticize their government, read and write what they want or even better, get a passport and travel to any place they wish, as long as they have the money. Sad. I therefore thank the Americans for interfering and assisting us in defeating the Cuban DGI and Russian KGB in the elections that followed our four year period of turmoil, 1976-1980.
The world needs two or more superpowers for as Lord Acton said Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
In this memoir I also deal with my tragic loss of my only son; my experiences with various religions; visits to Cuba; experiences with racism; journalism; and on a lighter note, my experiences with marijuana.

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Joan Williams