By Paddy Colligan
February 7, 2025

The Trump thugs continue to crash through norms of humane behavior with the abrupt suspension for 90 days of all foreign aid programs in countries around the world. Such programs have long had a dual purpose: doing good while serving to hide the essence of a cruel and aggressive capitalist superpower.

 

Now the result of terminating them is to push aside the curtain and expose U.S. imperialism’s truly brutal character. While foreign aid is the soft side of imperialism and those involved in this work are “marines in velvet gloves,” the programs do essential work to make up for gaps in safety nets under capitalist systems.

The stop-work order for the aid programs of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development was immediately implemented by firing top administrators in Washington as well as thousands of employees in the field and terminating contracts with providers. This had life-threatening consequences for millions of poor and vulnerable people throughout the Global South.

In this interconnected world, the termination of programs dealing with infectious diseases and medical research holds consequences for the health of people in the U.S. as well.

These programs aren’t like faucets that can be turned off and on at a whim — once they are suspended even for a brief time, they are essentially dismantled. Staff are fired; patients sent away, even those in hospital beds; information, supplies, supply chains and equipment scattered; and expertise lost. (New Yorker, Jan. 1, Behind the Chaotic Attempt to Freeze Federal Assistance)

The suspended/terminated programs affect millions of people. Some examples of the halted programs include those:

• involving infectious and deadly diseases such as the Marburg virus (like Ebola but no test, drug or vaccine), bird flu, polio, malaria, tuberculosis and some neglected tropical diseases on the brink of elimination;
• serving patients enrolled in HIV and tuberculosis treatment programs where interruption in treatment risks development of contagious treatment-resistant mutations of the diseases;
• caring for 92 million women and children — safe childbirth, contraception, vaccination, nutrition;
• feeding people in areas experiencing famine;
• that are part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a remarkably effective program involving 20 million people which has halted the spread of HIV, treated millions of people with HIV and that was currently running the final stages of trials for a vaccine that would have prevented HIV/AIDS altogether.

De-mining ended

The calamitous consequences of such decisions by the Trump governing gang can’t be overstated. But there is one more type of aid program that has been completely halted — the de-mining of areas where the U.S. dropped vast amounts of munitions on past “enemies.”

In the 1960s and 70s during the Vietnam War, the U.S. used enormous quantities of munitions in its efforts to defeat the people of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia fighting for their liberation. While destruction was deadly and horrific at the time, many bombs and mines didn’t explode and remained behind to continue to kill and maim. In 2023 it was estimated that there were still 600,000 to 800,000 tons of bombs and mines still buried in Vietnam alone. (m.vovworld.vn)

Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. The unexploded ordnance there also continues to maim and kill, claiming tens of thousands of victims over the 50 years since the end of the war. Children are especially vulnerable, being attracted to curious objects in the fields or forests.

De-mining projects have been implemented in both countries to raise awareness and to safely remove unexploded munitions. The work is dangerous, often killing the heroic workers who carry it out. In January, a farmer in Cambodia was killed in a landmine blast on his farm, and two de-miners were killed trying to remove an anti-tank mine from a rice field.

The government of Vietnam works closely with local people and some outside groups, including some funded by the U.S. government, to make its rural areas safe for use and to continue the development of a socialist economy. Vietnam has succeeded in restoring millions of acres to a safe condition, but much remains to be done. About 20% of its land still cannot be used safely because of the presence of unexploded ordnance.

In this context the Trump administration has terminated U.S. aid to the de-mining operations. On Jan. 29, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver for some “life-saving humanitarian assistance programs” but, with clarity not typical of the Trump era, explicitly continued the ban on de-mining programs. (peacetreesvietnam.org, Jan. 29)

For reasons previously mentioned, the waiver was only window dressing, because the humanitarian aid programs have been fatally interrupted.

The State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, which funded these operations in many countries, had previously announced that halting de-mining programs was “consistent with the president’s executive order on reevaluating and realigning United States foreign aid.” (New York Times, Jan. 25)

And for the Vietnamese people, Happy Lunar New Year!