Remembering the Watts Rebellion, Operation Chaos and the Infectious Logic of National Security
Kara Z. Dellacioppa, Truthout | News Analysis
Burning buildings in Los Angeles during the Watts Riots in August, 1965. (Photo: New York World-Telegram)
Fifty years ago, during the hot, dry days of early August, the city of Los Angeles erupted in flames in a weeklong riot leaving dozens dead, more than 3,000 arrested and $40 million in property damage. This landmark event came to be known as the Watts rebellion of 1965. This year also marks 40 years since the revelations of the Senate committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations of US intelligence covert activity against US dissidents throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Both legendary events and their interrelationship have something important to teach us about the growth of the national security state (NSS) and the criminalization of US dissent.
The NSS refers to a set of principles and strategies to ensure political and economic hegemony over other potential political or economic rivals within the modern world system and aims to neutralize potential threats to this hegemony (both within the hegemonic state itself and within the larger world system). The NSS also refers to a set of institutions dedicated to "national security" such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Pentagon, among others. It also importantly refers to the institutional spread of the logic of "national security" to other seemingly apolitical institutions like the IRS, Health and Human Service (HSS) and the media.
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