Island of Shame: The Secret History of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia by David Vine
Princeton University Press, £20.95
When it comes to shameful episodes in British and American foreign policy, the treatment meted out to the residents of Diego Garcia ranks pretty high. During the Cold War the United States needed an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the middle of the Indian Ocean and the British couldn’t afford to maintain their presence east of Suez.
Leasing the tiny island to America meant Britain got millions of pounds wiped off its Polaris missile debt and the US got a base for its warships and bombers.
Everyone’s a winner. Except, of course, the people who lived on Diego Garcia and its neighbouring islands in the Chagos group. They were dropped off in Mauritius and had to fend for themselves.
The deal was done in secret and, if anyone asked, the islands were unoccupied except for some tenant farmers. Despite a number of High Court judgements and growing international awareness of the theft, the Chagossians remain stateless.
David Vine is assistant professor of anthropology at the American University in Washington DC. His explicit aim is to write of the Chagos experience from an American perspective. John Pilger and (a few) others have chronicled Britain’s actions, but Vine believes there is more to say about his own country’s role.
What is interesting is that it has taken an anthropologist to take up the case, rather than a political scientist. There may have been narrow studies on American naval power or foreign policy but Vine wants to put Diego Garcia in context.
He looks at how American expansion has always relied on establishing “forts” to control territory. In the Pacific area, even if the land was not owned, these island forts allowed America to project its power.
Vine shows good research and nimble writing to chart how the islands were bounced around the Pentagon until the money and the political will could be found to take them over. Finally, his anthropological training comes to the fore in the later stages as he charts the terrible effect the displacement has had on the Chagossians.
There are gaps, in particular the latest legal moves and the role the island has played for the purposes of extraordinary rendition and other dark practices of the US military. However, this is a useful companion to other writings on this issue.
What I found particularly interesting was that, while the story is generally thought to be a secret, the Washington Post wrote the whole thing up in 1975. Admittedly they held off publication for a few months under Pentagon pressure, but the crime was out in the open. Unfortunately, too many people who should have known better simply yawned and looked the other way.
Such attitudes still persist. In 2004, the British government used the unelected Privy Council to make an Order in Council to overturn a court judgement and bar the Chagos islanders from returning.
For Vine imperialism, military prerogative and racism have all combined to deny a people a home simply because they were in the way. His succinct style and controlled outrage make for a damning indictment.
Phil Chamberlain
