This book has focused on the notion of the imperial state and imperialist behavior. Contrary to mechanistic economic analyses that center on flows of capital between countries and the actions of multinational corporations, the imperial-state framework places politics at the center of the discussion. What the study shows is that the activities of the imperial state polarize Third World societies, fuel national and social liberation movements, and not infrequently lead to the assumption of political and state power by nationalist regimes espousing noncapitalist paths to development. Moreover, the typical imperial-state response to the appearance of such regimes is the execution of a policy of outright confrontation expressed through military, economic, and political interventions calculated to destabilize and overthrow these antagonists of imperial policy.

Military intervention may be direct or indirect. Direct intervention involves American armed forces occupying a country to install a collaborator regime and secure U.S. corporate interests (e.g., Cuba 1906–1921, Dominican Republic 1965). Indirect intervention (much more commonplace, but no less destructive of national political institutions) involves efforts by U.S. policymakers to manipulate non-U.S. military forces to oust nationalist and anticapitalist regimes. This type of intervention may take one or a combination of approaches: internal subversion in the form of CIA inducements to local military officials to organize a coup (e.g., Brazil 1964, Chile 1973); external subversion or the financing, training, and directing of former regime collaborators based outside the country to invade and overthrow the change-oriented government (e.g., Guatemala 1954, Cuba 1961); and surrogates in third countries covertly recruited to train, supply arms to, or provide bases for counterrevolutionary forces and U.S. client regimes (e.g., Guatemala's and Nicaragua's role in the Bay of Pigs preparations and the activities of U.S. regional allies in Central America during the 1970s).