Al Carroll - Presidents Body Counts: The Twelve Worst and Four Best American Presidents Based on How Many Lived or Died Because of Their Actions

A l Carroll is Assistant Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College, teaching

American, American Indian, and Latin American History. He also taught at Arizona State University, San Antonio College, St. Phillip's College, and Hasanuddin University in Indonesia as a Fulbright Senior Scholar.

His other books are Medicine Bags and Dog Tags: American Indian Veteran Traditions from Colonial Times to the Second Iraq Wa r and Survivors: Family Histories of Colonialism, Genocide, and War. His next books will be Ira Hayes: The Meaning of His Life in Native Memory and White Stereotypes , an alternate history work Confederate Tyranny , and A People's History of Texas . He is a longtime activist and researcher for NewAgeFraud.org.

I would like to thank my family for their support, my sisters, aunts, uncles, other family, and my wife Lia and her family. Of course one's greatest influence is always one's parents, Alton Sr. and Concepcion Carroll. In loving memory to them both.

A work like this is obviously influenced by previous writings, especially James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me and Linda Tuwahi-Smith's (Maori) Decolonizing Methodologies . One can also find plentiful evidence of the influence of Vine Deloria (Lakota), Jack Forbes (Powhattan), Noam Chomsky, and Howard Zinn. Anyone who enjoys these authors will enjoy this work, and vice versa.

I should also thank the historians who trained me, Peter Iverson and Arturo Rosales at Arizona State University and Donna Akers (Choctaw) and Charles Cutter at Purdue University. Finally, I thank the staff and faculty at Northern Virginia Community College and the Fulbright Program.

I ntroduction: How to Judge a President, or the Presidency If Human Life Mattered 8

Section One: Presidents' Roles in Genocide 17

Nixon and Cambodia 24

Reagan and Central America 32

Jackson and the Trail of Tears 44

Section Two: Turning a Blind Eye to Genocide 48

Franklin Roosevelt and the Holocaust 49

Nixon and Genocide in Bangladesh 55

Clinton and Rwandan Genocide 62

Ford and East Timor 68

Polk, Fillmore, Buchanan and Genocide Against California Indians 73

Jefferson and the Haitian Revolution 79

Nixon's Betrayal of the Kurds 83

The Worst American Presidents on Slavery 87

Section Three: Presidents Roles in Wartime Atrocities 92

McKinley and the US Conquest of the Philippines 94

Franklin Roosevelt and Truman Target German and Japanese Civilians 101

Truman Drops the A-Bomb 108

Polk Provokes the US-Mexico War 113

Obama Orders Drone Assassinations 120

Nixon's Pardon in the My Lai Massacre 126

Section Four: Mass Deaths Because of a President's Incompetence or Ideological Blindness 131

Deregulation From Reagan to GW Bush 133

Truman and the Cold War 144

Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, and the US-Vietnam War 154

GW Bush and the Iraq and Afghanistan War 163

James Buchanan and the Civil War 171

Reagan and Bush Sr.'s War on Drugs 177

James Madison and the War of 1812 184

Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal 187

GW Bush and Hurricane Katrina 192

Bill Clinton and the Branch Davidians 197

Section Five: Presidents' Roles in Other American Wars of Aggression 201

Indian Wars Were Really American Invasions 202

The Many Other US Invasions of Latin America 208

US Government Use of Biological and Chemical Warfare and Presidents' Roles 215

The Post Cold War Invasions of Somalia and the Gulf War 219

Section Six: Ignoring Terrorism in America 224

Andrew Johnson and White Supremacist Terrorists in Reconstruction 225

Cuban-American Terrorists: Organized by Kennedy, Pardoned by Bush Sr. 232

Right Wing Terrorism From Reagan to GW Bush 238

Fillmore and Know Nothing Anti-Catholic Terrorism 246

Section Seven: Homegrown Repression 252

Nixon and Operation Condor 253

Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, and the Phoenix Program 259

GW Bush and Torture Deaths 263

Franklin Roosevelt and Japanese-American and Aleut Internment 268

US Repression in Colonies: Guam, Hawaii, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, and Samoa 273

Woodrow Wilson Crushing Dissent in World War I 282

Section Eight: The Good Records of Presidents 286

Jefferson Ended the US International Slave Trade, Avoided Wars with Britain and France 289

Van Buren Avoided Wars with Britain and Mexico, Delayed California Indian Genocide 294

Lincoln, the Civil War, and Emancipation of Both Black and American Indian Slaves 300

Grant's Reconstruction and Peace Policy with American Indians 309

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the Good Neighbor Policy, and World War II 314

Lyndon Johnson and Nixon on Civil Rights and the War on Poverty 327

Carter and Human Rights 334

Bush Sr.'s Rescue of the Kurds of Iraq 347

GW Bush and AIDS in Africa 350

Obama's Wars, the Great Recession, and Healthcare 353

The Best American Presidents on Arms Control 364

Section Nine: What If? Who Would Have Been Far Better at Saving Lives as President 367

John Quincy Adams or Henry Clay Avoid the Trail of Tears 370

Willie Mangum Avoids the US-Mexico War and California Indian Genocide 373

Hannibal Hamlin and a Successful Reconstruction 377

Benjamin Wade and a Successful Reconstruction (Maybe) 380

William Jennings Bryan Avoids the US-Filipino War and American Empire 382

Henry Wallace Avoids the Cold War 388

Adlai Stevenson Ends the Cold War 393

Robert Kennedy Ends the US-Vietnam War and Avoids Cambodian Genocide 396

Al Gore Avoids the Iraq War and Most Hurricane Katrina Deaths 400

Section Ten: What If? Who Would Have Been Far Worse in Presidential Body Counts 404

Jackson as President in 1824 405

McClellans Failed Civil War and Reconstruction 407

Custer's Many Wars 422

McKinley Survives Assassination 427

The American Liberty League's Irenee Dupont and Gerald McGuire 429

MacArthur Starts a Nuclear War 434

Reagan as President in 1976 441

Ross Perot in 1992 444

Cheney's Many Wars 447

McCain and Palin's Many Wars 450

Hillary Clintons Many Wars 454

Romney Tries to Return to War in Iraq and Torture 457

Section Eleven: Why Weren't These Included 461

John Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts 462

The Lie of Genocide Against Whites in Haiti, Algeria, Kenya, and Zimbabwe 463

Some Atrocities Overseas Before 1890, 1917, or 1941 467

Sherman's March Through Georgia 470

Indian Boarding Schools 474

COINTELPRO 476

The Cuban Missile Crisis 479

Sterilization of American Indian Women 481

Animal Rights and Eco Terrorism 482

Sanctions Against Iraq 485

Bosnia: War or Genocide 487

Alleged Conspiracies: The Long List of Nonsense Many Believe With Dubious or No Proof 489

Bill Clinton's Clemency for Puerto Rican Nationalist Terrorists 491

The Patriot Act 493

The Congo Wars 494

Darfur Genocide 496

Conclusions 499

Adding Up the Numbers: Best vs Worst Presidents and Historians' Rankings 501

What Can and Should Be Done? The Presidency If Lives Matter More Than Ideology 515

Appendix: The Best and Worst Ex-Presidents 524

Other Works 530

P olitics and history are far too important to leave to professionals. All people have the right to control their own fates, to not die before their time from unneeded wars or other preventable deaths, and to not be asked to approve of atrocities done in their name, often in secret. They should be able to seek out knowledge of such matters and not see control of their lives handed off to elites.