Yamashita’s gold revisited
| AN OUTSIDERS VIEW |
 |
| Ken Fuller |
Gold Warriors, an account by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave of how the USA recovered Japanese war loot and used it as a covert political fund in various countries around the world, is an entertaining read. First published in 2003, with a second edition two years later, I wondered why I had not previously heard of it. Now I know.
The Seagraves first trace the looting of Korea, Manchuria (where the money came mostly from drugs) and China. But Asia was not the only source of treasure, for there was also Nazi loot, and gold Mussolini had taken from Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). The latter was used to subvert the left in the Italian elections of 1948. Elections were also bought in Greece and, of course, Japan. There were bribes and murders, and in Japan Douglas MacArthur and his intelligence chief, General Willoughby, were fully involved in the funding thereof.
This outsider was prepared to take the Seagraves’ word for their claims regarding the other countries, but when it comes to the gold alleged to have been salted away in the Philippines and then recovered by various treasure hunters, including the US government and Ferdinand Marcos, it must be said that the authors hit an awful lot of bum notes..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110329com5.html
0 comments
Post a Comment