Learning about our friend and neighbor Venezuela (1943)
In 1943, America was at war with Nazi Germany to save the free world.
This issue of True Comics from December 1943 (“TRUTH is stranger and a thousand time more thrilling than FICTION”) features a six-page story about our friend and neighbor Venezuela (see below).
The same issue also features “The Story of Scapegoats in History: They Got the Blame”.
“The scapegoat trick is as old as history itself. The Nazis used it to seize power in Germany. To weaken from within their enemies in Europe, they tried to divide and conquer the United States! To know the trick is to be on guard against it. That is the purpose of this story—to expose the scapegoat trick and how it works.”
The U.S. appears to be intent on toppling the government of Venezuela, possibly committing war crimes in an illegal war. The pretext is a war on drugs. Whether or not there is an actual invasion on the ground—a real possibility—the point seems to be control of Venezuela’s substantial oil reserves.
In case you don’t know much about Venezuela, and aren’t moved to do the research, six pages of a comic book is a pretty painless way of learning about our neighbor. Truth is stranger and more thrilling than government fiction.
Bob Schwartz 