Island of Shame

The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia

David Vine

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781400838509
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: Social Sciences

The American military base on the island of Diego Garcia is one of the most strategically important and secretive U.S. military installations outside the United States. Located near the remote center of the Indian Ocean and accessible only by military transport, the little-known base has been instrumental in American military operations from the Cold War to the war on terror and may house a top-secret CIA prison where terror suspects are interrogated and tortured. But Diego Garcia harbors another dirty secret, one that has been kept from most of the world--until now. Island of Shame is the first major book to reveal the shocking truth of how the United States conspired with Britain to forcibly expel Diego Garcia's indigenous people--the Chagossians--and deport them to slums in Mauritius and the Seychelles, where most live in dire poverty to this day. Drawing on interviews with Washington insiders, military strategists, and exiled islanders, as well as hundreds of declassified documents, David Vine exposes the secret history of Diego Garcia. He chronicles the Chagossians' dramatic, unfolding story as they struggle to survive in exile and fight to return to their homeland. Tracing U.S. foreign policy from the Cold War to the war on terror, Vine shows how the United States has forged a new and pervasive kind of empire that is quietly dominating the planet with hundreds of overseas military bases. Island of Shame is an unforgettable exposé of the human costs of empire and a must-read for anyone concerned about U.S. foreign policy and its consequences. The author will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Chagossians.Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations and Tables
• Foreword by Michael Tigar
• Abbreviations and Initialisms
• A Note to the Reader
• Introduction
• 1. The Ilois, The Islanders
• 2. The Bases of Empire
• 3. The Strategic Island Concept and a Changing of the Imperial Guard
• 4. “Exclusive Control”
• 5. “Maintaining the Fiction”
• 6. “Absolutely Must Go”
• 7. “On the Rack”
• 8. Derasine: The Impoverishment of Expulsion
• 9. Death and Double Discrimination
• 10. Dying of Sagren
• 11. Daring to Challenge
• 12. The Right to Return and a Humanpolitik
• Epilogue
• My Thanks
• Further Resources
• Notes
• Afterword to the Paperback Edition
• Index