Nick
Catalano is a TV writer/producer and Professor of Literature
and Music at Pace University. He reviews books and music
for several journals and is the author of Clifford
Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter,
New
York Nights: Performing, Producing and Writing in Gotham
, A
New Yorker at Sea,, Tales
of a Hamptons Sailor and his most recent
book, Scribble
from the Apple. For Nick's reviews,
visit his website: www.nickcatalano.net.
Those
who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana
As
we have noted several times in Arts & Opinion,
the absence of strategic history courses in many university
curricula has severely damaged knowledge of important
events and subjects necessary for complex diplomatic
activity. The result is a blurred background in real
Asian history among legislators and political careerists.
Foreign policy issues are vulnerable to distortions
from fake news which can lead to consequential disagreement
and even military action.
Obviously,
government policy framers need extensive knowledge of
history or their actions will suffer tragic consequences.
As an example, statements from Trump officials tasked
with formulating policy suffer from a paucity of knowledge
about Chinese and Iranian history. Advocating huge tariffs
on Chinese products and threatening Iran with sanctions
simply to illustrate Trump’s power persona ignores the
complex relationship with these countries and has contributed
to vast tensions in recent Asian-American activity.
If Trump is elected, the carefully structured relationships
that the Biden people have engineered with these countries
will be damaged with who knows what kinds of new tensions
resulting.
A knowledge
of western imperialism in Asia in just a couple of hundred
years of “persuasive visitations” dealing with various
Asian cultures is not a popular subject in school these
days and east-west relationships have consequently suffered.
A list of
just some of the intrusions of western countries in
Asia yields interesting results and goes a long way
in explaining some of the new hostile exchanges; and
I wonder if some who are familiar with the list won’t
be surprised and perhaps begin to understand some of
the frustrations that Asia has had with the West. This
list is incomplete but offers examples of imperialistic
European activity that will surprise many:
In 1557,
Portugal assimilated Macau in Southern China and turned
it into one of the most lucrative gambling meccas in
the world. Together with settlements in the Maldives,
Moluccas and Goa in southern India, Portugal snatched
Asian territory and together with Spain in the outrageous
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) proposed splitting the
entire Asian sub-continent into one big colonial takeover.
In 1799
the Dutch government took over their East India company
established years earlier, and expanded their colonial
power by swallowing Bali and Sumatra and gaining monstrous
trade power in Indonesia which it wields to the present.
Starting
in 1824, Great Britain invaded Burma, and established
colonial settlements in Malaysia. In 1858 with the Government
of India Act, the country of India became a British
colonial possession. Most remembered of all is the takeover
of Hong Kong in 1842.
After decades
of colonial exploration, Spain established settlements
in the Philippines, Guam, the Mariana islands and Palau
. They also carved out and colonized lucrative territories
in Taiwan, Sulawesi and Micronesia.
In 1887
France established its vast rubber empire by taking
over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and maintained a powerful
colonial presence there until defeated by Ho Chi Minh
in 1954.
After its
victory in the Spanish-American war of 1898, the United
States gained colonial possession of the Philippines.
Its control was consolidated when it crushed revolutionary
leader Emilio Aguinaldo in a three year war that resulted
in over 20,000 Filipino casualties.
And although
it did not create other colonial possessions in Asia,
the American presence in Vietnam and Afghanistan is
well known.
But what
is not so well known is the actions of America and Great
Britain in Iran. That country had long supplied
vast oil reserves to Great Britain and the United States.
But in 1951 prime minister Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh decided
to nationalize the country’s oil industry. Panicking,
the British responded with threats and sanctions and
was soon joined by America in pressuring for new leadership
in Teheran. And this is basically how the Shah came
into power and initiated his secret police SAVAK in
1957 over any who would oppose him.
Because
of this oil issue the eventual overthrow of the Shah
in 1979 was accompanied by predictable anti-western
sentiment from many who remembered the imperialistic
British and American elimination of Mossadegh. This
anti-western movement was of course supported by the
new splinters of Al-qaeda terrorism.
Bottom line . . . Many Asian countries have long memories
about wanton western imperial activity by virtually
every European country.
The lack
of strategic history courses leaves many college students
completely in the dark about all of aforementioned western
imperialism in Asia. Unfortunately, the aggressive geographic
pestering of Chinese leader Xi Jinpin has complicated
matters. He is the first Chinese leader in decades to
pursue territoriality as he threatens Taiwan. But any
serious student of Chinese history will demonstrate
that territorial imperialism has been conspicuously
absent from Chinese foreign policy in the past. Incredibly,
the original Communist Chinese constitution stipulates
that religious freedom is to be given to 55 specifically
noted religions.
The interference
in Asian culture initiated by the United States and
other western powers in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and middle-eastern
Asia has resulted in significant anti-western posturing
especially from older, educated Asians who remember
the European imperialistic activity listed above.
There may
be some altruistic intelligence (anti-communist) thinking
and, more graphically, violent action against Asian
terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi and others.
But the West must figure out how to erase the Asian
memory of 600 years of western imperialism and strongly
convince the indigenous populations that the new West
is no longer imperialistic.
Those present
and future western leaders must figure out how to gain
Asian trust and respect.
Admittedly,
this will not be easy given the strong American military
presence there, the never-ending Israel-Arab struggle,
and the presence of such groups as Boko Haram, Al-qaeda
and Isis. The old American excuse for military involvement
in Asia was to oppose Russian-style international communism.
Ironically, the word communism’ is carefully avoided
in Putin-led Russia these days where even Stalin’s name
is shunned.
No one ever
said that diplomacy is easy. But matters may be more
workable provided there are renewed efforts to properly
educate university undergrads and graduate students
planning diplomatic careers on Asia’s complex and not
just the selfish needs of imperialistic westerners thousands
of miles away.