On the Other Hand
BOWLES, CHESTER
ON THE OTHER HAND... Reply to Bruno Shaw Strengthening Free Asia On March 15, we published an article by Bruno Shaw, veteran Far Eastern hand and radio commentator, which criticized the views...
...We must vigorously resist any further expansion or aggression from this source, and we should be quick to encourage any signs of its increasing independence from Moscow...
...Bowles, who has been Governor of Connecticut and United States Ambassador to India, is the author of Ambassador's Report...
...I assume that Mr...
...With their more than 700 million people, these nations outnumber the other two Asias put together...
...And does he further believe that it would have the support of the American people, who were so determined on a truce in Korea and are so opposed to the use of American manpower in Indo-China...
...In a sense, there are three "Asias...
...The proposed arming of Pakistan seems even to have added to the instability of Pakistan itself...
...Shaw says that I say "all will be well" if Communist China breaks its ties with the Soviet Union, he is considerably less than accurate...
...If the success of these independent non-Communist countries becomes our chief concern, instead of sweeping Point Four under the rug and opposing the UN proposal for a dynamic World Development Authority, these items will be placed high on our agenda...
...over the years, the tide cannot be turned in Asia by negative defensive military measures alone...
...In Indo-China, where we are now faced with a peculiarly difficult crisis...
...He has just launched a weekly television series for " New Haven station...
...I added that "the Chinese Communist leaders, in their first flush of revolutionary enthusiasm, are now in a sense even more militant and fanatic than the leaders in the Kremlin, and some day may become even a greater threat to world peace...
...According to recent reports, the United Front, which now solidly dominates the whole eastern half of Pakistan, has already demanded the repudiation of the military arrangement with America...
...No thoughtful person who has seen the threat of Asian Communism first-hand, or who has faced the dimensions of the Asian social and political revolution, could harbor any such illusion...
...We must look at "uncommitted" Asia with insight and bold imagination, and we should seek to support its unity and strength...
...Reply to Bruno Shaw Strengthening Free Asia On March 15, we published an article by Bruno Shaw, veteran Far Eastern hand and radio commentator, which criticized the views taken by Chester Bowles in our "Asia 1954" issue (February 22...
...Wherever an effort is made for genuine reform, as President Magsaysay is doing in the Philippines, we should offer our enthusiastic backing, for such reforms are essential to the growth of the popular strength of anti-Communist regimes...
...In this context, the American military arrangement with Pakistan seems clearly destructive of our main objectives in Asia...
...Certainly the alternative (which Mr...
...But...
...Here Mr...
...The proposal, therefore, involves the near-certainty of a fullblown war with China and, if the Soviets lived up to their treaty with Peking, World War III...
...In my recent book, Ambassador's Report, I said: "Chinese Communism, even if it should break loose from Russian domination, will not be easy to live with and may become increasingly dangerous to the stability of Asia...
...Shaw really believe that such a development is in America's interest...
...When the central government which agreed to this pact recently went to the polls in East Pakistan (where a majority of Pakistan's nearly 80 million people live), it could win only 3 per cent of the constituencies, while the "United Front," which includes the Communists and assorted left-wingers, won 86 per cent...
...Then we might find the whole of free Asia responding in a friendly and hopeful way...
...Does Mr...
...Shaw's criticism...
...Shaw agrees that, if such an effort is to be made, it must be done seriously—that is, with all-out American support, not only from the Air Force and Navy, but with whatever else is required, including infantry...
...What is most essential is not so much the immediate support of these "uncommitted" peoples, immensely helpful as that would be, but the growth of their democratic strength and confidence, and their determination to defend their interests against the Communist threat...
...I have consistently taken the position that under no circumstances can we allow Indo-China, Korea and Formosa, directly or indirectly, to fall under the control of the Moscow-Peking axis...
...and we can say with conviction that we are at last taking the initiative in the world struggle with Communism...
...By Chester Bowles Bruno Shaw seems to argue for an all-out attack by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist armies against the mainland of China, and to suggest that anyone who questions the wisdom of such a move is traveling the tragic, visionary path of Jan Mas-aryk...
...I believe that our policies, far from being too vigorous, have been too narrow and laden with too much wishful thinking...
...When Mr...
...An effective American policy in Asia must be comprehensive an sensitive to Asian realities, as we as firm...
...The neutralism of India...
...I know of no military strategist who believes that there is a remote chance of success on any other basis...
...Although there is no evidence at present of any immediate weakening in the Peking-Moscow axis, such development, if it came, would at least introduce more fluidity into the world picture...
...Second, there is the Asia of South Korea, Formosa, the Philippines and Thailand, which seem to be firmly on our side and with whom we have military pacts...
...For the long haul, this "uncommitted" Asia seems to bold the balance of power, and it is here that our policies are now so woefully inadequate...
...Indonesia and Burma is well known, and a similar kind of neutralism is almost as firmly rooted in the public opinion (as contrasted with the official position) of Japan and Pakistan...
...It should now be abundantly clear that it has already helped to alienate the 360 million people of India and to bring Indian-American relations to their lowest ebb...
...Bowles replies to his critic...
...First, there is Communist Asia-China and North Korea...
...to encourage such an undertaking and then fail to back it to the hilt would be unthinkable...
...But we should never forget that there is a third vast stretch of Asia, consisting of most of the Middle East plus Indonesia, Burma, Ceylon, India and probably—when the chips are down--Pakistan and Japan...
...Shaw seems to accept)--monolithic totalitarian unity of the whole Eurasian heartland from Warsaw to Canton is a terrible prospect...
...Readers may still obtain copies of his previous article and of Mr...
...We must continue to support and defend these nations...
...What, precisely, are we likely to gain in compensation for this abandonment of a relationship with the largest and most stable nation between Turkey and Japan--a relationship which a year ago was becoming increasingly cordial...
Vol. 37 • April 1954 • No. 16
