Editorial
EDITORIAL ABANDONING ASIA There was a time when centuries in Asia meant little more than the passing of a single day. Infinitely complex social, religious and cultural traditions governed the...
...Our cultural-political intercourse with Asian peoples was never highly developed, and the efforts a few years ago to increase this work were stymied by Congressional penury...
...Its great resources have drawn permanently into its vast crucible the religions, techniques and ideas of Europe and of the America Europe had created...
...The question is what political, military, cultural and economic forms such intervention should take...
...As a result, both France and the nationalists are confused, and appeasement of the Communist insurgents seems probable...
...It is often said that "Western imperialism" is through in Asia...
...In the diplomatic and military spheres, the picture has become even bleaker...
...Or to the voice out of European Russia that promises, in a thousand endless accents, a bright new world...
...In our day, Asia has been making up for lost time...
...On Formosa sits Chiang Kai-shek, once called "the Christian General," who was helped to power by the Russian Borodin and whose armies were trained by von Falkenhausen of the German General Staff...
...In the five centuries after Russia defeated the Tartars—the years in which Europe, through Renaissance, Reformation and Revolution, created its way of life—Asia traveled its old paths, unattended by the blessings and convulsions of the brave new world...
...Asia is now choosing between various European ideas, including many we find abhorrent...
...If America withdraws her men as well as her ideas, where run Asia turn...
...They can never welcome "'mobile reserves" dominated by bombing planes in quite the same way as they drew reassurance from the sight of American and Asian doughboys fighting side by side...
...Infinitely complex social, religious and cultural traditions governed the affairs of men, and the violent rise and fall of kings were passing intrusions in the lives of the millions...
...With the exception of the sparse surviving Point Four missions, we are now far behind the Kremlin in all these fields...
...the fact is that the influence of European culture has never been greater...
...Nevertheless, the Eisenhower Administration has cut even further into information, technical-assistance and exchange-of-persons programs...
...The saddest case is Korea...
...But President Eisenhower's new decision to withdraw two divisions from Korea must be sharply criticized...
...Thus are the new Asian civilizations being molded, and it is worse than irrelevant to believe they can grow in seclusion...
...In the complicated politics of Indo-China, the Administration is completely tangled: we are pressing France to continue an unpopular war, without casting the weight of full U.S...
...Against this background the Asian policies of the Eisenhower Administration must be weighed...
...Such "disengagement" (and this is only the beginning) does more than tempt the Communists to new aggressions...
...Now its years are as full as centuries...
...Another Christian, Syngman Rhee, leads Korea after years spent in the West...
...support behind the Vietnam nationalists...
...power in Korea was followed almost immediately by a new Communist offensive in Laos...
...Because it is plain that whoever rocks the Asian cradle will rule the world, Atlantic intervention in Asia is a necessity...
...For the Atlantic democracies to leave the Asian infant unattended would be suicide...
...If America returns to her past policy of slowly abandoning Korea—after her land and people have been decimated—why should all Asia resist the wave of the future...
...Moscow is saturating Asia with inexpensive books, pamphlets and magazines: training and supporting Asian Bolshevik cadres, and utilizing every opportunity to stimulate Asian racial consciousness...
...Asian peoples, seeking a new security in the wake of their fragmented traditions, are drawing the realistic conclusions from such events...
...While Washington speaks blithely of rearming Japan, the year 1953 saw neutralism and anti-Americanism gain new heights among Japanese intellectuals and labor leaders...
...To our atomic stockpiles...
...it reduces the moral influence of democracy in Asia, by clearly indicating America's distaste for the messy job of defending its best Asian friends...
...The Asian Communists, of course, follow the derivative of German romanticism outlined by the German Marx and modified by the Russian Lenin...
...To the debates of the UN...
...Not a word is heard from the Administration about the gathering storm in Indonesia, where Communists have infiltrated the Cabinet and are waging a vendetta against their strongest foes, the Moslems...
...Most of the Indian nationalists, the would-be leaders of the Asian continent, were educated at British schools...
...There is no longer much point in discussing the tragic truce arrangements: our record is clear on this matter...
...It was portentous and symbolic that the decision to reduce U.S...
...The chief elements of Soviet policy in Asia are cultural and military: On the one hand...
...On the other hand, the Kremlin is forging sleepy old China into a first-class military power, and maintaining to the best of its abilities the insurrectionary movements in Indo-China and elsewhere...
...they are the missionaries of the London School of Economics rather than of Gautama Buddha...
...The experience of these few is simulated by the many, as Asia responds to Soviet books, American movies and the ministrations of the political, religious and technical envoys of a thousand Western creeds...
Vol. 37 • January 1954 • No. 1
