Afro-Asian Patterns and Opportunities

...Whether their spokesmen admit it or not, they share the apprehensions over the "new imperialism" of Communist China...

...In Burma, for example, some exceedingly strong anti-Communist publications were issued under the auspices of the Government headed by General Ne Win...

...In the last years of the U Nu regime, which ended in 1958, relations between Burma and the U.S...

...As Americans and Africans get to know each other better, more accurate images will presumably emerge...

...fails to take advantage of the new opportunities in the underdeveloped world it will not be because of the failings of its representatives abroad but because of lack of support and understanding at home, in Washington and in the country at large...

...From time to time, in fact, they do some surprisingly unneutral things...

...Extensive contacts on unofficial levels should be promoted and official relations should likewise become broader and more meaningful...

...Only in Guinea could American representation be fairly described as unsatisfactory...

...according to the whims of Norodom Sihanouk—are also favorable for closer American contacts...

...The most troubled area, at the moment, is Algeria, and much depends on de Gaulle's success or failure in finding a tolerable formula for Algerian nationalism...

...Recently I had a unique opportunity to compare images with realities in many of the countries of Africa and Asia...

...Despite its inward orientation, General Ne Win's regime was well disposed toward the U.S...

...everywhere I found images of America which do not correspond to realities at home...

...To make matters worse, these resources are not utilized NORMAN D. PALMER, who is chairman of the International Relations Program at the University of Pennsylvania, has just returned from a tour of 25 Asian and African countries...

...In spite of the kind of insinuations conveyed in the pages of The Ugly American—a book which has been read by thousands in other countries as well as at home—the United States is well and ably represented abroad...

...has not yet been successful in working out common bases of understanding and cooperation with the leaders and peoples of the underdeveloped world...

...I believe that recent developments have created an unusually favorable situation for the United States to develop closer relations with the new nations of the Afro-Asian world...

...were often strained and always rather distant...

...These images seem to be shaped by factors largely irrelevant, including the circumstances and preconceptions of people whose ways of life and patterns of thought are usually very different from those of Americans, their reactions to the Americans they meet, the impressions they glean from American films, and the impact of certain aspects of American foreign policy...

...Presumably these contacts will continue with U Nu's return to power...

...economic and technical assistance and it unobtrusively developed a variety of contacts...

...The Eisenhower Administration has proposed a considerably expanded program of aid to India and Pakistan, to help insure the success of their ambitious economic development plans, and the U.S...

...These themes are complicated by political, social and racial problems, by rivalries between regions, tribes and individual leaders, by inexperience and resort to various forms of authoritarianism...

...This is particularly true in countries which until a few years ago were still the preserves of colonial powers...

...This is decidedly no longer the case...

...Everywhere I went I found realities not reflected in American images of the situation in the Afro-Asian world...

...But there are also bright spots...

...The Philippines, of course, have long had special ties with the United States...

...Pakistan, under various regimes, has had few inhibitions about associations with other states, including the U.S., and it has questioned only the relative amount of assistance and of attention we have given to it...

...Malavans are well disposed toward the United States, and we are well represented there...

...America today must understand the new AFRO-ASIAN PATTERNS AND OPPORTUNITIES By Norman D. Palmer MOST AMERICANS who have traveled abroad would agree that the images of America in foreign eyes have little relation to the America they know...

...for economic and military assistance...

...Thus Indonesia, like India, is having second thoughts about Communist China, and incidentally about its relations with other states as well...

...Fortunately, American representatives in Indonesia are an unusually fine and dedicated group, and among the several hundred Americans in Indonesia in a private capacity—workers for oil companies and other American businesses, representatives of American foundations and other non-profit organizations dedicated to international service, teachers and writers—are many who are remarkably perceptive and who have won the friendship and confidence of their many Indonesian associates...

...In East Africa racial and color problems still cloud the future, but independence for Uganda and Tanganyika seems almost certain in the near future, and the recent constitutional conference in London may prove a major step toward independence for Kenya...

...On the official level, the great problem—also a great opportunity—for the United States is to develop and implement policies independent enough of the British, French and Belgian to satisfy the sensitive leaders of the new states and to provide full scope for bilateral relations, while still working cooperatively with Britain, France, Belgium and other developed states, as well as with European regional organizations, the United Nations and African associations in mobilizing the resources for economic and social development...

...President Eisenhower visited both India and Pakistan—the first American President to do so—and received a warm welcome both in Karachi and New Delhi...

...Here is the political center of Black Africa, and it has become all the more significant with the independence of Cameroon and the impending independence of Nigeria and of areas which until recently seemed to be a long way from nationhood, including the Mali Federation and, incredibly, the Belgian Congo...

...There are dozens of dedicated people who have established close and friendly relations with people of underdeveloped lands and who labor unassumingly under conditions which are a far cry from the popular misconceptions of how America's representatives abroad live...

...Everywhere I found able and dedicated men and women turning to the tasks of human and material development...

...The hope arises from the image of America that still prevails, of a nation which has been a land of promise for millions of people, from the political, economic and social achievement of America, "the land of the free," from the relatively good American record with regard to imperialism and exploitation, from the substantial assistance which the U.S...

...Even more remarkable was the action of the Government of Malaya in sponsoring a resolution with Ireland in the UN General Assembly condemning Chinese Communist actions in Tibet...

...Great changes are taking place in the "states" of the French Community, which seem to be moving toward some kind of truly independent status, whatever the future relationship with France...

...Thanks to the Chinese Communists and to certain internal developments, therefore, the United States is generally viewed more favorably, particularly in India and in Indonesia...

...If you want to understand us," the editor of a leading Arab newspaper said to me, "you must look at us not simply as we were 10 years ago and as we are today, but as we aspire to be 10 years hence...

...Recent developments have created a new order of affairs in these emerging areas whose full implications can only dimly be grasped...

...Even their language competence is greater than is generally imagined, and is improving rapidly...

...and this is due not to the caliber of the Ambassador and his staff but to U.S...

...plans to help finance, both directly and through its contributions to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the joint efforts to make maximum use of the waters of the Indus River system...

...It has, of course, established diplomatic relations, large and well-qualified staffs in the U.S...

...In Africa the great themes are the change from dependence to independence and from tribalism to nationhood, the African discovery of Africa along with the growing contacts of Africa with the rest of the world, the search for an African personality and the drive for African unity, the emergence of an independent Africa and the pressures on it from the outside...

...In dealings with Africa the U.S...

...If the U.S...

...In South and Southeast Asia a wholly new situation has arisen as a result of recent moves by the Chinese Communists — particularly the brutal suppression of the uprising in Tibet, the deliberate precipitation of a quarrel along the Sino-Indian frontiers, the Communist offensive in Laos, the developing tensions between China and Indonesia, and other evidences, too obvious and too dangerous to be ignored, that the leaders of Communist China are acting in complete violation and disregard of the "Bandung spirit" and the Panch Shila...

...The United States has shown an awareness of the opportunities and challenges in the Indian subcontinent...

...Everywhere I found Americans working effectively as well as some who have not clearly perceived the dimensions and the challenges of tomorrow...

...They have also created a situation more favorable to improvement of relations with Pakistan...

...Everywhere I found signs of a great mass awakening, with frightening and exciting possibilities...

...Vietnam, only part of a divided land, with a Communist regime on its borders, is heavily dependent on the U.S...

...reluctance to offend the French and to the State Department failure to appreciate the great symbolic significance of Guinea at the present time—a mistake the Communists did not make...

...Almost for the first time the United States has an opportunity to work directly with Africa on a large scale...

...Indonesian leaders have often been unhappy with American acts of commission or of omission, but the sober atmosphere of the distressed country now offers a favorable climate for sympathetic American assistance...

...All over the Afro-Asian world people look at the United States with mingled doubt and hope...

...Reactions to Chinese expansionism have also, at least temporarily, silenced critics who claimed that India's "neutralist" policy was neutral in favor of Communism...

...is handicapped by ignorance, by inexperience, by a lack of African "experts," by its vulnerability on racial issues, and by "guilt by association...

...Embassies in most of the independent African states, and in the Consulates General in Lagos, Dakar, Salisbury, Nairobi, Mogadiscio and elsewhere...

...Indians view recent Chinese moves, especially in Tibet and along the Indian frontiers, with mingled feelings of incredulity, indignation and alarm...

...The United States, which seeks to develop friendly relations with both India and Pakistan, has benefited from the improvement in their relations...

...That charming country is making great progress in spite of the special difficulties caused by protracted guerrilla war-fare—now virtually ended—the difficulties in working out a formula for peaceful coexistence of Malayans and Malayan Chinese, and for the vexing problem of its relations with Singapore, whose population is largely Chinese...

...Generally speaking, foreign images of America are either too flattering or too unflattering...

...For reasons largely beyond its control, the U.S...

...The honeymoon period in Sino-Indian relations is apparently now at an end...

...Quite naturally, relations with the "committed" nations of South and Southeast Asia have been closer and have developed fewer psychological quirks...

...The realities of the underdeveloped world are grim, its problems are staggering, and its human and material resources are pitifully limited...

...With the possible exception of India, Indonesia has been the leading champion of Communist China among the non-Communist states of Asia...

...Communist China not only protested officially to Indonesia but also took other measures which angered Sukarno and his associates...

...More attention is now being focused on what Sir Oliver Franks, in a memorable phrase, characterized as '"a right relationship of the industrial north of the globe to the developing south"—a problem which may prove to be more important and serious than the so-called East-West problem...

...These feelings, which seem to be shared by the majority of Indians who have any views at all on such matters, have led to an entirely new orientation toward Communist China, to a reappraisal—but not as yet to any fundamental change—of the bases of foreign policy, and to warmer attitudes toward nations, even Western nations, which do not operate so ruthlessly on the domestic and international stage...

...Indonesia's disillusionment was caused partly by the same events that aroused India but was occasioned primarily by Chinese Communist reactions to recent Government of Indonesia moves which have made the position of "aliens"—meaning chiefly "overseas Chinese"—in rural areas almost intolerable...

...Under these conditions, which it did little to create, the United States is faced with an unparalleled opportunity...

...effectively, and assistance from better-developed countries is still too little, too late, and often too ill-conceived...

...But it is probably less suspect than any other major power, and the image of America, compounded of many elements, is a powerful one...

...The most hopeful changes seem to be occurring in West Africa, although even here all is not well...

...My foremost impression of the American effort in the revolutionary world is that, whatever the limitations or the successes of past American policies have been, there is need for a far greater effort in the future, a greater commitment of resources, and a profounder sense of purpose...

...has extended to less-developed lands, from faith in what America stands for, somewhat tarnished to be sure by the all-too-many discrepancies between profession and performance...

...The doubt springs from the gulf between Americans and the masses of mankind, the apparent preoccupation of Americans with their own problems and with the material things of life, the vagaries of American foreign policy, the bursting of the bubble of American scientific and military superiority, and the obvious and growing economic strength of the Soviet Union and now also of Communist China...

...Channels for closer contacts on official and unofficial levels are already in existence and should be cultivated and improved...

...Conversely, the world as most Americans view it has little relation to the world as it actually is, and this creates a "mental block" to efforts to understand the problems of the vast majority of mankind...

...Conditions in the other so-called "neutralist" countries of South and Southeast Asia—with the possible exception of Cambodia, which seems to blow hot and cold toward the U.S...

...While it terminated certain American contracts, it received some U.S...

...Are we witnessing, people ask, "the last years of American greatness," and the consolidation of power of the most menacing totalitarianism the world has ever known...

...Even one of the smallest American diplomatic establishments in Africa, the American Consulate in Lome, the capital of the Republic of Togo, with a total American staff of three, including a secretary, is doing an expert job in a situation which calls for the "undersell...