"Toynbee, Vietnam and Reality"

...American private enterprise stimulates discontent while doing little to alleviate the conditions that breed discontent In the broadest sense Toynbee is nght about the effects ot American influence, though many of his specific tacts are wrong For example, he cites the Nationalist Chinese-held island of Formosa as an integral part ot the American Empire—a territory where the American writ is all-powerful and the chasm between the rich ruling class and the poor subject class grows wider each day In reality, the Nationalists are by no means cowed into suppressing either opinions or actions which advance their distinct interests Aside from Nationalist-American disagreement on high policy the Nationalists are self-consciously independent in their economic policies Within the past three months, a new international airline has taken off from Formosa, its capital and personnel entirely Chinese The Nationalist government has designated China Airlines its official flag-carrier—an open rebuff to Civil Air Transport, the American-financed and largely American-operated line that earned the white sun of Nationalist China to foreign airports tor more than a decade Private American business has reacted not by fighting the new company, but by granting it loans to buy aircraft In addition, the rapid growth of Formosa's economy has actually worked to the economic advantage ot the native Formosans the subject class rather than to the advantage ot former Chinese mamlanders, the ruling class Nor are the benefits limited to the top stratum of Formosans, the dominant economic development ot the past decade has been the emergence of the Formosan farmer as an independent and prosperous economic entity The peaceful social 1 evolution in Formosa has occurred despite official Amencan support of a small and, in this case alien ruling class It must in time produce a political revolution, for economic development has manifested its own irresistible force, and one hopes this will also be peaceful American economic intervention has failed to bring about such a dramatic economic revolution anywhere else in Asia largely because the infrastructure of basic industrial facilities and basic talents is lacking (Japan is, ot course, a unique case which would require separate discussion but not even Toynbee regards Japan as an American colony ) Thus, the American affinity foi an outmoded and inefficiently authoritarian status quo in Asia has politically negated many ot the military gains of intervention in South Vietnam In that country alone, even in the midst of war, many new goals could be pursued effective instead of token land reform, an educational system that would encourage the development of talent, not repress it with formalistic requirements, and, most of all, true equal opportunity for every Vietnamese, regardless of his hereditary social and economic position The Viet-cong offer this opportunity in their state within a state, the present ruling class in Saigon—which would vanish if the U S withdrew—does not The much-publicized clashes among the South Vietnamese factions are just that clashes among factions ot the luling class And the touted political reforms remain no more than elaborate charades in the absence of social and economic reforms Still, there is one major phenomenon—ignored by Toynbee and allowed to develop without interference by Washington—that is already working immense changes in South Vietnam and to a lesser extent in Thailand, as it once did in South Korea The vast influx ot American money, machinery and technical skills necessary to fight a war not only reveals an entirely new and startling material culture to the Asians, it also demands vast quantities of labor, skilled and unskilled, tor which it pays well The economic shocks of the war are thus severely weakening the foundations of the traditional social system There is more than humor in the Saigon witticism "The bar-girls and tractor drivers are the new elite " Yet we prefer, as did the British in their heyday, to deal with the old lulers regardless of our fundamental antipathies We have never been as skillful as the British in manipulating these local rulers, and more important, the era has passed when a great power could conduct a successful foreign policy m this myopic fashion For all its deficiencies Amencan policy in the Far East has by and large been successful But those deficiencies could be disastrous in the future Toynbee to the contrary, our empire is an empire ot responsibility, not an empire of exploitation, and our actions prove that we are not engaged in a holy war against "monolithic international Communism," but m a limited holding action against Maoist aggressiveness It is not necessarily ignoble to compare the present Pax Americana to the Pax Romana But it would be well to remember what happened to the world after the tall of Rome, brought on b\ the Romans inflexibility and sybaritic self-indulgence...

...PERSPECTIVES Toynbee, Vietnam and Reality By Robert S. Elegant Hong Kong Two documents have found their wa\ to my desk in recent weeks One is a series ot articles written by the eminent British mystic and historian, Arnold Toynbee, tor the London Ob~,ei\ei The second is a thick pamphlet with an attractive gold and black silk-screened cover entitled The Othei Wai in Vietnam—A Piogiess Report It was published in Washington by the Agency for International Development (aid), which looks after the infinitely complex economic and civilian aspects of the war Between them the two documents sum up major deficiencies in the American posture in Vietnam and the Far East The Toynbee articles are a brilliant analysis ot the Vietnam imbroglio as seen trom Washington and London Unfortunately they are not alwa\s pertinent to the actual situation Toynbee argues that the United States, like the British in South Africa at the close of the lyth century, is "using overwhelming military force against a weak but gallant opponent He goes on to compare the growing 'American Empire with the Roman Empire s ' domination ot the rich over the poor The official \id report breathes optimism a proper function of official reports It speaks in glowing terms ot schoolhouscs built acres irrigated and children saved b} sur-gi.n all o^cr South Vietnam But nowhere does it speak ot basic social reform Toynbee's tear that the American Century is broadening the chasm between the rich and the poor throughout the world is worthy of more serious attention than his concommitant thesis, that an increasingly intrusive American hegemony deliberately seeks and exploits that chasm By its omissions, the aid pamphlet actually supports his first contention One should not be deterred from serious consideration ot Toynbee's views by his sentimental admiration tor the Viet-cong—who are still capable of teaching the most ruthless American professional "counter-insurgent" a good deal about sheer fnghtful-ness I do not piopose to le-enter here the full-dress debate on the Vietnamese war It is perhaps pertinent though, to state again my behet that the United States—in part because ot our own mistakes?had no option but to engage the Communists on the ground m South Vietnam Almost obsessive attention to the affairs of Communist China and the Far East during the past two years has also convinced me that the American intervention in Vietnam has had profound, and largely beneficial, consequences elsewhere Above all, tear of violent confrontation with the U S has stimulated the pragmatic revolt inside the Chinese Communist party against Chairman Mao's rigid and oppressive orthodoxy, with its absolute commitment to an aggressive and dangerous foreign policy We cannot in the end, prevent the extension ot some form of primary Chinese influence over the Far East We can, however, prevent the extension ot direct Chinese influence until the Chinese have modified their ambitions and we can assist that adaptation to the benefit of the Chinese people and the world Already, because the United States has by militarv action demonstrated its determination to prevent Sino-Communist expansion throughout Asia, two new factors have emerged moie determined resistance to native Communist movements, and an atmosphere more conducive to realistic social reform Unfortunatel), the military commitment is not enough And American polic\ instead of encouraging the growth ot a new democratic elite on the basis ot ability among the halt-submerged classes, stifles the long-overdue fundamental social 1 evolution by peaceful means that is both essential and possible We are seeking, with a fair measure ot temporary success, to stabilize the past rather than to liberate the future Oddly enough and Toynbee notwithstanding, it is private American business that fosters the use of talent in Asia and challenges the existing oligarchies The necessity to show a profit impels American companies to employ the best people they can find, icgardless ot their standing m the old, stratified societies This same necessity compels these companies to offei on-the-job training and advanced education which at once enhance employes skills and ambitions and heighten their discontent with the old order Unhappily, the process has definite limits, for most senior jobs require a high level of basic education available only to a small, privileged class Besides, no sensible American businessman deliberately alienates the masters of the country where he operates In the long run therefore...