What can we learn from the experiences of General MacArthur and Secretary of State Marshall on handling the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan? After all, both history and statistics show that both men were fully successful in turning former enemies into stable and reliable allies. Mind you, this does not mean that they never disagree with us, but, when all is said and done, they stand with us. What did they do that helped turned former military enemies into civilian allies? Well, there were several things that they did that might be helpful to us at this time.
1. They accepted the existing system of government and did not attempt to change it. Before World War II, Japan was a constitutional empire and Germany was a parliamentary democracy. After World War II, Japan remained a constitutional empire and Germany remained a parliamentary democracy. Neither man was interested in changing the style of government that each culture had developed over the course of time. They were only interested in ensuring that the governments were just governments in which people behaved ethically and the police forces were just. They were not interested in turning either country into an American-style representative democracy. After all, if a government is just, its particular form does not matter, and, if a government is unjust, its particular form does not matter. If one is a victorious invader, it is actually easier to maintain stability in a country if one maintains as many cultural forms as possible, provided those forms do not conflict with your ethical and security goals. One can see this in Cyrus’ treatment of the Jews in the Books of Nehemiah and Ezrah.
2. Both men spent unstintingly in the rebuilding of the shattered economies. The rebuilding of infrastructure was actually a higher priority than the pursuit of former enemies. And, in order to rebuild and maintain the infrastructure, both men used the experienced professionals of the former regime since both Axis powers forced all middle and upper level managers to be part of the party. There is nothing that so settles a populace as having fairly full employment and a working infrastructure. If one has a full belly and a warm house, one is much less likely to rebel than if one is hungry and searching for a non-existent job. Again, look at the Books of Nehemia and Ezrah and see how much money both of those men were given in order to rebuild shattered Israel.
3. The United States of America had a policy that allowed the immigration of many of the displaced persons from both Japan and Europe. This immigration policy not only functioned as a relief valve while the infrastructure was being rebuilt, but also built links between the USA and the former Axis countries. These were ties that went much deeper than treaties or governmental theories. Many Japanese, Germans and Austrians ended up with relatives here; relatives who reported that they had jobs and were well accepted by the populace. If you have ever seen the movie The Sound of Music, with Julie Andrews, you know that it is based on a real family who was really called the von Trapp family, and who really had to flee Austria. But, the film ends with them climbing over the mountains to the safety of Switzerland. Father Orthoduck is certain that most of you do not know that the von Trapp family ended up in Vermont. If you are interested in the story of the von Trapp family, you can go to The National Archives and see photographs as well as copies of their USA documents.
4. The United States of America had post-war tours by people from the defeated Axis powers. One can read in newspapers from the late 1940’s and early 1950’s of touring Japanese karate experts (and teams), Austrian singers, German engineers, etc. That is, by having those people tour through the USA, it helped us see them as just normal human beings, rather than as monsters who were only fit to be killed.
Can you see how the application of policies of this type might help in turning former enemies into allies? Father Orthoduck would suggest that we need to study both General MacArthur and Secretary of State Marshall to see how many of their successful policies can be applied wholesale to Afghanistan and Iraq.
are you sending this to the powers that be? they sure could use it!
in the case of German-born composers it helped that both before and during the escalation of conflict several prominent German composers had found their way to the United States because they ended up being at odds with the regime (Hindemith and Schoenberg are foremost in my mind here). On the Italian side the Italian Jewish composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco left Italy after Mussolini came to power and became an established composer in Hollywood whose most famous protege gave us the Star Wars soundtracks. From Russia, of course, we got Stravinsky. Hindemith taught for a while at Yale and Schoenberg played tennis with George Gershwin. Stravinsky was the only composer T. S. Eliot allowed to set his poetry to music. American culture benefited immensely from the cultural exchange.
One of the most ironic cultural biases I’ve come across in the United States is the dislike of giant-eyed anime characters since prior to Japanese cinema’s exposure to Disney the big eyes just didn’t happen. Americans who don’t like saucer-eyed anime characters just don’t realize that we Americans bear the blame for that! It’s ironic that Americans who don’t like that aspect of anime are disliking a distinctly American fad in character design that came from none other than Walt himself! It’s funny how we can dislike in the other what gets a pass from ourselves. 🙂
Of course, this brings up the whole subject of immigration policy. Our current policy has changed from what it was immediately before, during, and after World War II. Back then our immigration policy helped to support our foreign policy goals with respect to those regimes. I would like to see us return to an immigration policy that would better support our foreign policy goals in countries such as Afghanistan, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Myanmar, etc.
Right now we are still too caught up in the immigration debates of the last twenty years, debates which have made it difficult for our government to use immigration as a way to support foreign policy. Both Presidents Bush (dad and son) and, now, Obama have run into that problem.