tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/anti-communism-25157/articlesanti-communism – The Conversation2024-01-22T14:55:15Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214292024-01-22T14:55:15Z2024-01-22T14:55:15ZDeep-seated inequality is fuelling an escalation of violence across Latin America<p>For most of the 20th century, Latin America was portrayed as one of the world’s most peaceful regions. Coups and repressive military regimes had long been commonplace but widespread civil disorder and war were relatively rare. Today, however, the world’s media is slowly waking up to a <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/latin-america-erupts-the-danger-of-democratic-delinquency/">very different reality</a>.</p>
<p>Surging levels of violence now mean that mortality rates in Latin America often exceed those seen in the world’s conflict areas. In 2021, Latin America had the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/2023/GSH23_ExSum.pdf">highest murder rate</a> in the world at almost three times the global regional average.</p>
<p>Ecuador is one country that has seen a particularly massive spike in violence in recent years. Masked gunmen <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67930452">stormed</a> a live news broadcast on January 9 and the prosecutor investigating the attack was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68014040">murdered</a> just days later.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/ecuadors-crackdown-on-violent-crime-helped-turn-the-country-into-a-narco-state-220920">Ecuador's crackdown on violent crime helped turn the country into a narco state</a>
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<p>The explosion of violence in the region is being caused by a number of mutually reinforcing factors. Notably, deep-rooted inequalities and a weak state have allowed a destabilising narcotics economy to flourish.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Armed gangsters storm TV station in Ecuador.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Forever unequal</h2>
<p>Latin America has long been the most unequal area of the world in terms of income and wealth. But this inequality has worsened over recent decades. In 2021, Brazil’s wealthiest 1% <a href="https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04166852/document">owned</a> 47% of the country’s wealth, up from 45% in 2006. The increase was even greater for the top 0.01%, with their wealth share rising from 12% to 18%.</p>
<p>Unlike other middle-income areas, the economic structure of the region is still based on exporting primary products – something that has remained largely unchanged since colonial times. This dependence has deepened as Latin America feeds the growing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/specialization-latam-exports-china-shows-worrying-trend-un-report-says-2023-11-02/">demand from China</a> for its minerals and foodstuffs.</p>
<p>Relying on the export of primary products has <a href="https://www.oasisbr.ibict.br/vufind/Record/UNIFAP-1_25b9cf30e04a53a0d1b7befc7f7dd0d7">reinforced inequality</a> because the expansion of large-scale commercial farming and mining has blocked moves towards agrarian reform. </p>
<p>As a result, there has been a surge in the <a href="https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/bp-land-power-inequality-latin-america-301116-en.pdf">migration</a> of school-leavers to urban areas in search of work. However, by anchoring this highly capital-intensive economic model, any serious attempt at industrialisation and labour-intensive job creation – akin to what has taken place in much of south and south-east Asia – has been stymied.</p>
<p>The long history of anti-communism promoted by successive US administrations during and after the cold war, coupled with a Catholic church that has become deeply conservative in recent decades, has also hindered attempts at social democratic reform and inclusive development. This has seen the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/The+New+Latin+America-p-9781509540020">collapse of revolutionary movements</a> with a progressive agenda capable of bringing about the structural reforms the region so desperately needs. </p>
<p>Consequently, <a href="https://www.ilo.org/caribbean/newsroom/WCMS_867540/lang--en/index.htm#:%7E:text=The%20estimated%20average%20regional%20unemployment,level%20of%208%20per%20cent">underemployment</a> is rife – a major factor propelling <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221006083/immigration-border-election-presidential">soaring illegal immigration</a> to the US. Over half of workers in Latin America are employed informally with job instability, low income and no social protection.</p>
<h2>The illegal drug trade</h2>
<p>But a new factor – the narcotics industry – has emerged in recent decades with a deadly impact. Colombia is now the world’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/20/colombia-cocaine-decriminalize-petro/">largest producer of cocaine</a> and Mexico is fast becoming a global producer of <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10400">heroin and fentanyl</a>.</p>
<p>The emergence of narcotics has built on and reinforced the deep-rooted inequality that affects the region. Young and underemployed migrants to urban areas provide the foot soldiers for the growth of extremely powerful narcotics gangs. The <a href="https://greydynamics.com/primeiro-comando-da-capital-pcc-from-sao-paulo-to-the-world/">Primeiro Comando da Capital</a> in Brazil is now one of the largest gangs in the world with over 30,000 members and a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/20fb5c77-baf1-45ab-a886-51cac68cfd4e">growing global reach</a>.</p>
<p>Narcotics gangs <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cd9d4d72-1266-4441-81e0-6259cba864ae">now exist</a> in every Latin American country and are driving homicide trends across the region. They seek to co-opt and corrupt rather than challenge the power of the state. But this is <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/aq-podcast-how-organized-crime-is-changing-in-latin-america/">likely to change</a>.</p>
<p>International development organisations that operate in the region have long been lamenting its “institutional fragility” and the falling level of citizen trust. They <a href="https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/the-pulse-of-democracy-in-the-americas-results-of-the-2023-americasbarometer/">call for</a> governance reforms, but nothing fundamental ever changes.</p>
<p>A main reason for this dismal governance is inequality – a bloated public administration characterised by <a href="https://americasquarterly.org/article/latin-americas-inequality-is-taking-a-toll-on-governance/">“clientelism”</a> (the practice of choosing or promoting people in return for political support).</p>
<p>But the flip side is the virtual absence of a professional ethic and collective memory inside the civil service. Public sector corruption thus remains endemic within the government, police, armed forces and prison system.</p>
<h2>Failing states</h2>
<p>The most striking feature of the weak governance encouraging this gradual slide towards failed states is now rampant corruption from top to bottom of the judicial system, thanks to the infiltration of drug gangs. Personal insecurity has become the daily norm for the urban poor and the rule of law simply does not exist for most citizens.</p>
<p>When a poor person is killed – whether by state repression, settling of scores among narcos, street robbery or extortion – no criminal investigation usually takes place unless relatives have the resources to hire a lawyer. The crime prosecution rate is minimal and the vast majority of inmates in overcrowded prisons are poor people awaiting trial.</p>
<p>As a result, the capacity of the state to counter the gradual spread of narcotics is extremely limited. This vulnerability has already produced the first example of a narco state – Honduras under the presidency of Juan Orlando Hernández (2014–2022). On leaving office in April 2022, Hernández was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hern%C3%A1ndez-former-president-honduras-indicted-drug-trafficking">extradited</a> to the US to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. </p>
<p>The Latin American elite try to justify the current economic model as providing food security and mineral resources for the growing world population. Yet the elite remain in denial about the violent consequences of this model. </p>
<p>There is a risk that Latin America’s very role as a bread basket will convert it into a basket case of perpetual civil disorder.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Nickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Latin America’s spike in violence is the result of systemic problems that have long gone unaddressed.Andrew Nickson, Honorary Reader in the Department of International Development, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1812612022-04-19T03:10:56Z2022-04-19T03:10:56ZWhen war imitates art: rediscovering Red Dawn, the 1984 movie inspiring Ukrainian fighters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457908/original/file-20220413-3788-4i2x7q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C1%2C1260%2C1044&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oleg Tolmachev/Twitter</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When images from Ukraine of <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10698953/Wolverines-sprayed-knocked-Russian-tanks.html">abandoned Russian tanks</a> tagged with the word “Wolverines” circulated in early April, movie buffs got it right away: Ukrainian fighters were consciously referencing the cult 1984 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087985/">Red Dawn</a>. </p>
<p>Released at the apex of the Cold War, it chronicles a fictional Soviet invasion of the US, in which a group of teenagers – the Wolverines – mount a guerilla resistance against the might of the Soviet military.</p>
<p>The tagged tanks weren’t the first instance of Red Dawn being invoked over Ukraine. Early in the war, for example, <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/21/ukraines-red-dawn-zelenskyys-wolverines-are-winnin/">some Western commentators</a> compared the Ukrainian resistance to the Wolverines. And, more recently, dozens of Red Dawn-inspired memes have circulated on the internet. </p>
<p>One study showed the movie itself had seen a <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/red-dawn-rising-1984-film-about-american-teens-fighting-russian-invasion-is-red-hot/">500% surge</a> in popularity on video-on-demand platforms globally since late February. When a 1980s action movie starring the likes of Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey resonates this much with contemporary audiences, something is clearly going on.</p>
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<h2>A Cold War hit</h2>
<p>Produced by MGM during the height of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, Red Dawn captured contemporary US anxiety about communist military might. MGM wanted to capitalise on American protests against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and ride a wave of patriotic sentiment generated by the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. </p>
<p>The studio enlisted one of the most conservative American directors of the era, <a href="https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc57.2016/-LeottaMillius/index.html">John Milius</a>. At the time of its release, the Guinness Book of Records rated Red Dawn the most violent film ever made, featuring more than two violent acts per minute. But with a PG-13 rating, it proved a commercial success, grossing nearly US$40 million worldwide. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/war-movies-are-big-earners-what-does-that-say-about-us-132976">War movies are big earners. What does that say about us?</a>
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<p>Not everyone was enthusiastic, however, with liberal critics attacking the explicit jingoism, violence and anti-communist rhetoric of the film. As the New York Times’ Janet Maslin wrote:</p>
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<p>To any snivelling lily-livers who suppose that John Milius […] already reached the pinnacle of movie-making machismo, a warning: Mr. Milius’s “Red Dawn” is more rip-roaring than anything he has done before. Here is Mr. Milius at his most alarming, delivering a rootin’-tootin’ scenario for World War III. </p>
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<p>Elsewhere, media scholar <a href="https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/essays/filmpoliticsideology.pdf">Douglas Kellner</a> argued Red Dawn was an effort to reclaim for the political right the heroic figure of the revolutionary freedom fighter from 1960s leftist mythology. He saw the film as an attempt to legitimise US-backed anti-communist insurgencies in Afghanistan and Nicaragua.</p>
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<span class="caption">Red Dawn-inspired memes have circulated since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://imgflip.com/i/67cd8n">SOsoDEFF</a></span>
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<h2>Against all odds</h2>
<p>Such readings of Red Dawn fail to account for the ideological complexity of the film, however. Despite Milius’s radical conservatism, it would be unfair to label him as merely in thrall to the American military. </p>
<p>Along with George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, Milius was a pioneer of the “New Hollywood” period in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, characterised by an anti-establishment, formally innovative approach to film making. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/apocalypse-now-turns-40-rediscovering-the-genesis-of-a-film-classic-113448">Apocalypse Now turns 40: rediscovering the genesis of a film classic</a>
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<p>During this time Milius achieved international fame as the screenwriter of Apocalypse Now (for which he also received an Oscar nomination), and as director of The Wind and the Lion (1975) and Conan the Barbarian (1982).</p>
<p>Unlike MGM, which wanted an unambiguously patriotic and anti-communist film, Milius was more interested in the existentialist aspect of the story, particularly the idea of fighting against all odds: </p>
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<p>I took a lot of stuff from French and Russian resistance stories – in particular that they are not going to make a big difference, but the fact that they fought and died makes a symbolic difference.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cold-war-modern-ukraine-and-the-spread-of-democracy-in-the-former-soviet-bloc-countries-175789">The Cold War, modern Ukraine and the spread of democracy in the former Soviet bloc countries</a>
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<h2>Brutal reality</h2>
<p>Milius claimed the depiction of extreme violence was necessary to convey the brutality of an imaginary global conflict: “You see the tremendous cost of everything. Nobody comes out of it whole or unscarred.”</p>
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<p>In fact, the film occasionally displays a subtle irony, blurring the ideological line between Americans and communists. A sequence depicting special Soviet forces entering the Wolverines’ home town, for instance, is a clear reference to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhhoS3zOskE">The Battle of Algiers</a>, a quintessentially anti-imperialist film in which French paratroopers are sent to fight anti-colonial militants.</p>
<p>The film’s anti-communist credentials are further undercut by the celebration of both the Wolverines’ anti-imperialist values and the daring of some of the invaders. </p>
<p>Furthermore, both sides commit brutal acts of violence, with the difference between them increasingly indistinct. When the Wolverines prepare to execute a prisoner of war, one teenage guerilla asks, “What’s the difference between us and them?” To which the leader’s only response is, “We live here.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A 2012 remake of Red Dawn failed to fire at the box office.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>A lasting influence</h2>
<p>Milius often claimed the perceived anti-communism of Red Dawn gained him the hostility of what he regarded as a mainly left-wing Hollywood culture, and eventually contributed to the decline of his film-making career. </p>
<p>With time, however, the film acquired cult status and its title became synonymous with the threat of foreign invasion. The US mission to capture toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was dubbed <a href="https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/2003-12-17-red-dawn_x.htm">Operation Red Dawn</a>. “I think all of us in the military have seen Red Dawn,” said Captain Geoffrey McMurray, who chose the name.</p>
<p>More recently, TV shows Stranger Things and South Park have payed homage to Milius’s film, and its influence extends to music and video games. Red Dawn’s vast following even motivated a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234719/">2012 remake</a>, about an implausible North Korean attempt to invade the US, which failed to replicate the success of the original.</p>
<p>As its adoption by Ukrainian fighters shows, however, Milius’s third world war fantasy has retained a unique place in the collective imagination. Nearly 40 years on, Red Dawn’s stark depiction of the brutality of contemporary warfare resonates still.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alfio Leotta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Substitute Russia for the Soviet Union and it’s clear why the cult Cold War action movie Red Dawn has found a new fan base nearly 40 years on.Alfio Leotta, Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1799792022-04-04T12:31:06Z2022-04-04T12:31:06ZLessons in realpolitik from Nixon and Kissinger: Ideals go only so far in ending conflict in places like Ukraine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455555/original/file-20220331-19-22c29.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C25%2C3319%2C2201&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Supporters of Ukraine, like these demonstrators in Boston on Feb. 27, 2022, are likely to be disappointed by any peace deal. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-hold-signs-during-a-peaceful-stand-for-ukraine-news-photo/1238820038?adppopup=true">Vincent Ricci/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. has limited options in confronting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. </p>
<p>The Biden administration’s strategy is moderated by what’s known as “realpolitik.” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/19/us/politics/us-ukraine-russia-escalation.html">The U.S. is not willing to risk a larger war with Russia</a> by any level of involvement that might bring Washington and its allies into direct military conflict with Moscow, risking an escalation into nuclear war. </p>
<p>In a recent column for The Washington Post, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/13/biden-us-ukraine-lessons-cold-war/">journalist Matt Bai lamented</a> that President Joe Biden “will be forced to take a realpolitik view that most of us will find hard to stomach.”</p>
<p>“No matter how unjust Ukraine’s fate, he must continue to reject any measure that threatens to put U.S. troops in direct conflict with the Russians,” Bai wrote.</p>
<p>This means that, even as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/un-general-assembly-set-censure-russia-over-ukraine-invasion-2022-03-02/">much of the world decries the savagery of the Russian invasion</a> and the intense suffering of Ukrainians, President Volodymyr <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-wants-a-no-fly-zone-what-does-this-mean-and-would-one-make-any-sense-in-this-war-179282">Zelenskyy’s call for efforts like a NATO-enforced no-fly zone</a> will go unanswered by both Washington and NATO allies. </p>
<p>And, as a <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1006509">scholar and practitioner of U.S. foreign policy</a>, I believe any agreement produced by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/29/world/ukraine-russia-war">peace talks between Ukraine and Russia</a> will reflect the U.S. realpolitik approach and likely disappoint Ukraine’s supporters.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455558/original/file-20220331-24-2ku1im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two smiling older men toast each other as they stand in the front of a banquet table and are watched by a crowd of people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455558/original/file-20220331-24-2ku1im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455558/original/file-20220331-24-2ku1im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455558/original/file-20220331-24-2ku1im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455558/original/file-20220331-24-2ku1im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455558/original/file-20220331-24-2ku1im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455558/original/file-20220331-24-2ku1im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455558/original/file-20220331-24-2ku1im.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Richard Nixon, left, and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast each other at the end of Nixon’s first day of his visit to the People’s Republic of China on Feb. 21, 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NixonInChina/f3231bc8c0294725b49c435dc7ca68cd/photo?Query=Nixon%20China&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=342&currentItemNo=33">AP Photo/Bob Daugherty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The costs of realpolitik</h2>
<p>What exactly does realpolitik mean? </p>
<p><a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/realpolitik-its-many-distortions-14678?utm_source=pocket_mylist">Realpolitik</a> refers to the philosophy of states’ pursuing foreign policies that further their national interest, even at the expense of human rights, or compromising intrinsic liberal values in pursuit of their interests abroad. </p>
<p>In the U.S., you can’t discuss realpolitik without referring to the <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/nixon/foreign-affairs">foreign policy of U.S. President Richard Nixon</a>, guided by his national security adviser and later secretary of state, <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/kissingers-realpolitik-and-american-exceptionalism">Henry Kissinger</a>. The two men, in the most audacious example of their practice of realpolitik, set in motion events that led to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/23/1082250128/nixons-trip-to-china-laid-the-groundwork-for-normalizing-u-s-china-relations">normalized relations with China</a>. President Nixon put aside his virulent anti-communist leanings in favor of an approach he hoped would ultimately strengthen the U.S. </p>
<p>Yet Kissinger <a href="https://www.henryakissinger.com/interviews/henry-kissinger-interview-with-der-spiegel/">dismisses the notion</a> that he is or was a proponent of realpolitik. </p>
<p>“Let me say a word about realpolitik, just for clarification. I regularly get accused of conducting realpolitik. I don’t think I have ever used that term. It is a way by which critics want to label me,” <a href="https://www.henryakissinger.com/interviews/henry-kissinger-interview-with-der-spiegel/">Kissinger told German news magazine Der Spiegel in 2009</a>.</p>
<p>Yet later in the interview, Kissinger sounds like the realpolitik practitioner he is <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2015/12/the-kissinger-effect-on-realpolitik/">frequently characterized as</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The idealists are presumed to be the noble people, and the power-oriented people are the ones that cause all the world’s trouble. But I believe more suffering has been caused by prophets than by statesmen. For me, a sensible definition of realpolitik is to say there are objective circumstances without which foreign policy cannot be conducted. To try to deal with the fate of nations without looking at the circumstances with which they have to deal is escapism. The art of good foreign policy is to understand and to take into consideration the values of a society, to realize them at the outer limit of the possible.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In essence, Kissinger is not arguing for a foreign policy devoid of morality. Instead, he believes in recognizing the limits of furthering the national interest if policy is circumscribed by idealism. </p>
<p>To contain communism meant engaging in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27552537">foreign policies that contradicted “traditional” American values</a> of respect for human rights and self-determination. To Nixon and Kissinger, winning the Vietnam War, or at least ending it in a way the American public would find acceptable, meant taking unsavory actions, including <a href="https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf">carpet-bombing Cambodia</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455574/original/file-20220331-21-zqkijv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men in suits talking to each other in a large, elegant room with high ceilings, standing next to a window." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455574/original/file-20220331-21-zqkijv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455574/original/file-20220331-21-zqkijv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455574/original/file-20220331-21-zqkijv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455574/original/file-20220331-21-zqkijv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455574/original/file-20220331-21-zqkijv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455574/original/file-20220331-21-zqkijv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455574/original/file-20220331-21-zqkijv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=981&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Richard Nixon, left, with U.S. National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger in 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-president-richard-nixon-with-united-states-news-photo/74932537?adppopup=true">Frederic Lewis/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Containing communism also translated into support for the dictator and human rights violator <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82588&page=1">Augusto Pinochet in Chile</a> during Kissinger’s tenure. Post-Kissinger, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2015/02/10/7_fascist_regimes_america_enthusiastically_supported_partner/">realpolitik meant support for right-wing anti-communist dictators in Central America</a> during <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/reagan/foreign-affairs">the Reagan administration</a>.</p>
<h2>Realpolitik without guns</h2>
<p>Realpolitik isn’t only about the justification and conduct of wars. Nixon and Kissinger also sought to exploit the emerging rift between the Soviet Union and China. They made the decision <a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v17/d3">to try to improve relations</a> with China, which had been almost nonexistent since the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/chinese-rev">Chinese Communists defeated the U.S.-backed nationalists in 1949</a>. Their efforts culminated in <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/nixons-1972-visit-china-50">Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972</a>. </p>
<p>The staunch anti-communist in Richard Nixon <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/02/20/nixon-china-mao-visit-1972/">believed improved relations with China</a> served the national interest, further driving a wedge between Beijing and Moscow and setting the course for a safer world, in perhaps a generation. </p>
<p>To set this in motion meant backtracking from <a href="https://watergate.info/1960/08/21/nixon-the-meaning-of-communism-to-americans.html">his – and many Americans’ – anti-communist leanings</a>. Ideology took a back seat to pursuit of the national interest.</p>
<p>The U.S. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/04/remarks-by-president-biden-on-americas-place-in-the-world/">views itself</a> as a proponent of universal human rights, democracy and the rule of law, self-determination and sovereignty of nations. But not at the expense of its own global position. At times, domestic politics can influence adventurism abroad and how strongly American values are incorporated into foreign policy. There are times when Americans are angry and want to see an adversary punished even if it means <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/171653/americans-continue-oppose-closing-guantanamo-bay.aspx">violating the nation’s ideals</a>.</p>
<p>Public sentiment after the 9/11 attacks, for example, gave President George W. Bush wide latitude in foreign policy. But as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stretched on, the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/us-war-afghanistan-twenty-years-public-opinion-then-and-now">American public’s appetite</a> for the wars and overseas policing diminished greatly, forcing Presidents <a href="https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-pol-obama-at-war/">Obama</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/18/1028607717/strange-bedfellows-indeed-the-trump-biden-consensus-on-afghanistan">Trump</a> and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/04/14/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-way-forward-in-afghanistan/">Biden</a> to bring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to an end without a clear victory, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/political-instability-iraq">leaving behind</a> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/not-our-tragedy-the-taliban-are-coming-back-and-america-is-still-leaving">unstable nations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455581/original/file-20220331-15-yrmxd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men shake hands as they meet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455581/original/file-20220331-15-yrmxd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455581/original/file-20220331-15-yrmxd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455581/original/file-20220331-15-yrmxd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455581/original/file-20220331-15-yrmxd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455581/original/file-20220331-15-yrmxd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455581/original/file-20220331-15-yrmxd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455581/original/file-20220331-15-yrmxd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chilean dictator President Augusto Pinochet, left, greets Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the president’s office on June 8, 1976.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chilean-president-augusto-pinochet-greets-secretary-of-news-photo/515114332?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How the Ukraine war ends</h2>
<p>What will <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/opinion/ukraine-war-end-putin.html">the end</a> of the Ukraine war look like?</p>
<p>Realpolitik in American foreign policy means restraint in Ukraine. A direct confrontation with Russia is not in the U.S. interest, and <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/01/a-tale-of-two-crises-why-us-strategy-in-ukraine-has-few-implications-for-taiwan/">Ukraine’s strategic value is limited</a>. An <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-law-says-putins-war-against-ukraine-is-illegal-does-that-matter-177438">illegitimate war</a> in which hundreds if not thousands of <a href="https://theconversation.com/civilians-are-being-killed-in-ukraine-so-why-is-investigating-war-crimes-so-difficult-178155">Ukrainian civilians have already been killed</a> won’t move the U.S. away from this position, because the risks of escalation are too high. And nuclear escalation would be likely, because <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402390.2020.1818070">the U.S. is far superior to Russia in terms of nonnuclear forces</a>. </p>
<p>Without the U.S. and NATO engaging militarily in the war, Ukraine will likely be forced to <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/30/ukraine-is-ready-for-painful-concessions/">make concessions</a> and accept at least some terms that Russia wants in any peace agreement. That may include a Ukraine with different territorial borders and a security relationship with Russia that it does not entirely like.</p>
<p>This may be hard for some – both inside and outside Ukraine – to stomach. But however much realpolitik is attributed to a Kissinger-dominated era of history, it <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807847732/thank-god-theyre-on-our-side/">has been</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/06/14/137171315/for-u-s-dealing-with-dictators-is-not-unusual">still is present</a> in contemporary U.S. foreign policy. </p>
<p>From tacit <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/">support of the murderous dictator Saddam Hussein</a> in the Iran-Iraq War – in which <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/26/exclusive-cia-files-prove-america-helped-saddam-as-he-gassed-iran/">the U.S. knew</a> of Saddam’s use of chemical weapons – to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/12/07/131884473/Afghanistan-After-The-Soviet-Withdrawal">letting Afghanistan fall into a political vacuum</a> after the Soviet pullout in 1989 – leading to the rise of the Taliban – to Washington’s close relationship with <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-repressive-saudi-arabia-remains-a-us-ally-156281">brutal human rights abuser Saudi Arabia</a>, the U.S. frequently chooses to put its own interest ahead of its professed values. </p>
<p>[<em>There’s plenty of opinion out there. We supply facts and analysis, based in research.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=politics&source=inline-politics-no-opinion">Get The Conversation’s Politics Weekly</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Fields receives funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the MacArthur Foundation. </span></em></p>The US frequently chooses to put its own interest ahead of its professed values. That approach to foreign policy is called ‘realpolitik’ and it may lead to an unsatisfying peace deal in Ukraine.Jeffrey Fields, Associate Professor of the Practice of International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1730722021-12-08T10:46:32Z2021-12-08T10:46:32ZSouth Africa’s corruption busters: short-changed on funding and political commitment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435876/original/file-20211206-104971-1h6b4xm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African trade union members take mass strike action against corruption in October 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The word corruption has its roots in the Latin adjective corruptus which refers to something that is spoiled, corrupted or <a href="https://www.wordsense.eu/corruptus/">perverted</a>.</p>
<p>In South Africa, evidence of the perversion of public funds abounds. In his 2021 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement the country’s finance minister Enoch Godongwana warned that rampant corruption was a persistent issue <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/mtbps/2021/mtbps/FullMTBPS.pdf">draining public finances</a>.</p>
<p>At the height of the COVID pandemic South Africans witnessed how corruption further exacerbated the unprecedented disruption to their <a href="https://mg.co.za/opinion/2020-08-05-corruption-hampers-the-development-of-south-africas-youth/">education, employment, entrepreneurial pursuits and other opportunities for advancement</a>. </p>
<p>In September 2021, South Africa’s Special Investigating Unit <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/south-africas-mixed-messages-on-procurement-corruption">told Parliament that</a> <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/south-africas-mixed-messages-on-procurement-corruption">R14.8 billion</a>, associated with COVID-19 spending from April 2020 to June 2021, was being investigated for procurement irregularities.</p>
<p>Mounting cases of procurement corruption are being investigated </p>
<p>An estimated <a href="https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/corruption-costs-sas-gdp-r27-billion-annually/">R27 billion</a> (about US$1.7billion) is lost to corruption. This represents over one-third of the 2021/22 health budget. In addition, between <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/industry-news/367824/how-to-reduce-money-laundering-in-2020/">R159 and R400 billion</a> (about US$10billion and US$25billion) is lost in illicit financial flows annually in the country.</p>
<p>Is South Africa doing enough to transform a state of ‘corruptus in extremis’? The phrase famously appeared in the American animated sitcom <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cPLpyHeha0">The Simpsons</a> in which Mayor Quimby exhibited the phrase meaning ‘extremely corrupt’ on a crest on his office wall. The mayor was allegedly a parody of US senator Ted Kennedy.</p>
<p>We argue that South Africa isn’t doing nearly enough. Key regulatory and oversight agencies <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/31632/">are underfunded</a>. This can have dire consequences, especially for the delivery of public services. The greatest impact is felt <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/ejc-jpad-v55-n3-1-a11">by the most vulnerable</a>. Corrupt activities redirect money that was intended to reach key sectors such <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/analysis/explainer-ace-magashule-warrant-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-free-state-asbestos-deal-20201110">as housing</a> , income grants and public healthcare.</p>
<p>In addition, the country has made <a href="https://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/mer4/Executive-Summary-Mutual-Evaluation-South-Africa.pdf">slow progress</a> recovering assets lost to state capture and corruption. </p>
<h2>The gaps</h2>
<p>South Africa’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy seeks to commit the state to a 6-pillar anti-corruption strategy. One of <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202105/national-anti-corruption-strategy-2020-2030.pdf">these</a> aims to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>strengthen the resourcing, coordination, transnational cooperation, performance, accountability and independence of dedicated anti-corruption agencies. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Over the medium term, the National Treasury states that it is committed to working with departments to assess the efficiency, effectiveness and performance of key programmes. </p>
<p>According to the finance minister, this will be achieved by prioritising funds to improve capacity in institutions combating crime and corruption.</p>
<p>There are other positive policy pronouncements. The Anti-Corruption Task Team has been enhanced. And there have been key appointments and recent high-profile investigations. </p>
<p>Since 2018 there have been important efforts to strengthen flailing leadership and governance in the National Prosecuting Authority and the Special Investigating Unit as well as the Anti Corruption Task Team. </p>
<p>And the multi-stakeholder <a href="https://www.opengovpartnership.org/">Open Government Partnership</a> platform is showing some signs of re-awakening. A national action plan has been tabled. It includes commitments for open procurement, fiscal transparency and beneficial ownership transparency. </p>
<p>But the plan has been criticised for its <a href="https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/south-africa-action-plan-review-2020-2022/">weakness</a>. In addition, The Presidency’s silence about it is cause for concern, particularly given that South Africa was an OGP founder-member.</p>
<p>A crucial issue to monitor is the extent to which the priorities emphasised in the National Anti-Corruption Strategy are supported in the budget. </p>
<p>There have been some worrying trends. Budget cuts have been made to important programmes. There has also been slow progress in meeting performance indicators in key programmes. </p>
<p>The call in the medium term budget for stronger anti-corruption interventions was not adequately backed by meaningful financial resourcing.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.npa.gov.za/node/9">National Prosecuting Authority</a> conducts criminal proceedings on behalf of the state. In 2021/22 its budget was increased. But the real term value, <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0141/P0141October2021.pdf">after factoring inflation</a> was marginal. This has been identified as a risk to its ability <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/33278/">to continue to compensate</a> recently recruited staff.</p>
<p>Similarly, the head of the National Prosecutions Authority <a href="https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/a-new-approach-is-needed-in-the-way-crimes-are-prioritised-batohi/">has stated</a> that budget and other resource constraints continue to undermine the institution’s capacity. </p>
<p>But the National Prosecutions Authority faces criticism that it’s been slow fulfilling its mandate. For instance, in the 2021/22 financial year, it convicted only 29 government officials for corruption and/or related offences against an annual target of 232.</p>
<p>Moreover, 43 people were convicted of corruption in the private sector against an annual target of 158.</p>
<p>The job of the Special Investigating Unit is to institute civil action to recover ill-gotten gains. But it hasn’t been given any additional funding. Sufficient and increased funding would help build the unit’s capacity to confront complex and high-level corruption cases.</p>
<p>A recent investigations revealed a criminal syndicate involving public officials, private companies and the use of ID numbers of dead people to <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-11-17-government-officials-private-companies-and-individuals-abused-uif-covid-19-ters-benefits/">illegally claim payments</a> from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. </p>
<p>The budget for the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has also been cut. The reduction is troubling given that South Africa urgently needs to reform outdated processes. </p>
<p>The cuts are affecting the department’s ability to increase access to justice services and to accelerate the turnaround times of expensive and lengthy corruption court proceedings. </p>
<p>Another institution affected by budget cuts is the Public Service Commission. Its remit includes promoting constitutional values and the principles of public administration. The commission’s Integrity and Anti‐corruption programme had its budget cut. </p>
<p>Budget reductions like this call into question government’s commitment to realise its stated claim of tackling corruption. The programme reportedly met its performance targets for the first half of 2021/22. For example, 100% of public administration investigations were investigated and finalised within 90 days against a target of 60%.</p>
<p>The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs also has a role in anti-corruption efforts. The local government sphere is often cited for its service delivery failings as well as alarming levels of maladministration. </p>
<p>The consolidated general report of local government audit outcomes for the 2019/20 financial year indicates that <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-06-22-local-government-failures-another-year-another-inspection-another-bad-outcome-with-a-few-exceptions/">only</a><a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-06-22-local-government-failures-another-year-another-inspection-another-bad-outcome-with-a-few-exceptions/">27 municipalities</a> (9.7 %) achieved clean audits. And only <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-06-30-just-27-municipalities-get-clean-audits-as-ag-says-skills-to-fix-the-problems-are-lacking/">28% of municipalities</a> submitted quality financial statements for auditing. </p>
<p>Given this bleak state of affairs, financial support for the department’s key programmes becomes even more crucial. Unfortunately two of its key programmes have had their budgets cut.</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>Proper financial resourcing of public institutions tasked with anti-corruption work is vital to prevent massive public finance losses. </p>
<p>South Africa’s anti-corruption strategy outlines enabling factors for:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>effective anti-corruption interventions; </p></li>
<li><p>public-private collaboration, political support, resolute enforcement by public officials and </p></li>
<li><p>enforcement of consequences for maladministration.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But that on its own is not enough. </p>
<p>It’s vital to have targeted, and enabling budget allocations to support anti-corruption institutions in addition to tracking expenditure.</p>
<p>To support improved monitoring activities, it’s vital to promote proactive disclosure of procurement and expenditure information. This includes the online publication of comprehensive procurement and contracting information from all phases of the procurement cycle across all organs of state. </p>
<p>It’s high time that the National Treasury and Office of the Chief Procurement Officer implement open contracting. This would increase the potential for monitoring and enable more meaningful accountability action in the procurement cycle.</p>
<p>And preventative actions need to be prioritised. Examples include the automation of systems to speed up the detection of conflicts of interest. This is particularly critical where politically exposed people are concerned. </p>
<p>Steps also need to be taken to improve the collection of beneficial ownership data. This can be used to help detect potential signs of bid-rigging and conflicts of interest. </p>
<p>This would also help track and ultimately reduce illicit cash flows. While South Africa has an existing definition of a beneficial owner in the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, this definition needs further refining to ensure a more comprehensive net is created. </p>
<p>These trends and indicators provide compelling grounds to call on the government to escalate its open government interventions, to properly resource anti-corruption interventions and to take resolute steps towards open contracting, procurement and overall transparency reforms. </p>
<p>Lastly - and perhaps most importantly - effectively capacitating more ethical public institutions while proactively addressing instances of capture need to be central to the reform agenda. </p>
<p>It is not too late to change the script and direction with regard to South Africa’s corruptus in extremis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa isn’t doing enough to tackle corruption. Key regulatory and oversight agencies are underfunded. And accountability is weak.Zukiswa Kota, Head of Monitoring and Advocacy, Public Service Accountability Monitor, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1680542021-11-15T13:11:34Z2021-11-15T13:11:34ZDisinformation is spreading beyond the realm of spycraft to become a shady industry – lessons from South Korea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431735/original/file-20211112-15738-1loyh8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4907%2C3261&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Efforts to reduce tensions between the Koreas, like the 2018 inter-Korean summit, are frequently the target of disinformation campaigns in South Korea.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SouthKoreaKoreasTensions/3e5e17d7705a4d6983af18f5eb94e8f3/photo?Query=Korea%20border&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=5441&currentItemNo=10">AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Disinformation, the practice of blending real and fake information with the goal of duping a government or influencing public opinion, has its origins in the Soviet Union. But disinformation is no longer the exclusive domain of government intelligence agencies. </p>
<p>Today’s disinformation scene has evolved into a marketplace in which services are contracted, laborers are paid and shameless opinions and fake readers are bought and sold. This industry is emerging around the world. Some of the private-sector players are driven by political motives, some by profit and others by a mix of the two.</p>
<p>Public relations firms have recruited social media influencers in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/25/world/europe/disinformation-social-media.html">France and Germany</a> to spread falsehoods. Politicians have hired staff to create fake Facebook accounts in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/13/facebook-honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez-fake-engagement">Honduras</a>. And <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-in-kenya-influencers-are-hired-to-spread-disinformation/">Kenyan Twitter influencers</a> are paid 15 times more than many people make in a day for promoting political hashtags. Researchers at the University of Oxford have tracked government-sponsored disinformation activities in 81 countries and <a href="https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/posts/industrialized-disinformation/">private-sector disinformation operations in 48 countries</a>.</p>
<p>South Korea has been at the forefront of online disinformation. Western societies began to raise concerns about disinformation in 2016, triggered by disinformation related to the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Brexit. But in South Korea, media reported the first formal disinformation operation in 2008. As a researcher who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QpNFdIEAAAAJ&hl=en">studies digital audiences</a>, I’ve found that South Korea’s 13-year-long disinformation history demonstrates how technology, economics and culture interact to enable the disinformation industry. </p>
<p>Most importantly, South Korea’s experience offers a lesson for the U.S. and other countries. The ultimate power of disinformation is found more in the ideas and memories that a given society is vulnerable to and how prone it is to fueling the rumor mill than it is in the people perpetrating the disinformation or the techniques they use.</p>
<h2>From dirty politics to dirty business</h2>
<p>The origin of South Korean disinformation can be traced back to the nation’s National Intelligence Service, which is equivalent to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The NIS formed teams in 2010 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/04/south-koreas-spy-agency-admits-trying-rig-election-national-intelligence-service-2012">to interfere in domestic elections</a> by attacking a political candidate it opposed. </p>
<p>The NIS hired more than 70 full-time workers who managed fake, or so-called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3308560.3317598">sock puppet</a>, accounts. The agency recruited a group called Team Alpha, which was composed of civilian part-timers who had ideological and financial interests in working for the NIS. By 2012, the scale of the operation had grown to <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/lessons-from-south-koreas-approach-to-tackling-disinformation/">3,500 part-time workers</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431745/original/file-20211112-13043-8xui0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men, one in a suit jacket in the other a windbreaker jacket, stand shoulder to shoulder in a stairwell, photographers behind them" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431745/original/file-20211112-13043-8xui0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431745/original/file-20211112-13043-8xui0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431745/original/file-20211112-13043-8xui0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431745/original/file-20211112-13043-8xui0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431745/original/file-20211112-13043-8xui0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431745/original/file-20211112-13043-8xui0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431745/original/file-20211112-13043-8xui0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">South Korean President Moon Jae-in (left) campaigning in 2014 for Kim Kyoung-soo (right), who became governor of South Gyeongsang Province in 2018 but was subsequently convicted of opinion rigging.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KimKyoung-soo.jpg">Udenjan/WikiCommons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since then the private sector has moved into the disinformation business. For example, a shadowy publishing company led by an influential blogger was involved in a high-profile <a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210721000615">opinion-rigging scandal</a> between 2016 and 2018. The company’s client was a close political aide of the current president, Moon Jae-in. </p>
<p>In contrast to NIS-driven disinformation campaigns, which use disinformation as a propaganda tool for the government, some of the private-sector players are chameleonlike, changing ideological and topical positions in pursuit of their business interests. These private-sector operations have achieved greater cost effectiveness than government operations by skillfully <a href="https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/7301">using bots to amplify fake engagements</a>, involving social media entrepreneurs like <a href="https://restofworld.org/2021/elderly-conservatives-in-south-korea-turn-to-youtube-and-conspiracy-theories/">YouTubers</a> and <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2012/11/19/confessions-of-paid-political-trolls-in-south-korea/">outsourcing trolling to cheap laborers</a>.</p>
<h2>Narratives that strike a nerve</h2>
<p>In South Korea, Cold War rhetoric has been particularly visible across all types of disinformation operations. The campaigns typically portray the conflict with North Korea and the battle against Communism as being at the center of public discourse in South Korea. In reality, nationwide polls have painted a very different picture. For example, even when North Korea’s nuclear threat was at a peak in 2017, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/world/asia/north-korea-south-tensions.html">fewer than 10 percent of respondents</a> picked North Korea’s saber-rattling as their priority concern, compared with more than 45 percent who selected economic policy.</p>
<p>Across all types of purveyors and techniques, political disinformation in South Korea has amplified anti-Communist nationalism and denigrated the nation’s dovish diplomacy toward North Korea. My research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2015.1130157">South Korean social media rumors</a> in 2013 showed that the disinformation rhetoric continued on social media even after the formal disinformation campaign ended, which indicates how powerful these themes are. Today I and my research team continue to see references to the same themes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431748/original/file-20211112-15-13ynxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man standing on a stage while holding a microphone tears a flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431748/original/file-20211112-15-13ynxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431748/original/file-20211112-15-13ynxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431748/original/file-20211112-15-13ynxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431748/original/file-20211112-15-13ynxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431748/original/file-20211112-15-13ynxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431748/original/file-20211112-15-13ynxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431748/original/file-20211112-15-13ynxfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Much of the disinformation trafficked in South Korea involves nationalistic anti-Communist narratives similar to this protester’s anti-North Korea message.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/south-korean-protester-tears-a-north-korean-flag-during-a-news-photo/1233640604">Photo by Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The dangers of a disinformation industry</h2>
<p>The disinformation industry is enabled by the three prongs of today’s digital media industry: an attention economy, algorithm and computational technologies and a participatory culture. In online media, the most important currency is audience attention. Metrics such as the number of page views, likes, shares and comments quantify attention, which is then converted into economic and social capital. </p>
<p>Ideally, these metrics should be a product of networked users’ spontaneous and voluntary participation. Disinformation operations more often than not manufacture these metrics by using bots, hiring influencers, paying for crowdsourcing and developing computational tricks to game a platform’s algorithms. </p>
<p>The expansion of the disinformation industry is troubling because it distorts how public opinion is perceived by researchers, the media and the public itself. Historically, democracies have relied on polls to understand public opinion. Despite their limitations, nationwide polls conducted by credible organizations, such as <a href="https://www.gallup.com/224855/gallup-poll-work.aspx">Gallup</a> and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/our-methods/u-s-surveys/u-s-survey-methodology/">Pew Research</a>, follow rigorous methodological standards to represent the distribution of opinions in society in as representative a manner as possible. </p>
<p>Public discourse on social media has emerged as an alternative means of assessing public opinion. Digital audience and web traffic analytic tools are widely available to measure the trends of online discourse. However, people can be misled when purveyors of disinformation manufacturer opinions expressed online and falsely amplify the metrics about the opinions. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the persistence of anti-Communist nationalist narratives in South Korea shows that disinformation purveyors’ rhetorical choices are not random. To counter the disinformation industry wherever it emerges, governments, media and the public need to understand not just the who and the how, but also the what – a society’s controversial ideologies and collective memories. These are the most valuable currency in the disinformation marketplace.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>K. Hazel Kwon is a U.S.-Korea NextGen Scholar under the sponsorship of the Korea Foundation. Her work was supported by the National Science Foundation (Award #2027387), Army Research Laboratory-Army Research Office (Award #W911NF1910066), and MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Award #PO 7000506684). </span></em></p>Disinformation is being privatized around the world. This new industry is built on a dangerous combination of cheap labor, high-tech algorithms and emotional national narratives.K. Hazel Kwon, Associate Professor of Journalism and Digital Audiences, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1529372021-01-12T20:18:39Z2021-01-12T20:18:39ZWhy the flag of South Vietnam flew at US Capitol siege<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C622%2C4914%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The yellow-and-red striped flag of the defeated American-backed Republic of Vietnam flies at the U.S. Capitol insurrection Jan. 6. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trumps-supporters-gather-outside-the-news-photo/1230458129">Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The violent mob that laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 carried <a href="https://qz.com/1953366/decoding-the-pro-trump-insurrectionist-flags-and-banners/">symbols expressing the purpose of their insurrectionist campaign</a> to derail Joe Biden’s electoral certification. </p>
<p>Alongside American flags, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-scholar-of-american-anti-semitism-explains-the-hate-symbols-present-during-the-us-capitol-riot-152883">anti-Semitic banners</a> and Confederate battle flags flew the <a href="https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/south-vietnams-flags-at-the-capitol">yellow-and-red striped flag of the former South Vietnam</a>. This confounded many onlookers. One <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/trump-popular-among-vietnamese-americans/a-55702032">reddit user</a> wondered why the mostly white “anarchist mob” had “coopted” South Vietnamese iconography. </p>
<p>In fact, the rioters flying the South Vietnamese flag were more likely Vietnamese American supporters of Donald Trump. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/trump-popular-among-vietnamese-americans/a-55702032">Election surveys find that</a> Vietnamese Americans were the <a href="https://theconversation.com/asian-americans-political-preferences-have-flipped-from-red-to-blue-145577">only Asian American group</a> in which a majority voted for Trump last year. They are attracted to Trump’s hard-line stance against China, anti-communist rhetoric and self-avowed commitment to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-vietnamese-americans-support-donald-trump-143978">protecting America against all enemies, foreign and domestic</a>, according to journalists and researchers. </p>
<p>The South Vietnamese flag recalls Vietnam’s own “failed” democracy – and the people’s struggle to save their nation.</p>
<h2>A nationalist flag</h2>
<p>After Vietnam gained independence from French colonial rule in 1954, the country split into two, sparking a civil war. The U.S. helped establish and back South Vietnam, a pro-Western democratic republic that fought communist North Vietnam. American ground troops <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War/The-United-States-enters-the-war">formally joined the war</a> to defend the south in 1965. </p>
<p>In 1975, opposition forces overtook the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon. Crashing through the gates of the main palace, they seized the building and raised the <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/galleries/4SFQT7LQ2RA6ZKKSKQIIWRPJQM/">flag of the revolutionary northern government</a>.</p>
<p>The fall of Saigon was the turning point of the Vietnam War, which caused over 1 million North Vietnamese deaths, military and civilian, and a quarter-million South Vietnamese casualties. The war <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War">killed nearly 50,000 American troops</a> and displaced about half a million people. </p>
<p>Many Vietnamese refugees <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-south-vietnamese-who-fled-the-fall-of-saigon-and-those-who-returned-82812">sought asylum in the United States</a>. Today, they invoke the ongoing cultural value of this “fallen” regime by flying the South Vietnam flag at Lunar New Year parades and musical concerts. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four people carry the South Vietnam flag under cloudy skies" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A vigil in San Jose, California, on April 29, 1995, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-participated-in-a-vigil-at-capitol-avenue-and-senter-news-photo/1157463996?adppopup=true">Richard Koci Hernandez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The flag reflects community solidarity, but it also has a more fraught symbolic meaning. </p>
<p>As I wrote in my 2018 book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479871957/returns-of-war/">Returns of War: South Vietnam and the Price of Refugee Memory</a>,” some Vietnamese Americans view their fallen homeland as an extension of the American push for freedom and democracy worldwide. I have interviewed Vietnamese American soldiers who fear American freedom is failing and fervently believe in the United States’ activity in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. </p>
<p>For them, flying the South Vietnam flag is a show of nationalism – a militarized patriotism that is simultaneously South Vietnamese and American.</p>
<h2>Changing political loyalties</h2>
<p>I have also observed how Trump employs old anti-communist tactics that appeal to some conservatives in this community. </p>
<p>Last year, he tweeted for his followers to “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-tweets-liberate-michigan-minnesota-virginia-986035/">liberate” the country by force from COVID-19 lockdowns</a>. Hours before the Capitol insurrection, he urged supporters to “<a href="https://www.cbs46.com/trump-well-fight-like-hell-to-keep-white-house/video_8fc46566-a2e8-527f-a9e4-814e0c81f295.html">fight like hell</a>” to defend his administration. </p>
<p>A handful of Vietnamese Americans heeded that call, participating in <a href="https://sanjosespotlight.com/trump-supporters-held-a-stop-the-steal-protest-in-san-jose-unlike-the-one-in-d-c-it-didnt-turn-into-a-riot/">local “stop the steal” rallies in California</a>. Participants at the Capitol’s armed takeover have only begun to be identified, but media outlets captured what <a href="https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/south-vietnams-flags-at-the-capitol?fbclid=IwAR05b7s-rpn4nl_UXWGu7K9bGAPwfNsAaldhZMMYJ_5E-sTLTFjGJI0fD4o">appear to be Vietnamese Americans holding up the South Vietnamese flag</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crowd flying flags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A yellow South Vietnam flag files at the U.S. Capitol among Trump flags and American flags Jan. 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trump-supporters-gather-outside-the-u-s-capitol-building-news-photo/1294944298?adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These protesters likely believed the United States needed to be saved from socialists – which is what <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905895428/republicans-blast-democrats-as-socialists-heres-what-socialism-is">Republicans falsely paint Biden to be</a> – as their white counterparts claimed to believe. Different from their white counterparts, they were inspired to subvert democracy by the memory and politics of the fall of Saigon.</p>
<p>Vietnamese fealty to the Republican Party may be waning. Social scientists find younger Vietnamese Americans <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/2018-vietnamese-americans-found-new-political-prominence-n948121">lean more progressive</a>. Born after 1975, they never fought communism nor fled it as refugees. Like their parents, though, these Vietnamese Americans live in a country at war with itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Long T. Bui does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Onlookers who recognized the flag wondered why the mostly white mob had ‘coopted’ Vietnamese history. But Vietnamese Americans are Trump supporters, too, some driven by a potent fear of socialism.Long T. Bui, Associate Professor of Global and International Studies, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387192020-06-12T01:25:02Z2020-06-12T01:25:02ZBob Santamaria, ‘the most significant’ figure in Australian politics never to have been in parliament<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340825/original/file-20200610-34710-1c6wd4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C660%2C483&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Conversation is running a <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/key-figures-in-australian-political-history-86822">series of pieces</a> on key figures in Australian political history, examining how they changed the country and political debate. You can read our articles on Julia Gillard and Henry Parkes <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-julia-gillard-forever-changed-australian-politics-especially-for-women-138528">here</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/henry-parkes-had-a-vision-of-a-new-australian-nation-in-1901-it-became-a-reality-131453">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>Bartholomew Augustine (“Bob”) Santamaria is the most significant figure in Australian politics never to have held political office. </p>
<p>Santamaria was a friend of, or associated with, four Australian prime ministers: Robert Menzies, Malcolm Fraser, John Howard and Tony Abbott. But his career was spent outside parliament. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-santamaria-a-most-unusual-man-45732">Book review: Santamaria, A Most Unusual Man</a>
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<p>There are two crucial things that need to be understood about Santamaria in order to make sense of his work. One is he was a devout lay Catholic whose career began in church-sponsored organisations. The other is he was both anti-socialist and anti-capitalist. </p>
<p>His ideal society was one composed of small property owners. In the 1940s and 1950s, he dreamed of an Australia dotted with rural villages.</p>
<h2>Italian and Irish Catholic influences</h2>
<p>Santamaria was born in Melbourne in 1915, the son of Italian migrants. His father ran a greengrocery in Brunswick. </p>
<p>While his background was Italian, his intellectual formation was in the largely Irish Catholic education system. He was bright, studying arts and law at Melbourne University. </p>
<p>After graduating, he did not practise law, but worked instead for the church as a layman for the Australasian National Secretariat of Catholic Action.</p>
<p>Catholic involvement in Australian political culture in the early part of the 20th century had been somewhat marginal; for example, the Federation conventions contained few Catholic participants. But the 1930s saw a flourishing of Catholic intellectual and cultural life in Australia, such as the Campion Society, of which Santamaria was a member. </p>
<h2>Moving Catholics towards the centre, fighting communists</h2>
<p>What Santamaria achieved was to move Catholics much closer to the centre of Australian politics. He did this both through the force of his intellect and his political actions. </p>
<p>He was an ideas man. From the early 1940s to the mid-1950s, Santamaria drafted most of the social justice statements authorised by the Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic Church of Australia, many of which had circulations of more than 100,000. </p>
<p>For a long time, he had no public profile. But his major contribution came leading the fight to extinguish communist control of, and influence in, trade unions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340828/original/file-20200610-34710-3yalo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340828/original/file-20200610-34710-3yalo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340828/original/file-20200610-34710-3yalo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340828/original/file-20200610-34710-3yalo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340828/original/file-20200610-34710-3yalo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340828/original/file-20200610-34710-3yalo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340828/original/file-20200610-34710-3yalo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Santamaria moved Catholics closer to the centre of Australian politics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Danny Casey/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Although communism never had much appeal to the Australian voter, it had considerable influence in a number of unions, especially in the 1940s. </p>
<p>Santamaria mimicked communist techniques, setting up a shadowy organisation that used sometimes dubious tactics to gain union control. Called the Catholic Social Studies Movement, it was simply known as “the Movement” and operated largely in secrecy. </p>
<p>If the communists fought dirty, then Santamaria, as the leader of the Movement, understood the need to engage in tactics like rigging union elections. The ends justified the means.</p>
<h2>Labor, the DLP and Santamaria’s undoing</h2>
<p>The great prize in all of this, of course, was the Australian Labor Party, with its strong trade union links. </p>
<p>Communism was in decline in Australia by the early 1950s, but the anti-communist movement went from strength to strength. By 1953, there was a federal election in the offing, which Labor seemed guaranteed to win because of the state of the economy. Santamaria’s papers indicate that at this point, he contemplated the possible takeover of the ALP.</p>
<p>It all went terribly wrong. Economic conditions improved and the Menzies-led Coalition won the 1954 election. In the fallout, the ALP’s bitter leader, H.V. “Doc” Evatt, instigated moves that led to a <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/alp-split">split in the Labor Party</a>, the exit of many Catholics from the ALP and the creation of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP). </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-labor-party-split-74149">Australian politics explainer: the Labor Party split</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Santamaria, who had previously been a somewhat shadowy figure, suddenly emerged into the limelight. This occurred because Evatt denounced the Movement and its role in the Labor Party. It was a personal disaster for Santamaria, because it pushed him out of his political roles with regard to both the Church and the unions.</p>
<p>He desperately wanted to influence public policy in Australia, but the DLP was only a rump party that largely appealed to Catholics. He was now outside the ALP tent and he certainly was not going to be admitted to that of their Liberal opponents.</p>
<h2>Reinvention in print and on TV</h2>
<p>Essentially, Santamaria then reinvented himself as a commentator on public affairs. That was how he was known until his death in 1998. </p>
<p>His organisation, the National Civic Council, published News Weekly, and later the AD2000 magazine, to propagate his ideas. </p>
<p>He also had a TV program, “Point of View” on Channel 9 that began in 1963 and went for <a href="https://halloffame.melbournepressclub.com/article/b--a---bob--santamaria">nearly 30 years</a>. Later in life, he had a regular column in The Australian. He no longer played the same active political role that he had earlier in life, but his ideas reached a large audience through the media.</p>
<p>In this later period, Santamaria gravitated towards people who were, or had been, Liberals. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-traditionalists-are-restless-so-why-dont-they-have-a-party-of-their-own-in-australia-63405">The traditionalists are restless, so why don't they have a party of their own in Australia?</a>
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<p>He became great friends with Menzies following Menzies’s retirement. In 1992, there was an abortive attempt, involving Santamaria, academics Robert Manne and John Carroll to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/time-to-put-to-rest-claims-of-abbotts-dlp-tendencies-20120521-1z17i.html">form a new political party</a> that included Fraser. Howard <a href="https://mupublishing.tumblr.com/post/125826754803/read-the-first-chapter-of-santamaria/amp">visited Santamaria</a> on his death bed. </p>
<p>Abbott had connections with Santamaria going back to his <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/early-elections-20120903-2593o.html">student days</a>.</p>
<h2>A ‘tragic failure’</h2>
<p>Whether Santamaria exercised any influence over these figures is questionable. It does seem that they found him congenial, and he certainly possessed considerable charisma.</p>
<p>In some ways, Santamaria can be seen as a tragic failure. He was an intelligent and passionate man, who desired to create a better world, but whose actions led to conflict and dissension. </p>
<p>He was, perhaps, the victim of his own hubris. That said, it is difficult to find another individual who had such an impact on Australian life for so long. His autobiography, Against the Tide, still repays reading.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Melleuish receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a member of the academic advisory board of the Menzies Research Centre</span></em></p>Bob Santamaria knew four Australian prime ministers. Is he the most significant figure in Australian politics never to have held office?Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1396232020-06-10T12:14:53Z2020-06-10T12:14:53ZHow the US government sold the Peace Corps to the American public<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340381/original/file-20200608-176585-1bswhto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President John F. Kennnedy personally bid the first Peace Corps volunteers farewell.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Dist-of-Columbi-/34a86766cee3da11af9f0014c2589dfb/443/0">AP Photo/William J. Smith</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/493037-peace-corps-faces-uncertain-future-with-no-volunteers-in-field">Peace Corps</a>, a service organization run by the U.S. government that dispatches volunteers to foreign countries, is on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. For the first time in its nearly <a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/peace-corps">60-year history</a>, none of its volunteers is stationed anywhere.</p>
<p>To many Americans, the Peace Corps represents the best of <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/all-you-need-is-love-the-peace-corps-and-the-spirit-of-the-1960s/oclc/37820037">American generosity abroad</a>. That’s <a href="https://www.peacecorps.gov/about/">in line with its stated mission</a> to promote world peace and friendship.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=tWFlecoAAAAJ">having researched</a> the Peace Corps’ backstory while studying the messages in its early advertising, I see this pause as a chance to learn more about how it came to symbolize U.S. goodwill abroad in many Americans’ minds. I’ve learned how American perceptions of the agency were shaped by ads promising heroic adventures to the volunteers who signed up.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338994/original/file-20200601-95032-gfvgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338994/original/file-20200601-95032-gfvgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338994/original/file-20200601-95032-gfvgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338994/original/file-20200601-95032-gfvgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338994/original/file-20200601-95032-gfvgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338994/original/file-20200601-95032-gfvgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338994/original/file-20200601-95032-gfvgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338994/original/file-20200601-95032-gfvgl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In 1968, the Ad Council cast Peace Corps volunteers as human care packages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peace Corps</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>New frontiers</h2>
<p>In an academic article I wrote about the publicity campaign for the Peace Corps in the first decade of its existence, I explained that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00947679.2020.1724589">Peace Corps advertising</a> emphasized myths about heroes, adventure and the benefits of gaining worldly experience without ever mentioning the word communism. But fighting communism was among the agency’s <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/john-kennedy-and-foreign-policy">original foreign policy purposes</a>, according to many Peace Corps historians and other scholars. </p>
<p>Given the growing counterculture movement in the early 1960s, the government feared that few young Americans would be motivated to join the Peace Corps by a message that they’d be volunteering to help to fight communism. For that reason, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00947679.2020.1724589">the advertising strategy</a> focused on promoting heroism while promising adventure and career advancement to potential recruits.</p>
<p>At the time of its creation, two institutional forces shaped the Peace Corps advertising campaign – the foreign policy goals of John F. Kennedy’s administration and the <a href="https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/adcouncil/">Ad Council</a>, a nonprofit the advertising industry created during <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/03/30/marketing-moment-three-ad-council-sets-shop-america-enters-world-war-ii">World War II</a> to aid the U.S. government’s communications efforts. </p>
<p>Building on the image of Kennedy as a romantic superhero, as public intellectuals like the writer <a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a3858/superman-supermarket/">Norman Mailer</a> described him at the time, the JFK administration positioned the Peace Corps as an opportunity that would help lead America into an audacious future.</p>
<p>The Peace Corps advertising campaign helped attract more than 14,000 American volunteers who trained or worked overseas in 57 countries from the start of the program in 1961 to November 1968. It also artfully masked one of main Kennedy’s foreign policy objectives for the program: preventing <a href="https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2010/09/22/the-peace-corps-not-so-peaceful-roots/">developing countries from adopting communism</a>.</p>
<p>To date, <a href="https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=826873">more than 235,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in 141 countries</a>.</p>
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<h2>Cold War roots</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare">Concerns about communism</a> dominated American culture and in the popular press and media throughout the 1950s and 1960s. America also needed to counter <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/08/the-cold-war-logic-of-the-peace-corps/309483/">growing Soviet efforts</a> to place young people from the USSR who were highly trained in local languages and customs in developing countries.</p>
<p>Kennedy worried that as the Third World gained independence from colonial empires, the developing countries would be vulnerable to communist influences. This posed a threat to American and European security.</p>
<p>As the historian <a href="http://elizabethcobbs.com/about">Elizabeth Cobbs</a> <a href="https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/20/1/79/438460?redirectedFrom=fulltext">put it</a>: “The Peace Corps owed its existence to the Cold War and to Kennedy’s belief that the United States had to do better in competing with Moscow for the allegiance of the newly independent countries of the Third World.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/peace-corps">The handbook</a> for Peace Corps volunteers instructed them to study communism “as an ideology and as an organizational weapon.” The handbook advised that “communists are against the Peace Corps and its program,” and that the communists considered volunteers to be “spies and agents of imperialism.”</p>
<p>The Peace Corps also encouraged its volunteers “to answer our detractors through hard work and accomplishment” instead of engaging with them in debates.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.smithsonianbooks.com/store/history/how-mcgruff-and-crying-indian-changed-america-hist/">Ad Council</a> sponsored the Peace Corps campaign until 1991. Earlier, it had played a key role in shaping U.S. attitudes <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-socialism-became-un-american-through-the-ad-councils-propaganda-campaigns-132335">about communism, socialism and capitalism</a> through campaigns that promoted America’s economy as the cornerstone of American capitalism.</p>
<p>The council’s 1948 campaign to “Explain the American Economic System,” which ran until 1951, and its traveling exhibition called “The People’s Capitalism,” which explained the American economy to other countries, are a few examples. </p>
<h2>The ad campaign</h2>
<p>The Peace Corps’ earliest <a href="https://archives.library.illinois.edu/about-us/program-areas/association-archives/advertising-council-archives/">promotional materials</a> never overtly raised the specter of communism. Instead a series of ads and posters called on Americans to participate in a program that would make their life more meaningful by making a difference in the world.</p>
<p>Those early Peace Corps ads encouraged volunteers to embark on a grand adventure that sounded like a fun extended study abroad program.</p>
<p>“Do you have your future mapped out?” read the copy in one 1961 print ad launching the campaign. If not, have you considered America’s exciting new Peace Corps? It’s an exciting and stimulating life, and best of all, you will be helping your own country as you help the people of other countries.“</p>
<p>By the end of the 1960s, the messages embedded in the individual ads appealed to youthful idealism, patriotism, a desire to see the world and the hero myth without references to the struggle against communism being waged in the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>In a 1968 "Human Care Package” magazine ad, a young man crouches inside a wooden box stamped “made in the USA.” The copy reads: “There is a man somewhere who has nothing … Send him the one thing only you can give him. Send him you.” </p>
<p>Americans in the turbulent 1960s wanted to believe that their country played a morally good role in the world. The Peace Corps program and its advertising helped convince them that this was true.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Melillo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The agency’s earliest ad campaigns emphasized youthful idealism, patriotism and travel opportunities. That was an easier sell than urging Americans to enlist in an anti-communist operation.Wendy Melillo, Associate Professor, American University School of CommunicationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/994862018-07-06T16:09:26Z2018-07-06T16:09:26ZPoland’s judicial purge another step toward authoritarian democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226497/original/file-20180706-122274-yxhbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Crowds protesting the forced retirement of judges, in front of Poland's Supreme Court building, Warsaw</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP/Czarek Sokolowski</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the elections of 2015, Poland has been ruled by the Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, or PiS), a far-right nationalist group that has transformed the country beyond recognition. </p>
<p>Poland <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2014/06/26/the-second-jagiellonian-age">had once been lauded</a> as the great post-communist success story, with solid democratic institutions and a booming economy. Now, under PiS rule, Poland is steadily becoming an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/poland-holocaust-law/552842/">authoritarian, xenophobic pariah</a> among democratic nations. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ef3b5420-7f60-11e8-bc55-50daf11b720d">This week</a>, the regime passed another milestone on the path toward establishment of a one-party state. </p>
<p>If all goes as PiS leaders have planned, <a href="https://wamu.org/story/18/07/03/polands-government-forcing-supreme-court-justices-to-step-down/">about 40 percent</a> of the country’s judges will be forced out of office. They will be replaced by people loyal to the government and subject to dismissal at any time. PiS couched its takeover in the form of an order lowering judges’ retirement age. Every judge over age 65 will now be dismissed except for those who are approved for continued service by the current regime.</p>
<p>This amounts to a political takeover of the independent Polish judiciary.</p>
<h2>Questionable rationale</h2>
<p>On July 4, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/polish-pm-mateusz-morawiecki-to-eu-dont-lecture-us/">appeared before the European Union parliament</a> to defend the impending judicial purge. He argued that it was necessary because of the continued presence of judges whose careers date from the communist era. </p>
<p>This justification shouldn’t be taken seriously: <a href="https://oko.press/dekomunizacja-sadu-najwyzszego-propagandowy-wybieg-pis-zeby-przejac-kontrole-nad-sn-paru-sedziow-powinno-sie-nim-znalezc/">Only a few hundred judges</a> out of around 10,000 began their careers on the bench prior to the fall of communism in 1989. Those judges were long ago screened to weed out those who had issued politically motivated rulings. </p>
<p>And while it is true that there have been episodes of <a href="http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,12285623,Marcin_Plichta__szef_Amber_Gold__ma_szesc_wyrokow.html">corruption</a> in the Polish judiciary, there is no evidence to suggest that such incidents are more common here than anywhere else. In any case, the purge does not entail any attempt to investigate and sanction those guilty of corruption: It is a thorough removal of an entire cohort of judges.</p>
<p>EU officials have challenged PiS from the start, but their power to issue concrete sanctions is limited. Any meaningful steps can be vetoed by a single dissenting vote. Hungary’s equally authoritarian ruler, Viktor Orbán, has promised to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b1bd2424-6ed7-11e7-93ff-99f383b09ff9">defend his Polish allies</a>.</p>
<h2>Who are the enemies?</h2>
<p>When dealing with domestic audiences, those flimsy arguments about removing hidden communists are less central to PiS rhetoric. Two other issues are emphasized instead. </p>
<p>First is the claim that even though few communist-era judges remain, a larger percentage of them have <a href="http://www.empik.com/resortowe-togi-marosz-maciej,p1167479245,ksiazka-p?gclid=CjwKCAjwg_fZBRAoEiwAppvp-QkGw2c77C1t3MfCuRe0RsvfLO6GdYqlpj14JqHVWOJn8BqlmmlFDhoCoCsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">parents who served during the Polish People’s Republic</a>. In other words, PiS supporters argue that the supposed disrepute of one generation should be passed on to the next. </p>
<p>This argument is central to understanding the worldview of PiS. While many Poles opposed communism because it was authoritarian, others were more disturbed by the perception that it was not national, not truly Polish. </p>
<p>This belief is grounded in a long tradition of nationalist thought that I have <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/when-nationalism-began-to-hate-9780195151879?cc=us&lang=en&">written</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Poland_in_the_Modern_World.html?id=jEKMAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false">about</a> <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/faith-and-fatherland-9780195399059?cc=us&lang=en&">elsewhere</a>. That tradition, which dates back at least a century, equated Polishness with a narrow concept of a religiously and ethnically homogeneous nation locked in an unending struggle for survival with every other nation. </p>
<p>Among those real and (mostly) imagined national enemies were Germans, Russians and above all Jews. The latter two were commonly lumped together within paranoid conspiracy theories about a <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674047686">“Judeo-Bolshevik”</a> menace.</p>
<p>The overt expression of this anti-Semitic worldview has faded somewhat from public life, though sadly, <a href="https://dorzeczy.pl/8786/Zydokomuna-czy-chamokomuna.html">it hasn’t disappeared</a>. </p>
<p>More common today is a less explicit conviction among supporters of PiS that an unspecified “they” still control the country behind the scenes, passing their authority down from generation to generation. In PiS rhetoric, these enemy elements are often referred to as <a href="https://wpolityce.pl/media/213615-czy-polskojezyczne-media-media-naprawde-sa-polskie-szokujaca-analiza-rynku-prasowego">“Polish speakers”</a> <a href="https://www.salon24.pl/u/sopoty/784662,polskojezyczne-i-antypolskie-media-probuja-namieszac">rather than genuine Poles</a>.</p>
<p>Within this ideological framework, some individuals with known <a href="https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/akcja-piotrowicze-kto-z-pis-nalezal-do-pzpr-6067060569051777a">links to the old communist state apparatus</a> are welcomed into the new regime, as long as they demonstrate their Roman Catholic bona fides and their devotion to the PiS worldview. The issue is not whether one is specifically implicated in the political oppression of the communist era, but whether one belongs to “them.” </p>
<h2>Authoritarian democracy</h2>
<p>The second dispute at the core of the judicial purge involves the very nature of the Polish state.</p>
<p>First, some history. Communist rule came to an end in 1989 thanks to the so-called “<a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jii/4750978.0006.301/--1989-polish-round-table-revisited-making-history?rgn=main;view=fulltext">Round Table accords</a>,” a negotiated settlement with the leaders of the democratic opposition and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lech-Walesa">Solidarity union movement, led by Lech Wałęsa</a>. It would take until 1997 for a new constitution to be prepared, but the basic outlines of a liberal parliamentary system were established in that agreement.</p>
<p>One of the principles enshrined in those <a href="http://okragly-stol.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/01_stanowisko_polityka.pdf">1989 accords</a> was that “the separation of power into legislative, executive, and judicial branches shall constitute the basic principle of democratization at all levels of government.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226499/original/file-20180706-122265-rdopwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226499/original/file-20180706-122265-rdopwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226499/original/file-20180706-122265-rdopwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226499/original/file-20180706-122265-rdopwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226499/original/file-20180706-122265-rdopwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226499/original/file-20180706-122265-rdopwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226499/original/file-20180706-122265-rdopwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Round Table talks, 1989.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although this might seem legalistic and abstract, it was essential. The authors of this text were affirming that democracy required more than just an elected government. It was necessary to ensure that power was distributed broadly, so that no one could use a democratic mandate as an excuse to violate basic civil or human rights. </p>
<p>The phrase “checks and balances” might be a cliché, but Poles, as they threw off a dictatorial regime, knew all too well how important this principle was. </p>
<p>PiS rejects the Round Table accords and the entire system built upon them. They <a href="http://porterszucs.pl/2016/02/05/pis-in-their-own-words">claim</a> that the post-1989 system was too weak to root out all the remnants of communism. They say that the separation of powers allowed hostile forces to establish centers of authority that limited the democratic will of the people. </p>
<p>Again and again, PiS politicians repeat their conviction that national sovereignty must be unified, and not fragmented among separate judicial, legislative and executive authorities. Such a distribution of power, <a href="https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/328974-top-10-przykladow-zobacz-jak-kasta-sedziowska-lamie-prawo-i-kala-godnosc-togi">they argue</a>, allows each branch of government to act like a separate “caste,” blocking the national majority. </p>
<p>As one government supporter <a href="https://oko.press/kornel-morawiecki-dobro-narodu-ponad-prawem-sejm-uniewaznia-wybor-sedziow-tk-kronika-skorzynskiego-21-27-listopada-2015-r/">once put it</a>, “the will of the nation stands above the law.” </p>
<p>The founder and leader of the movement, Jarosław Kaczyński, dismisses the idea that legal constraints should limit what “the <a href="http://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/opinie/artykuly/538883,suweren-temat-roku-tematroku-tematroku2016-glosowanie.html">sovereign</a>” can and cannot do. </p>
<p>The government’s spokespeople are adamant that they believe in democracy. But their understanding of this term appeals to a tradition of <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/modern-authoritarianism-illiberal-democracies">authoritarian democracy</a>, where the government represents the singular will of the people, unchallenged by legalistic divisions of power. </p>
<p>This helps explain the repeated claims by PiS supporters that the “Polish people” should be able to determine their own affairs without interference – whether from EU institutions or unelected Polish judges. </p>
<p>The ruling party is supported by <a href="https://www.wnp.pl/parlamentarny/sondaze/">fewer than 40 percent</a> of the population and <a href="https://oko.press/76-proc-polakow-chcialoby-zeby-politycy-zadnego-wplywu-powolywanie-sedziow-pis-chcialo-inaczej/">an overwhelming 76 percent</a> want the judiciary to remain independent from government oversight. Evidently, that fact is irrelevant. </p>
<p>In the PiS worldview, the sovereign must speak with one voice, and that voice belongs to them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99486/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Porter-Szücs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With its attempt to purge the country’s courts of 40 percent of its judges, Poland’s right-wing ruling party passed another milestone on the path towards establishment of a one-party state.Brian Porter-Szücs, Professor of History, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/917362018-03-30T10:54:38Z2018-03-30T10:54:38ZLangston Hughes’ hidden influence on MLK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212720/original/file-20180329-189821-1esd23f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C450%2C2337%2C2166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream – which alternated between shattered and hopeful – can be traced back to Hughes' poetry.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Theater-Martin-Luther-King/9dd2feaf65cc4986914256bfc6ce8c53/85/0">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For years, Martin Luther King Jr. and poet Langston Hughes maintained a friendship, exchanging letters and favors and even traveling to Nigeria together in 1960.</p>
<p>In 1956, King recited Hughes’ poem “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47559/mother-to-son">Mother to Son</a>” from the pulpit to honor his wife Coretta, who was celebrating her first Mother’s Day. That same year, Hughes wrote a poem about Dr. King and the bus boycott titled “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=SeQ5YNBQnmkC&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=Langston+Hughes+poem+%22Brotherly+Love%22&source=bl&ots=6XnWbi1AYS&sig=V6uViVUHXR8lqptW79WTGK--CRs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjwYLCu4_aAhVPPN8KHaPEBSgQ6AEIYDAJ#v=onepage&q=Langston%20Hughes%20poem%20%22Brotherly%20Love%22&f=false">Brotherly Love</a>.” At the time, Hughes was much more famous than King, who was honored to have become a subject for the poet.</p>
<p>But during the most turbulent years of the civil rights movement, Dr. King never publicly uttered the poet’s name. Nor did the reverend overtly invoke the poet’s words. </p>
<p>You would think that King would be eager to do so; Hughes was one of the Harlem Renaissance’s leading poets, a master with words whose verses inspired millions of readers across the globe. </p>
<p>However, Hughes was also suspected of being a communist sympathizer. In March of 1953, he was even called to testify before Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, King’s opponents were starting to make similar charges of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/22/us/dr-king-and-communism-no-link-ever-produced.html">communism</a> against him and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference, accusing the group of being a communist front. The red-baiting ended up serving as some of the most effective attacks against King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference. </p>
<p>It forced King to distance his organization from men with similar reputations – Bayard Rustin, Jack O’Dell and even his closest adviser, Stanley Levison.</p>
<p>It also meant he needed to sever any overt ties to Hughes.</p>
<p>But my research has found traces of Hughes’ poetry in King’s speeches and sermons. While King might not have been able to invoke Hughes’ name, he was nonetheless able to ensure that Hughes’ words would be broadcast to millions of Americans. </p>
<h2>Beating back the red-baiters</h2>
<p>In the 1930s, Hughes earned a subversive reputation by writing several radical poems. In them, he criticized capitalism, called for worker’s to rise up in revolution and claimed racism was virtually absent in communist countries such as the U.S.S.R. </p>
<p>By 1940, he had attracted the attention of the FBI. Agents <a href="http://digital.wustl.edu/fbeyes/">would sneak into his readings</a>, and J. Edgar Hoover derided Hughes’ poem “<a href="https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/goodbye-christ">Goodbye Christ</a>” in circulars he sent out in 1947.</p>
<p>Red-baiting also fractured black political and social organizations. For example, Bayard Rustin was forced to resign from the SCLC after African-American Congressman Adam Clayton Powell threatened to expose Rustin’s homosexuality and his past association with the Communist Party USA. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212709/original/file-20180329-189804-1oe6eqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212709/original/file-20180329-189804-1oe6eqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212709/original/file-20180329-189804-1oe6eqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212709/original/file-20180329-189804-1oe6eqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212709/original/file-20180329-189804-1oe6eqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212709/original/file-20180329-189804-1oe6eqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212709/original/file-20180329-189804-1oe6eqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Langston Hughes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/507078879">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the leading figure in the civil rights movement, King had to toe a delicate line. Because he needed to retain popular support – as well as be able to work with the Kennedy and Johnson administrations – there could be no question about where he stood on the issue of communism.</p>
<p>So King needed to be shrewd about invoking Hughes’ poetry. Nonetheless, I’ve identified traces of no fewer than seven of Langston Hughes’ poems in King’s speeches and sermons.</p>
<p>In 1959, the play “A Raisin in the Sun” premiered to rave reviews and huge audiences. Its title was inspired by Hughes’ poem “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem">Harlem</a>.”</p>
<p>“What happens to a dream deferred?” Hughes writes. “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? … Or does it explode?” </p>
<p>Just three weeks after the premiere of “A Raisin in the Sun,” King delivered one of his most personal sermons, giving it a title – “<a href="http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/shattered-dreams">Shattered Dreams</a>” – that echoed Hughes’ imagery.</p>
<p>“Is there any one of us,” King booms in the sermon, “who has not faced the agony of blasted hopes and shattered dreams?” He’d more directly evoke Hughes in <a href="http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2017/12/martin-luther-king-jrs-christmas-sermon-peace-still-prophetic-50-years-later.html">a later speech</a>, in which he would say, “I am personally the victim of deferred dreams.” </p>
<p>Hughes’ words would also become a rallying cry during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.</p>
<p>During the grind of the year-long boycott, King spurred activists on by pulling from “Mother to Son.” </p>
<p>“Life for none of us has been a crystal stair,” King proclaimed at the <a href="http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/Vol03Scans/424_14-Nov-1956_Address%20to%20MIA%20Mass%20Meeting.pdf">Holt Street Baptist Church</a>, “but we must keep moving.” (“Well, son, I’ll tell you / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” Hughes wrote. “But all the time / I’se been a-climbin’ on.”)</p>
<h2>Did Hughes inspire the dream?</h2>
<p>King’s best-known speech is “I Have a Dream,” which he delivered during the 1963 March on Washington. </p>
<p>Nine months before the famous march, King gave the earliest known delivery of the “I Have a Dream” speech in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. (We can also now finally hear this connection after the reel-to-reel tape of <a href="http://kingsfirstdream.com/">King’s First Dream</a> was recently discovered.)</p>
<p>But the roots of “I Have a Dream” go back even further. On Aug. 11, 1956, King delivered a speech titled “<a href="http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/Vol03Scans/339_1956_The%20Birth%20of%20a%20New%20Age.pdf">The Birth of a New Age</a>.” Many King scholars consider this address – which talked about King’s vision for a new world – the thematic precursor to his “I Have a Dream” speech.</p>
<p>In this speech, I recognized what others had missed: King had subtly ended his speech by rewriting Langston Hughes’ “<a href="https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-dream-a-world-2/">I Dream a World</a>.”</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free.
</code></pre>
<p>It is impossible not to notice the parallels in what would become “I Have a Dream”: <em>I have a dream that one day … little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.</em></p>
<p>King spoke truth to power, and part of that strategy involved riffing or sampling Hughes’ words. By channeling Hughes’ voice, he was able to elevate the subversive words of a poet that the powerful thought they had silenced.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In order to avoid being labeled a communist sympathizer, King needed to publicly distance himself from the controversial poet. Privately, King found ways to channel Hughes’ prose.Jason Miller, Professor of English, North Carolina State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/844032017-09-22T00:37:32Z2017-09-22T00:37:32ZHow an economic theory helped mire the United States in Vietnam<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187128/original/file-20170921-21037-1o4ru9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rostow, front right, visited Vietnam in 1961.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Fred Waters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Questions of how the U.S. got mired in the Vietnam War and whether it was ultimately winnable have <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/vietnam-war-documentary-43367">fascinated historians</a> for half a century – most recently in <a href="http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/watch/">Ken Burns’ new 18-hour documentary</a>. </p>
<p>A little-remembered aspect of the debacle is the important role played by a prominent economic historian named <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/1591985">Walt Whitman Rostow</a>, whose theories on economic development helped persuade Americans – and two presidents – that the fight in Vietnam was right and that we must prevail.</p>
<p>The Burns documentary, from what I have seen, does not dwell much on economics, my area of expertise. But this was an important part of why Americans were there. </p>
<h2>Rostow’s rise</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187075/original/file-20170921-20964-rah2xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187075/original/file-20170921-20964-rah2xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187075/original/file-20170921-20964-rah2xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187075/original/file-20170921-20964-rah2xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187075/original/file-20170921-20964-rah2xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187075/original/file-20170921-20964-rah2xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187075/original/file-20170921-20964-rah2xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187075/original/file-20170921-20964-rah2xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rostow, left, looks over a map with Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor in 1961 ahead of their trip to Vietnam to observe and evaluate the political and military situation there and report back to President Kennedy. From his earliest days at the White House, Rostow urged more involvement in the Vietnam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Bill Allen</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rostow came to prominence in the 1960s after his theories on economic development <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/1591985">caught the eye</a> of the Democratic Party and John F. Kennedy, who was campaigning for president. </p>
<p>In 1960, Rostow, then a professor at MIT, published an influential book called “<a href="http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=1107710529">The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto</a>.” The book describes how an economy transitions through five distinct stages of development, from basic (little use of technology, like much of central Africa and South Asia in the mid 20th century) to advanced (characterized by high levels of mass consumption, such as the U.S. or France). </p>
<p>Rostow believed economic development was a universal process that would generally occur in all countries albeit with unique national characteristics – that is, except under communism, where he believed the process would be much inhibited. He described communism as a “cancer” of economic development.</p>
<p>Communism, therefore, had to be forcefully resisted to protect a given country’s economic prosperity and freedoms and, ultimately, American national security and well-being as well. </p>
<p>Rostow’s view that economic development could be used to resist the spread of communism attracted Kennedy, who brought the professor to the White House as an adviser on national security. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187074/original/file-20170921-20964-kyij2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187074/original/file-20170921-20964-kyij2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187074/original/file-20170921-20964-kyij2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187074/original/file-20170921-20964-kyij2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187074/original/file-20170921-20964-kyij2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187074/original/file-20170921-20964-kyij2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187074/original/file-20170921-20964-kyij2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sen. Gale McGee shows President Johnson, Press Secretary Bill Moyers and Rostow (second from left) the route he took on his recent trip to Vietnam, in 1966.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout his time in government, Rostow was one of both Kennedy’s and then Johnson’s most hawkish advisers. From the start he urged a prominent American role in Vietnam to thwart the spread of communism, and he remained steadfast even as others, such as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, increasingly saw the war as unwinnable. </p>
<p>Rostow, who left the White House in 1969 after serving three years as national security adviser, viewed the American loss in Vietnam as a military failure rather than one of political judgment. Even many years after the war, he believed the U.S. could have prevailed in South Vietnam with just a little more determination.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187125/original/file-20170921-20991-1edop26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187125/original/file-20170921-20991-1edop26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187125/original/file-20170921-20991-1edop26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187125/original/file-20170921-20991-1edop26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187125/original/file-20170921-20991-1edop26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187125/original/file-20170921-20991-1edop26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187125/original/file-20170921-20991-1edop26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Johnson poses with members of his staff, including Rostow, front right, during his final weeks in office in 1969.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Johnson_posing_with_staff_1969.jpg">LBJ Library/Yoichi R. Okamoto</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Communist Asia prospers</h2>
<p>I met Rostow some years after the war, in the early 1980s, when he was one of my dissertation advisers at the University of Texas at Austin. We’d sometimes discuss the war and his economic theories. </p>
<p>Rostow believed that communism meant unyielding one-party control of key pillars of an economy, which would surely stifle freedom and prosperity. It would also impede transitioning to more advanced stages of development. He argued faster growth would help stave off the threat, which is why he ensured economic aid was <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Foreign-Aid-War-Economic-Development/dp/0521021316">part of the White House strategy</a> to win the war. </p>
<p>When I knew him, the rise of Asia’s communist countries including <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html">China</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2017/03/23/east-asias-5-fastest-growing-countries-in-2017/#7a4041805ac6">Vietnam</a> had not yet occurred, and he saw little evidence that would have refuted his beliefs about communism and the “Stages of Growth.” Their economies didn’t begin their sharp rise until China led the way in the mid- to late 1980s. </p>
<p>He assured me, however, that South Vietnam would have prospered much earlier had communism been successfully repelled, just as <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/29/chung.koreas/index.html">South Korea began to flourish</a> after its war. </p>
<p>Perhaps, but the <a href="http://ablog.typepad.com/keytrendsinglobalisation/2016/09/why-did-china-grow-so-fast.html">recent success</a> of Asia’s communist economies does show that one-party rule can succeed in bringing about prosperity, at least more than we once thought. And as a result, the global economy’s center of gravity is shifting toward Asia. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187124/original/file-20170921-20964-1ud1sif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187124/original/file-20170921-20964-1ud1sif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187124/original/file-20170921-20964-1ud1sif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187124/original/file-20170921-20964-1ud1sif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187124/original/file-20170921-20964-1ud1sif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187124/original/file-20170921-20964-1ud1sif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187124/original/file-20170921-20964-1ud1sif.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rostow died in 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walt_Rostow_1968.jpg">LBJ Library photo by Yoichi R. Okamoto</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The consummate hawk</h2>
<p>In the end, however, Walt Rostow was unrepentant. </p>
<p>Rostow was of the generation that boasted its willingness to <a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations/Inaugural-Address.aspx">“pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship”</a> in the defense of liberty. And he was one of those who really believed it. </p>
<p>This always struck me as peculiar not simply because it is extreme, but because economists are trained to think in terms of optimization or balance, not maximization at the extreme. </p>
<p>His “Stages of Economic Growth” is not widely studied in the United States these days, although some of the terms he coined, such as economic takeoff, are still used to refer to the rapid and catalyzing acceleration of economic growth. American economists today tend to avoid such grandiose socioeconomic theories, preferring instead to appreciate the complexity of forces at work in economic development and pursue more rigorous mathematical methodology. </p>
<p>To me, a significant problem with “Stages” was the subtitle, which <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/216686961_Stages_of_Growth_Revisited">I took issue with in a paper I wrote in 1993</a> on South African economic development. Particularly in light of the success of countries like China and later Vietnam, “A Non-Communist Manifesto” became ideological dead weight, inseparable from the economic theories he forged supported by data. </p>
<p>Despite its weaknesses, “Stages of Growth” had strengths, such as its multidisciplinary nature and embrace of technology, which is <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2015/june/what-drives-long-run-economic-growth">what really drives development</a> in the long run. Unfortunately, the weight of his focus on communism ultimately was too much of a liability and undermined its legitimacy. This is true in politics more broadly as well as health care (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447380/">my speciality</a>), where ideologically driven special interests polarize and paralyze. </p>
<p>Rostow, who died in 2003, would have been better served without the ideological baggage. And this goes for the rest of us. We all too often fail to come together for pragmatic ends because of ideological conflict.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Hilsenrath receives funding from the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa.
I received funding from the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa in 1984. It helped fund some research referred to in this piece.</span></em></p>Walt Rostow argued communism was incompatible with economic development and was influential in persuading Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to get more involved in Vietnam.Peter Hilsenrath, Joseph M. Long Chair in Healthcare Management & Professor of Economics, University of the PacificLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/835412017-09-07T10:47:41Z2017-09-07T10:47:41ZMusine Kokalari: a lost story of defiance in the face of political oppression<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184884/original/file-20170906-9851-12q2x0c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C9%2C2142%2C2155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Musine Kokalari during her trial in 1946.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://musinekokalari.org/en/biography/">Albanian Telegraphic Agency</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Musine Kokalari was an Albanian writer and political dissident. She was imprisoned and suffered the humiliation of a public show trial under a despotic regime which murdered her brothers and kept her under surveillance and in exile most of her life. Her brave story can now be told after <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32552372">secret police files</a> were released that revealed details about a shocking miscarriage of justice which deprived the world of a great writer.</p>
<p><a href="http://musinekokalari.org/en/">Kokalari</a> was Albania’s first female writer of note from the pre-communist period. She was born in 1917 in Adana, Turkey, where from an early age the young Musine showed a passion for literature and national folklore. The Kokalari family were at the centre of literary and political activity. </p>
<p>They returned to their native Gjirokastra in southern Albania in 1920. In 1938 Kokalari embarked on university studies in literature at La Sapienza University, Rome. She kept a diary, <a href="https://www.viella.it/libro/9788867285952">My University Life</a>, which was published in 2016. Then in 1941, she published her first book called, As My Grandma Says. The book is about the daily struggles of a Gjirokastran woman living in a deeply patriarchal society and can be seen as an early feminist text.</p>
<h2>The writer and political dissident</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184938/original/file-20170906-9862-ja77vc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184938/original/file-20170906-9862-ja77vc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184938/original/file-20170906-9862-ja77vc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184938/original/file-20170906-9862-ja77vc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184938/original/file-20170906-9862-ja77vc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184938/original/file-20170906-9862-ja77vc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184938/original/file-20170906-9862-ja77vc.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Musine Kokalari.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://musinekokalari.org/en/biography/">Linda Kokalari/Musine Kokalari Institute</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was during her studies that Kokalari joined anti-fascist and anti-communist movements. She continued her political activities upon her return to Albania in 1942 where she co-founded the Albanian Social Democratic Party. Her brother’s bookshop became a hub of intellectual activity. As a result the family was kept under close surveillance by the communist authorities (represented by the National Liberation Movement/National Liberation Front). Two of her brothers, Vesim and Muntaz, were <a href="http://musinekokalari.org/en/">executed</a> by the state for their political activities. Kokalari herself was detained and arrested several times in 1945 after openly expressing her views against totalitarianism. </p>
<p>She was then involved in the Democratic Coalition, a political movement that supported the postponement of elections and for multi-party elections. The writer hoped that representatives from the United Kingdom and the United States would monitor the elections. But all 37 members of the coalition were arrested and deemed traitors of the Albanian nation. Neither the US nor the UK intervened. </p>
<h2>Hair torn from her head</h2>
<p>In 1946, Kokalari stood before the military court in the Albanian capital, Tirana. She was threatened, intimidated and coerced. <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/projects/in-search-of-musine-kokalari-history-memory-and-law(97837a1a-d116-4d5e-8bdd-b8824d2afd57).html">Archival memos</a> refer to her hair being torn out of her head by bystanders. Her trial was transmitted live via loud speakers to the crowds outside. Her stoic stance is illustrated in a photograph taken by the Albanian Telegraphic Agency. In defiance she wore a mourning veil in memory of her executed brothers. Her powerful image made the front page of the broadsheets in Albania two days running. </p>
<p>This trial was the second in a run of six organised by the authorities from that period that effectively eliminated “enemies of the state”. It was dubbed the “political dissidents trial” and it sent a message about the direction that the regime was taking towards free speech. It did not stop Kokalari. She used the trial to stand up for her rights. <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/projects/in-search-of-musine-kokalari-history-memory-and-law(97837a1a-d116-4d5e-8bdd-b8824d2afd57).html">Witness accounts</a> speak of her declaring: “I do not need to be a communist to love my country”. Despite her bravery, she would have endured severe, prolonged torture during her detention and trial. The court refused to let her speak for any length of time. </p>
<p>Kokalari was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, of which she served 16. She spent a further period of exile in northern Albania, where she worked as a manual labourer. She joked that she was a “mortar specialist” as her work involved heavy, arduous construction. On her days off she would visit the library and sit in a public place reading a book under the watchful eye of the secret police. Despite the fact that she was forbidden to write, she secretly completed <a href="http://musinekokalari.org/en/">a manuscript</a> about the founding of the Social Democratic Movement. Kokalari died in 1983 – two years before the decline of the dictatorship – after being refused treatment for cancer by the Albanian government.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184953/original/file-20170906-9109-1jeuz6j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184953/original/file-20170906-9109-1jeuz6j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184953/original/file-20170906-9109-1jeuz6j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184953/original/file-20170906-9109-1jeuz6j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184953/original/file-20170906-9109-1jeuz6j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184953/original/file-20170906-9109-1jeuz6j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184953/original/file-20170906-9109-1jeuz6j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kokalari with her brother Vesim.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Linda Kokalari/Musine Kokalari Institute.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The fragile rule of law</h2>
<p>The near full isolation imposed on her by the communist authorities denied Albanian society and the wider world her powerful voice and writings. Kokalari’s writing tapped into local custom and language, using local dialects in a lucid way, as she wrote about the challenges facing her generation of women. Her broader outlook about her country’s future as a democracy is far from outdated. At its core the protection of free speech as a key to participating in and contributing to civil society should serve to remind us how democracies are still works in progress. Her trial and the trials of her contemporaries show how fragile the rule of law can be.</p>
<p>In April 2015 the Albanian parliament <a href="http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albania-to-open-communists-secret-files-10-13-2015">passed a law</a> permitting individuals to access their secret police or Sigurimi files. In 2017 the Kokalari family was presented with the file that the Sigurimi kept on her. Within it they found the <a href="http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/musine-kokalari-and-the-power-of-images(59fbe9ca-d442-49b0-860d-9ff5fb8133a1).html">powerful and defiant photograph</a> of the writer standing alone in front a crowd of people as she was put on trial for her beliefs (main image). Kokalari is evidence of a political dissident voice in a country with little experience with democracy and which existed in near isolation for most of the 20th century. It continues to struggle with its communist past. </p>
<p>It is a timely moment, in Kokalari’s centenary year, to reflect on the contribution that this remarkable woman made to Albania’s cultural and political life. Her life story is a poignant tale of achievement and ambition, of hope in the face of repression and also inspiration – for Albanians and non-Albanians alike.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Agata, who has researched and published on Musine Kokalari, is curating an exhibit of photographs of Musine for the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, which opens 11 September and runs until 16 October 2017. A short film produced by Agata, with support from Lancaster University and a film team from York University, of Musine making her court statement at her 1946 trial accompanies the exhibit.</span></em></p>Musine Kokalari was imprisoned and tortured by the communist regime in Albania in 1946 for standing up for free speech.Agata Fijalkowski, Senior Lecturer, Lancaster Law School, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/774412017-05-15T00:59:25Z2017-05-15T00:59:25Z4 things to know about North and South Korea<p><em>Editor’s note:</em>
North Korea recently tested a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-idUSKBN1890UO">ballistic missile</a> that landed in the sea between North Korea and Japan. North Korean leaders claim to hold nuclear weapons capabilities that could reach the U.S., although other <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/15/asia/north-korea-missile-test/">recent missile tests</a> have cast doubt on those assertions. </p>
<p>The U.S. is ramping up <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/21/us-south-korea-hold-joint-military-exercise/">joint military exercises</a> with South Korea, and President Donald <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39741671">Trump has stated</a> the threats may lead to a “major, major conflict.” South Koreans have elected <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-challenges-for-moon-jae-in-south-koreas-new-president-77422">a new president</a> who may be open to talks with North Korea.</p>
<p>We turned to one of our experts, Professor Ji-Young Lee, to help us understand that part of the world.</p>
<p>Here are four things to know.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Why is there a North and a South Korea?</strong></p>
<p>Before there was a South and North Korea, the peninsula was ruled as a dynasty known as Chosŏn, which existed for more than five centuries, until 1910. This period, during which an independent Korea had diplomatic <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/chinas-hegemony/9780231179744">relations with China and Japan</a>, ended with imperial Japan’s annexation of the peninsula. Japan’s colonial rule lasted 35 years.</p>
<p>When Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945, the Korean peninsula was split into two zones of occupation – the U.S.-controlled South Korea and the Soviet-controlled North Korea. Amid the growing Cold War tensions between Moscow and Washington, in 1948, two separate governments were established in Pyongyang and Seoul. Kim Il-Sung, leader of North Korea, was a former guerrilla <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-real-north-korea-9780199390038?cc=us&lang=en&">who fought under Chinese and Russian command</a>. <a href="http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-8995-9780824831684.aspx">Syngman Rhee</a>, a Princeton University-educated staunch anti-communist, became the first leader of South Korea.</p>
<p>In an attempt to unify the Korean peninsula under his communist regime, <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/5740.html">Kim Il-Sung invaded the South</a> in June 1950 with Soviet aid. This brought South Korea and the United States, backed by United Nations, to fight against the newly founded People’s Republic of China and North Korea. An armistice agreement ended hostilities in the Korean War in 1953. Technically speaking, however, the two Koreas are still at war.</p>
<p><strong>Beyond the political divide, are Koreans in the North and South all that culturally different? If so, how?</strong></p>
<p>Koreans in the South and North have led separate lives for almost 70 years. Korean history and a collective memory of having been a unified, independent state for over a millennium, however, are a powerful reminder to Koreans that they have shared identity, culture and language. </p>
<p>For example, in both Koreas the history of having resisted Japanese colonialism is an important source of nationalism. Both North and South Korean students learn about the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-real-north-korea-9780199390038?cc=us&lang=en&">1919 March 1 Independence Movement</a> in school.</p>
<p>Consider, too, the Korean language. About 54 percent of North Korean defectors in South Korea say that they have <a href="http://www.nkrf.re.kr/nkrf/archive/archive_01/kolas/kolasView.do?key=70048046&kind=DAS&q2=">no major difficulty understanding</a> Korean used in South Korea. Only 1 percent responded that they cannot understand it at all. </p>
<p>However, the divergent politics of North and South Korea have shaped differences in Koreans’ outlook on life and the world since the split. South Korea’s vibrant democracy is a result of the mass movement of students, intellectuals and middle-class citizens. In <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756223/obo-9780199756223-0109.xml">North Korea</a>, the state propaganda and ideology of Juche, or “self-reliance,” were used to consolidate the Kim family’s one-man rule, while reproducing a certain mode of thinking designed to help the regime survive.</p>
<p><strong>What have we learned from North Korean defectors who settled in South Korea?</strong></p>
<p>As of September 2016, an estimated 29,830 North Korean defectors are <a href="http://eng.unikorea.go.kr/content.do?cmsid=3892">living in South Korea.</a> From them, we’ve learned the details of people’s everyday life in one of the world’s most closed societies. For example, despite crackdowns, more North Koreans are now watching South Korean TV dramas. </p>
<p>In North Korea, repression, surveillance and punishment are pervasive features of social life. The state relies heavily on coercion and terror as a means of sustaining the regime.</p>
<p>Still, not all North Koreans are interested in defecting. According to <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/marching-through-suffering/9780231171342">anthropologist Sandra Fahy</a>, interviewees said they left the North reluctantly driven primarily by famine and economic reasons, rather than political reasons. A majority of them missed home in the North. </p>
<p>However, Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to the South in 2016, believes that Kim Jong-un’s North Korea could face a popular uprising or elite defection as North Koreans have increasingly become <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTvNBfdjuJI">disillusioned with the regime.</a></p>
<p><strong>What is the history of U.S. relations with South Korea, and where do they stand now?</strong></p>
<p>The purpose of the U.S.-South Korea alliance has changed little since its formation in 1953. This has much to do with continuing threats from North Korea. </p>
<p>However, despite differences in their approach to North Korea, President George W. Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun took a major step toward transforming the Cold War alliance into a “<a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/07/joint-declaration-commemoration-60th-anniversary-alliance-between-republ">comprehensive strategic alliance</a>.” Under President Barack Obama and South Korean Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, many believed the U.S.-South Korea alliance was at its best. Under their leadership, Washington and Seoul agreed to expand the alliance’s scope to cover nontraditional threats, like terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other global challenges like piracy and epidemic disease, while coordinating and standing firm against North Korea’s provocations. </p>
<p>Now, with Moon Jae-in and Donald Trump as new presidents of South Korea and the United States, there is a greater degree of uncertainty. Among other things, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-we-may-terminate-us-south-korea-trade-agreement/2017/04/27/75ad1218-2bad-11e7-a616-d7c8a68c1a66_story.html?utm_term=.7220866a5910">Trump criticized</a> the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, while insisting Seoul pay for THAAD, a U.S. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/world/asia/trump-south-korea-thaad-missile-defense-north-korea.html?_r=0">missile defense system deployed in South Korea</a>. Moon, whose parents fled the North during the Korean War, is likely to put inter-Korean reconciliation as one of his top priorities. This may collide with the current U.S. approach of imposing sanctions against North Korea.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ji-Young Lee received funding from the Academy of Korean Studies (Competitive Research Grant, 2013), for a book project on historical international order in Asia.</span></em></p>North and South Korea explained in four questions and answers.Ji-Young Lee, Assistant Professor, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/624052016-07-22T10:07:57Z2016-07-22T10:07:57ZWhy calls for ‘unity’ are not enough: Look at the 1930s and 1940s<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130803/original/image-20160717-2141-7lsavt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Preaching unity in 1948 on the Freedom Train</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freedom_Train_Postcard_(19078943832).jpg">US National Archives and Records Administration </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. is in the midst of a tepid economic recovery following a catastrophic downturn, but millions of Americans continue to feel left behind. Some turn their anger on corporations and Wall Street. Others target nonwhite immigrant workers. A charismatic media personality with a populist message attacks religious minorities. Conservatives denounce the president and his allies for flouting the Constitution and steering the United States toward socialism. Meanwhile, many on the left warn that fascism is taking root in America.</p>
<p>This may sound like 2016, but in fact it describes the U.S. toward the end of the Depression decade.</p>
<p>The parallels between the two eras aren’t perfect, but in the late 1930s – as today – political rancor, social division and the threat posed by “alien” ideologies sparked widespread unease. And just as politicians and commentators <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/07/13/us/politics/ap-us-campaign-2016.html?_r=1">in recent weeks</a> have called for “unity” in the face of political and racial strife, so too did their counterparts <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A06EFD9133FE23ABC4B53DFB7668382629EDE&legacy=true">in the late 1930s.</a></p>
<p>These earlier Americans acted on their words.</p>
<p>During the late 1930s and 1940s, an array of American elites from business executives and government officials to clergymen and Hollywood tycoons launched a variety of efforts to build civic unity and national consensus. These efforts continued into the early 1960s. </p>
<p>Indeed, such campaigns are one reason that <a href="http://www.basicbooks.com/full-details?isbn=9780465061969">many Americans today</a> think of the immediate postwar decades as a golden age of harmony and concord.</p>
<p>As a historian who <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-the-american-way-9780195392401?lang=en&cc=us#">has looked closely</a> at these midcentury efforts to cement national cohesion, I believe that while they offer a model, they also offer a warning.</p>
<h2>A nation divided</h2>
<p>In November 1936, Americans went to the polls and awarded Franklin Delano Roosevelt a second presidential term. It was one of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history, with Roosevelt winning <a href="http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/nov-3-1936-franklin-roosevelt-re-elected-in-landslide/?_r=0">almost 61 percent</a> of the vote. </p>
<p>Any sense of unity that the election provided, however, rapidly unraveled <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/freedom-from-fear-9780195144031?cc=us&lang=en&">in the face</a> of a new economic downturn, a Supreme Court crisis and emerging divisions in the Democratic Party. </p>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-the-american-way-9780195392401?lang=en&cc=us#">The late 1930s</a> were marked by sit-down strikes, violent repression of workers, and attacks by vigilante groups on Jews, Catholics, racial minorities and leftists. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131282/original/image-20160720-31129-f8ake7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131282/original/image-20160720-31129-f8ake7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131282/original/image-20160720-31129-f8ake7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131282/original/image-20160720-31129-f8ake7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131282/original/image-20160720-31129-f8ake7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131282/original/image-20160720-31129-f8ake7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131282/original/image-20160720-31129-f8ake7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Picket line at 1937 strike in Flint, Michigan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/1995">Walter P. Reuther Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005516">Father Charles Coughlin</a>, the charismatic “radio priest” whose economic populism had attracted an audience of millions (<a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/18405/voices-of-protest-by-alan-brinkley/9780394716282/">one in 10</a> American families with a radio tuned in regularly), turned in 1938 openly and stridently anti-Semitic. Coughlin’s followers and members of other newly formed anti-Semitic groups held mass rallies, stockpiled weapons and beat up Jews. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Communists, preaching a mix of class and racial equality, made inroads in the labor movement, among artists and intellectuals, and in minority communities. <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6698.html">They could claim 82,000 members and many more sympathizers</a> by the close of 1938. </p>
<p>All this alarmed American elites across the political spectrum.</p>
<p>Those on the left saw in union-busting, red-baiting and surging intolerance evidence of what <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-the-american-way-9780195392401?lang=en&cc=us#">The New York Times and others called</a> “an American brand of fascism.” Those <a href="http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1938/10/17/page/12/article/american-communism-in-the-new-deal">on the right believed</a> trade unionists, leftists and, above all, New Dealers were ushering in “state socialism.” </p>
<p>Members of both groups urged Americans to unite around “shared” national values, although they often disagreed on precisely what those values were.</p>
<p>Temporary unity came with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and U.S. entry into World War II. But <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-the-american-way-9780195392401?lang=en&cc=us#">in 1943</a> – and again in 1946 – the U.S. was rocked by massive strikes, race riots and other forms of social unrest. </p>
<p>One of the worst wartime race riots occurred in Detroit in June 1943. By the time federal troops were called in to quell the riot, 25 blacks and nine whites lay dead. Nearly a thousand people had been injured. </p>
<h2>Unity campaigns</h2>
<p>U.S. elites responded to this turmoil with numerous initiatives designed to promote social harmony and consensus. They were aided by a new infrastructure of institutions – some public, others private – that emerged immediately before and during World War II. </p>
<p>For instance, during the war, the <a href="https://nccj.org/our-story">National Conference of Christians and Jews</a> preached interfaith tolerance in military installations and USO canteens from Norfolk, Virginia to Nome, Alaska. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131510/original/image-20160721-32628-1yksc6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131510/original/image-20160721-32628-1yksc6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131510/original/image-20160721-32628-1yksc6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131510/original/image-20160721-32628-1yksc6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131510/original/image-20160721-32628-1yksc6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131510/original/image-20160721-32628-1yksc6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131510/original/image-20160721-32628-1yksc6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Institute for American Democracy, Poster, 1945.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://digitalcollections.mcmaster.ca/institute-american-democracy-poster-1945">Local History & Archives, Hamilton Public Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the war, the NCCJ and several other groups worked with the newly formed <a href="http://www.adcouncil.org/About-Us/The-Story-of-the-Ad-Council">Advertising Council</a> on a long-running public service campaign dubbed “United America.” Using radio spots, car cards and other forms of advertising, they urged Americans to “keep America strong” by “isolating and quarantining group antagonism,” not only between religious, racial and ethnic groups, but also between management and labor. </p>
<p>The Advertising Council played a key role in the most ambitious “unity” campaign of the era, the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-the-american-way-9780195392401?lang=en&cc=us#">Freedom Train</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130802/original/image-20160717-2153-1ilt3ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130802/original/image-20160717-2153-1ilt3ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130802/original/image-20160717-2153-1ilt3ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130802/original/image-20160717-2153-1ilt3ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130802/original/image-20160717-2153-1ilt3ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130802/original/image-20160717-2153-1ilt3ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130802/original/image-20160717-2153-1ilt3ef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Freedom Train gets a visit in Los Angeles, February 1948.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Freedom_Train,_LA_%2748.jpg">Los Angeles Daily News</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Between September 1947 and January 1949, a red-white-and-blue locomotive carried more than 120 original documents and artifacts – ranging from Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence to the flag planted at Iwo Jima – through hundreds of cities in all 48 states.</p>
<p>The train’s journal was coordinated with hundreds of local celebrations dubbed patriotic “revival meetings” and a nationwide media blitz. Conceived in the attorney general’s office, organized by movie and advertising executives and financed by America’s largest corporations, the Freedom Train portrayed a nation that was <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-the-american-way-9780195392401?lang=en&cc=us#">unified, consensual and inclusive</a>. </p>
<p>This veneer of unity, however, concealed a behind-the-scenes contest over America’s core values. </p>
<p>Which documents should be included in the exhibit? How should they be interpreted? Should a train displaying the Emancipation Proclamation allow segregated viewing in stops below the Mason-Dixon line? Even the word “democracy” – which had both political and economic overtones – was ultimately deemed too controversial to be used in slogans and press materials.</p>
<p>As these examples suggest, “unity” campaigns often promoted civility rather than real social change.</p>
<h2>The ‘race problem’</h2>
<p>After race riots exploded across the country in 1943, hundreds of cities, states and community organizations set up committees designed to defuse racial, religious and ethnic tensions. </p>
<p>The “Civic Unity Movement,” as this campaign was called, focused attention on the “race problem” in America and achieved some real gains. The Toledo board, for instance, persuaded local hospitals to hire black nurses. </p>
<p>Too often, however, these groups shunned tactics that risked increasing tensions by antagonizing racists. In Chicago, for instance, black efforts to move into neighborhoods claimed by whites led to hundreds of racial incidents – vandalism, arson bombings and full-scale riots – between 1944 and 1949. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131283/original/image-20160720-31117-1u8ef8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131283/original/image-20160720-31117-1u8ef8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131283/original/image-20160720-31117-1u8ef8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131283/original/image-20160720-31117-1u8ef8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131283/original/image-20160720-31117-1u8ef8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131283/original/image-20160720-31117-1u8ef8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131283/original/image-20160720-31117-1u8ef8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A car burns in Detroit riot 1943.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/13076">Detroit News, Walter P Reuther Library, Wayne State University</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, as historian <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3627598.html">Arnold Hirsch</a> has shown, these events were barely covered by the city’s metropolitan dailies. City unity commissions convinced Chicago’s white-owned newspapers that covering such episodes would only fan the flames of racial unrest. This helped to sustain an image of racial harmony and consensus that was often at odds with events on the ground.</p>
<p>Such unity-building efforts did help to discredit open prejudice against both religious and racial minorities. For the most part, however, they failed to address the structural inequalities of race and class that have haunted this nation for decades. </p>
<p>By marginalizing dissenters and casting all who disrupted national unity as somehow un-American they shored up existing power structures and left intact the social and economic status quo. </p>
<p>By the mid-1960s, the resulting tensions could no longer be contained. <a href="http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/kerner.pdf">A new round of race riots</a> in Los Angeles, Newark, Detroit and other cities called attention to America’s continuing economic and racial inequalities. This is a lesson that our current national leaders would do well to remember.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62405/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Wall receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has also received grants from a number of archives and foundations, including the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota, the Rockefeller Archives Center, the Gilder Lehrman Foundation, the Hagley Museum and Library, and the Harry S. Truman Library Institute.</span></em></p>Previous efforts to cement national cohesion offer a model but also, says a historian, a warning.Wendy Wall, Associate Professor, 20th century American history, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/543212016-02-25T00:48:48Z2016-02-25T00:48:48ZThe Look of Silence and prequels bring Indonesia’s dark legacy of 1965 killings into the light<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112835/original/image-20160225-14489-12faceb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2000%2C1125&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Adi Rukun questions Commander Amir Siahaan, one of the death squad leaders responsible for his brother’s death during the Indonesian genocide, in Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary The Look of Silence. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Drafthouse Films and Participant Media.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A series of Oscar-nominated documentaries on the aftermath of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-indonesias-1965-1966-anti-communist-purge-remade-a-nation-and-the-world-48243">the 1965 massacres</a> in present-day Indonesia attempts to change the way we remember the history of global right-wing political violence. </p>
<p>Before <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-look-of-silence-and-indonesias-dark-mirror-34005">The Look of Silence</a>, nominated for an Oscar to be announced this Sunday, and its prequel <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-act-of-killing-oscar-nod-lifts-the-lid-on-indonesias-dark-past-22163">The Act of Killing (2012), which was nominated in 2014</a>, the 1965 massacres of leftists by the Indonesian army and civilian militias had been one of the world’s bloodiest yet least talked about episodes of political violence. </p>
<p>We may be familiar with <a href="http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/collections/truth_commissions/Chile90-Report/Chile90-Report.pdf">the bloody overthrow of Chilean socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973 by General Pinochet</a> as a famous example of oppression against the left. But few know that the anti-communist pogrom in Indonesia eight years earlier helped inspire the coup. Pinochet even named his takeover plan <em>Operación Yakarta</em>. </p>
<p>The documentaries of Joshua Oppenheimer and an anonymous Indonesian co-director show how the 1965 events shaped Indonesia’s history, bringing to light the country’s experience as part of a global narrative.</p>
<p>To grasp the big picture, viewers should watch The Look of Silence as part of a trilogy, starting with The Globalisation Tapes (2003), followed by The Act of Killing. </p>
<h2>Decolonisation sabotaged</h2>
<p><a href="http://thelookofsilence.com/">The Look of Silence</a> follows <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/movies/adi-rukun-neither-silent-nor-intimidated.html?_r=0">Adi Rukun</a>, an optometrist whose brother was killed in the US-backed anti-communist massacre before he was born. He confronts the perpetrators, members of civilian militias who see themselves as patriots, about their complicity. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aA_ZHAs4M9k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Look of Silence trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s prequel, <a href="http://theactofkilling.com/awards_distinctions/">the Bafta-winning documentary Act of Killing</a>, shocked viewers with boastful killers re-enacting how they murdered their victims in 1965. </p>
<p>But The Act of Killing was not Oppenheimer’s first film on the effects of the 1965 violence. He had touched on them in <a href="http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-globalization-tapes/">The Globalisation Tapes</a>. </p>
<p>Largely incorporating 1960s agitprop style, it depicts the struggle of workers in a Belgian-owned plantation in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Some of them are descendants of 1965 victims. Their stories reveal the impact of forced economic globalisation on their livelihood. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xo2OOIMkYOE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Globalisation Tapes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Oppenheimer may not have intended to frame his works as a trilogy. But through these three films he provides a picture of the long-term impact of a sabotaged decolonisation. From the first instalment to the next, he embarks on tackling the issue of a global political economy and shifts to local and more personalised problems. </p>
<h2>Historical references</h2>
<p>Some critics debated whether <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/23/act-of-killing-dont-give-oscar-snuff-movie-indonesia">The Act of Killing is exploitation cinema</a>. Some argue it is an <a href="http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/the-act-of-killing-and-the-ethics-of-documentary-film-making-badrul-hisham">orientalist picture about the atrocities</a>, attributing the carnage to the presupposed “Asiatic nature” of the killers. </p>
<p>Some view the lack of historical context in The Look of Silence and The Act of Killing as overlooking the complicity of Indonesian military and Western countries. </p>
<p>The films do, however, bring historical context to the viewers.</p>
<p>Oppenheimer had chosen the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Cinema">direct cinema approach</a> that focuses more on the here-and-now, limiting explicit historical description that fully describes the relationship between the armed forces and the civilian killers. He chose this approach to show that legacies of the 1965 violence remain in the present. </p>
<p>However, the films embody the sense of the past within different characters, expressed through their speech and gestures.</p>
<p>Oppenheimer also presents obvious Cold War references in his films. In The Look of Silence, Adi Rukun is exposed to NBC-produced newsreel from 1967 that relates Sukarno’s overthrow.</p>
<p>The film thus interrogates Western collaborators in the same way it interrogates the Indonesian killers. It shows viewers how the West spoke grandiosely of their anti-communism and their role in the slaughter. </p>
<p>The NBC narrator Ted Yates says: “Indonesia has a fabulous potential wealth and natural resources. Goodyear Sumatran rubber empire is an example. The rubber workers’ union was communist-run. So, after the coup many of them were killed or imprisoned. Some of the survivors – you see them here – still work the rubber plantation, but this time as prisoners and at gunpoint.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112702/original/image-20160224-16459-tcjv5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Adi Rukun watches footage of interviews conducted by Joshua Oppenheimer with perpetrators of the 1965-66 Indonesian genocide in The Look of Silence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Drafthouse Films and Participant Media</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The NBC footage, uncompromising in its demonisation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukarno">Sukarno</a> and the Communist Party, shows plantation workers literally marching at army gunpoint. </p>
<h2>Anti-communism remains a force</h2>
<p>Oppenheimer’s team has effectively use several online platforms to promote the films and organise screenings by sending free copies of the films to hundreds of communities.</p>
<p>The public response to the documentaries has triggered screenings of related films. Between 2000 and 2011, at least 25 films (shorts, documentaries, features) have been made about the subject. <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=VdZ1BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=Lexy+Rambadeta+Mass+Graves&source=bl&ots=BpoHvZ2gQ4&sig=6kjacjwslSaYrInrt_EHCxweMCA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ8NuG0JHLAhVme6YKHU3tAy4Q6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=Lexy%20Rambadeta%20Mass%20Graves&f=false">Lexy Rambadetta’s Mass Grave</a> (2001), for instance, deals with resistance from communities to families wishing to provide proper reburial for victims. </p>
<p>The increasing production of 1965-themed films shows that Indonesians are speaking up about the murders. Some screenings are banned by authorities and attacked by right-wing mass organisations. This also suggests violent legacies of the 1965 killings live on. </p>
<p>Influential members of the armed forces still retain links to militia groups notorious for their street violence. The anti-communist narrative – “they wage war on us”, “they corrupt the youth”, “we have no choice but to kill them or be killed” – can be found in many different translations, being handy to dismiss minority groups such as Ahmadis and Shiites, and having featured in recent attacks on members of the Gafatar religious cult and <a href="https://theconversation.com/onslaughts-against-gays-and-lesbians-challenge-indonesias-lgbt-rights-movement-54639">LGBT people</a>. </p>
<h2>Duty to truth</h2>
<p>Oppenheimer’s trilogy challenges us to take on a different kind of engagement with past atrocities. That means casting a light on more and more perpetrators, some of whom live next door. </p>
<p>The military and its street proxies aside, the 1965 massacre involved sections of religious leaders, artists and intellectuals. </p>
<p>When the state keeps silent and wants us to be silent about its unpleasant past, the duty to expose past collaborators is ultimately left to us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Windu Jusuf does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Oscar nominated documentary The Look of Silence follows an optometrist whose brother was killed in Indonesia’s 1965 massacre. But to understand the bigger picture, viewers should watch its prequels.Windu Jusuf, Lecturer of Film Studies, Binus UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.