Ideal Illusions Part 5

United States Information Agency WNC.

World News Connection database Throughout quoted doc.u.ments spelling is kept as it appears in the original; explanatory interpolations are provided only if essential to clarify meaning. Government doc.u.ments almost always capitalize the word "communist" or "communism," and this is done in the text as well. However, "President" is almost always capitalized in United States Congressional and government doc.u.ments, but not in the text. Doc.u.ments cited from a database often use its description of the entry so as to provide easier access, though minor corrections in punctuation and capitalization are sometimes done to improve readability.

INTRODUCTION.

1. Bertrand de Jouvenel, On Power: The Nature and History of Its Growth (Boston: Beacon Press, 1948), 238.

2. William F. Schulz, In Our Own Best Interest: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001).

3. Aryeh Neier, "With Friends Like This," International Herald Tribune, June 24, 2005.

4. Harold D. La.s.swell, Propaganda Technique in the World War (New York: Peter Smith, 1927), 222.

5. B. Rajagopal, International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 187.

6. Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

CHAPTER 1: WASHINGTON'S WORLD BEFORE THE RISE OF HUMAN RIGHTS 1. Such descriptions abound in the literature about the Cold War as well as the popular media. For representative examples, see David J. Rothkopf, Running the World: An Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power (New York: PublicAffairs, 2006); Peter W. Rodman, Presidential Command: Power, Leadership, and the Making of Foreign Policy from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush (New York: Knopf, 2009); Walter Isaacson, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986); and Henry A. Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994). For the cla.s.sic self-portrait of the wise men, see Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (New York: Norton, 1969).

2. Rothkopf, Running the World.

3. Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 (New York: Modern Library, 1962), 1.

4. George Kennan, discussions with author, 19871988.

5. Harry Truman, "Remarks at a Meeting of an Orientation Course Conducted by the CIA," November 21, 1952, APP.

6. Dulles papers, Box 90, Princeton University.

7. Robert Divine, Second Chance: The Triumph of Internationalism in America in World War II (New York: Atheneum, 1967).

8. The phrase is from Sir Robert Seeley, The Expansion of England: Two Courses of Lectures (London: Macmillan, 1891), 8.

9. Harry Truman, Year of Decisions, vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1955), 97.

10. Quoted by Michael Sherry, In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 131.

11. Solarium B, "Report on a Proposed Policy to Draw an Imaginary Line Around the Present Limits of the Soviet Bloc," July 16, 1953, 8687, DDRS.

12. W. R. Kintner, CIA, "Examination of Value, Content and Means for U.S. to Wage Effective Ideological Warfare Against World-wide Communist Apparatus," June 4, 1952, DDRS (hereafter "Ideological Warfare").

13. George F. Kennan, Measures Short of War: The George F. Kennan Lectures at the National War College, 194647 (Washington, D.C.: National Defense University Press, 1991), 302.

14. "A firm, well-developed ideology," "an over-all strategic concept," a "global psychological strategy," a "fighting faith," a "grand strategy," a "counter-ideology," a "persuasive totality of policy," a "global way of thinking," "a vigorous effective ideological program at home and abroad to vanquish communism"-such phrases permeate national security doc.u.ments throughout the Cold War, and in updated variants ever since.

15. Kintner, CIA, "Ideological Warfare," June 4, 1952, DDRS.

16. PSB, "Preliminary Estimate of Effectiveness of U.S. Psychological Warfare Strategy," May 7, 1952, DDRS.

17. U.S. Department of State, "Suggestions for Improving the Position of the U.S. in the Face of the Communist Challenge," n.d. (Eisenhower years), 20.

18. George Kennan, Measures Short of War, 302.

19. George Kennan, Report by the Policy Planning Staff, "Review of Current Trends in U. S. Foreign Policy," February 24, 1948, FRUS, vol. 1, part II, 525.

20. Gandhi to Roosevelt, July 1, 1942, http://www.gandhimanibhavan.org/gandhicomesalive/comesalive_letter26.htm.

21. This according to Charles Allen; further materials on the Lodge Project to use human rights as an instrument of propaganda warfare against the Soviets are found in Rowland M. Brucken, "A Most Uncertain Crusade," (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1999), 379. Also see "Exploitation of Soviet, Satellite, and Chinese Communist Psychological Vulnerabilities Before and During the 8th UN General a.s.sembly," May 28, 1953, and PSB, "'Human Rights' Project: Suggested Topics for Intelligence Development," May 19, 1953, DDRS.

22. See Dulles, "United States Policy Regarding Draft International Covenants on Human Rights," February 19, 1953, FRUS, 19521954, vol. 3, 1555.

23. Senator J. William Fulbright, discussions and interview with author, 1988.

24. NSC 68, 1950, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/nsc-68/nsc68-1.htm.

25. Edmond Taylor, a.s.sistant Director, Office for Plans and Policies, "Philosophy of Psychological Strategy" (lecture given at the National War College, February 12, 1952), DDRS.

26. For an extended discussion of visionary globalism see James Peck, Washington's China (Amherst: University of Ma.s.sachusetts Press, 2006).

27. H. W. Brands, The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 33.

28. John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 107.

29. Walt Rostow, Basic National Security Policy, S/P Draft, March 26, 1962, 176, DDRS.

30. NSC 7, DDRS.

31. Kintner, CIA, "Ideological Warfare," June 4, 1952, DDRS.

32. James Forrestal, The Forrestal Diaries, ed. Walter Millis and E. S. Duffield (New York: Viking Press, 1951), 128.

33. NSC 17, George C. Marshall, Secretary of Defense, to James S. Lay Jr.; Att. to Encl, June 28, 1948. J. Patrick Coyne report. NSC report, 11, DDRS.

34. Clark Clifford, "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Information Statement," May 15, 1946, 34, DDRS.

35. C. D. Jackson Papers, Princeton University, Minutes of Princeton meeting, May 10, 1952, 14.

36. Henry Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), 129.

37. NSC 17, George A. Morgan sends PSB director copy of his paper "Philosophy of the World Struggle," April 10, 1952, 3, DDRS.

38. NSC 17, George C. Marshall, Secretary of Defense, to James S. Lay Jr.; Att. to Encl: Same subject Souers, Executive Secretary to the National Security Council, June 28, 1948. Encl: J. Patrick Coyne report, DDRS.

39. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings on Psychological Aspects of Foreign Policy, June 5, 19, and 20, 1969, 37.

40. Senator J. William Fulbright, discussions with author.

41. Edward P. Lilly, Development of American Psychological Operations 19451950, December 19, 1951, 8, DDRS.

42. C. D. Jackson, Jackson to Maryland State Teachers a.s.sociation, October 31, 1947, C. D. Jackson papers, Box 102, file 2. Cited by John Allen Stern, "Propaganda in the Employ of Democracy, Fighting the Cold War with Words" (Ph.D. diss., SUNY Stony Brook, 2002), 5.

43. Dr. Barghoorn, Schedule of priorities for psychological warfare outlined, October 22, 1951, DDRS.

44. William Benton, Department of State Bulletin, April 18, 1948, 518.

45. PSB Director Raymond Allen (lecture given at the Psychological Warfare Seminar, August 15, 1952), 14, DDRS.

46. Department of State, NSC 20/1, The Position of the United States with Respect to Providing Military a.s.sistance, A Report to the NSC, August 18, 1948.

47. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Advisor, 19771981 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983), 43.

48. George Kennan, Measures Short of War, 280281.

49. Ibid., 237.

50. Harry S. Truman, Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman, ed. Robert H. Ferrell (New York: Harper & Row, 1980), 4445.

51. Clark M. Clifford, Special Counsel to the President, American Relations with the Soviet Union, Report to the President, September 24, 1946, DDRS.

52. NSC 7, "The Position of the United States with Respect to Soviet-Directed Communism," March 30, 1948.

53. PSB, "Evaluation of the Psychological Impact of United States Foreign Economic Policies and Programs in France," February 9, 1953, DDRS.

54. John Foster Dulles in George Ball Papers, Princeton University, Box 153.

55. Dean Acheson, Oral interview, Truman archives database, Truman Presidential Library.

56. NSC 5412, "National Security Council Directive on Covert Operations" [10/12/51] March 15, 1954, http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/USO/appC.html.

57. NSC 68, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/coldwar.htm.

58. Department of State, "a.n.a.lysis of U.S. Foreign Policy Based on Intelligence Estimates with Regard to U.S. 'Cold War' Efforts, Including Covert Operations Abroad," no. 3143, DDRS.

59. PSB, "Evaluation of the Psychological Impact of U.S. Foreign Economic Policies and Programs in France," February 9, 1953, 3040, DDRS.

60. Solarium A, 106, DDRS.

61. Department of State, Memo on princ.i.p.al points made by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in regard to Communist penetration throughout the world and proposals for a course of action to be taken by the Free World, May 8, 1953, 1, DDRS.

62. Department of State, "The Concept of Europe," May 8, 1951, DDRS.

63. CIA Report to the Psychological Strategy Board, JanuaryJune 1953, 3, http://www.foia.cia.gov/browse_docs.asp.

64. Charles Beard, The Idea of National Interest: An a.n.a.lytic Study in American Foreign Policy (New York: Macmillan, 1934), 131.

65. Lilly, Development of American Psychological Operations 19451951, December 19, 1951, 3, DDRS.

66. Ibid.

67. NSC 68.

68. Max Weber, Economy and Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).

69. The Soviets simply "appropriate, degrade, and b.a.s.t.a.r.dize the words which are the hard-earned and world-accepted currency of free men." William Benton, Department of State Bulletin 18, April 18, 1948, 518.

70. As Daniel Rodgers concludes in his Contested Truths: Keywords in American Politics Since Independence (Cambridge, Ma.s.s.: Harvard University Press, 1998), this "rhetoric of freedom" was always "big and vague," drawing its "primary power not from its specificity but its all-pervasiveness" and "its ability to bind together the confusions and discordances of American life with a single, powerfully flexible noun" that stood as the opposite of twentieth-century totalitarianism, 21516.

71. Zbigniew Brzezinski, "U.S. Foreign Policy, The Search for Focus," Foreign Affairs (July 1973): 708.

72. Quoted by Richard J. Barnet, Roots of War: The Men and Inst.i.tutions Behind U.S. Foreign Policy (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972), 141.

73. Ibid.

74. Robert Griffith, "The Selling of America: The Advertising Council and American Politics," Business History Review 57 (Autumn 1983): 388412.

75. Ibid., 390.

76. Phrase is common in the 1920s to capture the h.o.m.ogenizing, advertising, ma.s.s production of consumer goods and the emerging ma.s.s media. See James Truslow Adams, Our Business Civilization; Some Aspects of American Culture (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1929).

77. Quoted in Justin W. Q. Hart, "Empire of Ideas: Ma.s.s Communications and Transformation of U.S. Foreign Relations, 19361952" (Ph.D. diss., Rutgers, 2003), 82, 135, 137, 155164.

78. Archibald MacLeish, Information Service Committee, Entry 401403, Box 94, RG 353, National Archives (College Park, Md.). Also cited in Justin W. Q. Hart, "Empire of Ideas."

79. Daniel Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), 241.

80. Numerous factors led to such an intensely ideological vision of freedom: the Americanization programs, a virtual cutoff of immigration after World War I, and workplace changes that weakened American's local, regional, and ethnic enclaves; the spread of ma.s.s culture and consumerism; the growing fear of n.a.z.ism and Communism; and labor leaders who sought to invoke freedom to justify their efforts to join the "consensus." But none of these factors proved sufficient to challenge the emerging anti-Communist ethos of freedom.

81. Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 9.

82. James Truslow Adams, The Epic of America (Boston: Little, Brown, 1931).

83. In early 1952, the State Department sent out some 150 questionnaires to overseas American posts, requesting recipients to evaluate the impact of "key words in American and Free World Propaganda." No single term emerged as particularly helpful, though "communist imperialism" and "slavery" were favorites with American diplomats. "Independence," "national culture," and "sovereignty" were also popular. "Western civilization," on the other hand, was not considered highly effective; nor was "capitalism," "democratic unity," or "world friendship." Non-Americans tended, rather unattractively, to link "individualism" and "capitalism" in a way that made it difficult for Washington to espouse them as the ideological answer to "communism" and calls for radical change. See Edward W. Barrett, Truth Is Our Weapon (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1953), 146148. Also "Key Words in American and Free World Propaganda," RG 306, National Archives (College Park, Md.), 133.

84. Barrett, Truth Is Our Weapon, 263.

85. As John Foster Dulles put it, "Laborers in the ideological struggle have long recognized that the Free World suffered from one handicap: the lack of a dynamic appeal that would fire men's imaginations with a zeal and fervor approaching that of Communists. I have never found any simple formula. Freedom is not a first rank goal for fanatics in such movements. Those seeking to escape themselves usually want equality and fraternity far more than liberty." John Foster Dulles, "Freedom and Its Purposes," Speech, National Council of Churches, Denver, Colorado, Dulles papers, Box 62, Princeton University.

86. Department of Defense, "Study on Ideological Strategy," June 9, 1954, DDRS.

87. George C. Marshall, Department of State, "China Round Table," October 6, 1949, 32, DDRS.

88. George Kennan, Department of State, "China Round Table" October 6, 1949, 32, DDRS.