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Defending Decent Principles
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12734 |
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BOOK WORLD
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3 / 1987 |
2,439 Words |
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Herbert London
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ENDLESS ENEMIES
The Making of an Unfriendly World
Jonathan Kwitny
New York: Penguin, 1986
434 pp., $8.95
Since the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, some people conclude that the sun revolves around them. Similarly, there are those who will argue that their experience is so generalizable as to provide the basis for grand theories of human behavior; their experience is a veritable ontology of experience. Yet, while it may sometimes appear as if the sun beckons us or as if our personal experience is a reflection of mankind's, humility or common sense usually dictate somewhat less grandiose understanding. Had Joanathan Kwitny been sensitive to this problem his book Endless Enemies: The Making of An Unfriendly World would be more of a contribution to scholarship than it is.
Kwitny's book has received considerable attention. As a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, erstwhile member of the Peace Corps, and someone who has traveled in more than eighty countries and written extensively, his views deserve attention. Moreover, he is a soi disant defender of American values and the free market. He therefore advances his view on the foreign policy establishment from the side of the political spectrum that usually engages in its defense. However, Kwitny has used his prodigious talents as a journalist to develop a conspiracy theory of American foreign policy that is not entirely credible - and to suggest noninterventionism as the solution.
Admittedly, American foreign policy has defects and U.S. intervention has had deleterious effects on some nations. State Department decisions, moreover, have been affected by powerful families such as the Rockefellers or financiers like Maurice Tempelsman, who has extraordinary financial interests in Africa. Various smaller investors have on occasion manipulated events to suit their purposes. Anticommunism has been at times the ratiocination for American recklessness abroad. But after all of this is said, what conclusions can one draw? Is it reasonable to suggest that our venality resembles implicitly or explicitly the venality of the Soviets? It is logical to conclude that because we often act maladroitly in international affairs, we should not intervene at all? Does the evidence indicate that a cabal of businessmen, bankers, State Department officials, and lawyers mold policy to suit narrowly defined and selfish interests?
Kwitny quotes Walter Lippman as the guide to his foreign policy prescriptions: "In the great struggle with communism, we must find our strength by developing and applying our own principles, not in abandoning them." I believe Lippman is right and Kwitny shows good judgment in quoting him. However, principles are a necessary, but insufficient condition to preserve democratic institutions against a relentless communist foe. To defeat the enemy we must also demonstrate the will to fight where our interests and principles are at stake. This is the point Kwitny underestimates. He contends that intervention only jeopardizes our relationship with developing states or challenges the principles for which our nation stands. Although he maintains he is not an isolationist, his views are clearly reminiscent of Sen. Robert Taft's two generations ago.
Kwitny marshalls evidence
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