« Day-dream on | Main | They're stunned, STUNNED »

A tale of two lobbies, Part I

By Owen Paine on Friday June 23, 2006 02:15 PM

There once was a foreign lobby as infamous and as potent as the Israel lobby is now. It was the cold war China lobby.

At its peak it didn't represent any part of China proper -- only a former Japanese colony off its coast, where the former Chinese regime still held sway. And yet, till 1970 or so -- about the time the Israel lobby really started hitting its stride -- this "China" lobby was the tyrant of all it surveyed on Capitol Hill -- until, that is, it got whipped like a poodle by one of its own former champions, name of Richard M. Nixon (we'll get back to that).

The lobby originated way back, during the Sino-Japanese war of the late 30's, and continued uninterrupted through a subsequent nation-wide, regime-changing civil war, and both of our own East Asian misadventures (Korea and Vietnam). Throughout this entire interval the lobby's mission remained unchanged -- get Uncle Sam to unconditionally support the regime of clownissimo Chiang, in all ways possible, at all times, and despite any counteracting influences. In this it succeeded, and grandly, for over 30 years.

Looking at its internal elements -- its roots here among us Americanos -- one might note that in addition to the usual corporate players, like arms merchants, bankers, and sundry foreign bullropers, the domestic arm of this "it girl" of the Cold War lobbies had a very significant missionary component. Goo-goos for Christ, and their trueheart pals like Pearl S. Buck, gathered about the China lobby, wanting to help the suffering benighted yellow masses, like pickpockets on new years eve.

Well, as I've said, the rig was mighty successful until, pop! someone named Mao Tse-tung figured out the best way to end the cold war as we knew it, which led through a trail awinding to our prezdick flying straight through the front door to the People's Republic, and stabbing his old old friends in the lobby square in the back.

Lesson?

There are no tails that can wag their dogs for ever. No one remains that useful as a fig leaf. But my story is far from over -- didn't a second Han tail soon grow out of Uncle's backside? This one too had a simple mission -- open the US up like a sardine can for a massive "co-prosperity" invasion.

... to be continued.

Comments (2)

Non Nato:

Yeah, it's all about a bunch of fiendish Orientals running the the show isn't it? If it isn't cruel Chinese baby-eaters it's hook-nosed monsters from the Middle East trying to lead the oh so noble White America astray from it's path to glory. Which lobby are you going to blame for the genocide of the American Indians and Africans? The Portugese? The Arabs? Taiwan wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for the US for peeps sake, the idea that it would be able to run American foreign policy is not very believable. Client states serve a multitude of purposes to it's master, one of which is taking the blame for failed imperialistic policies, hence there is a utility to having lobbies running around taking credit for every decision that's taken. If things go wrong they become scapegoats and if not the politicians responsible point to the lobby when they are confronted by protesters against imperialism. "Oh no, I can't do anything about decision I've taken to sending billions of dollars of weapons to Israel, them there lobbyists control everything here" With the added bonus that that whips up race hatred in the long run

js paine:

non nato:

good points ....all of em

so why
as with several other
similar comments here
do i get the impression i'm being scolded ????

or at least sharply reminded of truths
that run
along the lines of :

foreign lobby's are
scape goats for over seas failures and bloody follys
better attributed to
their real authors
the amerikan
trans nat corporations and their
hi fi wall street moneychangers

when
well
it oughta be clear
i couldn't agree
more

your meme is my meme

Post a comment

Note also that comments with three or more links may be held for "moderation" -- a strange term to apply to the ghost in this blog's machine. Seems to be a hard-coded limitation of the blog software, unfortunately.

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on Friday June 23, 2006 02:15 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Day-dream on.

The next post in this blog is They're stunned, STUNNED.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Creative Commons License

This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Powered by
Movable Type 3.31