June 10, 2008

Dear Colleague:  

    The cover of the current issue of The Economist (June 7-13, 2008) features John McCain and Barack Obama, potential nominees of America's two major political parties. Whether by design or not, Obama is shown a step ahead of his Republican rival. The words on the cover are: "America at its best."

    George W's outstanding achievement is to restore, almost single-handedly, the idea of "The ugly American." With remarkable political skill, he has—in just seven years—turned the country from being the most admired and most loved in the world to one of the least admired, least loved. With some help from Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and a team of spineless careerists, he has succeeded in making America, famed for its Exceptionalism, ordinary; not a light onto the world but a nation-state like any other nation-state, and indeed worse than some in its willingness to imprison suspects for years without formal accusation and trial, use torture to extort information, set up the notorious Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, disdain for international law and utter disrespect for world opinion, or even the opinion of its Western allies. Worse of all, as I see it, is Bush's success in making America—Land of the Brave—into Land of the Fearful. Fear is promoted as a vote-getting device. What an extraordinary reversal from Franklin Roosevelt's, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

    How did the world see America not so long ago? Perhaps a peak of admiration was reached just after the Second World War. Here is an anecdote that illustrates what I mean. It is taken from the Dutch writer, Janwillen van de Watering. He came over to America, his first visit, as soon as the war was over. He was impressed by the easy way a young woman handled a large automobile. He commented on it. The young woman said, "You are in America. We learn to drive these wagons when we are still kids."

    This remark made de Watering recall an experience of his in the last days of Nazi occupation. "I was in Rotterdam, a fourteen-year-old boy watching a house in our street. There were SS officers in the house and they refused to surrender. Some twenty Dutch soldiers had made an attempt at taking the house. Two of them were dead, and a few wounded. The street was very quiet. And then the Americans came. A tank rumbled past, followed by another. Their guns blazed a few times. The house fell apart. When the smoke cleared an SS officer staggered out of the burning ruin. He collapse in the street, close to the tanks. The boy who came out of the tank was the first American I ever saw. I jumped up and down and waved at him. He raised his tommy gun but lowered it again when he saw that I was a civilian. I was impressed. A boy, four or five years older than me but capable of driving a tank, of killing the all-powerful SS with a casual button-touch."

    Back in America, de Watering said to the girl at the wheel of the large car, "You are a very advanced people."
    She raised an eyebrow. "You're having me on," she said.
    "No," I said. "I mean it." (Janwillen van de Watering, A Glimpse of Nothing)

Best wishes,

Yi-Fu