The Coldest Winter, Continued

As I read more of  David Halberstam's The Coldest Winter, I'm struck by the parallels between Korea and Iraq, especially the events surrounding Douglas MacArthur's disastrous decision to invade North Korea and push to the Manchurian border. This brought the Chinese into the war and created the bloody stalemate fought out for more than three years.

• Republican politicians taunted Democrats as appeasers
• Americans by and large believed that the Chinese people wanted nothing so much as to live in an American-style democracy. (In fact, the Chinese generally regarded Americans as part of the western colonialism that had exploited their nation for over a hundred years.)
• American politicians backed Chiang Kai-Shek, whom -- like Chalabi in Iraq -- they mistakenly believed to represent the mass of Chinese people
• MacArthur's desire to invade the north and his certainty that the Chinese would not intervene resulted in cooked intelligence to support his position
• The utter failure of American decision-makers in both parties to understand the nature of their Communist adversaries in Moscow and Beijing, who were motivated as much or more by nationalism than ideology

Halberstam also digs up the roots of post-War conservative foreign policy. It was driven, of course, by a rabid anti-Communism coupled with a by-and-large successful effort to paint Democrats as soft appeasers. It's a fascinating look at a political movement that has become hoist on its own petard. 

Modern conservatives have attempted to redirect the politics of fear against terrorists and immigrants, but it has proved self-defeating: Hispanic voters turned against Republicans, and the application of militarism has failed dismally in Iraq and Afghanistan. The door is open to the enlightened internationalism advocated by Barack Obama...

Hendrik Hertzberg ("...a real jerk," sez Newtie) flays Bill-o wide open and leaves him out to dry in the hot sun...

Mesmerizing, Brilliant, and Beautiful Dept: Don't miss this incredible performance by the Pilobolus Dance Theatre on Renegade Eye's blog. The sequence between 4:30 and 6:00 especially blew my mind, but the entire dance is a wonder...

The Coldest Winter

I've read a little over a third of The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War,  David Halberstam's final book. What I figured would be an above average but nonetheless standard piece of military history is instead shaping up as a major work that can stand alongside The Best and the Brightest and The Reckoning. Far more than than a tactical account a little known war, Halberstam delves into the personalities and opposing issues of the early days of the Cold War to show how they led to American involvement in Korea and continue reverberating today.

For example, rampant racism in the army caused it to expect an easy victory against North Korea, a lesson that went unlearned as America became involved in Vietnam. (In fact, the early decision to back the French colonialists in Vietnam was interconnected with the invasion of South Korea.) And racism wasn't limited to the army: The Atlanticists at the State Department assumed that practices that applied to Europe also applied to Asia; the State Department had little or no expertise regarding Korea. Again, this same dynamic played out not only in Vietnam but in Iraq.

By 1949, the once dominant Republican party had lost five straight presidential elections. The economy had been the trump issue since 1932, and the country trusted Democrats and mistrusted Republicans. Harry Truman's upset win in the 1948 election left Republicans bitter, angry, and in search of an issue that would allow them to take the gloves off. They got it when the Chinese Communists successfully concluded their revolution and forced Chiang Kai-Shek to retire to Formosa (Taiwan). 

Although it is difficult to imagine now, China held a unique place in the American consciousness in the early 20th Century, and the public was stunned by the Communist victory. The Republican party made dark insinuations that Truman and hawkish Secretary of State Dean Acheson had "lost China," as if it were in the power of an American administration to lose any nation. Such, though, was the belief in our international efficacy back then. Meanwhile Joe McCarthy, the newly elected Republican senator from Wisconsin in search of a signature issue of his own, began accusing the State Department of knowingly harboring Communists. The 1950 conviction of Alger Hiss fueled the Republican crusade, the success of which sired the modern conservative politics of fear and division honed to a fine art by Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater, and Karl Rove.

And that's only 223 pages into the book!...

These days of a tight economy, it just might be worthwhile to attend to Cajun wisdom regarding food:

You can go into a restaurant and order pheasant or rabbit, but this town is just lousy with pigeons and cats, and under enough cayenne pepper and garlic, sauteed over low heat with some butter and served with pepper jelly, I dare you to tell me which is which.

More here...

Just maybe Obama cares about Louisiana... 

American governors of both parties applauded the nomination of Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security secretary and made their opinions about FEMA plain. According to Rahm Emmanuel:

There was also a bipartisan sense ... that one of the more important things you can do is get a FEMA that is operable and helps states process what needed to be processed to get a recovery, when you are hit with a natural catastrophe, up and running.

A transcript of Emmanuel's press conference after Obama met with the governors is here...