Public outrage no recourse to US criticisms

• Source: Global Times
• [23:10 March 28 2010]
• Comments

Illustration: Liu Rui

By Wang Jisi

This January, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman expressed anxiety over a lack of a sense of direction in today's US.

He wrote that China is the US's economic partner as well as its competitor, and that he hoped Americans would react to the rise of China in the same way they did to the launching of Sputnik in 1957. The challenge from the Soviet Union spurred Americans on to new heights through developments in education, infrastructure and science and technology.

A recent poll conducted by the Washington Post showed that more Americans are coming to believe the 21st century will be China's century as the world's sole superpower's influence wanes.

What is interesting is that during the early days of the Cold War, especially after the USSR launched its first satellite and was seen as being technologically ahead of the US, the attitude of Americans was quite similar to their feelings about China today.

It will help our understanding if we take some time to do a history review.

In March 1947, the US government launched the "Federal Employee Loyalty Program" in an effort to rid the government of communists.

The new program came on the heels of the promulgation of the Truman Doctrine, and together the two acts would set the tone for the handling of both domestic and foreign affairs during the Cold War.

The rise of the Soviet Union during the Cold War surprised Americans but hardly attracted their interest.

Even elites who strongly opposed US domestic policy did not accept the ideas of the Soviet Union or other socialist countries, and on the contrast, criticized the policies of the Soviet Union and took pleasure in its decline.

The Cold War damaged the US political environment, especially as McCarthy whipped up anti-communist hysteria.

However, as the fear of communism died down, the country emerged more unified ideologically.

Always playing up the strengths of the Soviet system and the US putative weaknesses, since the economy of the USSR never reached half the size of the US, the politicians were able to build a consensus that pushed the US economy forward at breakneck speed.

After Sputnik, Allan Dulles, director of the CIA, said privately that he was not surprised by the satellite launch but was happy that the media was in an uproar because he thought Americans needed periodic shock therapy as a catalyst for action.

The country shifted into high gear, building highways, improving education, and investing in technology.

Less than 30 years later, by the 1980s, the US was superior to the USSR in almost every way imaginable.

The civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and women's liberation campaign also enhanced US national cohesion and the nation's worldwide appeal.

Without improvements in civil rights, it would have been impossible to have the human rights diplomacy of the Carter administration and the moral advantage over the Soviet Union.

The US won the Cold War not by relying on its military or diplomacy, but rather by building on its domestic strengths, which are rooted in ideological cohesion.