The following memo was written in 1955 by MEI Scholar-in-Residence Richard Parker, who was at the time a US Political Officer in Amman, Jordan. These were his comments on a State Department message about promoting democracy in the Middle East. They still have relevance today, five decades later:
1. If we accept the basic hypothesis that the “cold war” is an ideological conflict we are still embarking on treacherous ground if we wage a battle to carry our ideals to the world. While there may be certain basic values and principals common to free people, it is far from proven that they are essential or even desirable to the sound progress of all peoples and to world peace. Nor is it proven that the aspirations of the uncommitted peoples can best be achieved under a free society. In Jordan, for instance, we have a vested interest in the maintenance of a non-free society and in the suppression of certain liberties. The ideals of American democratic society require a maturity and sense of community and responsibility, which are nowhere present in the Semitic East. Locally, freedom means license, as in Lebanon. Through the American University of Beirut (AUB) and other American institutions in this area, we have been propagating for sometime American ideas of freedom, equality, etc. These have been absorbed as half-baked notions and poorly understood by the Arabs. They can readily appreciate the glories of freedom but are unwilling to accept the burden of responsibility. The result is that we find the AUB graduates in the vanguard of the local CP and fellow traveler group. We also find them in the vanguard of the irresponsible nationalists and other thorns in our side. It is unfortunate but true, that they are not ready for liberty, and we will do ourselves a disservice by propagating American ideals further.
2. Our problem in this area is not one of propagating ideals. It is one of an amorphous and ill-defined foreign policy, which has wandered down the garden path and put us in a fix. Until we solve the Palestine problem we will remain in that fix and we will have very few friends. If we can solve it, we will gain many, and there will be no need to talk of our ideals. Furthermore, it is the rankest hypocrisy for us to speak of justice and the government of law when we ourselves have not so behaved in Palestine. This hypocrisy does not escape local eyes. If for various reasons we feel that abstract principles of justice and morality must be shelved, then shelve them we must. But we should not then speak of our devotion to those ideals.
3. If we really want friends here and wish to have peoples admire American ideals and seek to follow them, we need to get out of the area as completely as possible and to reduce the number of Americans serving here to the bare minimum. This involves a retreat to isolation, but as long as we keep large staffs here and take an active part in local affairs, we are inevitably incurring the enmity and dislike of many people, who envy our houses and automobiles and who interpret our every move as interference in their affairs. If we renounce isolation and determine that we will continue our active role, then we must resign ourselves to being unpopular.
Richard Parker is MEI Scholar-in-Residence. His 50 years of experience in the Middle East included diplomatic service as US ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco. He also served in Egypt, Israel and Jordan and has authored seven books relating to North Africa and the Middle East.
Disclaimer: Assertions and opinions in this Commentary are solely those of the above-mentioned author(s) and do not reflect necessarily the views of the Middle East Institute, which expressly does not take positions on Middle East policy.
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The following memo was written in 1955 by MEI Scholar-in-Residence Richard Parker, who was at the time a US Political Officer in Amman, Jordan. These were his comments on a State Department message about promoting democracy in the Middle East. They still have relevance today, five decades later:
1. If we accept the basic hypothesis that the “cold war” is an ideological conflict we are still embarking on treacherous ground if we wage a battle to carry our ideals to the world. While there may be certain basic values and principals common to free people, it is far from proven that they are essential or even desirable to the sound progress of all peoples and to world peace. Nor is it proven that the aspirations of the uncommitted peoples can best be achieved under a free society. In Jordan, for instance, we have a vested interest in the maintenance of a non-free society and in the suppression of certain liberties. The ideals of American democratic society require a maturity and sense of community and responsibility, which are nowhere present in the Semitic East. Locally, freedom means license, as in Lebanon. Through the American University of Beirut (AUB) and other American institutions in this area, we have been propagating for sometime American ideas of freedom, equality, etc. These have been absorbed as half-baked notions and poorly understood by the Arabs. They can readily appreciate the glories of freedom but are unwilling to accept the burden of responsibility. The result is that we find the AUB graduates in the vanguard of the local CP and fellow traveler group. We also find them in the vanguard of the irresponsible nationalists and other thorns in our side. It is unfortunate but true, that they are not ready for liberty, and we will do ourselves a disservice by propagating American ideals further.
2. Our problem in this area is not one of propagating ideals. It is one of an amorphous and ill-defined foreign policy, which has wandered down the garden path and put us in a fix. Until we solve the Palestine problem we will remain in that fix and we will have very few friends. If we can solve it, we will gain many, and there will be no need to talk of our ideals. Furthermore, it is the rankest hypocrisy for us to speak of justice and the government of law when we ourselves have not so behaved in Palestine. This hypocrisy does not escape local eyes. If for various reasons we feel that abstract principles of justice and morality must be shelved, then shelve them we must. But we should not then speak of our devotion to those ideals.
3. If we really want friends here and wish to have peoples admire American ideals and seek to follow them, we need to get out of the area as completely as possible and to reduce the number of Americans serving here to the bare minimum. This involves a retreat to isolation, but as long as we keep large staffs here and take an active part in local affairs, we are inevitably incurring the enmity and dislike of many people, who envy our houses and automobiles and who interpret our every move as interference in their affairs. If we renounce isolation and determine that we will continue our active role, then we must resign ourselves to being unpopular.
Richard Parker is MEI Scholar-in-Residence. His 50 years of experience in the Middle East included diplomatic service as US ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco. He also served in Egypt, Israel and Jordan and has authored seven books relating to North Africa and the Middle East.