A long time ago a Japanese document fell into U.S. hands inadvertently after the war. The document was entitled ‘Negotiating With The Americans’. We recall it now as Obama is in Japan. For the first time a U.S. President meets a psychologically independent Tokyo government well aware of American strategic and systemic failures.
The original Japanese assessments while blunt would only be ten times more on point today. Examples? U.S. negotiators are difficult to understand because Americans are ethnically and regionally diverse. Negotiations with Americans are especially difficult because Americans are unpredictable and erratic. The Japanese back then speculated, however, it was possible that American ignorance of basic facts might be a clever ploy – ‘their lack of humility in such cases may mean that they really know what they’re doing.’ Now they know.
The memo (which is not classified) continues:
Americans have had a world leadership role since the end of [World War II]. They understand and are proud of their status, but seem not to know how they got there . . . Americans also take as given the tremendous wealth of their country, including rich deposits of minerals and petroleum as well as agricultural land. They waste these resources as if there were no end to them, spreading out over the land inefficiently and not seeming to notice. [ The memo goes on to offer fairly perceptive takes on American personalities, bureaucratic practices and preference for confrontational conversations. The author speculates that the U.S. domestic court system with its adversarial system designed to reveal the higher truth motivates negotiator mind sets].
When talks are concluded the U.S. side always feels some kind of euphoria. They like to think they have won, which is part of the adversary style common to them. They may engage in some public gloating to justify themselves to their countrymen. This is annoying when they do, but I suppose we should try to understand such behavior and recognize that they really cannot help themselves and do not mean any harm.
What would today’s version read like? Our friend over at Global Paradigms offers one clue with a terrific tour d’horizon of where the center of gravity in Asia is heading.
Dr Leo Strauss says
The anti-football/soccer thing is odd because we’ve spent time with deep, deep paleocon-esque Movement types (in political and religious terms) who are absolutely transfixed by the sport, the World Cup and the desire to see the U.S. play the world’s game. Moore is perfect to attack wimpiness. A follow-up op ed by Continetti a great double tap.
Comment says
Crist V. Rubio in Florida should be a fun race. Rubio can’t win the geneal.
Comment says
Indeed – Adlai failed twice – It makes no sense — so you see the GOP insult machine is breaking down due to unhealthy cognitive dissonance. Funny you mentioned Manchester United – a while back one of the Conservative opinion leaders for the WSJ attacked the sport of soccer as being a sport for wimps. The guy who made this attack – (leo, the anti tax guy Stephen Moore – is a decidedly the wrong person to call anyone a wimp).
For a while Reagan had libs so crazy that they started attacking him as an actor – forgetting that they are supposed to respect that profession. The Obama thing is a bit different – but they are still going nuts because of him
Alex says
Also, this should be too obvious to be worth mentioning, but Adlai Stevenson won’t fit because…he’s the fucking president, and the only thing Adlai is remembered for is failing to become president. That’s like trying to smear Manchester United as being today’s Brighton & Hove Albion.
Comment says
Do you have any doubt that Sean Hannity fails to fold his flag properly – according to the flag code. He would never admit it – ofcourse.
Comment says
It’s amazing to look at rates of uninsured in red states – It’s so much higher. The whole phenom of these poor Republican is rustic areas is really on the upswing . Pat and the vandee
Comment says
Rudy has sort of jumped the shark with his endless pandering. As an aside – we heard those cross dressing pictures really did hurt him in red states. Romney people sent them around. Palin is the only one who has an actual constituency. We hope she gets the nomination, if only to just see this culture war have its own paschendalee.
Comment says
Another reason the GOP is wasting time with Adlai memes is that Obama is athletic and Adlai was the opposite. Besides, he’s black. It just won’t work. The person who thought up the Adlai meme was/is probably a chickenhawk of the kind like Max Boot or Barone or someone like that who is very sensitive to personal slights highlighting their own general wussy-ness. We know some people like this – they totally lose their s*** and fly off the handle when ever we tease them along these lines. It’s so obvious that many into GOP politics these days are in for therapeutic reasons. They think they can cheer bombing arabs and thereby feel tuff. Think of JPod with his dumb dumb ‘heartland’ cheerleading – Totally ludicrous.
Comment says
It is also very true that the typical tea party palin person would more likely know various astrological dates , the names of key monster trucks like Truckasauras etc, and pro wrestlers than they would know of Adlai.
We do know some people who do ideological slumming with Palin – Who you kidding? Yo – we ask a Goethe reading friend recently when he claimed to be into Palin.
Comment says
re Adlai/Adalaid — The GOP is actually losing its ability to bitch the opposition because so many of the GOP personalities themselves are lacking the requisite character – In short – many seem like pussies who project their various insecurities.
DrLeoStrauss says
Earlier this weekend we heard somewhere the question ‘Is it jumping the shark if you never come down?’ Her trajectory could take her into an orbit outside 2012 into new territory of crankdom.
Some smart former GOP operatives active in Movement politics tell the Stiftung that they can possibly steer both towards Ike and not McCarthy. (Adlai is now the label/meme these guys want to pin on Obama — out of touch liberal intellectual — but that name will register a momentum stopping ‘wtf?’ at a tea bagger con. They doubtlessly will assume it’s a new Pfizer product). So delusions all around. Palin fits right in.
Comment says
We really get a kick out of Senator Burr – He’s sort of the quintessence of chucklehead type in the mind’s eye of most liberals, we think. He has this hilarious vacuous aspect and he says stupid thing after stupid thing. The gop is devolving.
Comment says
This morn we see Matthew Continetti – a persnickety neocon in training – pitching his book: The Persecution of Sarah Palin.
First of all – when will ‘jump the shark’ on overstatement – Persecution? It’s sort of decadent to say Palin was persecuted – she made millions by quitting her job.
Anyway – this whole neocon schtick of pretending to like simpletons like Palin (a woman devoid of culture – Irv Kristol wouldn’t hire her to be his typist) is getting old.
Yeah – perhaps Continetti met some snobs at Columbia, but that’s hardly a representative sample. Besides – Columbia students are very bright so it makes sense for them to look down on Palin.
Palin has a certain small town gal charm (though a bit of a gumsnapper) – but her pretentions to high office are just silly..
Comment says
Condi is opening a consulting shop.lol.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Overall Obama’s Asia 2009 Tour wasn’t too bad. We’re unconvinced he persuaded the Pacific Rim that the U.S. intends to or has the means to stay as a balancing influence with Beijing. Asian leadership saw through his rhetoric-reality gap faster than MSNBC or Arianna et al. His manner and tone suggest a humbled U.S. but we’re pretty sure he personally is clueless about the importance of status and hierarchy beyond abstract intellectual concepts. The bow to the Japanese emperor will resonate far longer across Asia than wingnut blogging frenzies here. Symbols matter. And that one spoke hugely awkward historical truths with ugly racial undertones there.
But it is a good thing he heard what he heard as he weighs CENTCOM’s foolish boondoggle. He is bright enough to see the opportunity costs in tangible grand strategic terms. Let’s see if he has the courage to take on the Permanent National Security State. Our bet remains Goldilocks.
Comment says
Speaking of simplicity – It’s about time we update and simplify the US flag code – The current law is too strict in its particulars about what you have to do to maintain respect for the flag – So what happens is that people still leave the flags out in the rain and in the dark etc. Plus it wouold be funny to see the wingers react to a change in the flag code.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Perfect idea. Although given that it will lock in Arbitron ratings for the wing nuts and millions in fundraising, Axelrod — if he is smart — will cut a deal from Heck and agree to float the idea in return for some tangible votes on X. Right now Team Obama is giving free JP-5 refills to the wingnuts for free.
DBake says
Doc, is there a name to this memo? Anyway to find it online? It sounds fascinating.
Dr Leo Strauss says
DBake, the name of the memo is ‘Negotiating With The Americans’ and the Japanese author’s name redacted. It may be in circulation in the specialized literature. Frankly, we don’t know, having lost track of all the developments in that field. The Bunker Library’s copy is a fairly old pre-computer era typed version. For a lot of reasons we try to steer the narrow path here on the blog between American 2009 overshare and playing self-serving cryptic games. Its primary interest is historical context as the contents of its observations have become rote over time.