Levelheaded, Not Ugly, Americans

Perhaps what Asia needs most is sensible leaders in America. And, in recent weeks, America appears to have offered just that--three of them, in fact.

Consider the efforts of the Republican governor of Texas on the volatile China issue. George W. Bush looks to be following in the footsteps of his father, America’s 41st president, in taking the high Sino-American road. Last week, Bush did not let the Clinton administration off the hook on the spying and campaign contribution charges; he’s the GOP presidential front-runner and he’s not stupid. But he seemed to want to remove the China engagement question as a key issue in his campaign. The governor’s camp reiterated support for both Beijing’s admission to the World Trade Organization and congressional approval of normal trade relations. The spy scandal notwithstanding, says Bush, Washington must work constructively. “Trade will help expand the private sector in China,” he said. “Trade will open a window to the world for the people of China.”

It’s good to see Bush on such sure footing this early in the presidential psychodrama. Had Bush wanted to play the partisan Sino card, all he had to do was to recycle William Jefferson Clinton’s near-hysterical 1992 campaign speeches on China. Ruthlessly (and almost surely insincerely) lambasting Gov. Bush’s father for even engaging the Chinese, Clinton opportunistically raised the human rights issue at virtually every other whistle stop. Once elected, of course, Clinton was everything President Bush was on the issue, and more. This should have been his stance from the beginning, of course. Gov. Bush earns our admiration for passing up the opportunity for insincerity that would have played well to the Cold War right wing. But can he stay above it all when the campaign gets truly frenetic?

Then there’s former Defense Secretary William Perry. Months ago, Clinton, besieged on Capitol Hill for being “soft on North Korea,” threw a task Perry’s way that others might have ducked. But not this man: He accepted the thankless job of overseeing a top-to-bottom review of U.S. policy toward the world’s last Stalinist state and went about it in a careful, methodical style (i.e., not Clinton’s style). Along the way, Perry endured several time-zone defying tours of Asia. He consulted with Japan (which can be difficult on the North Korean issue), China (which can sometimes be impossible), South Korea (which can be emotional) and even North Korea (which is almost always impossible).

The Perry report to Clinton, expected to be released this month, will be focused, fair and hard to argue with. It will say that North Korean leaders are going to expect many U.S. economic concessions and relatively rapid diplomatic recognition in return for winding down its military technology export business and working closely with the South on better security and economic relations. But it will also say that North Korea cannot expect much of anything from the West if it does not do much of anything in return. Pyongyang should weigh Perry’s balanced formulation carefully because he is respected not only on Capitol Hill but in Asia as well. He is as patient a go-between as North Korea can hope to get out of America.

There is also the peripatetic Stanley Roth. He has journeyed to troubled Indonesia some dozen times since taking over as the State Department’s top Asia official in August 1997. Roth is another quiet but effective American, just like Perry. He does not lecture or openly opine while in Asia, which loathes American grandstanding. Instead, he spoke plainly and persistently to incumbent President B.J. Habibie, who did not always want to listen; to the ruling party known as Golkar, which hasn’t wanted to lose power; to the powerful Indonesian army command, which likes to do things its way; and to top opposition leaders, who have been understandably impatient after 33 years of authoritarian rule under Suharto. These conversations were designed to present a picture of U.S. policy steadiness and reassurance as Indonesia worked through its first truly free election in four decades.

Of course, it’s the Indonesians themselves who deserve credit for pulling off what appears to have been a fair and relatively low-violence election. But it never hurts to have a non-ugly American on your side. Patience in approach, pragmatism in priorities and steadiness in values are virtues almost anywhere, but perhaps no more so than in Asia--especially when these virtues of diplomacy come from Americans.