From the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and the West were in a face-off with the line of demarcation in Berlin. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev changed the game. He did an about face turning his back on the west in Germany and began facing east towards the west on the Pacific side of the Soviet Union.
When he did that, he set aside the military playbook and he picked up the civilian playbook of war on economic and cultural terms – war in the context of everything else.
Strategic Policy Development Before the Fall of the Wall
The timeline of Gorbachev’s policy development reveals that he had three things in mind:
- Resolve the issues between the Soviet Union and China to repair the relationship
- Increase influence in the Asean countries (map below)
- Change world perception of the Soviet Union by adopting the missionary facade of the west on economic and social issues
Gorbachev’s new strategy begins with a port city and trade. The following is a segment of the timeline as it pertains to transportation:
• The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ST/ESCAP/2303) published in 2003, includes the following information about the ALTID project:
In 1959, the Asian Highway project was conceived partially to resurrect those dreams, of trade and travel and to bring the world closer together. In doing so the Asian Highway promotes social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom as laid down in the preamble to the Charter of the United Nations.
• In the mid 1980’s, Secretary of State George Schulz was working with Mikhail Gorbachev selling him on the idea that a totalitarian government would not be able to withstand the information age that was just on the horizon.
• On July 28, 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev gave speech at Vladivostok, Russia concerning his new thinking on opening up the Soviet Union to the world. Vladivostok had been a closed city since 1951 because it was a port city where Soviet military assets were located and operations were launched. In an article published in the LA Times in 1987, the author wrote that Soviet officials acknowledged that satellites provided better information than spies on the ground so there was no longer a purpose behind keeping Vladivostok a closed city. The following are significant excerpts:
Soviet officials acknowledge that U.S. spy satellites can gather more intelligence than walk-in agents of foreign governments, one reason why security concerns no longer require barring visitors.
At the same time, reopening the city would advance Kremlin plans for increasing Pacific trade and speedier economic development of the Soviet Far East.
Gorbachev, speaking in Vladivostok last July, said he would like to see the city become “our wide-open window to the East.”
But he linked a decision on removing travel barriers to an improvement in the overall political situation in the Pacific region.
“International communications in the Pacific zone will be improved,” he went on. “The market created by the Pacific states is very considerable. . . . In my view, the situation in the Pacific depends on Soviet-American relations, which have not reached the required level.”
Gorbachev also called for new approaches to developing economic ties with foreign countries, adding that the Soviet Far East provinces had an “extremely low share” of Soviet exports in spite of their vast potential.
Location of Vladivostok
• more from (ST/ESCAP/2303)
…In 1992, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) endorsed the Asian Land Transport Infrastructure Development (ALTID) project comprising of the Asian Highway and the Trans-Asian Railway network as well as facilitation of land transport. The Asian Highway project is one of the cornerstones of ALTID. The formalization of the Asian Highway, through the Intergovernmental Agreement on Asian Highway Network adopted in November 2003, has brought the project to a new turning point in its history. Signatories on the Agreement (notice the title is Transportation and Communications).
… The ESCAP secretariat was tasked with the complex task of coordinating the development of the Asian Highway network by facilitating discussion among member countries. With the financial assistance from the Government of Japan, it conducted a series of studies, the first of which was published in 1995.
Pivot to Southeast Asia
On September 7, 1986, the New York Times published an article titled: Business Forum: Following China’s Example? The article talks about Gorbachev’s Vladivostok speech in the context of opening up the Soviet economy and possible new joint ventures with western business. He also talked about joining the west’s international financial system.
In 1988, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa of Hokkaido University wrote a research paper titled Gorbachev’s Asian Initiative and Asian Security. [Note: I was unable to find a copy of Gorbachev’s Vladivostok speech online]. This paper documents the fact that Japan and the Soviet Union were working together and the focus was on a new non-military form of security for the region. Excerpts:
coordinating with Japan its policy toward the Soviet Union in arms control, solution of regional conflicts, and expansion of economic and technical cooperation; pg. ii
Gorbachev’s Vladivostok speech manifested his intention to make a clean break with this past policy. It signalled his intention to lower the importance of the military factor in Soviet policy and to expand Soviet influence in the economic and political areas in this region. [This region being the ASEAN countries shown in the map on the right.]
Since the Vladivostok speech there have been changes in personnel and organizations in the Soviet foreign policy mechanism, and active efforts to cultivate relations with Japan and ASEAN countries as well as to join international organizations such as the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).
The original proposal for this project, entitled “Soviet Military Buildup in the Far East,” was designed to examine what role the Soviet military buildup in the Far East plays in overall Soviet military doctrine and what implications it has for security in Asia… The project’s findings indicate that fundamental changes are taking place in the basic characteristics of international relations in Asia, and that those assumptions which were applicable to situations in the late 1970s and early 1980s are no longer appropriate to cope with the new reality.
On the Heritage Foundation website, there is a paper from 1988 about Gorbachev’s Vladivostok initiative and the Soviet Union’s pivot toward Southeast Asia. It gives a brief country by country analysis. The title of the paper is: After Vladivostok, Gorbachev’s Asian Inroads.
On the Defense Technical Information Center website, there is a paper from 1988 titled, Japan’s Role in Gorbachev’s Agenda.
The significance of Japan in the strategic moves by the Soviet Union go beyond Japan’s location in the Pacific and towards Japan’s involvement in robotics for transportation systems. (Note: I don’t have as much documentation on Japan as I do Germany’s involvement but Germany and Japan were the two leading countries in terms of road informatics and automation going into the 1990s.)
The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) mentioned above in connection with Gorbachev’s Vladivostok speech is significant. It reveals Gorbachev’s strategy and intention. The founding of the PECC was documented in an article titled The Grand Chessboard of the Trilateralists.
Pacific Rim Countries
In a 1990 article in the Christian Science Monitor titled, Vladivostok and the Soviet Far East about the progress of the opening of the Vladivostok port city, the author wrote (hyperlink added):
In a 1986 speech here, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev promised a massive five-year development program for the Soviet Far East and promoted relations with Asian neighbors to help accomplish this.
A wide array of businessmen have already come to scout out prospects in the city, from the giant United States Bechtel Corporation and Japanese trading firms to a host of South Korean companies, the latest and most enthusiastic visitors.
The citizens of the region are looking instead to Boris Yeltsin, the president of the Russian Republic’s parliament, to heed their calls. “Mr. Yeltsin is a bolder man,” says Kuznetsov. “He is ready to open the city, maybe from Jan. 1 or March 1 next year. On Sept. 19, at its first session of the fall, the city council voted unanimously to give free access and residence to citizens of any country, appealing to the Russian parliament to ratify their decision. The parliament has already made the Maritime area a free enterprise zone, offering special terms for foreign companies.”
Sino-Soviet Rapprochement
Mikhail Gorbachev’s next move in his shift of focus east towards the Pacific was to repair and restore relations with China. For decades, there were various disputes between the leaders of the Soviet Union and China so it was a big deal for Gorbachev to reach out. Towards that goal, a Sino-Soviet Summit was scheduled between Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev for mid-May in 1989. The Summit was the first official state visit between Chinese and Soviet leaders in 30 years.
Tiananmen Square
A formal state welcome was planned for Gorbachev’s visit to be held in Tiananmen Square where the Great Hall of the People is located but curiously enough, the government of Deng Xiaoping was tolerating pro-democracy demonstrations in the Square so the scaled down ceremony was held at the airport when Gorbachev arrived. The coverage of the demonstrations in the Square overshadowed the Summit between Xiaoping and Gorbachev. The BBC does have an article on the timeline of the demonstrations. The military crackdown on the demonstrators didn’t happen until weeks after Gorbachev’s visit.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
According to the history on APEC’s website, Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke proposed the idea for APEC in a speech in South Korea in January of 1989.
“Ten months later, 12 Asia-Pacific economies met in Canberra, Australia, to establish APEC. The founding members were Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Indonesia; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; New Zealand; the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; and the United States.”
That’s what you call treason by definition. They chose to call the territories from which they hailed economies rather than countries even though they list the names of countries. That was a big clue that this organization was operating outside of the world’s established system of nation-states. Political leaders represent countries and that includes the breadth of interests within a country. Who represents economies? Nobody. The economy as a separate entity is an ungoverned space. From what I’ve been able to discern, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) gives the patina of a government representative but in reality serves merely as a messenger boy (or girl) from the corporate syndicate (mafia) that is APEC. And who does the corporate syndicate represent with respect to economies? Themselves and nothing else. The ungoverned space of the global economy has allowed corporate syndicates like APEC to wage undeclared war on nation-states and the people within those nation-states.
2 Comments
Kristin
When Americans read this, they’ll have it all figured out. The “public-private partnerships” or don’t they call them “collaborations” now ? It’s all the stuff that happens at the bottom, the stuff we see every day but can’t figure out why everything kind of looks the same, but isn’t. You know, when you had a concern about something suspicious or some possibly criminal activity, you told a police officer. You can’t know- you have to report it to a corporate website “Crimestoppers.com”. Cops buy groceries for shoplifters who got caught in the grocery store and they call it a good turn, and post about it on social media.
Schools deliberately hiding American history and “teachers” rather people hired to hand out packets- of carefully crafted Far Left propaganda, and Vicky were you aware that illegal immigrants can teach public school in California? They’re not even citizens, how the hell can they know of our history, our culture? and teaching children 10 years away from puberty about trans-sex and how lesbians go all the way.
Now we are importing potential Red revolutionaries: Central American illiterate villagers and they all have entitlement culture and hate the “rich”. Vicky we had immigrants here in my city demanding Salvation Army GIVE them free Christmas gifts. They didn’t fill out the application forms required for the “Angel Tree” program, but they still came to the Salvation Army offices and demanded free stuff. They gave it to them. “Emmanuel Velgara was one of many parents who showed up, expecting to leave with a bag full of gifts for his children.” https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/phoenix-salvation-army-provides-gifts-to-families-after-application-mishap
Vicky you don’t have to post my comment, maybe it’s not exactly apropo to your post- but to me, the stuff going up at the top – what some people think “doesn’t affect me & I’m not interested in any politics all that stuff doesn’t matter” it surely does affect us, all of us and it does TOO matter, and it will matter a lot worse, very soon and very much. Oh yeah- this is so spot on, the old famous : “45 Communist Goals ” everything’s come true, and they all laughed then. FYI, source for this list posted here is from http://unitedstates.fm/communismgoals.htm the editoralizing is a bit dated but the gist of it still stands.
“On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr. of Florida read a list of 45 Communist goals into the Congressional Record. The list was derived from researcher Cleon Skousen’s book “The Naked Communist.” These principles are well worth revisiting today in order to gain insights into the thinking and strategies of much of our so-called liberal elite.
1. U.S. should accept coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. should be willing to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
These encapsulate the Kennan Doctrine, which advocated for the “containment” of communism. Establishment figures supporting the amoral containment policy at least implicitly worked with the communists in scaring the wits out of the American people concerning atomic war.
President Ronald Reagan undid the doctrine when he took an aggressive stand against the Evil Empire by backing freedom fighters from around the world that were struggling against the left-wing communist jackboot. As a result, the Soviet Union and its satellites imploded, a considerable and unexpected setback to the international communist edifice.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the U.S. would be a demonstration of “moral strength.”
The nuclear freeze advocates supported a freeze on American nuclear development only. Rarely were Soviet nukes or those of other nations mentioned in their self-righteous tirades. The same advocates now call for reducing American military might, claiming that there is something immoral about America preserving its military pre-eminence in the world.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. (Kristin here: <<< Hello why are we permitting major trade agreements with Communist China???)
Today, there are calls to end the embargo on the slave island of Cuba, there were complaints about the embargo against Iraq, and the U.S., not Saddam Hussein, was blamed for the suffering of the Iraqi people. Would they have advocated for free trade with Hitler and his National Socialist regime?
5. Extend long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
Such aid and trade over decades contributed greatly to the left-wing communist liquidation of over 100 million people worldwide, according to the well-documented "Black Book of Communism."
This aid and trade marks a shameful chapter in American history. Without the aid and trade, the left-wing international communist behemoth would have imploded on its own rot a lot sooner and umpteen millions would have been saved from poverty, misery, starvation and death.
7. Grant recognition of Red China and admission of Red China to the U.N.
Not only did President Jimmy Carter fulfill this goal but he also betrayed America’s allies in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iran, Afghanistan, Angola and elsewhere.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the U.S. has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.
There are still American intellectuals, and elected members of Congress, who dream of an eventual one world government and who view the U.N., founded by communists such as Alger Hiss, the first secretary-general, as the instrument to bring this about.
World government was also the dream of Adolf Hitler and J.V. Stalin. World government was the dream of Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers.
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
While the idea of banning any political party runs contrary to notions of American freedom and liberty, notions that are the exact opposite of those held by the left-wing communists themselves, nevertheless these goals sought to undermine the constitutional obligation of Congress to investigate subversion. The weakening of our government’s ability to conduct such investigations led to the attack of 9/11.
It is entirely proper and appropriate for our government to expect employees, paid by the American taxpayer, to take an oath of loyalty.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the U.S.
In his book "Reagan’s War," Peter Schweizer demonstrates the astonishing degree to which communists and communist sympathizers have penetrated the Democratic Party. In his book, Schweizer writes about the presidential election of 1979.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
This strategy goes back to the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union by Fabian Socialists Roger Baldwin and John Dewey and Communists William Z. Foster and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn among others.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations that are under Communist attack.
The success of these goals, from a communist perspective, is obvious. Is there any doubt this is so?
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV & motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings," substituting shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. " Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24.Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural and healthy."
This is the Gramscian agenda of the "long march through the institutions" spelled out explicitly: gradual takeover of the "means of communication" and then using those vehicles to debauch the culture and weaken the will of the individual to resist.
Today those few who still have the courage to advocate public morality are denounced and viciously attacked. Most Americans are entirely unwitting regarding the motives behind this agenda.
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a "religious crutch."
This has been largely accomplished through the communist infiltration of the National Council of Churches, Conservative and Reform Judaism, and the Catholic seminaries.
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state"
Replacing belief in the creator with belief in the earthly man-controlled State.
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
And replace our nation of "laws, not men" with royal decree emanating from appointed judges and executive orders. Replace elected officials with bureaucrats.
30. Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of "the big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
Obliterating the American past, with its antecedents in principles of freedom, liberty and private ownership is a major goal of the communists then and now.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
Public ownership of the means of production, the core principle of totalitarianism.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
Turn America into a socialist police state.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
The Soviets used to send "social misfits" and those deemed politically incorrect to massive mental institutions called gulags. The Red Chinese call them lao gai. Hitler called them concentration camps.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose communist goals.
Psychiatry remains a bulwark of the communist agenda of fostering self-criticism and docility.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
Done! The sovereign family is the single most powerful obstacle to authoritarian control.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
Outcome-based education, values clarification or whatever they’re calling it this year.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special interest groups should rise up and make a "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems.
This describes the dialectical fostering of group consciousness and conflict, which furthers the interests of authoritarianism.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
The results of this successful campaign are increasingly obvious in the world today.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally Reservation so the U.S. cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
This would mark a complete subversion of our Constitution and an end to representative sovereign government as we know it, which is the whole idea."
Which of these goals have not been realized yet? GOAL 45 is really, really important Vicky you've written about this ad nauseam, in fact I was unaware of much of UN's "world court" especially the nonsense about "human trafficking" and of course, Child Support and chasing "deadbeat dads" across the globe, this is that world court in action is it not.
Vicky Davis
I thought about turning your rant 🙂 into a post. I still might because there is a lot of good stuff in there. Since I’m looking at the bottom of the comment as I write this, I’m looking at #45 – giving jurisdiction to the World Court. That’s exactly what was done with the UIFSA of 2008 – the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act that integrated reference to a Hague Convention into state law. It requires state judges to honor foreign court orders for child support and family maintenance orders. This was a mandate from the Obama Administration. It also established a system for international child support collection and payment system – courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers – so that we pickup the costs for sending money back home for the foreigners who are here taking our jobs. Great isn’t it?
I’m glad what I wrote got you all fired up. I appreciate the fact that you actually read what I write so that I’m not all fired up alone.