ANTHROPOLOGY: Varied Opinions

Tim Brown thinks kindness is counterproductive. He describes three experiences:

HONDURAS: Very compassionate and caring American medical missionaries, appalled by the lack of medical and dental services available in a very poor banana growing region near La Ceiba, Honduras, began visiting the region and providing free medical services and medicines twice a year. The villages they visited normally had available only one Honduran medical doctor poorly trained, poorly equipped, but dedicated to his patients. The only dentist was also dedicated. After two years of compassionate medical missionary visits the Americans were appalled when they were told the infant mortality rate had increased and emergency dental problems were no longer being treated. Why? Because the villagers, knowing free medical and dental attention would be available, stopped going to the local doctor and dentist, whom they had to pay. So both the doctor and dentist, no longer able to make even a Medicare living, had left for another area where medical missionaries did not constitute impossible competition. When I explained this to them the missionaries, who were very good hearted and compassionate, refused even to entertain the idea that they had been the cause. Instead they blamed all the negative results of their actions on the Honduran government and the "uncaring" doctor and dentist who had abandon their flocks. Do the negative consequences of their good deeds make them evil?

RICE: In the 1960s, the International Rice Institute developed a strain of paddy rice known as IR-8 that yielded more than twice what traditional strains did. I studied its virtues at a tropical agricultural school in Taichung, Taipei. AID pushed hard for peasants to plant it, and was successful. In several parts of Southeast Asia, peasants did double their yields. And the consequences were disastrous. Supply doubled, but not demand, so prices plummeted. Unlike traditional strains, IR-8 requires fertilizing and treatment against insects, which cost money. Normally, the peasants were debt free. But to pay for these new costs, they had borrowed money from Chinese money-lenders at high interest rates. When prices fell thousands lost their farms. Those who did found that the straw of IR-8 doesn't dry enough for use in making mud bricks, and rots quickly so it can't be stored for animal feed. By doing good, the Rice Institute caused an immense amount of suffering. Does that make the Institute evil?

VIETNAM: I had a military command in Vietnam. Because we were being crucified as violators of human rights by the anti-war movement whenever innocent civilians were killed, I was under orders at all costs to minimize civilian casualties. The Viet Cong knew this, and therefore adopted as a no-lose tactic the habit of using innocent civilians as human shields. I still shake when I remember what this forced me to do, especially in one case. The principle strategic target near my headquarters was a railroad station and small marshalling yard. One night a VC unit captured the station, yard, and several dozen civilian huts on its periphery, taking their civilian occupants hostage and using them as shields against a counterattack. My choices were two [air strikes, which could cut the rails were out]: use artillery with proximity fuses [causing air bursts] to soften up the VC first and minimize casualties among my own men, then order a ground attack, or order an attack without prior artillery preparation. If artillery were used first, military casualties would be lower but civilian casualties much higher. Because I was under orders to minimize civilian casualties at all costs, I ordered an infantry assault without pre-bombardment, and twenty-six of my soldiers died. As they retreated, the Viet Cong executed the village chief, cut off his privates and stuffed them in his mouth. They also slit open the abdomen of his pregnant wife and stuffed the fetus in her mouth, suffocating her. Finally, they bayoneted the couples three small children, about 4, 6, and 7 as I recall, and left them impaled on sharp bamboo stakes as a warning to others not to collaborate with the government. When the press wrote its articles, mention was made of these atrocities in only one article. Its writer said that no innocent civilians had been killed, only government collaborators, and that we had used excessive force. I dare say many a liberal engaged in the anti-war movement was convinced what they were doing was good, but the consequences of their acts were bad. Does this make them evil?

My comment: The three cases are different. In the first two, Tim sounds like the devil's advocate. Honduras: All the evidence I have suggests that the case he quotes is rare. Undoubtedly local doctors are often jealous when American doctors arrive and, instead of learning from them, try to sabotage their work. When the medical ship "Hope" arrived in Cartagena, local students demonstrated against the "Yankee imperialists" and "Hope" was forced to leave. The students may just have been typical Latin American students, or they may have been prompted by local doctors. However, in general, it is certain that "Hope" did an enormous amount of good and people generally were grateful. The US is resented, even hated in much of the world, and this is offset by the gratitude of those who have benefited from our help.

Rice: The evidence overwhelmingly proves the benefits of the green revolution.

Vietnam: Here Tim has a better case. Many cases of alleged American atrocities were distorted by newsmen and anti-war groups. Nevertheless, if a situation can be solved peacefully, so much the better. Because of US military power, many Americans, with little interest in international affairs, propose military solutions. They hate the UN (they could well be suspicious of it), Most countries have been hit directly by the horrors of war and live in fear.

Ronald Hilton - 9/05/00