The US as Seen from Paris

     David Pike has returned to Paris, the center of global swirl. The big international issue there is represented by Pinochet and Castro, symbols of two ideologies whose supporters are at loggerheads. The Elian case is a footnote to this. David is hostile to both forms of dictatorship. He writes:
     "I agree with you that the Elian Affair is essentially a debate on Castro. I remember Churchill's comment in the 1940s that if he had to choose between living in Franco's Spain or Stalin's Soviet Union, he would certainly pick Franco's Spain. I lived in Franco's Spain but never in Stalin's Soviet Union, but I know enough to say Churchill was once again right. If I had to choose between tyrant Pinochet and tyrant Castro, I doubt that I could choose, except to avoid both if I could. If I chose either, I fear it would be on the basis of class and personal advantage, not social justice. In this Affair, both US prospective presidential candidates have come across as spin dentists [sic]. Neither dared to express a precise position. We are not likely to see a candidate emerge in the Conventions this summer with the moral stature to lead the world."
     David came to Stanford under a grant from the Mellon Foundation to familiarize himself with developments here since he left forty years ago. In comparison with Paris, he finds it in outlook a Farm, without the clash of national viewpoints which is typical of the American University of Paris, a very cosmopolitan institution. He writes:
     "I am going to talk of academic incuriosity, or call it by its older name, provincialism. In the seminars I attended last month, when the students presented themselves to the class, every single one of them was either American or American-educated. It was possible for a professor to speak to them in a manner that would not survive five minutes in a class of mine, where a Russian or a Japanese or an Australian would have his hand up in a minute: "Sir, with all due respect, that's not how we understand the situation back home."
     That is what WAIS is fighting. We want it to enhance its role as an international network of people of different nationality who can express their differences freely, always with the unwritten proviso: "Sir (or Madam), with all due respect..."

Ronald Hilton - 4/29/00