Loose cannon Bannon is no George Kennan
- One was the architect of America’s containment policy against the Soviets, the other is ‘President Trump’s FORMER and discredited adviser’
History repeats itself, Marx wrote, first as tragedy, then as farce. I am reminded of this famous saying with all the endless claims of the trade war between China and the United States as a new cold war.
More specifically, it was this paper’s recent interview with Steve Bannon, one-time chief strategist of US President Donald Trump.
The trade war is no cold war and Bannon is not George Kennan, the architect of America’s containment policy against the Soviets.
Despite attempts by American pundits to make it into a historic confrontation, it’s looking like a bad joke on a reality TV show of Trump’s that somehow manages to get good ratings and has been renewed for another season.
When Kennan wrote his 1947 classic analysis, “The sources of Soviet conduct”, in Foreign Affairs, he was prophesising a momentous struggle.
“The Russians look forward to a duel of infinite duration,” he wrote. “The United States cannot expect in the foreseeable future to enjoy political intimacy with the Soviet regime.
“It must continue to regard the Soviet Union as a rival, not a partner, in the political arena.
“It must continue to expect that Soviet policies will reflect no abstract love of peace and stability, no real faith in the possibility of a permanent happy coexistence …”
If you substitute “the Soviet Union” with “China”, you will easily recognise the absurdity of such a comparison today.
China prefers “peace and stability” above all else, and to make nice with America.
Bannon, however, has revived the cold war era’s Committee on the Present Danger, originally set up against the Soviets, to target China. It is to start “all-encompassing war”, he said.
“This is the beginning of a very long and tough process … I have dedicated my life to this. This is what I do 24 hours a day. The pressure we are going to keep up will be relentless.
“The next move we make is to cut off all the IPOs, unwind all the pension funds and insurance companies in the US that provide capital to the Chinese Communist Party.”
His comments were quickly denied. Dismissing Bannon as “President Trump’s FORMER and discredited adviser”, Nasdaq’s senior vice-president, Bob McCooey, wrote: “I do not believe these words to have any truth. We look forward to welcoming many Chinese companies to Nasdaq and supporting them as members of our family of global leaders.”
Thank God for sane people in America!