- The Center for Security Policy last week
issued a decision brief that drew a parallel between President Clinton's
visit to China and Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement at Munich
in 1938.
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- According to the CSP, "History may
well treat Bill Clinton's 1998 trip to Communist China with the same contempt
as is now reserved for Prime Minister Chamberlain's catastrophic diplomatic
mission to the Third Reich in 1938."
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- Specifically, the CSP faults Clinton
for reaching "placebo" agreements with Beijing on de-targeting
ballistic missiles aimed at each others' nations. CSP President Frank Gaffney
Jr., notes that the U.S. intelligence community cannot verify that the
Chinese have de-targeted missiles against American cities, and that the
missiles could be rapidly re-targeted should they choose to do so.
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- "The effect of this accord, however,
will -- like the deal with Hitler that Chamberlain represented as 'peace
for our time' -- be to encourage Western publics to 'get a nice quiet sleep,'
by discounting an emerging danger," Gaffney writes in the CSP brief.
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- In addition, the CSP faults Clinton for
undermining U.S. alliance relationships. "In a manner reminiscent
of Chamberlain's disregard for his French allies in the run-up to Munich,
President Clinton has exacerbated the strategic problem posed by China's
rising influence in Asia through his stiff-arming of America's regional
allies: Japan, South Korea and the Philippines - to say nothing of Taiwan."
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- The CSP brief also warns that President
Clinton's trip "will be seen historically for what it was: an exercise
in appeasement." While acknowledging that Chinese President Jiang
Zemin may be no Hitler, the CSP finds nonetheless that China has the potential
to be "every bit as dangerous a problem for the Western democracies
as was the Third Reich, if not considerably more so."
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- "Should this potential be actualized,
Mr. Clinton... is likely to be held substantially responsible for the tragedy
to come," the CSP concludes.
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