Reading "Buchanan Has It Backwards on Globalization" by
General William Odom (editorial page, Aug. 11), now adjunct
professor at Yale, an idea commends itself: Perhaps the
general might want to audit the freshman course in economic
history this fall, if there is yet time to sign up.
Prof. Odom writes that all nations surrender their sovereignty
when they enter alliances and trade treaties. Nonsense.
Sovereignty is retained as long as the nation retains the
freedom and power to dissolve the alliance or treaty. NATO is a
temporary coalition from which we have the power to withdraw,
while the European Union looks to be forever.
"[W]hen the U.S. had fewer limits on its sovereignty it was
poorer," writes Prof. Odom. "In the 1930s it had few treaty
commitments, having rejected the Versailles Treaty and the
League of Nations. Congress even passed the Smoot-Hawley
tariffs to keep out foreign trade. And what rewards did all these
exercises of sovereignty give the American worker? The worst
economic depression of the century followed by the bloodiest
war in history."
Let me try to sort out this rag-bag of non sequiturs. The Senate
rejected Versailles in 1919. Harding took power in 1921 on a
promise to "prosper America first." He cut Wilson's wartime
income tax rate of 63% back to 25% and, with Fordney-
McCumber, doubled tariff rates. Result: The Roaring Twenties.
Growth hit 7% a year, fastest in history; and ten years later
Versailles America was producing 42% of the world's
manufactures, an all-time record.
As for the Smoot-Hawley myth, Prof. Odom should put in a call
to Milton Friedman. When Smoot-Hawley passed, imports
were only 4% of GDP; and two-thirds came in free. Perhaps
Prof. Odom can explain how a marginal tax hike, on 1.3% of
GDP, caused a 46% contraction of the U.S. economy, 25%
unemployment, and a wipeout of 85% of stock values?
The cause of the depression was massive credit expansion by
the Fed, creating a market bubble that, punctured in 1929,
wiped out a third of the U.S. money supply. With America in
shock from this loss of blood, a pair of chiropractors named
Hoover and Roosevelt prescribed a "cure" of huge tax hikes
and sweeping regulations. Smoot and Hawley were
scapegoats, lynched by New Deal court historians to cover up
FDR's complicity. Their tariff did not even pass until eight
months after the 1929 Crash.
As for the bloodiest war in history, it was launched by Adolf
Hitler. The wisest decision ever made by the Senate was to
refuse to commit American blood and treasure to enforce this
Carthaginian peace, imposed on the German people at
bayonet-point in violation of Wilson's 14-points and solemn
pledges.
On NATO and the U.S. military presence in Europe, the
general and I agreed, up to 1989. But with the Cold War over
and the Soviet Empire stone cold dead, how is America made
safer by an endless commitment to go to war with a nuclear-
armed Russia, to defend Bialystok from Belarus?
Bring the troops home from Europe, and we shall be relieved of
an economic and military burden, and we can restore our
traditional freedom of action to intervene, or not, as we decide;
and not to have war imposed upon us because of some 50-
year-old tripwire put down by Dean Acheson or John Foster
Dulles. Why not let our rich and sassy friends in Europe carry
the hod a while? General Eisenhower was no isolationist, yet
he pressed JFK to pursue exactly this course as far back as
1961.
Prof. Odom rejoices that countries are lining up to sign on to
globalization. Why shouldn't they? To them it means an open
door to the greatest market on earth, and U.S. capital pouring
into their countries to build new factories to replace plants
shutting down across the U.S.
Our merchandise trade deficit is near 5% of GDP; it has
crossed the $450 billion mark. We are following faithfully the
course pursued by all the great empires of history: consuming
more than we produce; selling off our patrimony to finance the
good times. Carpe diem remains the road to hell for nations as
well as individuals.
Prof. Odom calls me a Jeffersonian agrarian. Has he read my
book? My ideas are rooted in the economic nationalism of
Washington, Hamilton, the Madison of the Tariff of 1816, Henry
Clay, Friedrich List, Lincoln and the Republicans who, from
1865 to 1914, took the U.S. from half of Britain's manufacturing
power to more than double her power -- a 50-year period where
growth rates averaged 4%, with bursts under McKinley up to
7%. They all put America first.
As Hamilton insisted, U.S. trade policy should be designed to
ensure the highest standard of living on earth for the American
people, and the economic independence of the nation, so that,
if need be, America could stand alone. Only thus could we
stay out of Europe's wars.
"Independence Forever?" was Adams's deathbed toast. Men
will die for the "ashes of their fathers and the temples of their
gods," not for some New World Order created of, by, and for
the greedy global mandarins who endlessly lust after America's
wealth and power.
Patrick J. Buchanan
McLean, Va.
