Postscript: The Eye of the Viewer

Summary

What business has a New Zealander to write a book about America and Asia? What right has someone from such a small and remote place to judge the actions of the greatest power in the world, as well as its most populous and rapidly growing countries? What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba? The main answer is that he, and his country, have for nearly half a century been involved in various ways in the relationship between the Pacific Titans. That experience has shaped their views, and aroused their concerns. New Zealand has become part of the region that the United States, Japan and China all belong to — the Asia-Pacific region. Yet New Zealanders retain a certain detachment: they are neither Americans nor Asians, and they are capable of making independent judgements. Here is a brief account of the way experience has formed the views of one New Zealander, and made him feel that it is worth writing a book about America and Asia.

To me as a schoolboy in New Zealand, Franklin Roosevelt's death came as a shock. Under his leadership, America had rescued Britain and saved the world from Hitler's evil mania. The American Navy had saved New Zealand itself from the all-conquering Japanese in 1942. Roosevelt had mobilised America's pride, as well as its resources, and used them to destroy the aggressors. But even as boy in New Zealand I knew that America had taken a long time to react to the threat, and Roosevelt had had to overcome strong resistance from within the United States. Isolationism had been defeated, but had it gone for good? Without Roosevelt, would it return as soon as the war was over, and leave Britain, and New Zealand, as vulnerable as they were before?

The fear was not realised. Stirred by Churchill and led by Truman, America saw a new threat emerging — the threat of Communism. It responded, more quickly this time, by pouring resources into Western Europe, and setting up an Atlantic alliance to ‘contain’ the Soviet Union.