Overall, the picture of the US that emerges from WikiLeaks is positive. America’s foreign policy comes across as principled, intelligent and pragmatic. That was, perhaps, the best-kept secret of all.
America should give Assange a medal
By Gideon Rachman
Published: December 13 2010 21:51 | Last updated: December 13 2010 21:51
After two weeks of WikiLeaking, many Americans want to see Julian Assange locked up. Instead, they should give the man a medal. Of course, it is embarrassing and awkward to have all these secret diplomatic cables published. Mr Assange certainly seems to be no fan of the US. Nonetheless, he and WikiLeaks have done America a massive favour, by inadvertently debunking decades-old conspiracy theories about its foreign policy.
For the European and Latin American left, just as for the Chinese or Russian nationalist right, it has long been all but assumed that whatever the Americans say publicly about their foreign policy is simply a cover story for some sort of secret agenda. What that agenda is can vary, according to taste – the interests of a powerful company (Halliburton!), the subversion of a leftwing government, the weakening of a rival nation. But whatever the Americans’ secret agenda was held to be, they definitely had one – only the absurdly naive could believe otherwise.
The idea that something sinister is going on behind the walls of the US embassy even became a commonplace of British films and television series, whether it was the manipulation of British public opinion (The Ploughman’s Lunch), covering up nuclear misdeeds (Defence of The Realm) or just pushing their British colleagues around (Spooks).
And yet, after a fortnight of revelations, WikiLeaks has revealed that, remarkably enough, the public position taken by the US on any given issue is usually the private position as well. There are plenty of cables yet to be released – and perhaps there are some bombshells still out there. But the documents published over the past fortnight have provided very little evidence of double-dealing or bad faith in US foreign policy. Conspiracy theorists all over the world must be deeply disappointed.
The Americans say, in public, that they would like to build a strong relationship with China based on mutual interests – but that they are worried that some Chinese economic policies are damaging American workers. This turns out to be what they are saying in private, as well. In a cable predicting a more turbulent phase in US-Chinese relations, Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador, insists: “We need to find ways to keep the relationship positive,” while ensuring that American workers benefit more. Many Chinese nationalists and netizens have developed elaborate theories about American plots to thwart China’s rise. There is not a hint of this in WikiLeaks.
In public, the Americans have long said that they believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons and that this poses a threat to world peace – but that their preference is to deal with the Iranian problem peacefully. WikiLeaks confirms that this is what they are saying in private, too. Indeed, the really radical statements about Iran are made by non-Americans. It is the Saudi king who advocates a military strike on Iran. It is a senior adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France who describes the Iranian government as “fascist”.
In public, the Americans make a fuss about human rights and corruption. It turns out that, if you read the cables from Kenya (for example), they also worry about these issues behind closed doors. Who do these Americans think they are – saying one thing in public, and the same thing in private?
Where WikiLeaks does reveal a gap between America’s public statements and private discussions, it tends to be because US representatives are being diplomatic rather than duplicitous. So the Americans have never said in public that they regard the Russian government as deeply corrupt, undemocratic and penetrated by organised crime. That would be needlessly confrontational and might be counter-productive – since the Russian government would portray any such comments as an insult to the motherland and a plot against Russia. However, the revelation that this is what the Americans are saying in their internal communications actually gives these accusations far more credibility than if they were aired publicly. The barely suppressed fury of Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, is testimony to just how damaging the WikiLeaks are for Moscow. The Turkish prime minister has also threatened to sue over WikiLeak allegations that he has Swiss bank accounts.
These kind of revelations have had the unexpected effect of boosting the credibility of US pronouncements in countries where they are usually deeply distrusted. So in Pakistan, we have the spectacle of newspapers printing fake WikiLeaks cables that say nasty things about the Indians.
Of course, there have been a few revelations that do not reflect well on the Americans. There is the order to US diplomats at the United Nations to hoover up personal details of UN officials, including credit card numbers. (I know that the US is short of money, but has it really come to this?) But even some of the officials who might have been spied upon do not seem terribly outraged – since they assume that espionage from all quarters is an unfortunate fact of diplomatic life.
Overall, the picture of the US that emerges from WikiLeaks is positive. America’s foreign policy comes across as principled, intelligent and pragmatic. That was, perhaps, the best-kept secret of all.
More columns at www.ft.com/gideonrachman
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