Domenico Losurdo
(from Escape from history? The Russian Revolution and the Chinese revolution today , The City of the Sun, Naples, 2005; French version Quand et pourquoi les Etats-Unis ont changé de position sur le Tibet )
1. The United States, the Dalai Lama and butchers Indonesian
E 'only the intervention of the American fleet in 1950, and the use of Washington in the years following the nuclear threat to the army to prevent direct popular by the Communists to complete the liberation el 'unification of the country, thus ending forever one of the central chapters of the history of "China crucified." In addition to the Taiwan, imperialism also seeks to promote the secession of Tibet. And even in this case, the left reveals its subordination and lack of historical memory. At one time he loved to give himself to reading more sophisticated and demanding that the mainstream press information and disinformation. Any supporter and fighter for the cause of anti knew that Chinese sovereignty over Tibet had centuries of history and that groped for questioning was the first British colonial expansionism [1] . Yes, simply browse through a good history book to become aware of the fact that these attempts were and are an integral part of a policy aimed at "dismantling of China ' [2] .
To consider Tibet an integral part of Chinese territory was not just Mao Tse-tung. Similarly, the thought of Sun Yat-sen, the first president of the republic born after the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty. The British who invited him to participate actively in the slaughterhouse of World War I, in order to recover the territories torn from Germany to China, Sun Yat-sen pointed out that Britain was even more hungry, "You would take away even Tibet ' [3] ! For a long time, the membership of this region to China has not been questioned by historians even further away from the left. When was the uprising in Tibet in 1959 (largely inspired and nurtured, as we shall see, by the CIA), the author of a story while sharply critical of the Chinese Communist Party still inserted in the chapter on this matter to the 'internal development "of large Asian country [4] .
Now, even the left, and even the poster and Liberation seem committed to supporting separatism. And 'from this particular one can see the triumph of ideology, as well as military, awarded by the U.S. in the Cold War. Before his firing, Washington had no difficulty in recognizing Tibet belongs to China, at that time controlled by the Nationalists of Chiang Kai-Sheck. As late as 1949, in publishing a book on US-China relations, il dipartimento di Stato americano accludeva una mappa, che con tutta chiarezza indicava il Tibet come parte integrante del grande paese asiatico [5] .
Ma gli umori cominciano a cambiare man mano che si profila l'avanzata dell'esercito popolare guidato da Mao Tsetung. Già il 13 gennaio 1947, George R. Merrel, incaricato d'affari Usa a Nuova Delhi, scrive al presidente americano Truman per richiamare la sua attenzione sulla «inestimabile importanza strategica» della regione - tetto del mondo: «Il Tibet può pertanto essere considerato come un bastione contro l'espansione del comunismo in Asia o almeno come un'isola di conservatorismo in un mare di sconvolgimenti politici». Per di più - aggiunge il diplomatico U.S. - we must not forget that, "the Tibetan Plateau [...] in the era of missile warfare may prove to be the most important territory in Asia."
I assume these parts from an American author, for decades the CIA officer, as he himself is keen to let us know. In the reference, he emphasizes the continuity between the vision expressed by the letter just referred to Truman and the vision in his time darling Victorian England, engaged in the "Great Game" of colonial expansion in Asia [6] . In fact, British imperialism has succeeded, after the Second World War, the American Tibetan separatism is now called to serve "the geopolitical interests U.S. ', forcing Mao to disperse its forces already limited and then putting the conditions for a "change of regime in Beijing" [7] . To achieve that objective, "guerrillas" are trained in Colorado and then parachuted into Tibet are supplied by air weapons, radio transmitting equipment etc.. and collaborate - the CIA official and author does not hide it - even with "bandits Khampa old style ' [8] .
E 'then clearly the context in which it placed the revolt of 1959. Again, the author followed here is welcome, as well as for first-hand information, even for my frankness. He points out that the revolt was immediately following the failed attempt by the U.S. secret services to cause unrest in China from the Philippines. Undeterred, then it must focus on Tibet. Of course - to clarify on that occasion, a prominent leader of the CIA, always cited by the author-official of that organization - the outbreak of the revolt had "little to do with the help of the Tibetans." It was instead of embarrassing, "the Chinese Communists." It was the same rationale behind - explained the director of the CIA - the decision taken by U.S. intelligence in the same period of time, "to help the rebel colonels in Indonesia nel loro sforzo di rovesciare Sukarno», colpevole di essere «diventato troppo tollerante coi comunisti del suo paese» [9] . Fallito al suo primo tentativo, il colpo di Stato in Indonesia riesce pienamente nel 1965: vengono massacrate diverse centinaia di migliaia di comunisti o di elementi considerati troppo «tolleranti» coi comunisti. Sarebbero state meno feroci in Tibet le forze della reazione e dell'imperialismo se fossero riuscite nel loro tentativo separatista?
Un particolare dà da pensare. Lo desumo dall'intervento di un docente americano su una rivista americana: ad organizzare nel 1959 la fuga del Dalai Lama dal Tibet fu un agente della Cia, che più tardi visse nel Laos «in una casa decorata con una crown of ears torn from the heads of dead communists' [10] .
2. The CIA Hollywood and convert to Buddhism!
The Tibetan revolt of 1959 does not achieve the expected success. Already contacted and supported by long-time U.S. intelligence services, the Dalai Lama fled to India. Failed to campaign in the East (in Tibetan territory and Chinese) here that Washington begins the campaign in the West. We have seen the leading executives of the CIA considered the Dalai Lama as a pawn of American policy interchangeably in the same way as the Colonels - Indonesian butchers. Now this same character is raised to the glory of the altars: it becomes a leader of non-violence, a model living moral nobility and holiness. The transfiguration also invest in the Tibetan Buddhism as such, presented as a set of spiritual exercises and doctrines and techniques of sublime elevation above the miseries of this world. The American film industry working at full capacity to spread this myth. At the beginning of the twentieth century, while he was in full swing the race between Britain and Russia to take over Tibet, there were rumors that the Czar himself had become a Buddhist [11] . But now there seems no doubt to have converted to Buddhism are Hollywood and the CIA!
A conversion so extraordinary could not produce miracles. For centuries, Western culture has looked contempt the Tibetan Buddhism, considered synonymous with Oriental despotism, because of the centrality given to it by a self-proclaimed God-King, on which the exercise of contempt for each other while authors as diverse as Rousseau, Herder, Hegel. Nineteenth and twentieth century, the Lamas are considered as an incarnation of all vices and all the corruptions, not of the deceased lama ' [12] . Then, when Britain is preparing to conquer, he tries to justify by the need to bring civilization to "last bastion of obscurantism ', to' this miserable little people" [13] .
goes without saying: they are beyond question the arrogance and racist vein dell'imperialismo, ma non per questo bisogna rimuovere le infamie della teocrazia tibetana. A chiarire la sua reale natura basta un particolare desunto dallo storico inglese appena citato: quello in carica agli inizi del '900 «era uno dei pochi Dalai Lama ad aver raggiunto la maggiore età, dato che la maggior parte di loro veniva eliminata durante la fanciullezza a seconda della convenienza del Consiglio di Reggenza» [14] . Ora invece, grazie al miracolo operato da Hollywood (e dalla Cia), il buddismo tibetano è divenuto sinonimo di pace, tolleranza, elevata spiritualità. Ormai è chiaro: come è stato giustamente osservato, in base all'ideologia e agli stereotipi dominanti, «i tibetani sono superumani e i cinesi subumani» [15] .
Decisamente divertenti risultano alcuni momenti del processo di santificazione in corso del Dalai Lama e del buddismo tibetano. Un elemento essenziale di quest'ultimo è la struttura castale, che continua a manifestarsi anche oltre la morte: se il corpo dei membri dell'aristocrazia viene inumato o cremato, il corpo vile della massa del popolo viene dato in pasto agli avvoltoi. Qualche tempo fa, l'International Herald Tribune riferiva di uno di questi funerali plebei, col sacerdote che staccava pezzo a pezzo la carne dalle ossa del morto per facilitare il lavoro agli avvoltoi, che già attendevano in cima al monte. Bisogna dire che la descrizione era precisa e minuziosa, ma essa era seguita dalla dichiarazione of a "scholar" that explained all in an ecological [16] , but he did not explain why the environmental balance is required to contribute only the body of the plebeians.
caste and discriminate against this practice, which is considered barbaric, had thrown the Cultural Revolution, but his attempt to eradicate the violence with a long-standing tradition had ended by encouraging the most reactionary sectors of Tibetan Buddhism, who had been able to mobilize 'widespread protest in the name of defense of traditions. More wisely, the current government of Tibet, but inadvisable does not prohibit those funeral rites.
3. Tibet and the struggle between progress and reaction
Unfortunately, a large part of the left seems to have converted itself, if not to Buddhism itself, however stereotyped image of the Dalai Lama and the religion he professed. Again, the historical memory has vanished. It removed the horrible reality of the pre-revolutionary Tibet, the reality of the theocracy that reduced in slavery or servitude, the vast majority of the population. There is no doubt that - we give the floor once again to authors suspected of sympathy for Mao Tse-tung - the reforms implemented since 1951 have "abolished feudalism and serfdom" [17] . They also abolished the theocracy embodied by God-King who claims or claimed to be the Dalai Lama, implementing la separazione di potere religioso e potere civile, che costituisce uno dei presupposti essenziali dello Stato moderno.
Le riforme e la rivoluzione hanno significato per le masse popolari tibetane un accesso a diritti umani prima del tutto sconosciuti, un aumento assai consistente del tenore di vita e un prolungamento sensibile della durata media della vita. D'altro canto, le critiche rivolte alla Repubblica Popolare Cinese risultano spesso non solo strumentali ma anche contraddittorie. Se un autore francese lamenta lo scarso sviluppo industriale della Repubblica Autonoma Tibetana, che sarebbe rimasta sostanzialmente ad «uno stadio proto-industriale» [18] , ecco che, scrivendo su Foreign Affairs, una rivista vicina al Dipartimento di Stato, an American author criticizes and recommendations to the contrary: the "policy of rapid modernization" and the "economic development" should proceed "at a slower pace," so as to safeguard the cultural identity of Tibetan [19] . Too bad that the U.S. does not feel this same concern when they invade with their goods, their movies, their songs and their "values" around the world, including Tibet!
course, there's also a question of national rights. At the time, sparking a fight against all forms of indiscriminate 'obscurantism' and backwardness, the Cultural Revolution, Tibet has dealt the same way as a giant Vendee to be repressed or teaching catechism with a very dismissive, implemented by an "Enlightenment" intolerant and aggressive from Beijing and other urban centers inhabited by the Han. But today these errors of extremism and aggressive universalism have been corrected. The recovery of the monasteries and Tibetan cultural heritage rapidly proceeding. Despite criticisms, the magazine cited above recognizes that the Tibet Autonomous Region of 60-70% are ethnic Tibetan officials, recognizes that the practice of bilingualism exists, although calls for emphasis is now placed on the Tibetan language [ 20] . The same U.S. journalists with more virulent sinofobia let slip that at least, "the official policy of China" is a sort of "affirmative action on a large scale", ie provides a series of positive discrimination in favor of the Tibetans and other national minorities, with regard to university entrance, promotion to public office and family planning (which is more rigorous for Han) [21] .
How then to explain the persistent campaign against China? If the international level aimed at dismantling or at least the serious weakening of the large Asian country, on an internal revolt in 1959 intended to stop the process of emancipation of the masses and modernization of the region. Not surprisingly, even today, among the Tibetans in exile can be seen a significant number of groups 'fundamentalist on a spiritual level and on the social conservatives' [22] , that is, groups not resigned at the end of theocracy and the advent of the separation of state and Church as they reminisce and feudalism and serfdom.
But is it fundamentally different position of the Dalai Lama? He "calls for the creation of a Greater Tibet, which includes not only the territory which constituted the political in contemporary Tibet, but Tibetan areas in western China from Tibet in large part lost already in the eighteenth century" [23] . But then, the Tibetan ethnic minorities living anche in Bhutan, Nepal, India ecc. Dove si fermerebbe il rimodellamento della geografia politica e quali costi esso comporterebbe? Ben si comprende allora che ad osteggiare le forze dirette dal Dalai Lama sia anche il Nepal, il quale nutre il «timore che queste provochino una secessione nel Nord del paese» [24] . E' più che sufficiente per rendersi conto di quanto sia falsa e bugiarda l'oleografia costruita dalla Cia e da Hollywood. Celebrato come un campione della non violenza, il Dalai Lama viene insignito nel 1989 del premio Nobel per la pace. Senonché, quando l'India procede al riarmo nucleare, il più autorevole sostenitore di questa politica risulta essere ... il premio Nobel per la pace!
Ma, almeno egli rappresenta the Tibetan people? And 'even the Black Book of Communism to recognize that an elementary historical analysis "destroys the myth of unanimity powered by the partisans of the Dalai Lama" [25] . In fact, since the "peaceful liberation" of Tibet in 1951, the overthrow of the old regime in this region and its socio-political transformation have been clashes with fierce resistance of the most reactionary and privileged classes but also could count on substantial support in the Tibetan society. They are forced to admit even the authors most involved in the anti-communist campaign and anticinese. So here they are railing against "the seventh Panchen Lama," guilty that he "immediately connected with the Communist regime." Even harder is the opinion that the samples of the anticommunist crusade and anticinese express the "monks" who "do not hesitate to hope that" soon be liberated Tibet "'and that direct appeals in this direction to the Communist Party and People's Army Liberation.
These authors fail to comprehend the fact that the Dalai Lama so transfigured by their clash from the beginning not only with broad popular sectors, but also with religious backgrounds who want to 'kill'. Samples of the anti-communist crusade anticinese and should resign. As late as 1992, during his trip to London, the Dalai Lama is the subject of events ostili da parte della più grande organizzazione buddista in Gran Bretagna, che lo accusa di essere un «dittatore spietato» e un «oppressore della libertà religiosa» [26] .
Persino per quanto riguarda la Rivoluzione Culturale, indubbiamente un periodo tragico nella storia della regione, bisogna tener presente che c'erano «anche dei tibetani» tra le Guardie rosse: gli scontri divampano tra i gruppi maoisti; «così, in totale, forse furono uccisi più cinesi che tibetani» [27] . A richiamare l'attenzione su questo fatto è il Libro nero del comunismo, il quale però, in omaggio al suo anticomunismo professionale, non esita a riecheggiare l'accusa di... genocidio Chinese against the Tibetan people!
The logic of imperialism and the dominant ideology is clear. But how do you explain the likes of which the Dalai Lama has in some quarters of the left and even in circles, who at the time hailed the Cultural Revolution and who still speak with nostalgia? There is no doubt that today the situation in Tibet has greatly improved as regards economic development, religious freedom and cultural and national rights of the inhabitants of that region. But this is not affecting a left that in the Third World, far from appreciating the effort to get out from backwardness and misery, and the nostalgia it projects the idolization of a premodern society, whose citizens are "poor but beautiful 'means a company which, as some monasteries now included in tourist routes, should serve as a permanent place of holiday and regular spiritual regeneration of the heavy opulence, however, and indeed essential to keep it tight. In the '60s, "poor but beautiful" than the West, the Chinese were considered, but today, after the rapid development occurring in this large Asian country, "poor but beautiful," the eyes of the so-called left, are Tibetan followers of the Dalai Lama. Who cares if it is really rich and ugly? Yes, it is rich as a member of a caste exploiters and super-powered dollars since the '50s; bad, because he wanted to continue to condemn such a horrible state of degradation of the servants of the aristocracy and the Tibetan theocracy. All this does not count: for some left, Hollywood movies are always the most important books of history and critical analysis of reality.
References
Herbert Aptheker, 1977
American Foreign Policy and The Cold War (1962), Kraus Reprint Millwood, New York
Chen Jian, 1994
China's Road to the Korean War. The Making of the Sino-American Confrontation, Columbia University Press, New York
Laurent Deshayes, 1998
Histoire du Tibet (1997), tr. com., Lucio Chiavarelli, History of Tibet. The secrets of an ancient civilization, Newton & Compton, Roma
Seth Faison, 1999
In Tibetan "Sky Burials" Vultures Dispose of the Dead, in International Herald Tribune, July 6, p. 2
Seth Faison, 1999 b
For Tibetans in Sichuan, Life in the Shadow of Intolerance, in International Herald Tribune, September 1, p. 4
Jacques Gernet, 1978
Le monde chinois (1972), tr. com., Vera Pegna, The Chinese world. From early civilizations to the People's Republic, Einaudi, Torino
Melvyn C. Goldstein, 1998
The Dalai Lama's Dilemma, in Foreign Affairs, January-February, pp. 83-97
Jacques Guillermaz, 1970
Histoire du Chinois Communist Party (1968-1972), tr. com., Bruno Crimi, History of the Communist Party of China, Feltrinelli, Milan
John Kenneth Knaus, 1999
Orphans of the Cold War. America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival, PublicAffairs, New York
Owen Lattimore, 1970
Studies in Frontier History (1962), tr. com., Andrea Ginzburg and Aldo Serafini, The Border. People and imperialism on the border between China and Russia, Einaudi, Torino
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., 1998
Prisoners of Shangri-La. Tibetan Buddhism and the West, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London
Jean-Louis Margolin, 1998
China: a long march in the night, in Stéphane Courtois et alii, Le Livre Noir du Communism (1997), tr. com., The Black Book of Communism. Crime-terror-repression, Mondadori, Milan
James Morris, Pax Britannica
1992, The Folio Society, London
Jan Romein, 1969
The century of Asia. Western imperialism and Asian revolution in the twentieth century (1956), tr. com. Dutchman Fernando Solinas and Enzo Collotti, Einaudi, Torino
Sun Yat-sen, 1976
Imperialism of whites and yellows imperialsimo (1924), in Id, the three principles of people, tr. com. from French by Septimius Severus Caruso, Einaudi, Torino
Daniel Wikler, 1999 The Dalai Lama and
the CIA, in The New York Review of Books 23 September, p. 81
[1] Lattimore, 1970: 119; Gernet, 1978, p. 450.
[2] Romein, 1969, p. 54.
[3] Sun Yat-sen, 1976, p. 71.
[4] Guillermaz, 1970, vol. II, pp. 266 and 278 ff.
[5] Aptheker, 1977, p. 272.
[6] Knaus, 1999, pp. 24-5.
[7] Knaus, 1999, pp. 215-6.
[8] Knaus, 1999, pp. 219 and 223.
[9] Knaus, 1999, p.119.
[10] Wikler, 1999.
[11] Morris, 1992, vol. III, p. 96.
[12] Lopez jr., 1998, pp. 6-7 e 22-3.
[13] Morris, 1992, vol. III, pp. 94 e 98.
[14] Morris, 1992, vol. III, pp. 96.
[15] Lopez jr., 1998, p. 7.
[16] Faison, 1999 a.
[17] Goldstein, 1998, p. 86.
[18] Deshayes, 1998, p. 293.
[19] Goldstein, 1998, pp. 89 e 95.
[20] Goldstein, 1998, p. 94.
[21] Faison, 1999 b.
[22] Deshayes, 1998, p. 295.
[23] Goldstein, 1998, pp. 86-7.
[24] Deshayes, 1998, p. 281.
[25] Margolin, 1998, p. 509.
[26] Lopez jr., 1998, pp. 193-4.
[27] Margolin, 1998, p. 509.
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