Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Reflecting on the Cold War

Foreign Service veteran sees parallels in current events

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By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

Frederic S. “Tony” Mabbatt published a book detailing his family’s experience overseas with the U.S. Foreign Service Agency during the Cold War era. He will give a series of talks at The Community Library in Ketchum in September and October. Photo by Roland Lane

Senior Foreign Service Officer (Ret.) Frederic S. “Tony” Mabbatt and his family endured riots, revolutions and intricate dining protocols while serving overseas during the Cold War as a member of the United States Information Agency (USIA).
    The Mabbatts threw lavish parties in Amman, Jordan, and Khartoum, Sudan, and from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Tanzania, Brazil and the Netherlands—all in an effort to promote American democracy and capitalism.
    Mabbatt’s new book, “On the Front Lines of the Cold War: The Adventures of an American Foreign Service Family,” features entertaining stories from exotic posts around the world, including witchcraft ceremonies in Brazil, sailing regattas in Khartoum and a transvestite parade in Holland.
    The Mabbatts charmed influential people with dinners and other events, polled local populations about their opinions and desires, and targeted elites and educational institutions with pro-American messages.
    “Someone called it pushing cookies,” said Mabbatt, who retired to Sun Valley in 1985. His wife, Jean, has worked abroad and in Hailey as a school teacher. They have two children, Tish and Ted.
    Mabbatt, who for 20 years moderated the Foreign Policy Association’s “Great Decisions” conferences in the Sun Valley area, will give a series of talks at The Community Library in Ketchum in September and October.
    “I had no idea how timely this book would be when I was writing it,” said Mabbatt.
    He said its themes are current because the U.S. and its NATO allies are once again facing off against Russia, now in the Ukraine.
    “The embers of the Cold War, which have never gone out for many Russians, are being fanned again by Vladimir Putin,” said Mabbatt in an interview. “He wants Russian influence to be felt in the former Soviet Union states, especially on its border. All we can do is punish Russia economically until they are considered pariahs on the international scene.”
    A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Mabbatt was sworn in for duty in 1963 by the legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow, who directed the USIA’s public relations campaign to spread abroad the message that Western ideals of democracy and capitalism were superior to authoritarianism.
    Mabbatt’s book provides an insider’s look at the highly-organized public relations machine that fought a war of ideas against the former Soviet Union during the era of “mutually assured destruction” with nuclear weapons.
    In the book, Mabbatt describes the necessity during the 1980s of installing nuclear weapons in Europe in order to demonstrate the power of the NATO alliance, and criticizes the Liberation Theology movement touted by South American Catholic priests as thinly-veiled Marxist ideology.
    Mabbatt also opines on the failure of “utopian” ideas that gave rise to communism, and the current threat of radical Islam to Western countries.
    The Mabbatts were in Amman, Jordan, during the 1967 Six-Day War fought by Israel, against Egypt, Syria and Jordan, which set the stage for much of the current conflict of ideas in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim world.
    “Does Islam cause terrorism, or does the adoption of a fundamentalist version of Islam, including jihadist terror, derive from other conditions?” Mabbatt writes.
    “We make a big mistake in assuming that terrorists exist because they are Muslim,” Mabbatt said. “The preconditions for terrorism are that people feel disenfranchised, hopeless and disgruntled, or just plain bored.
    “Jihadist recruiters say, ‘We feel your pain and the reason for your pain is that the U.S. is making war on Islam.’ We must continue to reach out to moderate Muslims,” he said.
    Mabbatt suggests that what has been called “Cold War Two” by Time magazine, between NATO allies and Russia, could end in the same way that the first Cold War ended, with the U.S. and Western powers winning through steadily increasing economic superiority.
    “Putin is extremely popular now because of his appeal to Russian nationalism. But there is zero growth there and unemployment is high. Things could change,” Mabbatt said.
    Mabbatt said he is dismayed by the fact that the USIA, which he served for more than 20 years, is no longer an independent public relations organization, with “marching orders” from the president.    
    “Sen. Jesse Helms [R-North Carolina] had it in for the USIA. It is now under the State Department and no longer controls its own budget,” Mabbatt said.
    “The polls that the agency takes to gather information about what motivates people in foreign countries, and what concerns them about U.S. foreign policy, are controlled by State Department staff.
    “They will likely report to their bosses only what they think they want to hear, because their jobs depend upon it,” he said.

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