Loss of the USS Indianapolis

For John, BLUF:  The sea can be a tester of men.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Moral Lessons From the Crucible of the Sea

From The New York Times, by Author Doug Stanton 27 July 2018.♠

Here is the lede plus five:

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Each summer, as Lake Michigan finally begins to warm, I think of the men of the World War II cruiser Indianapolis and the worst disaster at sea in United States naval history.  I go down to the lake and I wonder:  How would I have survived what they experienced?

I don’t know the answer, but it’s the asking of the question that helps me recalibrate what could be called my moral compass.

On July 30, 1945, just over a month before the end of the war, the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.  It sank in 12 minutes.  Of the 1,195 men on board, only 316 were alive when help arrived four and a half days later.  Headlines of the disaster deeply disturbed Americans:  How could this have happened so close to the war’s end?

Today, only 14 of those men are still living, and each July they meet in Indianapolis for a reunion, as they have periodically since 1960, to gather around memories of shipmates who were lost at sea and those survivors who have recently passed away.

By the way, the USS INDIANAPOLIS was the ship that delivered the components for the Little Boy nuclear device, delivered on Hiroshima by the B-29 Enola Gay on 6 August 1945.

Here is the Lesson Learned:

When I ask the survivors about this ordeal’s effect on their lives, they consistently remark that since their rescue, they’ve “never had a bad day.”

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Mr Stanton wrote the story of the sinking go the By the way, the USS INDIANAPOLIS,In Harm's Way:  The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors.

Long Wave Waffle

For John, BLUF:  Prominent Democrats, from Nancy Pelosi to E Warren to Bernie Sanders, are saying no to the Presidents request for authority to negotiate a trans-pacific trade deal.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Writing in The International New York Times Ms Maureen Dowd gives us "Trade Winds Blow Ill for Hillary".  From several paragraphs into the column we have:

Now Hillary says she is unsure about the pact and would likely oppose giving President Obama the special authority to negotiate trade deals for an up-or-down vote in Congress.  As a future president, of course, she would want the same authority to negotiate trade deals that Obama is seeking in the messy Capitol Hill donnybrook.

But as a candidate pressured by progressives like Warren and Bernie Sanders and by labor unions, she turned to Jell-O, shimmying around an issue she had once owned and offering an unpleasant reminder of why “Clintonian” became a synonym for skirting the truth.

It depends on what your definition of trade is — and trade-off.

Hat tip to Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

Lee Kuan Yew Reflects

For John, BLUF:  Lee Kuan Yew guided Singapore from birth as a nation state to democracy as a nation state.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lee Kuan Yew:  Asia’s Confucianist Edmund Burke

Of course you have to know who Edmund Burke♠ was to appreciate this complement.

From the Blog Site The Diplomat we have a review of a book by Harvard Professors Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill

Lee Kuan Yew:  The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World came over the transom last spring.  As the title implies, Lee Kuan Yew is a volume of commentary from the Singaporean eminence griseon, well, most anything relating to politics and culture in the Indo-Pacific region.  That's an advantage of age (or so I hear): you can speak your mind.  To his credit, Lee speaks his mind in more elevated fashion than, ah, certain equally outspoken wise man this side of the Pacific.

Harvard professors Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill assemble a sample of Lee's interviews, speeches, and published writings.  They arrange the materials by theme, covering such topics as the futures of China, the United States, and India; future interactions likely to play out among Asian states, large and small; and the future of economic growth, globalization, and geopolitics.  Yep, future is the common denominator among the chapters.

If you were looking for someone who was a reflective practitioner from the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean area, you probably couldn't go better than Lee Kuan Yew.

PD-USGov-Military.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  British Politician who supported the American Revolution and opposed the French.  A man of keen insight, apparently.

Japan Talking Back

For John, BLUF:  The Japan that can say no♠ to the rest of Asia.

Since we have been focused on turmoil in the Muslim World, it might help us to know that Asia is having its own good time.  Recently China sailed two Coast Guard equivalent ships into Japanese waters to protest the Japanese Government purchase of the three islands known as Senkaku♥ from private owners.  And, China insulted the US Defense Secretary by bringing up problems with Japan during a joint press briefing during Mr Penetta's recent visit.  And there has been rioting in the streets in China, against Japan.  Oh, and a Chinese General suggested preparing for war.

We have to remember that Japan was a major aggressor in Asia up until 1945—that would be 67 years ago.  The Japanese have been slow to apologize and the Chinese, Koreans and others have been slow to forgive.

In the 19 September 2012 issue of The Wall Street Journal Reporter Yuka Hayashi talks to "Rejecting Japan's Remorse, [Japanese] Nationalists Feed Asia Strife".  She gives us this tidbit:

"Shinzo Abe, a hawkish former prime minister vying for a comeback as head of the former ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has called for reconsideration of apologies Japanese leaders issued in the 1990s to soften lingering wartime tensions.  He told the Sankei newspaper in an interview published Aug. 28:  "Being excessively considerate to neighboring nations...has not brought us real friendship."

I wonder if there is something for us to learn there, aside from the need to muzzle some people?

I believe in being polite and being respectful, but that being supine is not helpful.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  The author, Shintaro Ishihara, is currently the Governor of Tokyo.
♥  See, I am already taking sides.  The Chinese named is Diaoyu.

Pacific Security Cooperation

Here is some good news on the international front.  Some others are stepping up to take some responsibility for their own security.  This from Night Watch from last night:

Japan-Australia:  Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba on May 18 signed an intelligence-sharing agreement in Tokyo, Japan Today reported.  The two nations are strategic partners and need to increase the strength of their security relationship, Gemba said.


Comment: This agreement could not take place without the tacit encouragement of the US, which has intelligence sharing relations with both nations.  The larger implication is that the Asia-Pacific countries are taking back from the US responsibility for their own security affairs, as they should.  This is tonight's good news.


The next steps are to link up with South Korea and then persuade India to cooperate more forthrightly.  Then all the great and powerful democracies and the finest armed forces of Asia and the Pacific region will be linked.

I do think it will be a while before India joins this group.  Geography matters and they are down around the corner.  And, there are other complications.  This from an expert in the region:

One of the fundamental, underlying flaws with so many hopes and presumptions of Asian, not just NE Asian, multilateralism is the fundamental lack of defined borders as we have in Europe.  There simply has been no equivalent to the Helsinki agreement which set the current European borders as final.  Thus, no one argues any more about Alsace, Lorraine, Sudetenland, Silesia.

But in Asia, in many cases, they can't even agree on the NAMES, b/c each side is adamant about its claims. Is it Dok-do or Takeshima? Senkaku or Diaoyutai?  Scarborough Shoal, Panatag, or Huangyan?  Spratlys or Nansha or Bai Cat Vang, among others?  For that matter, is it the Sea of Japan or the East Sea; the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea?

And for all that states sign onto ASEAN declarations or the Law of the Sea, few are prepared to actually submit to binding arbitration. Certainly not in the more prominent cases, especially those involving the PRC. Indeed, in a recent meeting with Chinese officials, they reiterated that matters of sovereignty are not subject to foreign, and especially American, pressure. But, to be fair, it's not as though anyone else is willing to risk losing their claims to various territories (and the waters and resources around them).

Of course, geography is but one factor.  Differing views of history (Japanese conduct in World War II being a prominent example), widely differing levels of development (to make the gap between Greece and Germany appear minuscule by comparison), different levels of political influence (Laos and Cambodia are seen as Chinese surrogates within ASEAN), all clearly affect the willingness of states to interoperate.  When I've asked Singaporeans about the Five Power Defence Arrangement (involving Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK), they speak of it fairly enthusiastically, pointing out that it's the only multilateral defense situation (NOT an agreement nor a treaty) in Asia.  When I've asked Malaysians about the FPDA, they frequently downplay it as a legacy of either the Cold War or the era of konfrontasi [Confrontation] with the Indonesians.  Most Americans don't think about it at all.

International relations is a messy thing.  That is why we sometimes get wars.  In retrospect the wars don't make any sense, but as they are entered they seem to be very important.

Regards  —  Cliff

What We Owe Taiwan and Ourselves

Some bright young person, formerly a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, has proposed we bargain Taiwan back to the Mainland Chinese.  You can read the article in The International Herald Tribune here.

There are dozens of initiatives President Obama could undertake to strengthen our economic security. Here is one:  He should enter into closed-door negotiations with Chinese leaders to write off the $1.14 trillion of American debt currently held by China in exchange for a deal to end American military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan and terminate the current United States-Taiwan defense arrangement by 2015.

This would be a most precious prize to the cautious men in Beijing, one they would give dearly to achieve.  After all, our relationship with Taiwan, as revised in 1979, is a vestige of the cold war.

I think a war for Formosa would be a bad deal for the Taiwanese.  They would suffer many casualties, both military and civilian.  In the end, if the Mainland folks wanted, most of them would die.

On the other hand, our casual treatment of the problem has keep Taiwan free to grow into a democracy over the last 60 years.  Another decade or two or even more, might allow time for Taiwan to grow in sophistication and maturity and China to find a solution that meets the needs of all sides.  A preemptory dumping of Taiwan by the US will just create more nuclear armed nations.  That might not be a good idea at a time we are trying to talk down Iran and North Korea.

And, to boot, once we run the trade deficit to China back up to $1.14 trillion, who do we trade off next?  Korea?  Japan?  Australia?  The Philippines?  Hawaii?

And, there is such a thing as integrity.  Sure, we are not as exceptional as we think we are, but I would hope we would hang on to our integrity for a while longer and not get into treating other nations likes this was a giant "Risk" game.

Regards  —  Cliff

Happy Birthday

Today is Dear Leader Kim Jong-il's♠ 70th Birthday.

The Dear Leader has been the ruler of North Korea for 16 1/2 years now, through most of the Clinton Administration, all of the Bush Administration and now the first two years of the Obama Administration.  The Dear Leader stands as a major example of why there should be, if not term limits, at least a chance to vote people out of office.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  aka Kim Chong-il

PRC and the Future

From Chet Nagle, writing for The Daily Caller, we have "Red Tide Rising".  The article is about the Peoples Republic of China stretching out its writ to include all the waters up to the local limits of other nations in the local area.

I think this is a little over the top in terms of the situation, but I do see China as being like Germany in the late 19th Century.

That article was from 6 September of this year.  Here is something from Saturday's Washington Post about Viet-nam strengthening its ties to the United States in light of China's muscle flexing.

This is not something to be relaxed about, but there is time for us—all of us—to work through this problem and have a solution that is different from that of August 1914.

Hat tip to GW.  (I wonder if Chet Nagle and GW are classmates from the Boat School?)

Regards  —  Cliff