My CliffNotes on Donald Trump’s Panama dreams from John le Carre
In India, we call them ‘kunji’, which is Hindi for key. Literally, key to a difficult text. In the United States, they’re called ‘CliffNotes’, a generic trademark for study guides to textbooks.
Whatever their name, a crammer’s easy-to-read course can be invaluable for inattentive students.
Donald Trump can do no better on Panama and the Panama Canal than these CliffNotes from The Tailor of Panama by John le Carre.
Mr Trump, as everyone by now knows, has expressed determination to “take back” the Panama Canal, by military force if necessary. The following fragments, put together by me from the 1990s novel, underline some of the backstory of Mr Trump’s stated ambition. They show the extent to which imperialist sentiment informs thought and policy process in parts of the western world.
The exchange below, which includes some stream-of-consciousness thought, is between Andrew Osnard, a young British MI6 agent and his Scottish boss, Luxmore. The latter has encouraged Osnard to go to Panama because he thinks it is the very place for a young man to make his mark. Panama, Luxmore believes, is ripe to gather intelligence and protect Anglo-American (“western”) interests. Luxmore encourages Osnard to indulge his wildest fantasies when he gets to Panama.
[Note that some of the sentiments expressed by Luxmore might almost have come from Mr Trump, albeit, with different words.]
L: It’s the Back Yard.
O: …the Back Yard! How many times in his training course had he not heard it mentioned? The Back Yard! El Dorado of every British espiocrat! Power and influence in the Yankee back yard! The special relationship revived! The longed-for-return to the Golden Age when tweed-jacketed sons of Yale and Oxford sat side by side in the same panelled rooms, pooling their imperialist fantasies!
L: ‘the Yankees have done it again. Oh yes. A stunning demonstration of their political immaturity. Of their craven retreat from international responsibility. Of the pervasive power of misplaced liberal sensitivities in foreign affairs…not only have the Yankees signed a totally misbegotten treaty with the Panamanians — given away the shop, thank you very much, Mr Jimmy Carter! — they’re also proposing to honour it….”
‘dangerous diffidence is what I call it, young Mr Osnard. The world’s one superpower restrained by puritan principle. God help us. Have they not heard of Suez?…there is no greater criminal in politics, young Mr Osnard, than he who shrinks from using honourable power. The United States must wield her sword or perish and drag us down with her. Are we to look on while our priceless western inheritance is handed to heathens on a plate? The lifeblood of our trade, our mercantile power, ebbing through our fingers while the Jap economy zeroes out of the sun at us and the Tigers of South-East Asia tear us from limb to limb?’
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
