Originally posted by ouizy and responded to by me:
America: The Good Neighbor
Widespread but only partial news coverage was given
recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from
Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television
commentator. What follows is the full text of his
trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional
Record:
"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the
Americans as the most generous and possibly the least
appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and
Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the
Americans who poured in billions of dollars and
forgave other billions in debts. None of these
countries is today paying even the interest on its
remaining debts to the United States.
Everybody in Europe is highly gratefull for the military support
during WWII and the financial support after the war. But let us
not forget that the financial help from the US wasn't merely out of altru?stic reasons. A strong European economy was and is as important for the USA as it was and is for Europe itself.
When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it
was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward
was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of
Paris. I was there. I saw it.
I honestly don't know much about this.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United
States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59
American communities were flattened by Tornadoes.
Nobody helped.
The US obviously isn't the only country helping when a disaster
of some kind occurs somewhere around the world. The reasons
other countries aren't giving as much help to the US as they give other countries might be; 1. The US never really asks for help (to proud?),
2. Everybody is used to the US handling their own business (they won't have it any other way
) and 3. There aren't a lot of things other countries can offer because the US is not known to be short of cash, manpower or technologies.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped
billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now
newspapers in those countries are writing about the
decadent, war- mongering Americans.
Freedom of press baby!!
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is
gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar
build its own airplane. Does any other country in the
world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet,
the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why
don't they fly them? Why do all the International
lines except Russia fly American Planes?
Other countries fly American planes for the same reason as why
the US uses Dutch radar systems for their navy, Japanese radio's etc.
I don't think the fact that an US company has the biggest marketshare makes the US itself a better country and is certainly no reason not to criticize its foreign policies.
Ridiculous!
Why does no other land on earth even consider putting
a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese
technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German
technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about
American technocracy, and you find men on the moon -
not once, but several times - and safely home again.
The only reason the US put a man on the moon in the first place
was because the Russians won the first-man-in-space-trophey.
It was all about status. After that they took the momentum to actually do some research on the moon. Not to long after that, there wasn't much left to research so America stopped sending people to the moon. In this day and age, sending people to the moon isn't worth the effort and the money. Unless you care for status ofcourse...
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs
right in the store window for everybody to look at.
Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded.
They are here on our streets, and most of them,
unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting
American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
So?
When the railways of France, Germany and India were
breaking down through age, it was the Americans who
rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the
New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old
caboose. Both are still broke.
The US haven't got enough money to rebuild two railroads?
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to
the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me
even one time when someone else raced to the Americans
in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even
during the San Francisco earthquake.
Can you name 5000 times when the US raced to the help of other
people without getting some profit (sorry, I can't think of a better word right now
) I can remember a lot of countries sent or offered to send help after the terrorist attacks.
