Moynihan's Resignation

DANIEL PATRICK Moynihan's courage and candor, displayed during his brief stay at the U.N., represents a small victory not only for the people of this country, but also for the hungry, oppressed third world peoples whose dreams of freedom and prosperity are continually throttled by the dictators who head the regimes of most of their nations.

The interests of both Americans and third world citizens were truly represented, for example, when Moynihan authored a resolution calling for worldwide amnesty for all political prisoners. Unfortunately the third world's benevolent despots, the stability of their own regimes depending on the incarceration of the opposition, killed it. Or when the credentials committee charged that the Chilean delegation represented a military dictatorship, and not the Chilean people, Moynihan added, "We have here a list of 45 military governments and 35 others installed by military coup. Let's look into them all." The committee responded by voting to drop the matter.

Even more importantly Moynihan has challenged the attempt by third world dictators to blame their domestic problems on the American people--a key strategy by which these despots seek to maintain power. In the past thirty years, third world left-wing dictatorships, often secured by military coup, have established heavily collectivized economies, made torture, censorship, and political oppression a part of everyday life, and virtually banished democracy and respect for individual rights. One result of this has been failing economies crushed under the weight of totalitarian socialism. Another has been political unrest generated by economic disaster and political oppression. To quell this unrest and draw attention away from their own failures, third world dictators have sought to cast Americans as the source of all third world woes. By far, the most important example of this is the claim that Americans consume an "unfair" share of the world's wealth and resources and this, along with the robbery and exploitation it represents, is a fundamental cause of third world poverty. The solution to this poverty, according to the argument, is to redistribute this wealth and only the selfishness of Americans in continuing to demand and consume an unfair share of the world's wealth, allows the poverty to go on. From this follow demands that "justice" requires that unnecessary American wealth be seized and redistributed until "equality" is achieved.

The truth is that the American people are wealthier and consume more not because of robbery and exploitation but because they produce more, and there is nothing unjust about that. They produce more because the have maintained a relatively free market economy which, in addition to stimulating efficiency and innovation, has allowed large amounts of capital investment to accumulate over two centuries, vastly increasing the productivity of American workers.

The productive effort of third world peoples, however, is continually stifled by their own socialistic regimes. Capital investment, from both home and abroad, is too often discouraged by actual and threatened confiscation of the returns to such investments or the investments themselves. The fruits of innovation are too often denied the entrepreneur. Successful businesses are too often price-controlled and regulated out of business. Efficiency is too often lost in bureaucratic jungles.

NEVERTHELESS, American productivity has literally flowed over its borders and greatly aided third world peoples. Even the natural resources of third world lands were mostly discovered and developed by American companies and the wealth from taxation and confiscation of these companies represents a windfall from the American free market. In fact, third world resources themselves only have value because of the existence of a mighty, developed, American free market economy (and others similarly developed). The oil under Arab lands would be totally worthless if not for an American economy that could use it to produce needed goods and services and provide commodities in exchange. American productivity spills over in many other ways too--supplying capital where allowed, spreading technological breakthroughs, exporting innovations, offering a strong market for the products of foreign labor, and giving charity in generous amounts.

There is, therefore, no fundamental conflict between the interests of Americans and third world citizens. The tremendous productivity by which Americans earn their wealth will also help the underdeveloped nations to climb out of poverty, if only given a chance. The goodwill Americans bear towards the third world is exemplified at this moment by the millions of dollars of aid they are voluntarily donating to the victims of the disastrous Guatemalan earthquake. (At the very same time the imperialistc governments of Cuba and the Soviet Union are spending billions to colonize Angola, a goal they have given much toward in men and money for over a decade.) It is clear that the attempt by third world dictators to maintain power by setting Americans and third world peoples at odds should be seen as nothing more than self-serving immorality.

Ambassador Moynihan, by valiantly defending the U.S. against the absurd charges of third world dictators, has done much to foil their attempts to draw attention from their own disastrous civil and economic policies, providing a great service to both Americans and third world citizens. Furthermore, by weakening the self-serving attempts of dictators to create antagonisms between the peoples of the U.S. and the third world, Moynihan has performed a truly reconciliatory role in the relations between these peoples. It is, in any case, absurd to claim that Moynihan's statements at the U.N. were leading to antagonistic relations with third world countries, since he always spoke in defense, responding to already antagonistic tirades from third world governments. It should be hoped by all that Moynihan's successor will also contribute to bringing about the time, when, in Moynihan's words, "American spokesmen will be feared in international forums for the truths they might tell."