Prisoners of History

I remember when I was in high school (pretty good long term memory for an old guy, hey) my history teacher saying “those that don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it”. This was an effort on her part to get someone who was mostly interested in math and science to show more interest in history. As I was preparing for our now canceled trip to North Korea, I was reading about the history of the relationship between North and South Korea and with the U.S. , Japan and China and how it informs what is going on today in that part of the world. In many ways all of the players know the history and are prisoners of it. Maybe, because they understand it, they are doomed to repeat it. The Koreans know exactly what happened with the Japanese invasion and occupation of Korea and this memory shapes the relationship between them and Japan in the modern era. North and South Korea have more in common with each other in this regard than they do with Japan. North Koreans can remember the history of the U.S. strategic bombing and destruction of their cities during the Korean War. This memory shapes their feelings toward the perceived threat that the U.S. presents and tends to drive their need for a strategic defense. The effect of remembered history on current policy is especially important in North Korea which is the most closed society in the world. There is no internet, radio and TV are controlled and no one can talk to foreigners. The history is, therefore, what the government makes it. There are many other examples of remembered history driving current attitudes and policies. As one who grew up in the eastern U.S., the history that I learned was taught from a European colonial prospective. When I arrived in the west, I realized that U.S. history as understood by Mexican Americans in New Mexico and Native American Indians gave them a completely different perspective on the moral values and decency of the government in Washington D.C. Kenneth Pollack, in his book “The Persian Puzzle” about modern Iran states that “Iranians can remember exactly why they should hate the U.S. for prior slights, both real and perceived. Americans, on the other hand, are serial amnesiacs. We know that we should hate someone, we just can’t remember why”. Perhaps this is because, as my son said after his return from a tour of duty with the Air Force in Aviano, Italy – “Dad, I realized that American history is an oxymoron.” Other cultures and countries have much more history and much longer memories. The Serbian-Kosovo conflict of the 1990’s was driven, in many ways by a battle between the Serbs and the Ottomans 600 years ago. Muslims remembered 12th century Christian invasions when George Bush declared a “Crusade” against terrorism after 9/11. Even if we remember history, the challenge is to understand it’s lessons properly. The Israelis remembered their success in driving the PLO out of Lebanon in 1982 and thought that this history applied to the current effort to drive Hezbollah out of Lebanon. They neglected to consider that in 1982 that they had the support of Shias in southern Lebanon who had been oppressed and tormented by the Palestinians. Hezbollah, supported and embedded in Shia culture, is a much different enemy and, thus, the current disastrous conflict. Our challenge, therefore, is to not only remember history, but to understand its lessons in a way that we are not doomed to repeat it even if we remember it.