PERSPECTIVErnThis Land for Hirernby Thomas Flemingrn”Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe mernfellow citizens); the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; sincernhistory and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most banefulrnfoes of Republican Government.”rn—George WashingtonrnThe day after Bill Clinton’s election, the new leader ofrnthe Republicans, Robert Dole, told reporters that hisrnparty would adhere to the high standards the Democrats hadrnset in reviewing presidential appointments. As an admirerrnof Senator Dole’s style of attack, I began looking forward to arnlate winter warmed by the anxieties of “Borked” Democrats,rnand I was not the only American to rub his hands in gleefulrnanticipation when Ron Brown, political fixer and foreign lobbyist,rnwas named Secretary of Commerce.rnAfter all, Mr. Brown had been a paid advocate of “BabyrnDoc” Duvalier in Haiti and had represented the interests ofrnover 20 Japanese clients, while his firm—Patton, Boggs &rnBlow—is the most notorious influence-peddler in Washington.rnBut Mr. Brown, so far from having to dodge broadsides asrnhe ran a Republican blockade, sailed through his hearingsrnlike a toy boat on a quiet pond.rnBut what were the Republicans going to say? Could theyrntrot out former U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills to denouncernthe obvious conflicts of interest? Hills, who as USTRrnlifted the restriction on Japanese participation in airport constructionrnprojects receiving federal funds and canceled thernsemiconductor agreement with Japan, had previously “workedrnas a registered foreign agent for Daewoo, a Korean conglomeraternthat makes autos, steel, ships, electronics, and heavyrnmachinery and operates a major bank and construction company.rn. . [she] also lobbied for two Canadian timber companies.rnJust prior to entering office as the USl’R, she was providingrnbusiness and legal advice to Japan’s MatushitarnCorporation. Her husband is Roderick Hills, who representedrnC. Itoh, one of Japan’s largest trading companies, when it wasrncaught up in the Toshiba affair.”rnThis profile was drawn by Pat Choatc in his 1990 bookrnAgenfs of Influence, and Choatc goes on to point out thatrnHills named as her senior deputies two men whose firms hadrnrepresented Japanese clients. The “Toshiba affair” is the scandalrnthat broke out when it was discovered that Toshiba hadrnsold silent propellor technology to the Soviet Union. That thernimage of Toshiba and Japanese business in general came out ofrnthe affair unscathed is due in part to the effective efforts ofrnAmerican public relations firms and in part to the unifiedrnand coherent trade strategies of the Japanese partnership betweenrngovernment and business. Trade for them is simplyrn”war by other means,” and not only can they mobilize thernresources of their own nation behind a campaign, but they canrnalso buy into American trade associations, hire American p.r.rnfirms, and make substantial payments to American politiciansrnin office and reward them with lavish fees for “speakingrnengagements” or with donations to pet projects once theyrnhave retired.rnDefenders of foreign lobbyists insist that in a free democracyrnpeople have a right to say what they like, but a free debaternis supposed to include both sides. Instead, whenever anyonerncriticizes Japanese trade practices or American lobbyists, he isrncalled a nativist or racist. The counter-argument, that Americansrnwho sell out their country to foreign interests are morallyrntraitors, is never heard, even from Japan’s harshest critics.rnIf America is an open society based on the rule of law,rnJapan is neither. It is a closed society, suspicious even of Koreansrnwho have lived there for generations without the opportunityrnof becoming citizens, and its public life is a systemrnlO/CHRONICLESrnrnrn