Losing Hearts and Minds

The

U.S. fleet patrols Asia's sea lanes, ensuring that precious oil can be imported and profitable consumer goods exported. Tens of thousands of American servicemen are stationed in nearly 200 military installations across Asia, in theory to protect the region from ruinous conflict. American culture has put its technicolor stamp just about everywhere. The West Wing is a hit in Hong Kong and Friends is very popular in—of all places—Pakistan.

Why then, is the U.S. losing friends in Asia? Last month, South Korean students hurled Molotov cocktails onto U.S. military bases while in Pakistan mourners thronged the streets for the funeral of a man who murdered two CIA employees. A recent survey by Washington D.C.'s Pew Research Center confirmed that over the past two years America's image has slipped in 19 out of 27 nations worldwide, including South Korea, Japan and Indonesia. In other Asian nations it held up, barely. In India, for example, only 54% of the population said they liked America, in Bangladesh even fewer.

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The startling fact is that U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terror is losing Asian hearts and minds at a time when terrorism is an ever greater peril for the region. The sympathy earned by the U.S. after Sept. 11 is being wiped out by old grudges and new provocations, all fanned by the prospect of an impending war in Iraq. There is a disconnect here that is troubling: with every new incidence of terrorism, much of it directed against the U.S. and the West, citizens of Asia's supercities and rural communities seem to vent their anger back at Uncle Sam, not at the extremist groups responsible. Why? Because the U.S. is still seen as a bully. When the U.S. seizes a North Korean ship delivering missiles to Yemen, many Asians posit another act of American imperialism. "It looks like America is still trying to conquer the world," sighs Nguyen Son Hai, a 23-year-old engineering student in Hanoi.

Nowhere is this sense that the Bush Doctrine really means Manifest Destiny writ globally more worrying than in Indonesia. The country has been battered by terrorism—a series of unexplained terrorist bombings over the past few years includes the October conflagration in Bali that killed 191 innocents—yet only 31% of Indonesians polled by Pew approved of Bush's war on terror. Many of them see it as a war on Muslims—on themselves—not on the terrorist networks their own police have uncovered. After the Bali attack rumors spread, and usually reliable newspapers conjectured, that the CIA was behind the attack. "When I travel to the provinces, people say the U.S. is trying to corner Islam," says Solahuddin Wahid, vice chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization. "I tell them our enemy is not the U.S. But the feeling is definitely out there."

Elsewhere in Asia, anti-U.S. sentiment can even outweigh what seem to be more pressing issues. The U.S. has 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea to guard against an assault by the dangerous dictator to the north, Kim Jong Il. A month ago, Kim admitted he had an atomic bomb program. Last week, he cranked up a nuclear reactor capable of producing plutonium. And what was the reaction on the streets of Seoul? There was furious protest—but it was directed at the U.S. embassy after the acquittal of two U.S. servicemen for the accidental killing of two South Korean girls.

Other traditional allies are grumbling about what they see as impending U.S. adventurism in Iraq. "I think it's fair to say that many Filipinos are now resentful of superpower and supercop America's attempts to impose its standards on the world," says Senator Rodolfo Biazon, a former military chief of staff.

Washington has started a belated campaign to win back Asian public opinion. A recent video produced by the State Department portrays American Muslims as being an accepted part of U.S. society. Unfortunately, this video didn't get nearly the viewership of an average episode of Friends. Yet if Washington fails to revamp its image in Asia, it may push countries into the embrace of the rising great power: China. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is taking his country down that road, even though Thailand is traditionally one of Washington's staunchest military allies. China has the cachet of being the region's new economic engine. And increasingly, Asia's industrializing nations see their future as being intertwined with a Middle Kingdom that will be buying more TVs and DVD players than the U.S. within a decade. America has a lot of old, albeit complicated, friendships in Asia. The challenge now: keeping them.