Trilateral Commission


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Trilateral Commission

The Trilateral Commission is a private organization, established to foster closer cooperation between United States of America, Europe and Japan. It was founded in July 1973, at the initiative of David Rockefeller; who was Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations at that time. The Trilateral Commission is widely seen as a counterpart to the Council on Foreign Relations.[1]

Contents

Established

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Speaking at the Chase Manhattan International Financial Forums in London, Brussels, Montreal, and Paris, Rockefeller proposed the creation of an International Commission of Peace and Prosperity in early 1972 (which would later become the Trilateral Commission). At the 1972 Bilderberg meeting, the idea was widely accepted, but elsewhere, it got a cool reception. According to Rockefeller, the organization could "be of help to government by providing measured judgment."

Zbigniew Brzezinski,[2] a professor at Columbia University and a Rockefeller advisor who was a specialist on international affairs, left his post to organize the group along with:

  • Henry Owen (a Foreign Policy Studies Director with the Brookings Institution)
  • George S. Franklin
  • Robert Bowie (of the Foreign Policy Association and Director of the Harvard Center for International Affairs)
  • Gerard Smith (Salt I negotiator, Rockefeller in-law, and its first North American Chairman)
  • Marshall Hornblower
  • William Scranton (former Governor of Pennsylvania)
  • Edwin Reischauer (a professor at Harvard)
  • Max Kohnstamm (European Policy Centre)

Other founding members included Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, both eventually heads of the Federal Reserve system.

Funding for the group came from David Rockefeller, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.

Activity history

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Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)

In July 1972, Rockefeller called his first meeting, which was held at Rockefeller's Pocantico compound in New York's Hudson Valley. It was attended by about 250 individuals who were carefully selected and screened by Rockefeller and represented the very elite of finance and industry.

Its first executive committee meeting was held in Tokyo in October 1973. The Trilateral Commission was officially initiated, holding biannual meetings.

A Trilateral Commission Task Force Report, presented at the 1975 meeting in Kyoto, Japan, called An Outline for Remaking World Trade and Finance, said: "Close Trilateral cooperation in keeping the peace, in managing the world economy, and in fostering economic development and in alleviating world poverty, will improve the chances of a smooth and peaceful evolution of the global system." Another Commission document read:

"The overriding goal is to make the world safe for interdependence by protecting the benefits which it provides for each country against external and internal threats which will constantly emerge from those willing to pay a price for more national autonomy. This may sometimes require slowing the pace at which interdependence proceeds, and checking some aspects of it. More frequently however, it will call for checking the intrusion of national government into the international exchange of both economic and non-economic goods."

In May 1976, the first plenary meeting of all of the Commission's regional groups took place in Kyoto, attended by Jimmy Carter.[3] Today it consists of approximately 300–350 private citizens from Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and North America, and exists (officially) to promote closer political and economic cooperation between these areas, which are the primary industrial regions in the world.[3] Its official journal from its founding is a magazine called Trialogue.

Membership is divided into numbers proportionate to each of its three regional areas. These members include corporate CEOs, politicians of all major parties, distinguished academics, university presidents, labor union leaders and not-for-profits involved in overseas philanthropy. Members who gain a position in their respective country's government must resign from the Commission. The North American continent is represented by 107 members (15 Canadian, seven Mexican and 85 U.S. citizens). The European group has reached its limit of 150 members, including citizens from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

At first, Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan. However, in 2000 the Japanese group of 85 members expanded itself, becoming the Pacific Asia group, composed of 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, seven Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also includes nine members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Criticism

The organization has come under much scrutiny and criticism by political activists and academics working in the social and political sciences. The Commission has found its way into a number of conspiracy theories, especially when it became known that President Jimmy Carter appointed 26 former Commission members to senior positions in his Administration. Later it was revealed that Carter himself was a former Trilateral member. In the 1980 election, it was revealed that Carter and his two major opponents, John B. Anderson and George H. W. Bush, were also members, and the Commission became a campaign issue. Ronald Reagan supporters noted that he was not a Trilateral member, but after he was chosen as Republican nominee he chose Bush as his running mate; as president, he appointed a few Trilateral members to Cabinet positions and held a reception for the Commission in the White House in 1984. The John Birch Society believes that the Trilateral Commission is dedicated to the formation of one world government.[4] In 1980, Holly Sklar released a book titled Trilateralism: the Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management.

Conservative critics claim the "Commission constitutes a conspiracy seeking to gain control of the U.S. Government to create a new world order." Mike Thompson, Chairman of the Florida Conservative Union, said: "It puts emphasis on interdependence, which is a nice euphemism for one-world government."

Sen. Barry Goldwater wrote in his book With No Apologies: "In my view, the Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical. All this is to be done in the interest of creating a more peaceful, more productive world community. What the Trilateralists truly intend is the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. They believe the abundant materialism they propose to create will overwhelm existing differences. As managers and creators of the system they will rule the future."

Since many of the members were businesspeople or bankers, actions that they took or encouraged that helped the banking industry have been noted. Jeremiah Novak, writing in the July 1977 issue of Atlantic, said that after international oil prices rose when Nixon set price controls on American domestic oil, many developing countries were required to borrow from banks to buy oil: "The Trilaterists' emphasis on international economics is not entirely disinterested, for the oil crisis forced many developing nations, with doubtful repayment abilities, to borrow excessively. All told, private multinational banks, particularly Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan, have loaned nearly $52 billion to developing countries. An overhauled International Monetary Fund (IMF) would provide another source of credit for these nations, and would take the big private banks off the hook. This proposal is the cornerstone of the Trilateral plan."[1] He went on to say, "Although the Commission's primary concern is economic, the Trilateralists pinpointed a vital political objective: to gain control of the American Presidency... For the third time in this century, a group of American schools, businessmen, and government officials is planning to fashion a new world order..."

Craig S. Karpel wrote in a November 1977 Penthouse magazine article "Cartergate: The Death of Democracy": "The presidency of the United States and the key cabinet departments of the federal government have been taken over by a private organization dedicated to the subordination of the domestic interests of the United States to the international interests of the multi-national banks and corporations. It would be unfair to say that the Trilateral Commission dominates the Carter Administration; the Trilateral Commission is the Carter Administration."

U.S. News and World Report stated: "The Trilateralists have taken charge of foreign policy-making in the Carter Administration, and already the immense power they wield is sparking some controversy. Active or former members of the Trilateral Commission now head every key agency involved in mapping U.S. strategy for dealing with the rest of the world."[citation needed]

Membership

The three current chairmen are:

Some others who are or have been members:

See also

References

 The references used in this article may be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.
  1. ^ a b c Berkman, Gene (1993). "The Trilateral Commission and the New World Order". antiwar.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-01.
  2. ^ Brzezinski was the author of the book Between Two Ages, which was published in 1970, in which he called for a new international monetary system, and it was considered to be the 'Bible' of the Trilateralists. On page 72, he said: "Marxism is simultaneously a victory of the external, active man over the inner, passive man and a victory of reason over belief." He called for "deliberate management of the American future" (pg. 260), a "community of nations" (pg. 296), and a "world government" (pg. 308). He became its first Director (1973-76), drafted its Charter, and became its driving force.
  3. ^ a b c Shoup, Laurence H. (1980). "Trilateralism Jimmy Carter and the Trilateralists (except from)", Trilateralism. South End Press. 
  4. ^ Adams, Cecil (November 6, 1987). "Is the Trilateral Commission the secret organization that runs the world?". The Straight Dope.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rothbard, Murray N. (1984). "Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy" (republished by LewRockwell.com). World Market Perspective.
  6. ^ Power Financial Corporation - Board of Directors at www.powerfinancial.com

Further reading

  • Brzezinski, Zbigniew (October 1970). "America and Europe". Foreign Affairs 49 (1): 11-30.  (Includes Brzezinski's proposal for the establishment of a body like the Trilateral Commission.)
  • Brzezinski, Zbigniew (1970). Between two ages; America's role in the technetronic era. New York: Viking Press. OCLC 88066. 
  • Geuens, Geoffrey (15 March 2003). Tous pouvoirs confondus : État, capital et médias à l'ère de la mondialisation (in French). EPO. ISBN 2-87262-193-8. 
  • Gill, Stephen (1991). American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, Cambridge Studies in International Relations. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-42433-X. OCLC 246854587. 
  • Rockefeller, David (2002). Memoirs. New York: Random House.  (Contains a brief history of the Commission's founding, composition of members and overall influence.)
  • Ross, Robert Gaylon (2000). Who's who of the elite: members of the Bilderbergs, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and Skull & Bones Society, 2nd revision, San Marcos, TX: RIE. ISBN 0-9649888-0-1. OCLC 176877863. 
  • Sklar, Holly (November 1, 1980). Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management. South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-103-6. 
  • Sutton, Antony C. (1979/81). Trilaterals Over Washington, Volumes I and II. The August Corporation. ISBN 0-933482-01-9. OCLC 5147374. 
  • Wilkerson, Bill (1980). The Rockefeller triangle: A country editor's documented report on the Trilateral Commission plan for world government. Idalou Beacon. OCLC 7273912. 

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