von Leers: Who Determines What Happens?
[Der Weg 1952-05] An original translation of „Wer bestimmt, was geschieht?“
Title: Who Determines What Happens? [de: Wer bestimmt, was geschieht?]
Author: Johan von Leers as “Gordon Fitzstuart”
“Der Weg” Issue: Year 06, Issue 05 (May 1952)
Page(s): 343-346 [LINK]
Dan Rouse’s Note(s):
Der Weg - El Sendero is a German and Spanish language magazine published by Dürer-Verlag in Buenos-Aires, Argentina by Germans with connections to the defeated Third Reich Government.
Der Weg ran monthly issues from 1947 to 1957, with official sanction from Juan Perón’s Government until his overthrow in September 1955.
See the von Leers Index page for more information on his life and pseudonyms.
The essay asserts that ordinary citizens lack any real influence over their governments, as true power resides with unelected elite groups like the Council on Foreign Relations, which operate with immense resources and knowledge outside democratic accountability.
Who Determines What Happens?
by Gordon Fitzstuart
Ask Mr. Miller in London, Monsieur Dupont in Paris, and Herr Müller in Bonn how much influence they actually wield over the administration and leadership of their respective nations, and they will offer you a strikingly uniform reply: Essentially, none at all!
This is the most defining phenomenon of our century—never before has the state placed such lofty, indeed colossal, demands upon the individual, claimed the lion’s share of his income with such unquestioned entitlement, regulated his entire existence—his reading, his thinking, his work, his rest—and never before has it granted him so little power or influence, excluding him so utterly from any say in the matter.
Indeed—what rights do Mr. Miller, Monsieur Dupont, and Herr Müller possess? Every three, four, or five years, they are permitted to “choose a party” in a parliamentary election; in other words, they may drop a ballot into the box and select a party’s representative. Should this person then become a parliamentarian, he can, in truth, do precious little with the mandate his voters have entrusted to him. He is, of course, deemed a “representative of the entire people,” yet he is not even free to speak or vote in parliament as he pleases—he must bow to “party discipline” and cast his vote as the party leadership commands. This leadership comprises a small clique of gentlemen whom neither the voter nor the lone parliamentarian can in any way hold accountable—yet through these men flow the critical connections to the “economic circles” and other “groups” that bankroll the parties from the shadows. Often, these party leaders are mere order-takers, beholden to murkier forces that “control” the parties, feeding them directives, information, and “wishes” that amount to commands. How childish now seems the long-cherished notion that Mr. Miller, Monsieur Dupont, and Herr Müller might, if displeased with their representative’s conduct, march up to him, wagging a finger, and declare: “You were elected by me. If you don’t perform your legislative duties to my liking, I’ll vote for the opposition next time.” In reality, the representative would merely smile—amused, perhaps a touch wearily—and retort: “First, it’s not ‘my’ vote at stake, for I vote as my party dictates. Second—do you really think our ‘opposition’ is fundamentally different from us? And third—do you, poor fool, honestly believe that, with our propaganda machine, even if you refuse to vote for us again, we won’t find dozens of other dupes ready to do so?”
Should Mr. Miller, Monsieur Dupont, or Herr Müller ever hit upon the bright idea of founding their own party, they would first find themselves lacking the funds for such a venture—nor could they hope to secure them. A mere nod from the powers that truly call the shots ensures that no robust economic group, industry, or trade union would back such a “splinter party.” Without money, there are no “democratic elections.” In Great Britain, for instance, such a fledgling party would collapse under the weight of the steep election deposits it could never afford. And even if, against all odds, they managed to establish a new party, there’s always some authority in most nations ready to brand it “unconstitutional” and “undemocratic,” swiftly enforcing its ban.
And then—politics, at least world politics, is today a domain that demands not only experience but also a ceaselessly updated store of knowledge. The handful of outdated books, bereft of the requisite specialized journals, offer neither Mr. Miller, Monsieur Dupont, nor Herr Müller the means to navigate such tangled matters as Iranian oil, the race question in Africa, Pan-Americanism, the Suez Canal, Central Europe, and a hundred others besides. Even the information available to parliamentarians across various legislatures is scarcely greater—and thus, more often than not, wholly inadequate—compared to that of the educated citizen.
Thus, it comes to pass that the true course of politics is charted neither by the people’s representatives nor by the ministries they spawn, but by entities endowed with boundless funds and vast, modern, ever-current reservoirs of information—entities that know precisely what they want.
Let us spotlight one such group, which for decades has unwaveringly shaped—indeed, decisively dictated—the policies of the United States of America, swaying presidents, secretaries of state, and congressmen alike, wielding real, tangible power on a scale that Mr. Babbitt, the proverbial “man on the street,” cannot even fathom.
The “Council on Foreign Relations,” the “Council for Foreign Affairs” in the United States, publishes the authoritative journal Foreign Affairs. It was established, alongside its sister institution, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, at the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919, which ordained the first partition of Germany; concurrently, the Institute for Foreign Policy in Hamburg was founded under the direction of Dr. Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy. A complementary body in the U.S., the Institute of Pacific Relations, focuses particularly on Pacific affairs and recently drew attention for its vigorous advocacy of China’s surrender to the Communists.
The Council on Foreign Relations molds political opinion on major global issues among America’s leading circles. It largely thinks for them. It is neither “Democratic” nor “Republican,” yet it influences and steers both parties. Financially, it stands formidable, bolstered by international banks such as Speyer, Seligman, Rothschild, J. Henry Schroder, and Warburg, while also receiving substantial, tax-exempt contributions from the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations. At its inception in 1919, the Council included Otto Kahn, Jacob Schiff—who funneled considerable sums to bankroll the Bolshevik upheaval in Russia—Mortimer Schiff, and Paul Warburg, all of the banking firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co. in New York. Its honorary chairman was Elihu Root, Kuhn, Loeb & Co.’s lawyer and former Secretary of State, through whom payments to Trotsky and Lenin had flowed. Other members included Leopold Frederick of the Baruch-Meyer firm, which also controlled the Yukon Goldfields Co. and held sway among the Guggenheims, alongside Aramayo, Moritz Hochschild, and Patiño, the overlords of Bolivian copper; Henry Morgenthau Sr., former ambassador to Turkey and financier of President Woodrow Wilson’s election campaigns, upon whom Wilson leaned heavily, father to Henry Morgenthau Jr., co-architect (with Dexter White) of the notorious Morgenthau Plan to starve the German populace; further members were Oscar Straus, longtime U.S. ambassador to Turkey and head of the American immigration service, Oscar Nagel, Jules S. Bache, and Abram I. Elkus, former ambassador to Turkey and trustee of the Baron Hirsch Fund. The Washington representative was engineer John Hays Hammond, a notable figure in the history of South African gold mines.
To this day, this “Council for Foreign Affairs” has played a formidable role. Secretary of State Dean Acheson stands as its most prominent voice today—long a confidant of Federal Judge Louis D. Brandeis, a leading Zionist figure in the U.S. and Roosevelt’s closest advisor. Notably, members of the Council on Foreign Relations—some still active—include Alger Hiss, implicated in atomic espionage favoring the Soviet Union and convicted of perjury; Frederick Vanderbilt Field, who repeatedly posted hefty bail for accused Communists; Laurence Duggan; Owen Lattimore, chiefly blamed for pushing China’s handover to the Communists as a top East Asia expert; Lauchlin Currie; Stanley K. Hornbeck; and Robert M. Lovett of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.; and Averell Harriman, a close Roosevelt advisor who recently penned a defense of the Potsdam and Yalta policies. Current members also include Ambassador Philip C. Jessup, a lightning rod for anti-Communists in the U.S. and tied to China’s fall to the Reds; Herbert Feis, a longtime Roosevelt advisor; Jacob Viner; Cord Meyer Jr.; and Corliss Lamont, partners in the international banking houses J.P. Morgan, Lazard Frères, J. & W. Seligman, and Speyer & Co.; plus Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss, John Schiff, Benjamin Buttenwieser, former deputy High Commissioner in West Germany, and James Paul Warburg. Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss, bearing the title of Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, was the first member of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; John Schiff presides over the American Boy Scouts.
Among the men who convene in this institute, scarcely one lacks command over hundreds of millions of dollars, whether as personal wealth or through the firms and banks he controls. The Council on Foreign Relations taps into all vital and covert intelligence services, vast libraries, and partnerships with every specialized research institute. These men know. They are informed. They can only smirk at citizens of various nations, forced to glean their understanding from a daily press—tightly controlled and so hobbled by a paper shortage (perhaps artificially worsened) that it barely delivers essential news, let alone insightful analysis—while that same shortage, coupled with government curbs on paper use, ensures new, independent papers can scarcely emerge. They smile, too, at congressmen and ministers who must slink away at a whisper from behind the curtain. Even a decorated commander like General MacArthur poses no threat to them now—if he shows a hint of independence, he’s dismissed like a wayward servant.
Unshaken, they stand as the unassailable arbiters of global fates, presiding over a world ever brighter for them, heedless of the millions below—bound to them by nothing—over whom the darkness deepens, ever more foreboding.