THE ASIA FOUNDATION

A Partner in Asia Since 1954

Board of Trustees

465 California Street
14th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104

Tel: 415.982.4640

Fax: 415.392.8863

www.asiafoundation.org

### TRUSTEES

William L. Ball, III
Chairman

Chang-Lin Tien
Chairman Emeritus
(Chairman 1999-2002)

William P. Fuller
President

Susan J. Pharr
Secretary

Paul S. Slawson
Treasurer

Terrence B. Adamson

David R. Andrews

Michael H. Armacost

Jeffrey T. Bergner

Alexander D. Calhoun

William H. C. Chang

A. W. Clausen

Scott D. Cook

Thomas S. Foley

Harry Harding

Ta-lin Hsu

Chong-Moon Lee

Janet A. McKinley

Lucian W. Pye

Missie Rennie

J. Stapleton Roy

Arun Sarin

Robert A. Scalapino

Leslie Tang Schilling

Robert A. Theleen

Brayton Wilbur, Jr.

Linda Tsao Yang

Casimir A. Yost

### TRUSTEES EMERITI

William S. Anderson

Theodore L. Eliot, Jr.

Ernest M. Howell

Robert H. Knight

Rudolph A. Peterson

Walter H. Shorenstein

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### NON-RESIDENT PROGRAMS

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Singapore

November 8, 2002

Dr. Henry Kissinger
1800 K Street, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20006

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

Thank you again for joining us and speaking at our Board lunch last Monday. We greatly appreciated your comments, particularly your thoughts about certain private groups and their capacity to create instability and challenges for states and the international order. This is an issue that is becoming a central theme of The Asia Foundation's country programs in Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines, as well as in our Southeast and South Asia regional programs.

Your reflections about the Harvard International Seminar and the Foundation's support of it many years ago were also appreciated. We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary as a foundation in 2004 and in preparation have been reviewing the Foundation's archives. Enclosed is an article that we recently found about the Harvard Seminar that appeared in the June, 1965 edition of the Asia Foundation's Program Bulletin. The lead paragraph summarizes goals that underpin many of the exchanges we support today.

With kind regards.

Sincerely,

William L. Ball III
Chairman

William P. Fuller
President

cc. J. Stapleton Roy

PROGRAM BULLETIN

C

ASIA FOUNDATION

Harvard University International Seminar

BY HENRY A. KISSINGER, Executive Director

The Harvard International Seminar attempts to promote international understanding and cooperation by giving its members an opportunity: 1) To increase their stature as individuals and their general competence in their various fields. 2) To acquaint themselves with the attitudes and values underlying American life and thought. 3) To study and discuss the relations of the various countries of the world and to develop and deepen the sense of community among them. 4) To bring foreign concerns and thinking to the attention of Americans.

The International Seminar, an annual summer program, is designed for persons between the ages of twenty-six and forty-five who are on the verge of reaching positions of leadership in their own countries.

In This Issue:

<table><tr><td>Textbook Rental Library, Karachi</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>Farm Management in Thailand</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>5,000,000 Books to Asia</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>Awards to Foundation Couple</td><td>8</td></tr></table>

Too old for student exchange programs, too active to leave their countries for extended periods of time, these men and women often find themselves so overwhelmed by the pressures of day-to-day concerns that they do not have an opportunity to gain a perspective on these activities. Moreover, in many countries international tensions and the con-

Late President John F. Kennedy met at White House with members of 1962 Seminar including (from left) Maximo Soliven, columnist for Manila "Evening News" and Atsushi Kawamura, assistant foreign editor, "Tokyo Shimbun."

[c]

fusion connected with newfound independence have led to a situation in which, though communication has never been easier technically, the ablest and most active people have become more and more isolated from one another. It is the belief of the Harvard Seminar that a meeting of the most promising representatives of this group in an atmosphere such as Harvard's should go far toward promoting a better understanding of common problems.

The main emphasis of the Seminar is on the discussion groups, which meet three times a week for two hours each time under the chairmanship of a faculty member. One seminar deals with selected topics in politics and economics, and the other with the general area of the humanities. Each participant belongs to one of these groups, but may attend the other.

In addition, the Harvard Seminar seeks to provide a wide range of contacts with American life through lectures by distinguished Americans and field trips in the Boston area.

The International Seminar grew out of the conviction that the ablest people in each country are forced by the pace of modern life and the nature of their tasks to concentrate more and more on immediate matters. As a result, it is extremely difficult to create a dialogue between disciplines or countries despite the fact that communication has never been easier technically.

It is against this background that the history of the International Seminar is to be viewed. The Seminar has invited representatives of an ever wider range of countries and professions to participate. The members have found that during their stay at Harvard they began to appreciate not only the participants from other countries, but also persons from their own country with a different set of interests and whom they would probably not have met except through the Seminar.

The representation of the Seminar has consistently been broadened to reach groups and nations that will be playing ever greater roles in the community of nations. In its beginning in 1951, the Seminar was conducted as a pilot project with twenty participants drawn from West-European students already in the United States. In 1953, Asians were invited for the first time. In 1954, the Middle East was represented; in 1956, Eastern Europe; in 1957, Africa; and in 1959, Latin America. During this entire period, every effort has been made to improve the quality of the participants, and, we believe, on the whole, successfully.

Each participant in the Seminar is treated on the basis that he has been selected because he is an outstanding individual, rather than a representative from a particular country or region. No special provision is made for Europeans, Asians or Africans. Each participant is, of course, free to contribute the perspective of his country or region; indeed he is encouraged to state his views as freely as possible.

Most of our Asian participants have been supported by The Asia Foundation. Selection is made cooperatively by the Foundation's local representatives in Asia and Harvard, a system which, we believe, has worked very well.

The effectiveness of the International Seminar depends to a large extent on its selection process. The following criteria govern the acceptance of participants for the Seminar: 1) professional or academic standing, 2) breadth of interests, 3) potential impact on their country.

In most cases, applications are submitted directly to the Harvard International Seminar. In a few countries, such as Spain, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines and Japan, it has proved of value to have the candidates send their applications to a committee in their own country for preliminary screening. These committees pay for any administrative expenses incurred. However, the final selection is made at Harvard.

After all the applications and the data from the screening committees have been received, the applications are studied by a committee at Harvard including the Executive Director of the Seminar, another faculty member, an *ad hoc* expert of the country being considered, and in the case of the Asian countries, a representative from The Asia Foundation. Then the final selection is made.

## Formal Academic Program

The Seminar members form two groups of approximately twenty members each to discuss problems of contemporary interest under the leadership of a faculty member. One group deals with the humanities in general and the other with political and economic concerns. The subject matter is of sufficient scope to permit each participant to treat it from the point of view of his special discipline or particular field of interest. Each group has an American chairman and an American participant who functions as a secretary. The Seminar members, upon acceptance, are sent a prospectus outlining the work in which their group expects to engage, along with several books for their advance preparation.

2

Seminar participants using a Harvard library include an Indonesian editor, Malaysian administrator, Pakistani educator.

The politics and economics section of the Seminar is divided into two parts: domestic and foreign affairs. This year Professor Samuel H. Beer of Harvard University will direct the discussion of domestic affairs toward existence of liberalism and conservatism in the United States, as well as to the distribution of power, formal and informal, between the Federal and State governments, and among the Congress, President and the Supreme Court. Special emphasis will be given to the current problems of civil rights.

During the meetings on international relations, I shall discuss the evolution of American foreign policy from 1945 to the present, the domestic structure's effects on foreign policy, strategic problems and disarmament, Atlantic relations, neutralism, and underdeveloped and new nations.

In the course of these discussions, several of the participants will give papers and talks based on their own experience and specialized knowledge in related areas.

The general theme of the humanities group will be mid-century American culture as seen through literature. The group, chaired by Professor Jack Ludwig of New York State University, will focus its discussion on the sociological views and literary styles of two novelists and several poets. Our contemporary society will be viewed not only through prose and poetry, but also through the performing arts. By means of informal talks by members of the Seminar, the foreign experience will be brought into comparison with those of Americans.

Three afternoons a week are devoted to guest speakers representing significant phases of American life, from labor to government, from journalism to philosophy, from art to science. Prior to their arrival at Harvard, Seminar participants are requested to submit their preferences as to the type of speakers they are most interested in meeting. A small luncheon is given at the Harvard Faculty Club before each lecture to allow those members of the Seminar particularly interested in the speaker's field to meet and talk with the speaker before his lecture. The guest speakers generally talk to the group for about forty-five minutes, and then devote the remainder of the time to questions from the Seminar participants. These meetings, like the morning sessions, are closed to the public to permit complete honesty and freedom in the discussions. Among our guest speakers have been Thornton Wilder, James Reston, Stanley Ruttenberg, the late Eleanor Roosevelt, John Galbraith, Roy Wilkins, Herman Kahn and McGeorge Bundy.

Two days each week are set aside for tours and visits to government and welfare institutions, business enterprises, and educational and cultural organizations. A special effort is always made to insure that these visits consist not simply of a tour, but rather that some well-informed person or panel will be on hand to give a brief talk and answer any questions the Seminar members might have. Seminar members are requested to submit their preferences for the types of trips that interest them most. They are free to suggest trips not already scheduled upon

3

(L)

EARLY SEMINAR participants gathered in the Common Room of the dormitory at Harvard are (left to right) William Gordan, American graduate student (standing); Asrul Sani, Indonesian editor; Piero Dorazio, Italian editor, painter and designer; and Enrique Joaquin, a faculty member of Far Eastern University in Manila.

their arrival. Some of the places visited in the past are a computer systems project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Berkshire Music Festival, a Peace Corps Training Camp, Newton High School, the *Christian Science Monitor* and the Boston Arts Festival.

One evening each week the Seminar members are given a chance to speak either individually or as a panel to a public American audience on a subject of their own choosing. The only requirement is that the speakers or panels be willing to answer questions at the conclusion of their talks.

Besides its formal program, the Seminar seeks to provide occasions on which its members can become acquainted with Americans on a social basis. A reception is held at the beginning of the summer for introducing Seminar participants to a great number of people from the Boston area who have informally expressed their interest in the program. Many families in the local area entertain Seminar participants for evenings or weekends.

We find that all these events help to bring the participants into a closer relationship with the people of the area and foster their understanding of America through the revealing medium of personal contacts. It is a meaningful accompaniment to the more theoretical understanding of America gained in the Seminar's formal discussions.

The Seminar provides its members, as I mentioned earlier, with an opportunity to improve their stature as individuals and their general competence

in their particular fields. Some of the participants' own comments may be of interest. For example, Robin Bradman Weerakoon, who was a 1963 Seminar participant and private secretary to the Prime Minister of Ceylon, wrote: "It gave me personally a view of the United States which I had not known in the past, although I had spent one year there as a student 11 years earlier. I think the political science work cleared away some of the vague assumptions I had earlier."

## Evaluation by Participants

The Seminar also attempts to help its members acquaint themselves with the attitudes and values underlying American life and thought. Naseruddeen Khan, Operations Manager, Burmah-Shell Oil Co. in Karachi, Pakistan, also a member of the 1963 group has written: "The Seminar gave me a comprehensive picture of the main national and international problems facing this country, of explaining the background which creates the apparent paradoxes in American foreign policy, of demonstrating the finer qualities of an affluent society and of the complex facets, economic, political and social which go toward the formation and working of this democracy. It also gave me a more sympathetic appreciation of the frightening problems of racism and nuclear strategy."

Lt. General Lee Han-lim, Superintendent of the Korean Military Academy in Wharang Dae, who participated in 1959, has commented: "Thanks to the very comprehensive and very meticulous planning of the International Seminar, I have seen and become acquainted through lectures and otherwise with some of the development of American policies, foreign policies, economic state of affairs and culture, in short, the American way of life, and this surprisingly well during my short stay."

The program enables participants to study and discuss the relations of the various countries of the world, and the need to deepen the sense of community among them. In this regard, one of the Japanese participants, Yahuhiro Nakasone, a former chairman of the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission, wrote that "Before our common tie of humanity, differences in manners and customs among races mean next-to-nothing. It is our utmost pride that we have felt the great tradition of Harvard and that we have learned the noble spirit which should prevail in the future by our friendship with all the nationalities of the world."

4

## Textbook Rental Library, University of Karachi

The Faculty of Science of Karachi University now has a self-perpetuating textbook rental library that makes available in quantity for the first time a supply of required course books. Administered by the University library this service rents books at 20 percent of their total cost for a one-year period and with this income the University will renew and update the collection. The formal inauguration of the service was held last November and it is already being used as a model for other universities in the area.

To make this rental library possible, the Board of Trustees of The Asia Foundation made a two-year grant totaling $100,000 to the Faculty of Science of the University of Karachi. Included are science texts in botany, biochemistry, chemistry, geology, mathematics, microbiology, physics and zoology. Almost all the books have been published by American firms, with some Western European books. About one-fourth of the Faculty of Science staff of 95 persons have doctoral degrees from American or British universities.

The photos at right show students and faculty examining sample titles from the textbook rental service, and (center) part of the audience for the inauguration ceremony. Below are (left to right) three department heads of the University of Karachi: Dr. S. M. Karim, physics, Dr. Abdul Moid, library science and Dr. A. H. Siddiqi, Islamic history, as well as Dr. I. H. Qureshi, Vice Chancellor, and Mr. James C. Porterfield, the Foundation's Assistant Representative in Karachi. Vice Chancellor Qureshi's active participation in the formulation of the project and his continuing interest have been important factors in its success.

5

# Farm Management in Northeast Thailand

BY GRAHAM J. LUCAS, Asia Foundation Representative, Thailand

The American Peace Corps effort has seldom been more successful than in Thailand where hundreds of young men and women have applied their skills in numerous ways and contributed to the country's economic, social and educational advancement, especially in the rural areas. Indeed, the concept is so challenging and the impact so marked that the Government of Thailand is now drawing plans to begin its own Peace Corps with the objective of channeling the talents, the initiative and the imagination of its educated youth into areas of development that heretofore have been left to foreign advisers or to Thai specialists with long experience or have simply been neglected. While these plans are being laid, a group of young Thai university graduates, skilled in various fields of agriculture, have been staging a preview of the Thai Peace Corps of the future by demonstrating to the people of a small rural community in the less developed Northeast areas modern methods of farming and farm management.

The program was conceived in early 1963 when Kasetsart University, Thailand's leading agricultural institution of higher learning, in cooperation with the Government of Thailand decided to establish a long-term small scale farm management program in a more remote area of the Northeast, a region with fewer natural resources, a less favorable climate and poorer soil conditions than generally are to be found elsewhere. In recent years, strenuous efforts have been made by the Government, with foreign and international aid, to improve conditions in this region, motivated partly by the growing

awareness that no important part of Thailand should be allowed to lag behind in the overall development process, and partly by the knowledge that unless drastic improvements were carried out, the inhabitants would become an easy prey to Communist subversion with all of the dangers to the stability and security of the country which this implied. As a consequence, new roads and multi-purpose dams are being built, community services and educational facilities are being expanded and other measures taken to develop the area as rapidly as possible. Kasetsart University is playing an important role in this effort, particularly in the field of agricultural research and development.

The concept of recruiting and training a team of young university graduates specifically for the purpose of improving agricultural conditions in a small, compact and relatively remote group of villages in Thailand was new and untried and the officials who conceived the scheme were frankly skeptical that it would work. It was one thing to establish a pilot project with trained experts who would remain on the scene for relatively short periods of time. It was something altogether different to persuade five or six young university instructors and graduate students to live in a remote rural community for one, two, perhaps as long as three years with very little financial reward and no greater prospects of promotion than if they had remained in comfortable posts at the university, an agricultural school or one of many projects within easy distance of their homes.

Nevertheless, Kasetsart University went ahead with its plan to set up a farm management research and extension project in the Northeast. At the initiative of Khun Insee Chandrasathitya, Rector, and with the help of Professor Pantum Thisyamondol, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, and Dr. Chaiyong Chuchart, then head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, five university instructors and graduate students were selected for the project. The Asia Foundation agreed to finance the cost of their advanced training in the Philippines and in Taiwan for one academic year and subsequently to cover certain basic costs of the project, excluding salaries, for a period of two years. Kasetsart University and the Department of Land Development assumed responsibility for providing agricultural supplies and materials and for

TEAM MEMBERS of Kasetsart University farm management project outside project headquarters in Thailand.

6

the maintenance and repair of a Land Rover con-
tributed by The Asia Foundation.

In May 1963, the five-man team, under the leadership of Khun Kamphol Adulavidhya, a lecturer in agricultural economics and the senior member, departed for the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines at Los Banos. The other team members were and still are Prinya Yamsiri, farm management technician; Cherm Sangtian, agronomist; Seri Chaturongakul, plant pathologist and Niphon Chantarapho, livestock technician. The team devoted nine months of intensive study to a variety of agricultural subjects which were designed to increase their competence in the broad field of farm management and development. In addition to classroom lectures, the team members worked side by side with Filipino graduate students and faculty members in the rural areas, studying the problems of the farmers at first hand, each team member gaining further training and experience in his field of specialization while at the same time increasing his knowledge of the basic and practical problems of farm management and development. A further month was spent in Taiwan studying the organization and work of farmers associations under the helpful guidance of Dr. S. C. Hsieh, Secretary General of the Joint Council on Rural Reconstruction, and his associates.

The team returned to Thailand in early March and by the end of April had selected Tambol Wangchai as the most suitable community of the many surveyed for the purposes of the project. Tambol Wangchai in April 1964 was in a state of pristine underdevelopment. As far as anyone knew, it had never been the beneficiary of any outside assistance, not even a visit from a Provincial rural development officer. Although situated roughly in the geographic center of the Northeast and within 10 kilometers of the railroad town of Nam Pong, Tambol Wangchai was for all practical purposes a remote backwater. It would be an exaggeration to say that in April 1964, the farmers of the community were impoverished and backward and a year later their farms and households were prime examples of an affluent society. But in a very practical sense, because of the work and devotion of the Kasetsart farm management team, a miracle has indeed been wrought in a period of one year.

The team members had little difficulty in persuading most of the farmers to cooperate in the scheme. First, a small reading and demonstration room was established on the first floor of the simple

two story dwelling which the team rented for its
headquarters and gradually the farmers came in
increasing numbers to obtain the advice of the young
technicians on a wide variety of farm problems. The
next step was to establish demonstration plots, and
at the same time enlist the services of various gov-
ernment agricultural facilities—the livestock breed-
ing station at Ta Phra; the crop production station
at Khon Kaen; the Provincial veterinarian and many
others. The help of local businessmen including rice
millers, silk processors and others whose livelihoods
depend upon farm production was also obtained.

Amid all this activity, the team found time to
organize surveys and establish a system for collect-
ing and analyzing information on various aspects of
farm production and management. Soon, a whole
new world was opened to the farmers of Tambol
Wangchai. They began to be informed about such
matters as current crop prices, shipping costs, coop-
eratives, extension of credit, subjects on which they
had only rudimentary information. To all of this
new activity, the farmers have responded in a most
positive way. Among other things they have formed
their own farm association, they have obtained new
knowledge in such matters as animal husbandry,
and they have developed new skills in the use of
fertilizers, pesticides, vaccine, improved tools and
the keeping of farm accounts.

Above all, the farmers and the other members of
this heretofore remote community have taken on a
new sense of pride in their accomplishments and
they are no longer stranded in a back water as they
once were. While they can take much of the credit for
improvements in their economic status, a small and
youthful band of agriculturists from Kasetsart Uni-
versity are helping to make these possible.

TAMBOL WANGCHAI in northeast Thailand, site of
the farm management project, is in a very remote area.

7

5,000,000 Books to Asia

An economics seminar at Rikkyo University in Japan, one of 750 Japanese institutions so aided, using books supplied by the Foundation's Books project.

Book resources in the schools and libraries of Asia are a vital factor in the rapid social progress and improved educational standards that are sought throughout the continent. Through its Books for Asian Students project, The Asia Foundation has now distributed 5,000,000 books and 1,000,000 journals to thousands of Asian institutions, educators and other professional people.

Many sources have contributed to this Asia Foundation project. More than 600,000 books were donated to it by American publishing houses in the seventeen months ending in May, 1965. Others have included many American campus organizations, school systems, libraries, professional and civic societies, local groups and individuals.

The effectiveness of this project has depended in large measure on efficient

distribution systems established by The Asia Foundation Representatives in Asia. Most of the Foundation's offices in fourteen Asian countries maintain warehousing facilities with local staffs who can place books where they are needed and will be used. In some areas distribution is assisted by local Asian organizations. The Philippine Public School Teachers Association, for example, has been important to the project's success in that country.

The Foundation's Representatives also arrange special distribution efforts. In Japan, where books have been distributed to institutions in every Prefecture, the Foundation's office has conducted eleven regional exhibits at each of which more than 5,000 American books were displayed. These exhibits have been attended by thousands of Japanese educators.

Japanese Government
Presents Awards to
Foundation Couple

James L. Stewart, who recently returned to the San Francisco office of The Asia Foundation, and his wife Eleanor, have been decorated by the Japanese government for their contributions to Japan's cultural and civic activities during a five-year assignment with the Foundation's office in Tokyo. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stewart were born in Japan of American parents and speak fluent Japanese. They have been active in civic affairs in Tokyo and have made frequent appearances on Japanese language television programs.

Mr. Stewart, who went to Japan as the Foundation's Representative in 1960, has received the Third Class Order of the Rising Sun. His wife Eleanor has received the Fifth Class Order of the Precious Crown. The simultaneous decoration of a husband and wife is a rare event in Japan.

The Japanese government's award recognized Mr. Stewart's achievements in supervising the Foundation's program of support to a wide range of activities in education, scholarly research and publication, economic research and development, the fine arts and international affairs in Japan. For example, the Foundation's Books project, described in the adjoining columns, has sent almost one million books to Japan in the past ten years.

The Asia
Foundation

A Private Non-Profit
Organization

550 Kearny Street
San Francisco 8, Calif.

New York Office

200 East 42d Street

New York 17, New York

Program Bulletin No. 35

BERNARD M. BOUR, Editor

**Board of Trustees:** Russell G. Smith, Chairman; Stanley C. Allyn, Robert B. Anderson, Barry Bingham, Ellsworth Bunker, Arthur H. Dean, Mortimer Fleishhacker, Jr., A. Crawford Greene, R. Allen Griffin, Caryl P. Haskins, John N. Irwin II, Grayson L. Kirk, Turner H. McBaine, Walter H. Mallory, Robbins Milbank, Mrs. Maurice T. Moore, Lucian W. Pye, T. S. Petersen, Mrs. Henry P. Russell. Paul C. Smith, J. E. Wallace Sterling, Haydn Williams.

**Administration:** Haydn Williams, President; William J. Sheppard, Director of Administration; John F. Sullivan, Director of Programs; James J. Dalton, Director of Review and Development; Lyman Hoover, New York Representative.

**Representatives in Asia:** AFGHANISTAN, Gaston J. Sigur, Jr.; CAMBODIA, John A. Bannigan; CEYLON, James H. Noyes; HONG KONG, Edgar N. Pike; INDIA, Louis Lazaroff; JAPAN, Robert S. Schwantes; KOREA, David I. Steinberg; LAOS, William D. Evans (acting); MALAYSIA, William T. Fleming; PAKISTAN, William S. Metz; PHILIPPINES, Raymond V. Johnson; REPUBLIC OF CHINA (Taiwan), Walter Mallory-Browne; THAILAND, Graham J. Lucas; VIETNAM, Leonard C. Overton.