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Spinning a Larger Web
Monday, October 4, 2004
By John F. McManus
The Trilateral blueprint for shaping a community of the developed nations of North America, Western Europe and Japan has been extended to other parts of the globe.
When it was formed in 1973, the Trilateral Commission’s benign-sounding purposes included gathering prominent Western Europeans, North Americans, and Japanese to promote the "enhancement of cooperative relations," "analysis of major issues," and "the development [and] endorsement of proposals on questions of vital mutual interest." Nothing in its initial literature mentioned world government, but this has been the underlying purpose of the Trilateral Commission (TC) from its outset.
A great deal can be learned from knowing who initiated this new organization, who had sufficient clout to gather into its fold the movers and shakers of these major industrialized regions, and who supplied its finances. The name of David Rockefeller figures in every aspect of the TC. Because nothing this man has touched in his 80-plus years has been good for national independence or personal freedom, it would be ridiculous to expect the TC to be anything but another Establishment-spun web to entrap mankind.
Rockefeller is the consummate advocate of world government whose vast wealth and influence — along with that of his family — have launched, promoted or funded virtually every 20th century step on the way to global tyranny. It was the Rockefeller Foundation and allies at the like-minded Ford, Kettering and other money spigots that fueled TC from its outset.
From only 187 members at its launching, Trilateral membership in mid-2004 has swelled to 379 bankers, politicians, corporate bigwigs, media heavyweights, labor leaders, academics and even some clergymen. With three original regions, it has branched out and now claims adherents from all parts of Europe, a Mexican contingent added to the North American group, a restructured Japanese section that now includes virtually every Asian country, and a new coterie of go-along-to-get-along world planners listed under the heading "Participants from Other Areas."
The Beginning
The TC’s blueprint was created in 1970 by Columbia University Professor Zbigniew Brzezinski, who would go on to become the organization’s first director and President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser. That blueprint was his 334-page book, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era. Therein, Brzezinski praised Marxism as "the best available insight into contemporary reality," claimed that the United States had descended into "obsolescence," called for "management of America’s future [with the] planner as the key social legislator and manipulator," and fretted about a "resurgence of nationalism." Brzezinski then prescribed "piecemeal" creation of "a larger community of the developed nations … through a variety of indirect ties and already developing limitations on national sovereignty."
More specifically, Brzezinski recommended "the forging of community links among the United States, Western Europe, and Japan," then extending these to other "more advanced countries," and later bringing on board "more advanced communist countries." On the next-to-last page of his text, he lamented that the community of nations he hoped for was less ambitious "than the goal of world government" — which obviously was his ultimate desire.
Already a member of the David Rockefeller-led Council on Foreign Relations, Brzezinski’s book helped his star rise dramatically. In 1972, Rockefeller emissary W. Michael Blumenthal broached the Brzezinski plan at the Rockefeller-led Bilderberger meeting. At these annual conferences, over one hundred powerful individuals from Western Europe and the U.S. convene secretly to decide how the world should be managed. The brethren at this gathering in Belgium gave thumbs up to the proposal that became the TC.
Brzezinski then authored a 20-page article entitled "U.S. Policy: The Search for Focus" in the July 1973 issue of Foreign Affairs, the prestigious journal of the Council on Foreign Relations. In it, he repeatedly attacked "isolationism" as "a suicidal policy," promoted the need for "global interdependence … as the inescapable reality of our time," and again called for "shaping a more stable and socially progressively world [by linking] the United States, Western Europe and Japan." Terming his proposal "trilateral cooperation," he urged that it include 1) annual trilateral cabinet meetings, 2) a standing secretariat, 3) consultations with states outside the formal trilateral group, and 4) regular three-way meetings of respective government officials. All of this became reality in the form of the Trilateral -Commission.
Later in July 1973, Rockefeller tapped Brzezinski as the director of his new creation, with George S. Franklin, former executive director of the CFR, as its secretary. Of the initial 58 U.S. members announced in November 1973, 35 were also members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Noteworthy names appearing on the TC’s first roster included Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, W. Michael Blumenthal, Harold Brown and Cyrus Vance. At the time, Jimmy Carter was virtually unknown outside his home state of Georgia. But when he threw his hat into the national political arena, he soon went from "Jimmy Who?" to "Mr. President" and then chose Vice President Mondale, Treasury Secretary Blumenthal, Defense Secretary Brown, Secretary of State Vance, and national security adviser Brzezinski. Another 15 TC members won posts in the Carter administration.
George Franklin would later confirm that, prior to winning the Democratic nomination and the presidency in 1976, Carter had benefited greatly from two main "mentors," Zbigniew Brzezinski and Richard N. Gardner, both veteran members of the Council on Foreign Relations. During the very period when he was mentoring the future president, Gardner issued his infamous call in the July 1974 issue of Foreign Affairs for "an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece."
Also in 1974, the TC issued a report entitled "The Crisis of Democracy," recommending "centralized economic and social planning," "centralization of power within Congress," "a program … to lower the job expectations of those who receive a college education," and a variety of "limitations on freedom of the press [including] regulation by the government."
During the Carter administration (1977-1981), many Americans became alarmed about the Trilateralist takeover and the organization’s plans for mankind. Responding to a query about the TC’s influence, CFR President Winston Lord, a member also of TC, quipped in 1978: "The Trilateral Commission doesn’t secretly run the world. The Council on Foreign Relations does that." And Senator Barry Goldwater’s 1979 book With No Apologies concluded: "What the Trilaterals truly intend is the creation of worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved.... As managers and creators of the system they will rule the future."
Persistent fears among Americans about TC led the GOP’s 1980 candidate, Ronald Reagan, to attack incumbent President Carter’s foreign policy. As reported in the February 8, 1980 New York Times, the former California governor pointed out that "19 key members of the administration are or have been members of the Trilateral Commission." Pressed by reporters to support his charge, Reagan named Carter, Mondale, Vance, Brown and 15 others. Two months later, he told the Christian Science Monitor that he would shun the policies of David Rockefeller’s TC.
Nevertheless, Reagan hosted David Rockefeller at a September 1980 "Prelude To Victory" party at his rented Virginia estate in Middleburg, Virginia. Evidently no longer concerned about David Rockefeller’s creation, Reagan had already chosen Trilateral veteran George H.W. Bush as his running mate. After winning the election, he chose Trilateralist Caspar Weinberger to be his secretary of defense — even though Reagan strategist Edwin Meese had earlier charged TC influence with causing a "softening" of our nation’s defenses.
Ronald Reagan was followed in the White House by Trilateralist George H.W. Bush and Trilateralist Bill Clinton. George W. Bush has never held membership in the TC but his chief mentor, Vice President Richard Cheney, is another Trilateralist, as are Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. During the years since the creation of the TC, Paul Volcker and Allan Greenspan, both Trilateralists, have managed the nation’s economic life as chairmen of the Federal Reserve.
Spreading the TC’s Wings
At the beginning of the new millennium, Brzezinski saw the original Trilateral areas expanded to include "more advanced countries." Representatives from many other nations in Europe were tapped, adding to the original nine European nations (UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Ireland and the Netherlands).
The August 2004 Trilateral membership, now nearly 400 strong, lists members and former members in public service from Greece, Portugal, Czech Republic, Spain, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland and Estonia. None of these individuals — like their counterparts in other countries — are inconsequential. They are bankers, political leaders, media heavyweights, ambassadors, former prime ministers, union heads and corporation leaders.
An even more dramatic TC expansion occurred since the start of the new millennium with the addition of numerous Asian nations to the group formerly made up only of Japanese. While the "Pacific Asian Group" is still dominated by 60 from Japan, 35 newer members hail from Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and Singapore.
Another 14 more nations are represented by 24 individuals who are categorized as "Participants from Other Areas." These new Trilateralists come from Kuwait, Morocco, Argentina, Taiwan, Turkey, Israel, Hong Kong, South Africa, Jordan, Ukraine, Uruguay, China, Russia and Brazil. With the exception of most of Africa and a few Middle Eastern nations, hardly any country has been left out.
Has the Trilateral Commission altered the plans of its creators? The answer, best gleaned by looking at its membership list, is an unqualified "No." Founder Brzezinski remains as one of 12 Executive Committee members from North America, and David Rockefeller is listed as the organization’s "Founder, Honorary Chairman and Lifetime Trustee." One of the leaders, Georges Berthoin, served as European Secretary from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s. He is now listed as Honorary European Chairman.
Current U.S. members working for the world government goal include Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, former House Speaker Thomas Foley, CFR President Richard Haass, Wall Street Journal Publisher Karen Elliott House, Washington Post Company Chairman Donald Graham, former FBI Director William Webster, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Senators Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), and House members Jane Harman (Calif.), Dick Gephardt (Mo.), Jim Leach (Iowa), Doug Bereuter (Neb.) and Charles Rangel (N.Y.). Most of these TC members are also CFR members.
When the TC began in 1973, 60 percent of its 58 U.S. members held membership also in the Council on Foreign Relations, one of David Rockefeller’s other projects. As of 2004, 70 percent of the 82 U.S. members are CFR members. If the subversive agenda advanced by these individuals and their organizations is not more widely exposed and opposed — their long-sought-after goal of world government may indeed become a reality.
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