During the depths of World War II, in June 1943, the US submarine Gunnel was attacking Japanese shipping in the Korea Strait when she was spotted by three Japanese destroyers that immediately bore down on her.
There followed 36 hours of battle in which the Japanese dropped depth charges that exploded so close to the submarine that they nearly lifted the boat out of the water. A Japanese grappling hook at the end of a chain banged against the conning tower so loudly that, one submariner said, “it sounded like the chains of Marley’s ghost.”
The submarine, forced to surface to replenish its air, took fire from the guns of the destroyers, but torpedoed a destroyer as she dived to escape. (For a vivid account of this naval battle, see Gunnel’s log at: http://www.jmlavelle.com/gunnel/patrol2.htm).
In the midst of this life-or-death struggle, the submarine’s torpedo officer, Lieutenant Lloyd “Joe” Vasey, thought: “There has to be a better way to resolve disputes.”
He vowed that, if he survived, he would one day look for that “better way.”
Vasey’s conviction and aspiration eventually led to the founding of the Pacific Forum in Honolulu, a think tank that aims to persuade Americans that Asia is important to the security of the US, and equally, to persuade Asians that good relations with the US serves the best interests of everyone in the Asia-Pacific region.
Last week, Ralph Cossa, a retired Air Force colonel and president of the Pacific Forum, said that the forum had arranged 18 conferences and 14 seminars last year as it brought together US and Asian political, economic, military, academic, student and journalistic leaders to seek common ground — on a modest budget of US$2.5 million.
At the same time, the Pacific Forum honored its founder on his 95th birthday, with guests giving him a standing ovation for his vision of seeking “a better way” to resolve differences. (Full disclosure: This correspondent has been an adjunct fellow at Pacific Forum and a personal friend of Vasey for many years.)
After the war, Vasey rose steadily in rank and responsibility, culminating in three years as a rear admiral at the Pacific Command in Honolulu as the staff’s chief strategist and policy planner. The command’s leader, Admiral John McCain, had been skipper of the Gunnel in World War II and was the father of US Senator John McCain.
Thirty years after the battle with the Japanese destroyers, Vasey, now retired from the Navy and a consultant with Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, began seeking that “better way.” He arranged a seminar on economic development in Vietnam attended by business executives from Hawaii and the US mainland and Vietnamese leaders.
Two years later, he organized a symposium for 50 economists, business executives, and other specialists from 12 nations to examine “The emerging era of the Pacific.” Out of that came a call to establish a forum “for a continuing trans-Pacific private dialogue” among developed and developing nations.
The Scaife Family Charitable Trusts, which tends to support conservative causes, gave US$30,000 to Pepperdine to support Vasey’s initiative. The university added US$15,000 and Vasey became president of newly named Pacific Forum.
Over the next six months, he traveled throughout East Asia to meet with prominent politicians, acamedics and civic leaders whom he persuaded to accept the idea that problems should be seen from the perspective of every nation involved. This led to a network of 21 Asian and US research institutes collaborating with the Pacific Forum.
The Pacific Forum then began operating along what is known as Track II, which runs parallel to official negotiations. In a non-governmental venue, specialists, academics and government officials meet off the record to express personal views. Rarely, however, do officials wander from the party line either in democratic or authoritarian regimes.
Just as China started to emerge as an economic and political power, Vasey was invited in July 1982 by the Beijing Institute of International Strategic Studies to visit China. He brought along several others, including a former chief of naval operations, Admiral Thomas Hayward, and the distinguished Asia academic, Robert Scalapino.
In 1989, the Pacific Forum became affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. In essence, the Pacific Forum became the Pacific arm of the CSIS.
Philip Habib, chairman of the Pacific Forum board of governors and a former US ambassador to Korea, asserted that this was “designed to put both organizations at the forefront of Asia-Pacific policy formulation.”
In recent years, the Pacific Forum has included nearly 200 young Asians and Americans in its programs. In 20 to 25 years, they will be among the region’s leaders who, if Vasey’s vision holds, will seek “a better way” to resolve disputes than with guns and torpedoes.
Richard Halloran is a commentator based in Hawaii.
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