An airline at the crossroads of the world: Ariana Afghan Airlines, modernization, and the global Cold War
2009; Routledge; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07341510802618158
ISSN1477-2620
Autores Tópico(s)African history and culture studies
ResumoAbstract In 1957, the United States government provided funding for Pan American World Airways to purchase a 49% share in Afghanistan's national airline, Ariana Afghan Airlines. While unusual in its scope, the arrangement was part of a broader program of US technical assistance, administered jointly by government agencies and private corporations, to newly formed airlines in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Between 1955 and 1965, technical assistance for commercial aviation was critical to the USA's Cold War strategy to win 'hearts and minds,' and to contain Soviet influence, in the developing world. Using Ariana as a case study, this article examines what was at stake for the USA – politically, economically, and culturally – in aviation technical assistance projects. However, the article also argues that such projects should be seen as instances of 'co‐production,' in which recipients of technical assistance exploited superpower rivalries and actively shaped the airplane's uses and meanings. Keywords: aviationairlinesAfghanistanAriana Afghan AirlinesPan American World AirwaysCold WarState Departmentdevelopmentmodernizationforeign relations Notes 1. Santala, 'Airports,' 300–8. 2. Heymann, 'Civil Aviation,' 5–11. 3. Cullather, 'Miracles of Modernization,' 230. 4. Adas, Dominance by Design, 129–84. See also Nye, America as Second Creation; and Carroll Pursell, Machine in America, esp. 155–78. 5. See Simpson, Universities and Empire; and Schrecker, No Ivory Tower. 6. On modernization's relation to previous developmentalist discourses, see Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men, 402–18; and Rist, History of Development. For an intellectual and institutional genealogy of modernization, see Gilman, Mandarins of the Future. On Rostow and his influence on US foreign policy, see Haefele, 'Walt Rostow's Stages,' 81–107. 7. See Cullather, 'Development? It's History.' 8. See Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men; Scott, Seeing Like a State; Escobar, Encountering Development; Latham, Modernization as Ideology. Escobar uses the Foucauldian term 'discourse' instead of 'ideology,' but, like the previous authors, he argues that modernization and development projects were mechanisms of control that enabled the United States and Europe to dominate the rest of the world after the formal abolition of colonialism. 9. Mitchell, Rule of Experts. 10. Cullather, 'Damming Afghanistan.' 11. See the essays by Mahoney, Engerman, Koschmann, and Brazinsky in Engerman et al., Staging Growth, 165–274. See also Engerman, Modernization from the Other Shore. 12. The term 'American Century,' used to describe the USA's twentieth‐century ascendance to global power, comes from publisher Henry Luce's highly influential February 1941 Life editorial, 'The American Century.' 13. De Grazia, Irresistible Empire, 3. On the importance of markets to US global expansion, see also Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream; Smith, American Empire; Maier, Among Empires; and Hunt, American Ascendancy. The role of aviation in constructing and sustaining the US market empire is explored in depth in Van Vleck, 'No Distant Places.' 14. Scott, Seeing Like a State. 15. Aside from its interest in the history of nuclear weapons, diplomatic history has remained largely detached from the history of technology, in spite of its recent engagement with other fields such as cultural history and environmental history – and in spite of Walter LaFeber's 1999 presidential address to the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), in which he urged diplomatic historians to pay closer attention to technology, 'this force that has so largely shaped the past 150 years.' (LaFeber, 'Technology and U.S.,' 2.) Still, the most recent edition of diplomatic history's bible, Hogan and Paterson, Explaining the History, contains no chapter on technology, even though subjects of equivalent importance, like psychology and public opinion, do merit chapter‐length treatments. However, perhaps as a sign that times are changing, technology is the subject of several acclaimed recent monographs by younger diplomatic historians. See Winkler, Nexus; Engel, Cold War at 30,000 Feet; and Nickles, Under the Wire. 16. Krige, American Hegemony, 4–6. See also Jasanoff, States of Knowledge. 17. US Embassy, Kabul, 'U.S. News Bulletin,' 18 April 1957 and 5 June 1957, Folder 8, Box 205, Series I, Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records (hereafter PAWA), Special Collections Division, Otto G. Richter Library, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. 18. There are several book‐length histories of Pan Am, although most are written by former employees and therefore highly uncritical. The most comprehensive among these is Bender and Altschul, The Chosen Instrument. 19. Davies, History of the World's Airlines, 150. 20. A 'chosen instrument' is a private enterprise that the government has entrusted to implement public policy. See Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream, 59. 21. War Department Contract No. W‐1097‐eng‐2321, 'War Department – Pan American Airport Development Program,' 2 November 1940, Folder 17, Box 15, Series I, PAWA. 'The Airport Development of Pan American Airways'; Executive System Memoranda No. 52, 16 November 1940, Folder 10, Box 15, Series I, PAWA. Undated PAA memo on ADP contracts and charges, Folder 6, Box 6, Series II, PAWA. L.P. O'Connor to Samuel F. Pryor, 1 June 1944, Folder 6, Box 132, Series I, PAWA. 22. 'The Airport Development Program of Pan American Airways,' undated report, Folder 6, Box 132, Series II, PAWA. 23. 'Inter‐American Cooperation Builds Strategic Air Field,' sample story released to South American press, no date, Folder 10, Box 259, Series I, PAWA. On US aviation development in Latin America prior to World War II, see Newton, Perilous Sky. 24. Serling, Howard Hughes' Airline, 124–9, 299–301. 25. US Embassy Jidda to State Department, 8 July 1946, 890F.796/7‐846, Central Decimal File, Records of the Staet Department, Record Group 59 (hereafter RG 59), National Archives and Records Administration (hereafter NARA), College Park, Maryland. 26. Dean Acheson to Robert P. Patterson, 9 August 1946, 890F.796/8‐246, RG 59, NARA. 27. State Department Circular Airgram, 11 March 1948, 800.796A/3‐1148, RG 59, NARA. 28. Harry S Truman, Inaugural address, 20 January 1949, www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/50yr_archive/inagural20jan1949.htm (accessed September 5, 2008). 29. 'TAP Spurs Airlines' Growth,' The Clipper, May 1958, Folder 6, Box 254, Series I, PAWA. 30. Publicity brochure, 'The Technical Assistance Program in the Air,' undated [1958]; press release, 'Private Enterprise "Point Four" Aids Underdeveloped Countries,' October 28, 1957, Folder 6, Box 254, Series I, PAWA. 31. Roger Lewis, 'TAP, Guided Missiles, and IHC,' notes for speech at NYC System Public Relations meeting, March 1958; 'TAP Spurs Airlines' Growth,' The Clipper, May 1958, Folder 6, Box 254, Series I, PAWA. 32. Wolfgang Langewiesche, 'The Middle East Over the Wingtip,' Harper's, January 1949, 85–93. 33. Heymann, 'Soviet Role in International.' 34. On the meanings of aviation in Russian culture, see Palmer, Dictatorship of the Air. While the book does not cover the postwar years, Palmer's abundantly documented analysis offers many suggestive insights into the cultural and ideological sources of Khrushchev's aviation policies. 35. Dulles to US Embassies in Athens and Ankara, 31 July 1953, 961.5200/7‐3153; US Embassy Ankara to State Department, 11 August 1953, 961.5282/8‐1153, RG 59, NARA. 36. Air Transport Association of America, 'Red Star into the West,' 1959, 911.7261/1‐458, RG 59, NARA. 37. Clifton Daniel, 'Moscow Air Show Unveils 4‐Jet Transport‐Airliner,' New York Times, July 4, 1955; Stanley Johnson, 'Soviet Bids for Airline Supremacy,' Washington Post, March 25, 1956; 'Soviet Jet Liner Hailed in Britain,' New York Times, March 24, 1956. 38. State Department Instruction CA‐8190, 'United States Proposal for Common Policy with Respect to Civil Relations with USSR and European Satellite Countries,' 21 March 1958, 961.7200/3‐2158, RG 59, NARA. 39. On the Cold War in the Third World, see, for example, Westad, Global Cold War. 40. Heymann, 'Soviet Role in International.' 41. 'Russia's Jet Marks Bid to Build World Airline,' Business Week, September 14, 1957, 95. 42. Davies, Airlines of Asia, 84–5. 43. US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 17 February 1951, 989.52/2‐1751; 25 March 1952, 989.52/3‐2552; and 22 November 1952, 989.52/11‐2252; US Embassy Cairo to State Department, 31 March 1952, 989.52/3‐3152, RG 59, NARA. 44. US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 31 October 1950, 989.52/10‐3150, RG 59, NARA. 45. US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 20 May 1953, 989.52/5‐2053, RG 59, NARA. 46. Dupree, Afghanistan, 493–4. 47. Ibid., 507. 48. Ibid., 482–5, 499–507; Cullather, 'Damming Afghanistan,' 515–20, 527–8. 49. See Dupree, 'Emergence of Technocrats.' 50. Dupree, Afghanistan, 485–94. 51. Davies, Airlines of Asia, 85. Telegram, US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 10 March 1955, 989.72/3‐955; US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 26 July 1955, 989.72/7‐2655, RG 59, NARA. 52. Telegram, State Department to US Embassies in Kabul and Karachi, 3 March 1955, 982.72/30355, RG 59, NARA. 53. US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 24 May 1956, 989.72/5‐2456, RG 59, NARA. 54. Telegram, US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 10 March 1955, 989.72/3‐955, RG 59, NARA. 55. Telegram, US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 27 April 1956, 989.72/4‐2656, RG 59, NARA. Memorandum, Roger Lewis to Juan Trippe, 18 April 1956, Folder 15, Box 728, Series II, PAWA. 56. Telegrams, US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 29 April 1956, 989.72/4‐2856, and 30 April 1956, 989.72/4‐3056, RG 59, NARA. 'Air Transport Development Project, PPA 06‐37‐036,' May 1956, Folder 15, Box 728, Series II, PAWA. 57. Joint ICA‐State Department Cablegram to US Embassy Kabul, 8 May 1956, 989.72/5‐856, RG 59, NARA. 58. Thorsten V. Kalijarvi to Acting Secretary of State, 29 November 1956, 900.72/11‐2956; memorandum of conversation, 'Pan American Airways Participation in Ownership of Foreign Airlines,' 1 February 1957, 911.72/2‐157, RG 59, NARA. 59. Herbert V. Prochnow to James R. Durfee, 2 July 1956, 911.7200‐PAA/7‐256; Prochnow to Durfee, 7 August 1956, 911.7200‐PAA‐7/256, RG 59, NARA. 60. 'Agreement between Aryana Airlines Co. Ltd. and Pan American World Airways, Inc.,' 17 April 1957, Folder 1, Box 678, Series II, PAWA. 'Air Transport Development: Afghanistan,' 3 June 1960, Folder 15, Box 728, Series II, PAWA. 61. Telegrams, US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 26 January 1957, 989.72/1‐2557 and 1 February 1957, 989.72/1‐3157, RG 59, NARA. Weston B. Drake to John Piri, 6 February 1957, Folder 15, Box 278, Series I, PAWA; 'Review of Pan Am Status – Ariana,' 27 November 1979, Folder 1, Box 678, Series II, PAWA. 62. 'Air Transport Development Project, PPA 06‐37‐036.' 63. Dupree, Afghanistan, 494–5. 64. US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 9 January 1957, 989.72/1‐957, RG 59, NARA. 65. US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 17 September 1957, 989.72/9‐1757 and 26 November 1957, 989.72/11‐2657, RG 59. 66. Davies, Airlines of Asia, 86. Photographs of Ariana's Frankfurt office, March 1960, Folder 18, Box 728, Series II, PAWA. 67. Ariana Afghan Airlines, 'Ariana Afghan Airlines: A Short History,' 1974, Folder F1A‐612000‐01, Air Transport Files, National Air and Space Museum Library, Washington, DC. 'TAP in Action: Profile of a Partnership – Wings Over Afghanistan,' undated [1962], Folder 8, Box 205, Series I, PAWA. 68. 'Review of Pan Am Status—Ariana.' 69. 'Technical Cooperation in the Field of Air Transportation,' April 1967, Folder 18, Box 216, Series I, PAWA. 70. Memorandum of Conversation, 15 April 1959, 989.72/4‐1559, RG 59, NARA. 71. Pan American World Airways press release, 'Dade Countians Helping Afghans Build an Airline,' no date, Folder 17, Box 380, Series I, PAWA. 72. Clippings of these and other stories: Folder 8, Box 205, Series I, PAWA. 73. 'Camels to Airliners,' Clearwater Sun, 21 December 1958, Folder 17, Box 380, Series I, PAWA. 74. 'Dade Countians,' see note 71. 75. Cynthia Enloe's comment on gender relations at US military bases – 'The normalcy that sustains a military base in a local community rests on ideas about masculinity and femininity' – could also be applied to Pan Am's foreign compounds. Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, 67. 76. Jane Kilbourne to Mrs R.W. Beecher, 29 October 1959; Roger Lewis to Faiz Mohamed Ahmedzai, 10 November 1959, Folder 10, Box 528, Series II, PAWA. 'Wives Add Sewing to TAP Curriculum,' Overseas Clipper, April 1960, Folder 8, Box 205, Series I, PAWA. Pan American World Airways press release, 'Afghan Women Now Sew Western Styles,' March 9, 1961, Folder 17, Box 380, Series I, PAWA. 77. Dupree, Afghanistan, 530–3. 78. Frank Swayze to Roger Lewis, 7 July 1959; Roger Lewis to Faiz Mohamed Ahmedzai, 20 July 1959; Faiz Mohamed Ahmedzai to Roger Lewis, 24 October 1959, Folder 10, Box 528, Series II, PAWA. 79. Address of Abdul Karim Hakimi, Acting President of the Department of Civil Aviation, Kabul Radio, 29 August 1958, enclosure in US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 1 October 1958, 989.72/10‐158, RG 59, NARA. 80. Bakhtar, 29 June 1959, quoted in US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 11 August 1959, 989.724/8‐1159, RG 59, NARA. 81. Davies, Airlines of Asia, 86. 82. US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 14 May 1957, 989.72/5‐1457, RG 59, NARA. 83. Telegram, US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 21 May 1958, 989.72/5‐1958; State Department Instruction to US Embassy Kabul, 19 September 1958, 989.72/9‐1958, RG 59, NARA. 84. State Department Instruction to US Embassy Kabul, 21 June 1957, 989.72/6‐2157; US Embassy Kabul to State Department, 14 October 1958, 989.72/10‐1458, RG 59, NARA. 85. Telegram, State Department to US Embassies in Kabul, Tehran, Karachi, and Ankara, 30 January 1959, 989.72/1‐3059; cablegram, ICA to U.S. Embassy Kabul, 6 March 1959, 989.72/3‐259, RG 59, NARA. 86. Dupree, Afghanistan, 511. 87. Roger Lewis to Norman P. Seagrave, 17 April 1959, Folder 9, Box 528, Series II, PAWA. 88. Dupree, Afghanistan, 637–41. 89. Heymann, 'Civil Aviation,' 20, 26, 33–34. 90. 'Ariana Afghan Airlines: A Short History.' 91. 'Review of Pan Am Status – Ariana.' 92. Roger Lewis, 'TAP, Guided Missiles, and IHC.' 93. Heymann, 'Civil Aviation,' 19. 94. According to most estimates, some 1.5 million Afghanis lost their lives during the conflict; at least 6 million became refugees, with most fleeing to Pakistan and Iran. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s.v. 'Afghan War,' http://britannica.com/ (accessed October 31, 2008). 95. 'Many Workers for Afghan Airline Defect to the West,' New York Times, September 16, 1980. 96. C.J. David Davies to Dr Mehrabuddin Paktiawal, 10 January 1984, Folder 8, Box 205, Series I, PAWA. 97. Davies, Airlines of Asia, 88. 98. Ariana Afghan Airlines www.flyariana.com (accessed September 5, 2008).
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