{"id":108819,"date":"2020-11-19T18:13:45","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T01:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108819"},"modified":"2020-11-19T18:13:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T01:13:45","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c5a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/19\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c5a\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 C5a"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

US replaced\nBritain as the dominant power in the world when World War II ended.  The baton was transferred from UK to\nUSA.  For USA too, Sri Lanka was a highly\ndesirable country. It had two military advantages, its location in the Indian\nOcean and the harbor at Trincomalee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 However, Sri Lanka in 1948 was rejoicing in\nits newly independent statehood. It was not advisable for US to invade and take\nit over. USA concentrated instead on developing a close relationship with newly\nindependent Sri Lanka. Diplomatic relations with the United States of America\nwas established on 29 October 1948, with Sir Claude\nCorea as Ambassador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\ncontinued to consider Britain   as the\nmodel even after Independence. Therefore it was necessary first of all, to make\nSri Lanka aware of the USA.  USA set up\nthe United States Information Service (USIS) with cultural centers in Colombo,\nKandy and Jaffna. Each center had a substantial lending   library of American   books, especially fiction, as well as\nrecords of American music, especially musicals. American films were shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These Centers\nwere a valuable   source of American\nculture. They were free and were eagerly used by us, then seniors in school.\nSarath Amunugama in his biography, \u2018The Kandy Man\u2019, appreciatively recalls\nusing the American Center in Kandy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 These Centers would have been set up in Sri\nLanka sometime after 1953. The United States Information Agency (USIA) which administers\nthis in Washington was made a separate agency in 1953. Department of State\nadvised on foreign policy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USIS\nlibraries were expected to build   understanding\nof the United States as a nation, its institutions, culture and ideals, to create\nthe respect and confidence needed for the US to carry out its world role\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Centers\nin Kandy and Colombo were very active up to the 1980s, I visited them\nregularly. They had designated heads at the time, lots of staff, space, a\nregular supply of new books, journals and showed lovely films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1950s,\nthe US Information Centre distributed free to\nselect homes, an anti-Communist magazine \u2018Free World\u2019 which featured Southeast\nAsia. It said that Communism was bad and America was good. This was the time of\nthe Cold War between USA and Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka was\nalso given the very pleasing experience of authentic American culture.\nAmerican   artists were brought   on tour. Martha Graham Dance Company,\nincluding Martha Graham herself, performed in Colombo in 1956. I was taken to\nsee her dance. Graham did a lot of floor work. I remember that even now. J.H. Esterline\nsaid the performance appealed to the Colombo fine arts cognoscenti, \u2018which was\nexactly the opinion-setting audience we sought.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Golden\nGate quartet    visited in the late 1950s.\nMarian Anderson came in 1957.  These\nperformers sang in Colombo and Kandy to appreciative audiences.  I heard  \nthe Golden Gate quartet at the Kandy American Centre and I still recall\nit with pleasure. Forget what I thought of Marian Anderson.  I had never heard a contralto before. Duke\nEllington performed at University of Peradeniya in 1963.  The performance was well attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sport was not\nforgotten.  A team of American tennis\nplayers including Althea Gibson came to play exhibition tennis matches in\nColombo, in 1956. Gibson was the first African American to win the French, US,\nAustralian and Wimbledon championships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was\nAmerican aid. The Ford Foundation regional office in India, set up in 1952, served\nNepal and Sri Lanka as well. This Foundation later established\nan office in Colombo. The Ford Foundation was set up to help in economic\nimprovement, education, freedom and democracy, human behavior, and world peace.\n The US Agency for\nInternational Development (USAID) set up a branch in Colombo in 1956. This agency is still very active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US- Sri Lanka\nFulbright Commission was founded in 1952 by an agreement between the Government\nof the United States of America and the Government of Ceylon for the\nadministration of educational exchange programmes in Sri Lanka. The programmes\naimed to promote cultural understanding between the United States and Sri Lanka\nthrough mutual academic exchange. Fulbright scholarships were offered for\npostgraduate study in America. They were considered prestigious and much sought\nafter. Teachers from\nAmerican universities came to Peradeniya on assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\nstarted to receive flour under the PL\u2013480 (Public Law 480) programme in 1956. Public\nLaw 480 permitted the President of the USA to authorize the shipment of surplus\ncommodities to friendly\u201d nations, either on concessional or grant terms. USA\nnegotiated PL\u2013480 agreements with countries to stop them from accepting\nassistance from Communist countries. In 1972 \u2018Triposha\u2019 was provided under PL\n480. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA needed communication\nbases in Asia. In 1951 Ceylon signed an agreement with the US to relay Voice of\nAmerica (VOA) programmes over Radio Ceylon, which was then a popular radio station\nheard all over India.  In return Radio\nCeylon would get modern, new broadcasting equipment.  VOA used the facility to broadcast to all of\nAsia, including Central Asia.  Its first\nrelay station was in Ekala. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA quietly\nset the ground for future American intervention in Sri Lanka .Ceylonese who\ncould become future leaders in Ceylon were invited to visit the US at US\ngovernment expense. Each was given a custom made itinerary.  I recall that from the early 1950s,\nconversations in drawing rooms, on Sri Lanka politics, included the observation\nthat Trincomalee harbor could comfortably hold the 7th<\/sup> Fleet of the\nAmerican Navy, which was its Pacific fleet. This was repeated decade after\ndecade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nUS created an office for itself. An American NGO, CARE, had been invited by the\nUNP government to distribute milk powder. CARE was an acronym for Cooperative\nfor American Relief Everywhere\u2019.  A CARE\noffice, controlled by USA,   was set up to do this distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In 1956 when the MEP government came to power,\nPhilip Gunawardene objected to CARE distributing milk powder. It could be done\nby local agencies. What was the need\nfor CARE to set up an office here, for the mere supervision of the\ndistribution, he asked.  Why did the\nprevious government allow a voluntary organization to set up a branch office in\nCeylon. Philip had   tried to change the agreement,\nbut found that was not possible. \u2018I looked,\u2019 he said.  Philip was suspicious. \u2018I fear the Greeks even\nwhen they offer gifts \u2018\u2018<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

US\nobjected to the 1956 Rubber-Rice pact with China and promptly cut\noff aid to Sri Lanka, under its rule of not giving aid to countries that sold\nstrategic materials to Communist countries. USA also made France, Italy and\nJapan withhold their supply of sulphur\nfungicide, badly needed by Sri Lanka’s rubber\nplantations. US\nhad earlier turned down a request from Ceylon for a 50 million dollar aid.   J.R.Jaywardene, known as Yankee Dickie\u201d,\nsupported the US viewpoint and strongly opposed the Rubber-Rice Pact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Peace\nCorp of the USA kept coming and going. Peace Corps was in Sri Lanka 1962\u20131964,\n1967\u20131970, 1983\u20131998. Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike kicked them out after\nshe became Prime Minister in 1970. The US Peace\nCorps volunteers were booted out in 1970 as CIA agents\u201d, said analysts. They\ncame back in 1983  and were sent away in\n1998.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Peace\nCorps evolved from a CIA front known as the International Voluntary\nServices   during preparations for the\nwar against Vietnam. The US Peace Corps has been expelled from a number of\ncountries for spying for the CIA, meddling in local politics, and running drugs. Indonesia ordered them out in 1965, after 16\nmonths.  Pakistan and India refused to\nrenew approval of PC projects in their countries in the early 1970s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, US\nnever really made inroads in Sri Lanka like it did in the rest of Asia said\nanalysts.  Left-wing parties saw to that. The Voice of America relay station in Sri\nLanka was called a US propaganda tool beaming to Asia. PL 480 was dubbed a\ntrick to get the people to eat American bread rather than rice.   When\nthe UNP Government of 1965-70 was invited to join the US-led ASEAN (Association\nof South East Asian Nations), the left objected and Prime Minister Dudley\nSenanayake bowed to the left wing opposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially,\nUS did not need to worry about Sri Lanka\u2019s political orientation. The first\nPrime Ministers of Ceylon, DS Senanayake and John Kotelawala were openly anti-Communist\nand anti-Russia. The situation changed with the MEP government of 1956.The MEP\ngovernment established   diplomatic relations\nwith Russia and China.  The US had to\nintervene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1960s was\nmarked by a proliferation of underground political violent movements among the\nSinhala youth  such as Gini pupura and\nPeradiga Sulanga, said Gamini Samaranayake   . These\nwere splinter groups from CP or LSSP. At least one of these groups later showed\nallegiance to the USA, therefore there is the possibility that there was US interference\nin this area, he said.   1970 saw the rise of the JVP. The JVP was CIA,\nsaid NM Perera. It was alleged that Rohana Wijeweera was recruited by America\nwhen he was studying in Russia. (continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS US replaced Britain as the dominant power in the world when World War II ended.  The baton was transferred from UK to USA.  For USA too, Sri Lanka was a highly desirable country. It had two military advantages, its location in the Indian Ocean and the harbor at Trincomalee.  However, Sri Lanka in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}