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Trilateral Commission

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The Trilateral Commission is a private organization, established to foster closer cooperation between America, Europe and Japan. It was founded in July 1973, at the initiative of David Rockefeller; who was Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations at that time. The Trilateral Commission is widely seen as a counterpart to the Council on Foreign Relations.[1] He pushed the idea of including Japan at the Bilderberg meetings he was attending but was rebuffed. Along with Zbigniew Brzezinski and a few other people, including individuals from the Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations and the Ford Foundation, he convened initial meetings out of which grew the Trilateral organization.

Other founding members included Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, both eventually heads of the Federal Reserve system.

History

Its first executive committee meeting was held in Tokyo in October 1973. In May 1976, the first plenary meeting of all of the Commission's regional groups took place in Kyoto, attended by Jimmy Carter.[2] Today it consists of approximatively 300–350 private citizens from Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and North America, and exists to promote closer political and economic cooperation between these areas, which are the primary industrial regions in the world.[3] Its official journal from its founding is a magazine called Trialogue.

Membership is divided into numbers proportionate to each of its three regional areas. These members include corporate CEOs, politicians of all major parties, distinguished academics, university presidents, labor union leaders and not-for-profits involved in overseas philanthropy. Members who gain a position in their respective country's government must resign from the Commission.

The organization has come under much scrutiny and criticism by political activists and academics working in the social and political sciences. The Commission has found its way into a number of conspiracy theories, especially when it became known that President Jimmy Carter appointed 26 former Commission members to senior positions in his Administration. Later it was revealed that Carter himself was a former Trilateral member. In the 1980 election, it was revealed that Carter and his two major opponents, John B. Anderson and George H. W. Bush, were also members, and the Commission became a campaign issue. Ronald Reagan supporters noted that he was not a Trilateral member, but after he was chosen as Republican nominee he chose Bush as his running mate; as president, he appointed a few Trilateral members to Cabinet positions and held a reception for the Commission in the White House in 1984. The conservative John Birch Society believes that the Trilateral Commission is dedicated to a one-world government.[4] In 1980, Holly Sklar released a book titled Trilateralism: the Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management.

Since many of the members were businesspeople or bankers, actions that they took or encouraged that helped the banking industry have been noted. Jeremiah Novak, writing in the July 1977 issue of Atlantic, said that after international oil prices rose when Nixon set price controls on American domestic oil, many developing countries were required to borrow from banks to buy oil: "The Trilaterists' emphasis on international economics is not entirely disinterested, for the oil crisis forced many developing nations, with doubtful repayment abilities, to borrow excessively. All told, private multinational banks, particularly Rockefeller's Chase Manhattan, have loaned nearly $52 billion to developing countries. An overhauled International Monetary Fund (IMF) would provide another source of credit for these nations, and would take the big private banks off the hook.This proposal is the cornerstone of the Trilateral plan."[5]

The North American continent is represented by 107 members (15 Canadian, seven Mexican and 85 U.S. citizens). The European group has reached its limit of 150 members, including citizens from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

At first, Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan. However, in 2000 the Japanese group of 85 members expanded itself, becoming the Pacific Asia group, composed of 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, seven Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also includes nine members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Membership

The three current chairmen are:

Some others who are or have been members:

See also

References

  1. ^ Berkman, Gene (1993). "The Trilateral Commission and the New World Order". antiwar.com. Retrieved 2007-12-01.
  2. ^ Trilateralism Jimmy Carter and the Trilateralists
  3. ^ Trilateralism Jimmy Carter and the Trilateralists
  4. ^ The Straight Dope: Is the Trilateral Commission the secret organization that runs the world?
  5. ^ The Trilateral Commission And The New World Order
  6. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard
  7. ^ The Trilateral Commission And The New World Order
  8. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard at www.lewrockwell.com
  9. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard
  10. ^ Power Financial Corporation - Board of Directors at www.powerfinancial.com
  11. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard
  12. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard
  13. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard
  14. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard at www.lewrockwell.com
  15. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard
  16. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard
  17. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard
  18. ^ Trilateralism Jimmy Carter and the Trilateralists
  19. ^ Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy by Murray N. Rothbard

Further reading

  • Memoirs by David Rockefeller, New York: Random House, 2002. Contains a brief history of the Commission's founding, composition of members and overall influence.
  • Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management by Holly Sklar, South End Press (November 1, 1980), 616 pages, ISBN 0-89608-103-6.
  • Trilaterals Over Washington, Vol. I and II by Antony C. Sutton and Patrick M. Wood, The August Corporation (1979/81), ISBN 0-933482-01-9.
  • American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission (Cambridge Studies in International Relations) (collective), Cambridge University Press (November 7, 1991), 318 pages, ISBN 0-521-42433-X.
  • The Rockefeller triangle: A country editor's documented report on the Trilateral Commission plan for world government by Bill Wilkerson, Idalou Beacon (1980), 44 pages, ASIN B0006E2ZE4.
  • Who's who of the elite: members of the Bilderbergs, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, and Skull & Bones Society by Robert Gaylon Ross. - 2nd revision. - San Marcos, Tex : RIE, 2000, ISBN 0-9649888-0-1.
  • Tous pouvoirs confondus : État, capital et médias à l'ère de la mondialisation by Geoffrey Geuens, EPO (15 March 2003), 470 pages, ISBN 2-87262-193-8.
  • "America and Europe" by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Foreign Affairs, 49:1 (October 1970), p.11-30; [Includes Brzezinski's proposal for the establishment of a body like the Trilateral Commission.]

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