Bonum Certa Men Certa

IBM and the Bomb - Part VI: Diplomacy Replaced With 'Trade' (Money Over Politics), or How Watson Jr. Was Sold to the Public, in the Same Way His Father (IBM Co-founder) Sold His Business Relationship With Dictators Like Hitler



Final part, shades of IBM's "final solution" profiteering

'World Peace Through World Trade' -president of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and also IBM co-founder



Summary: Sometimes people are led to believe that corporations directly and indirectly run their country; judging by the events of 4 decades ago (IBM chief becoming the American representative in Russia/Soviet Union), this is hardly a new thing and it's not a myth, either

THE DETAILS surrounding Watson Jr. and his appointment inside the US government were covered again in part 4 ("IBM's Watson Came Under Fire for Representing the U.S. in U.S.S.R./Russia With No Qualifications or Any Relevant Experience"; see also introduction; part 1; part 2; part 3). Like his brother, it was about money, not skills. They were just born into a very wealthy family. That's their supposed skill. They then repeated their father's error.



This isn't an unusual thing by the way. "That would be a violation of the Logan Act," Ryan explained. But who's even enforcing it?

Personal wealth means loyalty to one's business rather than loyalty to one's country.

"Personal wealth means loyalty to one's business rather than loyalty to one's country."The Logan Act, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors (most recently Michael Ray), says: "Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects."

The background to this was unrelated to Russia. It was about France. "During the 1790s tensions were high between the United States and France," it says. "In 1778 France had formally allied itself with the 13 American colonies and French military and financial support was critical to the success of the American Revolution. As the French Revolution intensified and the ancien régime was swept aside in 1789, France’s Revolutionary government looked to the United States for support. As the powers of Europe moved to stifle France’s attempts to export its revolution, factions within the cabinet of U.S. Pres. George Washington advocated a range of responses to the French Revolutionary wars. Washington wished to adhere to a policy of strict neutrality between the belligerents, while treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton sought closer ties with Britain. Secretary of state Thomas Jefferson, who had just returned from a five-year mission in Paris, promoted a pro-French policy under the terms of the 1778 treaty. In the end, Hamilton’s Federalists carried the debate, and the French were incensed when the United States passed the Jay Treaty in 1794. The treaty smoothed relations and expanded commercial ties with Britain. France, interpreting this as a violation of the 1778 treaty, placed an embargo on U.S. merchant ships and detained the seamen. [...] In order to stave off war, statesman George Logan traveled to France in 1798 as a private citizen to meet with government officials. Although he successfully concluded a pact whereby France ceased all detrimental actions against U.S. merchant ships, he was criticized upon his return to the United States. Political opponents called his acts treasonous. On January 30, 1799, the Logan Act was thus passed by the U.S. Congress to prevent any individual from corresponding with a foreign government without permission from the U.S. government. The Logan Act has been used in only one indictment (in the early 19th century), but that case was never prosecuted."

"Does money solve everything? Does trade overcome all issues and transcend tensions? Ask Watson the father how his business relationships with the Nazi Party turned out."According to media which Bill Gates has been paying, Gates is a virus expert and is also a techie. Sure, he has no degree in that area and he broke the law in that area to compensate for lack of technical edge. That same media tells us that he's an economist because his dad was rich and his mom came from a banking dynasty. We made a meme about it last night.

Does money solve everything? Does trade overcome all issues and transcend tensions? Ask Watson the father how his business relationships with the Nazi Party turned out.

Here's a document we found some days ago:

appointment-1

appointment-2

appointment-3

appointment-4

Notice how, in part 3, the rejection of Watson is being rejected. It says that the "New York Times published United Press International report that Averell Harriman, in his congressional testimony yesterday, endorsed Thomas Watson as ambassador to USSR. Harriman said IBM executive would help improve relations by promoting trade."

The magic of "trade"; To quote Wikipedia, regarding his father (same name): "Throughout his life, Watson maintained a deep interest in international relations, from both a diplomatic and a business perspective. He was known as President Roosevelt's unofficial ambassador in New York and often entertained foreign statesmen. In 1937, he was elected president of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and at that year's biennial congress in Berlin stated the conference keynote to be "World Peace Through World Trade". That phrase became the slogan of both the ICC and IBM."

This is then followed by this section:

Dealings with Nazi Germany before World War Two

Watson's merger of diplomacy and business was not always lauded. In 1937 Watson met Adolf Hitler in his capacity as President of the International Chamber of Commerce[14][15]. During the 1930s, IBM's German subsidiary was its most profitable foreign operation, and a 2001 book by Edwin Black, IBM and the Holocaust, proves that Watson's pursuit of profit led him to personally approve and spearhead IBM's strategic technological relationship with Nazi Germany. It describes how IBM provided the tabulating equipment Hitler used to round up the Jews. His Hollerith punch-card machines are in the Holocaust Museum today. The book describes IBM's punch cards as "a card with standardized holes", each representing a different trait of the individual. The card was fed into a "reader" and sorted. Punch cards identified Jews by name. Each one served as "a nineteenth-century bar code for human beings".[16] In particular, critics point to the Order of the German Eagle medal that Watson received at the Berlin ICC meeting in 1937, as evidence that he was being honored for the help that IBM's German subsidiary Dehomag (Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH) and its punch card machines provided the Nazi regime, particularly in the tabulation of census data (i.e. location of Jews). Another study argues that Watson believed, perhaps naively, that the medal was in recognition of his years of labor on behalf of global commerce and international peace.[6] Within a year of the Berlin congress though, where Watson's hopes had run high, he found himself strongly protesting the German policy toward the Jews.


So "World Peace Through World Trade" didn't work out too well, did it?

Here we go again with "IBM executive would help improve relations [with another nuclear superpower] by promoting trade." Highlighted below:

1. ROBERT KAISER OF WASHINGTON POST SAID AVERELL HARRIMAN'S APPEARANCE YESTERDAY WAS "THEATRICAL HIGH POINT" OF SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE HEARINGS ON SALT TREATY. KAISER SAID HARRIMAN, WHO TESTIFIED IN FAVOR OF TREATY, MADE HIS POINTS WITH CONVICTION AND STRONG VOICE, AND UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIEDSTATE 188113

ANSWERED QUESTIONS WITH INTELLECTUAL AND POLITICAL AGILITY. HARRIMAN TOLD COMMITTEE THERE WAS NOTHING ABOUT SOVIET SYSTEM THAT HE LIKED, BUT HE NEVERTHELESS WAS CERTAIN SOVIET LEADERS WERE INTERESTED IN AVOIDING WAR AND IN ARMS CONTROL AGREEMENTS. COMMITTEE ALSO HEARD TESTIMONY FROM FORMER UNDER SECRETARIES OF STATE GEORGE BALL AND EUGENE ROSTOW. BALL SAID NATO ALLIES WANTED SALT TWO APPROVED, KAISER

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014 REPORTED. -ROSTOW SAID THEY WOULD WELCOME ITS REJECTION IF THAT WAS ACCOMPANIED BY AN AGGRESSIVE NEW U.S. FOREIGN AND DEFENSE POLICY. 2. RICHARD BURT OF NEW YORK TIMES REPORTED ON ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINKI "STRUGGLE FOR PREEMINENCE IN FOREIGN POLICY," QUOTING STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL AS SAYING "HE'S NOW MOST INFLUENTIAL GUY AROUND." BURT SAID SOME OBSERVERS, INCLUDING SOME OF BRZEZINSKI'S FORMER ADVERSARIES IN STATE DEPARTMENT, BELIEVE THAT, IF CARTER IS REELECTED, BRZEZINSKI STANDS GOOD CHANCE OF REPLACING VANCE. BURT SAID AN AIDE CLOSE TO VANCE POINTED OUT THAT BRZEZINSKI, ONCE SEEMINGLY SKEPTICAL ABOUT BENEFITS OF SALT, HAS BECOME AN ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORTER OF NEW TREATY. OTHER OFFICIALS SAID BRZEZINSKI STILL WAS BENT ON GETTING STATE DEPARTMENT TO CONFORM TO HIS VIEWS, BURT ADDED. THEY ATTRIBUTED SMOOTHER RELATIONS TO DEPARTURE FROM GOVERNMENT OF TWO OF HIS "FIERCEST ADVERSARIES" -- PAUL WARNKE AND LESLIE GELB. BURT QUOTED DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL AS SAYING BRZEZINSKI HAD CREATED "AN UNCONGENIAL ATMOSPHERE" FOR WARNKE AND GELB IN POLICY DEBATES. OTHER AIDES, ACCORDING TO BURT, SAID BRZEZINSKI HAD B;EN ASL? TO MADUCT IN?L'E'CE OF MARSHALL SHULMAN, WHO IS EXPECTED TO RETURN TO COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY EARLY NEXT YEAR. BURT SAID ALTHOUGH BRZEZINUNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED PAGE 03

STATE 188113

SKI WOULD NOT DISCUSS DETAILS OF MX DECISION, OTHER OFFICIALS STATED THAT, TOGETHER WITH ACDA DIRECTOR SEIGNIOUS AND JCS CHAIRMAN JONES, BRZEZINSKI PLAYED KEY ROLE IN CONVINCING PRESIDENT TO APPROVE MX. 3. NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHED UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL REPORT THAT AVERELL HARRIMAN, IN HIS CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY YESTERDAY, ENDORSED THOMAS WATSON AS AMBASSADOR TO USSR. HARRIMAN SAID IBM EXECUTIVE WOULD HELP IMPROVE RELATIONS BY PROMOTING TRADE. 4. UPI REPORT ALSO NOTED THAT U.S. SALT NEGOTIATOR RALPH EARLE TOLD SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE THAT SOME WEST EUROPEAN MILITARY LEADERS ONCE HAD SOME DOUBTS ABOUT PACT BEFORE BEING FULLY INFORMED OF ITS TERMS, BUT EARLE INSISTED THAT SKEPTICISM "IS MORE RESIDUAL THAN CURRENT." 5. CHARLES CORDDRY OF BALTIMORE SUN SAID SENATOR HOWARD BAKER ALIGNED HIMSELF FIRMLY WITH REPUBLICAN POLITICAL RIGHT YESTERDAY WITH NEW ANTI-SALT ATTTACK FILM BY AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION FOR NATIONWIDE TV SHOWING ON PURCHASED AIR TIME. CORDDRY SAID BAKER'S APPEARANCE IN

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014

FILM CALLED "PEACE YES -- SALT NO," SEEMED TO DIM EVEN FURTHER CARTER ADMINISTRATION'S LINGERING HOPES THAT IT CAN SOMEHOW GET HIM BEHIND SALT TREATY, AS IT-DID IN CASE OF PANAMA CANAL TREATIES. COLOR FILM IS AN ATTACK ON SOVIET TRUSTWORTHINESS AND AN EFFORT TO DISPLAY U.S.SOVIET MILITARY BALANCE AS PERILOUS FOR U.S., CORDDRY SAID. "IT IS DIRECT ATTACK ON ADMINISTRATION CONTENTION THAT RESTRAINTS ON SOVIET POWER UNDER TREATY WILL HELP TO SOLVE U.S. SECURITY PROBLEMS, AND THAT THIS COUNTRY CAN DO WHAT IT NEEDS TO DO TO STAY EVEN." 6. UPI SAID IT WAS LEARNED YESTERDAY THAT TEXAS GOVERNOR WILLIAM CLEMENTS, "AN OPPONENT OF SALT TWO," RECENTLY HAD UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED PAGE 04

STATE 188113

BREAKFAST WITH HENRY KISSINGER. UPI SAID MEETING HAS SPARKED REPORTS IN TEXAS THAT TWO MAY CAMPAIGN TOGETHER AGAINST SALT. KISSINGER AIDE WAS QUOTED AS SAYING KISSINGER WAS STILL UNDECIDED ABOUT TREATY. KISSINGER IS DUE TO TESTIFY JULY 31 BEFORE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE. VANCE

UNCLASSIFIED

NNN

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014

Sheryl P. Walter Declassified/Released US Department of State EO Systematic Review 20 Mar 2014


Putting a bunch of oligarchs and businessmen (or business sharks) in charge of a government doesn't quite work out, does it? Look how Donald Trump has run his country into the ground, treating COVID-19 like a mere "PR" issue of a private business with quarterly targets, choosing to belittle its severity at the expense of public safety (like 'consumer welfare'). When governments are run like businesses they become nihilistic and they're doomed to fail more badly than conventional governments. The term "fascism" is often used to refer to that former form of governance.

Recent Techrights' Posts

[Video] Richard Stallman Explains What Intelligence in Computing Really Means and How Old That Is (Story About 1975, 50 Years Ago)
Uploaded 11 hours ago by Manuel Cuda News
Links 05/03/2025: Prioritising Science, Patents Squashed
Links for the day
New Short Clip of Richard Stallman's Thoughts on the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype, Courtesy of Manuel Cuda News
about 6 hrs ago
What Microsoft and GitHub Really, Really, REALLY Do Not Want You to See or Know About
They're trying to misuse law in a completely different continent or to allege that reporting important facts is in breach of privacy law
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com and Other 'Linux' Sites With LLM Slop
SEO spam with machine-generated fodder, plus a person to whom English isn't a first language
Just Because Common Currencies (Including the US Dollar) Are Considered Uncertain Doesn't Mean People Should Adopt Volatile Multi-Level (Pyramid) Schemes
the scammers are trying to "go mainstream"
 
Social Control Media as a Rapid Race to the Bottom - Part III - Foreign Interference and Chaff/Flare
Why would you trust alleged 'communication' (platforms) controlled by the same people who cut your undersea cables?
Dr. Andy Farnell on Brutality and (or of) Brute-Force Computing
"Understandably, the ecological cost of compute was never really on the minds of pure computer scientists"
IBM Absorbs More of Red Hat and There Are Several Layoff Rumours
Those are just rumours for now
Gemini Links 06/03/2025: Digg, Project Failure, and More
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 05, 2025
Gemini Links 05/03/2025: News Processing, Misbehaving, and Git
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Cracking Past the 4% Barrier in Hungary
There are still quite a few very famous developers and Free software projects from Hungary
Meanwhile in the Matrix Room #dei:fedoraproject.org
Remember that IBM does a lot of perception manipulation
Rumour About Red Hat Layoffs Yesterday
Can somebody from Red Hat or someone who knows someone there (impacted or not) confirm that there are layoffs this week at Red Hat?
What is fixated behavior? Stalker or just a fan of Emma Raducanu?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
In Iran, GNU/Linux Reaches New Highs, According to statCounter
Does that make sense? In light of geopolitics? Probably.
Always Safety First
We have some reasons to suspect that one of several parties (possibly not in the UK but having connections here), having suffered major and very expensive setbacks, may look to harm the messenger one way or another
Links 05/03/2025: Starbucks Debt Soars and CFO Changed, Apple Pretends to Value Privacy, "Cloudflare Blocking Privacy Focused Users From Accessing Third-Party Websites"
Links for the day
Canonical's Latest Love Letter to Microsoft (Ubuntu Promoting Proprietary Spyware With Back Doors)
Typical Canonical, promoting Microsoft (and sometimes Windows) instead of competing against them
GNU/Linux Climbs to Record Levels in Switzerland. Can the EU, Norway, the UK, and Switzerland Divorce GAFAM?
Germany openly speaks about becoming independent from the US. How about Switzerland?
Gemini Links 05/03/2025: Living in Interesting Times, Font, and Social Control Media with Gos v1.0.0
Links for the day
Use RSS Readers Instead of Social Control Media
RSS readers were designed to save time. Social Control Media was designed to waste time.
The 'Windows Era' Already Came to an End
Microsoft said to shareholders everything would be alright because of "clown computing" and then "hey hi"
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): Microsoft Committing the Largest GPL Violation in Human History, Then OSI Covering That Up on Microsoft's Payroll
LLMs don't make GPL violations any more noble or acceptable; it's not hard to see what OSI was paid by Microsoft for
Social Control Media as a Rapid Race to the Bottom - Part II - Think Before You Talk
The 'socmed' nonsense does not exist in our home
Links 04/03/2025: Hardware, Health, Data Breaches, Politics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 04, 2025
Luxembourg: GNU/Linux at 8% Based on Estimates
steady increases this year
Gemini Links 04/03/2025: Bicycle, Photos, and Motorola 6809 Assemblers
Links for the day
Crossbow tragedy, bigger than Kyle Clifford, social media culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Microsoft OSI Apparently Still Reading Techrights Closely, Trying to Make Face-Saving PR Moves
They have long had this reactionary rhythm, wherein it feels like we can 'control' what they publish and when by merely highlighting facts about them
Links 04/03/2025: Microsoft/Korea Game Industry Association Workforce Cuts, Outlook and 365 Outage Affects Very Many
Links for the day
Transcript of Richard Stallman's Interview With Manuel Cuda News in Italy (Debunking Fake "AI")
A rough draft, but checked by two people
Chad: All-Time Lows for Windows, According to statCounter
According to statCounter, many in Chad moved to Android
Links 04/03/2025: Universities Are Under Attack, Windows Attracts Ransom Against Ministry of Health
Links for the day
Microsoft Collapses While GNU/Linux Rises in Bulgaria, According to statCounter
Microsoft is losing across all sectors
The Fall of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): An Introduction
In a nutshell: there's a massive conflict inside the OSI and the OSI stooges (staff serving Big Sponsors like Microsoft) try to hide it
Paraguay: GNU/Linux Surging to New Usage Levels (7%), According to statCounter
Notice that the gains are at Microsoft Windows' expense
Social Control Media as a Rapid Race to the Bottom - Part I - That Sinking Feeling
When you realise you made an error and things you adopted more than 15 years ago became utterly bad
Microsoft's Entryism as Mortal Risk/Danger: The Example of the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Microsoft is a cult
Links 04/03/2025: Microsoft Issues Policy Instructions to the Cheeto Mussolini Administration, Cloudflare Engages in Mass Censorship Again
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/03/2025: Athens, Fedora 41, and Yelling at Clouds
Links for the day
FSF Amicus Brief: Aspose.PDF for .NET 24.2.0, OOXML (.docx), and Microsoft Word (Proprietary)
Could the FSF not find any law firm that, in addition to talking about or for Free software, does not use .NET, OOXML, and almost everything Microsoft?
New Interview With Richard Stallman in Italy (Manuel Cuda News)
Due to Google's growing aggression against Free software and proper APIs, this cannot be downloaded and converted to a free format
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Belatedly Comments on Case That Tests Copyleft in the United States
"The Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced today it has submitted an amicus brief in the case entitled Neo4j"
If They Try to Censor You on Some Topic, Then You Should Cover This Topic Even More
OSI is only a small part of it
The UEFI hype and Microsoft's lies
By Sami Tikkanen
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 03, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 03, 2025
Thorsten Glaser & Open Source Initiative (OSI) resignations due to AI whitewashing
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock