Wolf Ladejinsky
Encyclopedia
Wolf Isaac Ladejinsky was an influential American
agricultural economist and researcher, serving first in the United States Department of Agriculture
, then the Ford Foundation
and later the World Bank
. He was a key adviser on land reform
to the governments of several Asian countries, including Japan
from 1945 to 1954 (during the Occupation) as well as Mainland China
and later Taiwan
under Chiang Kai-shek
, South Vietnam
from 1955 to 1961 under Ngo Dinh Diem
, and countries in Southeast Asia
and the Indian subcontinent
. His efforts in Japan and Taiwan were a striking success, but later efforts were frustrated. Improving the welfare of Asian farmers through agrarian reform
was his goal throughout his long career, earning him praise as "no typical bureaucrat, but an impassioned reformer" .
in 1899, Ladejinsky fled the Soviet Union
in 1921 as a Jewish refugee from the Russian Revolution . He arrived in the US in 1922 and graduated from Columbia University
six years later. In 1933 one of his professors at Columbia, Rexford Tugwell
, helped him obtain a post in the Department of Agriculture. Two years later he joined the department's Foreign Agricultural Service
, specializing in Asian problems. In 1945 he was assigned to General Douglas MacArthur's SCAP
staff in occupied Japan , where he played a major role in developing and introducing the land reform program that dismantled a power structure dominated by wealthy landlord
s. However, Ladejinsky has stated that the real architect of reform was Socialist Hiro Wada, former Japanese Minister of Agriculture . His influence with Chiang Kai-Shek
in Taiwan is widely credited with aiding the Taiwan Miracle
.
In December 1954, during the period of McCarthyism
in the United States
, Ladejinsky was the central figure in a highly public incident which aroused furor among liberals in Congress and was resolved by the intervention of the White House
. Ladejinsky, an anti-Communist
New Deal
Democrat
, was blacklisted by several conservative groups . While working as an agricultural attaché in Tokyo, his position was transferred from the Department of State
to the Department of Agriculture's jurisdiction. Soon thereafter, his security clearance
was revoked, and he was fired by Secretary of Agriculture
Ezra Taft Benson
, who considered Ladejinsky a "security risk" despite admitting a lack of hard evidence against him . A public statement charged that Ladejinsky "required clearance from the Communist Party
" to work for Amtorg Trading Corporation
, for whom he served briefly as a translator in 1930. At that time he also had three sisters living in Soviet Russia, which was cited as making him "subject to coercion" . The final charge was that Ladejinsky had been a member of two Communist front
organizations, including the Washington Committee for Democratic Action .
The result was a public outcry. Members of the press repeatedly questioned President Eisenhower
regarding the Ladejinsky case at a news conference held on January 12, 1955, particularly focusing on the fact that Ladejinsky was almost immediately chosen by Harold Stassen
at the Foreign Operations Administration
to direct the land reform program in South Vietnam
, giving him full security clearance in order to fill a position even more sensitive than his previous one .
One quoted Benson as having "branded Ladejinsky flatly as a member of two Communist front organizations, and as an economist analyst, and investigator for Amtorg, the Russian trading agency" . John Allison
, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan
, protested the firing. Author James Michener wrote a letter to the New York Times stating "It is precisely as if Richard Nixon
and Adlai Stevenson were to be charged with subversion. Mr. Ladejinsky is known throughout Asia as Communism's most implacable foe." .
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
agricultural economist and researcher, serving first in the United States Department of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
, then the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
and later the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
. He was a key adviser on land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
to the governments of several Asian countries, including Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
from 1945 to 1954 (during the Occupation) as well as Mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
and later Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
under Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
, South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
from 1955 to 1961 under Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
, and countries in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
. His efforts in Japan and Taiwan were a striking success, but later efforts were frustrated. Improving the welfare of Asian farmers through agrarian reform
Agrarian reform
Agrarian reform can refer either, narrowly, to government-initiated or government-backed redistribution of agricultural land or, broadly, to an overall redirection of the agrarian system of the country, which often includes land reform measures. Agrarian reform can include credit measures,...
was his goal throughout his long career, earning him praise as "no typical bureaucrat, but an impassioned reformer" .
Biography
Born in the UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
in 1899, Ladejinsky fled the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in 1921 as a Jewish refugee from the Russian Revolution . He arrived in the US in 1922 and graduated from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
six years later. In 1933 one of his professors at Columbia, Rexford Tugwell
Rexford Tugwell
Rexford Guy Tugwell was an agricultural economist who became part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first "Brain Trust," a group of Columbia academics who helped develop policy recommendations leading up to Roosevelt's 1932 election as President...
, helped him obtain a post in the Department of Agriculture. Two years later he joined the department's Foreign Agricultural Service
Foreign Agricultural Service
The Foreign Agricultural Service is the foreign affairs agency with primary responsibility for the United States Department of Agriculture's overseas programs—market development, international trade agreements and negotiations, and the collection of statistics and market information...
, specializing in Asian problems. In 1945 he was assigned to General Douglas MacArthur's SCAP
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...
staff in occupied Japan , where he played a major role in developing and introducing the land reform program that dismantled a power structure dominated by wealthy landlord
Landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...
s. However, Ladejinsky has stated that the real architect of reform was Socialist Hiro Wada, former Japanese Minister of Agriculture . His influence with Chiang Kai-Shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
in Taiwan is widely credited with aiding the Taiwan Miracle
Taiwan Miracle
The Taiwan Miracle or Taiwan Economic Miracle refers to the rapid industrialization and economic growth of Taiwan during the latter half of the twentieth century...
.
In December 1954, during the period of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Ladejinsky was the central figure in a highly public incident which aroused furor among liberals in Congress and was resolved by the intervention of the White House
Executive Office of the President of the United States
The Executive Office of the President consists of the immediate staff of the President of the United States, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the President. The EOP is headed by the White House Chief of Staff, currently William M. Daley...
. Ladejinsky, an anti-Communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, was blacklisted by several conservative groups . While working as an agricultural attaché in Tokyo, his position was transferred from the Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
to the Department of Agriculture's jurisdiction. Soon thereafter, his security clearance
Security clearance
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information, i.e., state secrets, or to restricted areas after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal...
was revoked, and he was fired by Secretary of Agriculture
United States Secretary of Agriculture
The United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The current secretary is Tom Vilsack, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on 20 January 2009. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other...
Ezra Taft Benson
Ezra Taft Benson
Ezra Taft Benson was the thirteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1985 until his death and was United States Secretary of Agriculture for both terms of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.-Biography:Born on a farm in Whitney, Idaho, Benson was the oldest of...
, who considered Ladejinsky a "security risk" despite admitting a lack of hard evidence against him . A public statement charged that Ladejinsky "required clearance from the Communist Party
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
" to work for Amtorg Trading Corporation
Amtorg Trading Corporation
Amtorg Trading Corporation, also known simply as Amtorg, was the first Soviet trade representation in the United States when Armand Hammer established it in New York in 1924 through the amalgamation of the American firms Products Exchange Corporation and Arcos-America Inc . The latter was the US...
, for whom he served briefly as a translator in 1930. At that time he also had three sisters living in Soviet Russia, which was cited as making him "subject to coercion" . The final charge was that Ladejinsky had been a member of two Communist front
Communist front
A Communist front organization is an organization identified to be a front organization under the effective control of a Communist party, the Communist International or other Communist organizations. Lenin originated the idea in his manifesto of 1902, "What Is to Be Done?"...
organizations, including the Washington Committee for Democratic Action .
The result was a public outcry. Members of the press repeatedly questioned President Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
regarding the Ladejinsky case at a news conference held on January 12, 1955, particularly focusing on the fact that Ladejinsky was almost immediately chosen by Harold Stassen
Harold Stassen
Harold Edward Stassen was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943. After service in World War II, from 1948 to 1953 he was president of the University of Pennsylvania...
at the Foreign Operations Administration
United States Foreign Operations Administration
The Foreign Operations Administration was created in 1953 under the directorship of Harold Stassen. Its purpose was "was intended to centralize all governmental operations, as distinguished from policy formulation, that had as their purpose the cooperative development of economic and military...
to direct the land reform program in South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
, giving him full security clearance in order to fill a position even more sensitive than his previous one .
One quoted Benson as having "branded Ladejinsky flatly as a member of two Communist front organizations, and as an economist analyst, and investigator for Amtorg, the Russian trading agency" . John Allison
John Moore Allison
John Moore Allison was a US diplomat most commonly known for being US Ambassador to Japan from 1953 to 1957. Before 1953 he had been Foreign Service Officer in various places in China and Japan. From 1957 to 1958 he was Ambassador to Indonesia and from 1958 to 1960 to Czechoslovakia...
, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan
United States Ambassador to Japan
The United States Ambassador to Japan is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States to Japan. Since the opening of Japan by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, in 1854, the U.S. maintained diplomatic relations with Japan, except for the ten-year period following the attack on...
, protested the firing. Author James Michener wrote a letter to the New York Times stating "It is precisely as if Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and Adlai Stevenson were to be charged with subversion. Mr. Ladejinsky is known throughout Asia as Communism's most implacable foe." .