The Foreign Service Journal, September 2007

plenty of water from five wells and adequate supplies of food and bever- ages. What kept everyone going was the belief that relief was on the way. Unfortunately, it wasn’t — at least not yet. “The Foreigners Are in the Stew-Pot” Outside the besieged district, the combined forces of Chinese regular troops and Boxers substantially outnumbered the Westerners. They had two Krupp artillery pieces at their disposal in addition to plentiful guns and ammunition. As the Dowager Empress said to Prince Tuan of the Foreign Ministry, who would soon be placed in charge of the Boxers, “The foreigners are in the stew-pot.” Eager to overrun their foes before relief could arrive from the coast, the Boxers began firing on June 20, 1900, pouring up to 200,000 rounds a night into the compound. But even though they were outnumbered and pinned down, the Western forces became increasingly effective. On June 24, the Germans and Americans jointly staged a counterattack, enabling both to build new walls. But the best of the troops, it turned out, were the Japanese. Once dismissed by the European and American diplomats as “mere Orientals,” they exhibited courage, cheerfulness and depend- ability. Among the civilians, distinct personalities emerged, sometimes with less than happy results. For instance, the French minister kept repeating: “We’re all going to die!” Suddenly, on the afternoon of June 25, 1900, a horn and bugles sounded. Then a huge white signboard com- municated a new edict from the empress: “In accordance with the imperial commands to protect the ministers, firing will cease immediate- ly.” The legations acknowledged the message, but just three hours later, the Chinese resumed the barrage. The Dowager Empress had changed her mind. Nor was this the only instance of bewildering behavior on the part of the siege force. On one occasion, by command of the Dowager Empress, the Boxers sent carts laden with melons, vegetables, ice and flour into the perimeter. Some diplomats argued that the food should be sent back; instead, “melon clubs” were formed to consume the fruit with claret. (Another parallel: I recall that, in Tehran, after our captors had held one of their monthly parties to celebrate our capture, they gave us the uneaten cookies. “If we had any morals,” said Rick Kupke, one of my cellmates, “we wouldn’t touch the stuff!” But, of course, we wolfed them down.) Just a few weeks into the siege, the Boxers turned out to be militarily useless, and the viceroys in the various provinces were growing more and more reluctant to send troops. In addition, world public opinion was turning against the Chinese. On July 16, 1900, an article in the Daily Mail , datelined Shanghai and headlined “The Peking Massacre,” purported to describe how the Chinese had brought up artillery and were repulsed again and again, only prevailing when the legation forces ran out of ammunition. The legation forces rallied one last time, the dispatch went on, and then all were “put to the sword in a most atrocious manner.” Meanwhile, Western reinforce- ments finally mobilized. Addressing his East Asiatic Corps embarking at Bremerhaven, Kaiser Wilhelm com- pared them to Attila and his Huns. That gave the Germans a nickname that survived into the coming First World War. Once the international forces captured Tientsin, paving the way for the relief of the legations in Peking, the besiegers stopped shooting, and correspondence between the West- ern diplomats and Chinese official- dom resumed. Ultimately, the inter- national relief force stormed into Peking, the Dowager Empress fled, and it was all over but the looting. Four Parallels I now want to turn to the reasons why, eight decades apart, these diplo- matic missions were attacked, and what all this signifies for us today. Beginning with Tehran in 1979, let’s look at four underlying causes, gener- ally interrelated, of both episodes. Too-rapid economic change. A primary goal of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was to turn Iran as rapidly as possible into a modern state. For instance, with strong American encouragement the shah introduced a program of land reform. Traditionally, Iranian landlords provided the capital, water, seed, bullocks and the land itself, while the peasants supplied the labor. That system worked. But once the land was redistributed to the peasants, they had no access to the capital they needed to obtain the water, seed and motive power for their newly acquired land. Deracinated, bewildered and ill-equipped psych- ologically for modern industrial society, they swarmed into the cities, relying for support on what no one could take away: their Islamic faith. 58 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 It was not until the attacks resumed that the Western legations in Beijing began to take their situation seriously.