Free Becoming American: Why Immigration Is Good for Our Nation's Future by Fariborz Ghadar Page B

Europe.
    In his 1970 book, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era , he argued that a coordinated policy among developed nations was necessary to counter global instability erupting from increasing economic inequality. Out of this thesis, he cofounded with David Rockefeller the Trilateral Commission and served as its director from 1973 to 1976. The Trilateral Commission is a group of prominent political and business leaders and academics primarily from North America, the European Union, and Asia. Its purpose is to strengthen relations among the three most industrially advanced regions of the capitalist world. The Commission helps countries “fulfill their shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system.” 5 Brzezinski selected Georgia governor Jimmy Carter as a member.
    Upon becoming president in 1977, Carter chose Dr. Brzezinski for the position of National Security Adviser. Brzezinski credits Henry Kissinger as having paved the way for an immigrant to attain a cabinet-level position within the U.S. government.
     
    Henry Kissinger was born in Germany under the name Heinz Alfred Kissinger. He served as National Security Advisor as well as Secretary of State for presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. 
    As Carter’s National Security Advisor, Brzezinski encouraged the president to engage the People’s Republic of China beginning in 1978. He personally traveled to Beijing to lay the groundwork for the normalization of U.S.–People’s Republic of China relations and developed a strong relationship with Deng Xiaoping, who led China after Mao Zedong’s death. The United States and China established official diplomatic relations on January 1, 1978. By this point, China was already a third pole of power besides the Soviet Union and the United States. The new relationship between the United States and China was instrumental in the Cold War, for it brought China to the side of the United States. Scientific, technological, and cultural interchange, as well as trade relations also resulted from the diplomatic relations.
    For all of the world-changing ideas Brzezinski set in motion, he never forgot his roots. Brzezinski made a visit to Poland in 1977, and of his visit he says, “There was a shift in the definition of my identity. I realized that I was no longer a Pole, but an American of Polish descent. Subsequent visits deepened my sense of cultural and historical attachment to Poland, as well as a heightening of my awareness—the way I understood it—of my being an American of Polish descent.” 6
    Some cultures are more resilient, while others assimilate more easily. The Polish culture is a resilient one. Since the beginning of Polish immigration to America, many immigrants moved into Polish communities that preserved Polish culture and heritage. Newspapers, social clubs, and radio and television stations were created to help keep the Polish language alive in a foreign country. 7 Thus, the concept of identity for an immigrant is an interesting one. In America, Brzezinski is Polish, but in Poland, Brzezinski is American.
     
    Polish-language newspapers in the United States have been present for as long as Poles have been immigrating to America. Polish weekly newspapers were especially popular in the early 1900s, when they created a feeling of unity among immigrants as well as reinforced the responsibilities of citizenship and kept immigrants up to date on world affairs. In the early part of the nineteenth century, popular newspapers such as Chicago’s   Dziennik Zwiazkowy (meaning “Alliance Daily” in Polish) kept Poles informed on workers’ rights and other labor movements, while Philadelphia’s Gwiazda (meaning “Star” in Polish) reached a large portion of the Polish American community.
    Brzezinski, however, eventually came to understand the immigrant identity and remarked that “the element of conflicting duality that may