FREDO SEZ LIBRULS ROOL!!!

Well, not quite but today he did quote a historian who said something like that. Here's Fredo:

You know, the experts sometimes get it wrong. An interesting observation, one historian put it -- he said, "Had these erstwhile experts" -- he was talking about people criticizing the efforts to help Japan realize the blessings of a free society -- he said, "Had these erstwhile experts had their way, the very notion of inducing a democratic revolution would have died of ridicule at an early stage."

After briefly Googling, I found the source:

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
By John W. Dower
Published 1999
W. W. Norton & Company
History / General
History
676 pages
ISBN 0393046869

As Paul Harvey would say, here's the rest of the story:

Had these erstwhile Asia experts had their way, the very notion of inducing a democratic revolution would have died of ridicule at an early stage. As happened instead, the ridicule was deflected by experts of a different ilk - behavioral scientists who chose to emphasize the "malleability of the Japanese "national character," along with planners and policy makers of liberal and left wing persuasions who sincerely believed that democratic values were universal in thier nature and appeal.

As a bonus, note that in Fredo World, behavioral scientists who don't agree with what the Fundies want are generally ignored. Here's just one example:

JUDY WOODRUFF: Another issue you talked about speaking out, sex education. Abstinence-only has been the preferred approach by many in the Bush administration when it comes to preventing teen pregnancy, preventing the spread of so-called sexually transmitted diseases, STDs. I think you said today, when you tried to talk about this, they didn't -- they, the administration -- didn't want to hear the science. What happened there?

DR. RICHARD CARMONA: Well, they didn't. I was discouraged. Again, the administration had already made a decision that abstinence was the way they wanted to go. And that really -- that policy flew in the face of prudent science, public health science, which said that we need a more comprehensive program in relation to sexual education and not just abstinence alone.