A Big Mac, fries and… peace?  A family enjoys their meal at the first McDonald's outlet in Some three decades ago, I devoted a few weeks of work to profiling one of the world’s richest women. Joan B. Kroc, who died in 2003, was the widow of Ray Kroc, a former milkshake machine salesman whose business dealings with a pair of brothers would change the way McDonald’s, under Ray Kroc’s leadership, would grow into a colossus that had opened more than 34,000 restaurants around the globe before it finally, last week, opened one in Vietnam. Somewhere in the Great Beyond, I suspect that both Ray and Joan would be pleased, but for very different reasons. To Ray, the new McDonald’s in Ho Chi Minh City would represent another victory in Asia – and long overdue, since there are already some 1,800 McDonald’s outlets in the People’s Republic of China. Joan might harbor the hope that the new franchise would serve not only Big Macs and McNuggets, but also the cause of world peace. That may sound Pollyannish, but Joan Kroc was a philanthropist who struck me as a kind of Mommy Peacebucks, contributing millions to such causes as nuclear disarmament and mostly liberal causes. She must have liked how, in his 2000 book “The Lexus and the Olive Tree,”New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman observed: “No two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s.” Now, there were exceptions to the so-called “the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Resolution,” such as NATO’s air strikes on So Ronald McDonald, the restaurant’s mascot, won’t be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Still, while the global march of American fast-food culture is often bemoaned as a homogenizing hegemonic force that fosters poor nutritional habits, aren’t prosperity and peace supposed to walk hand in hand? McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks, The Coffee Bean, KFC, Carl’s Jr, Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin-Robbins – all have come to But mostly it’s all about two isms: capitalism and consumerism. It’s mostly about making a buck. Ray Kroc, I suspect, would be happy to do business with Henry Nguyen, the 40-year-old owner of Good Day Hospitality, McDonald’s local partner. Nguyen was born in Saigon but raised in World peace may be too much to hope for, but just as Vietnamese have embraced Col. Sanders, they may well embrace Ronald McDonald and Happy Meals. “McDonald’s in But, actually, a bowl of pho bo (Vietnamese noodle soup with beef) is much better deal – and healthier too. SCOTT DUKE HARRIS |
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