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- BUSINESS, Page 49Business NotesECONOMISTSNo Bashing On Premises
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- His employer was delighted when Pat Choate, Washington's
- premier idea packager, propagated such 1980s political buzz
- words as "America's decaying infrastructure." But then Choate,
- TRW's vice president for policy analysis, began an explosive
- book documenting the network through which Japan and its paid
- American agents sway U.S. trade policy and public opinion. That
- was too controversial for TRW, which sells products ranging
- from seat belts to communication chips and does $400 million
- in business with Japan. Last week TRW showed Choate the door,
- apparently for Japan bashing.
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- In a chirpy press release that made no mention of his
- upcoming book, Agents of Influence, TRW announced that Choate
- had resigned to work on his writing. But this was a cover
- story, insist Choate's friends, who say TRW chairman Joseph
- Gorman told Choate the company could not resist Japanese
- pressure to disown the book and its author. Neither Gorman nor
- Choate was talking, but TRW spokesman Michael Johnson said
- dryly, "I don't think Pat's leaving should be surprising." Not
- surprising at all, if you accept Choate's thesis about Japan's
- influence.
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