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Senator Menzies Transcript

Speech at the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy Congressional Forum

Ambassador John Menzies

Rule number one of public speaking is never follow one of the most the most articulate senators in the U.S. Senate, so I’m going to violate that rule right now. And I’m going to start from a little distance away. I’m going to talk the level of discourse; how we talk about things.

Here we are about to enter a major campaign season and it also happens to be an Olympics year. And it seems to me that character assassination has finally reached the point where it could become an Olympic medal sport, sort of a post-modern biathlon where you do a couple of op-eds and then continue to take potshots at one of your political opponents and move on with the op-eds and so forth. That never reflects the truth. And it does, however, convey the wrong sense about who we are.

It seems to me that today, Americans expect better of their leaders and of our own society then the types of things we’ve been hearing from the press and seeing daily. How does that reflect, as Lincoln would have put it, the better angels of our nature?

Instead, should we not be thinking across political lines and honoring, regardless of political position, the contributions that people make.

I’ll give you two examples: In 1986 I was at the Berlin Wall when Reagan made his speech. It was a defining moment in history. We didn’t know at the time. We felt the thrill of that moment, but you didn’t know, no one knew exactly how important that moment was. And what would follow.

A few years ago I flew up to New York from Washington for an event sponsored by the National Albania American Council, a wonderful group that has a great interest in the Balkans and in Kosovo and Albania.

President Clinton, former President Clinton at the time, gave the lead address. And, full disclosure, I’m from the other side of the political isle but I have to tell you that in all my life I have never heard a better speech…perfectly calibrated to the time, to the audience, to the message that needed to be given at that moment. And I stood in awe of that speech. I credit him with that ability, with that wonderful gift of speaking.

I’ve been present at several moments of history where things change. That was one that addressed a large population in the United States absolutely perfectly. And it made a change.

Can we not respect each other and our level of discourse for the good that people try to do? Those people were animated, truly, by the better angels of our nature.

Today, people observing casually from the outside, would think that every war that America fights is a civil war, not an international conflict. That is the way our level of discourse has changed.

I loved the Cold War because during that time, not because it was a cold war, but because there was a wonderful clarity of purpose and shared values. I spent my whole Foreign Service career in the countries behind the Iron Curtain, as it were. In Hungary and East Berlin, Bulgaria where we helped bring the Communist system down while I was there.

And I appreciated the fact that America was clearly understood as standing for freedom and the rule of law.
The vehicles by which that message went out were manifold. The forefront of that effort to deliver the story of what America was about was the United States Information Agency which was disastrously named previously, disastrously, the International Communication Agency, ICA, which of course lead to all kinds of misunderstandings.

But USIA carried the banner. It was truly a light shining in the darkness with the message it brought. It wasn’t political, it didn’t tout one political party or another, but it stood for the values of our country.

I’ve always thought that after the cold war many of us within the agency believed the agency would survive by changing its focus from an anti-communist agency to an organization that tried to find a way to address the nations of Islam. To find the cultural touch stones that would unify us; that this would be an avenue for finding new ways to communicate with people.

Instead, in an act of wantonness, the USIA was dissolved and absorbed into the Department of State. It has carried on in its new form heroically but much has been lost.

The tremendous focus which it brought, the resources which it mastered and the history of accomplishment, even the methods, have disappeared.

One of the most effective tools, for example, right at the end, was something called the Voice of America Europe…has anyone ever heard of it? The Voice of America – Europe. That was one of the best tools the United States Information Agency ever created. It lasted for about two years. We declared victory…or mission accomplished, and USIA disappeared shortly after the Voice of America Europe did. But it was one of the most effective tools for bring both free media and a very soft approach of American culture to the rest of the world.

Throughout Eastern Europe, America was understood differently than it was at home. We were understood as a light shining in the darkness, a city set on a hill – use the images you like – but we were a beacon of hope. And we spoke to countless people with that impression. We spoke not just with a unified voice, but a very diverse voice. But that voice was heard… not just by those who actively participated in USIA programs, but the word spread.

And you could see it spreading when you were there. You would bring one person back from a trip to the United States, as I brought one writer back from the United States, from East Berlin. He came back and as he said to me: “My life has changed forever.” That message carried forward to the point that his son was one of the leaders in the revolution that actually brought down the wall.

Citizen Diplomacy is the impact we have on other citizens, as you know. We need people today that will address the fears and nurture the hopes of Americans at home and with all nations.

We begin amongst ourselves. That’s why the level of discourse matters: It affects the way we reflect on America, the way we move forward.

I want to be very specific about my good friend, Leonard Boswell, who isn’t here today. He’s a friend, a very good friend, I’ve known him since I was 11 years old. He visited our family when we were living in England. He was the subject of a very difficult political campaign a couple of years ago. I won’t say which one. But there was character assassination I know the impact that had on him and how that affected Leonard’s work and affected him personally. Some of you know this personally because maybe you’ve been through this, too. You know the impact that level of discourse has on our ability to function at home, let alone the way others view us.

Today, citizen diplomats must carry much of the burden that has been left by USIA. I think of the countries where citizen diplomacy is the only game in town. It is not just the best game, it is the only game in town.

For example: We have just now begun a dialog of sorts with Iran. Iran is a country with which we used to have excellent relations. It wasn’t based just on government to government. The United States is, by polling data I’ve heard recently, still wildly popular in Iran. After their president is so…how should I put this?...reviled on the campus of Columbia, I’ll leave that issue aside, the people of Iran still have good impressions of this nation that carried over now for two generations. Based on the people who we knew from before the revolution.

Citizen Diplomacy is what carries the policy forward. Citizen diplomacy is the game we have going in Iran. It’s not what they see us doing elsewhere, it’s the individual memories of individual Iranians who have ties to this nation and experienced what America is. You have your own examples. I don’t need to rehearse this for you.

Much of the burden that citizen diplomacy must carry today is to share our values. Not the politics of any administration – let the government do that – but to share our values, to live out the loving kindness of our nature and of our nation, to give daily expression to the well of goodness among our people.