Tom Lehman
Doug Henwood wrote:
> [This is too long to forward, but the audience and topic are too rich
> to pass over. The full text is at
> <http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/19
> 99/11/5/3.text.1>.]
>
> THE WHITE HOUSE
>
> Office of the Press Secretary
> (Hartford, Connecticut)
> ________________________________________________________________________
> For Immediate Release November 4, 1999
>
> As Prepared for Delivery
>
> SAMUEL R. BERGER
> NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
> REMARKS TO THE BILDERBERG STEERING COMMITTEE
>
> November 4, 1999
>
> Strengthening the Bipartisan Center:
> An Internationalist Agenda for America
>
> Two weeks ago, I gave a speech in New York at the Council on Foreign
> Relations about the unique and paradoxical position in which America
> finds itself today. Some of you may have read a few articles about it
> in the op-ed pages. Come to think of it, some of you may have written a
> few of those articles!
>
> In the speech, I pointed out that we are at the height of our power and
> prosperity. We face no single, overriding threat to our existence. The
> ideals of democracy and free markets which we embrace are ascendant
> through much of the world. After 50 years of building alliances for
> collective defense, common prosperity, and wider freedom, we now have an
> unparalleled opportunity to shape, with others, a better, safer, more
> democratic world.
>
> Most Americans are ready to seize that opportunity, though we sometimes
> differ about how. Yet there are also some who question whether we need
> to seize it at all. They believe America can and should go it alone --
> either by withdrawing from the world and relying primarily on our
> military strength to protect us from its dangers . . . or by imposing
> our will on the world, even if it means alienating our closest allies.
> There are elements of isolationism in that view; for whatever its
> intent, its effect is to isolate America from its friends and to define
> America's interests in the narrowest of terms. There are clearly
> elements of unilateralism in it as well.
>
> I made these arguments in my speech to stimulate a discussion about
> America's appropriate role in the world. It appears that I've
> succeeded. This is a discussion Americans need to be having -- before
> decisions are made that do real harm to our capacity to lead. And I'm
> pleased to have the opportunity to move that dialogue forward this
> evening with you.