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America Must Balance Idealism, Realism
(April 17, 2011) |
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Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates speaks at the groundbreaking for
the National Library for the Study of George
Washington on the grounds of the Mount Vernon
Estate, Va., April 14, 2011. DOD photo by R.D.
Ward |
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MOUNT VERNON, Va., April 14, 2011 – Since the
beginning of the republic, the United States has
had to balance its idealistic impulses with
realism, and that remains true today, Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today.
Gates was the keynote speaker at the
groundbreaking for the National Library for the
Study of George Washington on the grounds of the
Mount Vernon Estate.
Washington faced
some of the same questions over the rise of
revolutionary France that President Barack Obama
faces with the revolutions in North Africa and
the Middle East, Gates said. Washington became
America's first president in 1789, and he was
confronted with the consequences of the French
Revolution.
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“The issue was whether to support the
revolutionary government and its war against an
alliance of European monarchies led by Great
Britain,” Gates said. “To many, like Thomas
Jefferson, the French Revolution, with its
stated ideals of liberty, equality and
fraternity, seemed a natural successor to our
own.”
But many disagreed, including Vice
President John Adams. “They were appalled by the
revolution's excesses and feared the spread of
violent French radicalism to our shores,” the
secretary said.
Washington had to resolve
the matter. “My best wishes are irresistibly
excited whensoever, in any country, I see an
oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom,”
he wrote. But the upheaval in Europe had begun
to disrupt the U.S. economy, and he understood
the fragility of America's position at the time.
He “adopted a neutrality policy toward France
and would go on to make a peace treaty with
Great Britain – sparking massive protests and
accusations of selling out the spirit of 1776,”
Gates said.
“Washington was confronting a
question, a dilemma, that has been persistent
throughout our history: how should we
incorporate America's democratic ideals and
aspirations into our relations with the rest of
the world?” the secretary said. “What
Washington's experience shows is that, from our
earliest days, America's leaders have struggled
with ‘realistic' versus ‘idealistic' approaches
to the international challenges facing us.”
The most successful American leaders
steadfastly encouraged the spread of liberty,
democracy, and human rights, Gates said. “At the
same time, however, they have fashioned policies
blending different approaches with different
emphasis in different places and at different
times,” he added.
The United States has
made human rights the centerpiece of its
national strategy, even as it was doing business
with some of the worst violators of human
rights, the secretary noted. “We have worked
with authoritarian governments to advance our
own security interests, even while urging them
to reform,” he said.
The world is
witnessing an extraordinary story in the Middle
East and North Africa, the secretary said.
“People across the region have come together
to demand change, and in many cases, a more
democratic, responsive government,” he said.
“Yet many of the regimes affected have been
longstanding, close allies of ours, ones we
continue to work with as critical partners in
the face of common security challenges like
al-Qaida and Iran, even as we urge them to
reform and respond to the needs of their
people.”
A theme of American history is
that the United States is compelled to defend
its security and interests in ways that spread
democratic values and institutions, Gates said.
“When we discuss openly our desire for
democratic values to take hold across the globe,
we are describing a world that may be many years
or decades off,” the secretary said. “Though
achievement of the ideal may be limited by time,
space, resources or human nature, we must not
allow ourselves to discard or disparage the
ideal itself.”
America must speak about
its values and ideals, Gates said.
“And
when we look at the challenges facing
contemporary fledgling democracies, or societies
and governments facing pressures for change,” he
added, “we would do well to be modestly mindful
of the turbulence of our own early history and
to remember our own long journey from a
political system of, by, and for property-owning
white men to an inclusive nation with an
African-American president.” |
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By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2011
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