New American Strategies for Security and Peace
Speeches:
Panel Two:
Richard Holbrooke, Joseph C. Wilson, Flynt Leverett, Jessica Stern, Major General William L. Nash, USA (Ret.)
You can now watch this panel in streaming video:
Download this panel in MS Word format.
Download this panel in Acrobat (pdf) format.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE Now this panel is supposed to talk about peace-keeping and nation-building. So let us begin with an advisory warning. Since these words are outlawed by the current administration, we have to warn everybody in the room that the language in this panel may offend some people. Peace-keeping, nation-building, post-conflict reconstruction. Call it whatever you want. It is an integral and essential part of American foreign policy and has been for 70 years or more. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we failed. But the goal is correct. It has been associated overwhelmingly with Democratic administration. Sometimes for good and sometimes tragically in Vietnam where the intent was good, the execution mishandled, the outcome catastrophic for the nation and for our party not so good. But it represents an important part of American foreign policy. In the 2000 election Governor Bush attacked the Clinton administration and Vice President Gore directly for these actions, specifically discussing Bosnia and Kosovo. Wes Clark already talked about Kosovo. He and I were shot at together trying to get in Sarajevo. | |
|
