Looking Back with Pride, Looking Forward with Hope

Sixty years ago today, a ship carrying my family sailed around the Statue of Liberty into New York harbor. Having fled first Nazism then Communism, we had finally arrived in the United States. Aside from the birth dates of my children, it was the most important day of my life.

The America in which I grew up was known as a champion of international law, a builder of strong alliances, a defender of freedom, and an inspiration to those forced to live behind the Iron Curtain. Americans have good reason to look back with pride.

Last Tuesday, we were given good reason to look forward with hope.

There is a promise in Senator Obama's election that goes beyond any explicit pledge made during the campaign. That potential may be found in the reaffirmation of America's identity as a true land of opportunity and in the confounding of damaging assumptions about our country that have spread unchecked across the globe these past eight years.

As President-elect Obama warned in his victory speech, we must be patient. The election's outcome provides no guarantee that the multi-faceted woes we currently face will soon disappear. Every president inherits headaches; President Obama will inherit the whole emergency room. The challenges we must meet in Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat from al Qaeda, the dangers of economic breakdown and environmental stress, will not be resolved in the first one hundred or even the first one thousand days of a new administration. To expect otherwise is to misunderstand the complexity of today's world.

It might be tempting to suggest that all our next president must do is mimic the example of my first president, Harry Truman -- and turn back the clock to the era of our Greatest Generation. After all, American power and prestige were then at their height; we had defeated Hitler, founded the UN, launched NATO, and forged the Marshall Plan.

Shouldn't it be the new administration's goal to recapture that golden moment? The answer is no.

Back in 1948, Japan and Germany were occupied by foreign troops, Europe was in ruins, China was engulfed in civil war, and much of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East were still under colonial rule. Americans might want to revisit the era of Truman; but the world has other dreams.

To young people across the globe, the cold war, let alone the second World War, is ancient history. The conflict that has made the deepest impression on them is Iraq -- and the image of America many now carry in their heads is shaped less by Omaha Beach than Guantanamo Bay.

President Obama's mission will be to restore America's influence in a world with numerous centers of power and multiple sources of danger. To succeed, he must be persistent. It will take time to get our fiscal house in order, to extract ourselves responsibly from Iraq, and to develop a more effective response to violent extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It will take time to formulate innovative policies toward each of the many trouble spots around the globe -- from the Middle East and Caucasus to the Sudan and Congo It will take time to restore our nation's reputation as a champion of human rights and international law, and to show a renewed commitment to fighting the axis of evil -- poverty, ignorance, and disease.

It will take time to convince skeptics that the promotion of democracy is not a mask for imperialism or a recipe for the kind of chaos we have seen in the Persian Gulf. And it will take time to establish the right identity for America in a world that has grown suspicious of all who claim a monopoly on virtue and that has become reluctant to follow the lead of any one country.

It will take time for the next president to succeed, but the opportunity will be there. There is no doubt that a guiding hand is needed. That direction is unlikely to come from those now opposing our values: from radical populists, aggressive nationalists, autocratic modernizers, or the apostles of holy war.

Such guidance could well come from a new brand of American leader, a leader who listens and who blends Truman's judgment with an up to date sense not only of what is possible but of what can become possible through the right blend of energy and faith; and it could come from a country that has just voted freely and peacefully to choose its president for the 56th time.

We cannot go back to that distant day, three score years ago, when my family arrived on these shores. That world is gone. We can, however, hope to build a future of greater justice, broader prosperity, and larger freedom, with the United States once again serving as a cornerstone.

That will be President Obama's mandate -- and the responsibility of us all.

Comments

[dgscol]

Although what you have said sounds good, in fact, the Clintons and people like Dinne Feinstein are getting rich liquidating America, which apparently is also an opportunity. I do not feel they are in tune with our culture any longer, and essays about American values, amount to just so much handwaving.
They actually have more in common with former Republican values than current Democratic values.

[shadow322]

Madelein - I have always appreciated your integrity and intellect. I hope you have PresElect Obama's ear on this. Sen. Lieberman must go - period. Otherwise he sets a standard for cronyism and low expectations on the hill that does not correspond with the "party of Change" his supporters expect of their new government.

[CaptainStormfield]

What I am hoping for in an Obama presidency is change. Change from the Clintonian brand of Ne@conservatism as well as the Bush brand.

[wigglwagon]

What are radical populists, agressive nationalists, autocratic modernizers?

[dessertsfirst]

Thank you, Madam Albright, both for your insightful post here, and for your years of very proficient service to the USA as our Secy of State under President Clinton. I look back longingly to the years when you held the post, when the US had some stature globally, and the US was looked upon as a true ally with other countries. In those days, the greatness of the USA elevated the stature of other countries as well. If anybody could begin to effect a change for the good, I believe that Pres elect Obama can, that's why I voted for him. But as you indicated, it surely cannot happen overnight. But hopefully it will be a start that will gain momentum.

[wigglwagon]

What are radical populists, agressive nationalists, and autocratic modernizers?

[tbirdalum]

Well said, Madame Secretary. If there's one wish that I could have, that wish would be for Hillary, If she accepts, would have you for an assistant. I admire your perception and your vision in a world that is full of trouble and with a country that is up to the most major tasks to be dealt with that I have seen in my 68 years. Thank you for your past service and I look forward to a much improved nation.


Yes, We Did, O

[SCG]

"It will never be possible for any length of time for any group of the American people, either by reason of wealth or learning or inheritance or economic power, to retain any mandate, any permanent authority to arrogate to itself the political control of American public life."

- Franklin Roosevelt June 1936

[peewee42]

MAdam Albright,
I hope you will use all your experience and influence to convince Pres.elect Obama that what AMERICA -desperately- needs now is a DOMESTIC MARSHALL PLAN, patterned after the original one that so magnficently rebuild Europe post WWII.
WALL STREET must be tightly regulated (NO LOOPHOLES) by politically independent agencies that are subject to set length of terms of service.
Any Bailout must have build into it:
A Start/Finish date, ACCOUNTABILIY, TRANSPARENCY, ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY, STRONG SANCTIONS in cases of MIUSE/ABUSE
e.g.:Bailing out Detroit?.NO WAY -only after the entire corporate structure is rebuild from the bottom on up.Executive pay should be tied to performance, no golden parachutes, employee input at the corporate level, Labor Unions must heavily curtail demands, Transparency, accountability, only use taxpayer monies to build a GREEN Co..electric, cars, cars that run on LPG...
.NUCLEAR ENERGY must be re-visited, electricity providers need incentives to look into, and seriously consider alternative sources, be it, sun, wind or nuclear..
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS must be developed to get people OUT of their cars, and into buses and trains that run efficeintly.
This Domestic Marshall Plan can cover infratructure rebuilding, creating a multitude of jobs....Under this umbrella, there can not be a piecemeal bailout proghram, that lurches from industry/company to indutsry/c­ompany...O­versight is key to such a Domestic MArshall Plan

[jajenkins]

Ah yes, so much "experience and influence" starving 500,000 Iraqi children to death.

[canucklivinginUSA]

I do not envy President Obama's position one tiny bit. He will have so much on his plate. Bush is intent on burning down the country and serving him a pile of rumbles. Although we have to be critical and express our opinions, we need to understand that he has a lot of work to do to reverse the damage that Bush and the Repubs have done to this country. I came in to this country eight years ago, right during the 2000 elections, and I have been unhappy since. The rise of the theocrats, the right wing nutjobs and this war has further my unhappiness. I look forward to come out of that and will support president Obama wholeheartedly

[IGGHY]

I don't think Obama would have been elected if all is well in the country. i am glad people got pragmatic and decided to see beyond the color to solve the daunting problem. But I doubt that it would have happened in good times. The time rendered any ideology superflous.

[daddysboy]

You are always such a model of grace and statesmanship, it is a pleasure to read your eloquent and true words here. Thank you.

[Social Construct]

" .... and it could come from a country that has just voted freely and peacefully to choose its president ... ". Right on.
Sec. Albright, to me, those few words summarized all that you wrote above. If our elected officials could be reminded of where their power to legislate and administrate comes from with every decision that they make, it would go far as an example to those in the international community. And, if our citizens could remember, and revere that right, that it is we, the people, that bestowes that power for the governance to decide for the people, by the people and of the people then the tasks of our present and future leaders may find more ease providing the examples of our American Democracy to the rest of the world.

[evaviolette]

Thank you for a terrific insight!
ER indeed! The entire hospital!

[dessertsfirst]

Unfortunately, instead of government for the people, by the people and of the people, it seems to have been "transformed" to be government for the lobbyists, by the lobbyists, and of the lobbyists. It's the money, baby! The lobbyists get the laws passed which would benefit their entities, and the lawmakers salaries are funded by the people's tax money. But we the people have no longer any representation in DC. THAT's what we need changed in DC.

[Dr. Robert Aziz - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you Madam Secretary Albright for the perspective you have given to this much-anticipated presidential transition. I was especially drawn to your following statement.

“There is a promise in Senator Obama’s election that goes beyond any explicit pledge made during the campaign.”

The ‘promise in Senator Obama’s election,’ I would offer in agreement with your appraisal, most certainly amounts to far more than a to-do list. That is because the change of which Barack Obama speaks, as I have outlined in Democracy and Self-Organization, “is not so much about this or that specific idea or solution, but rather, about the how we are to get to this or that specific idea or solution. The change of which Barack Obama speaks is above all else about process.” (p. 9)

The basis of the profound and fundamental change of which Barack Obama speaks, the implicit ‘promise in Senator Obama’s election,’ that by which the lost moral initiative will be restored to America and by extension democratic culture does not reside in the to-do list as such, but rather, in the ‘process,’ which is to say, the ‘how’ such to-do lists come into being.

[Dr. Robert Aziz - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you Madam Secretary Albright for the perspective you have given to this much-anticipated presidential transition. I was especially drawn to your following statement.

“There is a promise in Senator Obama’s election that goes beyond any explicit pledge made during the campaign.”

The ‘promise in Senator Obama’s election,’ I would offer in agreement with your appraisal, most certainly amounts to far more than a to-do list. That is because the change of which Barack Obama speaks, as I have outlined in Democracy and Self-Organization, “is not so much about this or that specific idea or solution, but rather, about the how we are to get to this or that specific idea or solution. The change of which Barack Obama speaks is above all else about process.” (p. 9)

The basis of the profound and fundamental change of which Barack Obama speaks, the implicit ‘promise in Senator Obama’s election,’ that by which the lost moral initiative will be restored to America and by extension democratic culture does not reside in the to-do list as such, but rather, in the 'process,' which is to say, the 'how' such to-do lists come into being.