2007.07.01: July 1, 2007: Headlines: Speaking Out: Fort Worth Star Telegram: Jim Wright writes: Until the creeping paralysis of the Vietnam conflict enmeshed us so inexorably in that unpopular and unwinnable fixation, we still were doing exemplary things at home and abroad: clean water, clean air, Medicare, Head Start and Job Corps training, expansion of voting rights and other human rights. People the world over were in awe.
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2007.07.01: July 1, 2007: Headlines: Speaking Out: Fort Worth Star Telegram: Jim Wright writes: Until the creeping paralysis of the Vietnam conflict enmeshed us so inexorably in that unpopular and unwinnable fixation, we still were doing exemplary things at home and abroad: clean water, clean air, Medicare, Head Start and Job Corps training, expansion of voting rights and other human rights. People the world over were in awe.
Jim Wright writes: Until the creeping paralysis of the Vietnam conflict enmeshed us so inexorably in that unpopular and unwinnable fixation, we still were doing exemplary things at home and abroad: clean water, clean air, Medicare, Head Start and Job Corps training, expansion of voting rights and other human rights. People the world over were in awe.
It was John F. Kennedy who launched the Peace Corps, perhaps the most symbolic expression of the essential American spirit. For in this, we were sharing with the world not just our financial treasure but our most precious possession of all: the spirit of idealism of our American youths. We were freedom's bugler. Agree with us or not, almost everyone considered us trustworthy. It's little wonder that for all those years, most of the world looked up to and admired our country, and wished us well. We still are, in some senses, the envy of the world. But, numbingly, we realize that we've unquestionably scuffed up our credentials as inspiration to the world. Many more are they who mistrust us. And so on July 1, 2007, we can look back. "Don't let it be forgot/ That once there was a spot/ For one brief shinning moment that was known/ As Camelot."
Jim Wright writes: Until the creeping paralysis of the Vietnam conflict enmeshed us so inexorably in that unpopular and unwinnable fixation, we still were doing exemplary things at home and abroad: clean water, clean air, Medicare, Head Start and Job Corps training, expansion of voting rights and other human rights. People the world over were in awe.
A brief, shining moment for U.S.
By Jim Wright
Special to the Star-Telegram
On this July 1, adjusting to the shocking reality that this current year is already at its midway point, those of us who've seen a bit of history might be forgiven if we look back yearningly to a more innocent time, when good deeds were effective instruments of foreign policy.
It was 60 years ago -- the summer and fall of 1947 -- that then-Secretary of State George C. Marshall, with President Truman's enthusiastic backing, launched what came to be known as the Marshall Plan. That program was one of history's truly epochal events, and the primary stimulus of war-ravaged Western Europe's impressive revival.
Winston Churchill called the Marshall Plan, and particularly Germany's inclusion, "the most unsordid act" in history -- reaching out financially to lift up not only former allies but fallen foes.
From 1948 through 1952, the U.S. provided $132.3 billion (an enormously greater amount than that figure would represent today) in U.S. aid to assist in the physical and financial restoration of the countries of hunger-driven and depression-wracked Western Europe. Of this amount, $1.4 billion was earmarked for western Germany.
German Prime Minister Konrad Adenauer, whose government administered much of the U.S.-financed national restoration, vowed at the time, "The German people must not be allowed to forget [America's generosity] and they will not forget it."
As if in fulfillment of Adenauer's pledge, The Atlantic Times, an English-language newspaper from Germany, last month featured a major story on the Marshall Plan, which it heralds as "the watering can" of "the Economic Miracle." The story credits that plan with setting in motion the general prosperity that prevails throughout Western Europe today.
Maybe it wasn't just pure altruism that inspired America's generosity. No doubt the dawning reality of the Cold War played some role in our leaders' thinking. They surely didn't relish the possibility of a bitterly impoverished Western Europe falling under Soviet domination.
In that same year, 1947, Churchill issued a grave warning in his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Fulton, Mo. From that time until 1990, our titanic competition with the Soviet Union tended to drive many of our actions -- including our military interventions in Korea and Vietnam, which we then saw as necessary to halt aggression and prevent expansion of what we called "the Soviet bloc." That competition also gave impetus to our interstate highway program, our massive 1958 education stimuli and our entire space program.
Still, there was a powerful strain of good will in America's public, which reflected itself and found expression in our chosen leadership. Presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower's most impelling campaign pledge was the one in which he said, if elected, "I shall go to Korea" for the purpose of halting the bloodshed and making a peace settlement.
That, of course, is exactly what he did before taking the oath of office.
And it was John F. Kennedy who launched the Peace Corps, perhaps the most symbolic expression of the essential American spirit. For in this, we were sharing with the world not just our financial treasure but our most precious possession of all: the spirit of idealism of our American youths.
The Peace Corps is still a busy reality. A total of 139 countries have requested Peace Corps volunteers. Since the program's inception, more than 187,000 Americans have willingly given a year or more of their lives, without pay, to help the world's less fortunate.
Until the creeping paralysis of the Vietnam conflict enmeshed us so inexorably in that unpopular and unwinnable fixation, we still were doing exemplary things at home and abroad: clean water, clean air, Medicare, Head Start and Job Corps training, expansion of voting rights and other human rights. People the world over were in awe.
We were freedom's bugler. Agree with us or not, almost everyone considered us trustworthy. It's little wonder that for all those years, most of the world looked up to and admired our country, and wished us well.
We still are, in some senses, the envy of the world. But, numbingly, we realize that we've unquestionably scuffed up our credentials as inspiration to the world. Many more are they who mistrust us.
And so on July 1, 2007, we can look back. "Don't let it be forgot/ That once there was a spot/ For one brief shinning moment that was known/ As Camelot."
Jim Wright is a former speaker of the U.S. House. PO Box 1413, Fort Worth, TX 76101
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Headlines: July, 2007; Speaking Out
When this story was posted in September 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Fort Worth Star Telegram
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Speaking Out
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