Arrogance

In 1966, Democratic Sen. William Fulbright of Arkansas, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, gave a speech at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, entitled “The Arrogance of Power”, which he defined as “the tendency of great nations to equate power with virtue and major responsibilities with a universal mission.” A description that aptly describes the worldwide activities of the United States over the last few decades. As the Vietnam War raged, the Sen. continued “We are now engaged in a war to "defend freedom" in South Vietnam… The official war aims of the United States Government, as I understand them, are to defeat what is regarded as North Vietnamese aggression, to demonstrate the futility of what the communists call "wars of national liberation," and to create conditions under which the South Vietnamese people will be able freely to determine their own future. I have not the slightest doubt of the sincerity of the President and the Vice President and the Secretaries of State and Defense in propounding these aims. What I do doubt, and doubt very much, is the ability of the United States to achieve these aims by the means being used. I do not question the power of our weapons and the efficiency of our logistics; I cannot say these things delight me as they seem to delight some of our officials, but they are certainly impressive. What I do question is the ability of the United States, or France or any other Western nation, to go into a small, alien, undeveloped Asian nation and create stability where there is chaos, the will to fight where there is defeatism, democracy where there is no tradition of it and honest government where corruption is almost a way of life.” The Senator went on to say, “The cause of our difficulties in Southeast Asia is not a deficiency of power but an excess of the wrong kind of power which results in a feeling of impotence when it fails to achieve its desired ends. We are still acting like boy scouts dragging reluctant old ladies across streets they do not want to cross. We are trying to remake Vietnamese society, a task which certainly cannot be accomplished by force and which probably cannot be accomplished by any means available to outsiders. The objective may be desirable, but it is not feasible....”

Today, if we were to change the term “Asian nation” to “Islamic nation”, we might well find ourselves describing the situation in Iraq, or nearly anywhere else in the world where the United States has embarked on a self appointed crusade to “improve things”!

Yes, we are (for the moment) the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, as we were in the 1960s. And equally as certain we are just as arrogant, if not even more so. Historically we have set ourselves nearly impossible goals, and achieved them on a regular basis. Who would have believed that a loose confederation of impoverished former colonies could have claimed, tamed, and settled a very large part of North America, in slightly less than a century! In the 1860’s we decided we needed a transcontinental railroad, and promptly built it in record time, and did so in the face of incredible adversity. Who would have believed that we could advance from a large and somewhat clumsy agrigriarian nation in the 1930s, to the worlds premier industrial and military power, in only slightly more time than it took us to fight WW II? In 1960 we didn’t even know if manned spaceflight were possible, yet in less than ten years we watched enthralled as Americans walking on the surface of another planet! We believed then, as we believe now, that there is nothing America can’t do if we once set our minds to it. Except perhaps, build a free-wheeling democracy in a small nation that doesn’t want democracy. Are we really so arrogant as to believe that a people… any people… who have for centuries quite willingly lived under a rather medieval theocratic political system, really have a desire to almost overnight switch to our particular form of democracy, only because our politicians tell them that “our system is better”!? The Soviets told the entire world how much better their political system was, from 1917 until they collapsed in 1990. Not many people believed them either.

If America has a means to lead in the modern world, it is in large part by our own example. In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are expending the economic lifeblood of the nation, and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources. We are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest. Regrettable I think, in a nation that aspires to teach democracy to others, because as Burke said "Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other." A lesson America should have learned fifty years ago.

Why can’t we understand that America's true power lies not in our will to threaten, conquer, or intimidate, but in our ability to inspire? There is a temptation that seeps into the souls of even the most righteous men that leads them to bend the rules, and eventually the truth, to suit the perceived needs of the moment. Today we see greed, corruption, distain for the law, and an insatiable thirst for power openly displayed in this country, nearly everyplace we might look. That arrogance of power is deeply imbedded in our personal and business relations as well as our political relations, not only among ourselves, but with the rest of the world as well.

There are many respects in which America can be an intelligent example to the world. We have the opportunity to set an example of understanding in our relations with China, of practical cooperation in our relations with Russia, of reliable partnership in our relations with Western Europe, of helpfulness without moral presumption in our relations with developing nations, of avoiding the temptations of hegemony in our relations with Latin America, and of minding our own business in our relations with everybody. We have the opportunity to serve as an example of democracy to the world by the way in which we run our own society; America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, should be "the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all" but "the champion and vindicator only of her own." . . . We can demonstrate to the world that a free people can continue to live free even in the face of severe adversity, it’s certainly not necessary for them, or us, to adopt the ways and means of a totalitarian police state.

If we can bring ourselves to act, we will have overcome the arrogance of power.