*EPF510 03/15/2002
Transcript: Powell Stresses Importance to U.S. and World of State's IV Program
(Promotes international understanding, dispels misconceptions about U.S.) (4200)

In a March 14 speech in Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed the importance to the United States and the world of the State Department's International Visitor Program that funds visits to the United States of current or potential leaders in a number of fields from around the world so they can "experience some time in America with families, in our communities and our workplaces and our churches and our synagogues and our mosques."

The program, Powell said, "has had great success over the years." It exposes foreigners "to what we are and who we are," and it is hoped that from this exposure they will return to their own countries "with a better understanding of what America is and what America is all about."

Powell said "this has never been more important because, as you look out on the world stage today, you find people who don't have positive views about America and about Americans. They think that we throw our weight around too much occasionally. Some think that we are against a particular creed or against a particular religion. In many parts of the world when we take polls about attitudes toward Americans, we don't do that well. We've got to reverse that image."

Powell was speaking to members of the National Council for International Visitors, the nonprofit umbrella organization that designs the International Visitor programs and provides stays in American homes for the visitors.

The Council is a national network of twenty private program agencies and 95 community-based organizations throughout the United States.

"The role that you and thousands of your fellow Americans across the country play as citizen diplomats...is more vital than ever," said Powell. "Each one of you brings extraordinary passion, extraordinary energy, to promoting international understanding and goodwill."

"When you open your homes, when you open your communities, when you open your hearts to visitors from around the world, you give your guests a chance to see America at our best, to see our warmth and our base of diversity, and our conviction that searching discussion and sincere exchanges of views can yield tangible results. Not only do you help acquaint visitors with what is in American hearts and on our minds, you also help to educate members of our own communities about the hopes, fears and dreams of your visitors."

Powell noted that many world leaders have been through the International Visitor Program, including Chairman Hamid Karzai, the new head of the Interim Authority in Afghanistan.

"I am very pleased that at an early point in his career he spent time with us. He was exposed to our system. He was exposed to our values. He had some of his education here. This should be a great source of pride to all of us," said Powell.

He noted that in the audience were journalists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, who are currently in the United States under the International Visitor program.

"We so much enjoy bringing journalists to the State Department and letting them see how our Spokesman, Ambassador Boucher, does his work every day. When time permits, I will go down and let them question me, and it can be a fascinating and revealing experience to be questioned by reporters from Kazakhstan or Armenia, places so far away."

Powell also noted that a group of dedicated Foreign Service National employees from U.S. embassies around the world were currently in Washington for professional training and to participate in the Council's work.

"Our Foreign Service National employees are perhaps one of the most favorite groups of people within the State Department family," Powell said. They "are those foreign employees who work with our embassies around the world. They do such a great job and their work is so vital. Not only do they serve America; they serve their own countries by helping our diplomats, by providing continuity at our embassies."

Powell said when he went to Kabul recently to reopen the U.S. embassy there, he was "proud to see so many of those Foreign Service Nationals, Afghans, who did not abandon us during the days of the Taliban. They came to work every day, even with the threats they and their family might face because they were working for the Americans. And they took care of that embassy. It got some damage, but it was functioning when we got back there," the Secretary said.

The reason that the international visitor programs "are so important, the reason I linger over journalists, the reason I linger over our Foreign Service Nationals, (is) the simple reason that no country acting alone, not even one as powerful as the United States, can even begin to tackle the great global challenges of the 21st century.

"Whether we're working on the strengthening of civil societies and promoting representative government, or whether we're working on eradicating poverty and bringing conflicts to peaceful ends, America needs and seeks to work in concert with others. We are a country of countries. We are a country that touches every country on the face of the earth. It is important that we communicate to the rest of the world that we want to be friends with all nations, that we want to be partners with all nations. And the wonderful work that all of you do fosters that kind of understanding, the kind of understanding that can result in strong and lasting international partnerships," the Secretary of State said.

Powell was introduced by Alan Kumamoto, Chairman, Board of Directors, of the National Council for International Visitors.

Following is the State Department transcript of Powell's remarks:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

March 14, 2002

Washington, D.C.
As Delivered

REMARKS BY SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN L. POWELL AT NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

(9:15 a.m.)

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Alan, for that very, very warm and effusive -- (laughter) -- welcome and introduction. Just the kind I like. (Laughter.) But I do thank you for inviting me to come over and spend a few moments with this wonderful group of volunteers. As Alan noted, when we created America's Promise back in 1997 at the President's summit in Philadelphia, we intended to create an organization of volunteers that would come together to help America's children, to give children the mentoring that they needed, the safe places they needed in which to learn and to grow, to give them a healthy start in life, to make sure they had the marketable skills that they needed to be successful in the 21st century, and, finally, to make sure that youngsters, at whatever age, learn the gift of giving back to others, of serving others.

It's now five years later almost, and America's Promise is still alive and well and growing and doing very, very well. When I was forced to step down from the chairmanship of the organization because of my return to government, my wife, Alma, took over as vice chair of the organization, and it continues to thrive -- perhaps, as some have said, better under her stewardship than under mine. (Laughter.)

But that last point about encouraging young people to give to others, to learn the joy of giving to others, as early in life as is possible, and (inaudible) a direct link to this wonderful organization represented here before me. People who give to others, literally from the bottom of your heart, and with a faithfulness of spirit, with no desire for anything else but the satisfaction of giving to others, serving someone else, with no other goal but to serve the interests of the American people, to show people from around the world who we are, what we are, what we're all about.

We're not what you see on television. We're not necessarily what people like to write about us. We are average men and women trying to make a living, trying to raise families, trying to make our communities better places in which to live, trying to live the values that our nation was founded on and in which we believe so dearly: the values of democracy and the free enterprise system, the individual rights of men and women to pursue their God-given dreams and their destinies, hindered only by their own willingness to work, their own abilities, with a society coming together to give them every open path possible to achieve those dreams, a society and a country that has its problems. We've had problems from the days of our founding when we said that only white men were able to be full participants in our democracy.

But over the years of our history, we showed that if you believed in the vision that that those white men had back then, even though they couldn't make it real then, but if you believed in that vision and if you never lost sight of that vision, then you can achieve great things, as we have in this nation over those years. This is our value system.

What is so beautiful about your program, what makes our program so important, is that we don't lecture about -- that is, we don't put you in an audience like this and pound them into you. We just let you come from lands all over the world and experience some time in America with families, in our communities and our workplaces and our churches and our synagogues and our mosques, expose you to what we are and who we are, and hope that from that exposure you will go back with a better understanding of what America is and what America is all about.

This program has had great success over the years. Many world leaders have been through the program. Chairman Karzai, the new head of the Interim Authority in Afghanistan, nobody knew who he was just a few weeks ago, and now he is one of the most important political figures in the world and who we deal with because of the part he will play in the reconstruction, the rebuilding of Afghanistan, of giving the Afghan people hope. I am very pleased that in an early point in his career he spent time with us. He was exposed to our system. He was exposed to our values. He had some of his education here. This should be a great source of pride to all of us and to those who came before us in this program that such leaders as Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea, President Moi of Kenya, the current Honduran president and eight of his cabinet ministers, all have been through this program, this wonderful program. I'm so pleased that we are affiliated with you in the way that we are.

In my career as a soldier, we had similar programs (inaudible) the way you do it, but I'll never forget the impact that those programs had not only the military officers who came to the United States, but on us American officers who would host them and would be around them and see them and welcome them into our schools and our military schools and into our military communities and show them what a professional army looks like in a democratic society, an army that is subordinate to civilian authority. It sounds so natural to us. It isn't that natural in other places of the world.

I used to have fun with my Soviet and other communist colleagues back in the old days when I would say that, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I was the senior American military officer in the Armed Forces of the United States, the most powerful military force on the face of the earth, but I could not deploy one soldier, not one, without the permission of a civilian. And they would go, phew. (Laughter.) We're not sure we want go there. (Laughter.) My answer was, "Yes, you do."

Because civilians reflect the will of the people. Civilians are the ones who have been elected to office, who are leaders elected to office by the people, representing the people wanting their government to secure the rights of the people. And the military must be an instrument of that government and not the reverse ever. I know that when we brought military officers into our schools and let them see how American military officers behaved, it made an impression upon them (inaudible) many important leaders that way.

So this is a wonderful program, and I want to thank Alan and the board for the National Council for International Visitors for the opportunity just to let me spend a few moments with you. I want to extend a very warm welcome to the journalists who are here from afar, from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, from Thailand, who are also here under our State Department's International Visitors Program. We so much enjoy bringing journalists to the State Department and letting them see how our Spokesman, Ambassador Boucher, does his work every day. When time permits, I will go down and let them question me, and it can be a fascinating and revealing experience to be questioned by reporters from Kazakhstan or Armenia, places so far away.

I also want to extend a special welcome to the dedicated Foreign Service National employees who are in Washington this week. They are here for their professional training program and participating in your work. Our Foreign Service National employees are perhaps one of the most favorite groups of people within the State Department family. We've got Foreign Service Officers, we've got Civil Service Officers, and we've got Foreign Service Nationals. Foreign Service Nationals are those foreign employees who work with our embassies around the world. They do such a great job and their work is so vital. Not only do they serve America; they serve their own countries by helping our diplomats, by providing continuity at our embassies.

When I went to Kabul a few weeks ago after we reopened our embassy, and I went there to formally designate it an embassy again, and I was so proud to see so many of those Foreign Service Nationals, Afghans, who did not abandon us during the days of the Taliban. They came to work every day, even with the threats they and their family might face because they were working for the Americans. And they took care of that embassy. It got some damage, but it was functioning when we got back there. And the joke I like to tell is that in the basement of the embassy, all the cars that belonged to the embassy were still there, all intact. And when we opened the embassy just a couple of months ago now, all we had to do is go into the basement and hook up batteries, fresh batteries, and then the cars started (inaudible). And the joke in all this is if you want to see the finest collection of 1985 Volkswagen Passats in the world, go to Kabul to the American Embassy. They're all parked out back. (Laughter.)

The reason that programs like this are so important, the reason I linger over journalists, the reason I linger over our Foreign Service Nationals, the simple reason that no country acting alone, not even one as powerful as the United States, can even begin to tackle the great global challenges of the 21st century. Whether we're working on the strengthening of civil societies and promoting representative government, or whether we're working on eradicating poverty and bringing conflicts to peaceful ends, America needs and seeks to work in concert with others. We are a country of countries. We are a country that touches every country on the face of the earth. It is important that we communicate to the rest of the world that we want to be friends with all nations, that we want to be partners with all nations. And the wonderful work that all of you do fosters that kind of understanding, the kind of understanding that can result in strong and lasting international partnerships.

This has never been more important because, as you look out on the world stage today, you find people who don't have positive views about America and about Americans. They think that we throw our weight around too much occasionally. Some think that we are against a particular creed or against a particular religion. In many parts of the world when we take polls about attitudes toward Americans, we don't do that well. We've got to reverse that image.

And it isn't going to reverse by me giving a speech or sending out a number of diplomats to talk to all of these people. It's going to be reversed with a lot of hard work on the part of many people. And no one is more important in this effort than you and the work you do by changing attitudes, by changing the views of those who come here in the International Visitors Programs, and see us and go home and can tell a different story than the story they might see on their local television set or they may see in a local newspaper.

We are trying in the Department to reach out even more than we have in the past to expand these visitors programs, to look at new ways of taking our public diplomacy message around the world. Not too long ago, I went on MTV -- (laughter and applause). I'm pleased to see that some of you are between the ages of 17 and 25. (Laughter.) But I went on MTV and my staff said, okay, now we've got to get you prepped. (Laughter.) Now, the kinds of questions you're going to get from these young people could be anything, but if it comes up boxers or briefs, do not answer. (Laughter.) Keep right on going.

As it turned out, the show was supposed to last 60 minutes. It lasted 90 minutes. It reached 346 million households around the world, 146 countries, 33 different MTV channels. Six stations around the world were set up with a hundred youngsters in each of those places so that they could directly ask me questions via live television. I could answer and then all of the nations were able to listen in.

And youngsters will ask you far more penetrating questions than adults will. Adults tend to be a little more reserved, a little more polite. Youngsters haven't learned all that yet. (Laughter.) And so they were being much more direct. And even the best questions I get are from elementary school kids who don't care who you are. You're just some big guy they don't know. (Laughter.) He's been brought to my school; I can ask him anything I want. So the best questions I get, elementary school. And this group of 17 to 25, they don't hold back. They were in Cairo, they were in (inaudible), they were in New Delhi, they were in England, all over.

The first question was, "Why is the United States the Great Satan of the world?" (Laughter.) And I came back and said we're the great protector of the world. What land have we invaded and kept in the last century? What people have we tried to oppress? Where did I send -- where did the President send -- where did the American people send American troops to fight and die over the last ten years to protect the Muslim populations of Kuwait, of Kosovo and Afghanistan? So what do you mean we're the Great Satan? We're the protector, and you need to think of this in a different term.

I wouldn't have had that opportunity to make that little sermon, if I hadn't gone on something like MTV. And so what we have to do with these kinds of programs and the programs we have in the Department and all of the other programs we have in the United States Government is to reach out more broadly and take our message -- a proud message, a message of values, a message of what we do for the rest of the world -- to the rest of the world in every way we can, every channel we can find, and not be afraid to engage at every level with anybody who wants to talk to us, anybody who wants to visit us. We must not be afraid, because with have a good story.

In his State of the Union Address this past January, President Bush called upon all Americans to commit themselves to service, to the service of their neighbors and to the service of their nation. I know that this call resonated loudly with each and every one of you citizen volunteers. The role that you and thousands of your fellow Americans across the country play as citizen diplomats, I think I've tried to say to you this morning, is more vital than ever. Each one of you brings extraordinary passion, extraordinary energy, to promoting international understanding and goodwill.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, it has become even more important. We have all got to work together to take this message to the rest of the world, a message that focuses on increasing respect for human rights and ethnic tolerance; a message that talks to the whole world about the rule of law and good governance, that successful societies of the 21st century must rest on the rule of law, for there is recourse to law for all the citizens and for all who might want to invest in that country and help that country move into a world of prosperity and out of the world of poverty; a message of open markets; a message of free trade, growth-generating trade, the kind of trade that allows undeveloped countries to begin the march up the ladder of prosperity; a message of stability and peace, moving away from age old conflicts and ethnic and religious and other kinds of intolerance that lead to the slaughters that we see on our television sets too often. We need peace. We need stability in order then to begin developing societies based on the rule of law. It's a simple value system. It's a system that we need to take throughout the world, and you help us do that. We need to build a future in which terrorists cannot thrive because people are satisfied, where people believe their governments are taking care of them, people believe that they can raise their children, they can put food on the table, a roof over their heads, and hope in their hearts for a better future.

United States Government programs try to work in all of these areas. We believe that our programs can do much to bridge the divides of understanding, but nothing leverages it like you do. Sometimes it may be hard for you, and you know there are other things you might want to do with your life, and you're spending it with a visitor who has come and is working in your individual council somewhere, and, you know, maybe I should be doing something else, working with some other program in my community.

Well, I'm telling you, your work is vital and your work leverages us in such an important way. When you open your homes, when you open your communities, when you open your hearts to visitors from around the world, you give your guests a chance to see America at our best, to see our warmth and our base of diversity, and our conviction that searching discussion and sincere exchanges of views can yield tangible results. Not only do you help acquaint visitors with what is in American hearts and on our minds, you also help to educate members of our own communities about the hopes, fears and dreams of your visitors.

As citizen diplomats, you bring world issues home to the American people in the most direct way possible. On behalf of President Bush and his entire Administration, and especially on behalf of all of my colleagues in the State Department, I want to thank you for your generosity. I want to thank you for the time that you are willing to give to this. I want to thank you for your energy. And above all, I want to thank you for your dedication to this work.

I know that it is a labor of love for you, and you don't want my thanks. You didn't ask for my thanks. I give it to you because you deserve my thanks. But as you all know, the thanks you will receive that means the most to each and every one of you is the smile you receive from a visitor who has just finished his or her program, the knowledge that you'll probably stay in touch with that person, for life perhaps, and the knowledge that you have helped them, you have helped their country, and above all you have helped our country. Thank you so very much.

(Applause.)

(end State Department transcript)

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Return to Public File Main Page

Return to Public Table of Contents