Powell’s job: diplomatic solutions & disagree with Rumsfeld
Once Bush decided [to invade Iraq], he never looked back. At that point he expected his White House staff to support him, but he allowed his Cabinet officers wider latitude. “People say that Rumsfeld and Powell are at war with each other,” an aide said.
“No kidding. They’re supposed to be. The State Department’s answer to most anything is diplomacy. The Defense Department’s answer to almost anything is weapons and warfare. The question is what is the right mix of those for each situation.
You want those differences of opinion to exist in any organization, and you have this ongoing dialogue. The glue that holds it together, according to management consultants, is mutual respect. If you respect one another, you’ll find the right balance.
So do Powell and Rumsfeld respect each other? I believe they do. Are their disagreements excessive? Are they dysfunctional? I’ve never seen that.“
UN faces irrelevance if it does not respond to Iraq
1441 states that a failure by Iraq at any time to cooperate in the implementation of this resolution shall constitute material breach of its obligation. We wrote it this way to give Iraq a test. I believe that Iraq is now in further material breach.
I believe this conclusion is irrefutable. Iraq has now placed itself in danger of the serious consequences called for in 1441. This body places itself in danger of irrelevance if it allows Iraq to continue without responding effectively & immediately.
Source: Speech to the UN Security Council
Feb 5, 2003
State Dept shakeup: More funds; more career officers
As part of a State Department shake-up, Secretary-designate Colin Powell is leaning toward abolishing about 70 special envoy positions as well as the War Crimes Bureau, according to department officials. The possible changes, among several to be
instituted by Powell, are based on his belief that career foreign service officers have been under-appreciated and underused for many years. US diplomats have high expectations that Powell not only will give them better jobs but will bring more funds
into the State Department, which now receives 1/16th as much as the Defense Department.
Powell and a small team of close advisers have settled into the labyrinthine State Department building, quietly holding dozens of meetings during the
last two weeks with foreign service officers representing nearly every bureau. He first met with those specializing in Africa, a surprise to many given the lack of attention by Bush during the campaign.
Source: John Donnelly, Boston Globe, p. A5
Jan 6, 2001
American century gives way to “century of democracy”
The world is watching to see if all this power and wealth is just for the well-to-do, the comfortable, the privileged, or are we a nation that can make our dream real for all Americans so that all share in what we have been given by a generous God?
We must show to the rest of the world, the beauty and potential of democracy. Our greatest strength is the power of our example to be that shining city on the hill that Ronald Reagan spoke of and that the whole world looks up to.
Our nation on a course of hope and optimism for this new century. The century historians will look back on and record not that it was the American century or the European century or the Asian century, instead let
us pray that when they look back, they will call it the century of democracy, a time when America led the world that wants to be free to an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity.
Source: Speech at the Republican convention
Jul 30, 2000
Don’t make up new enemies to fit old mission
Q. What should the new Secretary of State do?
A. First, you need to understand that Russia is not coming back. But you can’t have a vacuum of mission. That leads to anxiety and dread. Dig deep and rip out that old mission and fill it immediately
with a new mission and then start training for it. You cannot tolerate a vacuum!
A Secretary of State should do three things:
Keep the military strong
Don’t look for new enemies
Keep the economy strong
Source: Interview at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Jun 9, 2000
Cuba is an irrelevant Cold War leftover
Cuba for General Powell is becoming “an irrelevant leftover of the cold war.” He feels that we will soon have to modify our policy and recognize the nation in order “to get ready for the collapse of Castro.”
Source: Colin Powell and the American Dream, p. 25
Jul 2, 1995
Haiti: Imperfect agreements are better than war
[While negotiating with the Haitian president], Jimmy Carter laid out the terms for stopping the US invasion, as I got word back to President Clinton. “Mr. President, I think we’ve got some movement here. We just need more time.”
Clinton was uneasy. He was not going to change the invasion timetable, he said, but we could keep talking a little longer. The documents were prepared, and Carter and the Haitian ministers signed them. The storming of Haiti had been averted at
H-Hour minus six.
The agreement we worked out was criticized. The “thugs” supposedly got off too easily. I was attacked for playing on the honor of dishonorable men. The criticism did not bother me. Once the US troops set foot in Haiti,
for better or worse, we ran the place. What happened to the junta was inconsequential. Because of what we accomplished, young Americans, and probably far more Haitians, who would have died were still alive. That was success enough for me.
I spent my 56th birthday in Mogadishu trying to move the Somalia operation off America’s back and onto the UN’s, where it had been in the first place. We had accomplished our mission by ending the civil disorder that had disrupted the production and
distribution of food and led to the mass starvation. It was now up to the UN force to maintain that order. But the UN approved a resolution shifting the mission from feeding the hungry to “nation building,” a phrase I had first heard in Vietnam. But the
will to build a nation originates from within its people, not from the outside. Nation building might have an inspirational ring, but it struck me as a way to get bogged down in Somalia, not get out.
[In early discussions with newly-elected President
Clinton], Somalia was uppermost in my thoughts. I told him we could not substitute our version of democracy for hundreds of years of tribalism. “We can’t make a country out of that place. We’ve got to find a way to get out, and soon,” I said.
Economic strength more important than military strength
In this new world, economic strength will be more important than military strength. Nations seeking power through military strength, the development of nuclear weapons, terrorism, or tyrannical governments are mining “fool’s gold.”
They can never hope to match or challenge the military or economic power of the free world led by the US. Despotic regimes will come to realize it in due course, when they find themselves left behind while free nations prosper
and provide a better life for their people. One only has to look at China to see a nation slowly finding a place in the world, not through the strength of the People’s Liberation Army or Mao’s Little Red Book, but through the release of the creative
entrepreneurial power of the Chinese people. In Vietnam, American businesses are being invited in to repair the economic disaster created by two decades of “victorious” communism. We should encourage and support these impulses.
Mao’s China had thorough thought control but not paranoia
What struck me about China [during a 1973 visit as a White House Intern], particularly after visiting the Soviet Union, was the absence of paranoia. Our Chinese guides seemed less frightened than their Soviet counterparts. They were not constantly
searching our baggage, restraining our movements, or stopping us from taking pictures. Two distinctive threads, however, ran through the Chinese experience. You could ask an ordinary person in Beijing, Canton, or any village, “How are you doing?” and the
answer was invariably a smile and “Fine. Under Chairman Mao we have a sewing machine, a radio, a bicycle.” The thoroughness of thought control in so vast a country was frightening. The second iron rule was that Chinese officials would admit shortcomings,
but never error.
One day on the Soviet border we turned to see two Chinese MiG-19s streak into the sky. “What was that?” I asked our guide, who continued to gaze ahead placidly and silently. “What was what?” he answered. End of discussion.
