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American Exceptionalism in the Age of Obama By Dr. Charles Krauthammer

This April, at The Fund for American Studies’ annual conference, guests were honored to hear from Dr. Charles Krauthammer. Krauthammer is a scholar, physician, philanthropist, -winning editorialist, revered commentator for and a living embodiment of the adage: if you’re not liberal and you’re under 30, you’ve got no heart; if you’re not conservative when you’re over 30, you have no brain. For the past two-and-a-half decades Krauthammer has framed the debate on American foreign policy. He coined the term the “.” In 2005, The Fund had the distinct privilege of awarding him its Walter Judd Freedom Award for his work advancing the cause of human freedom around the world. Charles Krauthammer, winner of the for distinguished commentary, ’ve been asked to speak about American and Second World Wars, leaving a vacuum, writes a nationally syndicated Iexceptionalism in the age of Obama. which we had to fill to maintain liberty column for The Washington is an old idea – a for ourselves and for the world. It was Post Writers Group. He was the first recipient of the Bradley venerable idea. It goes back to Jefferson’s also a consequence of the fact that we’re a Prize in 2003, and in 2004 he “Empire of Liberty,” to Lincoln, who commercial republic and we do not hunger was honored by the American spoke of Americans as the almost chosen for empire. Enterprise Institute with the people, and to , who used to Award. return over and over to that great image of We are the only great power in history who, America as a shining city on a hill. upon arriving on a foreign shore, first asks Krauthammer was educated the question, “what’s the exit strategy?” at McGill University, Oxford In terms of our understanding of our self, I can assure you that when the British University and Harvard (M.D. it’s rooted in two things. We are utterly arrived in India, they were not asking in 1975). He came to D.C. unique as a nation, being the only nation themselves “what’s the exit strategy?” It in 1978 to direct planning in on earth founded not on race, bloodlines, was “what’s the entry strategy,” “what’s psychiatric research for the even geography and history. We are a the staying strategy,” and “what’s the Carter administration. He joined nation founded on an idea and that is new governing strategy?” We don’t like that. We as a writer in human history. And in terms of how always want to leave. Unfortunately, after and editor in 1981. REEDOM we conduct ourselves abroad, we are also the Second World War, because of the rise Krauthammer lives in D.C. with unique in many ways in that we never of the , we were not able to. his wife Robyn, an artist. Their sought . That was a result of the And I think history will demonstrate (and son is a student at Harvard. civilizational suicide of Europe in the First it does to any objective observer) that how F THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES • WWW.TFAS.ORG • 800-741-6964 2

We are utterly unique as a nation, being the only nation on earth founded not on race, bloodlines, “even geography and history. We are a nation founded on an idea and that is new in human history.” 2009 TFAS alumni meet Dr. Charles Krauthammer after his speech during the annual conference.

we conducted ourselves as the reluctant of the , knowing our In his early travels, President Obama hegemon after the Second World War history, our idea of liberty and how we went around the world saying things was remarkable. conducted ourselves generally-speaking, about his own country that I believe unlike the alternative today, which is no American president has in the past, I’ll give you three examples. Three under the dominance of China. So, I particularly abroad. He was quite critical peoples who were split by the : think the world speaks by its actions, of America. He was on what can only be East and West Germany, North and by its welcoming of our influence, called an apology tour. He apologized South Korea, and Taiwan and Mainland particularly in areas where there are for an astonishing array of actions, China. Look at how those nations regional hegemonies who aren’t as starting with the 1953 Eisenhower evolved, one-half of those people with a nice, as humane, or benign as we are. It policy of supporting the coup against common history, culture, language, etc., speaks to how exceptional we are. the Mosaddegh regime in Tehran. under our jurisdiction and the other half under the jurisdiction of our adversary. Now, unfortunately, I’m not sure that He apologized over and over again for our president shares that vision. I think Guantanamo, for . He implied Compare the liberty, prosperity, the it’s rather remarkable that when he was that the war in Iraq, in his view, wasn’t humanity of West Germany versus asked about American exceptionalism he only a mistake, but it was actually East Germany, Taiwan and Communist replied – this is not a direct quote, but immoral. He apologized at one point for, China, North and South Korea. I it’s rather a good approximation – “Yes I think the words were “dismissiveness” think it’s a fairly good record. And it is there’s American exceptionalism, but I and “derisiveness” about U.S. relations the reason that in most of the world, suspect the Brits also believe in British toward Europe and then he apologized they see our ascendancy, power and exceptionalism and the Greeks, Greek – I think quite egregiously – for what dominance as a good thing. There’s a exceptionalism.” he implied as our disrespect or lack of reason why the countries of the Pacific respect for the Muslim world. The last Rim and the rest of Asia want us around As I interpret that response, if everybody one I found thickly offensive because in – Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, India is exceptional, nobody is. It sounds as the last 20 years, this country has gone and other countries – because they if he’s saying it’s sort of a conceit that to war or engaged in military action would rather be under the influence all countries have about themselves. to liberate a Muslim population from

THE FUND FOR AMERICAN STUDIES • WWW.TFAS.ORG • 800-741-6964 3 oppression: Kosovo, Bosnia, , In fact, I think it’s remarkable that in a way that we had. We are an imperfect Kuwait in ’91 and then Iraq. Each time the years after that, there were dozens republic. And the president’s view, I liberating, each time acting in a place killed in Muslim riots over cartoons think, goes beyond skepticism about where probably no one else would have in a Danish magazine and yet not a American exceptionalism. He also has a acted, each time the genocide would’ve single anti-Muslim riot in the United view that nobody ought to be dominant. continued. I would even add the Somalia States, a testimony to the tolerance of operation was unsuccessful but also the United States in understanding and It’s not just that we have earned purely humanitarian in the name of to the influence of the government in it because of our sins and our saving lives in a Muslim population. enforcement. mismanagement and our imperial impulses in the past, but there ought to Look also at how the United States So, I’m not sure how disrespectful we be order in which there are no dominant reacted after 9/11, the worst massacre have been. But that was the attitude in powers. If you remember the speech he on American soil in our history. the words of the president of the United gave at the U.N. General Assembly last The President of the United States States, . year, it was a sort of major speech he – within days – went to the made on the world stage. He said, “No in Washington and spoke to the And then there was a third element in nation can or should try to dominate American people and urged them, this, apart from his denigrating the another.” Note the “can.” How naïve. He encouraged them and demanded of idea of exceptionalism, apart from the said no nation can dominate another. them understanding and tolerance of apologies. It was something he said just He’s amazingly adolescent and utopian the Muslim population, outreach of earlier this week. That was one of the with that statement alone. No nation friendship and no sense of revenge or side meetings of the recent summit. “should,” is a very subtle critique of how retaliation in any way. The president met with the president of we have conducted ourselves for the Kazakhstan (a rather nasty dictatorship). last 20 years – we obviously have been A spokesman of the administration said a dominant nation in the world for the afterwards that they had discussed, last 20 years. He went on to say, “No among other issues, human rights and world order in which there is a balance that the president had stressed that we of power can sustain itself.” And then he also are working on our . went on and said that it makes no sense that the alignments among nations – To draw any kind of equivalent, even which are rooted in the cleavages of the to imply an equivalence between our now obsolete Cold War – make sense. admittedly imperfect democracy and what’s an outright nasty dictatorship in Well those alignments were not arbitrary Kazakhstan is quite remarkable. I think alignments. That was a division between the point of view this president has is the free world and communism. That that the kind of hegemony, power and was a division between true liberty and dominance that we have had since the tyranny. That was a division between Second World War (and particularly NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and they since the world became rather different made sense if you accept the notion that after the fall of the , and we the way of life that we would represent became the dominant power) is a rather and support and lead and try to spread undeserved position and that we do not is superior to what the other side had quite have the moral authority to act in offered.

Dr. Roger Pilon, founder and director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, speaks during the question and answer session.

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So, the president has a vision, I think, once said, the only way of powers like us who are dominant that the world in which differences to teach stability and peace is either and who can enforce the peace. And, in strength, power and dominance of through balance of power or through secondly, it’s a misreading of the nature nations is or ought to be abolished, hegemony, and Obama seems to have a of America – of how America conducts and that’s why he speaks over and over view that the way to achieve stability and itself in the world. As I indicated earlier, again about the world community, an peace in the world is for all to act as one there are reasons why people around international community acting as one. and promote high ideals. If you listen the world prefer American influence to to the speech he gave at the summit in other influences. It’s why he, in that same speech, tried Washington early this week on nuclear to say America had turned the corner weapons, or you heard his speech at the Now the theme of the Obama policy in its respect for the rest of the world. General Assembly, that is the theme that seems to be that if we would only He gave (among other examples) paying somehow we have to unite together, act conduct ourselves with humility, our UN dues and joining organizations in our higher interest. And it’s not how everything would work out. I think it’s such as the UN Human Rights Council the world works. International arenas an interesting concept that a man who (which as you all know is one of the exist in a state of nature in which the finds humility in himself rather difficult most Orwellian, predacious bodies states act for interest and power and, at the defense of his country. I’ll give on the planet in which dictatorships unless they are restrained by the power you one sort of remarkable instance. gather in Geneva on your tab and on of other nations, we will have chaos, war Remember on the night he claimed the mine in excellent hotels and denounce and instability. The world doesn’t act, it nomination for the presidency in the the United States and democracy, doesn’t protect itself or ensure stability Democratic Party? He made a speech in particular Israel, and exonerate from the signing of treaties, declarations in which he said that that night would themselves from any human rights or resolutions in the UN Security be remembered in history as the day on abuses). So, it’s a rather odd acclaim Council. which the earth began to heal and the of how we had sort of improved our oceans could begin to recede. A friend position in the world by joining So, the vision I think is, first unrealistic of mine noted that the last person to do organizations within the UN and the UN in terms on how the world works. It is that was Moses... and he had help. itself, which are at best either useless, at not ideal that we should have an absence worst rather harmful.

But this president has a vision of the world in which the differences between the great powers and other countries are level and in which there really is no moral authority, no one superior nation to another.

The problem with the vision that he presents is twofold: (a) I think he’s wrong about American exceptionalism and the moral right that we have earned through our actions in the past, through the ideas we try to advance to be a dominant nation in the world, and (b) the naïve vision of the world in which the international community somehow enforces its own norms. Supporter David Rosenberger talks to Dr. Charles Krauthammer after his address.

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Compare the liberty, prosperity, the humanity of West Germany versus East Germany, Taiwan and “Communist China, North and South Korea. I think it’s a fairly good record. And it is the Supporter Erin Vorhoff speaks during the question and answer session. reason that in most of re-elected. It’s against the constitution. Latin America as being intrusive and the world, they see our All the institutions of his democracy, the being manipulative. It has happened ascendancy, power and Congress, Supreme Court, the army and in our history, but it was relatively a the church were opposed. He’s holding long time ago – it doesn’t reflect how dominance as a good a referendum which would have allowed America has reacted in the last 30 years. the change in the constitution. It was We have supported the restoration of thing. a violation of a very important article democracy in Chile and supported the in the constitution. Latin America has restoration of democracy in Argentina, a long history, like with Hugo Chavez, Brazil and elsewhere. It’s because of of dictators who were elected and then this sort of historical guilt that we had changed the constitution and then to support the left-wing alternative in I could go on at length, but I’m going never left. He was deposed. The Obama Honduras. to wrap things up by looking very administration immediately called it a briefly at the actual implications of coup d’état, even though it’s consistent I think a more telling example, a more the vision Obama has about American with Article 239 of the Honduran important example, is our relations exceptionalism and about how we are to Constitution, and worked assiduously with Russia. The approach that this conduct ourselves in the world. for weeks to try to reinstate a man administration has had in dealing with whose chief champion is of course Hugo Russia is that we have to reset relations. The result of the ideas he has about Chavez. The notion is that they were allowed to our own non-exceptionalism – at about drift – that’s the word Obama has used how the world ought to be run by an Luckily, it didn’t work out; our policy over and over again in talking about international consensus – is that he has failed. It’s one of the times I will as our relation with the Russians. The given us a foreign policy of contraction an American, applaud the failure of our implication is that somehow Bush, the and apology and accommodation. policy. Ultimately there was an election, cowboy, had been disrespectful or didn’t and the dictator is now gone. Now look after Russian interests and thus the I’ll give you two examples, one is rather think about why they reflexively reacted relations had drifted. small, but I think it’s a rather revealing that way. You could see particularly in one. In Honduras, there was an elected some of the statements the left-wing In fact, the reason that we had a cold president who decided he wanted to be perception of America’s own history and relationship with the Russians is

1706 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVE. NW, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009 6 because they actually invaded a small return. Hardheaded realism is how the So, my objection to what this country called Georgia earlier in 2008, administration looked at it. But what administration has done around the and we didn’t like that. We opposed it have we gotten in return? Russians show world is that it is completely unrealistic. and that made the Russians unhappy, up in Venezuela selling them $5 billion It is a vision of the world without which led to a cooling. So, if anything, worth of arms, which you can be sure hegemonies, without great powers and it was a result of Russian aggression will be used against friendly countries with a kind of world consensus. That is and their violation of international and nations like Colombia and elsewhere how Obama insists you move the world obligations. and will increase the power of the and how you change things. Secondly, dictator who represents the antithesis it doesn’t understand the nature of But nonetheless, the Obama idea was he of our ideals. The Russians have just American exceptionalism particularly had to reset relations. You remember announced a nuclear reactor in Iran. as it applies to how we, in a broad and the button that the secretary of state And of course on sanctions, which benign and extremely humane way, presented him (which was mislabeled everybody assumed was an implicit or compare with any other empire, any in Russian)? It was a reset button. As a hidden quid pro quo for the selling out time in human history. result our first gesture was to undercut of the Polish and Czechs, they have done the Czech Republic and even Poland. absolutely nothing. And, lastly, it doesn’t work. Thank you To literally and summarily aggravate an very much. agreement that we had with our closest If anything, they have watered down any allies in Eastern Europe – countries who possible strong sanctions. They are the have fought and bled with us in wars ones who have insisted that we will not popular and unpopular, Afghanistan and have to have a boycott of the Iranian Iraq – in order to appease the Russians Central Bank (which would have an who oppose our agreement with the important influence on their economy), Polish and the Czechs to put in place and they have indicated they will not missile defenses. support any sanctions which involve the oil and gas sector, which is where Iran The Russians were unhappy. They lives and where you would hit it if you made all kinds of threats against the wanted to have effective sanctions. So, Poles and the Czechs and then we what we have in return was nothing. But decided overnight (without really any we acted in a humble way, we wanted to consultation with our allies) to pull the recognize Russian interests. What we plug, leaving them out there hanging got was what happens in the real world: in the wind. The argument was, well the Russians acted in their interest, and perhaps by doing this, we sold out we sold out our allies in order to appease our allies, but we get something in them.

Teaching Freedom is a series of remarks published by The Fund for American Studies, a nonprofit educational organization in Washington, D.C. The speakers featured in each issue of Teaching Freedom delivered their remarks at a TFAS institute or conference or serve as faculty members in an institute.

The speakers who participate in the educational programs contribute greatly to the purpose and mission of TFAS programs. The speeches are published in an effort to share the words and lessons of the speakers with friends, alumni, supporters and others throughout the country and world who are unable to attend the events.

Visit www.TFAS.org/TeachingFreedom to read past issues of Teaching Freedom.

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