15850 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS June 20, 1991 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS A PERSISTENT AMERICAN atom bombs, but the human race just went sions of Woodrow Wilson and the other YEARNING on producing more children by the same de­ prophets of eternal peace. lightful old-fashioned process anyway. My optimism didn't go quite that far. I I admired the optimistic spirit behind thought the long nightmare of an atomic HON. BOB TRAXLER President Bush's new world order, but I war was over for the foreseeable future, but OF MICHIGAN couldn't find much new in it other than his I had more modest dreams. I didn't believe in IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES war in the Middle East. He vowed it would new world orders that relied on fighting wars assure "for ourselves and for future genera­ rather than deterring them, or in United Na­ Thursday, June 20, 1991 tions" an Age of Peace, "where the rule of tions resolutions that "authorized" the Mr. TRAXLER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to law, not the law of the jungle, governs the United States to do most of the fighting. I call the attention of my colleagues to the fol­ conduct of nations." I was all for George, but believed in collective, not selective, security, lowing article, "A Persistent American Yearn­ I thought this sounded very much like the and I thought we needed to ask ourselves pronouncements of other Presidents, par­ some questions. ing", by James Reston. I have long admired ticularly those of Woodrow Wilson, who What areas were really "vital" to the secu­ Scotty Reston since my days in college, and thought not only that America could rity of the United States? Would our schools I find his thoughts absolutely charming in this " change the w:orld" but also that it had a and slums be high on this list? When and how feature that appeared in The New York Times moral duty to do so. were we going to make the United States Magazine on Sunday, June 16, 1991. This ar­ There was, I thought, something both won­ independent of Middle East oil and how? How ticle is adapted from his memoir, "Deadline: derful and goofy about all this persistent could we have a new world order without co­ Our Times and The New York Times," to be American determination to reform the operation between the United States and the published in October by Random House. world. It reminded me of the little signs that Soviet Union? When were these giants and used to hang in some of the service stores in the other industrial nations going to control A PERSISTENT AMERICAN YEARNING Dayton, Ohio, when I was a boy. I forget the or stop the shipment of advanced military The last decade of a century is a tempting exact words, but they promised to do any­ weapons and materials for the production of time for Presidents, journalists, end-of-the­ thing "possible" by tomorrow but conceded nuclear, chemical and bacteriological explo­ world preachers and other dreamers. Presi­ that the "impossible" might take a few days sives to the shaky gangster nations of the dents in particular begin meditating on their longer. This was the spirit that had con­ world? In short, where was the end-of-the­ place in history, and wondering how to make quered the American continent, survived the century threat to United States security it look a little better than it was. George great economic depression of the 30's, helped anyway-abroad or at home? Washington made his famous farewell ad­ restore Western Europe and Japan after So every once in a while I mounted my old dress in the last decade of the 18th century, World War II and survived the cold war with pulpit at The Times and suggested that the and foresaw safety and prosperity for the the Soviet Union for almost half a century. time had come, not for another new world new Republic in isolation from the quarrels But before you could say Saddam Hussein order proclaimed, financed and policed by of the world. In the last decade of the 19th or even Yasir Arafat, President Bush had the United States and started with a war, century, President McKinley was not think­ sent half a million Americans to the Middle but for a new American order beginning with ing of isolation (or of his sudden death soon East battlefield when Congress wasn't look­ a reappraisal of our commitments and re­ to come), but was planning a new American ing, and chased the Iraqis out of Kuwait in sources and a reform of our priori ties and de­ empire and leading the country into the four days. It was a perfect American war: cision-making procedures: I wasn't throwing Spanish-American War. And at the beginning quick, flashy and all on television. More off the disorder of the old world-it made so of the last decade of the 20th, George Herbert Americans were murdered at home during much news!-! just felt it could be improved Walker Bush, the 41st President, was pro­ those four days than were killed in the war. with a little less fighting and a little more claiming the dawn of a "new world order," President Bush called it, without undue patience, common sense and diplomacy. I and starting it with a war against Iraq in the modesty, the greatest military victory in the may have been wrong about this, but I didn't Middle East. history of the Republic, and scarcely men­ think it would hurt to review our commit­ After studying the fortunetellers of the tioned the 150,000 Iraqis who were slaugh­ ments, keep them in line with our bank bal­ past, I admired their bravery more than tered in the process. ances, pay our debts and prepare our chil­ their judgment. In the 1890's, the best of Accordingly, I began to wonder about these dren for the new problems of the coming cen­ them were writing confidently about a fu­ wars to end war, and think that maybe old tury. ture world of "inevitable progress." They John Adams had a better idea. Adams said at I thought I knew George Bush fairly well, were convinced that there was something in the end of the 18th century that America but I didn't recognize his warrior pose. For the nature of the universe, or maybe in the should always try to help other nations in years I had been longing for some Gentleman economics of supply and demand, or in the trouble, but he added that we should "go not President to come along and set an example spread of knowledge and education that abroad seeking monsters to destroy." In my of calm thinking and honest talking, and I would surely lead to the Golden Age. By the years in the capital, however, we were find­ felt that George Bush was precisely that sort time I arrived in Washington two world wars ing monsters all over the world, not only of man. The one I knew had promised "a later, however, the pessimists had taken big-league monsters in the Soviet Union and kinder America" in "a gentler world," and I over, with books deploring "The Decline of China but bush-league monsters in Korea, admired his record. His whole career seemed the West" (Spengler), "The End of Our Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Pan­ a preparation for the Presidency. He had Time" (Berdyaev) and "The Fate of Homo ama, Iraq and various other places that more personal experience in Congress, busi­ Sapiens" (H.G. Wells). didn't want our advice about freedom and de­ ness, military intelligence, war and diplo­ All of their guesses were interesting, but mocracy, or even know what the words macy than any other President of my time. most of them were wrong, for the world meant. He was not an ideologue, having come out of changed faster than they could change their No doubt the Iraq war served several useful the old Teddy Roosevelt-Col. Henry L. minds. Some chalky genius, monkeying purposes. It put future aggressors on notice Stimson progressive nonpartisan tradition. I around in a laboratory or a garage, was al­ that they could not assume American neu­ followed his career in the House of Rep­ ways discovering how people could fly like trality. It made clear that the United States resentatives and at the United Nations. My birds, or send messages, pictures and even regarded the oilfields of the Middle East as wife, Sally, and I flew around with him dur­ the music of Beethoven through space, or ex­ "vital" to its security and would not permit ing the 1980 Presidential campaign, when he tract more food from the bounteous earth, or them to come under the control of any hos­ was mocking Ronald Reagan's "voodoo' eco­ wipe out disease or go to the moon. These tile power. It put an end to the self-doubts nomics, and I felt sure he would bring a more thinkers and tinkerers invented not only a that had plagued the nation after its defeat pragmatic spirit to the White House. better mousetrap but also a better mouse, in Vietnam, but this "Vietnam syndrome" In many ways, he did. On most things, he named Mickey, who went into the movies was followed by a kind of "Iraq swagger" of consulted the leaders of Congress. He aban­ and made children happy. They also devel­ boasting that Uncle Sam was No. 1 and doned his silly campaign promise of "no nex oped new ways to kill more people, with would now at last redeem the optimistic vi- taxes" (when he finally switched, he called • This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor.