New Generation to Make Case for Smart Power

LEXINGTON, Va., April 3, 2012 -- A graduate of Virginia Military Institute led the United States to a position of leadership in the last century, and young people like the VMI cadets of today will be looked to for similar leadership in this century.

That was the message delivered by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in VMI’s Cameron hall today.  She addressed an audience of more than 2,100, including the entire Corps of Cadets, after receiving the Institute’s Distinguished Diplomat Award.

“Each of you represents VMI’s commitment to the common good,” she said.  “You build on a long tradition of service.” 

Clinton traced the implementation during her term in office of what she calls the “three Ds” of foreign policy – diplomacy, development, and defense – starting with the approach of VMI alumnus General of the Army George C. Marshall, Class of 1901, whom she called “the original three-D guy.”

Clinton noted the doubtful beginning made by the famous Army general from World War II and the post-war secretary of state, who, when he arrived at VMI, was shy, scared, awkward, and a mediocre scholar.  The urge to succeed that brought Marshall success, “that urge to channel our doubts and uncertainty into a call to be better and stronger,” said Clinton, can be applied to our institutions and society. 

After World War II, she said, “George Marshall knew … the world’s most powerful military was not sufficient to ensure our security on its own.”  And, she pointed out, war-weary American taxpayers didn’t necessarily embrace his vision, just as tight budgets now once more tempt the American people to pull back.

“There is a dangerous impulse to withdraw from our responsibilities,” she said, noting that some of the greatest threats to security come from lack of opportunity and human rights as well as strains on the supply of water, fuel, and energy.  “We must recognize that strengthening America’s global leadership is the best investment we can make in our own future.”

Clinton went on to outline the fight-talk-build strategy of U.S. policy in Afghanistan, the Iraqi-led partnership for a free and democratic government in Iraq, the work to undermine the extremist messages of groups like al-Shabab in Somalia, the massive and immediate aid response after the tsunami in Japan, and efforts to reduce malnutrition and disease in the horn of Africa – all instances of the intersection of development, diplomacy, and defense.

“We have worked hand in hand with our military colleagues to build a foreign policy based on smart power in the 21st century,” said Clinton, “a foreign policy that produces results for global peace, prosperity, and progress, all of which are profoundly in America’s interest.”

Clinton drew wide spontaneous applause from the audience when she noted specifically the role of women, saying, “Experience and … piles of evidence show that if we want to expand opportunity and growth, improve national health and education, and provoke responsible governance and democracy, we need to involve women at every step.

“And here at VMI,” she continued, “in the 15 years since female cadets joined the Rat Line, … you have seen how women have made unique contributions to strengthen and honor this institution.”

Clinton returned to the future role of current cadets to conclude her talk.  “It took a great citizen-soldier, a VMI cadet, to make the case for smart power then [following World War II].  I think it will take your generation of citizen-soldiers to make the case for smart power in the 21st century.

“Our American values of honor, duty, sacrifice, freedom, compassion, humility are a great source of global strength and pride.  We look to each of you as you live these values and continue in your careers to make your contribution to our country and to help show the American people why our national security depends on human security, to prove that, once again, American leadership makes us all safer, when we promote dignity and opportunity everywhere.” 

VMI’s superintendent, Gen. J.H. Binford Peay ’62 III, introduced Clinton, calling her “one of the most well-known and influential women in the world community.”  International studies professor Col. Jim Hentz presented the Distinguished Diplomat Award.  Hentz remarked on her “incisive” mind and observed that “few have been better prepared [than she] to confront the complexity of the current international system.”

–VMI–