[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 89 (Friday, May 26, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7635-S7636]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE

 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the 
American Jewish Committee for its contributions to the ongoing debate 
on the appropriate role for our Nation in international affairs.
  Through a series of advertisements in national and local publications 
in recent days, the American Jewish Committee has engaged in a worthy 
education effort to broaden public understanding of, and support for, 
America's investment in its leadership role in world affairs.
  This effort could not be more timely. The budget resolutions that 
have been adopted in this and the other body in the past week, along 
with measures approved by the respective authorizing committees to 
reorganize international affairs functions and sharply reduce foreign 
aid spending, could profoundly compromise our ability to protect 
America's vital economic, political, and strategic interests around the 
world.
  Underlying these shortsighted actions, I fear, is the common 
assumption that the public simply does not and will not support 
expenditures for international affairs. Indeed, public opinion surveys 
have consistently shown weak support for foreign aid. But they also 
have revealed a general and significant misunderstanding of the 
Nation's international affairs programs--including an overestimation, 
by a factor of 15 in one recent survey, of the portion of the Federal 
budget devoted to foreign aid.
  That profound misunderstanding of the cost, and I submit the cost-
effectiveness, of American engagement in international affairs must be 
confronted and reversed; it must not be allowed to dictate or excuse a 
retreat from American leadership.
  It is to raise awareness of the value and necessity of America's 
continued international engagement, and to place the current debate on 
foreign aid and related programs in the proper context of America's 
leadership role and the protection of America's interests, that the 
American Jewish Committee has launched its current public education 
effort, I commend AJC's message to my colleagues, and hope that it 
gains the serious attention it so clearly merits.
  Mr. President, I ask that the text of the American Jewish Committee's 
ad, as it appears in the current issues of the Washington Post weekly 
edition and Roll Call, be printed in the Record.
  The text follows:
 American Leadership in World Affairs Is Expensive Until You Consider 
                            the Alternative

       During this century, America has played a proud and 
     unparalleled role in the leadership of formal alliances and 
     informal coalitions to vanquish tyrants, extend human 
     freedom, and craft the rules and institutions of commerce and 
     peace.
       The cost of our leadership in world affairs has been high; 
     we honor the profound sacrifices made in the exercise of that 
     leadership. At the same time, we know that, for the 
     realization of our fundamental principles and the welfare of 
     our country, the cost of withdrawal from leadership--or of 
     its assumption by other nations--would have been intolerable. 
     Through two world wars and five decades of post-war conflict 
     between the Soviet bloc and the Western alliance, America's 
     role has been central and irreplaceable. In the uncertainties 
     and conflicts that lie ahead, we foresee no diminution--
     indeed, a likely extension--of the call for American 
     leadership in international affairs.
       It is in the interest of human progress, and the particular 
     interest of our own nation, that America continue to answer 
     that call to leadership. In fact, America's national and 
     international interests are mutually reinforcing. In the 
     developed world, American commitment to free trade in goods 
     and ideas, and to the entrenchment and protection of 
     democracy, strengthens our and our partners' economies, the 
     well-being of our people, and our political and strategic 
     infrastructures. In the developing world, American commitment 
     to human rights and to the relief of human suffering, to the 
     creation and sustenance of democratic institutions, and to 
     defense against extremism, ultranationalism and expansionism, 
     is not only morally compelling but yields alliances, markets 
     and regional security regimes vital to American economic and 
     political interests.
       The American Jewish Committee, founded in 1906 in part to 
     spur U.S. action against the oppression of Jews in czarist 
     Russia, has consistently advocated our nation's leadership in 
     world affairs. A participant in the Versailles conference of 
     1919 and consultant to the American delegation to
      the San Francisco conference that chartered the United 
     Nations in 1945, the American Jewish Committee has long 
     recognized the singular role of the United States as a 
     defender of freedom, protector of human rights, and 
     proponent of peaceful relations between states.
       As Americans, inheritors of the world's longest and most 
     successful experiment in constitutional democracy, we know 
     the provenance of our freedoms--the struggle to found a 
     nation free of religious persecution, intolerance and 
     political oppression; we know, as well, that our nation's 
     struggle for freedom is incomplete and ongoing. As Jews, 
     inheritors of an ancient and noble tradition of laws and 
     culture, whose communities in other lands have been decimated 
     by political and religious decree, we cherish the American 
     ideal of liberty, a beacon of hope to all the world.
       For these reasons--America's role and investment in shaping 
     the modern world; the dangers of alternative or absent 
     leadership; the economic, political and strategic benefits of 
     active international engagement with both the developed and 
     developing worlds; and the history, virtue and motivating 
     power of the American ideal--we commend our Government's 
     continued dedication to the projection of American leadership 
     in world affairs. To that end, we urge the following:
       Vigorous resistance to neo-isolationist calls for American 
     withdrawal or retreat from international commitments. 
     American [[Page S7636]] economic, political and strategic 
     interests cannot be isolated or insulated from world affairs; 
     their successful engagement in world affairs are America's 
     guarantor of prosperity and peace.
       An understanding of the cost-effectiveness of U.S. foreign 
     aid and a strong commitment to maintain it as an efficient 
     instrument of foreign policy. Reduced in real-dollar terms in 
     recent budgets to less than 1 percent of Federal spending--
     and the lowest, as a percentage of GNP, among major 
     industrialized nations--U.S. foreign aid serves to safeguard 
     America's political and economic interests abroad and spurs 
     the development of new markets, generates American jobs (with 
     3 out of 4 aid dollars spent at home), and helps ease foreign 
     crises that could escalate into instability and military 
     conflict.
       Continued U.S. leadership in efforts to resolve regional 
     conflicts in areas of vital economic, political and strategic 
     interest; to bar the proliferation of weapons of mass 
     destruction; and to combat international terrorism that 
     threatens America, Israel, moderate Arab states, and the 
     values and institutions of modern civilization. America's 
     role in the pursuit of Arab-Israeli reconciliation, and in 
     the development of regional economic and security 
     arrangements to promote Middle East peace, has been, and 
     continues to be, indispensable.
       Continued U.S. leadership, active participation, and 
     appropriate investment in multilateral and bilateral 
     institutions, including international lending agencies, trade 
     and health organizations, and the United Nations. These 
     institutions are valuable tools through which the United 
     States, with vital security and economic interests across the 
     globe, seeks global consensus on issues of national 
     importance.
       The protection of international human rights as an 
     essential component of U.S. foreign policy, reflecting 
     America's deepest values while advancing its interests in a 
     safer world. Indeed, at the founding conference of the United 
     Nations 50 years ago, it was American Jewish Committee 
     representatives Joseph Proskauer and Jacob Blaustein who 
     argued persuasively that governments which respect human 
     rights in their own countries are less likely to upset 
     regional and global stability.
       This message, one of a series on public policy issues, was 
     adopted by the Board of Governors of the American Jewish 
     Committee at its 89th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., on 
     May 3, 1995.
       The American Jewish Committee, Robert S. Rifkind, 
     President; David A. Harris, Executive Director.
     

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