[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 20846-20847]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 IN MEMORY OF RICHARD ``DIXIE'' WALKER

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, late last month South Carolina 
lost one of our most distinguished citizens, and I rise today to salute 
Richard ``Dixie'' Walker.
  Dixie was a scholar in East Asian studies. He brought an 
international studies institute to the University of South Carolina in 
the 1960s, when such programs were not being offered anywhere in the 
South. In the 1980s President Reagan asked him to be the Ambassador to 
South Korea, and he was one of the most successful ever.
  To share with my colleagues just how much Dixie meant to all of us 
back home, I ask that this very eloquent homage to him be printed in 
the Record. It was written by John McAlister, who studied under Dixie 
at Yale University in the 1950s.
  The homage follows:
  Ambassador Richard L. Walker has brought inspiration and irony to all 
who have had the privilege to be his friend, student, or compatriot in 
the cause of freedom. He inspired us by his eloquent testimony to the 
universal values of freedom, by his articulation of the human anguish 
at freedom's lack, by his insistence on the cultural foundation of 
freedom, and by his emphasis that freedom depends on our respecting the 
diversity and dignity of the cultures of humanity. He evoked irony to 
signal the paradox of life, the necessity for good humor in all things, 
and the need to see things as they really are rather than how they may 
appear.
  His nickname artfully combined both inspiration and irony. The 
original ``Dixie Walker'' was, as those of us old enough to remember 
that irreverent baseball player, the antithesis of our elegant friend 
and mentor ``Dixie.'' Perhaps that is why our ``Dixie's'' nickname 
seemed so comfortable. It calls attention to the ever present ironies 
and tragedies of life and how they can be surmounted with humor and 
humility as well as with virtue, excellence, and compassion. He left us 
an enduring legacy of good jokes, profound cultural insights, and 
admonitions to check our self-assuredness by deeper reflection. The 
nickname ``Dixie'' made the point without heavy handed fanfare.
  Time has happily eroded the identity of the original profane ``Dixie 
Walker'' and our ``Dixie'' has given a distinguished luster of 
scholarly and ambassadorial dignity to the nickname. Transforming 
seemingly valueless and unfamiliar things into new and greater worth is 
his legacy that goes far beyond the burnishing of an old nickname into 
a mark of honor. The name ``Dixie Walker'' will forever be inseparable 
from the dramatic defense and then flourishing of freedom in East Asia 
over the past six decades. Many brave Americans and courageous Asians 
of all cultures and social conditions deserve our reverence for their 
sacrifice and dedication to this still incomplete and perilous cause 
that at this very hour is threatened by potential nuclear conflict. 
``Dixie's'' legacy in the cause demands to be honored for reasons that 
may still not be widely understood yet are fundamental to an 
appreciation of his enduring endowment to freedom, not alone in Asia.
  Conspicuous in our memory is ``Dixie's'' historic ambassadorship to 
the Republic of Korea, the longest serving in our history, punctuated 
with tension-filled drama in the aftermath of assassinations, the 
bloody military suppression of a popular uprising, the Soviet 
destruction of a Korean commercial airliner with total and tragic loss 
of life, and student protests advocating democratic reforms to mention 
only a few. Navigating the treacherous shoals of the Korean spirit was 
never expected to be the ideal of a morning calm. In the storms, 
``Dixie'' was a firm unflustered pilot whose navigational 
recommendations helped steersmen set the course to a safer harbor of 
Korean democracy, to winning the Olympic Games for Seoul, to campuses 
now filled with free debate, and to a prosperity of today unimagined at 
the beginning of his ambassadorship.
  Conspicuous also to us is ``Dixie's'' historic leadership in bringing 
new vigor and distinction to one of America's oldest universities. 
Carolina now has global reach thanks in part to graduates of the 
Institute of International Studies that now bears ``Dixie's'' name. 
These graduates now are leaders in their own right in positions of 
great responsibility in the cause of freedom, endowing their own 
colleagues, students and friends with the inspiration given to them by 
``Dixie Walker.'' Their names may sometimes be awkward for the native 
Carolina tongue to pronounce or for the Carolina ear to comprehend. But 
these distinguished foreign leaders will forever be linked in their 
hearts and spirit to Carolina and to the undying example of their 
mentor.
  Less widely known than his history-making ambassadorship and Carolina 
leadership is his landmark scholarship on communism in China, the 
controversy it sparked a half century ago when it first appeared, the 
fierce criticism he endured, and the rightful vindication he never 
sought and not even grudgingly received. In the winter of 1956-57, the 
Yale University Press published ``China Under Communism: The First Five 
Years'' one of the first scholarly analyses of China under Chairman 
Mao. The book was the focus of a front page review in the Sunday New 
York Times Book Review. Praise came from the informed public and was 
widespread.

[[Page 20847]]

  But there were academic critics who lamented the book as an ``anti-
communist tract.'' At the heart of the controversy was the assertion in 
certain scholarly quarters that communism in China was legitimate 
because it was founded on timeless Chinese cultural traditions. 
``Dixie's'' view was the reverse. He asserted that Maoist 
authoritarianism would not last precisely because of its attempted 
destruction of Chinese culture. Twenty years and millions of lives 
later, ``Dixie's'' view prevailed because Maoism was what he said it to 
be. Maoism did not outlive Mao. Chinese culture suffered deterioration 
from which full recovery will not be quick. Many past and current 
leaders and their families were jailed, some killed. The pain for China 
lingers on but cultural renewal is accelerating. A kind of ``Dixie 
Walker'' focus on underlying fundamentals of culture is steadily 
gaining momentum in music, dance, visual arts, motion pictures, 
science, religion, and in public debate. China is on its way to new 
levels of cultural achievement as he said it would when freedom began 
to take hold.
  Why should the controversy and unpleasantness of China a half century 
ago be retold at a time of homage and remembrance? Why not let the past 
remain in the past? After all, a vaunted tradition among Carolina 
natives is the warning not to look too deeply into the past lest 
unwanted things be found. What is to be gained? An understanding of the 
essence of ``Dixie's'' life and his insights into the character of 
freedom is what awaits our reflection. What has been true for China is 
true elsewhere. Tyrants don't endure. Freedom prevails when peoples 
unite in their common humanity while giving respect and dignity to 
those things that make them different from one another. Power by the 
few yields to the freedom of the many when unity is based on cultural 
diversity and dignity.
  Brave Americans are once again risking their lives for freedom, our 
own and that of subject peoples, fighting in far off lands whose 
cultures defy our popular comprehension and confound our leader's 
predictions. Our military strength is absolutely indispensable for this 
fight. Alone, it is insufficient. Once again as so frequently over the 
past half century, we find how closely our own freedom is linked to 
languages, cultures, religions, family patterns, and traditions that we 
do not know and for which there has been limited study. What to do? 
``Dixie Walker's'' living legacy will always be there to remind us that 
freedom is never to be taken for granted and cannot be assured without 
our learning about, understanding, respect, and nourishing of the 
cultures of the human family on which it is founded.
  Farewell beloved friend! You will live forever in our hearts and 
everywhere that freedom is cherished.

                          ____________________