Joe Biden biography by Jules Witcover: on Foreign Policy
Joe Biden:
1986: Strict sanctions against South African apartheid
On the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden unleashed an uncommonly sharp tongue in July 1986, accusing mild-mannered Secretary of State George Shulz of softening economic sanctions against South Africa for its policy of apartheid. "We ask them to put up
a timetable [for remedial action]," he thundered, waiving a fist. "What is our timetable? Where do we stand morally? I hate to hear an administration and a secretary of state refusing to act on a morally abhorrent point.
I'm ashamed of this country that puts out a policy like this that says nothing, nothing. I'm ashamed of the lack of moral backbone to this policy." The diplomatic Shulz countered "What we want is a society that they all can live in together. So I don't
turn my back on the whites and I would hope that you wouldn't." Biden countered grandly: "I speak for the oppressed, whatever they may be." To many, Biden was discourteously browbeating the secretary of state and tooting his own horn in the process.
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.164
Oct 5, 2010
Joe Biden:
1990: Predicted that Soviet Union would cease to exist
Appropriately, he spoke in his declaration of candidacy of his worldview, predicting that "long before the Senate term I seek now is over, the Soviet Union as the world has known it for seventy years will cease to exist."
In the 1990 Senate race, Biden was no longer the unpolished kid candidate taking on the giant incumbent as in 1972, but now the familiar, seasoned and worldly Senate man and national figure.
Biden's vision, his confident presence was more than enough to draw a telling difference between himself and his opponent.
He prophesized that it would dissolve into separate and independent nations, possibly in a loose confederation. Whether or not listeners believed
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.245
Oct 5, 2010
Joe Biden:
New World Order should not mean US fights for the UN
Kuwait, with a January 15 deadline. Biden expressed concern that the president had changed and broadened his foreign policy goals in the Middle East. "We talk about a New World Order," he said, "A
Resolution 678 authorized member states "to use all necessary means" to force compliance with the UN demands for Iraq's withdrawal from
You go get them; we give you the authority to do it.' That is the essence of that New World Order. That is not a New World Order I am prepared to sign on to."
New World Order in the United Nations and collective security adds up to 'We will hold your coat, United States.
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.249-250
Oct 5, 2010
Joe Biden:
Nation-building can prevent full-scale military actions
Biden in January 2001 returned to Kosovo, Serbia and Bosnia and called for continued American troop and reconstruction efforts. Writing in the New York Times, he said, "We must make clear that our security umbrella and economic
assistance will continue only if Bosnia breaks free from the stranglehold of its three nationalist parties. The fact is, nation-building, if done well, can prevent vastly more expensive full-scale military actions."
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.331
Oct 5, 2010
Joe Biden:
First VP speech: Refute Bush's unilateralist foreign policy
Biden's new role as a major administration spokesman on both domestic and foreign policy began. Barely two weeks in office, Obama sent him to Munich to make the administration's first prominent speech on foreign affairs, at an annual
European security conference. In a direct refutation of the Bush unilateralist foreign policy, Biden said, "I come to Europe on behalf of a new administration determined to set a new tone not only in Washington but in
America's relations around the world" that would "work in a partnership whenever we can, and alone only when we must." He said his country henceforth would "strive to act preventatively, nor preemptively" to avoid use of force "to stop crises
from occurring before they are in front of us, starting with diplomacy. And he reached out to the NATO partners and Russia to give more to the effort to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda."
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.446-447
Oct 5, 2010
Joe Biden:
Condemned 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem
In Feb. 2010, Biden had just completed a rousing speech in Jerusalem and had vowed "absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israeli security" when the Israeli interior ministry announced that 1,600 new housing units would be built in East Jerusalem.
The ministry said the decision had been 3 years in the making, had nothing to do with Biden's arrival. Biden immediately condemned the decision in scathing terms, calling it "precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now."
Biden thereupon delayed his arrival as a demonstration of his disapproval. The next day Biden went on to the Palestinian Territory. There he told Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the latest Israeli decision "undermined that very trust that we need
right now in order to have profitable negotiations," and was "why I immediately condemned the action." He said his criticism came "at the request of Pres. Obama," which drew applause, addition that "sometimes only a friend can deliver the hardest truth."
Source: A Life of Trial & Redemption, by Jules Witcover, p.470-471
Oct 5, 2010
Page last updated: Feb 14, 2019