Condoleezza Rice on Foreign Policy Secretary of State

American exceptionalism is based on an idea of opportunity

Ours has been a belief in opportunity. And it has been a constant struggle, long and hard, up and down, to try to extend the benefits of the American dream to all. But that American ideal is indeed in danger today. There is no country, no, not even a rising China that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if we do not do the hard work before us here at home. People have come here from all over because they have believed our creed of opportunity and limitless horizons.

Listen to other countries before pursuing US interests

When you think about the US pursuing its interests abroad, which of the following is closest to your opinion?
• A. The US should always act in its own interest regardless of what other countries think
• B. The US should rarely listen to other countries
• C. The US should listen to other countries more often than not
• D. The US should always listen to other countries before pursuing its own interests

Castro should pay for '62 Cuban Missile Crisis until he dies

But the crisis in Cuba was no drill. I could tell that my father was worried, and I realized that this was something my parents couldn't save me from. It was the first time that I remember feeling truly vulnerable.

The whole episode had a surprisingly strong impact on me. I once told an audience of Cuban Americans that Fidel Castro had put the US at risk in allowing those missiles to be deployed. "He should pay for it until he dies," I said. Even I was surprised by the rawness of that comment.

Joined Republican Party when Carter boycotted 1980 Olympics

Berlin Wall fell thanks to bureaucratic screw-up

The new policies were written on Nov. 9, 1989, but the internal security forces didn't yet have clear instructions on how to implement them. People began to flock to the Berlin Wall. Faced with the flood of people, the commander made a historic decision: he ordered his troops to withhold fire. The Berlin Wall collapsed in joyous celebration.

Development assistance should support US objectives

The problem was that the cultures of State and USAID were very different, the latter eschewing the idea that it was involved in "US foreign policy." That attitude, I was sure, would have come as a shock to taxpayers. I needed to make the point that the US is not a nongovernmental organization. We can't simply focus on a single issue at the expense of others. I saw--and still see--nothing wrong with the proposition that development assistance ought to support broader US foreign policy objectives.

US development assistance was critical in achieving the goals of democracy and good governance. Sometimes foreign assistance was for purely strategic purposes--but we wanted those cases to be the exception and not the rule.

Channel Arab Spring into positive development

In other places, our friends--particularly the monarchs of the region--still have a chance to reform now before it's too late. The United States can coax these monarchies to adopt constitutions and reforms that give greater voice to their people. The changes will strengthen moderate voices across the region. And to our enemies, the Syrian and Iranian regimes, we should say, "Your time has come. Whatever follows you is unlikely to be worse, for your people and for the world, than who you have been."

Support democratic aspirations abroad, not just stability

As I watched the increasingly isolated Hosni Mubarak struggling to hang on to power in Feb. 2011 while his people ridiculed him from the streets, I thought back on my speech at the American University in Cairo.

Be respectful but determined with China on human rights

We repeatedly told the Chinese that we believed that their economic growth was good for the international economy. They listened but probably ignored us when we said that it would be good for there to be a liberalization of Chinese politics, too.

Liberia is part of U.S. history; stay involved there

The President wanted to know what his options were in dealing with the Liberian crisis. "Why should I do something in Liberia?" he asked Colin and I.

"Because Liberia is ours," I replied. We talked about the history of the country that had been founded by freed American slaves. "Even the Liberian flag imitates the Stars and Stripes," Colin added. I told the President that my Aunt Theresa had taught at the University of Liberia all the way back in 1961. The ties of the Africa American community to the country ran deep.

The President was determined to do something about Liberia. The President reiterated that Taylor had to leave and said that the US would "participate with troops." In the face of international pressure and US resolve, Charles Taylor resigned the presidency of Liberia.

Post-WWII push for democratic institutions reflected values

The belief in the power of democracy to overcome old rivalries & establish a basis for peace & prosperity did not transfer verbatim to the Middle East. Still, the echoes of it were unmistakable in the way that we came to view that troubled region after 9/11.

2001 Uzbekistan: Human rights trump security

My arguments did not prevail. At an NSC meeting, Condi Rice responded to me by declaring, "Human rights trump security." I wondered if she had really thought that through. She seemed to be saying that if a country didn't behave as we did or as we expected, it would be shunned, even if turning it away from us took a toll on our nation's security, and to make matters worse, it arrested their progress on human rights. "We made a clear choice, and that was to stand on the side of human rights," a senior State Department official echoed in the press.

OpEd: met with dictators, but that was all that happened

She goes to some country to meet a dictator or whatever, who is a ruthless killer, a vicious murderer who is a lot smarter than she is. She walks off an airplane and waves hello with a big smile, and then she does a short sound bit. She goes over to the dictator's office and sits down for a photo op with him. The chairs are set at 45-degree angles so the photographers can get nice pictures of her with the dictator. The she leaves, waves goodbye, gets back on the airplane, and nothing happens--nothing ever happens.

Bush's views on foreign policy were one & the same as Rice's

Rice headed the group, referred to as the Vulcans. It included Richard Armitage (Colin Powell's alter ego), Paul Wolfowitz (protege of Dick Cheney), Richard Perle, and Bob Zoellick (a James Baker prot‚g‚). George Shultz was often called on for advice, an once Dick Cheney became the vice presidential nominee, he too was directly involved. The name of the group was based on the imposing statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking, that is a landmark in Rice's hometown of Birmingham, Alabama.

Nothing positive about Hugo Chavez government in Venezuela

On Jan. 18. 2005, [at her confirmation hearing, I questioned] Condoleezza Rice; she would not acknowledge that the Venezuelans had voted their president into office in free and fair elections. I said in exasperation, "Is it possible for you to say SOMETHING positive about the Chavez administration?"

"It's pretty hard to find something positive," she said. Viewed through the official White House lens, the freely elected government of Venezuela was all bad. I never asked her to embrace that democracy or pretend we had no differences, just to step out of attack mode for a moment. She could think of nothing positive, and my time was up.

2005: UN needs a "revolution of reform"

Leading our reform charge, Rice presented the annual US address to the General Assembly opening session on Saturday morning, September 17, stressing that the UN needed a "revolution of reform," a striking statement from an American secretary of state, one that would prove extremely useful in the upcoming debates. Nonetheless, it was clear from all of my study of the UN, before and after my nomination, as well as my intense activity while in NY, that no "revolution" would emerge from the "reform" goals

1970s: Adopted Russian culture; learned Russian; read Pravda

Condi's passion for Russia seemed to have come out of nowhere, and for the next 18 months Russia's history permeated her every waking moment. She quickly learned the language and began inundating herself with Russian media, even reading Pravda, the Soviet newspaper, on a daily basis. Shortly thereafter she began studying the Moscow press and military journals. She even named her car Boris after the country's leader, Boris Yeltsin.

Cuba: don’t trade one dictatorship for another

Considered as Clinton's ambassador to Russia

On foreign policy the leading members at the table included 3 men who later returned to office in the George W. Bush administration: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz. These three were joined by former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger. Later a new member, Condoleezza Rice, was added to the group.

Shortly after Clinton was elected, Strobe Talbott, his friend and closest adviser on Russia policy, had suggested that Condoleezza Rice be appointed the ambassador to Moscow, as a specialist on the Soviet Union.

Routine transatlantic relations good for business & people

In any class that I teach at Stanford now probably some 10 or 15% comes from some place else, and a significant number from Europe. The tendency of youth to think of themselves as, yes, holding citizenship [in one nation], but living here for five years, going and working there for three years, is probably the best thing we have going for us. So I don’t despair about this at all, to say nothing of the business community where the ties and contacts are almost daily.

Redefine national interest, to avoid interest-based policy

The change was utterly predictable [because] the Soviet Union was such an organizing principle. Americans saw every issue through the prism of Soviet Union. Today it is just not true. So now the centripetal forces are very powerful in the absence of that centralizing principle. Hence we need a much more powerful definition of national interest.