Important Quotes

 

If we are to be more than a powerful nation, but one that is also a great nation, we must use our power, our influence, and our wealth to promote a better life for all people of the world.

We demonstrate both wisdom and character when we rise to defeat not only challenges that immediately threaten us, but also underlying problems that cause and contribute to those threats.

The United States must have a complete foreign policy.

Elements should include the promotion of human rights and democracy; the expansion of free trade and economic opportunity; effective public diplomacy; international efforts for cleaner air and clean energy; and the goal to meet the basic human needs of the developing world -- access to sufficient food and clean drinking water, and the prevention and treatment of disease."

- Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN)

 

"America's engagement around the world is a long term investment in our security, and should be at the core of our foreign policy."

- Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden (D-DE)

 

"We must be at the center of every vital global network, as a good neighbor and partner. We cannot build our future without helping others to build theirs . . . We cannot accept a world in which part of humanity lives on the cutting edge of a new economy, while the rest live on the bare edge of survival. We must do our part with expanded trade, expanded aid, and the expansion of freedom."

- Former President William J. Clinton

 

"And I hope that all Americans will see a President who is not just focusing on one part of the world, but realizes that America has leadership responsibilities around the world, and nowhere is that more important than here in Africa."

- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell

 

"[A] partial list of foreign policy successes and priorities shows how expansive the global challenges are for the United States. These challenges cannot be met merely through insightful decision-making. Effective diplomacy requires that our policymakers and diplomats have at their disposal an array of smoothly functioning foreign policy tools, including foreign assistance, public diplomacy, secure embassies, and post-conflict reconstruction capabilities."

- Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Richard Lugar (R-IN)

 

"It has been well said that a hungry man is more interested in four sandwiches than four freedoms."

- Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

 

"We bear a huge responsibility in leading our nation to a more secure and prosperous future and in strengthening the international community to solve global problems. With patient investment in the building blocks of foreign policy, the United States will thrive in the new century as we did in the last."

- Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Richard Lugar (R-IN)

 

"A dangerous game is being played in Washington with America's national security. Call it the 'one percent solution' -- the fallacy that a successful U.S. foreign policy can be carried out with barely one percent of the federal budget. Unless the next president moves urgently to end this charade, he will find himself in a financial straitjacket that frustrates his ability to promote American interests and values in an increasingly uncertain world."

- Ambassador Richard Gardner

 

"Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America."

- Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

"We were on the first line of offense for carrying America’s values .... We are just as important as the Pentagon and our armed forces deployed. We are in the first line of offense."

- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking on Diplomacy, September 10th, 2001

 

"Since we became actively involved in world affairs, the major powers have been at peace with each other. Our alliances and assistance programs have helped make the world a better place. We ourselves have been the chief beneficiary, although it is also fair to say that no nation has ever used its power so constructively for the benefit of so many."

- Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz

 

"International diplomacy and programs constitute America's first line of defense against threats to the security and prosperity of our people."

- Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

 

"However, the current efforts to oppose the disease are simply not equal to the need. And America understands that. Nearly 30 million people on this continent are living with HIV/AIDS, including 3 million children under the age of 15. More than 4 million people require immediate drug treatment, but just 1 percent of them are receiving the medicine they require. Africa has the will to fight AIDS, but it needs the resources, as well. And this is my country's pledge to the people of Africa and the people of Uganda: You are not alone in this fight. America has decided to act. Over the next five years, my country will spend $15 billion on the fight to fight AIDS around the world, with special focus here on the continent of Africa."

- President George W. Bush

 

"Africa is an important place in the American agenda, on the American priority list. The President has felt that way from the very beginning of this administration. That's why he has pursued expansion of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the HIV/AIDS program that he is pushing, the Millennium Challenge Account -- all of these are not PR exercises. We are taking hard-earned American taxpayer money and using that money to invest in the future of Africa; and not just aid for aid's sake, but aid to help Africans develop their infrastructure, educate their people, make themselves more attractive to outside investment so that trade will then follow."

- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell

 

"We believe that the relationship between America and Africa will benefit both our people. Work of the summit to promote commerce and understanding across the Atlantic is important work. And I'm determined that the American government will do its part. We will help nations on this continent to achieve greater health and education and trade with the world. Working together, we can help make this a decade of rising prosperity and expanding peace across Africa."

- President George W. Bush

 

"With greater opportunity, the peoples of Africa will build their own future of hope. And the United States will help this vast continent of possibilities to reach its full potential."

- President George W. Bush