Lugar challenges graduates…

For each, it is a civic responsibility to discover his or her place in a very international America

“The concept of international responsibility is not a new one for Indiana University or its graduates,” said Lugar. “Sixty years ago, an IU graduate of remarkable prescience and courage was at the intellectual center of defining a new American responsibility in the world. Wendell Willkie was a son of Elwood, Ind., who earned three different degrees from Indiana University. In 1940, he was the Republican presidential nominee, who lost to President Franklin Roosevelt by a wide margin. But his internationalist message was critical in helping our countrymen to accept Roosevelt’s lend-lease policy and other efforts to help the Allies against Nazism prior to Pearl Harbor.

“Many observers would not expect Indiana to be the first state to produce a leading advocate of a globalist American foreign policy. But Hoosiers possess a wealth of common sense and an abundance of civic responsibility. These Hoosier virtues formed the foundation of Wendell Willkie’s farsighted approach to foreign policy. Willkie’s common sense led him to conclude that isolationism could not protect a nation and its people from the dangers of war and international tyranny. His sense of civic responsibility pushed him toward the conclusion that the United States must exercise leadership among the community of nations.

“In 1942, Wendell Willkie began a round-the-world trip in which he met with numerous foreign leaders. In 1943, he published One World, his seminal account of his world tour, which included powerful advocacy in favor of American internationalism.

“The parallels between the 1940s and our present situation are remarkable. In 1941, just as in 2001, America had been the victim of a surprise attack that killed thousands and shattered our sense of security. Both attacks followed extended periods when American attention had turned inward. Both attacks demonstrated that the isolationist currents that were a powerful force in American politics in the 1930s and the 1990s were based on an illusion of U.S. security. Both attacks resulted in U.S. participation in global wars.

“Our power and status have conferred upon us a tremendous responsibility to humanity. If the world is to be secure and just and prosperous, the United States and individual Americans must devote themselves to international leadership. Wendell Willkie graduated from this university in 1913—exactly 90 classes ago. But more recently, James T. Morris graduated from Indiana University and volunteered to help me lead Indianapolis during the civil rights movement of 1968. He later served IU on its Board of Trustees and is now director of the United Nations World Food Program. The secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, has shared with me stories of the courage and stamina of Jim Morris as he ventured into North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan and a host of other countries in which, collectively, 24,000 people die each day from starvation and another 8,000 perish from combinations of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and malnutrition.

“Among the graduates of 2003, many will devote their lives, as Willkie and Morris have done, to furthering the idealism that embodies the United States. Some of you will choose the calling of diplomacy, politics, humanitarian works or military service. You all must know as doctors and lawyers, teachers and entrepreneurs, artists and economists, musicians and engineers, clergy and scientists that you can contribute greatly to achieving a more just and secure world.”