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- 02/06/12: Remarks by Donald Steinberg, Deputy Administrator, US Agency for International Development - Beyond Victimhood: The Crucial Role of Marginalized Groups in Building Peace
- 02/02/12: Statement of Dr. Sarah E. Mendelson, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights - U.S. Policy toward Post-Election Democratic Republic of the Congo
- 01/20/12: Remarks by USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah at the Environment and Security Conference, Washington, DC
- 01/19/12: Remarks by USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah at the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC - U.S. Aid and Transparency for Global Development
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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks by Ambassador Randall L. Tobias
Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator
Honoring Our Fallen
June 14, 2006
USAID Memorial Service
Ronald Reagan Building
Washington, D.C.
Thank you all for being here this afternoon. I want to thank Ambassador George Staples, the Director General of the Foreign Service for joining us today. Thanks also to all who worked so hard to put this memorial service together. Thank you, Sylvia for that beautiful rendition of our national anthem. But I would especially like to thank the families of the brave men and women we honor today.
I recently returned from my first trip abroad as Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator. In addition to Pakistan, my travels took me to Afghanistan, and Iraq - where our foreign assistance is playing a vital role in helping people in nascent democracies build a free and prosperous future for themselves.
USAID personnel are performing in some of the most dangerous and inhospitable spots in the world. I am honored to have met and learned from them and I salute them for their sacrifices and dedication. Meeting them, I was reminded of one of the reasons foreign assistance is the right thing to do - and why it can strengthen both our economy and our security with lasting partnerships.
If you go over to the White House, you will see that the common area before it - Lafayette Park - is meant to honor foreigners, friends of the United States who aided us in our war for independence. Without their intervention and help, the United States of America, as we know it, probably would not have been born.
Outside the building we're in - across the street in Freedom Plaza - there is only one piece of statuary. Again, a foreign friend, who aided us in that same war and paid the ultimate price for his effort.
These individuals are the eternal friends of this country and we honor their memories. But in aiding this country, they saw themselves as acting on behalf of a universal cause. That cause was human freedom and the advance of liberty throughout the world. The birth of the United States, they thought, would be the spark that would light the way for the rest of the world, including their own homelands.
Across, at the other end of the foyer here, is the portrait of George C. Marshall. We trace the birth of USAID to him and the words he uttered at Harvard University in 1947. It was then that this country undertook the aid of foreign societies, not as a periodic and exceptional matter, but as an official, on-going part of our government's foreign policy.
"Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine," he said, "but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos." Simply put, "its purpose" was to create the conditions "in which free institutions can exist."
The Plan that bears Marshall's name redeems the debt we owe to the sons of countries that aided us in our quest for liberty. These countries in turn owe to General Marshall a debt for the blessings of liberty they now enjoy and the continent they hailed from is now whole and free thanks in part to his remarkable vision.
The panel I am standing before is also remarkable in its own right. It contains the names of the individuals who sacrificed their all in the battle against poverty, disease, desperation, and chaos and in their fight for liberty and free institutions. If you permit me - these are in a very real sense our modern freedom fighters.
They are people who lived - and died for - their belief that peaceful societies, where healthy and well educated people are free to provide for themselves and their families, are the aspirations of human beings regardless of ethnicity, religion, or geographic location.
If you come forward and look at the panel, you will find the name of Laurence Foley, a USAID official who died in Jordan in 2002. Laurence Foley's murder was but one of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's many awful crimes. When President Bush announced that Al-Zarqawi was killed in Iraq last week by U.S. armed forces, he noted that "the ideology of terror had lost its most visible, aggressive leader." By reflecting on the life and work of Laurence Foley, I can think of no better way to underscore the deep connection between foreign assistance and our nation's fortunes in the world.
I want to make just two or three other quick observations about this memorial. The panel is embossed with the famous handshake. This is appropriate because our policy, as George Marshall said, is not directed against any country or doctrine. It is born of partnership and agreement over certain shared ideals and common causes. Consider the motifs of some of the ideological enemies of free governments- the clenched fist raised high, or the fascist salute signifying allegiance to a fuehrer.
When you look at the panel, you will see that the individuals fell in countries in all the regions of the world - in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. And to recognize this is appropriate, for freedom is the preserve of no single people or any one country. It is rather the birthright of all people everywhere. Some are born into societies where this birthright is guaranteed. These are the fortunate of the planet who largely escape the hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos that George C. Marshall was talking about. In other societies, this birthright can only be redeemed by blood and sacrifice, as the lives of these individuals attest.
I also want to point out that not all the names on this memorial are American. It contains the names of foreign service nationals who have been killed in the line of service. We are bound to them by the deepest ties of gratitude. But we are also bound to one another by the common cause of freedom which we serve.
Today is a day that the Agency has reserved for remembering all our fallen colleagues. But today I want to especially salute those foreign service nationals that have made the ultimate sacrifice in the ranks with us.
We again live at a moment when friends of liberty are being tested. Our foreign service nationals remind us of the sacrifices that are sometimes necessary for the cause freedom and they remind us Americans, once again, that we do not stand alone.
Thank you very much.
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