Kofi Annan and the View from Independence, Missouri

Kofi Annan gave his final public speech today as UN Secretary General. He chose to give it in a place full of historical resonances: Independence, Missouri, the birthplace of Harry Truman, the American President most associated with the UN. In part, this may be viewed as a rebuke to President George W. Bush, who has been the sharpest presidential critic of the UN (and of multialteralism more generally) and who also has publicly modeled himself on Truman.

The focus of the speech was on what Annan has learned as Secretary General. He lists five lessons he has learned:

First, we are all responsible for each other’s security.
Second, we can and must give everyone the chance to benefit from global prosperity.

Third, both security and prosperity depend on human rights and the rule of law.

Fourth, states must be accountable to each other, and to a broad range of non-state actors, in their international conduct.

Fifth, we can only do all these things by working together through a multilateral system, and by making the best possible use of the unique instrument bequeathed to us by Harry Truman and his contemporaries, namely the United Nations.

He goes into detail on each one; the full text is here.

Although the overall theme has to do with what Annan has taken from the job as Secretary General, the subtext is that the US has departed from the path set out by Harry Truman. Annan closed with these words:

My friends, we have achieved much since 1945, when the United Nations was established. But much remains to be done to put those five principles into practice.

Standing here, I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s last visit to the White House, just before Truman left office in 1953. Churchill recalled their only previous meeting, at the Potsdam conference in 1945. “I must confess, sir,” he said boldly, “I held you in very low regard then. I loathed your taking the place of Franklin Roosevelt.” Then he paused for a moment, and continued: “I misjudged you badly. Since that time, you more than any other man, have saved Western civilization.”

My friends, our challenge today is not to save Western civilization – or Eastern, for that matter. All civilization is at stake, and we can save it only if all peoples join together in the task.

You Americans did so much, in the last century, to build an effective multilateral system, with the United Nations at its heart. Do you need it less today, and does it need you less, than 60 years ago?

Surely not. More than ever today Americans, like the rest of humanity, need a functioning global system through which the world’s peoples can face global challenges together. And in order to function, the system still cries out for far-sighted American leadership, in the Truman tradition.

I hope and pray that the American leaders of today, and tomorrow, will provide it.

Thank you very much.

I am struck by some comments of (NY Times writer and Annan biographer)James Traub, who reminds us that Annan was U.S.-educated and at times criticized for being too closely aligned the U.S. Yet, while Annan’s first term as Secretary-General was noted for its good relationship with the Clinton Administration, the arrival of the Bush Administration—for whom the UN could do no right—marked a rapid deterioration of U.S/UN relations (to the detriment of both the UN and the U.S., I would add). It is a sign of the times that a man who was considered by some as being too pro-U.S. has actually become a target of such ire in the United States in recent years.

As to whether there will be a new honeymoon with Ban Ki Moon, we will have to wait and see. I’m not holding my breath, though.