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Last week, Secretary of Defence Ash Carter presented Madeleine Albright
with the Defense Department's highest award for public service -- the
Distinguished Public Service Award. Below are the remarks from the
ceremony which I would highly recommend to you. They are eloquent and
inspirational. There was hardly a dry eye in the room, including my own.

With best regards,

Ken


Kenneth Wollack
President
National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
202-728-5500 (Tel)
888-875-2887 (Fax)
email: ken@ndi.org
website: www.ndi.org


​You can find a recording of the ceremony here
<http://www.defense.gov/Video?videoid=472717&videotag=Latest%20Videos&videopage=1&ccenabled=false&videopage=1&ccenabled=false>
.​

*​​*
*As Delivered by Secretary Ash Carter, Pentagon Hall of Heroes, June 30,
2016*

Good afternoon, everyone. Guests, particularly of Secretary Albright,
leadership of the department. It is a great privilege to welcome Secretary
Madeleine Albright to the Pentagon and to be joined today by so many
long-time friends, colleagues, and dedicated public servants, including
members of our Defense Policy Board.

While there’s no need to explain any recognition of Madeleine’s historic
achievements and extraordinary work, it might seem odd to some of you that
a Secretary of Defense would give the Department of Defense’s highest award
to a Secretary of State.

But it shouldn’t seem strange. That’s because this award represents an
enduring truth: our defense is so vital that we must shepherd it from
strategic era to strategic era, from administration to administration,
across parties, and across our government. Defense requires a strategic
perspective – that we understand our connections to the leaders and
challenges of the past.

At the UN, in Foggy Bottom, and today, Madeleine has always kept the world
in synoptic view, seeing all of its parts and problems at once, and using
the great physical and moral strength of the world’s greatest nation
wisely, to protect our people and make a better world.

She’s always demonstrated a deep understanding of which mix of our nation’s
foreign policy tools– whether it’s the nation’s exceptional diplomatic
corps, our economic might, or the finest fighting force the world has ever
known – is best for a given issue. She’s always understood where present
challenges fall in the broad arc of history, and how we can use history’s
lessons to pursue today’s opportunities. And she’s always known that in a
complex and tumultuous world, our policy must be grounded in our interests
and our ideals.

As Madeleine knows well from her work on the Defense Policy Board, this
perspective and this complexity is something we contend with every day at
the Department of Defense, as we face a new strategic era, with no fewer
than five major, immediate, and evolving challenges: countering the
prospect of Russian aggression and coercion, especially in Europe; managing
historic change in the vital Asia-Pacific region; strengthening our
deterrent and defense forces in the face of North Korea’s nuclear and
missile provocations; checking Iranian aggression and malign influence in
the Gulf; and accelerating the defeat of ISIL in its parent tumor in Iraq
and Syria and everywhere it’s metastasizing around the world.

While we don’t have the luxury of choosing among these challenges, we do
have the ability to set a strategic course for the future: a future that’s
uncertain moreover, and that will bring with it new and unforeseen
challenges, but that will surely demand America’s leadership, values, and
military strength.

Now, as we set that strategic course, meet those challenges, and contend
with that uncertain future, we can learn important lessons from Madeleine’s
remarkable career…about the need for whole-of-government policy responses,
about the strategic benefits of global partners, and about the enduring
importance of American values and ideals.

Madeleine has always known that strategic objectives must be pursued across
government, with the support of every agency and every instrument of
American strength. That’s because ensuring victory in war requires much
more than combat power alone. The peace and stability that America’s
servicemembers – like those whose names line the walls of this wonderful
room – the peace and stability they fight for and sacrifice for also
require just governance, meaningful reconciliation, improved education,
economic progress, and the rule of law. And, at State and in her continued
work as chair of the National Democratic Institute, Madeleine has helped
develop and advance the instruments and institutions needed to make and
keep peace.

She’s done so, in part, because Madeleine appreciates the enduring need to
marry the United States’ economic and diplomatic leverage with our military
might. Few have been a more forceful and effective advocate for that sort
of approach to national security policy than Madeleine Albright. In the
1990s she worked for whole-of-government responses to, among other issues,
end crises in Bosnia and Kosovo, counter nuclear proliferation, and
normalize trade with China and diplomatic relations Vietnam. I saw all
this and more up close, and I have known and admired Madeleine ever since.

Twenty-one years ago this summer – and I remember this well – in the wake
of tragedies like the attacks on Srebrenica, Madeleine worked with
Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Secretary of Defense Bill Perry –
for whom I was then working, National Security Advisor Tony Lake, Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili, and many others, including
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, to develop a comprehensive American
intervention – one that leveraged our military and allied strength and all
our diplomatic firepower – to end the Bosnian War with the Dayton Accords.

Madeleine’s work on Bosnia and later on Kosovo also reminds us of the
importance of working with – and listening to – our unrivaled network of
allies and partners, which no other country has. That long-time network is
an important strategic asset, one nurtured by generations of policymakers
like Madeleine.

America’s representatives – whether on the Cabinet or the Joint Chiefs, in
the Foreign Service or our military ranks – do the same today by embodying
our values and ideals. I hear this all the time about America’s
servicemembers. Defense leaders everywhere I go tell me they like working
with our military. That’s because our people aren’t only awesomely
competent, but they also don’t intimidate, coerce, or exclude…they work
with our allies and partners to ensure a better world. That reputation
makes me proud.

But it also makes our country stronger. To ensure that unrivaled network
of friends and partners in a changing world, we need to continue to embody
our values and principles, to work with allies, and to listen to them.
Madeleine’s example is a good one to model.

That was on display this spring when Madeleine gave a terrific commencement
speech at Scripps College, in which she explained how people with different
opinions, interests, and values – whether at home or around the world – can
be brought together for common cause.

Madeleine said, and I quote, “The challenge for our leaders is not to
eliminate the diversity of…perspectives – for that’s not possible. The
challenge is to manage them – and when necessary, moderate them – so that
we are not defined primarily by what keeps us apart.”

Of course, as an immigrant to this country, Madeleine herself has always
brought additional empathy to her work and a deeper appreciation for the
need to bridge differences and opinions. And over the course of her career
and in her post-government work, Madeleine has brought us together again
and again to make a better world.

As she’s done so, Madeleine’s helped ensure our nation is safer, stronger,
and, yes, indispensable. And because she’s stood up for America’s
standards and ideals – shared by people and nation’s around the world –
she’s also helped make the world more peaceful, and its people freer,
healthier, and more prosperous.

In Washington and in the academy, it’s popular to say that “where you stand
depends on where you sit.” But Madeleine’s an exception. Whether on
Capitol Hill, at the State Department, on the NSC, or at the UN, her
colleagues always knew where Madeleine stood on an issue: for standing up
and standing by America’s ideals in the complex eras in which she’s
worked…and still works. As she’s helped ensure the United States does so,
she has ruffled some feathers – in this building, in the interagency,
around the world – she wouldn’t be the Madeleine Albright we all know and
love if she hadn’t. But she’s also inspired her colleagues and her country
to remember and rededicate themselves – and ourselves – to those values and
ideals.

Madeleine has said that, “A successful foreign policy must begin with the
world as it is but also work for what we would like it to be.” In her
work, Madeleine’s made Washington, her country, and our world what we’d all
like them to be: more civilized, more secure, and more hopeful.

Madeleine, yours has been an American life. Nowhere else would your story
have been possible. And you’ve dedicated your life to the life of your
country. As you’ve done so – and as you continue to do so – you represent
the very best of this nation: we’ve never settled for the expedient, we’ve
long strived for the exceptional. So have you.

On behalf of the men and women of the Defense Department, and on behalf of
a grateful nation, Madeleine, we thank you.

So it is now my great honor to present the Distinguished Public Service
Award to Secretary Madeleine Albright.

Thank you.


*​​As Delivered by Secretary Madeleine K. Albright, Pentagon Hall of
Heroes, June 30, 2016*

Secretary Carter, dear Ash, Stephanie, leaders of the Pentagon, friends and
colleagues from the Defense Policy Board, friends and colleagues not from
the Defense Policy Board: I am grateful that you are all here.

Mr. Secretary, Ash, thank you for this honor, but what you said was so
deeply moving. Thank you very, very much and thank you so much for your
stewardship of this department during an important time in our nation’s
history.

I appreciate as well the good company you have allowed me to keep, as I
know that Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft and George Shultz were also
honored by you earlier this year.

It is really great to be able to represent the youthful wing of the foreign
policy establishment. And I am sure you would agree that it is always fun
to have a “grey skirt” among greybeards.

This is certainly true in the Defense Policy Board, on which I am
privileged to serve. And the Defense Policy Board is a special entity –
giving us the opportunity to discuss important issues, provide our
perspectives, and interact closely with this Department’s leadership. I am
truly, truly honored to serve in that capacity and to be on your team, Mr.
Secretary, dear Ash.

I know this is neither the place nor the time for a long speech, but I do
want to share very briefly why it is so meaningful for me to have received
this particular recognition.

As Ash said, I was not born in the United States.

Instead, I entered the world in Czechoslovakia and was still a young child
when Hitler’s troops marched into Prague.

My father was a diplomat at the time and subject to arrest by the Nazis.

So my parents and I fled to England, which is where we spent World War II.

Among my first memories are those of sitting with our neighbors during air
raids, huddled together in a shelter while enemy bombers flew overhead,
waiting for the “all clear” sound.

Our anxieties were heightened because the war in Europe had not begun well
and it seemed that we – who had found refuge in Great Britain – might be
left to fight alone.

But then, one day, wonderful news came from across the sea.

A brave military had answered the call and was on its way to rescue freedom.

Soon, the Yank soldiers arrived, bringing with them their boundless energy,
confident wisecracks, and jaunty way of walking.

Then, in early June 1944, the troops were suddenly nowhere to be seen;
Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious landing in history, had been
launched.

In the months that followed, almost an entire continent lost to evil had
been taken back village by village, hill by hill.

In those days, my father was head of the broadcasting for the Czechoslovak
government-in-exile; and as the fighting progressed, he reported each
breakthrough to the millions of people back home – secretly listening in
cellars and attics.

Meanwhile I celebrated – and for the first time but definitely not last
time – fell in love with Americans in uniform.

I was just eight years old when the war ended and we returned to Prague.

Because the fighting was over, my parents and I did our best to settle in
and resume a normal life.

But within a couple of years, the government of Czechoslovakia was taken
over by the Communists.

So once again, my family was forced into exile, this time sailing across
the ocean to a new and welcoming home.

I will always be grateful for the warm reception we received and for the
opportunity I had to grow up in a country that cherished freedom.

For as long as she lived, my mother used to call me on the Fourth of July
and want to know whether her grandchildren were singing patriotic songs. I
plan to do that myself this weekend.

As for my father, he used to cite a contrast.

He said that in Europe, people would say to refugees, “We’re so sorry your
country has been taken over by a terrible dictator. You’re welcome here,
what can we do to help you, and when are you going home?”

When we came to the United States, people said, “We’re so sorry your
country has been taken over by a terrible system. You’re welcome here, what
can we do to help you, and when will you become a citizen?”

So you cannot imagine how privileged I felt when, as secretary of state, I
sat behind a sign that said: The United States of America.

But you also cannot imagine how humbled I felt when, as secretary, I
participated in meetings that resulted in brave men and women being sent
into harm’s way.

It never occurred to me that one of the things I would do when I raised my
right hand was to send people to war.

I vowed never to forget the human lives at stake in these decisions, so
while in office, I seized every opportunity I had to visit with our
soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines who were stationed overseas.

At each stop, I would read their names and study their faces – these were
men and women from across the land, representing every variety of
background, race, color, and creed.

And I was impressed by their enthusiasm and commitment, whether their
assignments were in Europe, the Balkans, the Arabian Peninsula, or East
Asia.

When sitting with these service members, I never heard a single complaint –
well, maybe that’s not exactly true.

After all, just because someone is in uniform doesn’t mean they’re too shy
to speak up.

And yet the most frequent concern those young people shared had nothing to
do with personal comfort; it was the fear that folks back home didn’t
really understand how important their mission was – or how much good they
were doing on behalf of the United States.

I was – and remain – deeply troubled by this.

But as this group knows full well, our military engagements going back to
my time in office have played out against a complicated political backdrop,
tinged with religious and cultural tension, questioning allies, less than
conclusive results, and an American public that sometimes questions the
purpose of our global engagement.

As one citizen, I acknowledge an enormous debt to all who have chosen to
contribute their energy and talents to the armed forces of our country.

That debt extends, and especially so, to our veterans, many wearing
permanent scars of battle, and meriting a permanent place of honor in our
collective memory and in our hearts.

And yet as I stand here, I ask myself how well that debt is being re-paid
by the American people and their elected representatives.

For it seems to me that, if we are to protect the security and prosperity
of our country, we should put an end to partisan squabbling, do a little
arithmetic, and develop a unified and lasting approach to the federal
budget.

In the process, we should invest first of all in the education of our young
people so that they will be able, when of age, to meet the demands that
modern military service and the global marketplace require. And that’s why
I want to commend you, Mr. Secretary, on the set of initiatives you have
launched to build the “Force of the Future.”

And I also want to congratulate you and the entire department on the policy
changes you announced earlier today. Utilizing the talents of our entire
population will be key to building lasting security in the twenty first
century.

But it won’t be enough, for we also have to resist the suggestion heard
more and more often that we Americans need not bother about problems
overseas – and that if we just mind our own business, nothing like Pearl
Harbor or 9/11 will ever happen again.

When I was in government, and in the years since, one of the things I have
enjoyed most is the opportunity to visit the military service academies.

Having seen first-hand how these future officers learn about the qualities
demanded of a leader, I know we do not have to tell the members of our
military that American leadership is still needed in the world today.

Past lessons inform us that we cannot allow our country to become tired; we
cannot turn our backs on our responsibilities; we cannot pretend that we
are not the United States.

For all our challenges and defects, America remains the only nation blessed
with the power to lead and the ideals to do so in a direction that most of
the world would prefer to go – towards fulfillment of that singular pledge:
liberty and justice for all.

More than six decades have elapsed since I first came to these shores.

But I have not forgotten the fundamental lesson taught to me by my parents.

And that is to honor and value American ideals, and never take for granted
the privilege of living in the world’s greatest democracy.

This ceremony is just one further reminder of the great opportunities this
democracy affords to all its people, immigrant and native-born, male and
female, military and civilian.

And let me say, you mention General Shalikashvili. He also was
foreign-born. And one of the pictures that I will always remember; he and I
were standing in front of the sit room door in the White House. Secretary
Rubin walked by and he said “Ah ha! Force and diplomacy.” And Shalikashvili
said, “Which is which?” He was a great friend and partner.

So to every member of the Defense Department leadership that is here today,
let me say that for all you have done for our country in the past, I
applaud you.

For all you are now doing and will do in the future, I salute you.

And for this wonderful honor, I can’t thank you enough.

Thank you very, very much for this