The Day of Infamy Has Become A Day for Remembrance, Reflection, and Above All, Gratitude

Yesterday I delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and heralding the arrival of a new administration that embraces our allies and demonstrates renewed resolve to assume once more the mantle of leadership:

On this Pearl Harbor Day we should learn the lessons of the past, and seize new opportunities for America in Asia and beyond.

The great lesson of Pearl Harbor—and more broadly of World War II—was America’s commitment to utterly defeat our enemies by whatever means necessary. And then, when victory was secure, to bring them back into the community of civilized nations.

It was an extraordinary achievement. To think that if on December 7, 1941 I was to tell you Japan would be on December 7, 2016 a staunchly democratic ally, a vital security and economic partner to the United States—you would have said I was barking mad. Or a pathological liar. 

But here we are, three-quarters of a century later, and the Day of Infamy has become a day for remembrance, reflection and above all gratitude—gratitude for that greatest of generations who answered the call to service after Pearl Harbor, who stood staunchly with our allies, looked the evil of the Axis squarely in the eye and saved the free world. They are leaving us now, making it all the more important that we assure each and every one of them of our boundless thanks while we still can.

We can also find much to be thankful for today as what had seemed unthinkable has come to pass—that a nation that brutally attacked us seventy-five years ago can now be a great and good friend. It is a tribute to both the Japanese and the American people that we have been able to not ignore or whitewash the past, but learn from it, and come to the understanding that we are so much stronger as allies than as adversaries. 

As a Texan, I’m personally appreciative of the fruits of this alliance—we host a range of Japanese companies who have invested in our state, with Toyota, for example, building its new North American headquarters in Plano this year and creating some 4,000 new jobs. And also this year the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth has started to produce the F-35s Japan is purchasing to bolster its defenses against increasing regional aggression from China and North Korea. 

So against all odds, the attack on Pearl Harbor has been transformed from a great evil to a great good, and as we face great challenges around the world, and particularly in Asia, we can be grateful to have our Japanese friends standing with by our side.

Which is another lesson from the post World War II era, to be on the lookout for not just challenges and dangers, but for unexpected opportunities. We might be forgiven as we contend with hostile nations with nuclear capability or intent, nations like North Korea or Iran, to see a glass half empty and become consumed with fears of another Pearl Harbor-like attack potentially so much more catastrophic and deadly than the one in 1941.

But that would be a mistake as with some of the fortitude our parents and grandparents showed, we can now count new allies as our partners, not just Japan but also--and equally stunningly--Germany. And the list does not end there. We have Israel, which had yet to be born in 1941, not to mention the eastern and Central European countries that languished so long under Soviet domination, but are now building enduring democracies, many of which have joined NATO.

Now that’s simply amazing. If I told you even thirty years ago there would be a Czech Republic or a Republic of Poland that would be key NATO allies I again would have been met with some well-founded skepticism.

But they are, and as we look forward to a new American administration it is my hope that we can get off on a much better foot than the last one did in this region, when they cancelled the missile defense installations intended for those countries, squandering an opportunity to link them more closely to us. 

I must say I am encouraged in this department by the activities of the President-elect, particularly in terms of the congratulatory phone call he received last week from the President of the Republic of China, Tsai Ing-wen.

The liberal foreign policy elites were of course shocked and appalled. How, they wondered, could the President-elect have committed such an appalling gaffe? Wasn’t he aware that we had degraded our relationship with Taiwan more than thirty-five years ago and no longer recognize this friendly, prosperous and democratic country as a nation state? 

Compounding their consternation was the concern that the People’s Republic of China might not like it.

Quelle horreur.

The Chinese might not like it.

Now, to be fair, given the flaming train wreck that is the Obama foreign policy writ large, our relationship with the PRC is by comparison a bright spot. All they have done is throw Mr. Obama’s successor as Nobel Peace Laureate, Liu Xiaobo, into prison, constructed 3,000 acres of weaponized artificial islands in the middle of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and utterly failed to contain North Korea while dismantling the last vestiges of freedom in Hong Kong.

Even so, I don’t think our President-Elect needs to clear his phone calls with Beijing. 

The phone call between President Tsai and the new American President was in fact an acknowledgment of a simple truth: that Taiwan has become an important friend to the United States even after Jimmy Carter downgraded them in 1979 in acknowledgement of the “One China” policy the elites are so eager to perpetuate.

And that’s another thing. Just because a policy is old, doesn’t make it sacrosanct. I don’t think anyone can honestly say our relations with the PRC are so fantastic that we should do anything not to rock the boat. I don’t think the Carter-era foreign policy was such a success that we should unquestioningly continue it, and I hope the President-elect continues to make it clear that while he understands the importance of China and looks forward to a positive relationship with Beijing, he’s not going to ignore our friends in the region. 

The call between President Tsai and the President-elect reminded me of another phone call, which took place in September of 2013. At the end of that year’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, while driving to the airport, the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, took out his cell phone and called President Obama. The Obama administration was in a tizzy of excitement over Mr. Rouhani’s election as they believed him to be a “moderate” who would be a good-faith partner in the hoped-for negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

But even at this early day the signs weren’t promising. Despite Mr. Obama’s offers, President Rouhani had refused to take a face-to-face meeting at the UN, opting for a call instead. There were no pre-conditions placed on the first direct exchange between an Iranian and American leader since 1979, such as, say, demanding that the Iranians releasing their American hostages and acknowledging Israel’s right to exist—steps that would have indicated a fundamental shift in Iran’s virulent hostility to the United States and our allies, and suggested we truly were on a new path. 

And we all know what has happened over the last three years as the Obama administration made concession after concession to get a deal—any deal—with Tehran. Even as Iranian belligerence and hostility has grown, as they’ve tested ballistic missiles, violated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, detained our citizens and repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the map, Mr. Obama has over and over again proffered his hand in friendship, even sending them 1.7 billion dollars in cash as a sweetener—all of which may well result, as I said earlier, in a terrible threat to the United States that could dwarf Pearl Harbor.

But in closing, I want to leave you with a message of hope. Our friendship with Japan, as well as Germany, Israel, the Czech Republic and Poland, make me hopeful. There is a discrete reason these nations are now aligned allies: the persistence and resolve of American leadership. Leadership to discern moral from immoral, freedom from tyranny, right from wrong, life from death – and then to fight for the right. Such leadership has been sorely lacking in the past eight years. Yet, the past month affords ample reason to hope. Quite frankly, I think talking to President Tsai, not President Rouhani, was a material improvement for the national security interests of the United States, and it demonstrates renewed resolve to assume once more the mantle of leadership. That’s enough to make all of us hopeful.