61. Memorandum From Carnes Lord of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Allen)1
SUBJECT
- Haig’s Speech on Western Values
Secretary Haig’s Berlin speech2 was supposed to be a definitive statement of this Administration’s understanding of the common moral [Page 211] and political outlook that constitutes the West, and the centerpiece of our campaign to counter the propaganda of the international left. What we have been given instead is a poorly conceived and hastily written farrago of cliches which is unlikely to persuade anyone of anything.
The history of the Berlin speech as I understand it forms part of what is now a pattern: after protracted struggle within State (between the excellent speechwriters in S/P and the bureaus) a draft is prepared which is then almost wholly discarded by Harvey Sicherman, who proceeds to write his own version three or four days before the speech is to be given. The result is that there is no time for meaningful comment by other interested parties, but only for pro forma clearance. (I received Sicherman’s draft of the Berlin speech exactly an hour and a half before comments were due.) This might be tolerable if Sicherman were terrific; he is not.
Apart from all this, though, the general thrust of the speech leaves much to be desired. It defines Western “values” almost wholly in terms of the freedom and “creativity” of the individual, with almost no attention to constitutionalism, the rule of law or human rights. Not only is such rhetoric vapid; it reflects the infiltration into American thought of relativist (ultimately Nietzschean) notions which are more supportive of the neo-left than of what this Administration is supposed to stand for. Particularly objectionable in my opinion is the virtual silence about human rights. This will not go unnoticed, and will only give fuel to the critics of Administration policy in this area. More generally, though, Sicherman’s line is absolutely in error by the fact that it defines the West in terms of notions that are most peculiar to the West (and indeed to America) and least appealing to most of the world.
Given the poor quality of the speech, it is perhaps fortunate that press coverage of it was dominated by the toxin announcement as well as the local demonstrations. In any event, it is hardly an auspicious beginning to our ideological counteroffensive.3
- Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Agency File, Department of State (09/14/1981–01/09/1982). Confidential. Copies were sent to Bailey, Pipes, and Stearman. National Security Council Executive Secretary Allen Lenz initialed the top right-hand corner of the memorandum.↩
- Attached at Tab I but not printed is a copy of Haig’s speech (see Document 60).↩
- An unknown hand placed a vertical line in the right-hand margin next to this paragraph.↩