Struggle for Freedom in Central Europe, Iran, the World: a July 4th Message at Bratislava Reception

Independence Day Remarks by Chargé d’Affairs Keith Eddins

We are here to celebrate the 233rd anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence.

In our Declaration, Thomas Jefferson set forth the radical notion that governments derive their powers not from a deity, not at the pleasure of a monarch, but from the people they serve, from the governed.

But this summer, watching the news from Tehran and pondering the broader significance of democratic revolutions, my thoughts return to the summer 20 years ago, when I was a much younger diplomat at NATO headquarters.

In the summer of 1989, we convinced ourselves that we were contributing to the struggle for freedom in Europe.

But in our hearts we knew these were revolutions from within societies.

Poles insisted on open, honest, competitive elections.

East Germans fled in their Trabants, seeking open border crossings into Austria and the Federal Republic.

Hungarians marched to honor their heroes from 1956 and demand that Soviet troops leave their country.

And even earlier, here in Bratislava in March 1988, several thousand Slovaks had demonstrated by candlelight, only to be attacked by the police.

Such vivid memories still create in my mind a mosaic of images from that fateful period.

Some cynics have suggested that President Obama is naive to engage Moslems, to push for Middle East peace, to pursue a dialogue with Iran or Cuba.

And certainly there have been setbacks; we have all seen the assault on democracy in Tehran.

But if, in the late-1980s, those who believed in individual freedom, in human rights, and in the radical notion that governments derive their power from the consent of the people had listened to the cynics, to the nay-sayers -- where would Central Europe be today?

Andrei Sakharov and Vaclav Havel would never have taken the Helsinki Final Act seriously enough to earn the wrath – but also the attention – of their governments.

President Reagan would never have challenged President Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

Lech Walesa would never have led Solidarity through martial law to the Polish roundtables and then to victory in the June 1989 Sejm elections.

Hans-Dietrich Genscher would never have insisted that Prague allow East German refugees to depart westward.

Slovak students would not have bravely marched in the streets of Bratislava in memory of another student – Jan Opletal – in a clear demand for reform.

And Slovak artists, academics, and hundreds of others who believed in freedom, who trusted in the people – if they had been cynics – would not have gathered at the Umelecká beseda to form the Public against Violence.

But they did have a vision, they did have courage. And they acted in the spirit of Jefferson, the spirit of the Enlightenment, the spirit of the Slovak National Uprising. And they were certainly not naive.

I am proud that some of those who led the revolution of 1989 are here with us today.

I salute you.

They are the ones we should be honoring, for they shared a commitment to tolerance, to a free and open press, to equal justice under the law, and to the freedom of speech and expression.

Because these are by no means just some odd assortment of American ideals; they are the core principles shared by all of us who honor the people, who value democracy.

So a toast, please: To 1776, to 1989, to the memory of Neda in Tehran, and to freedom.