American history seen as one of most important weapons in war against terrorism
By: Jeff Milgram
One of the most important weapons in the domestic war against terrorism is the teaching of American history and principles, Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, told an audience at Princeton University on Thursday.
"I began thinking about this when I read there were teach-ins on campus, not very well-attended events, according to what I’ve read and little wonder," said Ms. Cheney, an author and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
"They fit into an old paradigm when this country was involved in a war with which large numbers of Americans disagreed, and many, rightly or wrongly, thought vital American interests were not at stake. None of that applies now. This is not a war in which we get to choose whether or not to fight. Thousands of Americans were killed on the very first day of conflict here at home. As the president made clear, we don’t have the luxury of not getting involved."
Before she spoke, Ms. Cheney met with Judy King of Princeton Township, whose husband, Andrew, was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, and Imam Hamad Chebli, religious director of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey.
Ms. Cheney’s lecture was held as part of the university’s James Madison Program in American Ideas and Institutions.
"It’s time for gatherings of a new kind, it seems to me, in which we remind ourselves of exactly what it is we are defending, in which we talk about exactly what it is we have at stake," Ms. Cheney said.
She opened her lecture on a light note. "It’s a pleasure not to be at a closed location," she said, a reference to the closed, secure location the vice president has been frequently working from since the Sept. 11 attacks.
But her lecture was serious and learned.
"Let us engage in conversations in which we explore how the clash of ideas has benefited this country and how the ability to follow a thought wherever it may lead has brought the flourishing of invention and business and art," she said.
"In the weeks since Sept. 11, I’ve heard some very well-credentialed, relatively recent college graduates confess to me how little they knew about American history," Ms. Cheney said.
After taking the audience, which filled the lecture hall, through the battles of Trenton and Princeton, Ms. Cheney got to the point about the failure of schools and universities to teach American history.
"A 1999 survey of elite college seniors that is, seniors at schools like Princeton and Yale and Stanford showed that only one out of five knew that the words ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’ came from the Gettysburg Address," she said. "Forty percent did not know that the Constitution established the division of power between the states and federal government. To the question of who was the American general in command at Yorktown, the most popular answer was Ulysses S. Grant."
She criticized colleges for dropping core standards that require, in part, a certain number of courses in American history. She urged states to "put in place history standards and the tests to match them that will ensure that youngsters in grade school and middle school and high school gain essential knowledge of our nation’s past."
She said America’s mistakes as well as its accomplishments should be taught.
Professor Robert George, director of the Madison program, encouraged audience members to pose thought-provoking and critical questions to Ms. Cheney after her lecture. Several people took him up on that.
Ms. Cheney was asked how President Bush’s executive order calling for military trials for suspected foreign terrorists will affect America’s reputation.
"I don’t think there will be any fuss about that at all," Ms. Cheney said.