In
a speech at the American Legion Convention in Cincinnati on Wednesday,
Hillary Clinton reaffirmed that America is an exceptional nation, and
that America’s greatness requires our diplomatic and military leadership
in the world. A crucial part of maintaining that leadership and
protecting our men and women in uniform, Clinton said, is maintaining
our alliances with and commitments to other nations. Clinton argued that
Donald Trump would walk away from our allies, has run a divisive
campaign, insults our military, and is temperamentally unfit to be
president. Clinton said, “part of what makes America an exceptional
nation is that we’re also an indispensable nation. The indispensable
nation. People all over the world look to us and follow our lead. You
may wonder how anyone could disagree. But my opponent has said very
clearly that he thinks American exceptionalism is insulting to the rest
of the world. In fact, when
Vladimir Putin of all people criticized American exceptionalism, my opponent agreed with him.”
Clinton’s
speech followed the endorsement of former Bush Administration Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense James Clad. Clad joined other national
security experts from across the aisle, including Richard Armitage and
Brent Scowcroft, who have said they will vote for Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s remarks, as transcribed, are below:
“Good
afternoon! I am delighted to have this great honor of being here and
having this opportunity to address you. I want to thank the National
Commander; thank you Commander Barnett. I want to thank Verna Jones,
your Executive Director, and Dewey Moss, Aide to the National Commander.
And I want to thank a long time friend and advisor to me. Someone who I
am very grateful to, and that is your National Treasurer, George
Buskirk.
Most of all, thanks to you. All the Legionnaires here and
across America, most of all thanks to you. Thanks for your service and
our Armed Forces. You wore the uniform, you took an oath, you put your
life on the line to protect the greatest country on Earth. Yes.
There
are some who may argue with that, but not around me. When you came
home, you joined the American Legion, and by doing so, you kept serving.
Just look at what the Legion does. You care for wounded warriors, you
help raise the next generation of American patriots. I want to give a
special shout out to Boys Nation, which meant so much to my husband when
he was growing up. And when I told him he was coming here today, he
said, ‘You’ve got to mention Boys Nation.’ I told him I would, but I
also have to mention Girls Nation too.
I want to thank your
auxiliary, the world’s largest women’s patriotic service organization. I
was honored to receive the Auxiliary’s Public Spirit Award in 1997, and
I have great admiration for the work that you do. As the daughter of a
veteran, as a proud American, I am grateful to you all.
Now I’m
not going to talk a lot about politics today, but I do want to say this.
Whoever America elects this fall won’t just be our next president; that
person will be our next Commander-in-Chief. And every person in this
room understands how great a responsibility that is.
Now I know
some of you are Democrats, and some of you are Republicans and some of
you are independents. I suppose there are some of you who have never
voted for a Democrat before. I get that. My dad was a rock-ribbed
Republican, but I learned at our dinner table that we can disagree
without being disagreeable.
And, I want you to know if I am
fortunate enough to win this election, I will be a president for
Democrats, Republicans, independents. For people who vote for me, for
people who don’t. For all Americans. That is what I think we need. We
need to unify our country and go forward into the future with confidence
and optimism.
Today I want you to know a little bit about where I
stand, and how I see the world and America’s place in it. I spent four
years as your Secretary of State. Eight years before that as senator of
the great state of New York, six years on the Senate Armed Services
Committee.
If there is one core belief that has guided and
inspired me every step of the way, it is this: United States is an
exceptional nation. I believe we are still Lincoln’s last best hope of
earth. We are still Reagan’s shining city on a hill. We’re still Robert
Kennedy’s great, unselfish, compassionate country.
And it’s not
just that we have the greatest military or that our economy is larger
than any on earth. It’s also the strength of our values. The strength of
the American people. Everyone who works harder, dreams bigger and
never, ever stops trying to make our country and the world a better
place. And part of what makes an exceptional nation is that we are also
an indispensable nation. In fact, we are the indispensable nation.
People all over the world look to us and follow our lead.
My
friends, we are so lucky to be Americans. It is an extraordinary
blessing. It’s why so many people from so many places want to be
Americans too. But it’s also a serious responsibility. The decisions we
make and the actions we take, even the actions we don’t take, affect
millions, even billions of lives. You know that, you’ve seen it.
All
this may seem evident, especially to men and women who have worn the
uniform. You may wonder how anyone could disagree. But in fact, my
opponent in the race has said very clearly that he thinks American
exceptionalism is insulting to the rest of the world. In fact, when
Vladimir Putin, of all people, criticized American exceptionalism, my
opponent agreed with him saying, and I quote, ‘If you are in Russia, you
don’t want to hear that America is exceptional.’ Well maybe you don’t
want to hear it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
My opponent
misses something important. When we say America is exceptional, it
doesn’t mean that people from other places don’t feel deep national
pride just like we do. It means that we recognize America’s unique and
unparalleled ability to be a force for peace and progress. A champion
for freedom and opportunity.
Our power comes with a responsibility
to lead. Humbly, thoughtfully and with a fierce commitment to our
values. Because when America fails to lead, we leave a vacuum. It either
causes chaos, or other countries or other networks rush in to fill the
void. So, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how great the challenge,
America must lead. The question is how we lead. What kind of ideas,
strategies and tactics we bring to our leadership.
American
leadership means standing with our allies. Because our network of allies
is part of what makes us exceptional. No other country in the world has
alliances like ours. Russia and China have nothing close. We stand with
our allies because generations of American troops fought and died to
secure those bonds and because they deliver for us everyday. Our allies
share intelligence on terrorists. They provide staging areas for our
military so we can respond quickly to events on the other side of the
world.
Other nations’ soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines often
fight side by side with ours. Some of you may have served and fought
alongside men and women from other countries. You saw them in action.
You know how important these bonds are to our security. Threatening to
walk away from our alliances, ignoring the importance that they still
are to us is not only wrong; it is dangerous. If I’m your president, our
friends will always know America will have your back, and we expect you
to have ours.
American leadership means bringing the world
together to solve global problems, as only we can. United States build
the international coalition against ISIS. Now we are working with
partners to take back territory and defeat them without getting drawn
into a ground war. We brought the world together to impose sanctions on
Iran and secure a deal that puts a lid on Iran’s nuclear program without
firing a single shot. You don’t build a coalition by insulting our
friends or acting like a loose cannon. You do it by putting in the slow,
hard work of building relationships.
Getting countries working
together was my job everyday as your Secretary of State. It’s more than a
photo op. It takes consistency and reliability. Actually it’s just like
building personal relationships. People have to get to know that they
can count on you. That you won’t say one thing one day and something
totally different the next. And it certainly takes more than trying to
make up for a year of insults and insinuations by dropping in on our
neighbors for a few hours, then flying home again. That’s not how it
works.
American leadership means leading with our values in
pursuant of our interests in protection of our security. At our best,
the United States is the global force for freedom, justice and human
dignity. We celebrate our diversity as a source of national strength.
Just look at our armed forces, which represent all races, religions,
ethnicities and yes, immigrants from other countries, all fighting for
the red, white and blue.
We stand up to regimes that abuse human
rights. We stand up for religious and ethnic minorities, for women, for
people with disabilities. And we comport ourselves with honor. There’s
no greater proof of than what our Navy SEALs did during the raid to kill
Osama bin Laden.
I was deeply honored to be a part of that small
group advising the president. I brought to those discussions my
experience as a Senator from New York on 9/11. And my commitment to do
whatever I could in whatever role I had to bring bin Laden to Justice.
You
have all seen the picture of us crowded into the smaller Situation Room
and watching the video screen. Every second counted. One of the
copters misgauged how high the wall was, around the courtyard clipped
the tail getting disabled. It did not stop the SEALs from rushing out,
getting into the compound, returning fire against bin Laden’s bodyguards
taking on his adult son and finally Bin Laden himself.
But the
SEALs knew they had to destroy the helicopter before they left. I was
holding my breath through the entire operation. Because at any time,
Pakistani soldiers could have arrived. This compound was in a military
garrison city – actually the home of their military academy – so yes,
every second counted. But still, our SEALs took the time to move to move
the women and children, bin Laden’s family members, to safety, before
destroying the helicopter. That is what honor looks like. That is
America at our best.
Maybe the soldiers of other nations wouldn’t
have bothered, or maybe they’d have taken revenge on those family
members of terrorists. But that is not who we are. And anyone who
doesn’t understand that doesn’t understand what makes our nation great.
And
let me say something else about American greatness. There is no
question we face real threats and real enemies that we need to confront
and defeat. But my opponent is wrong when he says America is no longer
great. Consider the record of the last eight years. In 2009, our global
economy was collapsing. Osama bin Laden was plotting. We had more than
180,000 troops fighting two wars. Iran was racing toward a nuclear
weapon. Many of our allies were less supportive of American leadership
than they had been in decades.
Look where are we now. We’ve pulled
the global economy out of free fall thanks to the hard work and
sacrifice of the American people. We’ve re-deployed well over 100,000
troops from Iraq and Afghanistan so they can go home, rest and train for
future contingencies. We cut off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon. We
convinced Russia to reduce their nuclear weapons arsenal. We protected
our ally Israel, and we brought Osama bin Laden to justice.
We did
that. We Americans did all that working together across party lines.
And there is no question we have more work to do, but let’s be clear: We
are stronger together. And it will be my goal if I am fortunate enough
to be your president, to bring people back together again to set our
goals and move forward to achieve them.
I know we can’t cozy up to
dictators. We have to stand up to them. We can’t contain ISIS; we must
defeat them, and we will. We will do whatever is necessary for as long
as it takes to bring them to justice and end their reign of terror, once
and for all.
This election is about how to make things better.
Now make no mistake, I believe we do have better days ahead. But, things
could also get worse. If more countries get nuclear weapons, if we
abandon our allies. If our Commander in Chief orders our military to
break the laws and commit torture, or murder terrorists’ family members.
That’s
why it is so critical that we get this right. And let me underscore
what I have said throughout this campaign: we must only send our troops
into harm’s way as a last resort, not a first choice. That must be our
bedrock principle.
But we must be able to act decisively on our
own when we need to. I completely reject anyone, including my opponent,
who calls the American military and I quote, ‘A disaster.’ That’s an
insult to the men and women serving today and all who have served before
who put their lives on the line every day. And it’s just not true. We
do have more work to do to continue to have the strongest, most
effective military in the world. I know this is something that matters a
great deal to everyone in this room. Here’s what we have to do – we
can’t lose our military edge.
That means giving the Pentagon the
stable, predictable funding it needs to make smart investments. You’ve
heard of the ‘sequester’ – the arbitrary caps that Congress has imposed
on our entire government for the past several years. Now, look I’m all
for cutting the fat out of the budget and making sure we stretch our
dollars and proud of the fact that when my husband left office we had a
balance budget and a surplus. And I hope that someday we can get back to
doing that.
But we cannot impose arbitrary limits on something as
important as our military. That makes no sense at all. The sequester
makes our country less secure. Let’s end it and get a budget deal that
supports America’s military, our families, and our country. And let’s
make reform a priority, so that the Defense Department spends its budget
on the right things.
And by the way, the last thing we need is a
president who brings more name-calling and temper tantrums to
Washington. We’ve got to get people listening to each other again,
getting both parties actually to work together. Let’s modernize our army
and marines, our Navy and Air Force, our Coast Guard. We need to
respond to evolving threats from states like Russia and China, Iran and
North Korea. From networks, criminal and terrorist networks like ISIS.
We need a military that is ready and agile so it can meet the full range
of threats and operate on short notice on every domain, not just land,
sea, air, and space, but also cyber space.
We’ll invest in new
technologies so new breakthroughs can transform our military, just as
stealth, precision weapons, and advanced communications did in the past.
We’ll make a renewed push to reduce the world’s nuclear weapons,
because that does make us all safer. And we’ll step up our efforts to
secure nuclear material around the world, and stop terrorists from
acquiring or using weapons of mass destruction.
One of the first
things I will do as president is to call for a new Nuclear Posture
Review. We have to make sure that America’s arsenal is prepared to meet
future threats. We’ll invest in the next frontier of military engagement
– protecting U.S. interests in outerspace and cyberspace. You’ve seen
reports Russia has hacked into a lot of things. China has hacked into a
lot of things. Russia even hacked into the Democratic National
Committee, maybe even some state election systems.
So we have got
to step up our game. Make sure we are well defended and able to take the
fight to those who go after us. As president I will make it clear that
the United States will treat cyber attacks just like any other attack.
We will be ready with serious political, economic and military
responses. And we are going to invest in protecting our governmental
networks and national infrastructure. I want us to lead the world in
setting the rules of cyberspace. If America doesn’t, others will.
So
in short, we have to be ready to win today’s fights and tomorrow’s. But
you know that the most important thing isn’t the size of our military
or the sophistication of our weapons. The most important thing is our
people. The men and women who put on the uniform and serve. We need to –
we need to take a hard look at our military’s personal policies to make
sure we are doing everything to attract and keep the best and the
brightest who volunteer. We need to support not only them, but also
their families.
As President, I will never forget the debt we owe
to our veterans and your families who also served. I will never, ever
disrespect Gold Star families who made who’ve made the ultimate
sacrifice for our nation, or prisoners of war who endured so much in our
name. To insult them is just so wrong, and it says a lot about the
person doing the insulting.
In the Senate, I worked with
Republicans to increase the benefit paid to Gold Star families, to
expand access to military health insurance, to make sure all members of
the Guard and Reserves and their families have access to health
benefits, whether they are deployed or training at home. I fought
successfully to amend the 2007 Defense Appropriations Act, to establish a
training program for family caregivers helping loved ones with
traumatic brain injuries.
Senator John McCain and I joined forces
to personally raise money for a state of the art rehab facility at
Brooke Army Medical in San Antonio to help seriously wounded service
members coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Like you I, I was
outraged by the scandals at V.A. hospitals – people waiting for months
or years for wheelchairs and basic medications – some even dying while
waiting for an appointment. I know that you heard from Secretary
McDonald and I know how hard he and his team are working. We’re going to
build a 21st century Department of Veterans Affairs that delivers
world-class care, and we are not going to let anyone privatize the V.A..
We’re going to reform and strengthen it, not privatize it.
We
will ensure access to timely, quality care for all of our veterans,
improve care for women who are often underserved, identify and treat all
wounds of war, visible and invisible including Agent Orange, Gulf War
Syndrome and traumatic brain injury and PTSD. We will end the epidemic
of veterans suicides by expanding access to mental health care and
fighting the stigma that isolates too many of our veterans from getting
the care they need.
I feel passionately about this because I have
looked into the eyes of too many family members who have lost their
loved one to suicide. That is why just two days ago when I released my
plan of mental health services for all Americans, I included a specific
section for more help about veterans and their families because we know
too many are not getting the help they need right now. We have got to
serve them just as they have served us.
We’re going to help more
veterans looking for jobs – with expanded tax credits for businesses
that hire veterans, more support to veterans who want to start their own
businesses, and making it easier for veterans to get credit for the
skills they learned while serving. And we’re going to crack down on
for-profit schools and companies that prey on or discriminate against
service members, veterans or military families.
They should be ashamed of themselves, and we’re going to hold them accountable.
We
will also work closely with the American Legion to clean up and
expedite the appeals process. Benefits should be delivered as quickly as
possible and appeals should be decided as expeditiously as possible. I
thank you for the work you are doing on that.
Now, a lot of what
I’ve mentioned today has support from both Democrats and Republicans.
Maintaining our military and caring for our veterans should never be
partisan issues. Defending American exceptionalism should always be
above politics. But this is not a normal election. The debates are not
the normal disagreements between Republicans and Democrats.
So I
hope you will listen carefully to what my opponent and I propose.
Consider our plans and the values behind them. And after you’ve given us
both a fair hearing, I hope you will join the growing number of
Americans – Democrats, Republicans and independents – who are supporting
our vision for the kind of future we want for our country.
This
election shouldn’t be about ideology. It’s not just about differences
over policy. It truly is about who has the experience and the
temperament to serve as president and Commander in Chief.
Just
three weeks ago, 50 Republican national security experts, who served in
prior Republican administrations, wrote a letter saying that they will
not vote for Donald Trump, because he would be – in their words –‘the
most reckless President in American history.’
By contrast, I am
deeply honored to have so many retired military leaders backing me,
along with these Republican experts. I’m supported by people on both
sides of the aisle and both sides of the debates that have defined our
foreign policy for the last 30 years. They know I believe in a
bipartisan foreign policy; they know I believe we should be finding ways
to bring our country together around national security, our role in the
world, our values. They know they can count on me to do that, and what
matters to them is that we make the right choice in November.
The stakes this fall are as high as any election in our lifetimes.
So
I’m going to keep raising these issues, keep telling people where I
stand, laying out plans for what I do if I’m elected. I have to tell
you, it is a little bit funny to me. I get criticized for having so many
plans. People say, ‘Oh, there she goes with another plan about mental
health, about veterans.’ Well, I have this old-fashion idea; if I’m
asking for your vote for president, I should tell you what I want to do
as your president. So yes, I have laid out plans, and I’m going to work
my heart out to implement those plans, and if I win this fall, no one
will work harder for our troops, our veterans and our military families.
This
is personal to me, starting with my dad. His name was Hugh Rodham. He
enlisted in the Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor. He became a chief petty
officer at Great Lakes, north of Chicago, responsible for training
thousands of young sailors before they shipped out to sea, mostly to the
Pacific Theater.
After my dad died, I received letters from men
who had served under him. I treasure them to this day. My father told me
how emotional he got when he accompanied his trainees to the West Coast
and saw those young sailors get on board their ships. He knew some of
them wouldn’t survive. But he believed in their cause. He believed in
them. And they went to serve, to protect our country. They knew their
country needed them.
Over the course of the last years, I’ve also
had the privilege of working with, helping and supporting so many active
duty and retired military members and families, first as First Lady,
then as senator, then as Secretary of State. Whenever I would go
anywhere representing you and be privileged to meet with the men and
women who serve our country, I would sit down, if we had a chance, and
hear what was on their minds, shake hands and take pictures, sometimes
bring messages back to their loved ones. And I too knew that some of
those young men and women wouldn’t be coming home either. It’s that kind
of courage and honor that our men and women in uniform demonstrate
every single day.
I will never forget that, and I would expect the
American Legion to be my partner in the White House to make sure I
never do. You and all our veterans deserve nothing less – our respect,
our thanks, but you also deserve a country that honors your service, not
just with words but with deeds.
That’s why the American Legion is
so critical, working everyday to make sure America lives up to that
standard. I will be doing that work right along beside you if I am given
the great honor to serve as your president and Commander-in-Chief.
Thank you all. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.”
