This generation's response to foreign policy issues, and particularly terrorism, will define it for all time, U.S. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., (D-Del.) told the University of Delaware's Class of 2004 during Commencement exercises.
"How we Americans define our new role in the world will affect your daily lives," Biden, a 1965 UD graduate whose class exited campus to a war in Vietnam and a bloody civil rights struggle on American streets, said. "You are required to become informed participants in the debate about what that role should be. But, regardless of whether you become informed participants or not, you will be greatly affected."
The debate in the 1960s centered on the doctrine of the containment of communism and how that applied to Southeast Asia, Biden said, and the debate today centers on the doctrine of military force and unilateralism espoused by neo-conservative intellectuals in the fight against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
"In my view," he said, "the 'wise men' of both our graduation days were and are wrong. Unilateralism is no more applicable to fighting terror than the doctrine of containment was to stopping communism in Southeast Asia. Both were born out of wrongly applied lessons, and both were the product of intellectual arrogance."
Both generations leave campus to a world of complexity, confusion and danger, he said. "We wondered, as I know you must wonder, for different--if no less compelling--reasons, if we would have a chance to fulfill our hopes and aspirations," Biden said. "I know that you are very much, as we were in 1968, anxious about the future and dismayed by uncertainty, wanting to do well and wanting to do good, and unsure about the chances of doing either."
Images, often stark images, define people individually and generationally, he said, noting that one of the most compelling images from the 1960s was that of the young Vietnamese girl, Kim Phuc [who spoke at UD in April], who had been burned in a napalm bomb blast.
For this generation, Biden said, the world began in many ways during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the images created both during the attack and in its aftermath.
Biden encouraged the graduates to be defined not by such images but by their degrees, their days at UD and a thirst for knowledge and justice. "Let it be about a generation
that thrives on discovery, exploration, invention and tolerance, a generation that wants to know everything there is to know, see everything there is to see, build everything there is
to build, because you are resourceful, committed, curious and courageous, because you believe in your capacity to do more and to do it better," he said.
Addressing the current war in Iraq, Biden encouraged the graduates to question the assumptions of leaders who promote unilateralism just as a previous generation questioned those leaders who promoted the doctrine of containment.
Crafting a satisfactory resolution to the problems in Iraq is necessary and within our means, Biden said, adding it is the only fitting tribute to the American service men and women who have been killed and wounded there.
Biden ended his speech by quoting poet Seamus Heaney, who wrote:
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.
"I believe in you," Biden said.
Howard E. Cosgrove, BE '70M, who chairs UD's Board of Trustees, conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree upon Biden at the ceremony.
"Through years of dedicated service, you have earned recognition and respect as one of the most valued voices on national security and civil liberties, and you have gained national and international acclaim as a policy innovator and advocate on a wide range of important issues. You have served the nation and the world with an inspiring sense of duty and honor," Cosgrove said.
"This is a high honor and a great privilege," Biden said, "and, obviously, they didn't look at my grade point index."
Biden earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware in 1965 and since has maintained close ties with his alma mater. He was inducted into the Alumni Wall of Fame in 1984.
--Neil Thomas, AS '76