"What you have to remember," former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger said to the students sitting around the table with him, "is that 9/11 changed everything."
Berger, national security advisor to former President Bill Clinton and architect of the majority of the Clinton White House's foreign policy strategy, joined a group of Tufts seniors yesterday to discuss the role of foreign policy in the current presidential primary campaigns.
He was the latest guest of Alan Solomont's senior political science seminar, "Decision '08," which follows the race for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations. Solomont, a Tufts alumnus and trustee well-connected in Democratic politics, invites a high-profile guest to join student presenters each week - not to teach the class or to lecture it, but to join it for an afternoon.
Berger was the fourth guest this semester and followed former Vermont Gov. and current Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean, prominent Democratic fundraiser Bob Farmer and former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.
Seniors Daniel Scarvalone, Leslie Stephenson and Alex Gladstein, who are students in the class, presented and briefed the class on the role of foreign policy in presidential candidacies before Berger joined in the discussion.
Solomont brought in the right man.
Best-known for his role as national security advisor to Clinton during the president's second term, Berger was a key player in the administration's peace effort in the Balkans and policy of engagement with China. He was the deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs during Clinton's first term.
"There has been no individual more at the center of shaping American foreign policy in the past two decades than Sandy Berger," Solomont told the class in his brief introduction.
Berger talked about the salience of foreign policy as a campaign issue, beginning with the 1972 George McGovern campaign, on which he worked as a 27-year-old aide.
As an opponent of the Vietnam War, McGovern was seen as soft on defense. According to Berger, that perception became associated with the Democratic Party as a whole, where it has stayed ever since.
"Up through 1972, there was a broad consensus about American foreign policy: contain the Soviet Union and stay strong on defense. So it hasn't been a dominant issue in the last few cycles," he said. "But that landscape is being transformed by the Iraq war. The American people have pivoted on Iraq, and the party that will get us out sooner is likely to do better."
With 35 percent of respondents in a Sept. 9 Washington Post-ABC News Poll citing Iraq as the most important issue in the upcoming election, and the war becoming more unpopular by the day, Berger believes it is not only the most salient foreign policy issue on the table, but thinks it will be the deciding factor in the election. He believes that the American people are looking for a new rhetoric and new course of action.
"I tell people, there are three issues in the '08 campaign: Iraq, Iraq and Iraq," he said. "The whole argument of trying to advance democracy in the world took a pretty bad hit in Iraq. People are skeptical about United States trying to transform the world."
According to Berger, candidates of both parties are attempting to distinguish their plans from the others and to distance themselves, in varying degrees, from the Bush administration. He said the Democrats may be able to gain some ground on the national security issue with the failing public support for Iraq.
According to Berger, this election will be a good opportunity for Democrats to shed the "soft on defense" label and carve out some space in the "strong leadership" category to which he credits Bush's victory in 2004.
"That's a good characterization of where the politics have been: Democrats on diplomacy and Republicans on defense. But into that mixture, you have to throw Iraq," he said. "Americans want diplomacy, not war.
"I still think people are looking at character, but through the Iraq prism, they tend to see character as who will respond to the challenges, rather than just who's tougher, which is was it was [in 2004]," he continued.
While students were more than happy to let Berger share what he knows - Solomont called him "the most influential national security advisor since Henry Kissinger" - the exchange went both ways. Scarvalone, Stephenson and Gladstein led the class through recent polling data, historical evidence and profiles of the leading candidates' foreign policy r?©sum?©, with input from Berger.
Scarvalone broke down a graph that showed three lines: one heading upward, showing increasing support for a rigid timeline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq; one heading downward, showing the failing faith of many Americans in the war effort; and a small line on the bottom for those with no opinion.
Berger jumped up from his chair.
"See, Republicans are running for these people," he said, pointing to the middle line. "And Democrats have their eyes on these people up here. [The parties] are aiming at different constituencies, and you can see it right here."
Berger answered questions about Richardson's low polling levels, Clinton's action on the 1991-92 Haitian refugee crisis and comparisons between the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the current situation in Darfur.
Berger laid out a "lesson learned" from two campaigns and eight years on the Clinton foreign policy team that tied directly into the class' theme.
"Campaigns are very bad times to make foreign policy," he said. "Candidates are trying to appeal to constituencies, and they get pulled to extremes ... which isn't where you want to be down the road when you're trying to govern. Campaigns can drive you to illogical and counterproductive positions."
Berger raised the stakes of the 2008 election.
"The [winner of] the '08 election ... will inherit the most daunting set of challenges of any president since FDR inherited the Depression," Berger said, citing the dual war fronts of Afghanistan and Iraq, a Middle East in turmoil, nuclear concerns in Iran and North Korea and the slipping image of the United States among other nations.
"Distrust for the United States in the world is greater than it has ever been; [we're seen] as part of the problem, not part of the solution."
Berger's presence, fourth in a star-studded lineup of upcoming guest speakers that will include Dick Gephardt, former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Democratic strategist Mark Mellman, offers students a Washington insider's insight.
"We're often taught to separate campaign politics from national security, but Sandy Berger taught us to merge them and see one from the perspective of the other," senior Josh Wolf said. "As a poli sci major, you spend three and a half years talking about politics and learning about political theories. Now, for one of my last classes at Tufts, I get to see the people that are making the decisions based on those theories."
