Lessons from Europe

I just returned from a trip to Europe to meet with several of my counterparts, and want to make an observation about what impressed me most about my visit.

In Berlin, Attorney General Mukasey and I signed an important agreement with Germany to improve information sharing, including information on known and suspected terrorists. While at the Reichstag building, which houses the German parliament, I came across an exhibit depicting the fall of the Berlin Wall. It’s easy to forget that just a short time ago Berlin was literally a divided city – totalitarianism on one side of the wall and democracy on the other. The photo brought to life a historical moment that a lot of people thought would never happen: students standing on top of the breached wall; East German guards looking unsure of themselves as freedom asserted itself before their eyes; and people separated for decades coming together in the streets to celebrate. Seeing the exhibit was an inspiring reminder of the power of freedom over tyranny and how the will of the people, even in the face of tremendous opposition, can lead to monumental change.

In Estonia, I signed an historic agreement with the Interior Minister to put his nation’s citizens on a path to join our Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which will allow them to travel to the United States without first having to get a visa. Several European countries have signed similar agreements with the United States, including the Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Lithuania. In his comments after the signing, the Interior Minister said something that really struck me. He praised the United States and the American people for standing by his country during its darkest days of Soviet occupation. As you may recall, America never recognized the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States. He told me that it was our stand against communism that gave his people hope and inspired him to hold fast to a dream that someday a fleet of white ships from the United States would sail into the Estonian port of Tallinn. Signing the VWP agreement signified to him that the symbolic white fleet had finally arrived, and the United States remains a symbol of hope and freedom for people all over the world.

Finally, I had a chance to visit the tomb of Pope John Paul II in Rome. Aside from being a man of tremendous faith and strength of character, Pope John Paul did as much as anyone to reverse the forces of tyranny. Pope John Paul assumed the papacy at a time when his native country of Poland and other states was still under communist rule. He refused to accept the conventional wisdom that said nothing could be done about it. Instead, he helped set in motion communism’s downfall.

These three things are vivid reminders that taking a so-called “realistic” view of the world does not mean abandoning our efforts to advance the cause of freedom around the world. Thirty years ago, few people would have thought it realistic to believe the Berlin Wall could fall, or that Estonia and other Eastern European nations would be liberated, or that Pope John Paul would help bring about the demise of communism. But these things did happen – and they happened not because people accepted the status quo, but because they held true to their ideals and vision of a better world and they acted upon their beliefs. That is a lesson Europe fought hard to achieve, and it is a lesson we should never forget in the United States

Michael Chertoff