Speech

Toast by Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli
U.S. Embassy's 2008 July 4th Reception

Phnom Penh
July 4, 2008

Two hundred years ago our second president, John Adams, predicted that July 4th would “be celebrated … with parades, music, games … and fireworks from one end of the continent to the other."  And so tonight we will celebrate.  Indeed, this is a double celebration: the birthday of the world’s oldest democracy and our growing friendship with one of the world’s youngest nascent democracies, Cambodia. 

That we do these two things this July is especially fortuitous since later this month Cambodia will hold its own elections.  Some complain democracy in Cambodia still has many problems, but what democracy does not?  Cambodia’s problems are those of any fledgling democracy: ensuring stability while expanding freedom, safeguarding the fairness of the process, providing open access to the media, and especially making sure that no one feels intimidated or alienated.  Do all these things need to be improved in Cambodia?  Of course.  But is Cambodia improving?  Are Cambodians freer now than a decade ago?  Are they happier, more secure, more confident about their future?  Again, the answer is yes.  Democracies, like any other living thing, must be nurtured in order to prosper and grow.

America, being an older democracy, does not have the same problems as Cambodia, but it still has challenges.  Again, I am reminded of John Adams, who also made a very disturbing prediction:  “Remember,” he warned, “there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.  The jaws of power are always open to devour….The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man with power."  America is the most powerful country the world has ever known.  As Lincoln observed: “America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”  We only need fear our own impulse to sacrifice freedom when freedom is inconvenient.  Cartoon notions of freedom and comic book definitions of good and evil only erode, not bolster, the spirit of 1776 that today we celebrate.

Two hundred and thirty-two years ago on this day every tyrant was put on notice that the world was not going to operate as it had in the past.  Every tyranny “over the mind of men,” as Jefferson put it, would no longer be tolerated.  Fear, insecurity, apathy — these are the great threats to freedom and the secret weapons of every tyranny.  Whenever our freedom has been threatened—the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the Espionage Act of 1917, the McCarthy hearings in the 1950’s—the threat always comes wrapped in the American flag and smelling like apple pie.  Against these threats stands the true spirit of July 4, 1776.  A spirit that upholds the dignity of every man and woman, that cherishes freedom, law, and justice, and that calls on us all to throw off our fears and our hatreds and live in the freedom God bestowed on us all.

So tonight, we raise our glasses and salute the friendship of our two countries and our two peoples.  We pray for peace and justice, and we pray for the long life and health of his Royal Highness King Sihamoni, for the security and stability of the government of Cambodia, and for the health and prosperity of all the Cambodian people.