Brzezinski honored for championing Ukrainian cause (04/23/00)

Brzezinski honored for championing Ukrainian cause

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, one of America's leading political scientists and strategists, was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree from the Ukrainian Free University for championing Ukraine's cause for more than 40 years, as well as for his scholarly endeavors and efforts in behalf of human rights, world peace and prosperity.

The presentation by the Munich-based institution took place April 13, during a special ceremony at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington.

Accepting the scroll and hood from UFU Rector Leonid Rudnytzky, Dr. Brzezinski recounted the important role the Ukrainian Free University and the diaspora played in preserving Ukraine's national consciousness and Western identity through the years of Soviet rule, and he called on the new leadership of Ukraine to assert its historic place within Europe and Western civilization.

"For if Ukraine is to be a successful state - if it is to be a successful state, because in all frankness we cannot yet say it is a successful state - it has to be part of the Western community, because then it is part of something that reflects its own inner spirit and identity; it is true to itself," Dr. Brzezinski said.

He stressed that Ukraine is "part of Europe and Western civilization." He added, "It is not a Eurasian state; it is not part of some strange, often politically exploited, Slavic idea. It is a historic nation, with deep roots in the Western civilization - partakes of it and contributes to it."

When Ukrainians ask themselves how they would like to see Ukraine in 20 years, Dr. Brzezinski said, "I hope most Ukrainians both realize and yearn that the answer be clear: Ukraine in the European Union, Ukraine in the Atlantic Alliance."

"And membership in the Western community involves a set of principles and of procedures, and modes of conduct that define the essence of the state and of the society which the state is supposed to serve," he added.

Not all Ukrainians are prepared to make that choice or realize the consequences of these choices, he said. Indeed, some would rather Ukraine follow the Belarus example. "And the implication of that is not positive - neither for Ukraine's national consciousness nor its Western identity," he said.

"So the decisions, the fundamental choices, still have to be made," Dr. Brzezinski said.

(The full transcript of Dr. Brzezinski's remarks appear on this page.)

Presenting the honoree, UFU Rector Emeritus Miroslaw Labunka recounted Prof, Brzezinski's contributions in academia, in government and in advancing the Ukrainian cause before and since it became independent.

Dr. Brzezinski had an "undeniable positive impact" on the conduct of U.S. foreign affairs, he said. "One could only wish that his advice would have been heeded more often."

Born in Warsaw in 1928, Dr. Brzezinski received his BA and MA degrees in economics and political science from McGill University in Canada and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1953. He was a professor and scholar at Harvard, Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities, and served as national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981.

He authored many articles and books on political science and foreign policy, especially toward the former Soviet Union and China, among them the "The Grand Failure: the Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century," published in 1989, which Dr. Labunka characterized as an important, "prophetic" work.

Dr. Brzezinski received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981 and Ukraine's highest award, the Order of Merit, First Class, in 1996. He has received honorary degrees from numerous universities, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves on the boards of numerous public and private institutions.

Noting the honoree's long-established interest in Ukrainian affairs, Dr. Labunka recalled his lecture at the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in New York in 1956, following his trip to the Soviet Union. During this presentation, he pointed out. Dr. Brzezinski stated - "very much in contradiction with the prevailing opinion of the then-professional Kremlinologists" - that Ukrainians would retain their national identity despite repression by the totalitarian, Russian-dominated regime.

Dr. Labunka pointed out that this "prophet of hope" to Ukrainians has been involved in Ukrainian affairs in numerous ways, among them, chairing the American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee, working with the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, successfully negotiating, as President Carter's advisor, the release of imprisoned Ukrainian dissident Valentyn Moroz in 1979.

In a foreword to "The Chornovil Papers" in 1968, Dr. Brzezinski stressed the political importance of the nationality problem in the Soviet Union and the possibility that increased literary ferment and national self-assertion in Ukraine might lead to some as-yet-unpredictable momentous changes.

"Indeed, they led - as he indicated in one of his most recent books, "The Grand Chessboard" (1997) - to the implosion and fragmentation of the Soviet Union and to the independence of Ukraine," Dr. Labunka said.

Recognizing independent Ukraine's important role in maintaining stability and security in Europe, Dr. Labunka said, Dr. Brzezinski "has been most supportive - in word and deed," of its national institutions and democratization process.

Opening the special ceremony at the Ukrainian Embassy, U.S. Federal Claims Court Judge Bohdan A. Futey noted the absence of Ambassador Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, who on short notice had to depart for Kyiv to participate in meetings there with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.

Natalia Gryshchenko, the ambassador's wife, was among those who attended the ceremony, as were former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, William Green Miller and his wife, Suzanne Miller.

FOR THE RECORD: Remarks by Zbigniew K. Brzezinski

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