U.N. Ambassador Denounces Isolationism

Isolationism is at a 70-year high in the United States and threatens the country with disaster, United Nations Ambassador Madeleine Albright told Peace Corps veterans Saturday.

“It may be reassuring … to pretend that what happens far from our shores does not matter, but the truth is that it does matter when America takes the lead in supporting the peacemakers over the bomb throwers” around the world, she said, mentioning Northern Ireland, the Middle East, the Balkans and Haiti.

An appeal by Albright to kill and bury what she called the “cancer” of isolationism drew frequent applause from the Peace Corps veterans celebrating the 35th anniversary of the volunteer overseas service organization.

She said she was cutting short her Peace Corps appearance to respond to a last-minute White House request to appear in Miami’s Orange Bowl stadium at a memorial for four Cuban exiles whose planes were shot down by the Cuban air force a week ago. The Peace Corps, with 7,000 volunteers now serving in 94 countries, enjoys bipartisan political support, but current threats to U.S. international activism mean its future is not assured, Albright said.

Peace Corps Director Mark D. Gearan used the occasion to reject the idea that the government allow itself the use of Peace Corps volunteers, journalists and missionaries for covert intelligence work.