In his [Dwight Eisenhower] Farewell Address as President, on January 17, 1961, he declared: "We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease, and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love."

From almost anyone else, that would be pie-in-the-sky optimism, but from the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, World War II, it was the American Spirit, clearly enunciated. Someday it will happen. My faith is based on what happened in Japan, Germany, and South Korea after World War II, and what is happening today in Bosnia. The American Spirit. By no means are we as a people all that special, or all-embracing, but we are part of a country that outshines those that have gone before us and most of those in existence today. I realize that sounds like some politician talking. I'm no politician. I am an historian who has learned through a lifetime of studying that nothing in the world beats universal education, women's rights, freedom of religion, democracy, an openness to all ethnic groups, the will to admit that terrible mistakes have been made -- slavery, imperialism, segregation -- and determination to correct those mistakes.