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Cleland
comes (almost) home to Oxford: Invoking Teddy Roosevelt, U.S. Sen. Max
Cleland (D-Ga.) said the best defense policy for America continues to
be “walk softly and carry a big stick” in his address at Oxford
College for the Samuel W. Mills Peace Lecture, March 2 in Allen Memorial
Church.
“Speaking
of small communities, I grew up in one not far from here,” said Cleland,
who hails from nearby Lithonia. Cleland said he thought Emory “was
too big for me” coming out of high school, so he decided to attend
Stetson University in Florida, though after his undergraduate work he
did come to Emory to earn a master’s in American history.
Cleland, a Vietnam
veteran and member of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, used the Mills Lecture as a forum to express his views
on range of defense issues, including the dangers of fundamentalist groups
around the world and President George W. Bush’s expressed desire
to design—and deploy—a missile defense system. He also talked
about how the people of countries are often drawn involuntarily into war—such
as happened in Vietnam, he said—invariably to unimaginable costs.
“After being
wounded in Vietnam, I spent a year-and-a-half in military and [Veterans
Administration] hospitals, and there I saw the cost of war as few people
get a chance to see it,” said Cleland, who lost both his legs and
his right arm in a grenade explosion. “I’ll tell you, it will
make you a fervent disciple for peace.” Photo by Ann Borden.
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