Political Quotes

“I would like now to take this opportunity to clarify some misconceptions that have arisen regarding NED and its work over the years. Two of those misconceptions are contained in the report accompanying the bill we are now debating. The report states that, because NED was created to support democratic movements behind the Iron Curtain, it is no longer needed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, NED was never intended to be a cold war institution. In Ronald Reagan's speech that helped launch the Endowment, he offered the following vision of NED: . . . To foster the infrastructure of democracy--the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities-- which allows a people to choose their own way, to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means. He referred to the work of Western European parties assisting counterpart institutions and of the foundation looking into ``how the United States can best contribute as a nation to the global campaign for democracy now gathering force.'' It is true that the Endowment supported Solidarity and other dissidents behind the Iron Curtain. But that represented a small percentage of its funding. In fact, in the early years of the Endowment, approximately half of its funds went to support the growing democratic movements in Latin America.…”