Revisiting Walter Cronkite and Hillary Clinton's call for global government

1999 remarks to World Federalists

May 24, 2005
RenewAmerica staff

In the current debate over the Bush administration-backed (and aptly named) LOST treaty--a proposal that would divest the United States of much of its sovereignty and strength upon the high seas--Americans are learning more about the World Federalist Association, whose members have had significant influence in framing world government, and LOST in particular.

In October 1999, former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton addressed the society at the United Nations building in New York, where Cronkite received the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award.

Below are links that are worth exploring--and re-examining--about the involvement of Cronkite and Hillary in the growing movement to establish a “global democracy,” a plan that would make all nations subordinate to a world court, a world legislative body, and a world executive.

The global federation would include a global standing army and global taxation.

In his speech, Cronkite stressed that the creation of a world federation of this kind will require the United States to give up some of its sovereignty--much as America’s individual states did at the time of the founding of our country.

The following are excerpts from Cronkite’s remarks (with emphasis added):

“Those of us who are living today can influence the future of civilization. We can influence whether our planet will drift into chaos and violence, or whether through a monumental educational and political effort we will achieve a world of peace under a system of law where individual violators of that law are brought to justice. . . . “

“While we spend much of our time and a great deal of our treasure in preparing for war, we see no comparable effort to establish a lasting peace. Meanwhile, . . . those advocates who work for world peace by urging a system of world government are called impractical dreamers. Those impractical dreamers are entitled to ask their critics what is so practical about war.”

“It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict, we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace.”

“To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That would be a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order.”

“But the American colonies did it once and brought forth one of the most nearly perfect [federal] unions the world has ever seen.”

First Lady Hillary Clinton introduced Cronkite to the group, hailing him for "inspiring all of us to build a more peaceful and just world."

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