Welcome Remarks
RICHARD HOLBROOKE
Chairman, Asia Society

Welcome Remarks
DR. VISHAKHA N. DESAI
President, Asia Society

Introducing Kissinger
RICHARD HOLBROOKE
Chairman, Asia Society

Keynote Address
DR. HENRY KISSINGER
Chairman, Kissinger Associates

Keynote Address
DAVID ROCKEFELLER

Keynote Address
SENATOR JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV

Keynote Address
CHARLES PERCY ROCKEFELLER
Business Development/New Buyers Group, Sotheby’s, Inc.

Introducing Ross
KOFI ANNAN
UN Secretary-General

Keynote Address
ARTHUR ROSS

RICHARD HOLBROOKE:

Welcome, everybody, to the 50th Anniversary of the Asia Society, and thank you to the students from Staten Island High School for their rendition of Happy Birthday in Mandarin, as taught to them by the Chancellor of the New York School System, Joel Klein, who is with us today. Joel, thank you very much for your effort on that.

We are here tonight on what we all believe at Asia Society is the most important evening we’ve had at Asia Society since John and Blanchette Rockefeller dined alone, and conceived of the idea of this Society. This dinner has been over two years in the making and planning, and in a deeper sense, it’s been in the works since about 1955, when John D. Rockefeller III conceived of the need for this kind of organization. At least one person here tonight, Phillip Talbot, was with them at that time, and we will acknowledge Phil more fully in a moment.

Our evening is divided into two very simple parts. Before the main course, we will honor the legacy of the Rockefeller family, what they’ve done for the Asia Society, for American relations with Asia and the Pacific, and what they’ve done for the City of New York. We will hear from Henry Kissinger, who will talk about the Rockefeller legacy, and our main honorees tonight, David Rockefeller and Senator Jay Rockefeller will join us on stage. After dinner, we will focus on the future, the next fifty years, which I believe build on the original vision and expand it based on changing circumstances, and Vishakha and I will have more to say about that later. We originally had a third part to this dinner, the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice was going to come here tonight to give a major speech on Sino-American Relations, but she is tonight in the United Arab Emirates, and… I suspect she’d rather be here! But she sends her regrets, and promises to speak to Asia Society at a future date. In her place, yesterday, we kicked off the 50th Anniversary year in Washington with the President of the United States. He was introduced by our President, Vishakha Desai, and we have a brief excerpt from his speech, for those of you who did not watch it on television last night, so if you’ll direct your attention to the screen, a brief excerpt from yesterday’s events in Washington.

[VIDEO PLAYS]

And now it is my great pleasure to introduce Madame President, the person who you just saw the President kiss on worldwide television, our great leader, Vishakha Desai.

DR. VISHAKHA N. DESAI:

Good Evening. If President Bush gets one kiss, my Chairman gets at least two! I have to make sure that happens, right? I'm just so thrilled that all of you are here this evening with us. It was indeed a great pleasure to introduce the President yesterday, and he did give a very important speech, a very balanced framing of US relations with both India and Pakistan. And I'm really delighted that it occurred under Asia Society auspices. As you saw, he also framed our anniversary very well.

It really is a thrill to welcome all of you this evening, inaugurating a series of 50th Anniversary events throughout Asia and the United States, and indeed as Richard mentioned, these things have been in the works for years. Not only just the last two years, but they have been in the works since we were founded in 1956. We have big plans, and we really could not have dreamt this big without our amazing chair, Richard Holbrooke. Together, Richard and I share a vision of creating a dynamic future for the Asia Society, an institution which can keep pace with, and help interpret, the surging rise of Asia in global affairs in the 21 st century. Ladies and Gentlemen, I think it’s appropriate for us to make sure that we thank our Chairman, Richard Holbrooke.

[APPLAUSE]

I also want to thank all of you, all 1,200 of you for joining us tonight! We wish we could acknowledge each and every one of you, but forgive us for only mentioning a few. We have three former presidents of the Asia Society with us, who have really made us who we are. I am so proud to build on their legacies, and to walk in their footsteps, so would you please recognize Phil Talbot, Bob Oxnam, and Nick Platt. Please rise.

[APPLAUSE]

Our 50th Anniversary indeed began yesterday, and not just with the President’s speech, but also with the opening of a very special new exhibition, aptly titled, “A Passion for Asia: The Rockefeller Family Collects”, and I want to share with you a few of the images from the exhibition.

As you heard, it’s really the vision of our founder, John D. Rockefeller III, and Blanchette Rockefeller, who really had the passion to begin this institution, and you can see from the images that we have wonderful sculptures that have been in the family collection for a very long time, as well as pieces that have been just recently bought. We have great Buddhist objects, and you will also see some wonderful things, such as this very rare Kimono that is in the Rhode Island School of Museum, especially brought to us, because this was actually in the collection of Lucy Aldridge, the sister of Abby. Each one of these pieces really tell a story about this family’s deep connection to Asia, going back some five generations. We really couldn’t have done this, the exhibition, the dinner, and everything else, without the enthusiastic support and involvement of the family. I want to express my deep gratitude, especially to Senator Jay Rockefeller, and David Rockefeller, for not only being here tonight, but especially for making the exhibition, and the wonderful catalogue that accompanies it, possible.

Neither Abby Aldridge Rockefeller nor her son, John D. Rockefeller III, saw Asia as an exotic destination. Instead, they envisioned a three-dimensional Asia, combining culture, commerce, and current affairs. That vision, linking us to Asian societies, leaders, and institutions is right at the very heart of the Asia Society today, as it has been for fifty years. So quite simply, for all of you from the Rockefeller family, and I know there are many of you here tonight with us, and those who are not with us any longer, especially John and Blanchette, but they’re here in vibrant spirit, I want to express our deepest thanks. And now, you’ll see that what we’re going to do is sort of like a dynamic duo, like the Oscar night, so I'm going to now turn over the microphone again to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Thank you.

RICHARD HOLBROOKE:

Before I introduce Henry Kissinger, I want to also acknowledge several very important people, without whom this evening would be, well, it would be much smaller, not as successful. First of all, we have some honorary chairs here tonight, and I want to acknowledge them: Hushang Ansary, our biggest benefactor tonight. Hushang, would you stand, please? Our two former chairmen, both dear friends of mine for many, many years, Roy Huffington and John Whitehead, and Henry Kissinger, also an honorary chair. Thank you all for helping us.

So many trustees and so many others of you have contributed time and energy and money to make this a success, and I will, at the risk of being too specific, just simply say that we have raised $4.1 million dollars tonight!

[APPLAUSE]

That is more than triple the largest amount that we ever raised, which was last year’s dinner, and so many of you in this room made this possible, and I particularly apologize and express my appreciation to those of you we could not fit in on the ground floor this year. We never had to open up the balconies before, and we did not expect that, so I apologize for those of you who are not on the ground floor.

Our Gala chairs were Charles Rockefeller, Lisina Hoch, and Gina Chu, and those three people, more than anyone else, are the reasons so many others are here tonight. Gina, Lisina, and Charles, thank you so much for your efforts, and I want to especially single you out.

As President Bush made so clear in the excerpt we chose, we were very pleased he picked the 50-year benchmark, which is our benchmark, because it reminds people of what Asia looked like when John D. Rockefeller III conceived of the need for this institution. A brilliant new book called The Rockefeller Legacy, which will be available on sale tomorrow at Asia Society, in both paper and hardback, recounts in some detail, in essays by Phillip Talbot, Nick Platt, Bob Oxnam, and Vishakha, the story of Asia Society, and puts it in the context of the collection. The Rockefellers began with culture, because 11 years after World War II, and three years after the Korean War, Asia represented to Americans disease, overpopulation, war, and poverty. That you must remember. At the time, much of Asia looked to people the way Africa looks today, and many economists thought that the great future of economic growth would be in the Middle East, or in Africa. What Asia did in the last 50 years is astonishing. But the emphasis on culture was very important. Later on this evening, we will be announcing some important initiatives in the policy field, but we do not ever minimize culture, because John D. Rockefeller III, and the rest of us who have been custodians of his vision, all share the belief that culture and international relations between nations are inseparable. And so we celebrate this tremendous change in Asia through culture, while developing more and more efforts in the education field, as symbolized by the students tonight, and in the policy field, which we will discuss later.

The Asia Society during this period has grown enormously. And tonight, as we will talk about later, we are marking a very clear transition to a global institution with a New York headquarters, rather than a New York institution with regional branches. We will introduce the regional branches later, but it is extremely important that we look back at that original vision. It was brilliant, and I believe that if Mr. Rockefeller, who I was privileged to know and who invited me to the Williamsburg Conference in Jakarta in 1972, where I first met him, and got to know him, I believe that his original vision has been sustained and growing within the framework of the changes in Asia, as made so clear by the dramatic presence tonight and in our Society of so many Americans whose ethnic heritage and background are from Asia. The growth is dynamic, and it is exactly what I believe Mr. Rockefeller would have wanted.

To discuss the Rockefeller Legacy, not just John D. Rockefeller III, but the whole family, there really was only one person who could do it, and that was Henry Kissinger. Henry has been a friend of the Rockefeller family as you all know, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, David Rockefeller, and the rest of the family, so many of whom are here tonight, for fifty years. He also has a very strong and deep connection to Asia. We all know that he was the main architect of the historic opening to China, which has resulted in so many positive achievements, and remains one of the most complicated, if not the most complicated, bilateral relationship we have in the world. Henry has been very gracious to join us tonight, and I have no other duty here except to invite to the stage former Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize winner, our friend, Asia Society’s friend, Henry Kissinger.

[APPLAUSE]

DR. HENRY KISSINGER:

Thank you very much, Dick.

How to move a society from where it is to where it has never been? From a familiar present to an unknown future is a challenge that political leaders cannot meet alone. Or perhaps even primarily. Political life imposes its own priorities which often emphasize the urgent at the expense of the important.

For over four generations now, the Rockefeller family has devoted itself to the task of raising our sights to our possibilities. When the Rockefeller Foundation was formed in 1913, its goal was proclaimed as promoting the well-being of mankind. By then, this vast aspiration had already been given substance in philanthropies that had founded the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, Rockefeller University, the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, the General Education Board, and Spellman College. There was one underlying theme to these efforts then, and in the decades since. This was the proposition that great achievements were ideas before they became a reality. It is the Rockefeller tradition to discover and to encourage these ideas when they are still dreams, to treat the Rockefeller patrimony as an opportunity to enhance freedom. To give hope to the oppressed and disadvantaged, and to help their society walk in the paths of justice and compassion. This commitment has been continued in every generation. And each generation contributed not only resources, but participation and personal commitment.

In the Rockefeller generation, I know best the grandchildren of John D. Rockefeller, each of the brothers had a special field of activity. All took pride in the efforts of others, and contributed resources to those efforts through the Rockefeller Brothers’ Fund, and through their personal resources. It would take most of the evening to list all of the projects. To mention just a few: Laurence’s commitment to land conservation and the Memorial Hospital. Nelson’s special studies project to enroll America’s ablest thinkers in a view of the nation’s future. David’s commitment, who has honored us here tonight with his presence, to many projects, but two projects designed to relate democratic societies to each other. The Builderburg conference founded in 1954, for dialogue with Europe, and the trilateral commission, to bring first Japan, and then other Asian countries into a global consideration of our common future, and we are here to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Asia Society, which is a tribute to the imagination and dedication of John III.

Building on the family commitment to Asia that had led to the founding of the Peking University Union Medical College in 1929, and the rebuilding of the library after the Tokyo earthquake, John III traveled to Asia in 1929. He then served with John Foster Dulles, on his negotiation of the Japanese Peace Treaty. He founded the population council to deal with demographic issues, and the agricultural development council, and all this culminated in the Asia Society, which we are celebrating here tonight. In retrospect, all achievements tend to appear inevitable. But in 1956, John D. Rockefeller III’s original conception was pathbreaking. America had no relations with mainland China. Japan was emerging from occupation. Vietnam was not yet a trauma. India was just establishing itself as a presence on the international scene. American foreign policy was focused on Europe and the Cold War. So little was understood of Asia’s potential that even so sophisticated a student of international affairs as John Foster Dulles could give the advice to Japanese leaders that since high-tech industrial and production methods were beyond their reach, Japan should focus its economic development on the less economic sectors that they had traditionally managed. The Asia Society provided a unique, and indispensable forum for Americans to broaden their understanding of Asia, and to bring Asian leaders in all fields into increasing contacts with Americans, and with each other. The significance of the Asia Society was demonstrated by the fact that President Bush selected it as the forum for the major speech prior to his trip to South Asia.

One of the basic themes of the Rockefeller Family has been its appreciation for art and culture. Partly because of individual personal interest, but also because of the role of art in liberating the human spirit. The brothers followed that tradition. David’s commitment was to the Museum of Modern art. Nelson’s to the Museum of Primitive Art, and John III to the museum of the Asia Society. From the first, John III focused many of the Society’s efforts on the cultural field. Under his leadership, the Asia Society became a center for important exhibitions of Asian Art, and in 1972, he and his wife Blanchette pledged their important collections of Asian art masterpieces to the museum of the Asia Society.

Their son, Senator Jay Rockefeller, has continued this tradition. I looked up many of his accomplishments which are widely known. But I may be perhaps permitted to recall that in 1960, Jay had spent three years in Japan to learn the Japanese language, and there was some fear in the Rockefeller Family that he might never come back. But he came back to Harvard, and he wrote an article that deeply moved me at the time, drawn from his experiences in Japan. And I invited him to lunch at the Faculty Club, and for me, his commitment to Asia, and not simply his commitment, his sensitive understanding of the intangibles of Asian culture has been an assurance of continuity in the family, and of an important voice in America for this essential relationship. So the Rockefeller legacy, for four generations, has helped tie Asia and America inextricably together. And both with the rest of the world.

That the center of gravity of world affairs is shifting to Asia is a commonplace by now. But it is often interpreted as a call to Asia to implement American strategic or domestic designs. America is indeed a superpower, but paradoxically, the issues amenable to solution by power alone are shrinking. Asia is part of a global system. It is also the home of nations proud of their history, and of emergent, emerging nations eager and determined to express their identity. The historic task is to contribute to a world order in which the great cultures of Asia come to consider America as a partner in a common destiny based on mutual respect and understanding of each other’s cultures and aspirations. The Rockefeller Family and the Asia Society have made a seminal contribution to this important task, and the Asia Society is sure to become even more pivotal in the decades ahead.

Winston Churchill once said, “There are periods in history where it is not enough to do one’s best. Sometimes we have to do what is required.” For nearly a century, the Rockefeller family has encouraged our society to do its best, and inspired us toward what is required. And we are here to thank them for this contribution to our country, and to the world.

Now, I know that a number of the members of the family are here who would like to say a few words. So let me call on David to take the floor. David.

DAVID ROCKEFELLER:

Thank you, Henry, my dear friend, for those wonderful remarks about our family, and I think that all of us in the family who are here this evening, and happily, there are quite a number, would share with me a feeling of gratitude to you for your friendship to us as a family, but more importantly for what you’ve done for our country at a time in the world when, it seems to me, there is a dearth of leadership; when there’s never been a greater need for it, Henry Kissinger is one of those who I think has provided it, and who has given us all a sense of where we should be going.

[APPLAUSE]

My family and I are very grateful indeed to the Asia Society for the great honor that you have given all the members of our family this evening, and Senator Jay Rockefeller, my distinguished nephew is happily here with us this evening, and he and I in particular are happy to be able to represent the family on this happy occasion.

I do want to thank particularly Ambassador Dick Holbrooke, my old friend, for his kind words, and for sharing this evening, Vishakha Desai, the president of the Society, who has built it into the wonderful organization that it is, and is largely responsible for the wonderful exhibition that I hope most of you have seen. And to my old friend Hushang Ansary who I knew and worked with closely during the sad and difficult days when the Shah of Iran was having very sad and difficult problems. He’s a wonderful friend and a wonderful man.

But my special appreciation goes out to the members of the Asia Society staff who helped organize this really remarkable evening, and who have worked so hard to produce the magnificent exhibition now on display at the Asia Society. If there are any of you who have not already seen it, I hope you will, because I think you will enjoy it. It’s very well done.

My family ties with Asia go back a long way. Perhaps the thing that I remember most as a child was when my parents went to China, to dedicate the Peking Union Medical College, and that was back in 1921, I'm afraid that reveals a little bit how old I must be, but it was a very special event. When they came back, they brought clothes that people wore in China, which seemed so strange and different, and they brought back tales of China, which I enjoyed hearing them talk about. My mother’s deep interest in Asian art began perhaps as a result of that trip. Of course, among other things, she collected a wonderful assembly of sculpture and other objects for the beautiful garden that we have in Seal Harbor, Maine. My parents also brought back from that trip all kinds of interesting things from China, works of art, and more simple things, like the shoes that you have to put your big toe between the shoe and the rest of the object. They also brought back a love of Asia, and a love that was transmitted, I think, to all of our family.

My brother John took a trip around the world in 1929 with James G. Macdonald, who was the head of the Foreign Policy Association, and that brought him in touch with many Asian leaders at the time, and I think, really played an important role in his ongoing and major interest in international affairs, but particularly in Asia. Then of course John, at the end of World War II, made a trip as an assistant to John Foster Dulles, our Secretary of State, when he went in 1950 to work out the peace treaty with Japan. I didn’t visit China, I mean, any of Asia, really, until the 1960s, but having heard a lot from my family, I was delighted to do so, and was pleased that ever since then, I’ve been making frequent trips there. Ever since, for example, I had the good fortune to meet in 1973 with Prime Minister Zhou En-lai and subsequently with Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin in connection with the Trilateral Commission.

In any event, although members of my family have visited Asia over the years, and have fostered and played a better understanding and encouraged fundamental change, I think there are few who did so more effectively than John and Blanchette, my brother and sister-in-law. They left behind an extraordinary legacy: the magnificent collection of Asian art, which I hope many of you will have a chance to see while it is here at the Asia Society, and a group of institutions, most notably the Population Council and the Agricultural Development Council, now part of Winrock International, and have helped create the policies that drove the economic and political modernization of many countries in East Asia. As Chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1951 to 1972, John played, I think, an important role in guiding the interests of the Foundation to the development of technologies and techniques which led to the Green Revolution, as it was called, the development of agriculture in Asia, and that’s proved to have had an enormous impact. I'm very proud of my brother John’s role in that. John also played a key role in the establishment of the Asia Society in 1956. It was an institution where the rich and diverse cultures of Asia could be studied and appreciated, and where friendships could be nurtured into enduring relationships. He was fortunate to have a wonderful wife, Blanchette, who shared his interests, and who particularly helped him expand on the arts of Asia. Of course, I'm sure those of you who have had a chance to visit the Asia Society exhibition at the present time will appreciate what they did.

In any event, on behalf of my entire family, I just want to thank all of you connected with the Asia Society for the great honor that has been bestowed on us, for coming here this evening, and for granting me the opportunity to greet you, and express my profound thanks.

[APPLAUSE]

SENATOR JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV:

Good evening. The first thing I would like to do is to extend my profound thanks to the Waldorf Astoria for this superb podium. It moves neither up nor down, and I have no choice myself. Understanding my profound appreciation not only to Uncle David, but to the entire Asia Society family, and to what it is I will say about my mother and my father, I want to take just a bit of a different tact.

Sandra Mackie, in a book on Iraq which was written before the war, said the following. “In August of 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the media turned its pages and airtime over to Saddam Hussein. Ever since it has been Hussein, not Iraq, on whom Americans and their leaders have riveted their attention. But the time is fast approaching when the United States, for a series of perilous reasons, will be forced to look beyond Hussein to Iraq itself. That is when all Americans will pay the price for what has been a long night of ignorance about the land between the rivers.”

Now, to some, Sandra Mackie tells us what we already know about ourselves, and generally about our people: that we are episodic in our attention, that we are captivated, usually to our own detriment, by dramatic, tragic events, figures, we focus for a few days, a few weeks, a few months, and then something else comes along and we pass on. But that is not the way it is in Asia. Or in Africa, or the Middle East and across the world. So just a few quick examples. It was 53 years ago that the United States and the United Kingdom worked their way to overthrow the Prime Minister of Iran, Mossadegh. When you bring that up in a conversation these days, people say, “Who?” But that was 53 years ago. To understand Iran, you must understand that for Iranians, this event happened last night. It is of the moment. It defines us even for what we did so many years ago.

Indonesia. We are moved by the tragedy of the Tsunami, we take sharp account of the bombings that took place in Bali and elsewhere, but we have not yet come, really, to understand the size of its population, the fact that it has the largest Muslim population in the world, and that it is the spiritual home of Jamaa Islamia, which is not working in our interests. And so what to do about that?

I think about Afghanistan, and thirteen and fourteen and fifteen year old young teenagers, who come down from the heights of Afghanistan to take a job working in garbage dumps, in the western part of Pakistan, and they do that because there is nothing where they are, there is no opportunity, there’s no job, there’s no hope, and the word has come back that if you go down, yes, you may have your feet cut, and you may die of some unbelievable diseases, but at the end of each day, there is a hot meal at a madrassah school. Now, there are some 20,000 madrassah schools in Pakistan, and the majority of them in teaching of the Koran do so in a way which is moderate, but there are some that do not teach that way, and so in that way, through their own intuition, their own decision making, young people turn from those who are trying to survive to those who are taught perhaps to hate and to take action upon that.

China. Richard Holbrooke mentioned it’s very complicated. And China, I find, for my purposes, at least, it’s so important to know its history, and if you don’t know its history, it’s very difficult to know what it is that they might become, or what it is that they feel, what their emotions are, what their passions are. To understand when the greater British East India Company came and introduced opium, and then produced opium, and took large portions of the Chinese population, including many of their intellectuals, from their superb Confucian civil service task class, which ran a very unstable China based upon merit, but without a foundation throughout the large boundaries of that nation, and many people were addicted. That was a gift. It made a lot of money for the British. It didn’t do the Chinese any good, and they have not forgotten it. Or the Boxer Rebellion. Or the May Fourth Movement. That’s a little more recent: the question of the treaty ports. Where different countries from Asia and Western Europe and America came and said to a very weak Ching Dynasty, we will take over this part of your country, and you will sign agreements with us, and we will trade as we will. And that is the way it will be. The Ching Dynasty didn’t have either the modern armaments or anything else to do anything about that, but it created a feeling. It developed, actually, further, into something called extraterritoriality. Which meant that if you did something for the Dutch, or the Germans, then it automatically applied to all other ports and all other countries in all other parts of China. The May Fourth Movement was born out of the matters of Shandong Province, and Woodrow Wilson went back on his commitment to the Chinese and the Chinese lost Shandong Province. He had said he would keep it for them. That was at the Treaty of Versailles. At the conclusion of the Second World War. My point only is that China was humiliated by the West and by the East, and at least part of our understanding of the way China develops and what it will be in the future is to understand that they will never forget that.

Now, are these examples important? And what do they teach us, and what can we know? Without knowing history and without knowing geography, and without knowing religion, and without knowing sociology, without knowing people, to find out how it is that people come to where they are, by what combination of good and evil have they been led to what it is they do...

And so to my father and to my mother and to the Asia Society, my father loved Asia, and my mother, like few people that I can imagine. I think they went, I'm not sure of this, but I think they went for 40 consecutive years to Asia, usually for about two months, to every country, many times. And filled their days seeing every part of the country that they possibly could. I don’t know if my father were with us today if he would have foreseen the growth of terrorism around the world. I doubt it. But he was so prescient in understanding, long before it was fashionable, how important it is for the peoples of the world to understand one another, and to deal with each other in honorable ways. And Asia was always his focus, always his focus, and always my mother’s focus. And he did it in the right way, as has been mentioned, he did the population council, he just started that back in 1953 at a time when people were wondering what was going on, because he understood that he was breaking new ground in recognizing the population explosion as a precursor of the eventual disintegration of people’s lives. It’s called poverty. Poverty. I'm very proud of him because he personally caused, vigorously fought for it, and I would say caused, the reopening of the Japan Society in New York City, right here, right after the end of the Second World War. It had existed before, it had obviously stopped, and he felt it was really important that it be started again quickly, and he did that. And there were those who were critics, but what he did was right.

He founded the Asian Cultural Council, and of course, the Asia Society, which was triumphal. I remember even when they were trying to design the lion, and pick out the color of the stone on that building. I'm so proud of what my father did for founding the Asia Society. He framed for all of us the value of developing knowledge about the world and its people. And not just basic, factual knowledge. He pushed us to possess a depth of knowledge refined to intuition from which sound judgements and policies can indeed emerge. We need that intuition today more than ever. If he were with us now, I think my father would suggest that matters of military deployment, and matters of intelligence gathering are crucial, but that they alone will not instruct us to face the long engagement before us. There is no clear, infallible path to achieving that goal. Yet we must, we begin, and we persevere, because we have no choice. Because otherwise, we make catastrophic mistakes, and because we are fascinated, and this I end on, because we are absolutely fascinated by how it is that people develop. We are enthralled by that. How it is that as you move into different countries and their histories, and you read about them, and you travel, or if you become for example, a Peace Corps volunteer, why is it that two thirds of the tens of thousands of the alumni of Peace Corps volunteers are working in public service? Not necessarily politics. But teaching, social work, health care, all kinds of work that helps people. It’s because when you go to another country and you immerse yourself in it, if you have that opportunity, you see your own country and you see yourself in ways that you could have never imagined. So we must understand, we must seek that knowledge as best we can. My father and my mother would want that. The Asia Society, thank god, leads us in that effort, and I am grateful. Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

CHARLES PERCY ROCKEFELLER:

At the very least I can say that that’s quite a panel of speakers for me to follow. There’s a series of events in early June that the Asia Society puts on called “ Asia on My Mind”, and I think that this term applies especially well to my father. His experiences in Asia have very much formed his drive and ambition in the Senate, and he brings a great deal of wealth of knowledge to that. The various political seasons, as we all know, do come and go. But what he has learned is a great drive and motivating force in his life there. He brings to the Senate a unique blend of knowledge from Asia, as well as from New York and West Virginia. Although he’s too modest to say it, but he has studied and nearly mastered the Chinese and Japanese languages.

It’s a great honor for me to stand on this stage, and especially to have a chance to serve as a trustee of the Asia Society, and to learn from all the trustees, as well as from Vishakha, and everyone else I’ve had the pleasure to meet at the Asia Society, and especially tonight, it’s very humbling to realize the clairvoyance and foresight that my grandfather had 50 entire years ago to found this institution, this template from which we can all learn and from which we’ll all benefit for the next fifty years as well. As the junior speaker tonight, it is my responsibility to be brief. So I wanted to note that while there have been many, many high points in my father’s experiences with Asia, there was one rather very low point, which I should describe. This moment was captured in a photograph I once saw of him engaged—well, he he was in his early-20s in Japan, and was engaged in a full shoulder to shoulder griplock with a large sumo wrestler! I should note that both athletes wore a mawashi, which is the traditional belt worn in competition. I’ll just let that image settle into your minds for a moment. I tried to think of a flattering way to describe my father in this photograph, stayed up all night doing it. All I could come up with was that this was a very innovative way to integrate yourself into the culture! His coach told him the next day that that one match marked the very beginning and end of his career as a sumo wrestler. Fortunately he’s gone on to do many other great things, and perhaps in ten years from tonight, at the sixtieth anniversary, we’ll display the photograph on these large screens for you. Thanks very much for your time. Have a nice evening.

[APPLAUSE]

KOFI ANNAN:

Good evening. It is indeed a pleasure to be able to join you, and be part of this magnificent celebration of Asia Society’s 50th Anniversary. Over the past half century, the Asia Society has more than fulfilled the original mission of its founder, that of deepening understanding amongst the peoples of Asia and the United States. Judging by what has been unveiled tonight, I think we can look forward to an even more exciting future for this visionary organization. I congratulate all of you, especially your chairman, your president, for your leadership.

Tonight, the Asia Society is announcing a remarkable new center devoted to US Chinese relations. This fully funded facility addresses a relationship of truly global proportions and unique strategic importance. Efforts such as yours are invaluable to the United Nations, and as secretary general, I'm here to convey my appreciation. But I'm also here for another reason. The benefactor and inspiration behind the new center is not only one of Asia Society’s greatest benefactors, but he’s also one of my dearest friends, Arthur Ross. Arthur is a great ally of the UN, a great philanthropist, and a remarkable individual. Among his many accomplishments, he often shoots a golf score lower than his age. I'm told it gets easier when you’re over 90! Arthur and his wonderful wife Janet, are in Jamaica tonight. Before they left, Arthur taped a few brief remarks about his vision for Asia Society. Let’s listen to him.

ARTHUR ROSS:

The Asia Society, if we didn’t have it as they say, we’d have to invent it!

I so admired John D. Rockefeller III when he first started this as a great cultural exchange on 65th Street. Then we moved to where we are today on 70th Street. At the beginning, of course, there was the cultural aspect of the Asia Society that caught my attention. I think I did give them a 12 th century Cambodian figure. They were headquarters for the exchange of cultural ideas with ourselves and with China, there was no place else to go.

Then we gradually developed a policy dimension, as these economic aspects became more and more significant, and so at this particular point in my relationship with the Society, it seemed appropriate to have a particular center dealing with the most important development in Asia. And so this idea of a US-China center. It’s a facility to promote relationships and to understand both sides of the problem. And therefore by having a center embedded in the culture, and working on economic problems in that atmosphere, all goes well for what we can accomplish.