-Caveat Lector-
TOASTS TO TRILATERAL COMMISSION FOUNDER
AND HONORARY CHAIRMAN
DAVID ROCKEFELLER
on the occasion of
the U.S. Group's 25th Anniversary Evening
December 1, 1998
GEORGES BERTHOIN
Former European Chairman, The Trilateral Commission
So, happy birthday, Trilateral Commission! Thank you, David, for
having been such a thoughtful and
vigilant father. To both, I want to convey the good wishes,
congratulations, and gratitude of your
European colleagues.
Twenty-five years ago, David, you gathered around your avant-garde
idea, with Zbig Brzezinski and
George Franklin, a group of creative thinkers, open-minded business
and trade-union leaders, and
forward-looking politicians. Before it became, as it is today, an
accepted, even if more and more
complex, fact of international life, all of them -- all of us --
recognized the importance of creating
between Japan, North America, and Europe a joint awareness of our
responsibilities for the
well-being of the world. This recognition went beyond mere statistics
to the affirmation, illustration,
and spreading of democratic principles.
We Europeans, in spite of our extreme internal diversities or, maybe,
because of them, felt quite
comfortable within this trilateral relationship.
We found again, after so many tragic events, the way to renew our
traditional contacts with Japan
without weakening our respective bilateral relations with the United
States of America.
We learned how to place our historical and special links with Canada
in the modern context of the
North American concept while being made aware of the specificities of
its components.
As we enlarged our European Community, we were challenged and
encouraged to find a new
legitimacy in becoming, through our new common institutions, a
responsible world actor, but this
time, after the curse of two world wars, without nationalistic and
imperial undertones.
Finally, all of us found, in a practical way, how to create a
partnership of equals between our different
and respective strengths and weaknesses. In fact, we tried to create a
trilateral harmony between the
roots of our cultural identities, the dynamic creativity of the profit
motive, and the democratic
representation of the common good.
All of us, we made a difference, a huge difference. We did not look
for the kind of glamour which
excites television commentators. But, through our reports,
discussions, and meetings and through our
patient and constant recognition of what is desirable for all and
possible for each, we were able to
exert some influence without trespassing on the power of those duly
elected to govern. So, in our
own independent way, we, among others, made a contribution to the end
of the Cold War, and to
the preparation of the new world which is cracking its way through
routines, conservatisms, and
fears.
We know, for sure now, that the future will involve more than the
three corners of our triangle.
Technology has abolished time and space as the traditional basis of
governance. A new form has to
emerge and with more actors. The qualities of innovation we
demonstrated for the last twenty-five
years are challenged again. The moment is coming when it will be clear
to all, in particular to
us-friends and members of the Trilateral Commission -- that the best,
maybe the only, way to defend
the interests, traditions, and hopes we cherish will be to place them
resolutely within the context
offered by the disciplines and opportunities of a genuine world order,
genuine because created and
recognized by all as fair and legitimate.
The first global history of mankind is about to start. A new window is
opening. The challenge is clear.
In 1973, David, with your sense of vision, your determination and all
your friends, the challenge was
understood and met with success. Today, under the leadership of our
successors as Co-Chairmen,
Paul Volcker, Yotaro Kobayashi, and Otto Lambsdorff, the Trilateral
Commission shows the will to
play its usual role as reasonable and perspicacious avant-garde. So I
would like to include in the
toast I am about to propose to you, a toast to the Trilateral
Commission's role for the next
twenty-five years. In this spirit, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would be
grateful if you would join me in
raising your glass to the gentleman-pioneer of the trilateral world,
David Rockefeller.
SHIJURO OGATA
Japanese Deputy Chairman, The Trilateral Commission
On behalf of the Japanese group of the Trilateral Commission I would
like to express our sincere
gratitude to David Rockefeller for his farsightedness and leadership
without which Japan could not
have been brought into the international community easily.
More than twenty-five years ago David had considered already Japan as
a natural partner in the
developed world with democracy and a market economy. As he mentioned
earlier, after failing to
expand the Bilderberg group to include Japan, he promptly took actions
to create the Trilateral
Commission with Japan as one of its three components, together with
North America and Europe.
Since then, we have been enormously benefited by the Trilateral
exercise through the discussions, at
plenaries, task force work, and dialogue with the other members on a
wide range of topics from
peace and security to economic development, and freedom and democracy.
In 1973, when the Trilateral Commission started, Japan was already an
important economic power,
but still isolated in many other respects. Now, however, we luckily
have better, wider, closer
intellectual contacts with North America and Europe, with a greater
sense of sharing common values
and common concerns.
We also truly appreciate David's special concern about Japanese
participation.... This evening I'd like
to close my tribute to David by pledging, on behalf of the Japanese
group, to strengthen our
participation in the Trilateral exercise not only in number, but also
in quality, and also to expand,
gradually, participation from our Asian neighbors who are increasingly
more democratic, more
industrialized despite the current crisis.
Among those Japanese who attended the meeting at Pocantico in July
1972, Saburo Okita passed
away. Kiichi Miyazawa and Tadashi Yamamoto are not able to join us
this evening. Nor is Yotaro
Kobayashi, the current Chairman of the Japanese group. However, I'd
like to reiterate how deeply
grateful we are to David in his outstanding role in bringing Japan
into the intellectual core of
international community. Let me propose another toast to David and
also to the future of Trilateral
Commission.
CONRAD BLACK
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hollinger
Associates
...David Rockefeller's generosity is, of course, extremely well known.
It goes far beyond his
unvarying and exquisite courtesy and, of course, his great munificence
financially and that of his
family. There are many of us in the room who are beneficiaries, as I
am, of his advice. He was always
accessible, always thoughtful, always generous with his time, and
always very reflective in the advice
he gave when asked for it. I must say that in the more than twenty
years that I've know him, from the
start of that relationship he was, and for me he will always remain --
and I mean this in the most
complimentary way -- the apogee, the ultimate American gentleman. If
it is appropriate for me to
propose yet another toast, that is what I would be honored to do.
HENRY A. KISSINGER
Chairman, Kissinger Associates
In 1973, when I served as Secretary of State, David Rockefeller showed
up in my office one day to
tell me that he thought I needed a little help. I must confess, the
thought was not self-evident to me at
the moment. He proposed to form a group of Americans, Europeans, and
Japanese to look ahead
into the future. And I asked him, "Who's going to run this for you,
David?" He said, "Zbig
Brzezinski." (I must ruin Zbig's reputation here by saying usually he
and I agreed. We managed to
hide it very well.) I had worked with Nelson for many years; I had
first known David at the Council
on Foreign Relations in the '50s, and I knew that Rockefeller meant
it. He picked something that is
important; and they got the best man to do it for them. When I thought
about it, there actually was a
need.
We were in the middle of the energy crisis, totally unforeseen by us.
The last study that had been
made in our government said the oil price might reach $5 by 1980; it
had reached $12 at that point.
All the industrialized democracies needed to find some method of
concerted action, a common
approach. And so, I encouraged David to go ahead, though I deserve no
credit whatever for the
consequences because David and Zbig and David's Co-Chairmen created
what we have today. Any
society needs some people who bridge the gap between where they are
and where they should be
going -- people with vision and courage -- and the Trilateral
Commission fulfilled a crucial role in that
respect....
David, he is now over 80, has done great things in his life, but he is
a little bit naive. He believes that
any good idea can be implemented. And, by God, you have to be a little
bit innocent to do great
things. Cynics don't build cathedrals. David's function in our society
is to recognize great tasks, to
overcome the obstacles, to help find and inspire the people to carry
them out, and to do it with
remarkable delicacy....
David, I respect you and admire you for what you have done with the
Trilateral Commission. You
and your family have represented what goes for an aristocracy in our
country -- a sense of obligation
not only to make it materially possible, but to participate yourself
in what you have made possible
and to infuse it with the enthusiasm, the innocence, and the faith
that I identify with you and, if I may
say so, with your family. And so I would like to propose a toast that
this be preserved to us for a
long time.
Back to: Trilateral Commission Homepage
--
"And it came to pass that in the last days catatonics
roamed the earth, and great monsters ruled the masses."
---------------- Joshua II ----------------
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