克里国务卿就美国国务院赞助的交流项目75周年发表视频致辞

Video Message for the 75th Anniversary of Exchange Programs

John Kerry, Secretary of State

Washington, DC

February 5, 2015

This year, a teenage girl [Videos and photos of girls working at a computer] from the Middle East will discover how a young computer coder from New York got her start. A climate change expert from Latin America will see firsthand a solar plant in Florida, [Videos and photos of several people viewing solar panels] powers NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. And an American college student [Videos and photos of boy reading a book] will learn to converse in Arabic over his summer break in Morocco.

Throughout 2015, we will be celebrating 75 years of State Department-sponsored exchange programs [Videos and photos of African woman speaking to a customer, women holding up a t-shirt and smiling, woman holding up a paper and man reaching out to read it, two boys stand in front of mailbox that reads “The Felak Family”] – programs that make day-to-day experiences just like these a possibility for millions of people across the globe.

I remember as a college student traveling one summer around Europe. With a close friend, I drove across France and Spain in an old English taxi cab, rescued from the taxi cab graveyard in London. We made it to Tuscany and even Pamplona where we ran with the bulls, and the bulls did their best to run into us. I spent those long-ago days soaking up different cultures, meeting new people, and exploring unfamiliar cities; they were some of the most fascinating and enriching days of my life. And they left me with the conviction that every time a student touches down in America, [Videos and photos of man with a beard stands in Time Square smiling] or a scholar crosses an ocean to study, [Videos and photos of American girl smiling with Ghanaian classmates] the world grows a little bit closer and we understand each other more.

Since 1940, [Videos and photos of black and white photo of the a man looking at the camera, surrounded by four other people] State Department has enabled [Videos and photos of black and white photo of 3 African men standing in a library] nearly a million people to experience that feeling. We’ve helped foreign journalists [Videos and photos of 3 African journalist look at a tablet] explore the First Amendment [Videos and photos of many journalist sit in a conference] and observe firsthand [Videos and photos of young Asian journalist taking notes] what freedom of speech really means on the IVLP. We’ve dispatched Fulbright Scholars [Videos and photos of woman with 2 students looking a computer, teacher with students on the stairs, basketball players on the court, group playing basketball] to teach English in Laos and Argentina. We’ve convinced basketball coaches from Israel and the Palestinian territories to come together in the name of sports. And we’ve brought budding entrepreneurs from Africa [Videos and photos of African woman speak with a women in front of her goods] to meet with U.S. business owners [Videos and photos of African woman wraps cloth around another women’s neck] to exchange ideas and open both markets and minds.

There is no substitute for these opportunities. I’ve seen it time and time again – a lot can be accomplished through a handshake and a smile, a shared meal, or a conversation after class that is aided on both sides by a bilingual dictionary. I’m not saying that exchanges can cause all the big international problems to vanish overnight; nothing can. But when I travel, I am constantly running into foreign leaders who are better informed and more helpful, and they tell me so- because of the time they spent in America. And in Washington, I am answerable at all times to one of the most remarkable products of an international exchange program: the President of the United States.

One of the great American communicators, Edward R. Murrow, knew the power of person-to-person exchange. He spent many years overseas serving as the American people’s eyes, ears, and heart. Murrow once said that the crucial link in diplomacy “is the last three feet, which is bridged by personal contact, one person talking to another.”

I’m proud to say the State Department is helping to make it a little bit easier for us all to journey those last three feet – and that is an indispensable contribution to our diplomacy, to the interests, and ideals and that’s what will make a difference in the end.

Thank you.