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Dina Habib Powell Sworn In as Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
At the Swearing in Ceremony
For Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina Powell
July 18, 2005
Washington, D.C.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, it is really a great joy and a great delight to be here to swear in Dina Powell. Yes, that's right -- (laughter) -- as the Deputy to Karen Hughes in Public Diplomacy and Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

There are many notable notables here today. (Laughter). I see a number of cabinet secretaries. I want to thank you all for being here. I see the Chief of Staff Andy Card here. I see Chiefs of Mission. I know that there are many people here who want to wish Dina the very best. And Dina, I think it says something about the reach that you've had in your time in the administration, this gathering of people to support you as we swear you in.

I want to especially thank your family for being here. I know that especially for Rick and for Kate, this is a special occasion. Kate will remember it, I'm quite sure. (Laughter). But I know that Rick will because Rick is going to give Dina to us again for very, very important work.

It's a great joy to swear in Dina Powell because first of all, this is an extraordinarily important position. When I was confirmed, I talked about the importance of public diplomacy and I cited three elements of public diplomacy.

First of all, that of course, we needed to get our message to people. And that it was important that people know the heart of America and know that what we're trying to do is extraordinary in this difficult and challenging, but indeed, very hopeful time of opportunity.

I said also that it was going to be important for us to have a conversation, not a monologue, and that meant that we needed to have people come here and we needed Americans to go there around the world so that we could really get to know each other. And indeed, the Educational and Cultural Affairs mission is absolutely critical in doing that. I can't tell you how many people I've met around the world who had an experience with the United States through some of the State Department programs, whether through the International Visitors Program or through having been here as students or having been here as Fulbrights and vice versa. Indeed, one of the really wonderful things when the President sits down across from leaders from other countries, they will very often go down the table of their cabinets, of their ministries, and most of them have at one time or another been to the United States as students or in some kind of exchange program. It is really the way that we get the face of America to others and that we get others to know us.

And I talked also about the importance of Americans getting to know others through languages and through the study of other cultures. I see Margaret Spellings is here. We've been talking about getting Americans to study other critical languages. So this is a critically important role that Dina is going to be playing.

But there are two reasons that I am so delighted that it is Dina that is going to be playing this very important role. The first is she's demonstrated to all of us her enormous commitment to the values of democracy and liberty in every way possible at a time when she's been the head of presidential personnel. She's made every effort to be involved with our efforts at democracy promotion, going off to the World Economic Forum and talking about America and talking about democracy, seeing women's groups as they've come from around the world and particularly from the Middle East.

And so Dina, I know that in your heart the promotion of democracy and liberty to parts of the world that have not seen it burns very deeply in your own soul and so you will do this very well for that reason. And Dina is so capable that anything that she sets her mind to she will do well.

But there's another reason and that is that the story of America is not just the story of democracy, not just the story of liberty, not just the story of institutions that over time have helped us to become a more perfect union. But it is also a story of so many different kinds of people that make up this great nation called America.

We come from so many different backgrounds, from so many ethnic places, from so many religious places. We come from families that immigrated here, like Dina's family. And so Dina is the embodiment of what it means to be American. And that is that being American is not because of blood or ethnicity or nationality. No, being American is simply being devoted and committed to an ideal. That is what unifies us. And whether you are African American or Italian American or Mexican American or Egyptian American, you are just as American as the next person. That in a day when difference is still a license to kill in so many parts of the world is an extremely important message that multi-ethnic democracy, made up of people who come together around an ideal of liberty and democracy, that that kind of democracy can work.

And so Dina, because she has lived that American Dream and because her parents have given her that American Dream, Dina will be a wonderful ambassador for the United States, a wonderful ambassador for the people of America, but also a wonderful ambassador for the values of democracy and liberty.

It's a great time, Dina, it's a challenging time. But America has been through challenging times before and America, because we have always stayed the course and believed firmly that these values would triumph, we've always made a difference and you're going to make a difference.

Thank you for giving us of yourself. The President and I look forward to your skills and to your intellect and to your leadership. And you know that he, too, has the utmost confidence in you.

So now I get to swear you in.

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