Often times people write memoirs as a salute to the life that they have lived and to give opportunity for those interested a glimpse into their most interpersonal lives. Moreover, memoirs are prone to stir controversy because it’s almost certain that something will written and someone out there will find fault to it. So where am I getting with this?
Most recently ex-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice published a memoir titled “No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington”. Condoleeza served on both President George Bush and President George W. Bush’s administration and made it clear in her memoir that she worked to defeat the congressional push to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Moreover, she reveals that in 1991 she was specifically had the responsibility of the task “to mobilize an effort to defeat the [Armenian Genocide] resolution in the House of Representatives.”
She continues on to say that “The Turks, who had been essential in the first Gulf War effort,” Rice remembers, “were outraged at the prospect of being branded for an event that had taken place almost a century before—under the Ottomans!”
“Back then I had succeeded in my assigned task,” Rice congratulates herself, noting that in the years that followed, presidents and secretaries of state continued “to fight off the dreaded Armenian genocide resolutions,” pushed forward, of course, by none other than “the powerful Armenian American lobby.”
Let’s pause for a second here. The fact that Ms. Rice “congratulated” herself for being successful in making sure that the Armenian Genocide resolution didn’t get passed in Congress is truly sickening. How can she deny thousands of Armenians the truth to their past? Our ancestors have been burned, massacred, and raped to death and here she is celebrating the fact that she helped kill a resolution that were the wrong doings of the Ottomans.
Furthermore, she continues to mention the fact that the massacres of 1915 was an event that occurred about “a hundred years ago”, implying that due to the fact that the event happened so long ago it shouldn’t be worth arguing over. Sorry Ms. Rice, but I have to call you out on this one. Just because an event occurred a hundred years ago it doesn’t mean that it is not worth recognizing and worth mentioning. It doesn’t matter how long ago an event or massacre took place, the important thing is that it did happen. She spent paragraphs or even more-so 2 pages describing, trivializing, and denying the events of the Armenian Genocide; mentioning (twice) that the massacres were a disputed-century old issue; and bragging about the fact that she helped kill the recognition efforts twice!
The Armenian community has , of course, raised their concerns and their voices on this issue asking Rice to come forth and explain her intentions behind her actions. Sassounian, a public intellectual in the Armenian community and a key advocate of the Armenian Genocide has Rice should not be allowed to teach at Stanford, stating: “genocide deniers are not welcome at one of America's most distinguished institutions of higher learning." So what does Rice have to say about all of this? Nothing. Like a stereotypical diplomat, she is keeping her mouth shut and not saying a word.
She truly put thought into her book when she named it “No Higher Power”.
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