U.S. must act as world police, de Klerk says

PROVO — Nobel Peace Prize winner F.W. de Klerk engineered the end of apartheid while president of South Africa, but he had a different topic in mind Tuesday on his first visit to Utah.

As the last remaining superpower, the United States must play a disproportionate role in addressing globalization's challenges, de Klerk told 2,874 students, faculty and staff at a Brigham Young University forum assembly in the Marriott Center.

"Nothing would seem to be more secure and more American than Utah, protected by the ramparts of the Rocky Mountains," de Klerk said. "And yet all of you here at (BYU) will ultimately be affected ... by the rise of China and India, by the crisis in the Middle East and Iraq, by the growing global financial crisis and by the increasingly inescapable reality of global warming and climate change."

De Klerk spoke declaratively and with the striking clarity of one who graduated cum laude from law school and who managed to bridge — with Nelson Mandela, whom he released from prison — an explosive, national racial division. He handed off the presidency of South Africa to Mandela and the pair shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

De Klerk drew laughter from the students when he said that like them, he attended a Christian university during a year when the football team was undefeated. He spent more than 30 minutes after his lecture answering students' questions, mostly about South Africa. The only hint of controversy came when de Klerk, speaking at a Christian university where seldom is heard even a soft curse word, said that as the world's mayor and chief of police, the United States will be a target for terrorists, jealousy and criticism no matter what it does.

"To quote Bart Simpson," de Klerk said, drawing laughter, "'You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't."'

De Klerk said America should react to its heavy burden by following Teddy Roosevelt's maxim: Speak softly and carry a big stick. He said America's "big-stick" military plays an essential role in confronting terrorism and that the removal of Saddam Hussein was beneficial.

"There can be no doubt about one thing," he said. "Iraq, the Middle East and the world are better places after the toppling of this evil regime."

At the same time, de Klerk said the United States creates problems when it engages in "long, costly and unpopular operations on foreign soil.