Hillary suffers Walter 'Cronkitis'

by Jerome Corsi

Does Sen. Hillary Clinton, the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, endorse efforts to form a world government?

Video footage recently has surfaced that could force her to either affirm or distance herself from sentiments she expressed in 1999 during a ceremony in which former CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite accepted the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award from the World Federalist Association.

In his acceptance speech, Cronkite embraced the idea that the U.S. would be subsumed into a regional or world government. His views were seconded by Clinton in a closed-circuit television link-up.

Cronkite said, "Today we must develop federal structures on a global level. To deal with world problems, we need a system of enforceable world law, a democratic federal world government."

Clinton, then first lady, congratulated Cronkite, saying, "For decades you told us 'the way it is,' but tonight we honor you for fighting for the way it could be."

On the presidential campaign trail, Clinton has not been challenged to state whether she opposes efforts toward integration, such as the trilateral effort between the U.S, Canada and Mexico under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

At the Aug. 21 press conference concluding the third SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, President Bush ridiculed "conspiracy theories" asserting the U.S. is developing "NAFTA Superhighways" and moving toward integration into a North American Union

A longer video version of the Cronkite-Clinton appearance shows the former CBS anchorman expanding on his views.


Walter Cronkite

"First, we Americans are going to have to yield up some of our sovereignty," Cronkite said. "That's going to be to many a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new world order."

He continued, "What Alexander Hamilton wrote about the need for law among the 13 states applies today to the approximate 200 sovereignties in our global village, all of which are going to have to be convinced to give up some of that sovereignty to the better, greater union; and it's not going to be easy."

Writing about Cronkite's speech, WND founder and Editor Joseph Farah wrote in a 1999 editorial, "The man once described as the 'most trusted in America' has come out firmly, boldly, explicitly – and stupidly – for the formation of a global government at the expense of U.S. national sovereignty."

The World Federalist Association, now known as Citizens for Global Solutions, says its aim is to be build a "future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone."

The YouTube.com video also recalls a 1993 award the World Federalist Association gave to journalist Strobe Talbot for an editorial he wrote in Time magazine July 20, 1992.

Talbott argued that in the next hundred years, "nationhood as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority."

The video noted that in 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Talbott ambassador at large.

Clinton had met Talbott at Oxford University, where they were both Rhodes Scholars.