Dab solver - Chicken Kiev speech

Most tools require the use of JavaScript. If you are using Firefox with the NoScript addon, please mark toolserver.org as trusted. See the Help page for details.

Feedback / Report a bug

1 point on this page / 12,605 points earned collectively this month / Disambiguate pages on your watchlist

Sentiment in Ukraine was split between a range of views, from old-style Communists to pro-independence nationalists. The Ukrainian President, [[Leonid Kravchuk]], was a reformist Communist who supported Ukrainian sovereignty within a more loosely organised Soviet Union – a similar position to that of Russian President [[Boris Yeltsin]]. As Kravchuk put it prior to Bush's visit, "I am convinced that the Ukraine should be a sovereign, full-fledged and full-blooded state."^ref Bush refused to meet with pro-independence leaders in Ukraine. As his motorcade passed through Kiev, it was greeted by large numbers of people waving Ukrainian and American flags but also protesters bearing slogans such as "Mr. Bush: billions for the USSR is slavery for Ukraine" and "The White House deals with Communists but snubs ," the principal pro-independence party in Ukraine.^ref

== Speech ==

The speech was delivered in the [[Verkhovna Rada]], Ukraine's parliament, in Kiev. Bush endorsed an agreement reached the previous April between Gorbachev and nine of the republics, including Ukraine, that committed to a new Union Treaty establishing a more decentralised Soviet Union. He said that the agreement "holds forth the hope that republics will combine greater autonomy with greater voluntary interaction - political, social, cultural, economic rather than pursuing the hopeless course of isolation." He also praised Gorbachev, calling it a "false choice" to choose between the Soviet leader and pro-independence leaders: "In fairness, President Gorbachev has achieved astonishing things, and his policies of glasnost, perestroika and democratization point toward the goals of freedom, democracy and economic liberty."^ref

Single scrollbar

The '''Chicken Kiev speech'''<ref>[[Chicken Kiev]] is a pseudo-French recipe formerly familiar on American hotel menus.</ref> is the nickname for a speech given by the [[United States]] president [[George H. W. Bush]] in [[Kiev]], [[Ukraine]], on August 1, 1991, months before a [[Ukrainian independence referendum, 1991|December referendum in which Ukrainians voted to withdraw]] from the [[Soviet Union]], in which Bush cautioned against "suicidal nationalism".<ref name="wash">{{cite news|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/may/23/20040523-101623-2724r|title=Bush Sr. clarifies ‘Chicken Kiev’ speech|work=The Washington Times|date=May 23, 2004}}</ref> The speech was written by [[Condoleezza Rice]] – later [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] under President [[George W. Bush]] – when she was in charge of Soviet and east European affairs for the first President Bush.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Monck|first1=Adrian|last2=Hanley|first2=Mike|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-763637111.html|title=The secrets of chicken Kiev|work=New Statesman|date=December 6, 2004}}</ref> It outraged Ukrainian nationalists and American conservatives, with the conservative columnist [[William Safire]] giving it the nickname of "the Chicken Kiev speech" in protest at what he saw as its "colossal misjudgment".<ref>{{cite news|last=Safire|first=William|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-103181267.html|title=Putin has good reason to fear 'people power'|work=International Herald Tribune|date=December 7, 2004}}</ref>

==Background==

At the end of the 1980s and the start of the 1990s, pro-independence sentiment grew in Ukraine and other republics of the Soviet Union. The United States pursued a policy of non-interference, fearing a repeat of what had happened in [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], which had collapsed into civil war after [[Germany]] recognised the independence of [[Slovenia]] and [[Croatia]]. Bush looked to the Soviet President, [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], to manage the process of reform and avoided giving support to nationalists in the republics.<ref>{{cite book|title=Power and Purpose: U.S. Policy Toward Russia After the Cold War|last1=Goldgeier|first1=James M.|last2=McFaul|first2=Michael|page=26|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|year=2003|isbn=9780815731740}}</ref> As Bush later wrote in his memoirs,

{{quote|Whatever the course, however long the process took, and whatever its outcome, I wanted to see stable, and above all peaceful, change. I believed the key to this would be a politically strong Gorbachev and an effectively working central structure. The outcome depended on what Gorbachev was willing to do.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bush|first1=George|last2=Scowcroft|first2=Brent|title=A World Transformed|page=502|publisher=Knopf|year=1998|isbn=9780679432487}}</ref>}}

On July 30, 1991, Bush arrived in Moscow for a summit with Mikhail Gorbachev. He and [[Barbara Bush]] stayed with Gorbachev and his wife [[Raisa Gorbachev|Raisa]] in a [[dacha]] outside Moscow, where the two leaders held informal discussions. Bush told Gorbachev that it would not be in America's interest for the Soviet Union to collapse, though hardline members of Bush's [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] – most notably [[Secretary of Defense]] [[Dick Cheney]] – embraced this outcome. He assured Gorbachev that he would counsel against independence when he travelled on to Ukraine on August 1, on the next leg of his visit.<ref>{{cite book|title=Moscow, December 25 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union|last=O'Clery|first=Conor|page=224|publisher=Random House|year=2012|isbn=9781848271142}}</ref>

Sentiment in Ukraine was split between a range of views, from old-style Communists to pro-independence nationalists. The Ukrainian President, [[Leonid Kravchuk]], was a reformist Communist who supported Ukrainian sovereignty within a more loosely organised Soviet Union – a similar position to that of Russian President [[Boris Yeltsin]]. As Kravchuk put it prior to Bush's visit, "I am convinced that the Ukraine should be a sovereign, full-fledged and full-blooded state."<ref>{{cite news|title=Ukraine Split on Independence As Republic Awaits Bush Visit|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1077712.html|last=Rennick|first=David|work=The Washington Post|date=August 1, 1991}}</ref> Bush refused to meet with pro-independence leaders in Ukraine. As his motorcade passed through Kiev, it was greeted by large numbers of people waving Ukrainian and American flags but also protesters bearing slogans such as "Mr. Bush: billions for the USSR is slavery for Ukraine" and "The White House deals with Communists but snubs <<link:0>>," the principal pro-independence party in Ukraine.<ref name="Hunt">{{cite news|title=Stick with Gorbachev, Bush tells republics|last=Hunt|first=Terence|date=August 1, 1991|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4066079.html|work=Chicago Sun-Times}}</ref>

==Speech==

The speech was delivered in the [[Verkhovna Rada]], Ukraine's parliament, in Kiev. Bush endorsed an agreement reached the previous April between Gorbachev and nine of the republics, including Ukraine, that committed to a new Union Treaty establishing a more decentralised Soviet Union. He said that the agreement "holds forth the hope that republics will combine greater autonomy with greater voluntary interaction - political, social, cultural, economic rather than pursuing the hopeless course of isolation." He also praised Gorbachev, calling it a "false choice" to choose between the Soviet leader and pro-independence leaders: "In fairness, President Gorbachev has achieved astonishing things, and his policies of glasnost, perestroika and democratization point toward the goals of freedom, democracy and economic liberty."<ref name="Hunt" />

Bush set out his policy towards reform in the Soviet Union: "I come here to tell you: We support the struggle in this great country for democracy and economic reform. In Moscow, I outlined our approach. We will support those in the center and the republics who pursue freedom democracy and economic liberty." However, he warned against independence: "Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred."<ref name="Kranish">{{cite news|title=Bush says Ukraine should accept loose union with USSR|last=Kranish|first=Michael|date=August 2, 1991|work=The Boston Globe|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7671451.html}}</ref>

It was later reported that Bush himself had added the phrase "suicidal nationalism" to the speech which his staff had drafted, seeking to warn the Ukrainians about the need to avoid what had happened in Yugoslavia.<ref>Goldgeier & McFaul, p. 28</ref>

==Reactions==

The speech met with standing applause in the Ukrainian parliament.<ref name="Hunt" /> However, Bush's position was criticised by Ukrainian nationalists. [[Ivan Drach]], the chairman of Rukh, told journalists that "President Bush seems to have been hypnotized by Gorbachev" and complained that the US President "has consistently snubbed the democratic movements in the republics".<ref name="Kranish" /> Drach criticised the way that Bush had sided with the Soviet leader:

{{quote|Bush came here in effect as a messenger for Gorbachev. In many ways, he sounded less radical than our own Communist politicians on the issue of state sovereignty for the Ukraine. After all, they have to run for office here in the Ukraine and he doesn't.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bush Warns Ukraine on Independence; President Supports Gorbachev's Union Treaty in Kiev Speech|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1077882.html|last1=Devroy|first1=Ann|last2=Dobbs|first2=Michael|work=The Washington Post|date=August 2, 1991}}</ref>}}

Another nationalist polician, Stepan Pavluk, complained that "Bush does not understand that we are fighting against a totalitarian state." He commented that Bush "talks a lot about freedom, but for us, it is practically impossible to conceive of freedom without independence. We have to create our own customs service and currency in order to protect our economy from total collapse."<ref>{{cite news|title=American dream, Soviet reality collide; After Cold War, gulf still divides superpowers|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4066674.html|last=Dobbs|first=Michael|work=Chicago Sun-Times|date=August 4, 1991}}</ref> The speech also attracted criticism from nationalists elsewhere in the Soviet republics. The government of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] issued a statement declared that "The heir of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and others arrives . . . and carries on propaganda in favor of the Union Treaty. Why didn't he call on Kuwait to sign the Union Treaty with Iraq?"<ref>{{cite news|title=Bush's slap in Kiev talk enrages rebel republics|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4068083.html|last1=Evans|first1=Rowland|last2=Novak|first2=Robert|work=Chicago Sun-Times|date=August 14, 1991}}</ref>

Bush's speech also attracted criticism at home for being out of touch, though he was hardly alone in that; only the previous year, the British Prime Minister, [[Margaret Thatcher]], had declared that she could no more open an embassy in Kiev than she could in San Francisco.<ref>O'Clery, p. 225</ref>  ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' called it "[[Bush league]] in Kiev" in an editorial, criticising Bush for having "mired him[self] rather too deeply for comfort on one side of an internal national debate. The newspaper felt that Bush had been injudicious in his language, particularly using phrases such as "suicidal nationalism," "ethnic hatred" and "local despotism" that it felt "went too far."<ref>{{cite news|title=Bush league in Kiev|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7671487.html|work=The Boston Globe|date=August 3, 1991}}</ref> On August 29, 1991, William Safire used his ''[[New York Times]]'' column to label it the "Chicken Kiev" speech.<ref>{{cite book|title=American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War|last=Hutchings|first=Robert L.|page=416|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center Press|year=1998|isbn=9780801856211}}</ref>

In February 8, 1992, ''[[The Economist]]'' said the speech was "the most flagrant example" of other nations failing to recognize the inevitability of Ukraine becoming an independent state.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11818536.html|title=Message to Kiev|work=The Economist|date=February 8, 1992}}</ref> A [[Chicken George (politics)|man in a chicken suit]] appeared at numerous events during Bush's 1992 re-election campaign. Bush commented on the speech in 2004, explaining that he meant the Ukrainians should not do "something stupid," and that if their "leaders hadn't acted smartly, there would have been a crackdown" from Moscow.<ref name="wash"/> In 2005 Condoleezza Rice, responding to a question about the speech at a press conference, remarked that it was easy to see in hindsight what was wrong with the perspective of the speech, but that the peaceful breakup of a nuclear-armed Soviet Union was not so obvious in 1991.<ref>{{cite news|work=Political Transcript Wire|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-791932921.html|title=Condoleezza Rice delivers remarks en route to Shannon, Ireland|date=February 11, 2005}}</ref> The conservative [[The Washington Examiner|''Washington Examiner'']] opined in 2011 that it "may have been the worst speech ever by an American chief executive."<ref>{{cite news|first=James|last=Carafano|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-28353164.html|title=How to be a freedom fighter|work=The Washington Examiner||date=April 4, 2011}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==See also==
{{wikisource|Chicken Kiev speech}}
* [[Chicken Kiev]]

[[Category:United States presidential speeches]]
[[Category:Presidency of George H. W. Bush]]
[[Category:Ukraine–United States relations]]
[[Category:Soviet Union–United States relations]]
[[Category:1991 in Ukraine]]
[[Category:1991 in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1991 works]]
[[Category:Dissolution of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:History of Kiev]]
[[Category:1991 in international relations]]

Edit summary:
This is a minor edit Watch this page

Cancel

Dab solver - Chicken Kiev speech

Tools

Interaction