As the chair of both the Northern Ireland peace accord and a commission created by the U.S. Olympic Committee that investigated allegations of corruption in the selection of Salt Lake City as an Olympics site, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, D-Maine, has had a lot on his plate recently.
This year's Commencement speaker, who was thought to be leaving high-profile politics after he turned down a Supreme Court nomination in 1995, said in a recent interview with The Dartmouth that none of his recent roles were "sought or expected," but he was glad to take them.
"I did intend and plan to return to private life, but things have come up which couldn't be foreseen and in which I could be of some help ... and so I accepted," he said.
Mitchell's acceptance of the chairmanship of the Northern Ireland peace accord was a key factor that helped the two sides come to the agreement that has the potential to end centuries of turmoil.
"I think obviously only the governments could explain why they asked me to serve as chairman, but I think in part they wanted someone who would be seen as and, in fact, be independent," Mitchell said as explanation for why the two sides might have wanted an American involved with the deal.
"The Clinton Administration made the resolution of the conflict a high priority for the first time, and I had been over [there] after leaving the Senate in January 1995" for about a year serving as the president's special advisor, he said. Mitchell was Clinton's envoy to promote peace in Northern Ireland, starting June 1996.
Mitchell said his experiences as a federal judge prior to serving in the Senate helped him treat both sides equally during the peace negotiations. He said he "simply made each decision on the basis of the merits of what I thought was right or wrong," and the negotiating sides' trust in him grew as a result.
"There was some active opposition to me, but that passed pretty quickly, and toward the end I got along quite well with everybody," he said.
Mitchell said the accord is by no means a guarantee that there will be continuous peace in the region, but its flexibility will hopefully help both sides work out any further conflicts without using violence.
"The agreement explicitly describes both aspirations as appropriate and leaves the decision [about whether to remain a part of the United Kingdom] to the people of Northern Ireland," Mitchell said.
Mitchell has by no means taken a break since he helped broker the Northern Ireland peace deal. The former senator has also been enmeshed in a controversy of a different type - the corruption involved in the choice of Salt Lake City as a host city for the Olympic Games.
Mitchell chaired a commission created by the U.S. Olympic Committee that investigated the allegations of corruption and made recommendations to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
"I've always participated in and followed athletics," Mitchell said, who played basketball throughout his high school and college careers. "I believe deeply in the ideal of the Olympic Games, and I thought if I could make a contribution to help prevent that ideal from being tarnished, I should do so."
Mitchell said he hopes the committee's actions "will eliminate the feeling among bidding cities that they must engage in improper gift-giving in order to be considered, and that the process will be based on the merits of who can best stage the games."
With all of Mitchell's recent accomplishments, some media have speculated that the former senator could also play a role in helping end the current conflict in Kosovo. The Associated Press recently reported that Mitchell would consider helping with a peace effort in Kosovo if President Clinton requested his aid.
Mitchell told The Dartmouth the press, more than anybody else, has nominated him for the job, but he would not comment further on what role he could possibly play in Kosovo.
He said he enjoys public service and loved being in the Senate; he "told the president if he felt I could be of help in some situation in the future, I'd be glad to consider it."
Mitchell, who has spoken at a number of graduations over the years, said he does not know yet what he will be speaking about at Dartmouth's Commencement, but he said brevity is always "an important requirement."
"I try to relate [my speeches] to subjects that students might have some interest in, particularly looking to the future and not making it too long."
According to The Buffalo News, in his May 16 commencement address at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., Mitchell spoke to students about the positive aspects of being American.
"We're fortunate to be Americans, to live in a society which, despite its imperfections, is the most free, the most just, the most open society in all of human history," The Buffalo News reported Mitchell saying.
"Every person in this nation has an obligation, a positive duty, to participate actively in preserving and improving our way of life. That is especially true of those like you, who've had the good fortune to receive an advanced education."
Mitchell, whose nephew Jim Mitchell '83 attended Dartmouth, said he has been to Hanover a couple of times and has "very favorable impressions" of the College.
"For some reasons, which I don't fully understand, it inspires a great deal of loyalty in its graduates" - a loyalty that he finds "remarkable, and obviously something good."
