US Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman to deliver a commencement address at West Point Military Academy, praised the cadets on Saturday for their noble sacrifice in serving their country, but warned them that they are entering a ” unstable world” due to Russian aggression and growing threats from China.
“The world has changed dramatically,” Harris declared to the approximately 950 graduates. He spoke of the global pandemic that has claimed millions of lives and the tense changes in global politics in Europe and Asia. “It is clear that you are entering an increasingly unstable world, where long-held principles are at risk,” she added.
The vice president recalled the end of two decades of war in Afghanistan, the longest in the country’s history, and condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the first major land war in Europe since World War II.
He warned cadets to be aware that China is rapidly modernizing its military and seeking forceful control of maritime regions, ostensibly in reference to brewing disputes in the South China Sea.
Harris did not mention the ongoing skirmishes in Washington between the White House and the Republican majority in Congress to avoid a debt crisis.
The senior official spoke of the importance of institutions reflecting the country’s diversity. The Army has made slow progress diversifying its ranks in the four decades since the first graduation of female cadets.
Today about a quarter of the cadets are women. Only a few dozen of the graduates are black women, like Harris, although the numbers have increased in recent years. The academy began admitting women in 1976, with the first graduating in 1980.
Upon graduation, cadets enter the military with the rank of second lieutenant.
West Point was founded in 1802. Among its graduates it counts military leaders such as Generals Douglas MacArthur and George Patton and Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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