FORMER AMBASSADOR ASSERTS U.S. 'IN RETREAT'

PRESQUE ISLE -- A former ambassador to Colombia said Tuesday he worries
daily that the peace and prosperity the United States enjoys will disappear
because of the disarming of the country's army, intelligence and diplomatic
segments of government.

Speaking at the season's first business breakfast at the University of
Maine at Presque Isle, Thomas D. Boyatt said that the Cold War between the
U.S.S.R and the United States kept things very simple with their nuclear
arsenals pointed at each other.

"The two superpowers kept order," said Boyatt, ambassador to Colombia from
1980 to 1983.

Now with the Soviet Union a country of the past and the United States in
"retreat," he said the order and influence associated with those two
countries, is gone.

Boyatt is the first speaker at the university under the Woodrow Wilson
Visiting Fellows Program.

In addition to speaking to businesspeople, Boyatt was scheduled to address
several UMPI classes this week and deliver a public lecture on the United
States and Europe in the 20th Century at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28 at the
Campus Center.

During his talk on Tuesday, Boyatt, who has been in businesses for himself
the last 15 years, said he believes that free trade and prosperity foster
peace.

"Countries won't go to war because they trade together," said Boyatt.

The former ambassador compared today's economic climate with that of the
world 200 years ago when Great Britain's influence was felt internationally.

With the sudden paradigm shift caused by the advent of steam power and
electricity, wealth increased.

Ideas and capital moved around the globe at a speed previously unknown,
Boyatt said. Governments were weak, with commercial companies running the
economic expansion.

But toward the end of the 1800s, governments became stronger and made
alliances with other political entities. Then came World War I, ending
Europe's role as a major player in global events, said Boyatt.

In today's society, there's another paradigm shift with the coming of
computers and the Internet.

"It has changed things forever," said Boyatt. "The world is never going to
be the same."

The superpower today is the United States, but governments again are weak.

Business is the energy behind the Internet's expansion, and revenue is
moving around at the speed of the light, said the ambassador.

"The world is much more efficiently run that it ever has," said Boyatt.

But the former diplomat is worried that it won't last.

"Out there somewhere is an 800-pound gorilla," said Boyatt, speculating
that there is a force that will disrupt the current peace and prosperity.

It may be militant Islam, Japan or China, he said.

"I hate to see us make the same mistakes [that resulted in World War I]."

The ambassador also said more corruption exists in governments than in
multinational corporations.

"Corruption is inefficient and just adds all to the cost [of doing
business]," said Boyatt.

Free-market economies, he said, help keep the peace. "Rarely do democracies
attack each other," said Boyatt.

Trade with Cuba, he said, should be opened up, which could hasten Castro's
downfall. "Castro is an anachronism," said the ambassador. "He just doesn't
matter anymore. On the world stage, he's irrelevant."

Boyatt said he is leaning toward legalizing the use of such drugs as
marijuana and cocaine.

Curbing the illegal drug trade will only be successful if the demand goes
away, regardless of government efforts, he said.

"Governments do something because they need to do something, not because
they think it will work," said Boyatt.