Former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are both making headlines. His surprise visit to North Korea has successfully secured release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, young journalists held hostage. Her well-planned visit to seven nations in Africa has addressed important policy concerns ranging from economic development to combating terrorism.

            Secretary Clinton began with a keynote address to the eighth African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) forum in Nairobi Kenya, followed by visits to Angola, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Nigeria and South Africa. AGOA, an initiative of President Clinton, gives preferential access to the U.S. market of imports from Sub-Saharan Africa and more generally encourages economic development.

            Kenya contains the vexing frustrations of the wider continent. An ally of the U.S., the nation experienced major terrorist attacks in 1998 and 2002. The growth of extremism in neighboring Somalia, notably by the group al-Shaba linked to al-Qaeda, underscores the importance of this dimension.

            Following a disputed 2007 Kenya presidential election, intense ethnic conflict resulted in the deaths of 1,500 people and the displacement of an estimated 300,000. Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General at the time, brokered a coalition government which brought a fragile cease fire, with the understanding that ringleaders of the violence would be brought to justice through the international legal system. Last week, however, Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga announced plans to employ the national legal process. Annan and others have protested, given the notoriously corrupt Kenya courts.

            In Secretary Clinton’s Nairobi speech, she shrewdly stressed the success of Rwanda, scene of ethnic genocide fifteen years ago. Bill Clinton has strongly criticized himself for failure to act more vigorously against these killing fields. Since that terrible time, Rwanda has experienced rapid economic growth and political stability. Hillary Clinton effectively drew Continent-wide lessons from this horrific experience and encouraging aftermath.

            Before the Clinton administration, Africa traditionally was largely ignored by U.S. presidents, with notable exceptions. Sen. John F. Kennedy chaired the African Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was faithful in attendance, reflecting strong personal interest. After winning the White House, JFK appointed G. Mennen ‘Soapy’ Williams, a Democratic Party power, as Assistant Secretary of State for Africa as a way of emphasizing that part of the world. Professor Thomas Noer describes these developments in his superb biography ‘Soapy’.

            President Jimmy Carter appointed close aide and ally Andrew Young, an African-American, as Ambassador to the United Nations. By so doing, Carter sought to underscore the important ties between the peoples of Africa and America. He also wanted to reinforce the role of the UN in mitigating the Cold War.

Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of ‘After the Cold War’ (NYU Press and Macmillan). He can be reached at acyr@carthage.edu