It's time for US to win friends and influence people

PHILADELPHIA -- The United States celebrated the Fourth of July last week by paying homage to the ideals of the Founding Fathers and the universality of their vision.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," a solemn Thomas Jefferson intones in the National Park Service film depicting the drafting of the Declaration of Independence -- a film that drew hundreds of tourists last week.

But in recent years, America's virtues have been anything but self-evident to much of the world. The shadow over this year's Independence Day, as revealed by a mammoth 45,000-person global survey released just as the celebrations were beginning, was the pervasiveness of anti-American feelings around the world. The survey indicated that the erosion of faith in America goes way beyond rogue nations and Muslim factions; some of the most unfavorable rankings came from allies and trading partners such as Argentina (72 percent), Germany (66 percent), and Spain (60 percent). The negative attitudes extended not just to America's current leaders and the Iraq war, but to the NATO mission in Afghanistan and the US approach to the global war on terrorism.

But even surveys as credible as this one -- performed by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and overseen by a former US secretary of state and a former ambassador to the United Nations -- don't alter America's sense of itself as a beacon of hope for the world.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans last week made patriotic pilgrimages to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, the Freedom Trail in Boston, and other hallowed places, confident that the American ideal is alive and well. President Bush, in celebrating the Fourth at a National Guard base in West Virginia, offered a lengthy defense of the Iraq war ("stay on offense") and declared that America is inspiring the world.

"For the past six and a half years, it's been a privilege to be the president of such a good and decent nation that inspires and holds out hope to people all across the world," Bush said.

The reality, according to the Pew survey, is quite different. And the consequences for Americans extend beyond self-delusion, because the United States can't control global terrorism without cooperation from the governments of countries where respect for the United States is lacking. Leaders can't keep fighting the war on terrorism if their people are overwhelmingly opposed to the United States.

This concern is sometimes raised on the campaign trail, but even Bush's political opponents are reluctant to challenge America's view of itself. Raising concerns about anti-Americanism around the world can sound suspiciously close to agreeing with anti-American sentiments.

Some Democrats have adopted the pragmatic line of Bill Clinton, who says simply, "We need more friends in the world." Friends are there when you need them, particularly to help with dirty jobs. By framing the issue in terms of America's needs, the former president sidesteps the question of whether anti-American feelings in other nations are a rational response to American policies.

The Pew survey doesn't address that question, either. But there are promising indications that in places where the United States has shown care and concern, people are appreciative. The United States got some of its highest favorability ratings in Africa, where Bush has made a major effort to address AIDS and other public health issues.

There are other signs in the survey that America's image problem in the world is fixable. For one, no other country has captured the world's esteem. Russia and China are both viewed with increasing wariness around the world ; President Vladimir Putin of Russia is viewed almost as negatively as Bush , who draws abysmal ratings in most parts of the world .

In addition, the United States is viewed positively in some Asian countries with fast-growing economies, suggesting that American capitalism still has a global appeal.

This would comfort some Founding Fathers, who believed that America should set an example for the world without extending itself too far into the world. But even the founders wanted to be liked: Jefferson entertained British visitors during the Revolutionary War, trying to win them over to the American way.

The truth may be self-evident, but a little persuasion doesn't hurt.

Peter S. Canellos is the Globe's Washington bureau chief. National Perspective is his weekly analysis of events in the capital and beyond.