An opponent who prevailed
On Saturday night a slight woman of enormous international stature let a Harvard audience in on a perk of her position: When she is asked to give a speech, the leader of Myanmar said, her staff provides her with talking points. Even better, for her lecture as the Harvard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year, Harvard provided her with a topic. “[Foundation director S. Allen Counter] told me I should speak on intercultural, interethnic, and interreligious cooperation,” Aung San Suu Kyi said to the laughter of the overflow crowd. “So I thought this is the right moment for me to talk about intercultural, interethnic, interreligious, international peace.” The winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, Aung San Suu Kyi became an international symbol of nonviolent protest shortly after leaving her husband, British historian Michael Aris, and young sons in England to care for her sick mother back in Myanmar. There she helped form...