I am a third-generation American.

My parents and my maternal grandmother were born in Brooklyn, New York.

But I didn't know I loved America until my early 20s.

In my third year of college, I studied in England and began a life of travel

that eventually took me to 130 countries.

That was when I began to understand how important America was to the world and still is.

That was when I began to understand how unique America was and still is.

That was when I began to appreciate the decency of the American people.

Being away from America for a year, spending the Christmas season in Morocco where there was no

Christmas season and ending the year with a month in the Soviet Union where there was no freedom,

this all had a life-changing impact on me.

I realized how lucky I was to be an American. I even realized how much I simply enjoyed being an

American. I'll explain. One, how important America is to the world.

Without in any way diminishing the enormous sacrifices made by England and France,

it was America's entry into World War I that made the defeat of Imperial Germany possible

and ended that horrible war. It was America that made the Allied victory possible in World War II

and kept Western Europe free during the Cold War.

37,000 Americans died, fighting the North Korean and Chinese Communist regimes,

or not for America, all of Korea would have no human rights and would endure the mass torture

starvation and murder that have been routine in North Korea until today.

The next time you hear the lie that America fought in Vietnam for colonialist reasons,

ask that person why did America fight in Korea? I'll tell you why. To stop the spread of communism,

...