Welcome to AMERICAN LEDE
My name is Matt Valkovic, a former Army civ-mil & info ops officer and fintech executive, and I am building AMERICAN LEDE.
AMERICAN LEDE is the digital media platform dedicated to making the bipartisan case for American leadership in the world.
I track the daily headlines and follow a range of voices in defense, foreign policy, security, tech, investing, and finance who, no matter their party or political stripe, believe in and help make the case for American leadership.
I then edit and publish the lede: a post of the most important points — whether it be a tweet, a video clip, a key sentence, or even a meme — that provides a daily reminder of why American leadership is necessary in the world.
Why do we need AMERICAN LEDE?
In 2024, America is losing the information war to a rising China and a belligerent Russia. Democracy and liberal values are in doubt around the world, and the American political divide appears deeper than ever.
And yet, deep down, I’d wager that the great majority of Americans of all political stripes still believe that we are, as Lincoln declared in 1862, “the last best hope of earth.”
The American economy is the strongest in the world, our companies dominate by market capitalization, immigrants continue to come to the US to build their businesses, our military remains peerless, and our cultural influence permeates throughout the world.
But America has always been a reluctant world leader. As Kori Schake reminds us, Americans have always needed “to be persuaded to go out in the world.” Of course, as someone who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, I fully understand the reluctance to go out into the world again. But it doesn’t mean we turn inward, and it doesn’t mean we stop providing “hope for those who need it.”
The Marshall Plan, arguably the greatest example of American leadership, faced stiff opposition in Congress and required a concerted campaign — and a key Republican senator — to win public support. As Time Magazine declared:
No man knows his destiny, nor does any nation….It was in 1947 that the U.S. people, not quite realizing the full import of their act, perhaps not yet mature enough to accept all its responsibilities, took upon their shoulders the leadership of the world.
Some Americans were still unaware of the step their nation had taken. Some knew that it had to be taken; some, either through fear or lack of imagination or lack of knowledge, were unwilling to follow. But the central fact remained: if the 20th Century world was to secure its freedoms, the U.S. would have to supply leadership; doing less might even jeopardize its own freedom.
No one man was responsible for 1947's great step. Like many fateful decisions, it sprang only partly from the brain. It was an act brought about by events, and their steady, unending hammering on the U.S. sense of justice.
So too must the “steady, unending hammering on the U.S. sense of justice” continue 77 years later.
Purpose
The purpose of AMERICAN LEDE is to provide a regular reminder of why American leadership in the world is necessary and good.
In journalism, the ‘lede’ is the first sentence or opening paragraph of an article. It is written as succinctly as possible to convey the most important part of a story.
In the practice of leadership, communicating the mission, the main thing, the big idea, over and over and over again is essential.
The articles, tweets, videos, and other content I post here are the daily reminders that American leadership in the world is good and necessary.
An Introduction
Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, I now live in Northern California with my wife and two boys.
I was a senior in high school on 9/11. I spent my 20’s serving as an Army officer in Iraq and later working as a civilian alongside Marines in Afghanistan and US Embassy and Special Operations teams around the world.
In my 30’s, I helped build a financial technology company from the ground up. These were hard, extraordinary, and formative experiences of my young, professional life.
As I enter my 40’s, I am thinking about how I want to serve again. I am thinking about the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan. I am thinking about the challenges we face today, and I am thinking about what I need to do to help address those challenges. So, this site is an attempt to help, in a very, very small way, address those challenges. This is an experiment for me and I have no idea where this will go. But I want to try.
An important point: this is not a partisan platform. Both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, have and will continue to make their case for American leadership. And, we hear the call for American leadership from our friends and allies around the world.
Of course, we know our faults and failures and limitations. We do not ignore them; in fact, we acknowledge and learn from them. We also know, though, that America still remains the last best hope for free people around the world. But what’s missing in today’s conversation is a constant and dedicated reminder of why American leadership matters.
