Contrary to recent unionist claims, Bill Clinton made the peace process possible, writes Niall O'Dowd.
It is extraordinary to many Irish Americans how begrudging the unionist leaders continue to be about the role of President Bill Clinton and Irish-Americans in the Irish peace process.
Revisionist history is nothing new in Ireland, but attempting to undermine the historic Clinton role in the peace process with half-baked theories about how he never really understood the issue, should be seen for the nonsense it truly is.
Unionists should get used to the fact that the American dimension is here to stay, and that it is an enormously positive and beneficial input. Without the US involvement of men like Mr Clinton and Senator George Mitchell, there would not be a peace worth talking about.
It is past time that leading unionists gave up their mealy-mouthed approach to the process, which in John Hume's words has saved about 1,000 lives that would otherwise have been lost if the Troubles had continued. Yet it seems some unionists are determined to be more recalcitrant than ever.
On Thursday in this newspaper Steven King, an advisor to David Trimble, became just the latest in a long line of detractors. He says we have a "failed process" on our hands, but compared to what?
The strides since the IRA ceasefire in August 1994, including massive majorities in both parts of Ireland for the Belfast Agreement, have been truly remarkable while violence is at an historic low.
Mr King however, would make the perfect the enemy of the good. To bolster his case, he has come up with a scenario much more suitable for Ripley's Believe It or Not than any sensible rationale to explain his prejudice.
According to Mr King, the president should have delayed the granting of the visa to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams to come to America in January 1994 and he would therefore have gained far greater leverage on IRA actions as a result.
Mr King cites MI5 and members of John Major's government as his sources for his theory on the grounds that they felt there was more to gain by delaying the visa than granting it. Given their full-blooded opposition to the visa and their predictions of disaster if Gerry Adams ever stepped on American soil, it is hardly surprising they would still think that way. Events have proven they were dead wrong.
The real facts are that the Adams visa almost certainly brought forward the IRA ceasefire by up to one year - a fact stated to me by leading Republicans.
As the intermediary between Sinn Féin and the White House at the time I can definitely say that the visa accelerated the process significantly, and was a necessary prerequisite for the ceasefire that followed.
Simply put, without the visa I do not believe there would have been a ceasefire. The facts are also that if the visa had been awarded earlier the ceasefire would have come sooner.
Sinn Féin had made it clear from the beginning of negotiations with the White House that an international dimension to their peace effort was vital, and that such a dimension would have a significant impact on those within their movement they were seeking to persuade to give a ceasefire a chance.
For years unionists and others have made a bland assumption that the Republican movement at the time was a unified whole and could have called a ceasefire at any time.
Again events have proved them wrong. Just how disaffected a rump there was became clear with the subsequent defections to the Real IRA and the dreadful carnage at Omagh. The Sinn Féin leadership was walking a tightrope during this period, and there was no safety net.
The fact that they succeeded in bringing the Republican movement down the path to peace was an extraordinary achievement, one that ranks up there with any political accomplishment in modern Irish history.
Unlike unionists, Mr Clinton grasped that immediately, and understood that a decision to grant a visa would boost the pro-ceasefire forces within the movement.
Mr King seeks to portray that as a naïve move and states that "the actuality was more complex". Actually it wasn't at all. If Mr Clinton's instinct were correct then his intervention by giving a visa would have a profound impact on the Irish issue. That indeed proved to be the case.
Like it or not for unionists, the Americans are going to stay involved. Already considerable work has been done with both the Bush and Kerry campaign to ensure that whoever wins will continue the path blazed by Mr Clinton and Senator Mitchell.
Instead of seeking to rewrite history, people like Mr King should be embracing it and understand that even Irish-Americans do not want it to be one-sided. It is time to sweep away the Irish-American stereotypes so many Unionists embrace and recognise people like Bill Clinton for what they are - enormously helpful and committed peacemakers who have given their all in that quest for peace.