Night Owl 9/Night Owl CD-ROM (NOPV9) (Night Owl Publisher) (1993).ISO/032a/wh930603.zip/06-03C.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1993-06-03 | 18KB

From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail]  Thu Jun  3 15:21:59 1993
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 12:09-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: West Point Speech

                         THE WHITE HOUSE

                  Office of the Press Secretary

______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                           May 29, 1993

                     REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
          AT UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY COMMENCEMENT

                          Michie Stadium
                       West Point, New York

10:20 A.M. EDT

         THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Please be
seated.

         General Graves, thank you for that fine introduction
and for your outstanding leadership here.  General Sullivan and
the distinguished platform guests, distinguished guests, all, the
families and guests of this graduating class; and, most of all,
to the young men and women of the Corps of Cadets.

         It is a great privilege for me today to join in this
celebration of accomplishment.  To the class of 1993, I want to
extend my heartfelt congratulations.  You've worked hard, and
you've well earned the honor bestowed upon you today.

         To your parents and your relatives:  Let me assure
you that, however often you've wondered about it, you really
aren't dreaming.  Your sons and daughters, your brothers and
sisters really made it.  And you can take pride in their
graduation and in the strong values that you must have helped to
instill in them that made this day possible for them.

         To the faculty and staff of this wonderful Academy:
Let me offer my gratitude for your dedication as this historic
institution graduates its 50,000th cadet.  It is said here at
West Point that much of the history you teach was made by the
people you taught.  That's true, and very much to your credit.
The work you and your predecessors have carried forward since
1802 is truly that of nation building, and today your nation
thanks you once again.

         For the class of 1993, today marks the completion of
an arduous process.  I look out at you and think you endured
Beast Barracks.  You passed countless PT tests, none of which I
could pass anymore.  (Laughter.)  You have met high standards for
discipline, for physical fitness, for academics and, I must say,
I am impressed by your haircuts.  (Laughter and applause.)

         No one is perfect, of course, as even the President
demonstrates from time to time.  I'm reminded that one of your
greatest graduates and one of my predecessors as Commander-in-
Chief, General Dwight Eisenhower, was punished as a cadet for
such terrible offenses as -- I quote -- "apparently making no
reasonable effort to have his room properly cleaned at a.m.
inspection," and -- I wonder what a "reasonable effort" is --and,
second, "being late for breakfast."  In the unlikely event that
there have been any such breaches of discipline on your part, let
me announce today that in keeping with customary practice, I
exercise my prerogative as Commander-in-Chief to grant amnesty to
the Corps of Cadets.  (Applause.)  I hope the assembled crowd is
not too troubled that so many seem to be celebrating.
(Laughter.)

         Two centuries ago at this bend in the Hudson River,
America's first defenders stretched a chain across the river to
prevent British ships from dividing and conquering our new
nation.  Today we add 1,003 new links to that unbroken chain of
America's defenders -- 1,003 new and solid segments in the Long
Gray Line, a line that stretches back 191 years through your
ranks and as far into the future as the Lord lets the United
States of America exist.  The Long Gray Line has never failed us,
and I believe it never will.

         Like the great chain itself, you have emerged from
the forge, tested and tempered, composed of a stronger metal than
you brought here.  Forty-eight months ago, you came here as young
adults.  Today when you leave this stadium, you will be officers
of the United States Army.

         West Point has prepared you for a life of service.
And as you well know, West Point's graduates have served America
in many, many ways, not only by leading troops into combat, but
also by exploring frontiers, founding universities, laying out
the railroads, building the Panama Canal, running corporations,
serving in the Congress and the White House, and walking on the
moon.

         Yet, no service is more important or admirable than
your simple decision to put on the uniform of this great nation
and to serve wherever America calls you in defense of freedom.
The willingness to serve and sacrifice for the greater good is
the ultimate tribute to your character and your efforts.  For
those services and sacrifices, those that brought you here and
those that will take you and our great nation into the future,
you have the appreciation of all the American people.

         You have stepped forward not only to serve, but to
lead. For the hallmark of West Point has been its tradition of
growing leaders of character.  Whenever the nation called,
members of the Long Gray Line have led the way.  Your
predecessors led tight-lipped troops into the smoke and flame of
battle at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.  They were first out
of the muddy trenches into the attack at the Meuse-Argonne.  They
led the first wave of assaults from Normandy.  They held the line
at Pusan, and were first off the helicopters in the la Drang
Valley and the Iron Triangle.  More recent graduates were among
those who jumped into Panama and led the charge into Iraq.  And
the Corps was there as well when the call came from the victims
of hunger, when the call came from the victims of Hurricane
Andrew.  From Florida to Somalia, you have been there.

         The 172 battle streamers on the Army flag
commemorate the skill and courage of those who have gone before
you.  Marked and unmarked graves around the world testify to the
Corps' selfless devotion to country.  Your steadfast commitment
to duty, honor, country is our national strength.

         My commitment and that of the Congress and the
American people is to stand by you.  That means before we ask you
to put your life and the lives of those whom you command in
harm's way, it is our solemn responsibility to take your advice,
to give you the tools you need, and then to give you our complete
support.  That is our pledge to you as you enter this career.
         You are pinning on your gold bars at a time of
remarkable challenge and change for the United States.  On this
Memorial Day weekend, we all pray that we have sent America's
sons and daughters to war for the last time.  Yet, history
suggests that, during your years of service, we will again need
to call upon America's weapons and warriors to defend our
national interests.

         The changes of recent years allow us to be hopeful.
But common sense reminds us to be prepared.  One way we must be
prepared is by ensuring that our forces have what they need to
get the job done, the equipment and the quality people needed to
ensure that we can achieve decisive victory should we be called
to battle once again.  As our forces must change to meet the
challenges and dangers of a new world, one need will remain
constant:  the requirement for leaders of character.

         You will be called upon in many ways in this era:
to keep the peace, to relieve suffering, to help teach officers
from new democracies in the ways of a democratic army, and still
to fulfill the fundamental mission which General MacArthur
reminded us of, which is always to be ready to win our wars.

         But whatever the challenge, I know you will
accomplish your mission, not only because of your training, but
because of your values and character.  I will do my part by doing
whatever is necessary to keep our forces ready -- and to keep our
microphones up.  (Laughter.)  I will do my part -- and I think
the Congress will, too -- to make sure that our forces are always
ready to fight and win on a moment's notice.  We ought, really,
to meet the standard of one of your classmates, Pat Malcolm, who
came in the clutch and delivered the goods for you.  If we can do
that, you will be able to serve.  (Applause.)

         If you have the character and will to win, we owe it
to you to make you the best-trained, the best-prepared, the best-
equipped and the best-supported fighting force on the face of the
earth.

         The budget cuts that have come at the end of the
Cold War were necessary, even welcome, appropriate in light of
the collapse of the Soviet Union and other changes.  But we must
be mindful, even as we try so hard to reduce this terrible
national deficit, that there is a limit beyond which we must not
go.  We have to ensure that the United States is ready, ready to
win and superior to all other military forces in the world.
(Applause.)

         In doing that, we can ensure that the values you
learned here and the values you brought here from your families
and your communities back home will be able to spread throughout
this country and throughout the world and give other people the
opportunity to live as you have lived, to fulfill your God-given
capacities.

         We must also stay prepared by understanding the
threats of this new era.  We can't predict the future.  We cannot
tell precisely when the next challenge will come, or exactly what
form it will take.  Yet, we do know that the threats we face are
fundamentally different from those of the recent past.  The end
of the bipolar superpower Cold War leaves us with unfamiliar
threats, not the absence of danger.

         Consider what we witness today in the world you will
move into.  Ethnic and religious conflict, the violent turmoil of
dissolving or newly created states, the random violence of the
assassin and the terrorist.  These are forces that plagued the
world in the early days of this century.  As we scan today's
bloodiest conflicts, from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, to
Armenia, to Sudan the dynamics of the Cold War have been replaced
by many of the dynamics of old war.

         A particularly troubling new element in the world
you face, however, is the proliferation around the globe of
weapons of mass destruction and the means for their delivery.
Today, ambitious and violent regimes seek to acquire arsenals of
nuclear, biological and chemical warfare.

         As we discovered in Iraq, surging stocks of
ballistic missiles and other advanced arms have enabled outlaw
nations to extend the threat of mass destruction a long way
beyond their own borders.  And meeting these new threats will
require a new approach and a new determination shared by all
peace-loving nations to oppose the spread of these dread weapons.
         In the coming months, our administration will
address the dangers from growing stockpiles of nuclear materials
that could be used in these weapons, and the risk of nuclear
smuggling and terrorism.

         We will soon begin negotiations on a comprehensive
test ban treaty which will increase our political leverage to
combat this proliferation.  We will reform our export controls to
keep weapons-related technologies out of the wrong hands, while
cutting red tape for legitimate American export activities.  And
we must make further changes in how we organize the government to
reflect the priority that we place on nonproliferation.

         For, if we must contemplate the possibility of
sending America's men and women once again into harm's way, then
we owe it to you to do our best to prevent the proliferation of
weapons that could vastly multiply the dangers and the casualties
of any conflict.

         Ultimately, preparedness lies in strength.  And if
our nation is to be strong at abroad, it must also be strong at
home.  It was President Eisenhower who once said, "A strong
economy is the physical basis -- the physical basis of all our
military power."

         One of the most potent weapons behind our victory in
World War II was the industrial might of the United States.  What
ultimately enabled us to prevail in the Cold War was the simple
fact that our free political and economic institutions had
produced more prosperity and more personal human happiness than
did the confining institutions of communism.

         In the same way our global era leadership must --
must depend on our ability to create jobs and growth and
opportunity for Americans here at home who, in turn, will have
the finances to make sure we can maintain the world's strongest
military.

         Unfortunately for too many years in this new global
economy, we have had difficulty maintaining opportunity at home.
In the face of intense competition around the world, and the now
familiar problems we have in the United States, our debt has
grown from $1 trillion to $4 trillion, even as we have reduced
military spending and investments in areas that are crucial to
our future in new technologies, in education and training, and in
converting defense cutbacks into domestic economic opportunities.

         Today we face especially troubling phenomenon that
the United States has never faced before at home -- slow economic
growth which does not create new jobs.  We must refuse to accept
this as a pattern that will be repeated in the future.  Just as
our security cannot rest upon a hollow Army, neither can it rest
upon a hollow economy.

         If we are to sustain the American way of life that
you have been trained so well to defend, we must do more and do
better.  We must cultivate the teacher who can hold her class'
attention, encourage the entrepreneur who bets his savings on his
own ideas.  We must do right by the middle class families of this
country who work hard and play by the rules.  We must pay down
the deficit and make downpayments on the future, both at the same
time honoring work, rewarding investment, and sharpening our
competitive edge.  If you can win on the battlefield, surely
America can win in every field of competition we must face as we
march toward the 21st century.

         That is the great challenge facing our country.  And
the Congress today is facing that challenge in dealing with the
economic plan I have presented.  The House of Representatives,
led by concerned Americans like Congressman Jack Reed who is the
only West Point graduate in the United States Congress, has sent
a plan to the Senate which now must be produced from the Senate
in the form of an economic plan to bring this country back.

         In this new era, those of us in political life need
a new strategy, need sound tactics, need the kind of discipline
in implementing it that all of you have learned to provide for
our nation's defense here at West Point.  In short, we must
approach the job of rebuilding our nation with the same kind of
single-minded determination that you have brought your skills,
your dedication and leadership ability, too, in these four years,
and that you will bring to the defense of our nation in the years
ahead.  We can do no less for you.

         Finally, let me say this.  Someday, some of you out
here will be sitting in the Situation Room at the White House, or
with the President, or with the Secretary of Defense in some
other circumstance.  At that moment you will be called to give
your advice on an issue which may be small, but also may be large
and of incredible significance to the future of this country.

         I ask you in all the years ahead to keep preparing
for that day throughout your careers.  By continuing study and
continuous listening and continuous absorption of every
experience you have, the world is changing rapidly.  And if you
do not work to make change our friend, then it can become our
enemy.  You represent the very best of the American people.  It
will be your understanding of our nation's challenges and your
embodiment of our nation's values, enriched by what you have
learned here, leavened by the experiences to come, bound by your
commitment to Duty-Honor-Country which will permit you to make
our greatest contribution to the nation -- continuing service.
You have earned your turn to lead.  To follow in the footsteps of
those who have been on the Plain before you.

         Over the past four years, your nation has invested
heavily in you.  The skills and dedication you now bring to the
defense of our nation are more than ample repayment.  I am proud
of the work you do, honored to serve as your Commander-in-Chief,
confident that all Americans join me in saluting your
achievement, and very, very optimistic about the future of our
nation in your hands.

         Good luck, God bless you, and God bless America.
(Applause.)

                               END10:40 A.M. EDT