[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6455-S6456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     CONGRATULATING SENATOR DOLE ON THE EISENHOWER LEADERSHIP PRIZE

  Mrs. KASSEBAUM. Mr. President, last night my colleague from Kansas, 
Senator Dole, received the prestigious Eisenhower Leadership Prize in 
recognition of his distinguished service to the United States. I have 
long admired Senator Dole for his leadership and dedicated service and 
am pleased that the Eisenhower World Affairs Institute and Gettysburg 
College recognized him with such a high honor.
  This prize is made all the more notable because Dwight D. Eisenhower, 
the award's namesake, is a fellow Kansan and Senator Dole's hero. I add 
my voice to the many who congratulate him on this honor and ask 
unanimous consent that the remarks Senator Dole gave last night be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the remarks were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       I want to thank the Trustees of The Eisenhower World 
     Affairs Institute and Gettysburg College for this honor.
       I am truly humbled to receive this award. And I thank the 
     Awards Committee for dipping down in the military ranks. The 
     first Leadership Prize went to General Scowcroft. The second 
     to General Colin Powell. Last year you honored Major Lloyd 
     Bentsen. And this year, you're down to Lieutenant Bob Dole. I 
     guess there's still hope for all you Privates out there.
       A special word of thanks to my colleagues from the 10th 
     Mountain Division who joins us this evening. I've always 
     wondered why they assigned a kid from the plains of Kansas to 
     the 10th Mountain Division. But I've never wondered about the 
     men I served beside. You are all heroes in my book.
       A few years back, the 10th Mountain veterans formed a 
     national association. Over the years, there have been five 
     Presidents of the Association, and I am honored that all five 
     are here this evening. At least they got to be President of 
     something.
       I am also honored by the presence of many friends and 
     colleagues of President Eisenhower and of several members of 
     the Eisenhower family.
       I have been privileged to get to know John on several 
     occasions--including the Eisenhower Centennial in Abilene in 
     1990, and a few years ago in the Capitol when we unveiled the 
     sign which marks the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System.
       Elizabeth and I are very proud to call David and Julie 
     Eisenhower our friends. We've also had the pleasure of 
     meeting their children, and can tell you that David and Julie 
     are as good as parents as they are authors.
       And Mary Eisenhower Atwater was the one who came to my 
     office last year to inform me of my selection as the 
     recipient of this prize. The only promise I had to make to 
     her was that my acceptance remarks would be brief.
       In fact, I am tempted to do this evening what Ike did one 
     evening when he was President of Columbia University. At the 
     end of a long evening of speeches, Eisenhower's turn came. 
     After being introduced, he stood up and reminded his audience 
     that every speech, written or otherwise, had to have a 
     punctuation. He said, ``Tonight, I am the punctuation. I am 
     the period.'' And he sat
      down. He later said that was one of the most popular 
     speeches he ever gave.
       It is a bit intimidating to talk about President Eisenhower 
     and his legacy before family members and friends and who knew 
     him much better than I.
       I can say, however, that, like countless Kansans and 
     countless Americans, I not only ``liked Ike,'' I regarded him 
     as a hero. I will never forget the first time I saw him. It 
     was the spring of 1952. I had just finished law school, and 
     was serving in the Kansas House of Representatives. General 
     Eisenhower had come home to Abilene to officially launch his 
     Presidential campaign, and I was in the rain-soaked audience 
     that greeted him.
       That campaign was, of course, wildly successful. And I took 
     it as a good omen that my official announcement in Topeka on 
     April 10 had to be moved indoors because of rain.
       I did have the privilege of meeting my hero on several 
     occasions during his lifetime, but the truth is I knew him no 
     better than the countless soldiers who called him our 
     general, and the millions of Americans who called him our 
     President.
       Eisenhower succeeded as a soldier and as a President for 
     many reasons. Intelligence. Courage. Honesty. Leadership. The 
     ability to place the right people in the right spots. These 
     were all qualities Ike possessed.
       But as I look at the Eisenhower statue in the reception 
     area of my Capitol office, or the painting of Ike that hangs 
     behind my desk, one word often comes to mind. And that word 
     is ``Trust.''
       Ike inspired trust as no leader has before or since. 
     Millions of Americans may have voted for Adlai Stevenson in 
     1952 and 1956, but everyone trusted President Eisenhower to 
     do what was best for America.
       And there's a simple reason why America's citizens trusted 
     Ike. And that's because he trusted America's citizens. Don't 
     get me wrong. President Eisenhower believed in government--
     our Interstate Highway System is proof of that. But, 
     moreover, Ike believed in citizens. He believed in the wisdom 
     of the American people.
       When Ike looked at America's people he saw himself. 
     According to David Eisenhower, the title that meant the most 
     to his grandfather was not ``Supreme Commander,'' or 
     ``President;'' rather it was the simple title that all 
     Americans share: The title of ``citizen.''
       And David reminded me of a speech Ike made in London the 
     month after VE Day. Ike said, ``To preserve his freedom of 
     worship, his equality before law, his liberty to speak and 
     act as he sees fit, subject only to provisions that he 
     trespass not upon similar rights of others--a Londoner will 
     fight. So will a citizen of Abilene.''
       Throughout World War II, Ike saw himself as someone who 
     would do what any American citizen would do when freedom was 
     at risk. And throughout his Presidency, Ike spoke of how all 
     of us shared with him the responsibility of guiding our 
     country.
       As Ike said in his first Inaugural address, ``We are 
     summoned to act in wisdom and in conscience, to work with 
     industry, to teach with persuasion, to preach with 
     conviction, to weigh our every deed with care and with 
     compassion. For this truth must be clear before us: Whatever 
     America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come 
     to pass in the heart of America.''
       What do those words mean in the America of 1995? I believe 
     they mean we should rededicate ourselves to remembering the 
     duties of citizenship: To keep informed and to become 
     involved in the decisions that affect the life and future of 
     all the citizens of our country.
       And they also mean that government should trust the 
     American people with decisions that matter most--the 
     decisions that affect their families and their businesses.
       To be sure, the 1950's weren't perfect. And as we look to 
     the 21st century, we should not seek to return to those 
     times. But what I hope America can return to is a 
     relationship of trust between the people and their 
     government. And if that's to happen, then we must rein in the 
     federal government. It's too big, too intrusive, and makes 
     too many decisions. I carry a copy of the 10th Amendment with 
     me wherever I go. It's only 28 words long. And it basically 
     states that all powers not specifically delegated to the 
     federal government should be given to the states, and to the 
     people. Dusting off that amendment, and restoring it to its 
     rightful place in the Constitution is my mandate as Majority 
     Leader, and I like to think that it's a mandate that Ike 
     would have heartily endorsed.
       Perhaps Ike said it best when he responded to those who 
     were urging bigger and bigger government, all in the name of 
     providing Americans with security.
       ``If all that Americans want is security, they can go to 
     prison,'' Ike said. ``They'll have enough to eat, a bed, and 
     a roof over their heads.
       But he went on to say that citizens want more than 
     security. We also want freedom. We want dignity. We want 
     control of our
      lives. We want our government to trust us. And the lesson 
     that Ike taught us is that if the American people believe 
     our government trusts us, then we will trust our 
     government in return.
       Americans also trusted Ike because he trusted us with the 
     truth. As Supreme Commander, Ike never hid the truth from his 
     soldiers. If a mission was dangerous * * * if some wouldn't 
     be coming home, then Ike laid it on the line. And, with his 
     Kansas candor, he spoke about issues that many in Washington 
     today shy away from. One of those was the federal budget.
       [[Page S6456]] How much stronger our country would be if 
     our leaders took to heart the prophetic words that Eisenhower 
     spoke in his 1961 farewell address to the American people:
       Ike said, ``As we peer into society's future, we must avoid 
     the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own 
     ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We 
     cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren 
     without risking the loss also of their political and 
     spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all 
     generations to come, and not to become the insolvent phantom 
     of tomorrow.''
       As always, Eisenhower matched his words with actions. There 
     have been four balanced federal budgets in the last half 
     century. And Ike gave us three of them. He knew that it was 
     easy to be popular. It is easy to say ``yes'' to every 
     federal program. But he also knew that more important than 
     being popular for a moment is to provide leadership that 
     stands the test of time.
       Along with trusting the American people, Ike also trusted 
     the values that built our country, and that were instilled in 
     him by his parents in Abilene. Values like hard work. 
     Honesty. Personal responsibility. Common sense. Compassion 
     for those in need. And, above all, love of family, God, and 
     country.
       These are the values that built America, and they are 
     values that must never go out of fashion, or be regarded as 
     ``politically incorrect,'' by our government or by those in 
     our entertainment industry.
       Along with trusting our citizens, and trusting our values, 
     there's one final lesson about trust that Eisenhower's life 
     and career can teach us. And that's the fact that the world 
     must always be able to count on American leadership.
       And that's a lesson I hope we especially remembered 
     yesterday, the 50th anniversary of VE Day. It was American 
     leadership that built the arsenal of democracy which made 
     that victory possible. It was American leadership that held 
     the Allies together during the darkest days of the war. And 
     it was American leadership which conquered the forces of 
     tyranny and restored liberty and democracy to Europe.
       Make no mistake about it, leadership carries a price. It 
     did during World War II. It did during the Eisenhower 
     Administration. And it does today. But it is a price worth 
     paying. As Ike said in his Second Inaugural Address, ``The 
     building of * * * peace is a bold and solemn purpose. To 
     proclaim it is easy. To serve it will be hard. And to attain 
     it, we must be aware of its full meaning--and ready to pay 
     its full price.
       And Ike never forgot just what that full price meant. He 
     said that whenever he returned to Normandy after the war, his 
     foremost thoughts were not with the planes and the ships or 
     the guns. Rather, he said, ``I thought of the families back 
     home that had lost men at this place.''
       I was privileged to walk the beaches of Normandy and to 
     return to the hills of Italy where I saw action during the D-
     Day commemorations last June. And I, too, thought of the 
     families back home that had lost men, and how we must never 
     forget the cause for which they fought and died. And the only 
     way to ensure that future generations of Americans will not 
     be buried on foreign land, is to continue to provide 
     leadership whenever and wherever it is needed.
       Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored by the confidence 
     bestowed in me through this leadership award and will do my 
     best to meet the high expectations left by the legacy of 
     Dwight Eisenhower.
       In closing, I want to share with you a few more words of 
     this American hero--and they were words he spoke on that 
     rainy day in Abilene 43 years ago.
       Returning home led Ike to think about growing up in Kansas, 
     and he said ``I found out in later years we were very poor, 
     but the glory of America is that we didn't know it then: all 
     that we knew was that our parents * * * could say to us, 
     ``Opportunity is all about you. Reach out and take it.''
       By working together and trusting one another, we can ensure 
     that for generations yet to come, America's parents will 
     still be able to say those words to their sons and daughters. 
     This is what we owe to the memory of people like Dwight 
     Eisenhower and all the GIs of World War II we remembered 
     yesterday. But ultimately, we owe it to ourselves, to our 
     children, and to the future of the country we love.
     

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