[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 139 (Tuesday, October 1, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S12120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO SENATOR HATFIELD

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, as my own time in the Senate draws to a 
close, I find myself reflecting on those people and events that I will 
remember always.
  A man who holds a unique place in my regard and that of many others 
in the Senate is the senior Senator from Oregon (Mr. Hatfield). He came 
to the Senate in 1967, 6 years after I did, and he has become a Senator 
known for his intelligence, acuity, grace, and for love of his State 
and country.
  The State of Oregon has a fine heritage. Mr. Hatfield has a number of 
distinguished predecessors. A fellow Oregonian, Senator Wayne Morse, 
voted in 1964 against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that provided the 
congressional blessing for what later became the Vietnam War.
  Mark Hatfield was not in the Senate at that time. He was then 
Governor of Oregon. But in 1965 Mark Hatfield cast the only vote at the 
National Governor's Conference in opposition to a resolution supporting 
President Johnson's Vietnam war policy.
  He has taken other principled and unpopular positions over time. In 
1981 he joined with my friend, the senior senator from Massachusetts 
(Mr. Kennedy) in spearheading the Senate campaign for a nuclear freeze.
  He has been a constant advocate of restraint in the nuclear arms 
race, limits on defense spending, an end to nuclear testing and a code 
of conduct in international arms transfers.
  Some of Senator Hatfield's efforts such as the Nuclear Freeze in the 
1980's or the effort in the last several years to enact the code of 
conduct on arms transfers have not come to fruition. Other endeavors, 
such as his effort to bring about a comprehensive test ban have been 
smashing successes. It was Senator Hatfield's own initiative in 1992 as 
ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations that led to 
the U.S. moratorium on nuclear testing and led to the eventual ending 
of testing by all the nuclear powers and the completion this summer of 
a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
  Like John the Baptist, Mark Hatfield has often been a voice crying in 
the wilderness. It is not however a role in life he has regretted. He 
has felt obligated to speak his convictions and to let his judgments be 
known throughout his Senate career.
  Mr. President, as a naval lieutenant (j.g.) in the Navy, Mark 
Hatfield commanded landing craft in some of the bloodiest battles World 
War II in the Pacific. He was one of the first military officers to 
enter Hiroshima after the atomic blast destroyed that city in 1945. I 
was in the North Atlantic in Coast Guard escort duty during World War 
II, and I know some of the emotions Mark Hatfield's experiences must 
have stirred in him and the feelings that remain after. I can tell you 
that, if you have seen combat, it is quite possible for you to become 
zealous in your desire to find solutions other than war and other than 
military buildups to the problems you face. Among other things, having 
seen combat, you do not want to capriciously subject your children or 
anyone else's children or loved ones, to the horrors of war.

  The needless and pointless sacrifices of some conflicts, such as 
Vietnam, weighs heavily if you are in the position of participating in 
important national decisions, as Mark Hatfield has been.
  Senator Hatfield has spoken to us all on the floor with great 
eloquence over time about the value of arms control and of the 
importance of peace to all Americans. In 1990, he told the Senate:

       Peace is not the town in Pennsylvania which last year was 
     forced to cancel its high school graduation because officials 
     believed that a group of students planned to commit suicide 
     at the ceremony. And peace is not here in Washington--where 
     after leading the Nation in murders last year, children are 
     beginning to show the same psychological trauma as children 
     in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
       Can we really believe that the decisions we have made--and 
     are making--do not have a direct relationship to the violence 
     which plagues our Nation?
       I suggest that we consider changing the motto on our coins. 
     Mr. President, It now reads: In God We Trust--but by blindly 
     pursuing the nuclear arms race, by putting the destruction of 
     life over the preservation of life, we have foresaken our 
     trust in God. We have shaken our fist at God--as E.B. White 
     once put it, we have stolen God's stuff. Our motto ought to 
     be: In Bombs We Trust. That is our national ethic--that is 
     the example we are setting--here, on this floor.

  In a time when too many opinions are formed on the basis of the 
latest polling results, it is good to have among us a Senator like Mark 
Hatfield who moves unswervingly ahead toward what he perceives on the 
basis of his intelligence and experience to be the best course for the 
Nation and to continue the avid pursuit of what he sees as truly best 
for all of the people of America.
  In his 30 years in the Senate Mark Hatfield has tried time and again 
to do what is right. He has been willing to live with defeat, but he 
has been steadfast in his willingness to try and try again, so long as 
a chance at victory is in sight.
  Mr. President, I am sure that the voters of Oregon, of Rhode Island, 
and of other States will do their best to make good choices in the next 
election. We will be replaced by people with different skills and 
capabilities, and many of them will have distinguished careers here in 
the Senate. There will not be another Mark Hatfield, however. The 
nation should be thankful that it has been blessed with Senator 
Hatfield's service.

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