[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 30 (Tuesday, March 11, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E433-E434]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            IN HONOR OF THE HONORABLE WILLIAM ROSCOE KINTNER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JON D. FOX

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 11, 1997

  Mr. FOX. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a great man who left his 
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania community to serve the people of the 
United States in a variety of capacities.
  Dr. William Kintner was a patriot in the full sense of the word--a 
man who lived by the motto of the U.S. Military Academy from which he 
graduated, ``duty, honor and country.'' Born in Loch Haven, PA on April 
21, 1915, the eighth child in a family of nine. Soon his family moved 
to Johnstown, PA where his father, a successful lawyer, was very 
involved in local politics and served as district attorney.
  The stock market crash of 1929 changed the lives of the members of 
the Kintner family and, because of a lack of funds for college, Bill 
Kintner spent a year after his high school graduation in 1932 working 
in New York City as a typist while earning money for the Academy of the 
New Church College. It was at this time he learned to appreciate the 
value of

[[Page E434]]

life's necessities. He finished Junior College at the Academy in 1935 
and entered the U.S. Military Academy the next year. He graduated in 
1940, the same year he married Xandree Hyatt with whom he would raise 
their four children, three daughters--Kay, Jan and Gail--and a son, 
Carl. Today, there are 15 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren in the 
Kintner clan. After Xandree died in 1986, Bill met and married Faith 
Childs Halterman who worked with him and tenderly cared for him during 
his final illness.
  That is his family history, Mr. Speaker, but as I have said, Bill 
Kintner was a patriot in every sense of the word. Patriotism is not 
just a matter of flag waiving or doing one's duty by voting. Patriotism 
is an attitude of life. It is measured by our willingness to sacrifice 
and give of ourselves for the common good. By that barometer, Bill 
Kintner was an extraordinary patriot.
  At noon on June 6, 1944, then Major Kintner landed with the allied 
troops at Omaha Beach as part of the Normandy Invasion. He survived the 
shock of death all around him in that bloody invasion and wondered 
where God would take him after sparing his life. Bill Kintner served 
his Nation again in Korea as a Battalion Commander and Regimental 
Executive of the 17th Infantry, 7th Division during the battle of Pork 
Chop Hill. In 1961, now Colonel Kintner retired from the military. 
While in the service in 1948, he earned his Ph.D. from Georgetown 
University. His graduate thesis, published under the title ``The Front 
Is Everywhere,'' was his first of many books he authored. This and his 
subsequent books earned him wide respect in the field of foreign 
affairs. While in the military, Bill's assignments sent him around the 
world many times over and he became more and more involved in our 
Nation's foreign affairs. His final assignment was as Chief of Long-
Range Plans for the Strategy Analysis Section Coordination Group 
serving the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.
  Upon leaving the service, he became a professor of political science 
at the University of Pennsylvania, retiring as professor emeritus in 
1985. While at the University, he also served as deputy director and 
then director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and as editor of 
ORBIS. At the same time, he worked for President Richard M. Nixon on 
the team which wrote the President's famous Checkers Speech. President 
Nixon sent Bill Kintner on a secret assignment to pave the way for the 
President's historic visit to China in 1972. The next year, Nixon 
appointed him Ambassador to Thailand, a post he held for 2 years.
  Many great men and women of our time have known and respected Bill 
Kintner. Among them are Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under 
President Nixon; President Dwight Eisenhower; General Alexander Haig; 
former United Nations Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick; Yitzhak Rabin, the 
Prime Minister of Israel who was assassinated during his quest for 
peace, and former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.
  In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the U.S. Peace 
Institute which is a think tank recommending solutions to conflicts 
before they grow into large-scale warfare. In 1989, he was appointed by 
President Bush to the President's Commission on White House 
Fellowships.
  This was a long and impressive career in service to the nation he 
loved, the career of a patriot.
  Bill Kintner's final publication, completed last November, is titled 
``The Role of Ancient Israel `Written With The Finger of God' '' with a 
subtitle: ``A Swedenborgian Perspective on the History of the 
Israelites from Abraham to Jesus.'' This book was his way of expressing 
his life-long dedication to the church he loved.
  We see in the life of Bill Kintner a model of dedication to the 
affairs of state. His was a steady pursuit of peace on Earth. Through 
the experience of war, he sought peace. His faith bestows blessings on 
the peacemakers calling them ``the children of God.'' But he knew that 
peacemakers must often engage in war to make true peace possible as was 
the case when he battled the Third Reich and Nazi tyranny. The family 
and friends of Bill Kintner will remember him, not just as a friend, or 
father, or loved one, not just for his thoughtful commitment to world 
affairs, not just for his many accomplishments, but for his courage in 
seeking peace, for his dedication to duty, honor, and country.
  We will all miss him.

                          ____________________