[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 76 (Thursday, June 5, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1145-E1146]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARSHALL PLAN, A SALUTE TO COLD WAR VETERANS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 5, 1997

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today marks the 50th 
anniversary of former Secretary of State George Marshall's commencement 
address to the graduating class at Harvard University. In that address, 
Secretary Marshall laid the foundation for the historic foreign aid 
program that would come to be known as the Marshall plan.
  Mr. Speaker, most historians would agree that the Marshall plan was 
the most dramatically successful peacetime foreign policy implemented 
by the United States. However, when our Nation moved so swiftly and 
sincerely to assist the war-ravaged landscape, economy and political 
structure of Europe in the late 1940's, it also marked the beginning of 
the United States' role as worldwide peacekeeper and protector of 
democracy.
  Beginning with the Yalta Conference in 1945--when some argued that 
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had given away Eastern Europe to 
Joseph Stalin--the world entered a new arena of confrontation unlike 
any before. When Winston Churchill referred to the borders of the 
Eastern Bloc Communist countries as the ``Iron Curtain'', the stage had 
been set for the cold war.
  The Revolutionary War brought us our independence; the Civil War gave 
us our national identity; the First World War made us players in the 
international arena; and the Second World War turned America into a 
superpower. For those veterans, there can be no doubt. Their 
participation in the combat theater ensures that their selflessness and 
contribution to our great Nation will never be overlooked or be taken 
for granted.
  Yet, Mr. Speaker, for those veterans who gave just as selflessly to 
this country, but may have never looked directly into the eyes of the 
enemy, there is honor for them as well. From the policy of containment 
in the late 1940's to detente in the 1970's to confrontation in the 
early 1980's to the revolution in 1991, the veterans of the cold war 
stared unwaveringly into the depths of communism, and they did not 
blink for an instant. Rather, these veterans made it manifestly clear 
that democracy--that government by, of, and for the people--would be 
secure not only for America, but also for the entire world.
  Therefore, Mr. Speaker, from Capt. Gary Powers to every sailor who 
stood ready off the

[[Page E1146]]

shores of Cuba, I salute all cold war veterans, and thank them for 
their service to our great Nation.

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