[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 32 (Friday, March 20, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2371-S2372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          RICHARD GARDNER AND THE UNITED STATES-SPAIN COUNCIL

 Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I 
bring to the Senate's attention the distinguished service of the former 
United States Ambassador to Spain, Richard Gardner. Ambassador Gardner 
concluded his service on July 12, 1997. During his tenure, Ambassador 
Gardner performed his diplomatic duties with grace and distinction. As 
a result of his outstanding work, the relationship between the United 
States and Spain has been immeasurably strengthened.
  The ambassador has received praise and high marks for his exemplary 
performance from a number of observers. For example, Spanish 
journalists have commented on his successful efforts to increase 
private donations for student exchange program, which provide expanded 
opportunities for cultural and academic interaction between United 
States and Spanish citizens. In a more formal capacity, Ambassador 
Gardner's efforts facilitated an improved, and mutually beneficial, 
trade relationship between our countries and enhanced relations between 
our respective governments.
  One aspect of Ambassador Gardner's work of which I am very familiar 
is his instrumental role in establishing the United States-Spain 
Council. Founded in 1995, the Council has grown to become an important 
institution for the development and enhancement of United States-Spain 
relations. Its mission is to encourage understanding of our shared 
interests and to promote constructive relations and cooperation between 
the Spanish and American governments on a variety of important issues, 
including, trade, intellectual property rights, and education. 
Currently, I am the chairman of the council. Its membership includes a 
diverse group of business, academic, and government leaders.
  Mr. President, Ambassador Gardner served his country with great 
distinction and conducted himself in a manner worthy of the respect and 
admiration of all Americans. Diplomats serve as liaisons and are the 
most visible representatives of their home countries. In this capacity, 
Ambassador Gardner exemplified the best our country has to offer. He 
will be sorely missed by the

[[Page S2372]]

many colleagues and friends he has left behind. Luckily, he will 
continue to serve our country through his work in the private sector 
and on the United States-Spain Council.
  I ask that an article titled ``Hasta Siempre, Mr. Gardner,'' which 
first appeared in the Spanish periodical Gaceta de los Negocios, be 
printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

            [From the Gaceta de los Negocios, June 30, 1997]

                       Hasta Siempre, Mr. Gardner

                         (By Carlos Rodriguez)

       A great ambassador is leaving on July 12 to return to his 
     career as an attorney and distinguished Columbia University 
     professor. He and his wife Danielle are leaving behind so 
     many friends and so much affection in Spain that they will 
     surely return often to the country that has conquered them 
     and that they have come to understand and love. Richard N. 
     Gardner has imbued his diplomatic mission with culture and 
     has achieved excellent relations with both the last Gonzalez 
     government and the first Aznar government.
       Three years and nine months have flown by for those of us 
     who have had the opportunity to enjoy his intellectual 
     stature, his sense of humor and his warmth. He is, however, 
     above all a professor and wants to return to his Chair and 
     his students, which is both comprehensible and praiseworthy. 
     He has also been enriched somewhat during this stay among us, 
     not only in friends but also in his use of our language, only 
     a few words of which he spoke when he arrived and which he 
     now speaks easily and with visible pleasure.
       The Ambassador of the United States is not just another 
     diplomat in Spain, not just because of the overwhelming 
     dimension of the world power that he represents, but also 
     because relations between our two countries are quite special 
     and the American friend has long sought to help Spaniards 
     have a better life and live in freedom.
       The Embassy was a point of reference for decades, until the 
     unwarranted, adolescent anti-Americanism bias and 
     simplemindedness of twenty or thirty years ago melted away. 
     America is too large and varied to correspond to a 
     stereotype, but above all else it is a great beacon of 
     freedom. With Gardner and, it must be said, almost always 
     before, embassy parties have brought together politicians 
     from all the democratic parties, journalists from the 
     different stables, intellectuals and business persons on 
     friendly terms; all given equal treatment simply as Spanish 
     friends.
       As a professor, Gardner has given special care to 
     cultivating cultural and educational relations. During his 
     mandate the Fulbright scholarship program has seen 
     spectacular growth. The Ambassador has used his charm to 
     garner increasingly more commitments from Spanish sponsors. 
     He knows the importance of having so many young researchers 
     in different fields not only benefiting from the U.S. system 
     of higher education, but at the same time opening up bridges 
     to the rich variety in the American lifestyle. Professorial 
     exchanges will further enhance this project.
       This instinct for cultural, social and economic relations, 
     without which government relations would be rigid and 
     bureaucratical, has resulted, for example, in the recent 
     creation of the U.S.-Spain Council, which held its first 
     meeting last November in Toledo and will meet again in 
     Washington at the end of October this year. And, of course, 
     there is the endless hosting of luncheons, dinners, 
     breakfasts and receptions that has made this Embassy a forum 
     for meeting and dialog.
       Aznar's trip to the United States was an important 
     achievement in Gardner's mandate. A succession of errors and 
     misunderstandings prior to the visit did not help create the 
     best atmosphere in Washington for the visit. Nonetheless, 
     thorough preparation and careful agenda design made the two-
     hour meeting with Clinton cordial and quite satisfactory in 
     content. Gardner was working on principles of State as what 
     he often states is in his view the job of an ambassador: to 
     be the eyes and ears of his president.
       Trade and capital movements are at the forefront of 
     relations between our two countries. The work has not been 
     all intellectual. During Gardner's term, access to the U.S. 
     market has been achieved for Spanish products as important as 
     the Talgo train, serrano ham, canned tomatoes and tuna fish, 
     and strong investment flows have been generated in the 
     privatization of large companies such as Telefonica.
       During these past three years and nine months. Gardner has 
     honored the opinion pages of Gaceta de los Negocios, as have 
     other distinguished members of the Clinton Administration, 
     and been an avid reader of its news, reports, and commentary. 
     He is a man concerned with intellectual discovery and 
     understanding, two important values that he has at all times 
     put to work in his diplomatic mission to our country.
       The Spain that Ambassador Gardner has known and grown to 
     love is no longer an isolated, different nation, insistent 
     upon licking its wounds from 1898, but rather a modern, 
     democratic country with a strong, recognized presence in at 
     least four major areas: the European Union, NATO, Latin 
     America, and the Mediterranean. It is precisely its special 
     relations with Spain which open up better possibilities for 
     the United States in all of these quite relevant areas.
       Richard N. Gardner is now going to leave his position right 
     after an important event relating specifically to one of 
     these areas, the NATO Summit, to be held in Madrid on July 8 
     and 9, and which, as the Ambassador himself has stated, 
     ``aptly symbolizes the emergence of Spain on the European 
     scene.'' He will, therefore, be working intensely up to the 
     very end of his mandate, a symbol of his personal dedication 
     to this Latin country that will bid him not good-bye, but 
     hasta siempre.

                          ____________________