[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 24, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3834-S3845]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO SENATOR ALAN CRANSTON
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following
tributes by current and former members of the Senate and House of
Representatives at the memorial service for the late Senator Alan
Cranston be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Memorial Tribute to Sen. Alan Cranston by Senator Max Cleland
On February 6, over 200 admirers gathered in Hart SOB 902
to pay tribute to our dear friend Alan Cranston, who left us
on the last day of the year 2000. Joining with me as sponsors
of this event were the Senators from West Virginia (Mr.
Rockefeller), California (Mrs. Feinstein and Mrs. Boxer), and
Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy), and the former Senator from
Wyoming (Mr. Simpson). Ten members and former members spoke,
and a short film about Senator Cranston's recent activities
was shown. At the end of the program, Alan's son, Kim, spoke.
It was a memorable afternoon for all in attendance.
The Program Cover pictured Alan and his beautiful, now
seven-year old, granddaughter Evan. On the second page
appeared the following words of the Chinese poet and
philosopher Lao-Tzu, which Alan carried with him every day:
A leader is best
When people barely know
That he exists,
Less good when
They obey and acclaim him,
Worse when
They fear and despise him.
Fail to honor people
And they fail to honor you.
But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
They will all say,
``We did this ourselves.''--Lao-Tzu
The program participants and sponsors were shown on the
third page as follows:
Musical Prelude: United States Army Strings.
Introductions and Closing: Judge Jonathan Steinberg.
Speakers: Senator Max Cleland, Senator Alan Simpson,
Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Diane Feinstein, Senator
Barbara Boxer, Representative G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery,
Representative John A. Anderson,
[[Page S3835]]
Representative George Miller, Senator John Kerrey, Senator
Maria Cantwell, and Kim Cranston.
Family in attendance: Kim Cranston, Colette Penne Cranston,
Evan Cranston, and Eleanor (R.E.) Cranston Cameron.
Event Sponsors: Senators Cleland, Simpson, Rockefeller,
Kennedy, Feinstein, and Boxer.
The back page of the program set forth Senator Cranston's
Committee assignments and the acknowledgments for the
Tribute, as follows:
Senator Cranston's 24 years of service in the United States
Senate exceeded that of any California Democratic Senator and
was the second longest tenure of any California Senator. He
was elected Democratic Whip seven times, and his service of
14 years in that position is unequaled. His Committee service
was:
1969-93: Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
1971-73 and 1975-79: Chairman, Subcommittee on Production
and Stabilization.
1973-75: Chairman, Subcommittee on Small Businesses.
1979-85: Chairman or Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee
on Financial Institutions.
1985-87: Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on
Securities.
1987-93: Chairman, Subcommittee on Housing and Urban
Affairs.
1969-81: Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (Human
Resources).
1969-71: Chairman, Subcommittee on Veterans' Affairs.
1971-73: Chairman, Subcommittee on Railroad Retirement.
1971-81: Chairman, Subcommittee on Child and Human
Development.
1981-93: Committee on Foreign Relations.
1981-85: Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Arms
Control, Oceans, International Operations, and Environment.
1985-93: Chairman or Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee
on East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
1977-92: Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Chairman or
Ranking Minority Member.
In addition, Senator Cranston served on the Committees on
the Budget (1975-79) and on Nutrition and Human Needs (1975-
77), and on the Select Committee on Intelligence (1987-93).
Event Planning and Arrangements: Bill Brew, Fran Butler,
Kelly Cordes, Chad Griffin, Bill Johnstone, Susanne Martinez,
Dan Perry, Ed Scott, Jon Steinberg, Lorraine Tong, Elinor
Tucker.
As I said at the Tribute, I would not be in this body were
it not for Alan Cranston. My colleague, the Senator from
Washington (Ms. Cantwell), expressed that same sentiment in
her remarks. Alan Cranston will always be an inspiration for
us. He will live in our memories and the memories of all
those who served with him and were touched by the causes he
championed and in the hearts and minds of those he so ably
represented in his beloved State of California. Following are
the transcript of the Tribute, and the document,
``Legislative Legacy, Alan Cranston in the U.S. Senate, 1969-
1993,'' that was distributed at the Tribute.
A Legislative Legacy--Alan Cranston in the U.S. Senate, 1969-1993
An Overview
As an eight-year-old boy, Alan Cranston lost his first
election to be bench monitor in his Los Altos grammar school.
As an adult, he became the state's most electable Democrat
and one of the most durable and successful California
politicians of the 20th Century. During decades of political
and social turbulence, when no other California Democrat was
elected more than once to the U.S. Senate, Alan Cranston won
four Senate terms in the Capitol, serving a total of 24
years. It is a California record unmatched except for the
legendary Hiram Johnson, a Republican who held his Senate
seat from 1917 to 1945.
In addition, Cranston was elected to seven consecutive
terms as the Senate Democratic Whip, the number two party
position in the Senate. That, too, is an all-time Senate
record for longevity in a leadership post. Alan Cranston is
credited with rebuilding the Democratic Party in California
through grass- roots activism and organization. In the mid-
1950s, he organized the then- powerful California Democratic
Council, a vast network of party volunteers that in 1958
helped sweep Republicans from most statewide offices. Edmund
G. ``Pat'' Brown was elected governor, Democrats seized the
California Legislature, and Cranston began two terms as State
Controller of California.
Senator Cranston sought the Democratic Party nomination for
President in 1984. His campaign, though ultimately
unsuccessful, raised to new heights public support for
international arms control and a superpower freeze on nuclear
weapons.
In terms of political style, Senator Cranston drew upon an
earlier Earl Warren tradition of bipartisanship, and was well
served by a diversified base of political support.
Representing the California mega-state in the Senate,
Cranston skillfully balanced a wide array of insistent and
sometimes conflicting state interests. He steered a delicate
course between the state's giant agribusiness interests and
those of consumers, family farmers and farm workers; he
weighed the claims of home builders and growing communities
with the need to preserve open space and wildlife habitats;
and he nurtured and led the California epicenter of the
national arms control and peace movements, while effectively
representing the home of the nation's defense and aerospace
industry.
The record of Congressional measures from 1969 to 1993 adds
up to a catalogue of literally tens of thousands of
legislative actions on which there is a Cranston imprint.
These include the large events of the past quarter century--
Vietnam, the Cold War, civil rights, the rise of
environmentalism, conflict in the Middle East, Watergate, the
energy crisis, and equal rights for women.
The Cranston mark is on thousands of bills and amendments
he personally authored affecting virtually every aspect of
national life. Without this legislative record, America would
be a different and poorer place in the quality of life and
environment for a majority of our people. Rivers would be
more polluted, the air less clean, food less safe. Fewer
opportunities would be open to all citizens, fewer advances
made in medicine and science; there would be less safe
conditions in workplaces.
Despite facile and careless cynicism about the work of
government, the achievements of the nation's Legislative
Branch from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s have made a
distinct and meaningful difference in the lives of millions
of Americans. Alan Cranston's particular contributions to
progressive legislation is notable. The difference a single
U.S. Senator can make is demonstrated by a study of all votes
cast in the Senate over two decades in which the outcome was
decided by less than five votes and often by a single vote.
Between 1969 to 1989 there were over 2,500 such votes in
which Alan Cranston's influence often was critical to the
outcome.
The figures do not include thousands of legislative
decisions reached by less narrow margins. Nor do they reflect
the additional influence of Senator Cranston as a behind-the-
scene strategist, nose-counter, marshaler of forces and
shrewd compromiser who always lived to fight another day. The
sum of thousands of ``small'', quiet, often little-noticed
and uncelebrated legislative actions over near a quarter-
century adds up to steady progress in nearly every area of
American life.
As for one man's place in such a record, former Vice
President Walter Mondale called Senator Cranston: ``The most
decent and gifted member of the United States Senate.''
Even with so diverse a legislative record, certain points
of emphasis and priority emerge. Although never an ideologue,
Senator Cranston was passionate in pursuit of world peace,
for extending opportunities for those left out of the
mainstream, and for protecting the natural environment. Asked
by a reporter what he ``goes to the mat for,'' Cranston
replied: ``Peace, arms control, human rights, civil rights,
civil liberties. If there's an issue between some very
powerful people and some people without much power, my
sympathies start with those who have less power.''
During the eight years that remained to him after he left
the Senate, Alan Cranston worked tirelessly on issues of war
and peace, speaking out for human rights, and for preserving
the environment of the planet for present and future
generations. In 1996, he became chairman of the Global
Security Institute, a San Francisco-based research
organization which he founded together with former Soviet
President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail S. Gorbachev
to promote world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.
EARLY HISTORY
Few people in modern history have entered the U.S. Senate
as freshmen better prepared than Alan Cranston to combine
lifelong concerns over foreign and domestic policy with an
understanding of the inner procedural, political and human
workings of the institution. It was a preparation which made
it possible to gain and hold on to Senate power as Democratic
Whip for 14 of his 24 years in Congress.
In 1936, as a 22-year-old foreign correspondent he joined
the International News Service (later part of United Press
International), immediately after graduating from Stanford
University. He was sent on assignments to Germany, Italy,
Ethiopia and England in years leading up to the outbreak of
World War II. He personally watched and listened as Adolph
Hitler whipped his audiences into mass frenzy. He saw
Mussolini strut before tens of thousands in Rome. He covered
London in the fateful years ``while England slept,'' and he
watched as the world seemed helpless to act against the dark
march of fascism.
Three years later, following his return to the United
States, Cranston learned that an English-language version of
Hitler's ``Mein Kampf'' was being distributed in the U.S. He
was alarmed to discover that, for propaganda purposes, parts
of the text had been purposefully omitted. These were
passages which would have made clear the nature and full
extent of Hitler's threat to the world. To warn Americans
against Hitler, he wrote a complete and accurate version of
the book, with explanatory notes making the Dictator's real
intentions clear. It was published in tabloid form and sold a
half-million copies before a copyright infringement suit
brought by agents of the Third Reich put a stop to its
further distribution.
Senator Cranston's strong commitment to human rights and
peace, and his alertness to the dangers of totalitarian one-
man rule, were clearly shaped by witnessing first hand the
rise of fascism in Europe and the deadly chain of events
leading to the Second World
[[Page S3836]]
War and its Cold War aftermath. His first work in Washington,
serving in 1940 and 1941 as a representative of the Common
Cause for American Unity, entailed lobbying Congress for
fairness in legislation affecting foreign born Americans.
This activity gave him an opportunity to learn at close
range the inner workings of the Senate.
With the outbreak of war, Cranston served as Chief of the
Foreign Language Division of the Office of War Information in
the Executive Offices of the President. When offered a draft
deferment in 1944, he declined it and enlisted in the Army as
a private, where he was first assigned to an infantry unit
training in the U.S. Because of his experience as a foreign
correspondent and journalist, he became editor of Army Talk.
His rank was sergeant by VJ Day.
While still in the Army, he began researching and writing a
book in hopes of influencing international decision-making in
the post-war world. It was an account of how, in the
aftermath of the first World War, a handful of willful men in
the U.S. Senate, opposed to President Wilson and the 14-point
peace plan, managed to prevent U.S. participation in the
League of Nations, ultimately undermining the peace and
setting the stage for a second World War.
In 1945, ``The Killing of the Peace'' by Alan Cranston was
published. The New York Times rated it one of the 10 best
books of the year. The book served to warn against the folly
of repeating the same isolationist mistakes that followed
World War I. The Cranston book also presented a meticulous
description of the byzantine inner workings of the U.S.
Senate during the debate over ratification of the League of
Nations treaty. At age 31, the future Senator revealed a full
appreciation of the critical role played by individual egos,
personalities and interpersonal relationships in the
legislative process, and showed how awareness to such human
factors could be critical in determining the outcome of a
vote.
The immediate post-war years in Washington and publication
of The Killing of the Peace marked the real beginning of
Cranston's determination to become a member of the Senate. He
wanted to enter that institution where he could promote world
peace and causes of social justice.
From 1949 to 1952 he served as national president of the
United World Federalists, dedicated to promoting peace
through world law. He was a principal founder of the
California Democratic Council, established to influence the
direction of the Democratic Party in the state, and was
elected as the first CDC President in 1953 and served until
1958.
He was elected California state controller in 1958, which
placed him among the top ranks of the party's statewide
elected officials. He was reelected in 1962 and served until
1966.
SENATE ACHIEVEMENTS
Foreign affairs
Elected to the Senate in l968, during the height of
fighting in Vietnam, Senator Cranston quickly allied with so-
called ``doves'' which were a distinct minority in Congress
at that time. Together with Senator Edward Brooke of
Massachusetts, Alan Cranston co-authored the first measure to
pass the Senate cutting off funds to continue the war in
Southeast Asia. The Brooke-Cranston Amendment paved the way
to the U.S. Congress ultimately asserting its prerogatives
over military spending and provided for the orderly
termination of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.
Senator Cranston played key roles in shaping the SALT and
START arms pacts, and in framing debate on virtually every
new weapon system, arms control issue and foreign treaty from
1969 to 1993. A recognized leader on the Foreign Relations
Committee, Alan Cranston was a highly respected voice on
behalf of arms control, nuclear non-proliferation, peaceful
settlement of international conflict, human rights around the
world, sensible and compassionate approaches to immigration
and refugee issues, foreign trade and long range solutions
to problems of famine, disease and oppression in the Third
World.
In addition to U.S.-Soviet relations, those specific areas
of foreign policy in which Senator Cranston made a
significant impact include the passage of the Panama Canal
Treaty, efforts to bar military aid to the Nicaraguan
contras, aid to Israel and efforts toward peace in the Middle
East, helping to bring a halt to U.S. involvement in a civil
war in Angola, and opposition to apartheid in South Africa.
Environmental legislation
Among the legacy of Alan Cranston's years in the Senate is
a wealth of parks, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, wild
rivers, scenic areas and coastline protection measures. With
just two bills in which Alan Cranston and Rep. Phillip Burton
of San Francisco teamed--the Omnibus Parks Act of 1978 and
the Alaska Lands Act of 1980--as much acreage was placed
under federal protection as all the parks lands created
earlier in the 20th Century combined. Senator Cranston was
the Senate sponsor of legislation creating the Golden Gate
National Recreation Area, the Santa Monica Mountains National
Recreation Area, the Channel Islands National Park, a 48,000
acre addition to the Redwoods National Park, and the
inclusion of Mineral King into Sequoia National Park. He
sponsored 12 different wilderness bills which became law
between 1969 and 1982. He helped close Death Valley National
Monument to open pit mining and was an architect of the
Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
He worked diligently throughout his Senate years for the
California Desert Protection Act, that called for setting
aside millions of acres of desert lands as wilderness and
park preserves, and creating better government conservation
efforts for a vast portion of the California desert
ecosystem. His efforts ultimately came to fruition when
Senator Dianne Feinstein, during the first Clinton term, was
able to enact into law the Cranston crusade for desert
preservation.
Even this long list does not tell the complete story of
Senator Cranston's environmental record, which includes clear
air and clean water legislation, control of toxic wastes,
liability for oil spills, restoration of fish and wildlife
resources, and support for new technologies for cleaner
fuels. No other period in American history has seen so much
been accomplished for environmental protection as the last
three decades of the 20th Century, and Senator Cranston was
an essential but largely unheralded architect of these
policies.
Civil rights/Civil liberties
In his first term as a Senator, Alan Cranston wrote the
amendment that extended to federal workers the civil rights
protections earlier mandated to private employers. He also
played a key strategic role in ending a filibuster which
threatened the extension of the Voting Rights Act. He
authored the first Senate bill to redress grievances of
Japanese-Americans interned in relocation camps during the
Second World War. Cranston co-authored landmark legislation
protecting the civil rights of institutionalized persons. He
was the first U.S. Senator to employ an openly-gay person on
his staff, and he fought official discrimination against
homosexuals in immigration laws and access to legal services.
Aware from his days as a journalist of the importance of
protecting news sources, Senator Cranston fought the Nixon
Administration to preserve an unfettered and free press in
America. He successfully blocked legislation in 1975 that
would have created an Official Secrets Act threatening First
Amendment freedoms.
Health care
Both on the Senate and Human Resources Subcommittee on
Health and Scientific Research, and as Chairman of the Senate
Veterans Affairs Committee, Senator Cranston worked to secure
for all individuals access to health services necessary for
the prevention and treatment of disease and injury and for
the promotion of physical and mental well-being.
He authored the law, and extensions and refinements of it,
that provided for the development nationwide of comprehensive
medical services (EMS) systems and for the training of
emergency medical personnel. He steered the original
Emergency Medical Systems Act through Congress, then
persuaded a reluctant President Nixon to sign it into law. A
few years later, the Cranston measure was quite possibly
responsible for saving another President's life. It was at a
special trauma care unit at George Washington University
Medical Center in Washington, D.C., established in part by
the EMS law, where President Reagan's life was saved
following an assassination attempt in 1981.
Senator Cranston also wrote laws that have made a broad
range of family planning services available to individuals
who cannot otherwise afford or gain ready access to them. He
authored legislation that improved services to families of
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and encouraged expanded
research efforts. Legislation to support community efforts to
control venereal diseases and tuberculosis were shaped by
Senator Cranston. He authored several provisions of law
substantially increasing funding for AIDS research,
education, and public health activities.
He wrote the law that expanded and coordinated federal
research in arthritis, and he helped create the National
Institute on Aging. Totally separate from his role as a
federal legislator, he helped establish the private, non-
profit Alliance for Aging Research to spur research
scientists to find answers for the chronic disabling
conditions of aging, including Alzheimer's Disease.
His commitment to healthy aging was also personal. A
lifelong physical fitness buff and accomplished runner, he
set a world record for his age group in 1969, running the
100-yard dash in 12.6 seconds. He broke his own record three
years later running in the University of Pennsylvania Relays
at age 59.
Rights for persons with disabilities
When Alan Cranston came to the Senate, disabled persons had
virtually no legal protection against unjust discrimination
and there had been little progress toward removing physical
barriers that excluded them from public buildings and
facilities. He was acutely aware of these injustices due to
crippling disabilities suffered by members of his immediate
family. He often characterized people with disabilities as
``the one civil rights constituency any of us can be thrust
into without a moment's warning.'' He led efforts to enact
legislation in 1973 for the first time outlawing
discrimination in federally-funded programs and requiring
that federally-funded buildings be made accessible to
disabled individuals, and promoting the employment and
advancement of persons with disabilities by the federal
government and federal contractors. The sloping sidewalk
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curbs for wheelchairs on nearly every street in the nation
stem from Alan Cranston's early advocacy for disabled people.
Children and families
Senator Cranston authored a rich body of legislative
reforms that humanized and vastly improved adoption
assistance, foster care, child custody and child care. He was
a leader in sponsoring child abuse and neglect prevention
laws and in investigating the abuse of children in
institutions.
He was responsible for extending the original authorization
of the Head Start pre-school education program. He authored
successful bills extending Medicaid coverage for prenatal
health care for low-income pregnant women. He co-wrote the
landmark L975 law designed to provide educational
opportunities for handicapped children, and he was a strong
supporter and developer of children's nutrition and feeding
programs throughout his time in the Senate.
Many private organizations honored Cranston for his work,
including the North American Conference on Adoptable
Children, which named him ``Child Advocate of the Year'' in
1979, the California Adoption Advocacy Network, the Child
Welfare League of America, the Day Care and Child Development
Council of America, the California Child Development
Administrators Association, and the JACKIE organization,
which cited ``his leadership in obtaining national adoption
and foster care reform.''
Veterans
Though opposed to the Vietnam War, he was deeply
compassionate toward those who fought America's most
unpopular war. Able to separate the war from the warriors, he
was an early champion for the Vietnam veterans, especially
for improving health care in VA hospitals and clinics.
In his first year in the Senate, Alan Cranston was assigned
chairmanship of a Labor Committee subcommittee dealing with
veterans. He used that post to draw national attention to
inadequate and shocking conditions in VA hospitals, which
were overwhelmed by the returning wounded from the Vietnam
war. When a full Committee on Veterans Affairs was
established in the Senate, he chaired its subcommittee on
health and hospitals and later chaired the full committee for
a total of nine years.
Among a few highlights of this record: improvements in
compensation for service-connected disabled veterans,
education and training programs tailored to Vietnam-era
veterans, requirements for federal contractors to give
preference in hiring for Vietnam-era and disabled veterans,
and a long list of initiatives to improve health care in the
VA medical system.
Alan Cranston wrote the law that created a national network
of VA counseling facilities known as ``Vet Centers'' to aid
returning Vietnam veterans in coping with readjustment to
civilian society, and helping to identify and treat the
condition known as post-traumatic stress syndrome.
He was among the first to draw attention to the health
problems believed associated with exposure to Agent Orange
and he gave the VA specific authority to provide Vietnam
veterans with medical care for those conditions. He also
helped bring to light health problems of veterans who were
exposed to nuclear radiation as part of U.S. government
atomic testing in the 1940s and 50s, and he fought to allow
compensation for subsequent medical effects of the exposure.
For more than a decade he fought to allow veterans legal
rights to appeal VA decisions on claims for benefits and
ultimately succeeded in establishing the United States Court
of Veterans Appeals. His very last day in the Senate, Alan
Cranston was responsible for passage of three veterans bills:
Veterans Re-employment Rights, Veterans Health-Care Services,
and the Veterans Health Care Act.
Women
Another constant throughout the Cranston Senate career has
been his efforts aimed at eradicating sex discrimination and
providing equal opportunities for women.
He worked hard, both in the U.S. Congress and in the
California legislature, for passage and ratification of the
Equal Rights Amendment. He authored provisions of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Act precluding discrimination in
hiring and retaining women employees and those who are
pregnant. On the Banking Committee he pioneered laws
prohibiting discrimination against women in obtaining credit
and benefitting from insurance policies.
He consistently championed women's access to health care
and reproductive health services. He was the Senate author of
the Freedom of Choice Act to codify into federal law the Roe
v. Wade court decision.
Addenda
Any summary of the Cranston record would be incomplete
without also noting the following:
Senator Cranston helped lead the opposition in the U.S.
Senate to G. Harrold Carswell and Clement Haynsworth, both
nominated by President Richard Nixon to the Supreme Court.
Both nominations were defeated.
When Robert Bork was nominated to the Court, it was a vote
count taken by Democratic Whip Alan Cranston that first
showed the nomination could be overturn. Senator Cranston
skillfully used this information to persuade swing vote
Senators to reject the Bork nomination.
During the Carter Presidency, when Cranston had the
patronage power to recommend federal judicial appointments,
he instead established a bipartisan committee with the
California Bar Association to assist in screening candidates
based on merit. Under this system four women, four African-
Americans, two Latinos and one Asian were appointed to the
U.S. District Court in California. In addition, one African-
American, one woman, and one Latino were appointed as U.S.
Attorneys.
He long championed federal support for mass transit,
including the Surface Transit Act, which for the first time
opened up the Federal Highway Act to allow mass transit to
compete for federal funds on an equal basis with highways.
As Housing Subcommittee Chairman on the Banking Committee,
he lead efforts to pass the Urban Mass Transit Act of 1987,
the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, and the Housing and
Community Development Act of 1987 and then succeeded in
gaining enactment of the Cranston-Gonzalez National
Affordable Housing Act in October 1990, a landmark law that
set a new course for federal housing assistance, stressing
production of affordable housing units, improved FHA
insurance, elderly and handicapped housing expansion, special
housing for people with AIDS, and reform of public housing.
Passage of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992
culminated Senator Cranston's 24 years of major legislative
achievements steadily aimed at making housing more available
and fostering community economic growth.
He helped strengthen the Resources Conservation and
Recovery Act, the basic law which allows the federal
government to regulate hazardous waste material to insure
that it is safely managed.
He headed efforts in the Senate to break the filibuster
mounted against Labor Law Reform.
Over more than two decades, he provided diligent oversight
and direction for all federal volunteer programs, including
the Peace Corps, VISTA, the ACTION Agency, Foster
Grandparents, and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program.
Post-Senate Career
From 1993 until his death just hours before the first day
of 2001, Alan Cranston pursued the opportunity afforded by
the end of the Cold War to abolish nuclear weapons. He worked
on the issue as Chairman of the Gorbachev Foundation, and
then as President of the Global Security Institute in San
Francisco, which he helped establish. An important
accomplishment of the Institute was to put together, with a
coalition of groups called Project Abolition, the Responsible
Security Appeal, which calls for action leading to the
elimination of all nuclear weapons. At Cranston's urging,
this document was signed by such notable people as Paul
Nitze, General Charles Horner, and former President Jimmy
Carter. Project Abolition, founded by Cranston, promises to
be the foundation for a wider nuclear abolition campaign in
the years ahead.
During the decade of the 1990s, he traveled to the Indian
Subcontinent, in Central Asia and elsewhere, working with
national leaders to accommodate peaceful change in the world,
especially the development of pluralistic, free societies in
the former Soviet Union. In the very last years of his life,
he was more often at home, in the sprawling Spanish Colonial
style residence in Los Altos Hills, where he was surrounded
by three generations of his family. He assembled a
magnificent library encompassing a wide range of California,
American and International history and politics, in thousands
of books, artworks, memorabilia and photographs. To this
library would come many friends, political allies old and
new, former staff and an occasional journalist intent on an
interview. Former Senator Cranston made this assessment of
his priorities in one interview, just months before his
death:
``I am an abolitionist on two fronts. I believe we have to
abolish nuclear weapons before they abolish us, and I think
we have to eliminate the incredibly important and significant
role of money in politics before we're going to have our
democracy working as it should work. If we blow ourselves up
in a nuclear war, no other issue, no matter how important it
may seem to be, is going to matter. And until we get money
out of politics, money is going to affect every issue that
comes along, often adversely to the interest of the public.
So let's abolish both.''
Years earlier, while preparing to retire from the United
States Senate, he expressed gratitude for the opportunities
to make a difference on behalf of California and people
throughout the world:
``It has been a privilege I have cherished and for which I
can never adequately thank the people of California. It is my
hope that many of the accomplishments achieved over these
past 24 years in the areas of world peace, the environment,
and in the effort to secure a better quality of life for
millions of Americans will survive and serve as the basis of
continued progress by others in behalf of future
generations.''
____
February 6, 2001, 2:00 pm, Memorial Tribute to Alan Cranston, U.S.
Senator 1969--1993, Hart Senate Office Building, Room 902, Washington,
D.C.
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. On behalf of the sponsors,
Senators Cleland, Simpson, Rockefeller, Kennedy, Feinstein,
and Boxer, welcome to this Memorial Tribute to Senator Alan
Cranston. At the outset, I want to express our appreciation
to the U.S. Army
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Strings for their Prelude musical offerings today. Also,
thanks to C-Span for covering this event. This turnout today
is itself a wonderful testimonial to the work of this man of
the Senate, Alan Cranston, and we are absolutely delighted
that his family has journeyed here from California to share
in this Tribute--his son, Kim, and daughter-in-law Colette,
and their child and Alan's granddaughter, Evan, who graces
the program cover with Alan, and we are so happy that Alan's
wonderful, 91-year-old sister, R.E., who wrote a biography
about Alan, is with us as well.
During his 24 years as a Senator, Alan Cranston did much to
better the lives of the people of his state and the people of
this country and all countries. You will hear much about
those efforts and achievements today. In my role, I am a
proxy for the scores of staff who worked for Alan Cranston
over his Senate career. I began in March 1969, almost at the
beginning, and stayed 21 and a half years. I've always
thought that one could tell a great deal about the kind of
person someone was by how those who worked most closely with
him felt about him. I think it speaks volumes about Alan
Cranston--and Alan is the way he asked his staff always to
refer to him--that so many worked with him for so long. In
fact, five worked for him for his full 24 years; two others
worked more than 20 years; five others for 15 years or more,
and three or four for 10 or more years. I doubt that any
Senator has surpassed that record for staff loyalty and staff
satisfaction.
Alan was wonderful to work for and with. He was not a
saint, of course, but he was a gentlemen, through and
through. He gave respect to get respect. To me he was a
mentor, a teacher, an inspiration, and a friend. I loved him.
I will always remember him. And when I do, I will think back
to our last meeting--at dinner on November 13. He was strong
and vibrant and full of passionate commitment to the cause of
the elimination of nuclear weapons. I remember our hugging
goodbye. It was a great hug, but I wish I had held on a
littler longer.
A few announcements before we get to our speakers: First of
all, I want to remind each of you to please sign one of the
guest books in the lobby before you leave. I hope you've each
gotten a program. If not, you can pick one up on the way out.
And also on the way out, there is a paper on Senator
Cranston's legislative legacy in the Senate.
Before I introduce our first speaker, I want to note the
presence here--now or expected--in addition to those who will
speak, of many distinguished members of the Senate and House:
Senator Rockefeller, who is one of our sponsors; Senator
Lugar, Senator Leahy, Senator Dodd, Senator Bingaman, Senator
Sarbanes, Senator Dorgan, former Senator DeConcini, and
Representatives Waxman, Filner, Roybal, Capps, and Harmon.
Also with us is former Senator Harris Wofford, who spoke so
eloquently at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on January
16, and Mark Schneider, former Director of the Peace Corps,
which Harris Wofford was instrumental in starting, in which
Senator Dodd served as a volunteer in Central America, and in
which Alan Cranston believed so deeply. We are also honored
to have the presence of three Cabinet members, all from
California--Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta,
Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, and Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Tony Principi.
Our first speaker has timed it impeccably. (Laughter.) Our
first speaker is, fittingly, the lead sponsor of today's
tribute. Simply put, Alan Cranston loved Max Cleland--as do
I. They first met in 1969, and I'm sure Senator Cleland will
talk about that. Alan was truly overjoyed at Max's election
to the Senate in 1996. I want to express my gratitude to Max
personally and to his staff, Bill Johnstone, Farrar Johnston,
and Andy VanLandingham, for all of their help with the
arrangements for this event.
And now our first speaker, Senator Max Cleland of Georgia.
(Applause.)
Senator Max Cleland. Thank you all very much and thank you
Jon Steinberg for being uncharacteristically brief.
(Laughter.)
I see so many of my colleagues here. Really my first real
exposure to the United States Senate came about because Alan
Cranston cared. He was an unusual individual. I visited the
Dirksen Building here for the first time in December of 1969.
I was still basically a patient in the VA hospital system
when I was asked to appear before something called the Senate
Subcommittee on Veterans' Affairs about how the VA was
handling returning Vietnam war veterans. That meeting was
chaired by a tall, lean freshman California senator named
Alan Cranston. I really didn't know him then, but it became
the start of a three-decade friendship.
In 1974, I ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor in
Georgia, and, other than my own priority for my own race, my
second priority in the whole world in terms of politics was
to make sure Alan Cranston got reelected in 1974. Actually,
Alan was very kind to me, and brought me out to California,
and I got a chance to campaign for him and kind of clear out
some of the cobwebs that I had in my own mind about politics
and about life. We campaigned together and I found him just
as inspiring and invigorating in that campaign as when I had
met him in '69.
It's amazing how life works. Little did I know that, as
someone from Georgia, someone from California would be
critical in my continued service in public life. I did lose
my race for lieutenant governor in 1974 and, therefore, was
unemployed. Christmas Eve, 1974, I called my friend Jonathan
Steinberg, and said ``I just wanted to wish you the happiest
of holidays'' and said ``by the way, if you're looking for
anybody who wants to work, I'm available.'' He said, ``are
you serious?'' And I said ``I am deadly serious.'' Well, it
was Alan Cranston that made it possible for me to get a
$12,500-a-year job on the staff of the Senate Veterans'
Affairs Committee in the spring of 1975. That was more money
than I'd ever made in my whole entire life.
I was there a couple of years and, in the summer of 1976,
when a young man from Georgia named Jimmy Carter seemed like
he was destined to win the Democratic primary, Alan Cranston
talked to me and said ``I think you ought to be the new head
of the Veterans' Administration.'' That scared me to death. I
said, ``well, if you really think I can do it, let's go for
it.'' He talked to Senator Nunn and talked to Senator
Talmadge. By the August convention of the American Legion, a
convention in Seattle, Senator Cranston pulled Jimmy Carter
aside and said ``I have two requests.'' I don't know what the
other one was, but he said ``the second one is to make Max
Cleland head of the VA.'' And Jimmy Carter replied, ``I love
Max Cleland.''
So President Carter wound up in January 1977 as President
of the United States, and Alan Cranston wound up as Chairman
of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and I only had two
friends in Washington; one was President, and the other was
Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. (Laughter.) So I
was nominated in March of 1977, as the youngest head of the
Veterans' Administration, and, thanks to Alan Cranston, I was
confirmed in record time, and took over that agency, with
really the support of Jon Steinberg and Alan. They were my
constant guides, and sometimes spurs, and encouraged me all
the way.
One of the things I'm proudest of that we were able to do,
is put together something called the Vet Center Program. Alan
Cranston, since 1971, had been introducing in the Senate
something called psychological readjustment counseling for
Vietnam veterans and their families. It would usually pass
the Senate, die in the House, and had no Presidential
support; but I was able to talk to President Carter, we were
able to put the administration behind this legislation. It
passed, and we were able to sign it into law, and I put
together one of the very first Vet Centers in 1980 in Van
Nuys, California. Now, there are some 200 scattered around
the country. Some three-and-a-half million veterans and their
families have received counseling through this program, and
Alan Cranston was basically responsible.
Let me just say that, in 1973, he helped to pass
legislation that helped the disabled in this country, that
required that federally-funded buildings be made accessible,
that promoted the hiring and advancement of people with
disabilities by the Federal government. He established
something called the Architectural and Transportation
Barriers Compliance Board, which has the responsibility for
setting standards for accessibility and for assisting and
forcing compliance with accessibility laws. I was named to
that Board by President Carter in 1979.
Throughout the remainder of the 70s, Alan worked to revamp
federally-assisted state voc-rehab programs, sponsoring laws
that gave priority to the most seriously disabled. In 1980,
he sponsored legislation to make some improvements in that
program at the VA, and in 1990 he was a leading cosponsor of
the Americans with Disabilities Act, which has been a pioneer
piece of legislation, as we all know.
I just want you to know that I wouldn't be in the United
States Senate, I wouldn't have ever been head of the
Veterans' Administration, without the mild-mannered
distinguished gentleman from the great state of California. I
mourn his passing, and we will miss him. God bless you.
(Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. Thank you very much, Max.
Speaking of the ADA, I see Senator Harkin here. We welcome
you.
Alan referred to our next speaker as his best friend on the
Republican side. They served together as their respective
party leaders on the Veterans' Affairs Committee and as
Assistant Floor Leaders, or Whips, as they were also called.
Another tall, lanky, hairline-challenged Alan, former Senator
Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming.
Senator Alan K. Simpson. Jonathan and former colleagues and
friends and family, Kim, Colette, Evan, and Eleanor, and
Cabinet members, including one Norm Mineta, who I met at the
age of 12 in the war relocation center at Hart Mountain. He
was behind wire, I wasn't, and I should have been and he
shouldn't have. (Laughter.) But, anyway, it's a long,
wonderful friendship, with a guy I love, and I'm so damn
proud of you, pal, even when you did that when you were in
Boy Scouts, I'll never forget. (Laughter.)
Well, it's a great honor and privilege to honor my old
friend. To be asked is very, very moving to me, and I want to
share just a few memories and thoughts about a very special
friend. I came to the Senate in '79. Al was Chairman of the
Veterans' Affairs Committee, and that's when I first met Max.
I said, ``Max, you have a wonderful job there, Secretary of
Veterans Affairs; veterans never pick on each other--ha, ha,
ha.'' Well, anyway, it was an interesting time, Max, wasn't
it? Well, enough of that. Butch is here and he would correct
anything that I said. But it fell to my pleasant luck to soon
become the ranking member in 1980, the Reagan Administration.
Well, I knew who Al was, I knew of
[[Page S3839]]
his journalistic prowess, of his warning to his countrymen
about Adolf Hitler, and the two versions of ``Mein Kampf'',
one for domestic consumption and one for the naive and the
unwary, and Alan was sending out the alert. I knew of his
athletic achievements and his stamina, and I very soon
learned of his powerful loyalty to America's veterans.
He was so cordial to me, and his staff, so very helpful to
this new, pea-green freshman. And what a staff it was: Jon
Steinberg, Ed Scott, Bill Brew, Babette Polzer. Well, I
sought their counsel, and plumbed their expertise. Al would
occasionally check up on me, ``how are you? Can we be of more
help?'' I said, ``I need a lot more help.'' But then I built
my own staff. And, oh, to all of you who will be deprived of
staff one day. Staff deprivation is a serious issue
(laughter); it is the most shocking of the transitions
(laughter), and my wife, a beautiful woman of 46 years, she
said ``Alan, your staff is gone, you have no staff, they are
not here, and I am not one of your staff.'' (Laughter.) But,
there was Biblical precedent for this, you look it up in the
Good Book, it says, ``Jacob died leaning on his staff''.
(Laughter.) Now, so along came Ken Bergquist and one Tony
Principi, in those early years. Tony seems to have moved
along nicely in life, a wonderful human being with rare
gifts, who has been bestowed again on the veterans and the
people of this country. He will be serving very wisely and
very well as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and I'm damn
proud of you, too, pal.
Tom Harvey then came on. But Tony and Jon Steinberg became
a very dynamic duo, they worked with Tom Harvey in those
early years. And, as I say then, in '80, I became in the
majority, and the first call I received after the election
was from Al Cranston. Of course, who else? In that cheery
voice, he said ``congratulations, Mr. Chairman.'' Well, I
thought, the power, I felt the surge . . . (laughter) . . .
and I thought how like him to do that. Well, we cranked out
some good legislation together. With Sonny here, another dear
friend on the other side of the aisle, and John Paul
Hammerschmidt, then Bob Stump, those were men of my faith, my
political faith. And Sonny used to sit next to me and say:
``Don't do it pal. I know what you're going to do. Just shut
up, won't you?'' (Laughter.) I know we're not going to let
that get away now, Sonny.
Anyway, the changing of the guard went well. The only hitch
was that all of the veterans organizations had selected
National Commanders and Officers from California. Well, you
know how that goes. And now their guy was gone, and the
cowboy from Wyoming was in the saddle. Well that was very
much fun to watch, I loved it. It was painful for Jonathan,
but I loved it. And we were able to, when I took over, we
were able to get Steinberg's statutory language down to one
paragraph in one page. We never let him go two pages with one
paragraph. And he had a tendency to do that.
Then, in 1984, I was honored to become the Assistant
Majority Leader, and who was the Assistant Minority Leader?
Al Cranston. We worked closely together. We enjoyed each
other, we trusted each other. We gave good support and
counsel to Bob Dole and George Mitchell, and we thought it
was a silly idea, but that we oughta make things work. And
even when Al was running for President, imagine me, being the
ranking member of a committee with Kennedy and Hart and
Cranston, all three of them running for President. I went
to them and I said ``you cannot use these chores of mine
for your great cycle, and I won't ever use the committee
to embarrass you'' That's the kind of friendship I had
with Ted, with Al, with Gary, it was very special, and it
can be that way again. I urge it upon you all. Anyway, he
ran for President, he gave it his all, as he did in every
phase of his life, but the brass ring eluded, eluded his
grip, and he came back to his Senate home, his pride
intact. The only time I really, really flustered him, I
was flush with power. Now a member of the majority, the
fever of the majority burned in my bosom like a hot
Gospel. I ambled over to his offices, his spacious
offices, great view, two fireplaces, couches, cozy chairs,
comfort, oh, and I said ``Al, yes I think this will do
very nicely [(laughter)] for my new Whip office.'' And the
blood drained from his face. And I said: ``No, no, just
kidding, Al. You represent millions, I represent
thousands. But when the wind shifts around here, and you
Dems have the horses, don't let `em come around my office
with a tape measure and some greedy looking guy with a
clipboard.'' And he said, ``it's a deal.'' And we had a
handshake. Then the time came, and no one ever darkened my
door, no unworthies with tape measures ever came to see
me.
So, we legislated together, we argued, we collaborated, we
joshed and laughed with each other, we took pleasure in
confusing people. Same first name, same hairstyle; ``hairing
impaired'' is what we called it in political correctness.
Same gaunt, emaciated frame. Same gait, same grin. And,
people would come up to me and say, ``I just think the world
of you and you ran for President, and your views on the
environment and nuclear freeze thrill me to death.''
(Laughter.) And I'd say, ``No, no; I'm Al Simpson,'' and
they'd say ``Not you!'' (Laughter.) And Al said he got that
in reverse about, you know, twice a month, too, so we would
compare that, and our constituents were often not in
alignment, you might imagine. But the best one, though, and
then I'm going to stop: Cheney, Gulf War, Secretary of
Defense, he called and he said, ``we're going over to a game
in Baltimore; bring Ann'', and we went over to the game, and
53,000 Oriole fans, ``Hey Cheney, we love ya! Great stuff!''
You know, I said ``Boy, this is getting bad in here.'' We
left in the seventh inning and went back down through the
bowels, where all the guys, the beer drinkers and the cigar
smokers, were, and they went ``Hey, Cheney, baby, you're all
right--we love ya!'' And I turned to him and I said, ``You
know, they never treated you like this in Casper.'' And a guy
from the audience said ``Hey, I know the big guy, too; that's
Al Cranston!'' (Laughter.) So, I can assure you he loved that
story (laughter), when I told him that.
Well, he handled life well. Stuck to his guns, worked
through pain, met life full in the face, as if in a track
meet, headed for the tape, and he loved that thrill. Many
would have buckled; not Al. The pain of loss of the
Presidency, the pain of loss of family members, the pain of
loss of Norma to Parkinson's Disease that withered her, that
withered their union. The pain of cancer, the pain of
accusation and assault by the media, the pain from his peers
at that time; we talked about that, oh yes we did, of that
sense of being singled out, very painful.
And he left the Senate and went on to vital other things,
and meaningful things in his life, undaunted, head high,
smile on his face, fire in the belly, finishing the course
laid out. And we knew on one unknown day he would be taken
from us. And we shall miss him. But not mourn him. For he was
a man of vigor and joy and vision. And my life is much richer
for having shared a significant piece of it with Alan
Cranston. A race well run, my old friend. God rest his soul.
(Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. Senator Simpson, we greatly
appreciate your having rearranged your schedule to come down
here from New York and we know you have to leave to go back
there.
We're going to show a very short film now, it's only two or
three minutes, but we thought we ought to have Alan with us.
Film
Narrator. Moscow, Winter, 1998.
Voice. Alan, you don't wear a coat in the Russian winter?
Alan Cranston. I don't believe in them.
Voice. He doesn't believe in them. It's like John Kennedy,
it's . . .
Narrator. That was Alan in retirement. For most people, a
time to slow down. But at 84, as he approached the Russian
Duma, Alan Cranston was a man on a lifelong mission.
Alan Cranston. I got into all this way back shortly after
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I met Albert Einstein. He told me, as
he told others, that the whole human race could be wiped out
by nuclear weapons. I've been working on it ever since.
Narrator. And forty years later, after trillions had been
spent on weapons of mass destruction, Alan emerged with a
collection of allies that astonished even him.
Alan Cranston. One very dramatic moment, when Lee Butler,
who had command of all of our nuclear weapons, gave his first
public address at the State of the World Forum, in San
Francisco, revealing the concerns he had developed about the
whole deterrence policy and the ongoing dangers from reliance
on nuclear weapons. And, as he spoke, presiding right next to
him was Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the country that we
would have destroyed. At the very end of this remarkable
speech, Gorbachev and Butler stood up and embraced each
other. That was a very dramatic moment.
Two weeks ago, General Butler and I made public a statement
by 48 past and present heads of state and some 75 other
national leaders from 48 nations, advocating specific steps
towards abolition. Despite these and other favorable
developments, there is significant doubt, skepticism,
cynicism, and outright opposition to much of this. So,
plainly, there is much to do, and we have a lot of hard
thinking to do about what is in order. But let me say in
closing that I do not believe that we need to wait, and I do
not believe that we can afford to wait, until the end of the
next century, to fulfill the obligation of our generation to
all generations that preceded us and all generations that
hopefully will follow us, to deal with the threat to all life
that exists and is implicit in nuclear weapons. Thank you.
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. That film that was pulled
together from a larger documentary by George Crile, a former
CBS producer, who has developed documentaries on nuclear arms
for ``60 Minutes'' and CNN. We are indebted to him and the
Global Security Institute, of which Alan Cranston was
President, for making that film available to us.
And now we will go a little bit out of order, and hear from
one of this event's sponsors, the Senior Senator from
California, whose work with Alan Cranston goes back many,
many years and who, among many other achievements, carried on
successfully with some very important environmental
initiatives that Senator Cranston began.
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. (Applause.)
Senator Dianne Feinstein. Thank you very much. Thank you.
It's really a great honor and a privilege to be here. I just
want to recognize two members of the California House
delegation that came in. First is Lois Capps, from the Santa
Barbara area, and Jane Harmon, from the southern Los Angeles
area. And I'm not sure whether Paul Wellstone and Jeff
Bingaman were introduced earlier, but I want everybody to
know that they're here, too.
[[Page S3840]]
Alan Simpson is a hard act to follow, there's no question
about that. I look at life this way: That we're here but for
an instant in an eternity. No one really knows when that
instant is over, and the only thing that really matters is
what we do with that instant. Because, when it's over,
there's nothing we can take with us other than the legacy,
leave behind. Alan Cranston first came into my life in 1962,
and that's when I first met his sister, R.E., and it was in
his campaign for State Controller; believe it or not, it was
the first campaign for which I ever volunteered, and so I've
always kind of taken a special interest in a lot of his
achievements. From that point on, I found this former long
distance runner really to be a tireless workhorse for all
Californians, and, as a matter of fact, for all Americans.
This was a man who really loved the intricacies of the
legislative process. He was the consummate vote counter. He
possessed the uncanny ability to assess competing camps, to
quickly find where votes would fall and determine whether the
best course of action was to fight or compromise.
Unfortunately, neither my friend Barbara Boxer nor I really
had an opportunity to work with him in his nearly quarter of
a century here in the Senate, but I think these traits are
legendary, I think they're known by all.
Alan Cranston yielded a whole array of wonderful
accomplishments, but I want to just concentrate today on a
few things in the environment. And, in the true sprit of the
legendary Californian conservationist John Muir, Alan
Cranston became a very passionate architect of measures to
preserve our God-given natural treasures. Alan Cranston
was the original author of something called the Desert
Protection Act. Shortly after I won in 1993, and knew I
was coming to Washington, the phone rang, and Alan said,
``Would you be willing to take over the effort to pass a
Desert Protection Act?'' And I said, ``Of course.'' And we
came back and we revised the language, rewrote the bill
somewhat, changed some of the concepts, and moved it
ahead. But, the basic originator of this, let there be no
doubt, was Alan Cranston. The bill was filibustered, but
we were lucky in the Senate, we got it through, and it
became a reality in 1994. And the legislation created the
largest park and wilderness designation in our nation.
Over six million acres, two new National Parks, Death
Valley and Joshua Tree, and one National Preserve, the
East Mojave. And so because of that, we have actually
protected, well I said six, but it's actually closer to
seven million acres of pristine California desert
wilderness for all time. Thank you, Alan Cranston.
He was also the lead sponsor of legislation which
established the Golden Gate and the Santa Monica National
Recreation Area, the Channel Islands National Park, a 48,000
acre addition to the Redwoods National Park, and the
inclusion of Mineral King into the Sequoia National Park. He
also sponsored twelve different wilderness bills that became
law between 1969 and 1982. He helped close Death Valley
National Monument to open-pit mining. He helped craft the
Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and
with just two bills, on which he teamed with the late and
wondrous Phillip Burton of San Francisco, the Omnibus Parks
Act of 1978, and the Alaska Lands Act of 1980, as much
acreage was placed under federal protection as all the park
lands created earlier in the twentieth century combined.
So, I can truthfully say, without his service, America
would have been a different, and certainly a poorer place, in
terms of our environment and the quality of life for many of
our citizens. Alan Cranston leaves a legacy of preservation
that will be remembered and enjoyed and certainly by his
beautiful seven-year granddaughter Evan, who is here today.
And I think, for my granddaughter, for Barbara's grandson,
and for all of us, who really look at this land and want to
do what we can to protect it.
This was a very special Californian. And life wasn't always
easy for Alan, either. But I think his ability to keep his
eye on the goal, to establish what he established, whether it
was from the translation of Mein Kampf, to his work against
nuclear devastation, to his environmental record, Alan
Cranston truly lived that instant in eternity, and he has
truly left us a good legacy. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. I'm sure there are others that I
failed to mention. I thank Senator Feinstein. I know that
Senator Reid is also here, and again I apologize if I missed
anyone.
No Senator has worked on more causes closer to Alan
Cranston's heart and soul than has Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
I am particularly grateful to him, because it was through his
chief counsel, Jim Flug, who is also here today, that I was
introduced to and came to work for Alan in 1969. Senator
Cranston and Senator Kennedy served together for 12 years on
the Labor and Human Resources Committee, which Senator
Kennedy chaired from 1987 to 1995 and again for 17 days this
year.
Our next speaker, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.
(Applause.)
Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Thank you, Jonathan. To Kim, and
Colette, and Evan, and R.E.--let me begin by saying that I
loved Alan Cranston too. I will never forget the 24 years of
friendship and leadership and achievement with which he
graced the Senate and the nation. And so it's a special
privilege and honor for me to be part of this tribute today.
Alan is profoundly missed by his family and friends, his
colleagues in the Congress, and by all those around the world
who pursue the great goals of hope and progress and peace.
I must say--I grew up thinking Cranston was a city in Rhode
Island. But Alan taught each of us that Cranston stands for
something else as well--the very best in public service.
Alan loved to lead behind the scenes--for 14 of those 24
Senate years with us, he was our Democratic whip, and he
wrote the book about the job. In those great years, we used
to tease Alan about the position, because so few people
outside Congress knew what it involved. Since Alan was from
California, a lot of people thought the Minority Whip was
the name of a Leather Bar in Malibu. (Laughter.)
But seriously, Alan was a giant of his day on many issues,
and his concern for social justice made him a leader on them
all. We served together for many years on the Labor Committee
and especially the Health Subcommittee, and his insights were
indispensable. I always felt that if we'd had another Alan
Cranston or two in those years, we'd have actually passed our
Health Security Act, and made health care the basic right for
all that it ought to be, instead of just an expensive
privilege for the few.
Perhaps the greatest legacy that Alan left us was his able
and tireless work for democracy and world peace. Every
village in the world is closer to that goal today because of
Alan. No one in the Senate fought harder or more effectively
for our nuclear weapons freeze in the 1980's, or for nuclear
arms control. His hope for a nuclear-free future still
represents the highest aspiration of millions--even
billions--throughout the world.
I also recall Alan's pioneering efforts to press for Senate
action to end the war in Vietnam, and his equally able
leadership for civil rights at home and human rights around
the world. We know how deeply he felt about injustice to
anyone anywhere. And his leadership in the battle against
apartheid in South Africa was indispensable.
Throughout his brilliant career, the causes of civil rights
and human rights were central to Alan's being and his
mission--and America and the world are better off today
because Alan Cranston passed this way.
A key part of all his achievements was his unique ability
to translate his ideals into practical legislation. Few if
any Senators have been as skilled as Alan in the art of
constructive legislative compromise that fairly leads to
progress for the nation.
He was a vigorous supporter of the Peace Corps, a strong
overseer of its performance, and a brilliant advocate for all
the Peace Corps Volunteers. He was a champion for health
coverage for returning Volunteers, and one of the first to
understand that good health coverage had to include mental
health services as well.
In many ways, his first love was the Peace Corps, and I
know that President Kennedy would have been very proud of
him. Even before he came to the Senate, he had his first
contact with the Corps, as a consultant to Sargent Shriver.
As Alan often said, he became involved because he was so
inspired by my brother's vision of a world where Americans of
all ages could work side-by-side with peoples throughout the
world to put an end to poverty.
Because of Alan, the Peace Corps today is thriving as never
before--free of the partisan tensions that divide us on other
issues--spreading international understanding of Alan's and
America's best ideals--educating new generations of young
Americans about our common heritage as travelers on spaceship
earth--teaching us about the beauty, the richness, and the
diversity of other peoples, other languages, other cultures
and about the enduring importance of the greatest pursuit of
all--the pursuit of peace.
Near the end of John Bunyan's ``Pilgrim's Progress,'' there
is a passage that tells of the death of Valiant:
``Then, he said, I am going to my Father's. And though with
great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not regret me
of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My
sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage,
and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and
scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me, that I have
fought his battle who now will be my rewarder.
``When the day that he must go hence was come, many
accompanied him to the riverside, into which as he went, he
said, `Death, where is thy sting?' and as he went down
deeper, he said, `Grave, where is thy victory?' So he passed
over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other
side.''
We loved you, Alan. We miss you. And we always will.
(Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. Thank you, Senator.
Our next speaker was elected to the Senate seat that Alan
occupied when he retired in 1993. She and Senator Cranston
collaborated on many matters while she served in the House of
Representatives, and she authored with Senator Feinstein a
lovely resolution of tribute to Senator Cranston that was
adopted by the Senate on January 22. On behalf of Alan's
family and his extended family and all his friends, we
express our gratitude for this most gracious action.
Senator Barbara Boxer of California. (Applause.)
Senator Barbara Boxer. Thank you. To Alan's family,
beautiful family, and to my dear colleagues who are here, it
certainly has been my honor for the past eight years to serve
in the seat that was held by Alan Cranston for 24 years.
[[Page S3841]]
Alan was a deeply caring human being and he cared even for
those whose distant cries were not always heard in
Washington.
From civil rights to arms control, from cleaning up the
environment to improving the lives of our nation's veterans--
Alan's work knew no geographic boundaries. But, sometimes
Alan's legacy on women's rights gets overlooked and that is
what I'm going to speak about today.
From his earliest days in the Senate, Alan made improving
the lives of women a priority. In 1969, he supported the
Equal Rights Amendment. Remember the ERA. It failed. But, in
1972 he became a proud cosponsor again of the ERA, and it
passed. But he didn't stop there--he wrote letters and he got
on the phone to California legislators considering the
measure, urging their support, and his work paid off and
California ratified it that same year. Unfortunately, not all
the states followed suit. But Alan did not stop his advocacy.
He continued over the next decade to push for the Amendment's
ratification and when time ran out, he cosponsored another
ERA in 1983 and another one in 1985, even before he knew he
was going to have a granddaughter. Alan would not give up.
He worked to eliminate gender discrimination in the
workplace. He was the principal author of the Equal
Employment Opportunity Act Amendments of 1972, which extended
protections against gender discrimination to federal
employees in the workplace. And he was the very first member
of Congress to introduce legislation aimed at eliminating
wage discrimination in the federal workplace.
Alan understood the challenges faced by working mothers. He
worked to provide child care for this nation's working
families, introducing some of the first ever legislation to
provide care both before and after school. He knew that many
kids were without adult supervision, and I was so proud when
under the Clinton Administration, we saw after-school funding
increase from $1 million in 1997 to $845 million in 2001.
Alan, you laid the ground work for that.
He also worked tirelessly to protect a women's right to
choose, authoring the Freedom of Choice Act to codify Roe v.
Wade. I proudly carry that bill now. He pushed for increased
access to family planning services for low-income women and
teenagers, and fought to provide medical care to low-income
pregnant women, who otherwise would have been left without it
and would not have had healthy babies.
And he didn't stop there. He sought to level the financial
playing field for women, pushing for laws prohibiting
discrimination against women trying to obtain credit. And we
forget today when we open our mailboxes and we keep getting
all these applications for credit cards, there was a time
when a woman could not get any credit. We thank you, Alan,
although we have to restrain ourselves now and then. We
appreciate the work you did.
Alan was responsible for the first appointment of a woman
to the federal court bench in California. I've personally,
and I know Dianne, we've recommended many women; five of
those that I recommended to President Clinton were nominated
and confirmed. Alan laid that ground work too.
An advocate for equal education for young women, he fought
hard for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and
you know what that is, equal opportunity for our children,
for our girls in athletics.
And the list goes on and I will stop there with it, because
it could go on and on. But I stand before you today, as a
Senator who is carrying on the progressive work of Alan
Cranston. His belief that women are equal has borne fruit.
If you look around today in the Senate, there are 13 women
Senators from both parties. That's just in this building.
Next door--and we have a couple here--there are 61 women in
the House. We are doing better now, but as my friend Barbara
Mikulski often says, it takes the ``Sir Galahads,'' to get us
there, and Alan was definitely a Sir Galahad.
I'm just going to tell you one quick personal story, and
then I'll end. Alan decided to retire, I ran for the seat and
won the seat, and about a year later, he made an appointment
to come to see me. Now, I know this, the family must know
this, but unlike the Whip's office, which someone else must
have decorated, Alan's personal office here in the Hart
building was not the most beautiful place, because this was
not important to Alan. It was dark; it was dark leather and
dark walls and the blinds were drawn, and that was it. Alan
just saw it as a place to work--files all over the floor. So
when I got into the office, I said: ``Let's brighten it up.
Let's bring California.'' And I ordered all of these green
plants, and we opened up all the shades and we painted the
walls peach and we got peach and green fabrics, and I mean,
it was different. So I thought, you know, Alan was coming to
see me about arms control, but I was excited that he was
going to see what had happened to his office. And he came in
and he sat down, and he sat there and his first thing is,
``You've got to be more aggressive on arms control.'' Now
that's the first time anyone ever told me to be more
aggressive on anything. (Laughter.) But he started to lecture
me and, you know, time went on, it was an hour, he still
hadn't said a thing about the room. So, finally, I got up my
courage, and I said, ``So Alan, what do you think of the
office?'' And he looked around, and he looked around, and he
said, ``You moved my desk.'' (Laughter.) That was it.
Alan said about his role as Senator, and I quote him, when
he retired: ``It has been a privilege I have cherished and
for which I can never adequately thank the people of
California.'' Let me take this moment on behalf of the people
of California to say to Alan Cranston thank you and your work
lives on. (Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. Thank you very much, Senator
Boxer, and thank you for being with us so long. I couldn't
help but note when you talked about women and forging the way
for women, that the U.S. Army Strings that played at the
beginning of our ceremony today was composed of four women
from the U.S. Army. And no men.
I want also to acknowledge the presence here of Senator
Daniel Akaka, of the Democratic Leader, Senator Tom Daschle,
and of Senator Hollings of South Carolina. We appreciate
their presence with us very much.
Known to all veterans' advocates as ``Mr. Chairman'', our
next speaker was the counterpart in the House to Senator
Cranston and Senator Simpson as the Chairman of the Committee
on Veterans' Affairs in the other body, as it is
affectionately called. He and Alan had to resolve many sticky
and tricky issues over the 14 years that he led the House
Committee, and they were always able to do so with
congeniality and mutual respect.
He has been a great friend to me personally, as has been
his Committee staff. I now introduce Former Representative
Sonny Montgomery of Mississippi, ``Mr. Chairman''.
(Applause.)
Representative G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery. Thanks very much,
Jon.
To the family of Senator Cranston, my colleagues on this
panel, cabinet members, other distinguished guests, ladies
and gentlemen.
I'd like to thank you, Judge Steinberg and others for
letting me participate in the remarks of this Memorial
Tribute to Senator Alan Cranston.
Alan and I became friends because he was Chairman of the
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and I was Chairman of the
House Veterans' Affairs Committee, and we both enjoyed
working for veterans and their families. Alan was a veteran
of World War II and had really a good feel for veterans
issues.
You know, at first, I was a little uncomfortable working
with the great Senator from California. I am kinda the hand-
shaking, pat-on-the-back congressman whereas Alan was in
great physical shape, and he would look down on me and say
``I am sure we can work together'' and we did.
He had a couple of veterans functions out in California and
asked me to come out.
Going from one veterans meeting to another in different
towns in California, we stopped at this restaurant, and he
said they made the best vegetable soup in California. People
recognized him when he walked in, but Alan wanted the soup
and didn't work the crowd, so to speak.
I said to Steinberg, ``explain to me'', and he did, in
California you had millions of people and you just don't work
the crowds. (Laughter.) So, I found out about that.
Alan did many good things for veterans, and I will mention
a few.
He was the architect of the Veterans Readjustment
Counseling Act that Max Cleland mentioned. There are 206
centers to help Vietnam veterans to readjust and Alan did
pass this legislation in 1979.
He had a strong interest in veterans health care and he
passed legislation that gave thousands of veterans more
access to health care. He pushed for more outpatient clinics,
and more veterans use outpatient clinic facilities now and
the VA, I'm happy to say, has been able to cut back on the
number of hospital beds in our 172 hospitals, because of Alan
Cranston and our outpatient clinics.
He was part of our team that established the U.S. Court of
Appeals for Veterans Claims and worked very hard for the
upgrade of the VA to a Cabinet department.
Some member of Congress, and what a mistake he made,
introduced legislation to tax veterans disability
compensation. Senator Cranston went berserk, he killed this
tax legislation before it even saw the light of day, and he
was right.
Alan was very helpful in establishing educational benefits
for veterans who completed their military obligation, and, he
saw to it that the educational benefits go to the actives as
well as the National Guard and Reserve.
As big as California is and the many government programs
that the state has, I believe he really enjoyed working for
veterans and their families more than other issues in
government.
He was a friend of the veteran and veterans organizations
knew they could count on Alan, and he came through for them.
We all miss him and know even in Heaven Alan has an
exercise program going. (Laughter and applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman.
I want to note Senator Jeffords who has just joined us. We
appreciate your being here.
Next, we will hear from a former colleague of Alan's who
knew him long before he became a United States Senator or
held any public office. He very graciously called last
Thursday to offer to say a few words in tribute to Alan. I
now introduce former Representative and Independent
Presidential candidate, John B. Anderson of Illinois.
(Applause.)
Representative John B. Anderson. Thank you very much, Judge
Steinberg, and my distinguished former colleagues in both the
[[Page S3842]]
House and the Senate, distinguished members of the cabinet,
and Alan's family. I count it an honor indeed to be included
in the group that is privileged this afternoon to say just a
few words about the career of this very remarkable man. You
have already heard a great deal about his commitment to the
cause of civil rights, women's rights, conservation, the
environment, veterans' affairs. I will not attempt to repeat
the comments or the praise that could continue to be heaped
upon him for the efforts that he exerted in all of those
fields. But, as a member of the ``other body'' for 12 of the
24 years that Alan Cranston served in the Senate, I was well
aware of the distinguished record that he had compiled in
that body. And I would simply again state what has already
been remarked that earlier than most he saw the folly of our
entanglement in Southeast Asia, and I remember his very clear
and clairvoyant voice calling for an end to the struggle
there. He called for more than that, for an end to the arms
race.
And it's really to that vision that he had in this
particular realm of international affairs that I wanted to
direct my very brief remarks this afternoon. Because, as a
very young man he was gifted with a passion for achieving
peace in our time that was shaped as someone said about a
former President, I forget who it was, he had a vision that
enabled him to peer around a corner of history, to see what
lay beyond. In short, he was, indeed, a globalist long
before globalization had become a term used in common
parlance.
And it was just two years after the founding of the United
World Federalists in Asheville, North Carolina, that young
Alan Cranston at the age of 35 became the President of that
organization and served until 1951. One of his mentors was
the late, distinguished Grenville Clark, who, along with
Lewis B. Sonn, wrote that very magisterial work on world
peace through world law. And that indeed was the vision that
Alan Cranston had. He had a vision of a democratic world
federation that would emerge from what was then, when he was
president of the United World Federalists, still a very
nascent United Nations. He maintained that interest and
served on the Board of Advisors of the World Federalists
Association until his recent death.
Upon his retirement from the Senate in 1994, and this is
the point, I think, that I wanted the opportunity to
emphasize here this afternoon, he did not regard his career
as ended. I read the account of the marvelous memorial
service conducted in San Francisco just three weeks ago, in
Grace Cathedral, where his son was quoted as saying that he
had said that ``when the end comes, I want to be able somehow
to still struggle across the finish line with my head up.''
And he added to that that when the end came, he was still
sprinting; he was not merely struggling, he was sprinting in
pursuit of the goals that he sought. And he became a leading
and a very strong voice in civil society in the area that, at
the end of his life, I am convinced, lay closest to his
heart. It was the interest in disarmament, an end to the
threat of nuclear war and the achievement of world peace
through world law. And he believed that that could be
achieved only through the application and the use of the same
federalist principles that had inspired the Framers of our
Constitution to write a Constitution that would bring about
peace and domestic tranquillity among the then 13 independent
sovereignties who had found that under the Articles of
Confederation their bonds of unity had become frayed. And it
was Alan's belief, building on that historical fact, that
only with a restructured and an empowered United Nations, one
capable of maintaining peace with justice, that we would
recognize the goal that he sought, of world peace through
world law.
It's been mentioned, I think, already, that he served as
President of the Global Security Institute, a non-profit
organization dedicated to disarmament and world peace. He saw
security not simply as an issue confined within the narrow
boundaries of nationalism but as an issue that required the
forging of new bonds of global cooperation.
And one of the last and most vivid memories that I
personally have of Alan Cranston was less than three years
ago, when the Hague Appeal for Peace drew thousands of peace
activists from around the world to the Hague, to celebrate,
to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the first
Hague peace conference. Alan was there as one of the leading
spokespersons from the United States. And again, one of the
memorable experiences of that international meeting was to
attend one of its sessions and to hear him describe how he
was even then busy working on a book, a book on sovereignty,
a book that would seek to explain that, in this new
millennium, the old Westphalian theory of state sovereignty
was simply not sufficient unto the needs of our present age,
and we had to reconceptualize that term in a way that would
allow the formation of democratic global institutions that
would carry out the goals of disarmament and build a world in
which peace could be achieved through reliance on the rule of
law.
Those are the memories that I will certainly carry with me,
as inspiration for the remainder of my life, and I thank you,
Alan Cranston, for the things that you did, both in the
Senate, and then in those very important years when you
carried forth your ideas and lived for your ideals as a
strong member of American civil society. (Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. I think that gave us all an
important glimpse of the formation of Alan Cranston's
philosophy and thinking and I know that there are a number of
people from those early days in the United World Federalists
who are here today, including Neil Potter and Ted Waller, who
worked with Alan so many years ago at the founding of that
organization.
Our next speaker has served for 26 years in the House of
Representatives. He worked very closely with Alan on many
initiatives of significance to their California constituents
and particularly to the children of their state and the
children of the entire country. We are very grateful that he
has taken time to be with us throughout this entire ceremony
this afternoon.
Representative George Miller of California. (Applause.)
Representative George Miller. Well thank you, and to all of
you, to family and friends, and colleagues. I am very, very
pleased to be able to participate in this memorial to an
extraordinary life, to clearly one of the leading California
statesmen of the 20th century.
My familiarity with Alan Cranston goes back long before my
politics, when as a young boy, I sat in the living room of
our home and listened to Alan Cranston and my father and many
other California politicians plot campaigns and create and
organize the California Democratic Council, which changed the
politics of California, changed the Democratic Party in
California, launched their careers, and later the careers of
so many other progressive politicians in the State of
California. It was a profound organization, in terms of its
influence in California. In the post-war, in the conservative
years, it was an organization, that led by Alan, would speak
out on nuclear arms control, on civil rights, on the rights
of labor--these issues that became the cornerstone for so
many of us who later sought to run for political life in the
State of California.
I think it's rather fitting that we remember Alan at this
time. Because we can remember when a conservative
administration came to this town twenty years ago and sought
to launch an attack on programs for the poor, on women and
the ill, on foster care and adoption, on child health, on
handicapped education, and so many other programs that were
targeted for elimination. Alan and his colleagues not only
led that fight, but participated in it, stood their ground,
and fought against those efforts, and today, when we see a
new administration arriving in town, we're no longer talking
about the elimination of these programs, we're talking about
making them work better. We recognize the beneficiaries of
these programs, and the benefits to our society. We now see
that, in fact, because of the fight that was made a long time
ago, we now have a legacy of understanding the role and the
importance that government plays in so many American's lives,
and the necessity of it. We've heard it with respect to
veterans, we've heard it with respect to the environment, to
women, and to so many others in American society.
Many of us would think that if you look at the last quarter
of the 20th century in American politics, you would think of
extreme ideological behavior, you'd think of political chaos,
and you would suggest that not a lot got done. But, as
already had been mentioned here, if you look at the legacy
and the workload and the work product of Alan Cranston, you
would recognize that, in fact, it was a golden age of
legislation for people like Alan Cranston. He was able to put
his signature and his work into so many efforts that became
the law of the land. I recall two of those, working with him
as a colleague in the House. One was in the 70s; in the late
70s, after five years of working together, of holding
hearings, site visits, talking with families and children, we
put together legislation to deal with the problems of foster
care, to children who were trapped in a system from which
they could not escape, families who could not get their
children back from that system, and the impact that it had on
these children. That law was later signed by President
Carter, and it was Alan's tenacity that allowed us to get it
through.
The other one of course, that's been mentioned here, is the
California Desert. Alan started pioneering that effort so
many years ago, so many years before we actually considered
it on the floor of the House or the Senate. Where he walked
over those areas, he hiked over them, he spent time with the
constituents who were interested in them, with the
organizations that were trying to preserve them. Kim has
spent much time in that area. And, after Alan left the
Senate, I managed the bill on the floor of the House. The
opponents were numerous; we used to have to have security and
armed guards to go into the hearings on the California Desert
Bill. They held the controversial ones in Beverly Hills, so
that people would have trouble getting there, it was a grand
ploy. And it worked. But, in any case, the opposition in the
House was incredible. We spent many, many, many, many days
debating this legislation, on again, off again, part of the
day, into the night. They filed numerous amendments, all of
which had unlimited debate time. They had a coterie of people
who would speak on every amendment for the maximum time
allowed, so that they could delay this bill and not see it
enacted. I called Alan and I said, ``Alan, we've got to
accept some amendments to speed this along. The members of
the House are starting to call me Moses, they've said they've
been in the desert for so long on this legislation.'' I said,
[[Page S3843]]
``Some of these amendments, what can we accept to narrow this
down'', and he said, ``None''. And I said, ``Alan, this is
the House, it will never stop'', and he said, ``None''. He
said ``We can't accept them''. I talked to him about a couple
of amendments to move the boundaries, he said, ``No, I've
been there; I've been there and if you go to the bottom of
that canyon, you're going to find a little spring down
there--most people don't know it exists. You can't put that
outside the park, that's going to have to be in.'' Well, it's
turned out he was right. Dianne managed the bill on the
Senate floor, and Bill Clinton signed it into law, and now
it's one of our leading attractions in the nation and
certainly in the State of California. Those who opposed it
are now seeking authorizations and appropriations for
visitors centers and various support systems for the park.
(Laughter.) The Chambers of Commerce now think that this is a
cash register and they'd like to have it expanded, they'd
like to have the boundaries expanded, they'd like to have the
protections upgraded, so that more visitors would come and
bless their economy. It was Alan Cranston's foresight that
brought that about.
You know, the political mentor to so many of us, Phil
Burton, used to say to us that when you came to the House or
you came to the Senate, that it was a privilege and it was an
honor, and you had to pay the rent, you had to pay the rent
all the time to stay there. And I think that Alan fully
understood that while this clearly was the world's most
exclusive club, he still had to pay the rent, and he did over
and over and over again, on behalf of so many Americans, on
behalf of our environment, on behalf of world peace, on
behalf of human rights. He paid the rent constantly to earn
his right to stay here and to work and to work and to work on
behalf of all of us. And I think we should thank him, for all
of the fights that he made, and all of the ground that he
stood, on behalf of America, and all of its people. Thank you
very much, Alan. (Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. Thank you, Representative Miller.
Next, we will hear from a Senator who served on two
Committees with Alan--Banking and Foreign Relations--where
they shared many common interests. Senator Kerry was a highly
decorated veteran of Vietnam and a co-founder of the Vietnam
Veterans of America, an organization which was to play an
important role in the enactment of much legislation that he
and Senator Cranston championed, particularly the Veterans'
Judicial Review Act that created the Court on which I am
honored to serve along with another former Member of Congress
who is also with us today, Chief Judge Ken Kramer.
Senator Kerry succeeded to the Democratic leadership of the
Banking Committee's Housing Subcommittee, which Senator
Cranston had chaired from 1987 to 1993. Also, I know that
Senator Kerry shares the passion that Senator Cranston lived
and breathed for ending the threat of nuclear annihilation.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. (Applause.)
Senator John Kerry. Thank you, Jonathan. Kim, Colette,
Evan, and R.E., it's a very special privilege to join with
all of you today in remembering the remarkable life and
achievements of our friend, Alan Cranston.
As we've heard today, and as we all know, Alan was a
sprinter, a record-holding sprinter, who, in his sixties, was
only two seconds slower than he was in his twenties when he
set the records. And I think it's safe to say that those who
knew him well would agree that he really sprinted through
life; he sprinted through the United States Senate, always
with a yellow pad in his hand and a felt-tip pen, covered
with ink, with more things on that pad to do in one day than
most of us would venture to accomplish in a week or a month,
and he got them done. And always with this incredible,
mischievous twinkle in his eye. He had fun advocating and
challenging the system.
One of the most enduring images of Alan would be at the
Iowa caucuses in 1984 at the Holiday Inn in Keokuk, Iowa,
where he was seen sprinting barefooted down 40-meter
hallways, then he'd walk back, and he'd repeat the exercise
for about 40 minutes. And I think that understanding that, we
can understand why it was no coincidence that Alan's favorite
hotel was the Chicago O'Hare Hilton, where they had 250-meter
hallways. (Laughter.)
Three weeks ago in California, we had a tender goodbye to
our friend, this sprinter, at a memorial service--calling to
mind the many ways in which he enriched our lives and this
country.
There in the Grace Cathedral, we heard Colette Cranston say
that in death Alan Cranston ``has become my Jiminy Cricket--
that little voice in [her] conscience that says, `Colette,
think before you leap.''' It would not be an exaggeration to
say that that warning was a characteristic of Alan--think
before you leap, and, most of all, he wanted us to think, he
wanted us to look, and, by God, he wanted us to leap. He
implored us to put a public face on policy. He wanted us to
think not in terms of statistics and numbers and programs,
but in terms of people; and the people he spoke of most
often, as all of my colleagues who served with him will
remember, were senior citizens, children, those without
decent housing, immigrants, those in need of a helping hand
regardless of race or religion. He was a moral voice, a voice
of conscience, someone who understood that even as he
remained vigilant in defending the needs and wishes of his
home state of California, he was also a global citizen and he
knew and felt the responsibilities of this institution,
towards the rest of the world.
Through four terms as a United States Senator, he also
remained a man of enormous humility--on his answering machine
he was simply ``Alan''--as he was to so many who worked with
him and knew him. And this personal sense of place and of
restraint made it easy to underestimate the contributions
that he made to the Senate, and to our country. Certainly
he never paused long enough to personally remind us of the
impact of his service, of the history that he was a part
of and the lives that he touched.
I first met Alan in 1971 when I had returned from Vietnam
and many of our veterans were part of an effort to end what
we thought was a failed policy in that country. In Alan
Cranston we found one of the few Senators willing not just to
join in public opposition to the war in Vietnam, but to
become a voice of healing for veterans of the war--a
statesman whose leadership enabled others, over time, to
separate their feelings about the war from their feelings for
the veterans of the war. At a time when too many wanted
literally to disown this country's own veterans, Alan
Cranston offered them a warm embrace. He was eager to do
something all too rare in Washington: To listen--and he
listened to veterans who had much to say, much of it ignored
for too long. He honored their pride and their pain with his
sensitivity and his understanding.
That's when I first came to see the great energy and the
commitment that he brought to issues affecting veterans,
especially those of the Vietnam era. He was deeply involved
on veterans' health care issues, among the first to fight for
the recognition of post-Vietnam stress syndrome, a leader in
insisting, together with Sonny Montgomery, on the extension
of coverage under the VA, under the GI Bill. And when the
Agent Orange issue came to the fore, Alan insisted on getting
answers from a government that was unresponsive. He made sure
that veterans and their families got the care that they
needed. Under his leadership, together with his partner in
the House, they increased GI Bill benefits for Vietnam
veterans--and I tell you that that was a time when veterans
too often had to fight for what was their simple due, whether
it was a memorial here in Washington, or simply to have the
government recognize that it was a war, and not simply a
conflict. Alan's leadership made all the difference. It's a
sad truth in our history that a weary nation indeed seemed
eager to turn its back on the entire war by also turning its
back on so many veterans. It should forever be a source of
pride to the Cranston family that Alan was chief among those
who insisted that America honor that service and keep faith
with sons who left pieces of themselves and years of their
lives on the battlefield in Vietnam.
This was a man who fought with extraordinary passion for
everything. And he fought at the most difficult of times. Not
just for veterans, but as we've heard from others today, he
fought against all that war represents--remembering that war,
and the killing that follows it, is the ultimate failure of
diplomacy.
Alan Cranston was above all else a man of peace. And he was
a man of peace not as a matter of public policy, but as a
matter of personal passion. Remember: This was a man who, in
1934, found himself in the same room as Adolf Hitler. Five
years later, he wrote a critical English translation of Adolf
Hitler's ``Mein Kampf'' in an effort to reveal the German
leader's true plans. And he wore Hitler's ensuing lawsuit as
a badge of honor, proud that he had stood up to try and warn
the English-speaking world about the evils of Nazism.
Throughout the rest of his service he used public office to
force Americans to listen to other prescient warnings--about
nuclear war, about the arms race, about hopes for peace that
he refused to give up even as others chose to beat the drums
of war.
Senator Cranston came to his famous commitment, as we
learned from the film, after meeting with Albert Einstein in
1946. And he left that meeting convinced that he had found
his mission and he would indeed spend the balance of his life
arguing that conviction before the world.
As a member of the Senate leadership and a senior voice on
the Democratic side of the Foreign Relations Committee, he
worked tirelessly to reduce the nuclear threat. Obviously,
there were many of those efforts, but one of the most
unpublicized was his effort through the 1970s and 80's, when
he convened a unique group known as the ``SALT Study Group''.
A senators-only gathering monthly in his office, off the
record, face-to-face to define the confines of the debate. He
knew the impact that quiet diplomacy could have on the
issues, but on this issue above all that he cared about the
most.
He loved the Peace Corps, and he fought for it. He fought
to attach human rights conditions on aid to El Salvador. He
was a leading national advocate for the mutual verifiable
freeze. He was always an idealist whose increase in political
power, gratefully, was always met by progress for the issues
that he cared about so deeply. It was not just the work of a
career, but the work of a lifetime--and after he left the
Senate, we all know the remarkable commitment that he
[[Page S3844]]
continued with Mikhail Gorbachev and ultimately in his
founding of the Global Security Institute.
He did that because he sensed that the end of the Cold War,
with all of the opportunity that it afforded, which he
understood, still left us a world that was more dangerous,
and he was haunted by the threat of nuclear terrorism. We
missed his voice in the debate on the test ban treaty, and we
miss him even more today.
When he left the Senate, Alan reflected on his service and
he said of his own legacy, simply: ``Most of all, I have
dedicated myself to the cause of peace.''
That dedication was real, it was lasting, and the legacy of
peace for a good and peaceful man who gave living embodiment
to Culbertson's simple, stubborn faith that ``God and the
politicians willing, the United States can declare peace upon
the world, and win it.'' That belief was Alan Cranston--and
it's a belief still worth fighting for. (Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. Our concluding speaker from this
body is also one of its newest members. She traveled to
California three weeks ago, as did Senator Kerry, as he told
us, to attend the ceremony attended by over a thousand
persons at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. For reasons
that I know she will share with us, she will be--along with
Max Cleland--a living legacy of Alan Cranston in the United
States Senate.
Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. (Applause.)
Senator Maria Cantwell. Thank you. To Kim and Colette and
Evan and R.E., thank you for allowing me to share this
occasion to remember Alan and to have been there a few weeks
ago and to see so many of the friends and faces that Alan
touched.
People today have talked about Alan's legislative career--
the many pieces of legislation that will live with us for a
long time. But I'd like to share with you today maybe a
different Alan Cranston that I knew as I worked on his
Presidential campaign in 1983 and 1984. Some people might
think running for President is a glorious task, but it is a
very difficult one that I think Alan knew would help aid the
cause and message that he wanted to fight for. In fact, I'm
not from Washington state originally; it was Alan Cranston
that dropped me off there in 1983. In fact, the first time I
ever visited, I was a part of his presidential campaign
staff, in which he left me at SEA-TAC Airport in Seattle and
went on about his business to campaign. But people who knew
Alan knew that he jumped into that race to deliver a message
for the right reason. I was fortunate enough to have read
R.E.'s book about Alan, and knew all the things that Alan had
fought through in his life, some of the things that have been
mentioned today. About being sued by Adolf Hitler for
translating in next to no time a version of ``Mein Kampf''.
Being a pre-World War II journalist and being smart enough to
understand what was going to be advocated and running back to
the United States and having that published. And all of the
other wonderful things that Alan did in helping women, and on
the environment; one thing I haven't heard mentioned today is
his work with Native Americans, which is something that I
recognize.
But what was amazing about Alan from a personal
perspective, and you definitely get to know someone from a
personal perspective when you travel with him on a
presidential campaign, is that Alan was very self
disciplined. John Kerry talked about his running, and that
was something that was very important to Alan on a daily
basis. And, yes, I can attest to the fact that he did sprint
in the hotel corridors when you didn't schedule time for him
to run outside. But, when Alan, challenged with the fact that
maybe some of the other hotel guests found it shocking to
find somebody so tall and long running down the halls at 7:30
in the morning, the Senator replied, ``well maybe I should
start at 6:30 instead.'' (Laughter.)
But Alan never complained about that task. And for me, in
Washington state, there were lots of World Federalists, a lot
of people part of the nuclear freeze movement, a lot of
people very appreciative of his efforts on the environment.
But Alan was also a very self-deprecating person when it came
to making a moment light. And I'll never forget the time in
Vancouver, Washington, where hundreds of people had showed up
at eight-thirty on a Sunday morning, I think it was the
Fourth of July, to hear his message about the nuclear freeze.
And when he mistakenly called the host of the event, whose
name was ``June'', ``Jane'', and he heard a gasp from the
audience, he quickly looked down at his program and saw that
he had mistakenly called her the wrong name, and all of a
sudden started pounding on his chest, saying, ``Me Tarzan!
You Jane!'' (Laughter.) Which put everybody at ease, and Alan
went on to give his very important remarks to a community
that I don't think has seen since the likes of Alan Cranston.
And yet, when you run a Presidential campaign, you also are
a spokesperson for your issues. But I never saw Alan take
advantage of that situation, where he was trying to make more
than the situation called for. In fact, he was very reserved
in his comments. I remember being with him on August 31, in
1983, when the Korean Airline flight 007 was shot down. We
happened to be in Anchorage, Alaska, at that time, and many
of you probably know the various controversies that arose out
of that; 269 people were killed. And I remember waking up
that morning to a press event where probably 200 different
people were there, including the national press, all wanting
Alan to make a statement right away; because he was a
Presidential candidate, because his remarks would be all over
the news. And yet Alan had the self discipline not just to
say something immediately that morning, but to say, in a
calming way, ``let's find out the facts, first.'' And when I
think about that as a human being, particularly in my new
post and job, in which the world moves so fast and in which
people go about promoting their idea and concepts, the very
human side of Alan Cranston remains with me, and I hope it
does with each of you.
I talked to him in October of this year, in which I was out
campaigning in Bellingham, Washington, one of the last places
I had to campaign with him, and I said to him, ``Senator, you
dropped me off here almost seventeen years ago, and you never
picked me up.'' And Alan reminded me that is was time to work
together. So I guess I say to Kim, and Colette, and R.E., and
to those of you who are going to carry on the Cranston
legacy, that he left in each one of us a piece of that flame
that he carried for so long. You saw it on the film. It
started when Albert Einstein said to him, ``nuclear arms
could wipe out a whole race of people.'' I think Alan started
saying that from that moment on, and reminded people about it
until his last days. And so I hope that each and every one of
you, as I will, carries part of that torch and flame that
Alan had of self-discipline, knowing that he was not the
message, but the messenger, in helping this fight. Thank you.
(Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. And now we'll hear from Alan
Cranston's son Kim, who I know is committed to seeing that
Alan's lifelong commitment to securing world peace is carried
on as his most important bequest to his granddaughter Evan
and all the children of our planet.
Kim. (Applause.)
Kim Cranston. Thank you, all. Those of you who were
familiar with the legal pads that Alan carried around and the
black pens will be happy to know that Evan is over here busy
making a ``to do'' list. (Laughter.) I'm not sure what it all
includes.
Jonathan, thank you very much for helping to organize this,
and everybody else who was involved in this, the Senate
sponsors, and each of the other speakers; I deeply appreciate
your kind and touching words about Alan and his work here.
It's good to see all of you, so many old friends. It's sad
under the circumstances that we come together, but it's
wonderful to see you all again. I know how much Alan
cherished your friendship and collaboration over the years.
I was really truly blessed, I feel, to have, through the
genetic lottery, ended up as Alan's son, and had the
opportunity to get to know him as my father, as my dearest
and oldest friend, and as a wonderful collaborator, mentor,
teacher, and leader. And I know his loss as a leader is a
loss we all share.
I've been reflecting over the last month on many of the
things that I've learned from Alan and our work together,
living with him, and a few things stand out that I wanted to
share today. One thing that stood out for me was the
remarkable style of leadership he had. Inside the program is
the poem that he carried, the Lao-Tzu quote, for most of his
life, that really informed the style of leadership that he
practiced. It concludes with:
But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
They will all say,
``We did this ourselves.''
And so today, we're here, recognizing what we accomplished
together with Alan. And so it's an opportunity not only to
mourn his loss, but to celebrate what we accomplished
together, and I think, beyond that, to recommit, and commit
to the ongoing causes that we engaged in with him.
Another lesson that has stood out in the last month for me
was something that I really remember when I first began
hearing it from him. I was told the central purpose of life
was to make the world a better place, or, as one of Alan's
heros, Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, ``life's most
persistent and urgent question is `what are you doing to
serve others?' '' And it was certainly in that spirit that
Alan conducted his life and committed most of his public
life.
And, finally, one other thing that stands out very strongly
for me, both in terms of the work that he did here in
Washington, and to the work that he continued to do after he
left Washington, was his recognition of the extraordinary
moment in history in which we all live. In that regard, I
just note that a friend commented after Alan had left the
Senate, that they had seen him, and they said, ``Kim, you
know, he doesn't seem to be slowing down, he seems to be
speeding up.'' And I think that was true, because he said
to me that he'd felt since he left the Senate that he
could really focus in on the things that he was most
concerned about, to devote 100% of his energy to those
causes that were of greatest concern to him. And I think
the cornerstone of that was an understanding that we have
entered a new age during our lifetime, when we're facing
global challenges that can be addressed only at the global
level, and that we need to come up with effective new
approaches for dealing with those challenges.
After he left the Senate, the cause did continue, most
recently in the form of the Global Security Institute, which
is continuing,
[[Page S3845]]
and it has a great board, and a wonderful director, Jonathan
Granoff, our CEO, who is here today. And I would really urge
those of you who are here today who shared in those causes
with Alan to look forward to opportunities to collaborate
with us, because the work goes on, and Alan was just the
messenger.
In closing, I'd just like to say something I know Alan
closed most of his speeches with, which was, ``I thank you
for all you are doing, and urge you onward.'' Thank you.
(Applause.)
Judge Jonathan Steinberg. Thank you, Kim. I know your
father would be proud of your personal actions to pick up the
torch and deeply moved by your words.
I want to close with some expressions of thanks to many
people. Again, I want to note how grateful all of us are to
the sponsoring Senators and to all who spoke so eloquently
and movingly about the man who will live forever in my heart
as ``Alan,'' as the most important influence on the lives of
so many of us in this room today.
The presence here throughout this entire ceremony of three
Cabinet officials in this new Administration should remind us
all of Alan's abiding belief that it was possible to form an
alliance with every Senator on one issue or another, and of
his commitment to do just that. Common ground and common
sense was much more important to him than party affiliation
or political philosophy. We thank the three Secretaries who
joined us today and helped remind us of how important those
sentiments are for the welfare of our country.
There are an enormous number of people who volunteered
their time and did just incredible work to make this tribute
as successful and meaningful as we hope that it has been. If
I leave anyone out, I apologize--as I do, and as I did
before, if I left out any former officeholder, who I should
have recognized earlier. So, I offer special thanks, on
behalf of the family and myself, alphabetically, to Zack
Allen, Bill Brew, Fran Butler, Monique Ceruti, Kelly Cordes,
Chad Griffin, Bill Johnstone, Susanne Martinez, Katie
O'Neill, Dan Perry, Valerie Rheinstein, Alexandra Sardegna,
Ed Scott, Martha Stanley, Loraine Tong, Joel Wood, and one
most special person, Elinor Tucker, without whose highly
efficient logistical support we would never have made it to
this point. I thank Senator Rockefeller for allowing her to
put in so much time and effort and to do so in such an
effective way. Finally, an even more personal thanks to my
wife, Shellie, for helping to keep me on an relatively even
keel over the past month as this event was pulled together.
And, finally, thanks to all of you who joined us in tribute
today to Senator Alan McGregor Cranston, a great American who
lived his life by the philosophy of a Chinese poet Lao-Tzu,
whose words on leadership, printed in today's program, Alan
carried with him every day.
That concludes this Tribute. Please remember to sign the
guest book, and thanks again for coming. And we'll go out to
the theme song from Alan's Presidential campaign, ``Chariots
of Fire''. (Applause.)
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