[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 77 (Friday, June 4, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WINSTON CHURCHILL REMARKS FOR THE RECORD

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TOM DeLAY

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 3, 2004

  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I was honored to serve as Honorary Co-Chair 
of the Churchill Centre and Churchill Archives Centre Gala Dinner on 
June 1, 2004, along with Senators Warner and Lieberman and Sir David 
Manning, KCMG, British Ambassador to the United States.
  Over the past few months and until July 10, 2004, the Churchill 
Centre and the Churchill Archives Centre have been instrumental in 
bringing the exhibit ``Churchill and the Great Republic'' to the 
Library of Congress.
  This is the first major exhibit in the United States dedicated to the 
memory of a man who saved a nation, a leader who stood in defiance of 
evil, and a warrior-poet who gave voice to mankind's will to freedom.
  Winston Churchill understood that the battle his nation faced in 
World War II was not a test of weapons as much as it was a test of 
will.
  He understood--as a matter of fundamental reality--that evil, no 
matter how terrifying, only exists to the extent that people of good-
will allowit to exist.
  That was the lesson of World War II: that sooner or later, evil will 
become aggressive.
  While the outsize proportions of what was being prepared inside the 
Third Reich throughout the 1930s could hardly be imagined, the fact 
remains that throughout Hitler's military build-up, the continent of 
Europe and the rest of the world whistled past the graveyard.
  And while perceptive voices--most notably that of Sir Winston 
himself--implored the West to act before it was too late, the West 
chose not to act, at a cost of 60 million lives.
  Today, the civilized world faces a similar choice. An aggressive evil 
that spent a decade steeling itself for war finally pounced.
  As we did 60 years ago, the United States and Great Britain have led 
a coalition in opposition to it.
  That aggressive evil, while down, is not out.
  What is not open to debate, it seems to me, is the need for the 
trans-Atlantic alliance to maintain its moral and political clarity 
about the war on terror.
  Our enemy, like it was 60 years ago, is not so much a collection of 
men as a collection of ideas, or rather, a collection of lies, 
principal among them the lie that with enough violence and 
intimidation, human cruelty can subdue human freedom.
  Politics aside, the responsibility today of the two nations honored 
by Churchill's citizenship is to remain vigilant--and vigilantly 
honest--about the earth's gathering storms.
  Mistakes will be made, and lives will be lost, but in the end, 
civilization must be defended, and the sword and shield of that eternal 
defense must remain the cooperation and friendship of the British and 
American people.
  That is the legacy of Churchill, a legacy which--despite our 
individual loyalties and prejudices--we can all agree on and honor.

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