[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 118 (Thursday, July 13, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H5767]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                   BRUCE HERSCHENSOHN BIRTHDAY WISHES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of 
our Nation's greatest conservative minds and most eloquent voices, 
Bruce Herschensohn of California, on the occasion of his upcoming 
birthday.
  I am told he is opposed to keeping an exact count of birthdays, 
either that or he has simply lost track, but it is a significant 
milestone and one for which his friends are grateful and his country is 
fortunate.
  He served our Nation and the free peoples of the world in the U.S. 
Information Agency during the Cold War. Anyone who saw and was inspired 
by the classic tribute, ``John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of 
Drums,'' has Bruce Herschensohn to thank. He went on to serve President 
Nixon as both speechwriter and adviser.
  Anyone who lived in southern California in the late 1970s or the 
1980s will remember Bruce's incisive nightly commentaries on KABC-TV 
and his decisive debates with John Tunney. I can tell you that they 
fundamentally shaped my thinking and animated my career, and I often 
encounter others throughout the country who trace their political roots 
back to his nightly conservative homilies.
  Through the darkest days of the Carter malaise, Herschensohn became a 
beacon of hope, helping to pave the way for the Reagan Revolution. He 
marshaled the self-evident truths of the American founding and 
introduced them to a new generation that was losing its memory of them. 
He connected the dots between freedom and its importance to the 
prosperity and happiness of our society and the stability of our world. 
He helped lay the foundation for the Reagan administration on the 
Presidential transition team.
  If he had had any knack or inclination for raising money, he would 
have served many years in the United States Senate, and both California 
and the Nation would have been infinitely better for it.
  He was one of the earliest voices to raise the alarm over Islamist 
terrorism and has been one of the strongest defenders of the State of 
Israel through all its travails and challenges of the past half-
century.
  But I believe his greatest influence is through the thousands of 
students who have had the good fortune to study under his tutelage at 
the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy for more than a 
decade. The full measure of his contributions to our Nation will be 
measured over the many years to come as his students take their place 
in shaping our Nation's policies over the next generation.
  On behalf of so many who have been influenced, inspired, and 
ultimately motivated by the elegance of his reasoning and the eloquence 
of his words, I am honored to offer happy birthday wishes to Bruce 
Herschensohn today.

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