    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book II)]
    [October 21, 2005]
    [Pages 1572-1575]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for the Air Force One Pavilion in
    Simi Valley, California
    October 21, 2005

        Thank you all. Fred, you forgot
    to say, Air Force One brought me out here to California--[laughter]--and
    Laura and I are glad we came. Thanks for the warm
    welcome. We're great fans of Nancy Reagan. We
    admire her strength. We admire the love she has for her husband, and
    we're grateful for your friendship. Thank you, Mrs. Reagan. And I
    appreciate the invitation to come back to the Ronald Reagan Presidential
    Library, and I'm proud to stand in this magnificent pavilion that is now
    home to a celebrated symbol of democracy and freedom.
        You know, across this Nation, Americans can visit many great
    memorials to the cause of liberty, from a statue in a busy harbor whose
    arm carries high the flame of freedom, to a quiet field in Arlington
    filled with rows of white tombstones, to a mountainside in the heartland
    carved with the images of America's great leaders. Each evokes a sense
    of awe and wonder. But none can soar at more than 500 miles an hour--
    [laughter]--carrying freedom's message across oceans and continents.
        It was President Reagan's dream to share Air Force One with the
    American people by bringing this plane to his Presidential library. Now,
    as this pavilion opens, Americans will have the chance to experience
    firsthand the majesty and the power of this incredible aircraft. I want
    to thank you all for making this possible. This is an important
    contribution to the history of America.
        I appreciate Fred Ryan, the
    chairman of the Board of Trustees, and I want to thank all the trustees
    who are here. I thank Duke Blackwood, the
    executive director. I appreciate Rob Zucca. He
    happens to be the

    [[Page 1573]]

    Air Force One project specialist, the guy who got the work done.
        Traveling with me today is Colonel Mark Tillman. Fred mentioned the flight into Baghdad. He was the pilot
    flying me into Baghdad. He's--I've always found it's a good thing to
    praise your pilot. [Laughter]
        I appreciate former Governor and Senator Pete Wilson being here--it's good to see you and Gayle; thanks for coming--former Attorney General Ed
    Meese and Ursula;
    Members of the United States Congress, some of whom--all of whom I'm
    about to mention jumped on Air Force One yesterday to fly from
    Washington to Los Angeles. They've heard it's quite comfortable.
    [Laughter] Elton Gallegly and his
    wife, Janice--Elton is the Congressman from
    this district. David Dreier and Dana
    Rohrabacher, thank you all for coming.
        I know Mayor Paul Miller is with us. Mr.
    Mayor, thanks for being here. We appreciate you coming. Only advice I
    have is, fill the potholes. [Laughter]
        We're proud that the Archivist of the United States, Allen
    Weinstein, is with us, as well as Acting
    Secretary of the Air Force Pete Geren.
        But most of all, thanks for inviting Laura
    and me to be here.
        There is no single aircraft called Air Force One. That call sign
    belongs to any Air Force plane when the Commander in Chief is on board.
    And this particular plane, Tail Number 27000, wore the name of Air Force
    One 445 times, over 28 years, in service to America's--7 American
    Presidents, starting with Richard Nixon and ending with me.
        Of all the Presidents that Tail Number 27000 served, none used her
    more than President Ronald Reagan. It was 25 years ago this November
    that the American people sent Ronald Reagan to the White House for his
    first of two terms. Mrs. Reagan recalls their first time onboard
    together, when this plane carried them from California to Washington,
    DC, for the 1981 Inaugural. As the President-elect attended to
    paperwork, Mrs. Reagan says she was busy
    writing letters to friends on Air Force One stationery--[laughter]--that
    said this: ``Look at me. I'm flying on Air Force One.'' [Laughter]
        In all the flights that followed, Nancy was
    always on the President's mind. Aides recall that whenever he traveled
    alone, President Reagan would bow his head in silence before each
    takeoff. When asked why he did so, the President replied that he was
    asking the Lord to take care of Nancy should something happen to him.
        During his 8 years in office, this plane carried our 40th President
    on 211 missions, logging more than 630,000 miles in the air. The plane
    brought President Reagan to London, where he declared to the world that
    freedom and democracy would leave communism ``on the ash heap of
    history.'' This plane brought President Reagan to Berlin, where he
    challenged General Secretary Gorbachev
    to ``tear down this wall.'' And this plane brought President Reagan to
    Moscow, where he stood beneath a giant bust of Lenin and told the
    students at Moscow State University that the future belongs to freedom.
        No matter how many hours he spent in the air, President Reagan never
    lost his sense of humor. One of his favorite pastimes on board Air Force
    One was prowling the staff cabin with a White House photographer in tow
    looking for somebody who was asleep. [Laughter] He would pose next to
    the unknown victim and then send him a signed picture when they got
    home. [Laughter] One day, Secretary of State George Schultz received a photo of himself asleep with his mouth
    wide open--[laughter]--as the President waved his arms in mock
    desperation. The inscription read, ``George, wake up. The Soviets are
    coming.'' [Laughter]
        The President and Mrs. Reagan flew this
    plane together for the last time on January the 20th, 1989, when it
    brought them back home to California. Now, 16 years later, this plane
    has found a home beneath the

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    Pacific sky, alongside the President she so ably served.
        It's appropriate that this symbol of American strength and
    resilience and optimism has come to rest at the library that bears
    Ronald Reagan's name. After all, it was President Reagan who always
    reminded us that when we set our eyes on the horizon, every day is
    ``morning in America.'' As Nancy Reagan has
    said, ``The Reagan Library is a place the sun will never set on the
    principles that Ronnie believed in so deeply.''
        Ronald Reagan's principles started with an abiding belief in the
    power and in the appeal of liberty. He believed that freedom is the
    right of every man, woman, and child on Earth. He recognized that
    freedom was opposed by dangerous enemies, and he understood that America
    has always prevailed by standing firmly on principles and never backing
    down in the face of evil.
        At the beginning of his Presidency, Ronald Reagan declared that the
    years ahead would be great ones ``for the cause of freedom and the
    spread of civilization.'' He dismissed communism as ``a bizarre chapter
    in human history whose last pages were being written.'' For 8 years he
    acted on that conviction, and shortly after he left office, the Berlin
    Wall came down; the ``Evil Empire'' collapsed; and the cause of liberty
    prevailed in the cold war.
        The pavilion that we open today includes a cold war gallery where a
    new generation will learn about the great victory for freedom that
    President Reagan's leadership helped secure. They'll see how President
    Reagan rallied the world's democracies to defend liberty against the
    totalitarian aspirations of Soviet communism. They'll see how his
    strategy and vision secured a free and peaceful Europe. They will learn
    that the key to victory lay in our resolve to stay in the fight until
    the fight was won.
        As President Reagan put it in his Westminster address, ``While our
    military strength is a prerequisite to peace, the ultimate determinant
    in the struggle will be not bombs and rockets but a test of will and
    ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we
    cherish, to which we are dedicated.''
        Because of Ronald Reagan's leadership, America prevailed in the 20th
    century's great struggle of wills. And now in this new century, our
    freedom is once again being tested by determined enemies. The terrorists
    who attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, are followers of a radical
    and violent ideology. They exploit the religion of Islam to serve a
    violent political vision, the establishment of a totalitarian empire
    that denies all political and religious freedom. These extremists
    distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against
    Christians and Jews and Hindus and against Muslims from other
    traditions, who they regard as heretics.
        Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy is elitist, led by a
    self-appointed vanguard of Islamic militants that presume to speak for
    the Muslim masses. Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy teaches
    that the innocent can be murdered to serve a political vision. Like the
    ideology of communism, our new enemy pursues totalitarian aims. Like the
    ideology of communism, our new enemy is dismissive of free peoples,
    claiming that men and women who live in liberty are weak and decadent.
    And like the ideology of communism, Islamic radicalism is doomed to
    fail.
        It will fail because it undermines the freedom and creativity that
    makes human progress possible and human societies successful. The only
    thing modern about our enemy's vision is the weapons they want to use
    against us. The rest of their grim vision is defined by a warped image
    of the past, a declaration of war on the idea of progress itself. And
    whatever lies ahead in the war against this ideology, the outcome is not
    in doubt: Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned
    themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse. Because free peoples
    believe in the future, free peoples will own the future.

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        We didn't ask for this global struggle, but we are answering
    history's call with confidence and a comprehensive strategy. We're
    working to prevent the attacks of terrorist networks before they occur.
    We're determined to deny weapons of mass destruction to outlaw regimes
    and to their terrorist allies who would use them without hesitation.
    We're depriving radical groups of support and sanctuary from outlaw
    regimes. We're stopping the militants from gaining control of any nation
    which they would use as a home base and a launching pad for terror. And
    we're draining the militants of future recruits by replacing hatred and
    resentment with democracy and hope and freedom across the broader Middle
    East.
        We will prevail in the war on terror, because this generation is
    determined to meet the threats of our time. We understand our duty. We
    understand our responsibility to the American people. There will be
    tough moments ahead on this path to victory. Yet, we have confidence in
    our cause because we have seen America face down brutal enemies before.
    We have confidence in our cause because we have seen the power of
    freedom to overcome the dark ideologies of tyranny and terror. And we
    have confidence in our cause because we believe, as President Ronald
    Reagan did, that freedom is ``one of the deepest and noblest aspirations
    of the human spirit.''
        Thank you all for having us. May God bless Ronald Reagan, and may
    God continue to bless the United States of America.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:07 a.m. at the Ronald Reagan
    Presidential Library. In his remarks, he referred to Robert Zucca,
    exhibits specialist, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, National
    Archives and Records Administration; Gayle Wilson, wife of former Gov.
    Pete Wilson of California; Ursula Meese, wife of former Attorney General
    Edwin Meese III; and Mayor Paul Miller of Simi Valley, CA.