[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

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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.