[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 46 (Monday, November 20, 2000)]
[Pages 2862-2864]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the World War II Memorial

November 11, 2000

    Thank you very much. Secretary Cohen, thank you for your service. To 
the other members of the Cabinet and the administration, I thank you. 
General Woerner, thank you for your lifetime of service and your 
leadership of our Battlefield Monuments Commission. Ambassador Williams, 
thank you, and all the members of the World War II Memorial Committee. 
Archbishop Hannan, thank you for your prayers and your leadership in the 
war.
    And to Captain Luther Smith of the Tuskegee Airmen, he and told you 
his story, but I can't help noting that in telling you his story he was 
rather like a lot of World War II veterans. He left out a few things. He 
left out the Distinguished Flying Cross, seven air medals, the Purple 
Heart, and a POW medal. Like many of our soldiers in World War II, his 
bravery went unmentioned, but we are, nonetheless, profoundly grateful 
for it.
    I'd like to thank Fred Smith, my friend of many years, for stepping 
up and helping to raise all this money; and also, my friend Tom Hanks, 
who played Captain John Miller in ``Saving Private Ryan'' and is now 
making sure that America never forgets all the Private Ryans. We are 
grateful for him, as well.
    I thank Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who recognized the vision of her 
constituent Roger Durbin and introduced this legislation and has fought 
for it ever since. I can tell you as someone who has dealt with her for 
8 years, there is no more determined person in the United States 
Congress. I am only amazed that this memorial was not built in 1988, 
since she got behind it. Thank you, Marcy Kaptur, for what you are 
doing.
    I thank the Members of Congress who are here. Senator Thurmond once 
told me that he was the oldest man who took a glider into Normandy. I 
don't know what that means, 56 years later, but I'm grateful for all of 
the Members of Congress, beginning with Senator Thurmond and all the 
others who are here, who never stopped serving their country.
    But most of all, I want to say a thank-you to Bob Dole and to 
Elizabeth for their service to America. As my tenure as President draws 
to a close, I have had, as you might imagine, an up-and-down 
relationship with Senator Dole. But I liked even the bad days. I always 
admired him. I was always profoundly grateful for his courage and 
heroism in war and 50 years of service in peace. After a rich and long 
life, he could well have done something else with his time in these last 
few years, but he has passionately worked for this day. And I am 
profoundly grateful.
    I also want to thank the men and women and boys and girls all across 
our country who

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participated in this fundraising drive, taking this memorial from dream 
to reality. Their stories are eloquent testimony to its meaning. As 
Senator Dole and I were sitting up here watching the program unfold 
today, he told me an amazing story. He said, ``One day a man from 
eastern Pennsylvania called our office. He was a 73-year-old Armenian-
American named Sarkis Acopian. And he said, `I'd like to make a 
contribution to this memorial. Where do I mail my check?'''--just 
called. So he was given the address, and shortly after, this man's--who 
was grateful for the opportunities America has given him--check arrived 
in the office, a check for $1 million.
    But there were all the other checks, as well, amounting to over $140 
million in private contributions. There were contributions from those 
still too young to serve, indeed, far too young to remember the war. 
More than 1,100 schools across our Nation have raised money for the 
memorial by collecting cans, holding bake sales, putting on dances.
    Let me just tell you about one of them, Milwaukie High School in 
Milwaukie, Oregon. Five years ago a teacher named Ken Buckles wanted to 
pay tribute to the World War II veterans. He and his students searched 
out local veterans and invited them to school for a living history day. 
Earlier this week, Living History Day 2000 honored more than 3,000 
veterans with a recreated USO show that filled the pro basketball arena. 
Last year's event raised $10,000 for the memorial, and students think 
that this year they'll raise even more.
    Now, what makes those kids fundraise and organize and practice for 
weeks on end? Many have grandparents and other relatives who fought in 
the war, but there must be more to it than that. They learned from their 
families and teachers that the good life they enjoy as Americans was 
made possible by the sacrifices of others more than a half-century ago. 
And maybe most important, they want us to know something positive about 
their own generation, as well, and their desire to stand for something 
greater than themselves.
     They didn't have the money to fly out here today, but let's all of 
us send a loud thank-you to the kids at Milwaukie High School and their 
teacher, Ken Buckles, and all the other young people who have supported 
this cause. [Applause]
     The ground we break today is not only a timeless tribute to the 
bravery and honor of one generation but a challenge to every generation 
that follows. This memorial is built not only for the children whose 
grandparents served in the war but for the children who will visit this 
place a century from now, asking questions about America's great victory 
for freedom.
     With this memorial, we secure the memory of 16 million Americans, 
men and women who took up arms in the greatest struggle humanity has 
ever known. We hallow the ground for more than 400,000 who never came 
home. We acknowledge a debt that can never be repaid.
     We acknowledge, as well, the men and women and children of the 
homefront, who tended the factories and nourished the faith that made 
victory possible; remember those who fought faithfully and bravely for 
freedom, even as their own full humanity was under assault, African-
Americans who had to fight for the right to fight for our country, 
Japanese-Americans who served bravely under a cloud of unjust suspicion, 
Native American code talkers who helped to win the war in the Pacific, 
women who took on new roles in the military and at home--remember how, 
in the heat of battle, and the necessity of the moment, all of these 
folks moved closer to being simply Americans.
    And we remember how, after World War II, those who won the war on 
foreign battlefields dug deep and gave even more to win the peace here 
at home, to give us a new era of prosperity, to lay the foundation for a 
new global society and economy by turning old adversaries into new 
allies, by launching a movement for social justice that still lifts 
millions of Americans into dignity and opportunity.
    I would like to say once more before I go to the veterans here today 
what I said in Normandy in 1994: ``Because of you, my generation and 
those who have followed live in a time of unequaled peace and 
prosperity. We are the children of your sacrifice, and we thank you 
forever.''

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    But now, as then, progress is not inevitable; it requires eternal 
vigilance and sacrifice. Earlier today, at the Veterans Day ceremony at 
Arlington National Cemetery, we paid tribute to the fallen heroes of the 
United States Ship Cole, three of whom have recently been buried at 
Arlington. The captain of the ship and 20 of the crewmembers were there 
today. We honor them.
     Next week I will go to Vietnam to honor the men and women America 
lost there, to stand with those still seeking a full accounting of the 
missing. But at the same time, I want to give support to Vietnamese and 
Americans who are working together to build a better future in Vietnam, 
under the leadership of former Congressman and former Vietnam POW Pete 
Peterson, who has reminded us that we can do nothing about the past, but 
we can always change the future. That's what all of you did after the 
war with Germans, Italians, and Japanese. You built the world we love 
and enjoy today.
     The wisdom this monument will give us is to learn from the past and 
look to the future. May the light of freedom that will stand at the 
center of this memorial inspire every person who sees it to keep the 
flame of freedom forever burning in the eyes of our children and to keep 
the memory of the greatest generation warm in the hearts of every new 
generation of Americans.
     Thank you, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 2:22 p.m. on The National Mall. In his 
remarks, he referred to Gen. Fred F. Woerner, USA, (Ret.), Chairman, and 
Ambassador Haydn Williams, Commissioner, American Battle Monuments 
Commission; retired Archbishop Philip Hannan of New Orleans, a chaplain 
in the 82d Airborne Division, USA, during World War II; Capt. Luther 
Smith, USAF, (Ret.), member of the Tuskegee Airmen, an African-American 
bomber escort squadron in World War II; Frederick W. Smith, national 
cochairman, actor Tom Hanks, national spokesperson, and former Senator 
Bob Dole, national chairman, National World War II Memorial Campaign; 
and Senator Dole's wife, Elizabeth.