[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 22 (Monday, June 5, 2006)]
[Pages 1037-1043]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Commencement Address at the United States Military Academy in West 
Point, New York

May 27, 2006

    Thank you for the warm welcome--General Lennox, Secretary Harvey, 
Members of the United States Congress, Academy staff and faculty, 
distinguished guests, proud family, and, most importantly, the class of 
2006.
    On the way in, General Lennox showed me what you did to his car. 
[Laughter] I told him, ``That's a fine looking vehicle''--[laughter]--
``but you need to stay away from Marine One.'' [Laughter]
    I see a lot of ``Gray Hogs'' out there--a few ``Century Men'' too. 
During your 4 years at this Academy, I'm told, there are about 18,000 
opportunities to be late for class, drill, march, or inspection--and 
many of you availed yourselves of those opportunities. [Laughter] Others 
got written up just for having bad haircuts. No matter what reason you 
got slugged, help is on the way. In keeping with longstanding tradition, 
I hereby absolve all cadets who are on restriction for minor conduct 
offenses. I leave it to General Lennox to define exactly what ``minor'' 
means. [Laughter]
    It's a privilege to stand before the future leaders of the United 
States Army. You have worked hard to get to this moment. You've survived 
the hardest Beast on record--the ``best summer of your lives'' in 
Buckistan--countless hours in the House of Pain. In 4 years, you've been 
transformed from ``bean-heads'' to ``yuks'' to ``cows'' and 
``Firsties.'' And today you will become proud officers of the greatest 
Army in the history of the world. Your teachers are proud of you; your 
parents are proud of you; and so is your Commander in Chief. 
Congratulations on a fantastic achievement.
    This Academy has shaped your minds and bodies for the challenges 
that lie ahead. You worked hard in the classroom and on the playing 
field to prepare for the rigors of combat. One cadet described the West 
Point attitude this way: ``First I'll beat Navy and Air Force, and then 
I'll beat the enemies of freedom on the battlefield.''
    The field of battle is where your degree and commission will take 
you. This is the first class to arrive at West Point after the attacks 
of September the 11th, 2001. Each of you came here in a time of war, 
knowing all the risks and dangers that come with wearing our Nation's 
uniform. And I want to thank you for your patriotism, your devotion to 
duty, your courageous decision to serve. America is grateful and proud 
of the men and women of West Point.
    The reality of war has surrounded you since your first moments at 
this Academy. More than 50 of your fellow cadets here at

[[Page 1038]]

West Point have already seen combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. And 34 
times since your class arrived, you have observed a moment of silence in 
Washington Hall to honor a former cadet fallen in the war on terror. 
Each loss is heartbreaking, and each loss has made you even more 
determined to pick up their mantle, to carry on their fight, and to 
achieve victory. We will honor the memory of those brave souls. We will 
finish the task for which they gave their lives. We will complete the 
mission.
    West Point has adapted to prepare you for the war you're about to 
enter. Since the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, this Academy has 
established a new combating terrorism center, a new minor in terrorism 
studies, with new courses in counterinsurgency operations, intelligence, 
and homeland security, and winning the peace. West Point has expanded 
Arabic language training, has hired new faculty with expertise in 
Islamic law and culture, brought in members of the 101st and 82d 
Airborne to train you and share their experiences on the frontlines in 
Iraq and Afghanistan. And each of you endured grueling Saturday training 
events where you practiced identifying IEDs, conducting convoy 
operations, and running checkpoints. By changing to meet the new 
threats, West Point has given you the skills you will need in 
Afghanistan and Iraq, and for the long war with Islamic radicalism that 
will be the focus of much of your military careers.
    This Academy went through a similar period of change six decades 
ago, at the end of World War II. Some of West Point's greatest 
graduates--men like Eisenhower and Bradley, Patton and MacArthur--had 
just brought our Nation victory in Europe and Japan. Yet almost 
immediately, a new threat appeared on the horizon--the threat of 
imperial communism. And West Point, like America, had to prepare for a 
long struggle with a new adversary, one that would require the 
determination of generations of Americans.
    In the early years of that struggle, freedom's victory was not 
obvious or assured. In 1947, Communist forces were threatening Greece 
and Turkey; the reconstruction of Germany was faltering; mass starvation 
was setting in across Europe. In 1948, Czechoslovakia fell to communism; 
France and Italy appeared to be headed for the same fate, and Berlin was 
blockaded on the orders of Josef Stalin. In 1949, the Soviet Union 
exploded a nuclear weapon, giving our new enemy the ability to bring 
catastrophic destruction to our homeland. And weeks later, Communist 
forces won their revolution in China and claimed the world's most 
populous nation for communism. And in the summer of 1950, seven North 
Korean divisions poured across the border into South Korea, marking the 
start of the first direct military clash of the cold war. All of this 
took place in just the first 5 years following World War II.
    Fortunately, we had a President named Harry Truman, who recognized 
the threat, took bold action to confront it, and laid the foundation for 
freedom's victory in the cold war. President Truman set a clear 
doctrine. In a speech to Congress, he called for military and economic 
aid to Greece and Turkey, and announced a new doctrine that would guide 
American policy throughout the cold war. He told the Congress, ``It must 
be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are 
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside 
pressures.'' With this new doctrine, and with the aid to back it up, 
Greece and Turkey were saved from communism, and the Soviet expansion 
into Southern Europe and the Middle East was stopped.
    President Truman acted boldly to confront new adversaries. When 
Stalin tested America's resolve with a blockade of Berlin, President 
Truman launched the Berlin Airlift, delivering supplies to the besieged 
city, forcing the Red Army to back down, and securing the freedom of 
West Berlin. Later, Truman again responded to Communist aggression with 
resolve, fighting a difficult war in Korea. Korean war saw many setbacks 
and missteps and terrible losses. More than 54,000 Americans gave their 
lives in Korea. Yet in the end, Communist forces were pushed back to the 
38th Parallel, and the freedom of South Korea was secure.
    President Truman acted boldly to help transform old adversaries into 
democratic allies. In Asia, his administration led the effort to help 
Japan change from a nation that had launched a surprise attack on 
America into

[[Page 1039]]

a thriving democracy and steadfast ally. In Europe, he launched the 
Marshall Plan, an unprecedented effort to help Germany and other nations 
in Europe recover from war and establish strong democracies. The 
Marshall Plan cost about 100 billion in today's dollars, and it helped 
to save Western Europe from Soviet tyranny and led to the emergence of 
democratic allies that remain indispensable to the cause of peace today.
    President Truman transformed our alliances to deal with new dangers. 
After World War II, he led the effort to form the North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization, the first peacetime alliance in American history. NATO 
served as a military bulwark against Communist aggression and helped 
give us a Europe that is now whole, free, and at peace.
    President Truman positioned U.S. forces to deal with new threats. 
Despite enormous pressure to bring our troops home after World War II, 
he kept American forces in Germany to deter Soviet aggression, and kept 
U.S. forces in Japan as a counterweight to Communist China. Together 
with the deployment of U.S. forces to Korea, the military footprint 
Truman established on two continents has remained virtually unchanged to 
this day and has served as the foundation for security in Europe and in 
the Pacific.
    President Truman launched a sweeping reorganization of the Federal 
Government to prepare it for a new struggle. Working with Congress, he 
created the Department of Defense, established the Air Force as a 
separate military service, formed the National Security Council at the 
White House, and founded the Central Intelligence Agency to ensure 
America had the best intelligence on Soviet threats.
    President Truman made clear that the cold war was an ideological 
struggle between tyranny and freedom. At the time when some still wanted 
to wish away the Soviet threat, he brought Winston Churchill to Missouri 
to deliver his famous ``Iron Curtain'' speech. And he issued a 
Presidential directive called NSC-68, which declared that America faced 
an enemy ``animated by a new fanatic faith'' and determined to impose 
its ideology on the entire world. This directive called on the United 
States to accept the responsibility of world leadership and defend the 
cause of freedom and democracy--and that's exactly what the United 
States did.
    By the actions he took, the institutions he built, the alliances he 
forged, and the doctrines he set down, President Truman laid the 
foundation for America's victory in the cold war. As President Truman 
put it towards the end of his Presidency, ``When history says that my 
term of office saw the beginning of the cold war, it will also say that 
in those 8 years, we set the course that can win it.'' His leadership 
paved the way for subsequent Presidents from both political parties--men 
like Eisenhower and Kennedy and Reagan--to confront and eventually 
defeat the Soviet threat.
    Today, at the start of a new century, we are again engaged in a war 
unlike any our nation has fought before. And like Americans in Truman's 
day, we are laying the foundations for victory. The enemies we face 
today are different in many ways from the enemy we faced in the cold 
war. In the cold war, we deterred Soviet aggression through a policy of 
mutually assured destruction. Unlike the Soviet Union, the terrorist 
enemies we face today hide in caves and shadows and emerge to attack 
free nations from within. The terrorists have no borders to protect or 
capital to defend. They cannot be deterred--but they will be defeated. 
America will fight the terrorists on every battlefront, and we will not 
rest until this threat to our country has been removed.
    While there are real differences between today's war and the cold 
war, there are also many important similarities. Like the cold war, we 
are fighting the followers of a murderous ideology that despises 
freedom, crushes all dissent, has territorial ambitions, and pursues 
totalitarian aims. Like the cold war, our enemies are dismissive of free 
peoples, claiming that men and women who live in liberty are weak and 
lack the resolve to defend our way of life. Like the cold war, our 
enemies believe that the innocent can be murdered to serve a political 
vision. And like the cold war, they're seeking weapons of mass murder 
that would allow them to deliver catastrophic destruction to our 
country. If our enemies succeed in acquiring such weapons, they will not 
hesitate to use them,

[[Page 1040]]

which means they would pose a threat to America as great as the Soviet 
Union.
    Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will 
never back down; we will never give in; and we will never accept 
anything less than complete victory. Like previous generations, history 
has once again called America to great responsibilities, and we're 
answering history's call with confidence. We're confronting new dangers 
with new determination and laying the foundations for victory in the war 
on terror.
    In this new war, we have set a clear doctrine. After the attacks of 
September the 11th, I told a joint session of Congress, ``America makes 
no distinction between the terrorists and the countries that harbor 
them. If you harbor a terrorist, you are just as guilty as the 
terrorists, and you're an enemy of the United States of America.'' In 
the months that followed, I also made clear the principles that will 
guide us in this new war: America will not wait to be attacked again; we 
will confront threats before they fully materialize; we will stay on the 
offense against the terrorists, fighting them abroad so we do not have 
to face them here at home.
    In this new war, we have acted boldly to confront new adversaries. 
When the Taliban regime in Afghanistan tested America's resolve, 
refusing our just demands to turn over the terrorists who attacked 
America, we responded with determination. Coalition forces drove the 
Taliban from power, liberated Afghanistan, and brought freedom to 25 
million people.
    In Iraq, another tyrant chose to test America's resolve. Saddam 
Hussein was a dictator who had pursued and used weapons of mass 
destruction. He sponsored terrorists, invaded his neighbors, abused his 
people, deceived international inspectors, and refused to comply with 
more than a dozen United Nations resolutions. When the United Nations 
Security Council gave him one final chance to disclose and disarm, or 
face serious consequences, he refused to take that final opportunity. So 
coalition forces went into Iraq and removed his cruel regime. And today, 
Iraq's former dictator is on trial for his crimes, and America and the 
world are better off because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.
    In this new war, we have helped transform old adversaries into 
democratic allies. Just as an earlier generation of Americans helped 
change Germany and Japan from conquered adversaries into democratic 
allies, today, a new generation of Americans is helping Iraq and 
Afghanistan recover from the ruins of tyranny. In Afghanistan, the 
terror camps have been shut down; women are working; boys and girls are 
going to school; and Afghans have chosen a President and a new 
Parliament in free elections.
    In Iraq, the people defied the terrorists and cast their ballots in 
three free elections last year. And last week, Iraqis made history when 
they inaugurated the leaders of a new Government of their choosing, 
under a Constitution that they drafted and they approved. When the 
formation of this unity Government--with the formation of this unity 
Government, the world has seen the beginning of something new: a 
constitutional democracy in the heart of the Middle East. Difficult 
challenges remain in both Afghanistan and Iraq. But America is safer and 
the world is more secure because these two countries are now 
democracies--and they are allies in the cause of freedom and peace.
    In this new war, we have forged new alliances and transformed old 
ones for the challenges of a new century. After our Nation was attacked, 
we formed the largest coalition in history to fight the war on terror. 
More than 90 nations are cooperating in a global campaign to dry up 
terrorist financing, to hunt down terrorist operatives, and bring 
terrorist leaders to justice. Nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia 
that once turned a blind eye to terror are now helping lead the fight 
against it. And since September the 11th, 2001, our coalition has 
captured or killed Al Qaida managers and operatives in over two dozen 
countries and disrupted a number of serious Al Qaida terrorist plots, 
including plots to attack targets inside the United States. Our Nation 
is more secure because we have rallied the world to confront this threat 
to civilization.
    The greatest threat we face is the danger of terrorists armed with 
weapons of mass destruction. To confront this danger, we launched the 
Proliferation Security Initiative, a coalition of more than 70 nations 
that are

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working together to stop shipments of weapons of mass destruction on 
land, at sea, and in the air, and to stop them from falling into 
terrorist hands. And building on the legacy of Harry Truman, we launched 
the most dramatic transformation of the NATO Alliance since its founding 
in 1949. Working with allies, we created a new NATO Response Force that 
will allow NATO to deploy rapid reaction forces on short notice anywhere 
in the world. And together we transformed NATO from a defensive alliance 
focused on protecting Europe from Soviet tank invasion into a dynamic 
alliance that is now operating across the world in the support of 
democracy and peace.
    For five decades, NATO forces never deployed outside of Europe. 
Today, NATO is leading security operations in Afghanistan, training 
Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, delivering humanitarian relief to 
earthquake victims in Pakistan, and training peacekeepers in Sudan. An 
alliance some said had lost its purpose after the cold war is now 
meeting the challenges of the 21st century.
    In this new war, we're positioning our forces to meet new threats. 
For more than a half a century, American forces essentially had remained 
in the same places that President Truman deployed them. So 2 years ago, 
I announced the largest transformation of our global force posture since 
the start of the cold war. Over the coming decade, we will move U.S. 
forces from cold war garrisons in Europe and Asia and reposition them so 
they can surge quickly to trouble spots anywhere. We will deploy 
advanced military capabilities that will increase U.S. combat power 
across the world, while bringing home between 60,000 and 70,000 troops 
now stationed overseas. By taking these steps, we will reduce stress on 
our military families, raise the pressure on our enemies, and ensure 
that when you put on the uniform of the United States Army, you are 
ready to meet any threat.
    In this new war, we've undertaken the most sweeping reorganization 
of the Federal Government since the start of the cold war. We created a 
new Department of Homeland Security, merging 22 different Government 
organizations into a single department with a clear mission: to protect 
America from future attacks. We created the new Director of National 
Intelligence, which has led a broad restructuring of our Nation's 
intelligence agencies for the threats of the 21st century. We have 
transformed the FBI into an agency whose primary focus is stopping 
terrorism, and reorganized the Department of Justice to help us meet 
this new threat. We passed the PATRIOT Act, which broke down barriers 
that prevented law enforcement and intelligence agencies from sharing 
vital information on terrorist threats.
    At the Department of Defense, we created a new Northern Command 
responsible for homeland defense, a new Strategic Command responsible 
for defending America against long-range attacks. We transformed the 
Special Operations Command, more than doubling its budget, adding 
thousands of new troops, and making it the lead command in the global 
war on terror. And we're undertaking the largest transformation of the 
Army in more than 100 years. Since the turn of the last century, the 
Army has been organized around the division structure designed by 
Napoleon. Today, we're replacing that division structure with a 21st 
century Army built around modular brigade combat teams that will be 
interchangeable and available to work for any division commander. These 
brigades will make our Army faster and lighter and more agile and more 
lethal, and it will make you more effective in the defense of freedom.
    We have made clear that the war on terror is an ideological struggle 
between tyranny and freedom. When President Truman spoke here for the 
150th anniversary of West Point, he told the class of 1952, ``We can't 
have lasting peace unless we work actively and vigorously to bring about 
conditions of freedom and justice in the world.'' That same principle 
continues to guide us in today's war on terror. Our strategy to protect 
America is based on a clear premise: The security of our Nation depends 
on the advance of liberty in other nations. On September the 11th, 2001, 
we saw that problems originating in a failed and oppressive State 7,000 
miles away could bring murder and destruction to our country. And we 
learned an important lesson: Decades of excusing and accommodating the 
lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing

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to make us safe. So long as the Middle East remains a place where 
freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place where terrorists 
foment resentment and threaten American security.
    So we are pursuing a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East. 
I believe the desire for liberty is universal, and by standing with 
democratic reformers across a troubled region, we will extend freedom to 
millions who have not known it and lay the foundation of peace for 
generations to come.
    We're still in the early stages of this struggle for freedom and, 
like those first years of the cold war, we've seen setbacks and 
challenges and days that have tested America's resolve. Yet we've also 
seen days of victory and hope. We've seen people in Afghanistan voting 
for the first democratic parliament in a generation. We have seen 
jubilant Iraqis dancing in the streets, holding up ink-stained fingers, 
celebrating their freedom. We've seen people in Lebanon waving cedar 
flags and securing the liberty and independence of their land. We've 
seen people in Kyrgyzstan drive a corrupt regime from power and vote for 
democratic change. In the past 4 years alone, more than 110 million 
human beings across the world have joined the ranks of the free--and 
this is only the beginning. The message has spread from Damascus to 
Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until 
the promise of liberty reaches every people and every nation.
    Now the class of 2006 will enter the great struggle, and the final 
outcome depends on your leadership. The war began on my watch, but it's 
going to end on your watch. Your generation will bring us victory in the 
war on terror. My call to you is this: Trust in the power of freedom, 
and be bold in freedom's defense; show leadership and courage, and not 
just on the battlefield. Take risk; try new things; and challenge the 
established way of doing things. Trust in your convictions; stay true to 
yourselves--and one day, the world will celebrate your achievements.
    I have confidence in the final outcome of this struggle, because I 
know the character and determination of the men and women gathered 
before me. We see that character and determination in a cadet named 
Patrick Dowdell. It was Patrick's dream to attend West Point, and he 
applied straight out of high school, but he did not get in on his first 
try. After being turned down, he wondered if he was cut out for the 
Academy. His father, New York Fireman Kevin Dowdell, encouraged Patrick 
to apply again. Kevin wrote letters to his Congressman on behalf of his 
son. And he spent long hours working with Patrick on his application--
right up to September the 9th, 2001. Two days later, Kevin Dowdell raced 
across the Brooklyn Bridge with his fire rescue unit to the burning 
World Trade Towers--and he never returned.
    After the attack, Patrick spent months digging at Ground Zero 
looking for his dad--and thinking about the dream that they had shared 
about his future. He was determined to fulfill that dream. And in the 
summer of 2002, Patrick arrived here at West Point as a new cadet, and 
today he will receive his degree and his commission.
    A few weeks ago, Patrick's mom, RosEllen, attended another 
graduation ceremony--at the New York City Fire Academy, where her other 
son, James, followed his father's footsteps as one of New York's 
bravest. And today RosEllen is with us to see Patrick join the ranks of 
America's bravest, as an officer in the United States Army.
    We live in freedom because young Americans like Patrick and all the 
cadets here today have stepped forward to serve. You have chosen a 
difficult and dangerous vocation, and America is grateful for that 
choice. Today you will accept a sacred trust: You will lead America's 
sons and daughters on the battlefield in a time of war. Our Nation is 
counting on you as we count on no other group of young leaders in our 
country. The last 4 years have tested you in ways you never imagined, 
and you leave here well prepared for the challenges you will face.
    There's a saying at West Point, that much of the history you teach 
here was made by the people you taught here. Now the class of 2006 will 
leave for the battlefield, and you will make history. Never falter; 
never quit. Bring honor to the uniform and pride to your country. May 
God bless you, and the class of 2006.

[[Page 1043]]

Note: The President spoke at 9:33 a.m. in Michie Stadium. In his 
remarks, he referred to Lt. Gen. William J. Lennox, Jr., USA, 
Superintendent, West Point Military Academy; former President Saddam 
Hussein of Iraq; and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.