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Skriven 2006-06-20 23:34:48 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (060620) for Tue, 2006 Jun 20
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Vice President's Remarks at the Gerald R. Ford Foundation Annual Dinner
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For Immediate Release
June 20, 2006

Vice President's Remarks at the Gerald R. Ford Foundation Annual Dinner
The National Archives Building
Washington, D.C.



(June 19, 2006)

9:47 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity
to join my fellow trustees and so many other old friends this evening.
Jack, I want to thank you and all that you did to make life interesting for
me when I was your Dad's Chief of Staff. (Laughter.) I'm pleased, of
course, to be with Susan, and Mike, and Steve, and the other members of the
Ford family tonight. It's a privilege for all of us.

I want to send good wishes, as well, obviously, to the President and the
First Lady on behalf of everyone gathered here in the National Archives.
They've given so much to our country, and to all of us. And we remain
deeply grateful for their friendship and their good example. And we'll be
thinking of them, once again, in a few weeks, when President Ford marks his
93rd birthday.

I'm not aware of any other administration in which the President, the First
Lady, Cabinet officers, and White House staff have maintained such close
personal ties, or held gatherings of this kind for so many years. The plain
truth is that all of us rightly believe that we were part of something very
special. We served a nation that was facing many serious challenges at home
and abroad. We found ourselves in the middle of one of the hardest-fought
presidential campaigns in history. And we worked for a man who had
inherited a damaged office and who swiftly and successfully restored
authority, dignity, and respect to the presidency.

Gerald Ford once said that he never could have imagined that he would be
President of the United States in America's bicentennial year. But the job
fell to him, and by the Fourth of July, 1976, America was once again a
proud, confident, forward-looking nation. After -- in these three decades
since then, America's appreciation for the Ford presidency has only grown.
And so has our devotion to the man and woman from Grand Rapids who led our
nation and who were so very kind to each and every one of us.

For Lynne and me, this is a gathering we always look forward to. We still
laugh at the memory of last year's dinner in Rancho Mirage, when President
Ford called the room to silence, lowered his voice, drew us into his
confidence -- and announced that he was Deep Throat. (Laughter.)

Another very eventful year, obviously, has passed since that last meeting
in California. Obviously, a great many newsworthy moments have come and
gone, many of them because of the men and women of the United States
military. They never let this country down, and they make Americans proud
each and every day.

I'm delighted that the men and women of the Armed Forces have been chosen
to receive this year's Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public
Service. We're not a country that takes our military for granted. Even in
the quietest of times, Americans have always understood that our men and
women in uniform are the ones who assure stability and keep the peace. And
in a time like the present, we have daily reminders of the kind of courage
and skill that have kept this country free.

The conditions in this war are some of the most difficult a person can
imagine -- whether tracking terrorists on frozen mountain ridges in
Afghanistan or wearing heavy gear and carrying packs in desert temperatures
of 125 degrees. Many of our people work seven days a week, on shifts of 14,
16, 18 hours or more. And they've showed the patience, precision, and
determination that are going to win this war.

Above all, our men and women in uniform have lived up to the noble
traditions of the United States military. They take seriously the job
they've been given, and the oath that they have taken. They give all that
is in them to carry out their missions and to conduct themselves with
honor. And as a partial measure of all they have achieved, let me point out
just some of the decorations earned since 9/11: 371 Silver Stars, 24
Distinguished Service Crosses, and a Medal of Honor, posthumously awarded
to an Army First Sergeant who single-handedly killed 50 of the enemy and
saved the lives of over a hundred American soldiers. This generation of our
military is writing an extraordinary chapter in the history of freedom. The
citizens of this nation are filled with gratitude and we stand in awe
before all the men and women who defend the United States of America.

President Bush has given responsibility for the well being of our military
to some very fine leaders. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
General Peter Pace -- the first Marine ever to serve in that office -- is a
superb officer. And our Secretary of Defense is one of the great public
servants of our time, Donald Rumsfeld. I've heard it suggested on occasion
that Don might even be the best Secretary of Defense we've ever had. Well,
he's pretty close. (Laughter.) But without question Don does hold a very
special distinction because, after all, he is the only man to serve as
Secretary of Defense in two different centuries. (Laughter.)

Everyone here knows I've worked closely with Don for many years, and that
my career would not have been the same but for the confidence he placed in
me a long time ago. I have always considered him to be the very ideal of a
public servant -- a man of rectitude, loyalty, and integrity. He asks a
great deal of those who work for him, but never more than he demands of
himself. Throughout the military and indeed throughout the country, you'll
find people who have never met Don Rumsfeld, but who look to him as a role
model. And those of us who know Don are extremely fortunate to have his
friendship and all that goes with it -- the wisdom, the humor, and the
great personal decency in the man.

Not long ago, Gerald Ford himself said that President Bush made a wise
choice in Don Rumsfeld, because he was, "extremely well suited to take on
this challenge and contend with a bureaucracy that has a built-in
resistance to change." President Ford continued, "Successfully carrying out
these missions, against stiff resistance takes someone with a certain
amount of steel."

That "certain amount of steel" is exactly what we've needed in the E Ring
of the Pentagon these last five years as the United States of America is a
stronger and safer nation thanks to the intellect, the judgment, and the
character of Secretary Rumsfeld. With that, I am pleased to present him
now. And I give you a great American: Our colleague, our friend, Secretary
of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. (Applause.)

END 9:54 P.M. EDT

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