Experience i had and i say that honestly, to get to know these two people. And he then became our secretary of defense. And many of us that have served thought that he was one of the best secretary of defenses weve ever had. Hes currently a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and a freeman Foley Institute of international studies. He is the michael and barbara bavarian professor at Stanford University and serves as codirector of the Nuclear Risk Reduction initiative and preventive defense project. Please help me welcome our speaker this morning, former secretary of defense william perry. applause what a pleasure it is to be aboard this symbol of americas millery power, the uss macon island. What a pleasure it is to be among the men and women of our armed forces and the men and women of the First Responders of the San Francisco bay area. Fleet week for many years in San Francisco was a somewhat [inaudible] affair and it has been transformed into this great coming together by the milit
Them into a confrontation with the United States desire to maintain free access. The best way of avoiding that military conflict is what we should see because the military conflict with china would be catastrophic for both nations, indeed for the whole region. So, we want to avoid that. I believe the best way of avoiding that is by maintaining a continuing to maintain a strong naval presence in the region, and by having an unambiguous commitment to doing that. I believe that our new National Security strategy is that unambiguous commitment, and i believe that the u. S. Navy is capable of maintaining that unambiguous military strength. As we sit here this morning aboard the uss macon island, in San Francisco bay, looking out to the pacific, it is easy to believe that the United States is, in fact, a Pacific Power and that to keep it that way we will maintain the best damn navy in the world. Thank you very much. applause speaker. Now im going to introduce our next speaker, Major General
In four years, and we feel what we believe are americas best ideas. Its grand canyon, yosemite, but also stewarding americas history and that would include independence hall, gettysburg, mount rush more, and most recently flight 93. My dress uniform and that famous hat is really derived from the world war i uniform from 1916, little changed from that time. The first rangers that patroled our parks before there was a park service were calvary soldiers. The presidio here in San Francisco sent Buffalo Soldiers up to yosemite and sequoia every summer to control the parks, to keep the poachers out and to begin the construction of roads. The First Federal superintendent of Sequoia National park was colonel charles young. He happened to be the third africanamerican to graduate from west point. He went on to become the first black colonel in the army. Amazing story. I believe hell be honored sometime later this year by some sort of a National Monument at his home in ohio. So, pretty interestin
[inaudible] affair and it has been transformed into this great coming together by the military and the first responders, the great coming together of our uniformed personnel and a great [speaker not understood] of San Francisco. This amazing transformation in the last few years was due primarily to the vision and the dedication of three people, george and Charlotte Schultz and mike myers. Id like to pause to thank all three of them for this work. applause and in april of 1996, my last year as secretary of defense, i met one morning intelligence briefing at 7 oclock along with general charlie. The previous day general hughes had briefed us that the Chinese Military were to begin extensive military maneuvers in the taiwan strait. This morning we were stunned to learn that they had fired two missiles that landed just 10 miles off the coast of taiwan. The taiwanese had a president ial election underway, and the chinese were using a not too subtle way of explaining to them what they wanted
The asia pacific region. Secondly, that we would maintain freedom of access throughout that region. In particular, we would maintain the sea lanes in that area, whatever the challenge might be. Even as we reduce our defense budget, therefore we must maintain and would maintain a powerful navy, and that that navy would be charged with maintaining the freedom of those sea lanes. We had, of course, to be concerned as to whether there would be a challenge for that. We observed that the rise and shine has more energy needs for more energy than they can produce themselves, and to maintain the Economic Growth which they believe is essential. We observed that the South China Sea is a potential source of Energy Supplies for china and that there is a contention among the nations in that region as to where the ownership and rights of access are to the South China Sea. And this is conceivable that china might seek to reestablish its claim there by military coercion and that could lead them into a