Comcast is partnering with 1000 Community Centers to create wi fi enabled listings, so students from low income families can get what they need to be ready for anything. Comcast, along with these television companies, support c span as a public service. Thank you. For. Ladies and gentlemen will you please be seated . And in a moment, you will stand again ladies and gentlemen, will you please be seated, and in a moment you will stand again. As all of you know, this is the largest dinner ever held at the white house, and that in itself would make it important. I think you should also know that in this great house the most distinguished men and women of the world have been entertained. Emperors, kings, president s, and leaders from virtually every nation of the world have been honored here. And, of course, they have honored this house by being here. I know that i speak for all the American People when i say that never has the white house been more proud than it is tonight because of the guests that we have tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, good evening, my name is jim byron. Im the president and ceo of the Richard Nixon foundation. It is my honor to welcome you. Thank you. To welcome you all back to the Nixon Library on behalf of the board of directors and the nixon family. It is a special privilege for us to honor you this evening. 50 years to the day that you celebrated your homecoming at the white house. This evening we are joined by a few special guests to celebrate with you. Representing the family of president and misses nixon, please welcome tricia nixon cox, the eldest daughter. And edward cox, her husband and the chairman of the new york republican party. Ed and tricia have an additional distinction in that they were at the dinner 50 years ago in the white house with all of you. I would also like to welcome melanie eisenhower, the youngest granddaughter of president and misses nixon and the youngest granddaughter of julie nixon eisenhower. And melanies husband, joseph sergio. We are joined by a number of the members of the board of directors of the Richard Nixon foundation, including ambassador Robert Obrien, chairman of the board. Charlie zhang, our treasurer, and brett alvarez, who i know you all know. Larry higbee, maureen nine, and our great governor of the state of california, governor pete wilson. I would like to welcome senator tom carver, the only vietnam war veteran serving in the United States senate who we will be hearing from later in the evening. Thank you for being here, senator. I would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the major sponsors and supporters of this 50th anniversary homecoming celebration, and youre now going to be able to see them on the screens beside me. I would like to think are major supporters here at power foundation, american airlines, and here managing all of the military affairs. The gary sinise foundation, in and out burger, sarah and ross perot junior, in honor of ross perot senior. Thank you for what you have done and for being here. And of course, charlie zhang, who is underwriting the dinner this evening. Thank you. Working with the organization we pulled together a tremendous group of individuals, companies, and foundations to welcome you here this evening. On behalf of the foundation and the Richard Nixon foundation we want to thank everyone for their support. In a room in which everyone is a special guest, it can be a tad awkward to single out a few. But i know you will support me in this brief indulgence as i want to recognize medal of honor recipient robert patterson, who was awarded the medal of honor for conspicuous gallantry in action in risk of his life by president nixon at the white house rose garden in 1969. Thank you for being here. I would like to welcome his excellency, the ambassador of qatar to the United States of america. Thank you for being here. As well as general michael moseley, the longtime chief of staff of the United States air force. Major general and watson, the commanding general of the first marine division, we not only welcome him, but i can for his support and the support of the United States marine corps to bring this anniversary to life. Thank you, gentlemen. I would like to recognize also tamara martin, the recently appointed director of the Nixon Library federal operations of the organizer administration. Thank you, tamara. Now, lets begin our evening in prayer as robert delivers this evenings indication. Let us pray. Lord, our governor, bless the leaders of our land that we may be at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth. To the president and members of the cabinet. To governors of states, mayors of cities, and all administrative authority, grant wisdom and grace in the exercise of their duties. To senators and representatives, and those who make laws in our states, cities, and towns, give courage, wisdom, and foresight. Provide for the needs of our people, and to fulfill our obligations in the community of nations. To the judges and officers of our courts, give understanding and integrity, that human rights may be safeguarded and justice served. We commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad, defend them day by day with your heavenly grace. Strengthen them in their trials and temptations. Give them courage to face the perils which beset them, and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be. Look with favor upon all of our members of the vietnam prisoners of war as we strive to fill our commitment to live in honor. Or the wellbeing of our society, and that we may serve you faithfully in our generation, on holy name for yours, the kingdom of the lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Amen. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, i now invite you to stand for the presentation. The colors in the National Anthem by the United States marine corps honor guard amen. A thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I now invite you to stand for the presentation of the colors in the National Anthem by the United States marine corps, oc music and dance. One, you three. Trumpet, at the ready. One, two, three ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ready, see color of our preset color. Ready present colors are you are color very colored welcome. Ready. Order. Colors ready. Ready, cut. Fall out right, ready. Forward, march. Ladies and gente seated. Welcome. P. O. W. Everett alvarez and tom han. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. Welcome, p. O. W. S Albert Alvarez and tom hand. P house organization, i want to take this opportunity to show our thank you on behalf of the organization, i want to take this opportunity to show our appreciation to the Richard Nixon president ial library, to the board of directors, for hosting our golden anniversary reunion, celebrating 50 years of freedom. I also want to recognize jim bartmans staff, and the people that worked long and hard in arranging all of the events, the ceremonies beginning yesterday, followed by the torah, the barbecue, and tonight events are due to a lot of the hard work. They did it with enthusiasm, and i can see that in their words of expression, and i can see that, you can see it in the results. And so, i want you all to know that this is truly appreciated for all of the staff and the volunteers, and all who worked all these events. I also want to note, fellows, you think youve received enough attention now . Well, now, for the past 50 years, each of you, in your own way, have been telling a story. And what you have done is that youve established a legacy of what we are, and what we represent. All of you. You know, our circumstances were unique, but what people recognized, what the American Public recognized, is how we dealt with those circumstances. They recognized that, you know, you responded with character, courage, resiliency, and honor, and thats what we see when we talk about p. O. W. S of the vietnam war. I get those statements from people all the time, and im sure you do. Exactly that. So, this profile that we now have established is one thats going to be around for generations, and all i wanted to say is, you guys, you can be proud of that. I want to note that we came home 50 years ago, but many did not. And i have, we have, tom hanson to remind us of those memories and what were doing to remember our m. I. A. S. Theres nothing more enthusiastic, to me, that being around a bunch of like minded warriors and patriots, and tonight is, pure, the best of all. For those of you unfamiliar with how warriors pay homage to their missing, this small table is the vietnam war era depiction of that. A little history, it was started at tactics conferences in thailand in the mid60s, when the navy, marines, and air force Fighter Pilots gathered to improve their tactics, and at the end of those tactics conferences, they would have a dinner, not as a dinner as this, but similar. More formal in the comments. I dont know the name, and i dont think the names of the guys who designed this table, but i will describe the items that are on this table to give you the context of how we pay homage to our missing men and, in todays world, the men and women. I use that term generically. So, the small table indicates one man, soldiers, battling many. Its covered with a white tablecloth to honor the soldiers pure heart when he answers his countrys call to duty. He puts a plate with the grain of salt to show a captive shoulders bitter feet and the tears of the families who wait. For that patriots return. An empty chair is at the table for the missing soldiers who are not with us tonight. The black can is for the sorrow of captivity for those who were p. O. W. S, and the turnover class is symbolic of the meal that will not be eaten. The white candle is for peace, and finally, the red rose in the vase, tied with the red ribbon, is for the hope that all of our missing will return someday. Lets eat. Ladies and gentlemen, wed like to begin the program this evening in your honor with someone who was not only there 50 years ago, at the white house dinner on the south lawn, but whos negotiating skills in paris, representing president nixon, no doubt, helped put the wheels in motion in securing your freedom. Dr. Henry kissinger, who would be here with you, this evening, but he celebrates his 100th birthday on saturday. So, i think you can understand the travel to california would be significant. So, lets begin this Evenings Program with dr. Gissinger. It is a great joy to be permitted to speak to you on this 10th anniversary of my last address to you, and the 50th anniversary of celebrating with you. You return from captivity. Knowing you could turn president nixon, then the safety has returned for the prisoners of war, which he inherited from the previous predecessors. But he continued it also. And the admirable duty for the sake of all the people who relied on america, that america not give up in their support of an ally, because that would shape the face of people in america. I met weekly, often, and at any rate, with the wives who came to see what could be done to expedite your return, but im happy to tell you that these meetings were attempts at mutual support, and that the effort to encourage the families to blame the government never succeeded. You performed a great duties. And a difficult, and a somewhat very tragic time for america. But your fortitude, the fortitude of your families, and the dignity with which you put your faith will long be remembered. At the end of the war, i paid the visit for the details, and you kept this over me to take john mccain with me, on my airplane, as the first prisoner to be returned. But, john, i knew that to take one person on a president ial plane, after all the months of suffering, and for that prisoner to be deserving of the commander of the pacific would not have been appropriate. So, when i met john mccain, three months later, after an additional prison endurance, i was wondering what he would say to me. But he made it easy. He came up to me and said, i want to thank you for saving my honor. He became a lifelong friend, and he became, to me, a symbol of what you achieved, which was to preserve the honor and purpose of your country. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk to you. This is my 100 year. So, i look forward to seeing you all at your next 10th anniversary. Sem carper. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, from the state of delaware, please welcome the United States senator tom carper. Hello, delaware. Where am i . We used to be stationed up the road at the naval air station. It is wonderful to be back out here from san francisco. Anybody here ever been to delaware . Anybody here ever been in incorporated delaware . Anybody been to a five star beaches . More fivestar beaches than any state in america. Can you believe that . Great beaches. The constitution of our country was first ratified in delaware. You know, Different Number seven, 1787, for anybody else, we took the constitution, which was sent down from philadelphia, and 25 men, in dover, delaware, debated and embraced it, voted for it unanimously for a whole week, starting december 7th, 1787, for a whole week. Delaware was the entire United States of america. Im told it was a good week. Good week. Democracys a hard way of governing. Winston churchill used to say democracy is the worst form of governing devised by man. Except for all the rest. It is a hard way to go. Those of us who have been proposed to certain Elective Office at state level, local level, national level, know exactly what that means. I want to take just a minute to the words of our constitution, words on a piece of paper. They are made real by the sacrifice of men and women who wear the uniform, the army navy coast guard, marines, willing to risk their life and limb to save our democracy, to protect our constitution, and make sure that our children and grandchildren, great grandchildren, have a country like this to grow up in vietnam veterans, as much as any veterans i have known, have helped protect that democracy. Thank you for remembering that and making sure that we give them the tribute and appreciation that they deserve. Have a speech. Im just going to set it aside and just talk to you from my heart. Im the last vietnam veteran serving in the United States senate. Im also the grandson of a gold star mother, son of a navy chief officer for 30 years. My uncles were sergeant in the marine corps, in the army, world war ii, and i was lucky enough, when i was 17 years old, win a navy scholarship, went to ohio state, studied economics, graduated, become a naval flight officer. Graduated at the height of the vietnam war. Right at the height of the vietnam war. A week later, i was on my way to pensacola, florida, to become a naval flight officer. A week later, i joined my School Flight squadron in the navy, and we were on our way for the first of three deployments that i would take. Our job, in that part of the world, was to fly surveillance missions, tracking soviet submarines from the scene of japan to the indian ocean, west coast of the United States, the south china sea. Our jobs were also to conduct surveillance operations to intercept infiltrator trolleys from North Vietnam to resupply them in South Vietnam in their efforts to overthrow the government and our ally. We would track these as they look like fishing boats but they werent. In many cases, they had arms and other kinds of bad weaponry, and they were just trying to get a resupply to vietnam. Our job was to hand off those infiltrator trawlers to the navy and the coast guard. When the captains for the navy script but was highly decorated, highly decorated as a member of the navy at the time, and that was the first time we ever met him. Later, i would meet john mccain, and we would become brothers in bond, if you know what i mean. Later on, i would have the opportunity, after being in the navy, to go out, back to move to delaware, get an mba, and also be elected to office. I was elected 29 elected state church 10 years. Six years later, i wanted to congress to join john mccain. He and i were elected on the same day. But that job, beginning that day, i started, went to work, we had to see what happens to our m. I. A. S, got to find out what happened to folks i served with, john served with, john kerry, the guy i know what happened to get to the truth. We started seeing, you may recall, pictures on the cover of newsweek, which is on the cover of time magazine, major newspapers. Folks in the u. S. Military personnel, being held after the war by the vietnamese, and i was visited by a lot of modern organizations, saying, you ought to do something about this as a vietnam veteran. What do you do something about this . I put together a congressional delegation, bipartisan congressional delegation, and we went to see president George Herbert walker bush. Said, mr. President , youve been seeing these pictures. Your folks have been seeing these pictures. Weve got to do something about this. Thank god, he said, count me in. What did we do . We put together a quote and we went to vietnam, cambodia, laos. First landed in saigon, vietnam, there, and we arrived in a time when the Vietnamese Communist Party was holding, like a convention, up you will, selecting the leader for the next generation, and president bush had said theres a gorbachevlike person in the communist leadership. If that person ends up as the leader of vietnam, that somebody would be who you can work with, maybe even find the truth about the m. I. A. S, how to normalize relations. We went over there, saigon, hadnt had a great convention. We went on to cambodia. We found in cambodia was a criminal ring who had been using coming up pictures of soviet nationals in the newsmagazines back in russia, they cut them out, and they made them appear to be american soldiers, and he used them to extort money from the families of p. O. W. S. Literally, the ring was uncovered while we were in cambodia. We went from there on into laos, back into vietnam. About ready to leave, made headway earlier, they