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Exchange of Toasts Between the President and Giovanni Leone, President of Italy - State Dining Room
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7336280
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document
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Exchange of Toasts Between the President and Giovanni Leone, President of Italy - State Dining Room
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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Dinners and dining
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7336280
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1974-09-25
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1974
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Digitized from Box 2 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 25, 1974
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
EXCHANGE OF TOASTS
BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT
AND
GIOVANNI LEONE
PRESIDENT OF ITALY
STATE DINING ROOM
10:03 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, it is wonderful
to have you and Mrs. Leone and your three sons with us
this evening. As I said this morning at the time you
came and joined us, the United States has a great debt
of gratitude and a great sense of friendship for Italy.
because of the many, many people in this United States
who have an ancestral background from Italy.
As I read and listen and look around our
country, some 10 percent of our people have a background
from Italy. We have superb artists, we have outstanding
individuals in science, we have some very renowned
athletes, we have many, many people in public life
who have had a background from your country. And we
are proud of them and their contributions to our
country.
But I think, Mr. President, the broadest
relationship that we have is what Italy has contributed
to the United States without personal identification
in the field in those areas that one could describe as
grace, humanity, tolerance, and an awareness of beauty.
We have a great American writer by the name
of Mark Twain who once wrote -- and he wasn't very
complimentary to foreigners -- but one of his nicer
moments, he wrote, "The Creator made Italy from the
designs of Michelangelo."
And that was a nice comment. It was probably
the best he ever made about any foreigners.
But to be serious, Mr. President, in all of
the time that I had the privilege of serving in the
Congress, the United States and Italy were building
together. We were building in the process of recon-
struction following the war. We were building in the
process of Europe as aswhole in the reconstruction
period.
MORE
(OVER)
Page 2
This 25-year span led, of course, to our
alliance, where we have developed a friendship and an
agreement for diplomatic, military, economic and cultural
expansion and reciprocity.
We dealt with Italy on a personal basis
and we have worked together in our relationships with
our allies in Western Europe. And the net result has
been a better relationship between us as people
and our Governments on behalf of our people.
But, Mr. President, it was a pleasure for
me to meet you this morning and to be reassured of
your willingness to talk in a frank and candid way about
our mutual problems. And from one who spent a good
share of his life in the political arena in the United
States, I was greatly impressed with your wise statesman-
ship and your great knowledge of the problems in
Europe and the rest of the world.
And so it was a privilege and a pleasure for me
to meet you and to discuss these matters with you
and to help in the process of building a better
relationship between Italy and the United States.
And if I might, may I ask all of you to
stand and join with me in the toast to the President of
the Republic of Italy.
PRESIDENT LEONE: For the second time today,
Mr. President, I take my set speech and I set it aside.
I am putting it back into my pocket, because I want to
speak from my heart. The set speech, the written paper,
will remain. It will perhaps go into the archives of
state, but my speech will spring from my heart.
You, Mr. President, have said some very nice
things about me and about my country. Now the things you
said about me I am sure were totally undeserved and
they merely stemmed from your very great kindness.
But what you said about my country makes me very proud
indeed.
You recalled the contribution that Italy has
made to arts and to civilization. We present this
heritage to you which is the heritage of centuries.
We present it to you as our friendly ally, not with
pride -- which might perhaps be justified -- but as a
sort of visiting card for you to understand us better.
MORE
Page 3
Italy has inherited the greatest legal tradi-
tion of all times and Italy is the mistress of the arts.
It can, therefore, only pursue ideals of democracy and
freedom for all. And what other nation can better
support us in these ideals than the United States.
Your Constitution, Mr. President, the first
written Constitution that ever existed, has laid the
foundations of the free world. And we are making this
visit to this great country with the Foreign Minister,
Mr. Moro, who is an authoritative representative of
my Government, to reassert four things: The first is
the faithful, loyal and constant friendship between our
two nations which is based, as you said, in part also on
our common ancestry.
The second point is the Atlantic Alliance.
That is the second point we want to reassert. As I
said this morning, it is seen by Italy, by the United
States, and by all the member countries, as an instrument
for detente and peace.
And we want to reassert, thirdly, our firm
belief in the need to build a united Europe which will
be complimentary to the Atlantic Alliance and which will
not be against America but with the United States of
America.
And fourthly, we want to tell you how very
much we support your policy of detente in which you have
the great cooperation of your Secretary of State, which
policy of detente expresses the will of the peoples of
the world that thirst for peace and justice.
Now if these four points are confirmed -- and they
have already been confirmed, indeed, by our talks this
morning with you, Mr. President, and this afternoon with
your Secretary of State, and I am sure they will be con-
firmed again in the meeting you were kind enough to
arrange with me t morrow -- if they are reconfirmed, Mr.
President, then I can only say that I thank God for
allowing me to represent Italy in this great country.
And, Mr. President, you were good enough to
extend your greetings to my whole family, and this is
somewhat unusual, because in Italy we tend to hide our
families away, and I have grown away from this tradition.
I have brought my wife and children with me to present
to you a typical Italian family, one that is a sound
family that is respectful of moral values and that is
united.
MORE
Page 4
Mr. President, may I take this opportunity to say
how satisfied I am with the talks that we have had and
how very glad I am that you have accepted my invitation to
come and visit us in Italy. This has already made a favorable
impression outside.
And I hope that the burden that is now weighing
on your shoulders -- but you have very square shoulders,
indeed, I know that you are an athlete, I am not
referring only to yourphysical strength -- I hope that
burden will yet give you some time to come to Italy
where I can assure you of a very warm and affectionate
welcome from the people of my country. And I hope that
Mrs. Ford will be able to come with you.
And so I say to you, God bless you and I invoke
the blessings of God upon you as I do upon my own family.
And so I want to say now, thank you to the United
States of America and thank you very much for the music
that you provided tonight. It was a touch of sentiment that
I very much appreciated. I appreciated the Neopolitan song
that was played.
I told you, Mr. President, in our private talk
that Naples is my home town. It is very beautiful, generous,
and poor. And many parts of Italy are poor and that
causes us some concern.
I am mentioning this not with cup in hand at all
but merely as a matter of interest.
And so now, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen,
I give you the toast, the health and prosperity of
President Ford and his family, and the success and well-
being of the people of America and the consolidated
friendship of the peoples of Italy and the United States
of America.
END (AT 10:22 P.M. EDT)