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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
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Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Speech File Draft Files
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Chron File, 1989-1993
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USS Arizona 12/7/91 [OA 6040]
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26
17
5
1
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 4, 1991 DEC 4 P7:20
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVID DEMAREST
44
TONY SNOW TS
FROM:
JOSEPH DUGGAN
CURT SMITH
MARY ROBERT KATE SIMON GRANT mkg
R&
SUBJECT:
PEARL HARBOR SPEECHES
I. SUMMARY
On Saturday, December 7 in Hawaii, you will give three
speeches commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Pearl
Harbor attack. The first speech at 6:55 a.m. will be to
4,000 Pearl Harbor survivors and families at the National
Cemetery of the Pacific (known locally as the Punchbowl).
The second speech is at 8:25 a.m. on the Arizona Memorial to
about 250 dignitaries and survivors of the Arizona and Utah.
The third speech is to 2,500 WWII veterans and families at
9:50 a.m. at Pier K-8 in Pearl Harbor. They will be seated
and will be able to hear the speech on the Arizona Memorial.
Both the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri will be
visible behind you during the speech.
II. DISCUSSION
The speech at the cemetery (12 minutes, on cards) is
meant as a remembrance and tribute for those who died.
The speech on the Arizona Memorial (12 minutes, on
cards) will be the emotional high point of the day and
probably the most widely televised. For that reason, this
speech is a rhetorical recreation of what happened that day
in 1941, and what it means to us today.
The third speech (15 minutes, on teleprompter)
discusses the dangers of isolationism and the triumph of
freedom over tyranny brought about by engagement. Near the
end, as you reflect upon your war experiences, you look
forward to the next 50 years.
(Duggan/Simon)
December 4, 1991
Draft Five
Punchbowl.ts
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
NATIONAL MEMORIAL CEMETERY
OF THE PACIFIC
HONOLULU, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
6:55 a.m.
[Acknowledgements]
From this sacred ground near the waters of Pearl Harbor, we
remember the moment when the Pacific Ocean erupted in a storm of
fire and blood. // We remember a morning when America / -- where
some thought isolation meant security / -- awoke wounded and
reeling, plunged into a desperate fight for world freedom. //
I remember the crackle of the radio and the voice of our
President. "We are going to win the war," FDR told us, "and we
are going to win the peace that follows." " //
We won the war and secured the peace because American men
and women responded bravely and instinctively to their nation's
call. Within hours after the cruel surprise attack began, many
died, having done what came naturally: They fought for their
family and friends, defending the land they loved. They did not
set out to become heroes, but they did. 11
When torpedoes crippled the USS California's ammunition
hoists, Warrant Officer Thomas Reeves stood in a smoke-filled
passageway and organized a human supply chain to move the
ammunition. He worked with all his might till the smoke overcame
him. He died that day aboard the California, and he rests today
in this cemetery. // During the attack, Chief Boatswain Edwin
2
Hill of the USS Nevada swam from the dock back to his ship,
ignoring the bombs falling around him. He too died in the attack
and rests here. //
The Bible says "love is strong as death." To die for
country, for family: that is the truth whispered by these rows
of marble markers. //
I remember Ernie Pyle. The greatest of war correspondents,
he fell to enemy machine gun fire on Ie Shima [EE-ay SHEE-ma].
He lies here in this cemetery among the GIs he loved and honored
so well. / His plain-spoken news dispatches from the front
reminded us that behind the battle statistics were true-life
stories of how boys became men and men became heroes. He told us
what was happening in the war -- how our men were fighting. And
by telling the stories of our servicemen to their home towns and
neighborhoods, he helped us understand why we were fighting --
how our men at arms defended with all their hearts America's
deepest ideals.
Americans did not wage war against nations or races. We
fought for freedom and human dignity against the nightmare of
totalitarianism. The world must never forget that the
dictatorships we fought -- the Hitler and Tojo regimes --
committed war crimes and atrocities. Our servicemen struggled
and sacrificed not only in defense of our free way of life, but
also in the hope that the blessings of liberty some day might
extend to all peoples. ///
3
Our cause was just and honorable, but not every American
action was fully fair. This ground embraces many American
veterans whose love of country was put to the test unfairly by
our own authorities. These and other natural-born American
citizens faced wartime internment. They committed no crime.
They were sent to internment camps simply because their ancestors
were Japanese. V Here lie valiant servicemen of the 442nd
Other Asian- Americans suffered from discrimination when they were mis taken for
Japonese.
Regimental Combat Team and of the Military Intelligence Service -
- Americans of Japanese ancestry who fought to defeat the Axis in
Europe and in the Pacific. Among these is the late Senator Spark
Matsunaga, a combat hero and survivor who went on to help lead
postwar Hawaii to American statehood. //
I remember sharing danger and friendship in these skies and
on this ocean. Some of my closest buddies never came home. As
all the veterans here know, when a friend or comrade in arms
falls in battle, war grabs a part of your soul. My roommate
aboard the carrier San Jacinto was Jim Wykes. As we were about
to go into combat for the first time, a strike over Wake Island,
Jim Wykes and his crew were sent on a search mission from which
they never returned. Many more from our torpedo squadron were to
give their lives. The names of many of these, and more than
18,000 other World War II servicemen lost in action in the
Pacific, are engraved on the walls of this beautiful memorial.
During every passage of my life, I've often thought of those
who never returned. Some left children behind, and today those
children, like my own kids, are raising children of their own.
4
// And thank God, each surviving generation has honored the
memory of our heroes of the Second World War. Each new
generation has risen to meet the challenge of winning the peace.
After vanquishing the dictators of Japan, Germany, and
Italy, America's war generation helped those countries rebuild
and grow strong in the habits of democracy and free enterprise.
They affirmed again that our quarrel had not been with races or
nations. The American victors welcomed the new leaders of Japan,
Germany and Italy into alliances that won the Cold War and helped
prevent a third World War. America and our wartime allies joined
hands with the liberated peoples of our former foes to create and
nurture international organizations aimed at protecting human
:
rights, collective security, and economic growth.
Winning the peace, then as now, demands preparedness. The
cause of harmony among nations is not a call for pacifism. We
avoided a third World War because we were prepared to defend the
Free World against aggressors. The Pearl Harbor generation saw
its younger brothers go to Korea and its sons to Vietnam to
resist communism. Pearl Harbor's grandchildren answered the call
to the Persian Gulf to reverse Saddam's aggression against
Kuwait. How fitting it is that this great cemetery holds so many
who died for the cause of Korean and Vietnamese freedom. How
honored we are to stand on this ground, consecrated with the
remains of Marine Lance Corporal Frank Allen of Hawaii, who gave
his life 10 months ago in the battle to free Kuwait.
5
Every soldier and sailor and airman buried here offered his
life so that others might be free. Not one of them died in vain.
Our men and women who served in Korea and Vietnam -- whose
sacrifices too often have been forgotten or reviled -- are
nearing their day of greatest vindication. For I have confidence
that the tragedy of totalitarianism has entered its final scene -
- everywhere on this earth.
This morning's sun will course the Pacific skies and
illuminate the lands of Asia. Just as certainly, the movement of
human freedom will supplant dictatorships that now hold sway in
Pyongyang, Rangoon and Hanoi. Yes, in China, too -- for a
billion yearning men and women -- the future means freedom and
democracy.
This fair December dawn breaks on a world ready for renewal.
A high tide of hope swells for those committed to peace and
freedom. The nations pushed by tyrants into war against us half
a century ago join us today as free and constructive partners in
the effort for peace. The Soviet communists' designs for world
domination have collapsed before the Free World's resolve.
We've reached this morning because generation after
generation, Americans kept faith with our founders and our
heroes. From the snows of Valley Forge, to the fiery seas of
Midway and Pearl Harbor, to the sands of Iraq and Kuwait,
Americans lived and died true to our ideals. They have prepared
the way for a world of unprecedented freedom and cooperation. 11
6
Thank God you Pearl Harbor survivors are here today to see this
come to pass. 11
Today, as we remember the sacrifices of our countrymen, I
ask all Americans to join me in a prayer: Lord, give our rising
generations the wisdom to cherish their freedom and security as
hard-won treasures. Lord, give them the same courage that pulsed
in the blood of their fathers. 11
May God bless you, and God bless the United States of
America.
#
#
#
(Smith/Simon)
Draft Ten
December 4, 1991
PEARL. TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
8:25 A.M.
Captain Ross. Family and friends of the USS Arizona and USS
Utah. Fellow veterans, and Americans. //
It was a bright Sunday morning. Brave troops slept soundly
in their bunks. Those who were awake looked out and marveled at
the serene and glassy sea. /
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
call localine
ok an
for the 8 a.m. flag raising // Ray Emory, who was on the USS
:
OK
Honolulu, read the morning newspaper. // Aboard the battleship
California, Yeoman Durell Connor wrapped Christmas presents. //
On the West Virginia, a machinist's mate looked at photos just
received from his wife. // They were of his eight-month-old son
whom he had never seen. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Sergeant York.
// In New York, families went window-shopping. Out West, it was
late morning -- and many families were still at church. /
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine -- and why not?
To American sailors, the idea of war seemed palpable, but remote.
/ Then, in one horrible instant, they froze in terror. The
abstract threat suddenly was real. //
2
But these men did not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- fought, and died. // What
lived was the shock wave that soon swept across America --
forever immortalizing December 7, 1941. // Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each felt like the writer who
observed: "Life is never again as it was before anyone you love
has died; never so innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to
your will." //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. 11 Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. //
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men
who were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred and three Americans gave their lives. But
in this haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- re-
minding us gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night.
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
and drifts to the surface. As it spreads across the water, we
recall the ancient poet: "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair /
against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
// It is as though God Himself were crying. //
3
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry -- firing a .45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the California. When the compartment flooded, the crew
evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station," he said.
"I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going." // Nearby,
aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy assured his
troops it was all right to miss church that day. "You can praise
the Lord and pass the ammunition. " //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. They knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. // Every American did. Ted Williams, who served
America in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to
non-
fall. He took up arms and risked his life so that liberty could
seguite
survive. //
Enlisting in that mission were Hawaiians of Japanese
ancestry who came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood
-- and later thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their
country //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but not the American spirit. They may kill us,
but never the ideals that made us proud to serve. // Talk to
those who survived to fight another day. They would repeat the
Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father, strong to save
4
/ Whose arm hath bound the restless wave / O hear us when we cry
to thee / For those in peril on the sea."
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty. " //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next -- lessons as clear
as the Pacific sky. //
One of Pearl Harbor's lessons is that, together, we could
"summon lightness against the dark" -- that was Dwight
Eisenhower. / Another: that when it comes to national defense,
finishing second means finishing last. / We learned that
appeasement is a bankrupt course of action -- the world stops not
at our water's edge. // Perhaps above all, that real peace --
the peace that lasts -- means the triumph of freedom -- not
merely the absence of war. //
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
5
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken hull -- tomb to more
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us,
reminds us of the might of ideals that inspire boys to die as
men. // Every one who aches at their sacrifice knows America
must be forever vigilant -- and Americans must always remember
the brave and innocent who gave their lives to keep us free. //
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
them -- the future -- that we must apply the lessons of the past.
// In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the war and, thus, the peace..
In the Cold War that followed, Americans also shed their blood -
- but we used other means as well. // For nearly half-a-century,
patience, foresight, and personal diplomacy helped America stand
fast and firm for democracy. But it has never stood alone. /
Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free markets,
free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that include
our former enemies, Germany, Italy, and Japan. //
This year, they supported our triumph in the seas and sands
of the Gulf. By joining that great coalition, they paid solemn
tribute to the memory of December 7 -- standing tall for what is
right and good. // They said: We believe in a New World Order
where the force of law outlasts the use of force -- the kind of
world our boys died for right here. //
Grant/Simon
A:Kilo-8.ts Draft five
December 4, 1991
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: WWII VETERANS AND FAMILIES
K-8 PIER, HONOLULU, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
9:50 A.M.
[Acknowledgements]
I remember exactly when I first heard the news about Pearl
Harbor -- as I'm sure all of you do, too. I was seventeen years
old, walking across the green at school. My thoughts in those
days didn't turn to world events, but mainly to simpler things:
making the basketball team, entering college. That walk across
campus marked an end of innocence for me.
When Americans heard the news, they froze in shock. But
just as quickly we came together. I was swept up in it -- I
became determined that very day. I wanted to be a Navy pilot.
And so, on my 18th birthday -- June 12, 1942 -- I was sworn
into the Navy as a Seaman Second Class. Like all American kids
back then, I wanted to fight for my country. I learned to fly
torpedo bombers and land them on aircraft carriers. I was
shocked at my first sight of Pearl Harbor in April of '44: we
came into port on the carrier San Jacinto. Nearby, the Utah was
still on her side, and parts of the Arizona still stood silent in
the water. // Everywhere the skeletons of ships reached out, as
if to demand remembrance -- and warn us of our own mortality. //
Heading out with Admiral Mitscher's Fleet, we quickly saw
the face of battle -- we wrote letters to the families of crewmen
who didn't return from bombing runs, and prayed for our buddies
when their planes got hit. I lost friends. // We all did. //
Mora than
2
Two thousand men died in a matter of minutes on this site, a
half century ago. Many more died that same day as Japanese
forces assaulted the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Midway
Island, Malaya, Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong. On that Day
of Infamy, Pearl Harbor propelled each of us into a titanic
contest for mankind's future. It galvanized the American spirit
as never before / into a single-minded resolve that could produce
only one thing: victory.
Churchill knew it as soon as he heard the news. He'd faced
the Nazi conquest of Europe, the blitz of London, and the terror
of the U-boats. But when America was attacked, he declared there
was "no more doubt about the end." He knew then / that the
;
American spirit would not fail the cause of freedom.
The next day, President Roosevelt proclaimed the singular
American objective: "With confidence in our armed forces -- with
the unbounding determination of our people -- we will gain the
inevitable triumph -- so help us God." // It was the
steadfastness of the American people that would "win the war" and
"win the peace that follows."
We triumphed in both, despite the fact that the American
people did not want to be drawn into the conflict -- "the
unsought war," it's been called. Ironically, isolationists
gathered together at what was known in those days as an "America
First" rally in Pittsburgh -- at precisely the moment the first
Americans met early, violent deaths in Pearl Harbor. The
isolationists failed to see that the seeds of Pearl Harbor were
3
sewn in 1919, when a victorious America decided that in the
absence of a threatening enemy, we should turn all of our
energies to domestic problems. That notion of isolationism flew
escort for the bombers that attacked our men fifty years ago. //
Again, in 1945, some called for America's return to
isolationism -- as if abandoning world leadership was the
prerequisite for dealing with pressing matters back home. They
were rudely awakened by the brutal reality of the Iron Curtain,
the Soviet blockade of Berlin, and the communist invasion of
South Korea.
Now we stand triumphant -- for the third time this century
-- this time in the wake of the Cold War. As in 1919 and 1945, :
we face no enemy menacing our security. Yet we stand here today
on the site of a tragedy spawned by isolationism. And it is here
we must learn -- and this time avoid -- the dangers of today's
isolationism and its economic accomplice, // protectionism. //
The fact is, this country has enjoyed its most lasting
growth and security when we rejected isolationism in favor of
The U.S is a Pacific nation
engagement and leadership. Next month in Asia, I'll discuss with
our Pacific friends and allies their responsibility to share with
us the challenges and burdens of leadership in the post-Cold War
world. Together, we will continue our efforts to promote free
markets and free people. To do otherwise -- to believe that
turning our backs on the world would improve our lot here at home
-- is to ignore the tragic lessons of the 20th century. //
4
Fifty years ago, we paid a heavy price for complacency and
overconfidence. That, too, is a lesson we shall never forget.
But Pearl Harbor also proved the value of unity and the strength
of America's resolve. The unity that made us invincible in war,
now makes us secure in peace. To those who have defended our
country -- from the shores of Guadalcanal to the hills of Korea;
and from the jungles of Vietnam to the sands of Kuwait -- I say
this: we will always remember. // We will always be prepared --
prepared to take on aggression, prepared to step forward in
reconciliation, and prepared to secure the peace.
In remembering, it is important to come to grips with the
past. No nation can fully understand itself or find its place in
the world if it does not look with clear eyes at all the glories
and disgraces of its past. We in the United States acknowledge a
great injustice in our history: The internment of Americans of
Japanese ancestry was such an injustice, and it will never be
repeated. //
The values we hold dear as a Nation -- equality of
opportunity, freedom of religion, speech, and assembly, free and
vigorous elections -- are now revered by many Nations. Our
greatest victory in World War II took place not on the field of
battle, but in nations we once counted as foes. The ideals of
democracy and liberty have triumphed in a world once threatened
with conquest / by tyranny and despotism.
Today as we celebrate the world's evolution toward freedom,
we commemorate democracy's fallen heroes -- the defenders of
5
freedom -- as well as the victims of dictatorship who never saw
the light of liberty. // Earlier this year, when former
adversaries joined us in the fight against aggression in the
Persian Gulf, we affirmed the values cherished by the Heroes of
the Harbor. In effect, we said to those entombed in the Arizona,
and to all who have fallen for the sake of liberty: You did not
die in vain. //
The friends I lost -- we all lost -- upheld a great and
noble cause. Because of their sacrifice, the world now lives in
greater freedom and peace than ever before. It is right that we
are here today. // And it is right that we go on from here. //
Earlier this morning, I paid my respects at the Arizona,
where it all began. Behind us stands the Missouri -- where it
came to an end, where the Japanese signed the Articles of
brought with it the rebirth
Surrender. But the Missouri [was also the birthplace of democracy
in Japan. Soon after, Emperor Hirohito went to call on General
MacArthur, who noted that the Emperor had a "thorough grasp of
the democratic concept He played a major role in the
spiritual regeneration of Japan." Their meeting made history,
and a hopeful future for Japan began to take shape.
I thought of that meeting with MacArthur when I attended the
Emperor's funeral in 1989. I thought of it this morning, too, at
the National Cemetery of the Pacific and the Arizona. As one who
proudly served my country in World War II, I understand the anger
that lingers to this day. But this morning I also thought about
its
and about Then global partnership withous.
6
Japan's rebirth (and about her democracy. And I thought of Pearl
Harbor as the birthplace of the new world order. ??
Recently a letter arrived from the son of a Pearl Harbor
survivor, a Navy man named Bill Leu, who is here today. His son
writes from his home, now in Tokyo, saying: "A half century ago,
my father's thoughts were on surviving the attack and winning the
war. He could not have envisioned a future where his son would
study and work in Japan. But he recognizes that the world has
changed, that America's challenges are different. [My father's]
attitude represents that of the United States: Do your duty, and
raise the next generation to do its. "
I can understand Bill's feelings. The first time I came to
Pearl Harbor, I was a cocky young Navy pilot who had never been
in a war zone.
On my second visit, having faced death and been given
another chance to live, I spent the time in Pearl thinking about
the things that were important to me -- faith and family among
them.
Today, I come as a grown man, a father and a grandfather.
As you look back on life, and retrace the steps that made you the
person you are, you pick out the defining moments, the crucial
events. Over the years, Pearl Harbor still defines a part of
who I am.
I come today also as President, to lead the Nation in
honoring the last fifty years, its lessons and its heroes -- and
to dream of the next fifty years, the Next American Century.
7
We must answer our call to destiny -- because it is America's
destiny to lead, to strive -- to be "man's last best hope on
Earth." Today we still dream of gaining "that inevitable triumph
so help us God."
Today, we remember those we loved. We place our hearts'
hopes in the generations that will follow. And we know -- as we
knew fifty years ago -- that we will not fail.
God bless these United States of America. Thank you.
# # #
6
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. /
It is the cause of the Commonwealth of Freedom -- where
nations beat swords into plowshares. / It is the cause of the
Family of America -- where individuals, and communities, practice
the Golden Rule. / It is the cause, finally, of your family, and
mine -- of children and grandchildren: Where we say to every
child: "Someone loves you, and knows your name. " //
The men of Pearl Harbor served this cause -- honored it. //
They knew that there are things worth living for -- but also
worth dying for: Things like principle / decency / fidelity /
honor. //
Look behind you at Battleship Row -- and behind me, at the
gun turret, still visible -- and the flag, flying proudly, from a
truly blessed shrine. //
Look into your hearts, and minds: You will see boys who
this day became men / and men who became heroes. //
Look at the water here -- clear and quiet, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to another, better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
#
#
#
#
29019555
Document No.
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
12/3/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00PM, WED., DEC. 4
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SUBJECT:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
McBRIDE
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
TREFRY
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly to
Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to this office
NO LATER THAN 1:00PM, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4.
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
cut- AP womtownelost
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Simon)
Draft Nine
December 2, 1991
CI DEC 3 A 7 : 49
PEARL. TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
8:25 A.M.
Captain Ross. Family and friends of the USS Arizona and USS
Utah. Fellow veterans, and Americans. //
It was a bright Sunday morning. Soldiers and sailors slept
soundly in their bunks. Early risers stood at their posts,
joking, enjoying a sun that had pushed back the previous day's
clouds, marveling at the serene and glassy sea.
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
for the 8 a.m. flag raising. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Citizen Kane.
clasel
went window
// In New York, Christmas shoppers flocked to Macy's. Out West,
on
y
many families
5th
it was late morning -- and parents and their children were on
Avenue
oh
still at
their knees in church. /
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine. Sailors
watched with innocent fascination. For them, the idea of war
seemed palpable, but not quite real. Then, in one horrible
instant, carefree sailors froze in horror. The abstract threat
exploded into a deadly menace.
But these men did not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- and died.
2
The shock wave soon swept across America. Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each recalls where they were December
7th, 1941. Each felt like the writer who observed: "Life is
never again as it was before anyone you love has died; never so
innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will.' = //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. // Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. 11
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men who
were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred Americans gave their lives. But in this
haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- reminding us
gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night. 11
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
drifts to the surface, and spreads across the water. Every 15
seconds the ancient poet whispers: "In our sleep, pain that
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own
despair / against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace
of God. 11 It is though God Himself were crying,
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry --- firing a .45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
3
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the battleship California. When the compartment flooded,
the crew evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station, " he
said. "I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going. " //
Nearby, aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy
assured his troops it was all right to miss church. "You can
praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. " //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. These men knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. 11 Every American did. Ted Williams, who served America
in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to fall. He
took up arms and risked his life so that liberty could survive.
yn
Enlistmein
//
Aiding that crusade were Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry who
came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood -- and later
thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their country. //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with proud defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but they cannot scuttle the American spirit. //
They may kill us, but they cannot kill the ideals that made us
proud to serve.
Talk to those who survived to fight another day. They would
repeat the Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father,
strong to save / O hear us when we cry to thee / For those in
peril on the sea." //
4
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty." //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next.
The lessons of Pearl Harbor remain as clear as the Pacific
sky. One is, together, we could "summon lightness against the
dark" -- that was Dwight Eisenhower. / Another: that when it
welk
comes to national defense, finishing second means finishing last.
that appeasement is a morally bankunget course of action
That no one ever walks away from appeasing an aggressor he
yes
only crawls and that the world stops not at our water's edge.
exar
// Perhaps above all, that real peace -- the peace that lasts -
- means the triumph of freedom -- not merely the absence of war
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken well -- tomb to more
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us,
Spiried
payable.
5
reminds us of the awesome might of ideals that inspire boys to
die as men. // Think of the young boy who lost his father that
day. or the wife whose husband was her confidant and best
friend. Talk to the little girl whose brother -- her idol
would never return to teach her the true wonder of life. Every
and
one who aches at their sacrifice knows America must be forever
vigilant, and Americans must always remember the brave and
yes
innocent ones who gave their lives here. 1D -lceepin:
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
sh
them -- the future - that we must apply the lessons of the past.
+/+ We must remember that we can best keep the peace by preparing
for war. We must recall that just as what happened in Berlin and
Tokyo could not be divorced from Washington so events in
Europe and Asia affect every American today //
through the blood of som and layters,
In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the peace. In the Cold War
Americans sheddheir blood a well- but wealso
us
that followed we used other means: Among them, patience, foresignt
planning, and personal diplomacy. // For nearly half-a-century,
never
an
America stood fast and firm for democracy. But it has not stood
alone. Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free
markets, free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that
include our former enemies, Germany and Japan.
This year, they supported our triumph in the seas and sands
n"
joining that great coalition they stood tall for what
of the Gulf. By fighting for what is right and good, our former
(-pansing enemies They paid the ultimate tribute to the memory of December 7.
sdemn
patience L diplores Lip
Beia
(curr: wi Clash serville lking in is
6
// They said: We believe in a New World Order where the force
of law outlasts the use of force. Now I say to them: Let us
build a world where nations solve their differences peacefully,
of world
yes
not violently: The kind our boys died for right here. //
^
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. !
Let us recall men like Ray Emory, who was on the USS Honolulu,
reading the morning newspaper, when the enemy attacked. //
After the war, Ray spent two years building a garage-size,
Yes
three-dimensional map of Pearl Harbor -- just as it was that day,
you see,
with each ship in exact location. // Why A magazine drawing
Jusy
had placed the ships wrong --- and to Ray Emory, as he said,
"Pearl Harbor is sacred. " / Ray He saw that map and said: "I'm going
to make a map of how it was that day, and I'll make it right. = //
why! Ray Emory said it simply because Pearl Harbor is sacred."
And by God, he did. 11
it is.
Ray -- fellow veterans -- by God -- with God -- the men of
Pearl Harbor got it right. They knew that there are things worth
living for -- but also worth dying for: Things like principle /
decency / fidelity / honor. //
Look at the water here -- quiet and clear, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to a better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
#
#
#
#
Document No. 29019555
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
8798
A8:41 A8: 41
DATE:
12/3/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00PM, WED., DEC. 4
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SUBJECT:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
McBRIDE
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
TREFRY
FITZWATER
>
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly to
Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to this office
NO LATER THAN 1:00PM, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4.
Thank you.
RESPONSE: TO TONY SNOW
December 4, 1991
The NSC staff concurs with changes, as noted.
Brent D Scowcroft
PHILLIP D. BRADY
CC: Phillip Brady
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Simon)
Draft Nine
December 2, 1991
CI DEC 3 A7: 49
PEARL.TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
8:25 A.M.
Captain Ross. Family and friends of the USS Arizona and USS
Utah. Fellow veterans, and Americans. //
It was a bright Sunday morning. Soldiers and sailors slept
soundly in their bunks. Early risers stood at their posts,
joking, enjoying a sun that had pushed back the previous day's
clouds, marveling at the serene and glassy sea.
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
call to CH colors
for the 8 a.m. a flag raising. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Citizen Kane.
// In New York, Christmas shoppers flocked to Macy's. Out West,
it was late morning -- and parents and their children were on
their knees in church. /
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine. Sailors
watched with innocent fascination. For them, the idea of war
seemed palpable, but not quite real. Then, in one horrible
instant, carefree sailors froze in horror. The abstract threat
exploded into a deadly menace.
But these men did not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- and died.
2
The shock wave soon swept across America. Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each recalls where they were December
7th, 1941. Each felt like the writer who observed: "Life is
never again as it was before anyone you love has died; never so
innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will." //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. // Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. //
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men who
were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred Americans gave their lives. But in this
haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- reminding us
gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night. //
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
drifts to the surface, and spreads across the water. Every 15
seconds the ancient poet whispers: "In our sleep, pain that
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own
despair / against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace
as
of God. // It is ^ though God Himself were crying.
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry -- firing a .45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
3
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the battleship California. When the compartment flooded,
the crew evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station, " he
said. "I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going. " //
Nearby, aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy
assured his troops it was all right to miss church. "You can
praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. If //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. These men knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. // Every American did. Ted Williams, who served America
in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to fall.
He
took up arms and risked his life so that liberty could survive.
// Aiding that crusade were Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry who
came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood -- and later
thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their country. //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with proud defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but they cannot scuttle the American spirit. //
They may kill us, but they cannot kill the ideals that made us
proud to serve.
Talk to those who survived to fight another day. They would
repeat the Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father,
strong to save / O hear us when we cry to thee / For those in
peril on the sea. If //
4
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty." //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next.
The lessons of Pearl Harbor remain as clear as the Pacific
sky. One is, together, we could "summon lightness against the
dark" -- that was Dwight Eisenhower. / Another: that when it
comes to national defense, finishing second means finishing last.
/ That no one ever walks away from appeasing an aggressor -- he
only crawls -- and that the world stops not at our water's edge.
// Perhaps above all, that real peace -- the peace that lasts -
- means the triumph of freedom -- not merely the absence of war.
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
?
shell?
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken well -- tomb to more
?
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us,
5
reminds us of the awesome might of ideals that inspire boys to
die as men. // Think of the young boy who lost his father that
day. or the wife whose husband was her confidant and best
friend. Talk to the little girl whose brother -- her idol --
would never return to teach her the true wonder of life. Every
one who aches at their sacrifice knows America must be forever
vigilant, and Americans must always remember the brave and
innocent ones who gave their lives here. //
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
them -- the future -- that we must apply the lessons of the past.
being prepared
// We must remember that we can best keep the peace by preparing
for war. We must recall that just as what happened in Berlin and
Tokyo could not be divorced from Washington -- so events in
Europe and Asia affect every American today. //
war and The
In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the peace. In the Cold War
persistance
that followed, we used other means: Among them, patience,
we maintained a credible deterrence
planning, and personal diplomacy. // For nearly half-a-century,
America stood fast and firm for democracy. But it has not stood
alone. Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free
markets, free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that
include our former enemies, Germany and Japan.
This year, they supported our triumph in the seas and sands
standing on the side of The
of the Gulf. By fighting for what is right and good, our former
A
enemies paid the ultimate tribute to the memory of December 7.
6
// They said: We believe in a New World Order where the force
of law outlasts the use of force. Now I say to them: Let us
build a world where nations solve their differences peacefully,
not violently: The kind our boys died for right here. //
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. /
Let us recall men like Ray Emory, who was on the USS Honolulu,
reading the morning newspaper, when the enemy attacked. //
How about:
After the war, Ray spent two years
three-dimensional map of Pearl Harbor -
Recall those men on The fantail
of the uss Nevada playing our
cranky note close The to on
with each ship in exact location. // W national anthem as The first boubs
had placed the ships wrong -- and to Ra All. They did not run or flinch.
not
"Pearl Harbor is sacred. " / He saw tha Though under direct five from
the machiniguns of attacking warplanes,
to make a map of how it was that day, a: they finished their job of raising the
And by God, he did. 11
colors and sounding the Star Spangled
Ray -- fellow veterans 7 by God these men Then vaced to general
Banner. The flas was tatteved but
Pearl Harbor got it right. They knew tl quarters. and got their ship underway
living for -- but also worth dying for: Things like principle /
decency / fidelity / honor. //
Look at the water here -- quiet and clear, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to a better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
#
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
December 4, 1991
MEMORANDUM FOR TONY SNOW
FROM:
RONALD E. VONLEMBKE BKERM
ASSISTANT COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT
SUBJECT:
Presidential Remarks: USS ARIZONA
Pursuant to Phillip Brady's request, Counsel's Office has
reviewed the above-referenced matter. We have no objection to
the proposed presidential remarks.
CC: Phillip D. Brady
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
TIME STAMP
EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT STAFFING DOCUMENT
SYSTEM LOG NUMBER:
8798
ACTION/OFFICER:
$5
Patterson
DUE: 11 AM, Wednesday 40
Prepare Memo For Scowcroft/Gates
Appropriate Action
Prepare Memo For Brady
Prepare Memo Scowcroft
Prepare Memo For Sittmann
to Tony Snow cc: Brady
CONCURRENCES/COMMENTS*
PHONE* to action officer at ext.
x6173
Concur
FYI
Concur
FYI
Concur
FYI
Andricos
Hutchings
Pilling
Barth
Jones
Poneman
Beers
Kansteiner
Popadiuk
Burns
Kanter
Pryce
Canas
Kitchen
Rademaker
Carney
Lampley
Riedel
Chellis
Lowenkron
for
Rostow
Davis
McNamara
Stettner
Deal
Melby
Tilley
Dyke
Menan
Tobey
Fry
Morley
Van Eron
Gordon
Needles
Wayne
Gompert
O'Leary
Welch
Haass
Paal 08
Whitley
Holl
Pacelli
Working
Hewett
Patterson
Hull
Pavitt
INFORMATION
Sittmann
Hill
Exec Sec Desk
Scowcroft (advance)
Gates (advance)
Secretariat
COMMENTS
- MASTER- -
SEE D2 ATTACHED.
Logged By
edd
Return to Secretariat
379 OEOB
Document No.
29019555
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
8798
DATE:
12/3/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00PM, WED., DEC. 4
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SUBJECT:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
McBRIDE
SNOW
DEMAREST
TREFRY
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly to
Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to this office
NO LATER THAN 1:00PM, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4.
Thank you.
RESPONSE: TO TONY SNOW
The NSC staff concurs with changes, as noted.
Brent Scowcroft
CC: Phillip Brady
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Simon)
Draft Nine
December 2, 1991
C1 DEC 3 A7: 49
PEARL. TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
8:25 A.M.
Captain Ross. Family and friends of the USS Arizona and USS
Utah. Fellow veterans, and Americans. //
It was a bright Sunday morning. Soldiers and sailors slept
soundly in their bunks. Early risers stood at their posts,
joking, enjoying a sun that had pushed back the previous day's
clouds, marveling at the serene and glassy sea.
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
No
call To iff Colors
for the 8 a.m. A flag raising. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Citizen Kane.
I've
// In New York, Christmas shoppers flocked to Macy's in Out West weren't
1941. dept. store
clased
open M
it was late morning -- and parents and their children were on
Sunday
(DOV)
their knees in church. /
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine. Sailors
watched with innocent fascination. For them, the idea of war
seemed palpable, but not quite real. Then, in one horrible
X
instant, carefree sailors froze in horror. The abstract threat
exploded into a deadly menace.
:
But these men did not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- and died.
2
The shock wave soon swept across America. Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each recalls where they were December
7th, 1941. Each felt like the writer who observed: "Life is
never again as it was before anyone you love has died; never so
innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will. " //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. // Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. //
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men who
were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred Americans gave their lives. But in this
haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- reminding us
gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night. //
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
drifts to the surface, and spreads across the water. Every 15
seconds the ancient poet whispers: "In our sleep, pain that
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own
despair / against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace
yes of God. " // It is A as though God Himself were crying.
%
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry -- firing a .45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
3
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the battleship California. When the compartment flooded,
the crew evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station, " he
said. "I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going. " //
Nearby, aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy
assured his troops it was all right to miss church. "You can
praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. " //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. These men knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. // Every American did. Ted Williams, who served America
in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to fall. He
took up arms and risked his life so that liberty could survive.
// Aiding that crusade were Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry who
came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood -- and later
thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their country. //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with proud defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but they cannot scuttle the American spirit. //
They may kill us, but they cannot kill the ideals that made us
proud to serve.
Talk to those who survived to fight another day. They would
repeat the Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father,
yes strong to save / O hear us when we cry to thee / For those in
peril on the sea
"
//
[I think this will sound
whose arm hath bound the better with
two full complets.
restless wave / (JG)
came (Dov)
4
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty." //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next.
The lessons of Pearl Harbor remain as clear as the Pacific
sky. One is, together, we could "summon lightness against the
dark" -- that was Dwight Eisenhower. / Another: that when it
comes to national defense, finishing second means finishing last.
/ That no one ever walks away from appeasing an aggressor -- he
only crawls -- and that the world stops not at our water's edge.
// Perhaps above all, that real peace -- the peace that lasts -
- means the triumph of freedom -- not merely the absence of war.
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
ys
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken well -- tomb to more
shell? hull? (mcc)
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us
?
his
do (L we may need slow don
5
reminds us of the awesome might of ideals that inspire boys to
die as men. // Think of the young boy who lost his father that
day. or the wife whose husband was her confidant and best
friend. Talk to the little girl whose brother -- her idol --
would never return to teach her the true wonder of life. Every
one who aches at their sacrifice knows America must be forever
vigilant, and Americans must always remember the brave and
innocent ones who gave their lives here. //
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
them -- the future -- that we must apply the lessons of the past.
NO to defend against the forces of aggression. (OCA)
// We must remember that we can best keep the peace by preparing (JG)
being prepared
for war. We must recall that just as what happened in Berlin and
Tokyo could not be divorced from Washington -- so events in
can this
NO
be stated
Europe and Asia affect every American today. //
war and The 1
this,
more
In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the peace. In the Cold War
strangly?
Yes
yes that followed, we used other means: Among them, patience, persitance
(OCA)
yes planning, and personal diplomacy. // For nearly half-a-century,
we maintained a credible deterrence
America stood fast and firm for democracy. But it has not stood
alone. Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free
markets, free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that
yes
include our former enemies, Germany and Japan.
This year, they supported our triumph in the'seas and sands
Italy JG)
standing oh the side of The
yes of the Gulf. By A fighting for what is right and good, our former
yes enemies paid [the the ultimate tribute to the memory of December 7.
6
// They said: We believe in a New World Order where the force
of law outlasts the use of force. Now I say to them: Let us
build a world where nations solve their differences peacefully,
not violently: The kind our boys died for right here. //
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. /
Let us recall men like Ray Emory, who was on the USS Honolulu,
reading the morning newspaper, when
How about:
After the war, Ray spent two
Recall those win on The famous
three-dimensional map of Pearl Ha of The 1185 Nevada playing aur
ay,
with each ship in exact location. national anthem as The first Downs
wt we wanting
had placed the ships wrong -- and Ay. They did not iun it funch.
"Pearl Harbor is sacred.' / He S
Though under di ict fire from
the machinguns of attacking
ing
to make a map of how it was that they finished new job of raising The
//
And by God, he did. 11
colors and sounding The Star Summed
see
Banae The T as was tottered but
Ray -- fellow veterans
by these men Then valid to general
E
attach-
live yet num ill., underway
Pearl Harbor got it right. They knew that there are things worth
living for -- but also worth dying for: Things like principle /
decency / fidelity / honor. //
Look at the water here -- quiet and clear, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to a better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
#
#
#
#
DEC.7
I
A
THE DAY THE JAPANESE
ATTACKED PEARL HARBOR
GORDON W.PRANGE
WITH DONALD M. GOLDSTEIN
AND KATHERINE V. DILLON
SKY WAS FULL OF THE ENEMY"
"Japanese! Man Your Stations!"
119
nearby. At about 0758, ship rocked
er. Then the lights went out, and he had to grope his way. down a
de."23
ladder, reaching the deck below as the emergency lights came on.
ing to their stations, thanks to an
Another ladder, a heave of the deck, and once more the lights went
A. Flood, who had spotted a plane,
out. Young managed to reach his duty station where some sailors were
ified the officer of the deck. 24
climbing into the turret. "Stay below, men," the officer in charge di-
S three-plane group so closely be-
rected them. "Below the armored deck. These 14-inch guns are no
e virtually simultaneous. Goto was
good against planes. I'm going topside to see what's going on." His
klahoma when he released his tor-
men never saw him again. 28
rs. Flying over the battleship, his
So rapid, so well organized had been the Japanese attack that all
t. The speed of the plane exceeded
this action and much more took place while Murphy was still on the
arward, his observer saw the strike
telephone giving Kimmel the word about the Ward and the sampan.
uck]!" Goto looked around, saw a
Murphy's yeoman burst in on him: "There's a message from the sig-
is two companions likewise launch
nal tower saying the Japanese are attacking Pearl Harbor and this is
ma.²⁵
no drill." Immediately Murphy relayed this to Kimmel. 29 The admi-
shock that Boatswain Adolph M.
ral slammed down the receiver and ran outside. 30
shake." He was preparing to send
The Earles' new home next door as yet had no shrubbery, so the
en the mate on the Sixth Division
lawn gave an unobstructed view of Battleship Row. There Kimmel
them Japs are bombing everything
and Mrs. Earle watched as the planes flew over, "circling in figure
udspeaker on the main deck aft of
8's, then bombing the ships, turning and dropping more bombs." They
General Quarters and set material
"could plainly see the rising suns on the wings and could have seen
the pilots' faces had they leaned out. Fierce fires were burning on
in H. Thesman was in the power
the ships." Even with the scene being enacted before their eyes, they
when the public address system
were almost unable to believe the "unbelievable," the "impossible"
ns! This is no shit!" Such language
sight.
it Thesman thought the Oklahoma
The Earles had become very fond of their neighbor, quite aside
ne picked up a bag of tools and a
from their respect for him as commander in chief. Amid her own shock
tion in the steering gear compart-
and horror, Mrs. Earle ached with pity for the admiral who stood
d "Hrump" and felt the Oklahoma
beside her "in utter disbelief and completely stunned," his face "as
the big guns in the harbor for?" he
white as the uniform he wore." Kimmel said later, "I knew right away
that something terrible was going on, that this was not a casual raid
leone had spilled in a mess area,
by just a few stray planes. The sky was full of the enemy." Gazing
it this was a crazy time to hold a
toward Battleship Row, they saw "the Arizona lift out of the water,
e heard General Quarters. As he
then sink back down-way down." Neither uttered a word; the scene
tion in the upper starboard power
was beyond speech. 31
n turret, amid other men running
The strike on the Arizona that transfixed Kimmel and Mrs. Earle
their stations, he felt the ship quiv-
may have come from the torpedo plane which, having dropped its
missile aimed at the Arizona, angled upward over the Nevada's stern
closed all openings except the hatches neces-
at the exact moment the battleship's twenty-three-man band struck
up "The Star Spangled Banner" and the Marine color guard began to
120
"THE SKY WAS FULL OF THE ENEMY"
raise the flag. The Japanese rear gunner loosed a burst of machine-
gun fire. By some freak of chance, he missed a solid target of twenty-
five or thirty men, but ripped the flag as it slid along the pole. The
bandsmen kept right on playing. Not until they finished the last note
did they break for cover and speed to their battle stations 32
The torpedo-or another one-sped under the repair ship Vestal
and, in Chief Crawford's words, "tore the bottom out of the Arizo-
na." Crawford had awaked to the sound of machine-gun fire and ex-
plosions. Someone shouted, "Jesus Christ, the Japanese are attacking
us!" And a sleepy voice countered, "Throw him in his damn bunk,
the bastard's drunk!"33
Consuming his eggs and pancakes, Shapley felt "a terrific jar." He
thought one of the 40-foot boats had dropped off the crane to the fantail,
so he ran topside to check on it. There some sailors were standing at the
Arizona's rail watching the planes speeding across the harbor. One of
them remarked admiringly, "This is the best goddamn drill the Army
Air Force has ever put on!"³⁴
These reactions were more characteristic than isolated. By this time
it was obvious for miles around that hot action of some sort was tak-
ing place at Pearl Harbor, but such was the ingrained sense of secu-
rity, so accustomed was Oahu to the racket of military aircraft and
mock gunfire, that many assumed that the armed forces were engaged
in unusually realistic maneuvers.
The noise awoke Joseph Harsch, who had interviewed Kimmel
on Saturday morning. He roused his wife to say, "Darling, you often
have asked me what an air raid sounds like. Listen to this-it's a good
imitation."
"Oh, so that's what is sounds like," she murmured. Then this sea-
soned war correspondent and his wife dropped back into slumber,
while the story of the year broke around them. 35
Blake Clark, an associate professor of English at the University of
Hawaii, was living at the time with former Territorial Governor Walter
F. Frear and his wife. They were at breakfast when the Frears' Jap-
anese houseman ran in exclaiming, "Plenty plane outside! Come see!"
He led them to the back porch, where they could see the aircraft
overhead and the smoke from antiaircraft fire. "That's good," remarked
Frear with satisfaction. "We ought to get ready."
A neighbor dashed in crying, "We're under attack! The Japanese
are bombing Oahu!"
Document
No. 29019555
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
12/3/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00PM, WED., DEC. 4
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SUBJECT:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT Torkel 6113
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
N/C
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
McBRIDE
SNOW
DEMAREST
TREFRY 2150
FITZWATER
GRAY vontemble
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly to
Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to this office
NO LATER THAN 1:00PM, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4.
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Simon)
Draft Nine
December 2, 1991
31 DEC 3 A7:49
PEARL. TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
8:25 A.M.
Captain Ross. Family and friends of the USS Arizona and USS
Utah. Fellow veterans, and Americans. //
It was a bright Sunday morning. Soldiers and sailors slept
soundly in their bunks. Early risers stood at their posts,
joking, enjoying a sun that had pushed back the previous day's
clouds, marveling at the serene and glassy sea.
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
for the 8 a.m. flag raising. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Citizen Kane.
// In New York, Christmas shoppers flocked to Macy's. Out West,
it was late morning -- and parents and their children were on
their knees in church. /
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine. Sailors
watched with innocent fascination. For them, the idea of war
seemed palpable, but not quite real. Then, in one horrible
instant, carefree sailors froze in horror. The abstract threat
exploded into a deadly menace.
But these men did. not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- and died.
2
The shock wave soon swept across America. Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each recalls where they were December
7th, 1941. Each felt like the writer who observed: "Life is
never again as it was before anyone you love has died; never so
innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will." //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. // Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. //
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men who
were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred Americans gave their lives. But in this
haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- reminding us
gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night. / /
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
drifts to the surface, and spreads across the water. Every 15
seconds the ancient poet whispers: "In our sleep, pain that
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own
despair / against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace
of God. " // It is though God Himself were crying.
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry -- firing a .45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
3
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the battleship California. When the compartment flooded,
the crew evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station, " he
said. "I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going. " //
Nearby, aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy
assured his troops it was all right to miss church. "You can
praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. " //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. These men knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. // Every American did. Ted Williams, who served America
in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to fall. He
took up arms and risked his life SO that liberty could survive.
// Aiding that crusade were Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry who
came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood -- and later
thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their country. //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with proud defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but they cannot scuttle the American spirit. //
They may kill us, but they cannot kill the ideals that made us
proud to serve.
Talk to those who survived to fight another day. They would
repeat the Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father,
strong to save / O hear us when we cry to thee / For those in
peril on the sea. If //
4
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty. " //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next.
The lessons of Pearl Harbor remain as clear as the Pacific
sky. One is, together, we could "summon lightness against the
dark" -- that was Dwight Eisenhower. / Another: that when it
comes to national defense, finishing second means finishing last.
/ That no one ever walks away from appeasing an aggressor -- he
only crawls -- and that the world stops not at our water's edge.
// Perhaps above all, that real peace -- the peace that lasts -
- means the triumph of freedom -- not merely the absence of war.
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken well -- tomb to more
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us,
5
reminds us of the awesome might of ideals that inspire boys to
die as men. // Think of the young boy who lost his father that
day. or the wife whose husband was her confidant and best
friend. Talk to the little girl whose brother -- her idol --
would never return to teach her the true wonder of life. Every
one who aches at their sacrifice knows America must be forever
vigilant, and Americans must always remember the brave and
innocent ones who gave their lives here. //
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
them -- the future -- that we must apply the lessons of the past.
// We must remember that we can best keep the peace by preparing
for war. We must recall that just as what happened in Berlin and
Tokyo could not be divorced from Washington -- so events in
Europe and Asia affect every American today. //
In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the peace. In the Cold War
that followed, we used other means: Among them, patience,
planning, and personal diplomacy. // For nearly half-a-century,
America stood fast and firm for democracy. But it has not stood
alone. Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free
markets, free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that
include our former enemies, Germany and Japan.
This year, they supported our triumph in the seas and sands
of the Gulf. By fighting for what is right and good, our former
enemies paid the ultimate tribute to the memory of December 7.
6
// They said: We believe in a New World Order where the force
of law outlasts the use of force. Now I say to them: Let us
build a world where nations solve their differences peacefully,
not violently: The kind our boys died for right here. //
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. /
Let us recall men like Ray Emory, who was on the USS Honolulu,
reading the morning newspaper, when the enemy attacked. //
After the war, Ray spent two years building a garage-size,
three-dimensional map of Pearl Harbor -- just as it was that day,
with each ship in exact location. // Why? A magazine drawing
had placed the ships wrong -- and to Ray Emory, as he said,
"Pearl Harbor is sacred. / He saw that map and said: "I'm going
to make a map of how it was that day, and I'll make it right. " //
And by God, he did. 11
Ray -- fellow veterans -- by God -- with God -- the men of
Pearl Harbor got it right. They knew that there are things worth
living for -- but also worth dying for: Things like principle /
decency / fidelity / honor. //
Look at the water here -- quiet and clear, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to a better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
#
#
#
#
Joe DeSutter
OVP 4223
(Smith/Simon)
Draft Nine
I NOV 2 P4:26
December 2, 1991
CI DEC 3 A7:49
PEARL. TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
8:25 A.M.
Captain Ross. Family and friends of the USS Arizona and USS
Utah. Fellow veterans, and Americans. //
It was a bright Sunday morning. Soldiers and sailors slept
soundly in their bunks. Early risers stood at their posts,
joking, enjoying a sun that had pushed back the previous day's
clouds, marveling at the serene and glassy sea.
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
for the 8 a.m. flag raising. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Citizen Kane.
// In New York, Christmas shoppers flocked to Macy's. Out West,
it was late morning -- and parents and their children were on
their knees in church. /
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine. Sailors
watched with innocent fascination. For them, the idea of war
seemed palpable, but not quite real. Then, in one horrible
instant, carefree sailors froze in horror. The abstract threat
exploded into a deadly menace.
But these men did not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- and died.
2
The shock wave soon swept across America. Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each recalls where they were December
7th, 1941. Each felt like the writer who observed: "Life is
never again as it was before anyone you love has died; never so
innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will." //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. // Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. / /
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men who
were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred Americans gave their lives. But in this
haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- reminding us
gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night. //
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
drifts to the surface, and spreads across the water. Every 15
seconds the ancient poet. whispers: "In our sleep, pain that
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own
despair / against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace
of God. " // It is though God Himself were crying.
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry -- firing a 45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
3
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the battleship California. When the compartment flooded,
the crew evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station, " he
said. "I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going. " //
Nearby, aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy
assured his troops it was all right to miss church. "You can
praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. " //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. These men knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. // Every American did. Ted Williams, who served America
in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to fall. He
took up arms and risked his life so that liberty could survive.
// Aiding that crusade were Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry who
came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood -- and later
thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their country. //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with proud defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but they cannot scuttle the American spirit. //
They may kill us, but they cannot kill the ideals that made us
proud to serve.
Talk to those who survived to fight another day. They would
repeat the Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father,
strong to save / O hear us when we cry to thee / For those in
peril on the sea. " //
4
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty. If //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next.
The lessons of Pearl Harbor remain as clear as the Pacific
sky. One is, together, we could "summon lightness against the
dark" -- that was Dwight Eisenhower. / Another: that when it
comes to national defense, finishing second means finishing last.
/ That no one ever walks away from appeasing an aggressor -- hepoesn't
only crawls and that the world stops not at our water's edge ) ? make sense
// Perhaps above all, that real peace -- the peace that lasts -
- means the triumph of freedom -- not merely the absence of war.
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken well -- tomb to more
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us,
5
reminds us of the awesome might of ideals that inspire boys to
die as men. // Think of the young boy who lost his father that
day. or the wife whose husband was her confidant and best
friend. Talk to the little girl whose brother -- her idol --
would never return to teach her the true wonder of life. Every
one who aches at their sacrifice knows America must be forever
vigilant, and Americans must always remember the brave and
innocent ones who gave their lives here. //
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
them -- the future -- that we must apply the lessons of the past.
// We must remember that we can best keep the peace by preparing
for war. We must recall that just as what happened in Berlin and
Tokyo could not be divorced from Washington -- so events in
Europe and Asia affect every American today. //
In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the peace. In the Cold War
that followed, we used other means: Among them, patience,
planning, and personal diplomacy. // For nearly half-a-century,
America stood fast and firm for democracy. But it has not stood
alone. Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free
markets, free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that
include our former enemies, Germany and Japan.
This year, they supported our triumph in the seas and sands
of the Gulf. By fighting for what is right and good, our former
enemies paid the ultimate tribute to the memory of December 7.
6
// They said: We believe in a New World Order where the force
of law outlasts the use of force. Now I say to them: Let us
build a world where nations solve their differences peacefully,
not violently: The kind our boys died for right here. //
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. /
Let us recall men like Ray Emory, who was on the USS Honolulu,
reading the morning newspaper, when the enemy attacked. //
After the war, Ray spent two years building a garage-size,
three-dimensional map of Pearl Harbor -- just as it was that day,
with each ship in exact location. // Why? A magazine drawing
had placed the ships wrong -- and to Ray Emory, as he said,
"Pearl Harbor is sacred. " / He saw that map and said: "I'm going
to make a map of how it was that day, and I'll make it right. " //
And by God, he did. 11
Ray -- fellow veterans -- by God -- with God -- the men of
Pearl Harbor got it right. They knew that there are things worth
living for -- but also worth dying for: Things like principle /
decency / fidelity / honor. / /
Look at the water here -- quiet and clear, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to a better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
#
#
#
#
Document No. 29019555
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
91 NOV 2 P4: 56
DATE:
12/3/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00PM, WED., DEC. 4
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SUBJECT:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
>
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
CARD
MCBRIDE
SNOW
DEMAREST
TREFRY
FITZWATER
>
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly to
Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to this office
NO LATER THAN 1:00PM, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4.
Thank you.
RESPONSE: Comments from Cabinet Affairs are attached. Thanks.
Elizabeth Luttig a
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Simon)
Draft Nine
December 2, 1991
31 DEC 3 A7: 49
PEARL. TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
8:25 A.M.
Captain Ross. Family and friends of the USS Arizona and USS
Utah. Fellow veterans, and Americans. //
It was a bright Sunday morning. Soldiers and sailors slept
soundly in their bunks. Early risers stood at their posts,
joking, enjoying a sun that had pushed back the previous day's
clouds, marveling at the serene and glassy sea.
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
for the 8 a.m. flag raising. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Citizen Kane. in 1941,
// In New York, Christmas shoppers flocked to Macy's. Out West, dept.
stores
it was late morning -- and parents and their children were on
wereat open
their knees in church. /
on san
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine. Sailors
(Vethans)
watched with innocent fascination. For them, the idea of war
seemed palpable, but not quite real. Then, in one horrible
instant, carefree sailors froze in horror. The abstract threat
exploded into a deadly menace.
But these men did not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- and died.
2
The shock wave soon swept across America. Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each recalls where they were December
7th, 1941. Each felt like the writer who observed: "Life is
never again as it was before anyone you love has died; never so
innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will. " //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. // Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. / /
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men who
were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred Americans gave their lives. But in this
haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- reminding us
gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night. //
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
drifts to the surface, and spreads across the water. Every 15
seconds the ancient poet whispers: "In our sleep, pain that
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own
despair / against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace
of God. " // It is though God Himself were crying.
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry -- firing a .45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
3
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the battleship California. When the compartment flooded,
the crew evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station, " he
said. "I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going. " //
Nearby, aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy
assured his troops it was all right to miss church. "You can
praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. " //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. These men knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. // Every American did. Ted Williams, who served America
in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to fall. He
took up arms and risked his life so that liberty could survive.
// Aiding that crusade were Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry who
came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood -- and later
thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their country. //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with proud defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but they cannot scuttle the American spirit. //
They may kill us, but they cannot kill the ideals that made us
proud to serve.
Talk to those who survived to fight another day. They would
repeat the Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father,
strong to save /. O hear us when we cry to thee / For those in
peril on the sea. If //
(Texans)
4
came
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty. " //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next.
The lessons of Pearl Harbor remain as clear as the Pacific
sky. One is, together, we could "summon lightness against the
dark" -- that was Dwight Eisenhower. / Another: that when it
comes to national defense, finishing second means finishing last.
/ That no one ever walks away from appeasing an aggressor -- he
only crawls -- and that the world stops not at our water's edge.
// Perhaps above all, that real peace -- the peace that lasts -
- means the triumph of freedom -- not merely the absence of war.
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken well -- tomb to more
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us,
5
reminds us of the awesome might of ideals that inspire boys to
die as men. // Think of the young boy who lost his father that
day. or the wife whose husband was her confidant and best
friend. Talk to the little girl whose brother -- her idol --
would never return to teach her the true wonder of life. Every
one who aches at their sacrifice knows America must be forever
vigilant, and Americans must always remember the brave and
innocent ones who gave their lives here. //
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
them -- the future -- that we must apply the lessons of the past.
// We must remember that we can best keep the peace by preparing
being prepared
to defend against the forces of agressive. OCA) )
for war We must recall that just as what happened in Berlin and
Tokyo could not be divorced from Washington -- so events in
J
can
this
Europe and Asia affect every American today. / /
be
stated
In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the peace. In the Cold War more
only
that followed, we used other means: Among them, patience,
(OCA)
planning, and personal diplomacy. // For nearly half-a-century,
America stood fast and firm for democracy. But it has not stood
alone. Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free
markets, free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that
include our former enemies, Germany and Japan.
This year, they supported our triumph in the seas and sands
of the Gulf. By fighting for what is right and good, our former
enemies paid the ultimate tribute to the memory of December 7.
6
// They said: We believe in a New World Order where the force
of law outlasts the use of force. Now I say to them: Let us
build a world where nations solve their differences peacefully,
not violently: The kind our boys died for right here. //
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. /
Let us recall men like Ray Emory, who was on the USS Honolulu,
reading the morning newspaper, when the enemy attacked. //
After the war, Ray spent two years building a garage-size,
three-dimensional map of Pearl Harbor -- just as it was that day,
with each ship in exact location. // Why? A magazine drawing
had placed the ships wrong -- and to Ray Emory, as he said,
"Pearl Harbor is sacred. " / He saw that map and said: "I'm going
to make a map of how it was that day, and I'll make it right. " //
And by God, he did. 11
Ray -- fellow veterans -- by God -- with God -- the men of
Pearl Harbor got it right. They knew that there are things worth
living for -- but also worth dying for: Things like principle /
decency / fidelity / honor. //
Look at the water here -- quiet and clear, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to a better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
#
#
#
#
Document No. 29019555
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
91 NOV 2 Pl: 05
12/3/91
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00PM, WED., DEC. 4
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SUBJECT:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
S
McBRIDE
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
TREFRY
FITZWATER
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly to
Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to this office
NO LATER THAN 1:00PM, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4.
Thank you.
RESPONSE: Concer
Ruchards Taby
LTG ass-Mr
mos
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
Tony 1 Ght
This was really nice. Just a few mind
mon)
e
The
comments' Thanks
2, 1991
Jes
WAII
ER 7, 1991
ona and USS
Utah
It was a bright Sunday morning. Soldiers and sailors slept
soundly in their bunks. Early risers stood at their posts,
joking, enjoying a sun that had pushed back the previous day's
clouds, marveling at the serene and glassy sea.
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
for the 8 a.m. flag raising. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Citizen Kane.
// In New York, Christmas shoppers flocked to Macy's. Out West,
it was late morning -- and parents and their children were on
their knees in church. /
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine. Sailors
watched with innocent fascination. For them, the idea of war
seemed palpable, but not quite real. Then, in one horrible
instant, carefree sailors froze in horror. The abstract threat
exploded into a deadly menace.
But these men did not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- and died.
2
The shock wave soon swept across America. Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each recalls where they were December
7th, 1941. Each felt like the writer who observed: "Life is
never again as it was before anyone you love has died; never so
innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will." //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. // Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. //
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men who
were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred Americans gave their lives. But in this
haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- reminding us
gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night. //
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
drifts to the surface, and spreads across the water. Every 15
seconds the ancient poet whispers: "In our sleep, pain that
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own
despair / against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace
of God. " // It is though God Himself were crying.
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry -- firing a .45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
3
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the battleship California. When the compartment flooded,
the crew evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station, " he
said. "I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going. " //
Nearby, aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy
assured his troops it was all right to miss church. "You can
praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. " //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. These men knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. // Every American did. Ted Williams, who served America
in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to fall. He
took up arms and risked his life so that liberty could survive.
// Aiding that crusade were Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry who
came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood -- and later
thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their country. //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with proud defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but they cannot scuttle the American spirit. //
They may kill us, but they cannot kill the ideals that made us
proud to serve.
Talk to those who survived to fight another day. They would
repeat the Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father,
strong to save 10 hear us when we cry to thee / For those in
peril on the sea." //
Cd think this will sound
Whose am hath brind the better with two full complete.]
restless wave /
4
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty. " //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next.
The lessons of Pearl Harbor remain as clear as the Pacific
sky. One is, together, we could "summon lightness against the
dark" -- that was Dwight Eisenhower. / Another: that when it
comes to national defense, finishing second means finishing last.
/ That no one ever walks away from appeasing an aggressor -- he
only crawls -- and that the world stops not at our water's edge.
// Perhaps above all, that real peace -- the peace that lasts -
- means the triumph of freedom -- not merely the absence of war.
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken well -- tomb to more
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us,
5
reminds us of the awesome might of ideals that inspire boys to
die as men. // Think of the young boy who lost his father that
day. Or the wife whose husband was her confidant and best
friend. Talk to the little girl whose brother -- her idol --
would never return to teach her the true wonder of life. Every
one who aches at their sacrifice knows America must be forever
vigilant, and Americans must always remember the brave and
innocent ones who gave their lives here. //
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
them -- the future -- that we must apply the lessons of the past.
being ed
// We must remember that we can best keep the peace by preparing
[There's a difference!]
for war. We must recall that just as what happened in Berlin and
Tokyo could not be divorced from Washington -- so events in
Europe and Asia affect every American today. //
In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the peace. In the Cold War
that followed, we used other means: Among them, patience,
planning, and personal diplomacy. // For nearly half-a-century,
America stood fast and firm for democracy. But it has not stood
alone. Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free
markets, free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that
include our former enemies, Germany and Japan.
Staly,
This year, they supported our triumph in the seas and sands
of the Gulf. By fighting for what is right and good, our former
enemies paid the ultimate tribute to the memory of December 7.
6
// They said: We believe in a New World Order where the force
of law outlasts the use of force. Now I say to them: Let us
build a world where nations solve their differences peacefully,
not violently: The kind our boys died for right here. //
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. /
Let us recall men like Ray Emory, who was on the USS Honolulu,
reading the morning newspaper, when the enemy attacked. //
After the war, Ray spent two years building a garage-size,
three-dimensional map of Pearl Harbor -- just as it was that day,
with each ship in exact location. // Why? A magazine drawing
had placed the ships wrong -- and to Ray Emory, as he said,
"Pearl Harbor is sacred. " / He saw that map and said: "I'm going
to make a map of how it was that day, and I'll make it right. " //
And by God, he did. 11
Ray -- fellow veterans -- by God -- with God -- the men of
Pearl Harbor got it right. They knew that there are things worth
living for -- but also worth dying for: Things like principle /
decency / fidelity / honor. //
Look at the water here -- quiet and clear, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to a better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
#
#
#
#
Document No. 29019558
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
NOV 2 P5: 36
Tues
DATE:
12/3/91
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 1:00PM, WED., DEC. 4
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SUBJECT:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SUNUNU
MCCLURE
SCOWCROFT
>
PETERSMEYER
DARMAN
PORTER
BRADY
ROGICH
BROMLEY
SMITH
McBRIDE
CARD
SNOW
DEMAREST
TREFRY
FITZWATER
>
GRAY
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please provide comments on the attached directly to
Tony Snow, Rm. 122, x2930, with a copy to this office
NO LATER THAN 1:00PM, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4.3
Thank you.
Tuesday
RESPONSE: Ylo comment
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Simon)
Draft Nine
December 2, 1991
01 DEC 3 A7: 49
PEARL. TS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: USS ARIZONA
PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1991
8:25 A.M.
Captain Ross. Family and friends of the USS Arizona and USS
Utah. Fellow veterans, and Americans. //
It was a bright Sunday morning. Soldiers and sailors slept
soundly in their bunks. Early risers stood at their posts,
joking, enjoying a sun that had pushed back the previous day's
clouds, marveling at the serene and glassy sea.
On the stern of the USS Nevada, a brass band prepared to
play the Star Spangled Banner. On other ships, sailors readied
for the 8 a.m. flag raising. //
On the mainland, millions listened to football games on the
radio. Others turned to songs like "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" /
comics like Terry and the Pirates / or movies like Citizen Kane.
// In New York, Christmas shoppers flocked to Macy's. Out West,
it was late morning -- and parents and their children were on
their knees in church. /
At first, the hum of engines seemed routine. Sailors
watched with innocent fascination. For them, the idea of war
seemed palpable, but not quite real. Then, in one horrible
instant, carefree sailors froze in horror. The abstract threat
exploded into a deadly menace.
But these men did not run -- they raced to their stations.
Some strapped pistols over pajamas -- and died.
2
The shock wave soon swept across America. Ask anyone who
endured that awful Sunday. Each recalls where they were December
7th, 1941. Each felt like the writer who observed: "Life is
never again as it was before anyone you love has died; never so
innocent, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will.' " //
Today, we honor those who gave their lives at this place,
half-a-century ago. // Their names were Bertie and Gomez and
Dougherty and Granger. They came from Idaho, and Mississippi,
and the sweeping farmland of Ohio. // They were black and white,
brown and yellow, native-born and foreign-born. Most of all,
they were Americans -- hating war, but loving freedom more. //
Think of how it was for these Heroes of the Harbor -- men who
were also husbands / fathers / brothers / sons. Imagine the
chaos of guns and smoke, flaming water and ghastly carnage. Two
thousand, four hundred Americans gave their lives. But in this
haunting place, they live forever in our memory -- reminding us
gently, selflessly, like chimes in the distant night. //
Every 15 seconds a drop of oil still rises from the Arizona,
drifts to the surface, and spreads across the water. Every 15
seconds the ancient poet whispers: "In our sleep, pain that
cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own
despair / against our will / comes wisdom through the awful grace
of God. " // It is though God Himself were crying.
He cries -- as we do -- for the living, and the dead. Men
like Commander Duncan Curry -- firing a .45 at attacking planes
as tears streamed down his face. // We remember machinist's mate
3
Robert Scott -- who ran the air compressors that powered the guns
aboard the battleship California. When the compartment flooded,
the crew evacuated. Bob Scott refused. "This is my station, " he
said. "I'm going to stay as long as the guns are going. " //
Nearby, aboard the cruiser New Orleans, Chaplain Howell Forgy
assured his troops it was all right to miss church. "You can
praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." //
For these men, heroism came as naturally as breath. They
reacted to assault by rushing to their posts. These men knew
instinctively that a Nation is sustained by the nobility of its
cause. // Every American did. Ted Williams, who served America
in two wars, put down his bat after the bombs began to fall. He
took up arms and risked his life so that liberty could survive.
// Aiding that crusade were Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry who
came by the hundreds to give wounded Americans blood -- and later
thousands of kinsmen who took up arms for their country. //
The men I speak of would be embarrassed to be called heroes.
Instead, they would tell you with proud defiance: Foes can sink
American ships, but they cannot scuttle the American spirit. //
They may kill us, but they cannot kill the ideals that made us
proud to serve.
Talk to those who survived to fight another day. They would
repeat the Navy Hymn I memorized as a boy: "Eternal Father,
strong to save / O hear us when we cry to thee / For those in
peril on the sea. " //
4
I come here as a Navy man -- enlisting on my eighteenth
birthday -- 188 days after Pearl. // It was the day I graduated
from high school, and I remember how Henry Stimson, then
Secretary of War, gave the Commencement speech. / He talked of
the American soldier, and how that soldier should be -- and I
quote -- "Brave without being brutal, self-confident without
boasting, being part of an irresistible might without losing
faith in individual liberty. " //
The Heroes of the Harbor engraved that passage on every
heart and soul. They fought for a world of peace, not war --
where children's dreams speak more loudly than the brashest
tyrant's guns. // Because of them, this memorial lives to pass
its lessons from one generation to the next.
The lessons of Pearl Harbor remain as clear as the Pacific
sky. One is, together, we could "summon lightness against the
dark" -- that was Dwight Eisenhower. / Another: that when it
comes to national defense, finishing second means finishing last.
/ That no one ever walks away from appeasing an aggressor -- he
only crawls -- and that the world stops not at our water's edge.
// Perhaps above all, that real peace -- the peace that lasts -
- means the triumph of freedom -- not merely the absence of war.
Real peace stems from might that is moral and intellectual,
economic and military. It comes from Nations who use that might
to make temporary peace permanent -- and fragile peace strong. //
As we look down at the Arizona's shrunken well -- tomb to more
than one thousand Americans -- the beguiling calm comforts us,
5
reminds us of the awesome might of ideals that inspire boys to
die as men. // Think of the young boy who lost his father that
day. or the wife whose husband was her confidant and best
friend. Talk to the little girl whose brother -- her idol --
would never return to teach her the true wonder of life. Every
one who aches at their sacrifice knows America must be forever
vigilant, and Americans must always remember the brave and
innocent ones who gave their lives here. //
Each Memorial Day, not far from this spot, Hawaiian Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor by
placing two leis on the graves of U.S. servicemen. // It is for
them -- the future -- that we must apply the lessons of the past.
// We must remember that we can best keep the peace by preparing
for war. We must recall that just as what happened in Berlin and
Tokyo could not be divorced from Washington -- so events in
Europe and Asia affect every American today. //
In Pearl Harbor's wake, we won the peace. In the Cold War
that followed, we used other means: Among them, patience,
planning, and personal diplomacy. // For nearly half-a-century,
America stood fast and firm for democracy. But it has not stood
alone. Beside us stood nations committed to democracy, free
markets, free expression, and freedom of worship -- nations that
include our former enemies, Germany and Japan.
This year, they supported our triumph in the seas and sands
of the Gulf. By fighting for what is right and good, our former
enemies paid the ultimate tribute to the memory of December 7.
6
// They said: We believe in a New World Order where the force
of law outlasts the use of force. Now I say to them: Let us
build a world where nations solve their differences peacefully,
not violently: The kind our boys died for right here. //
The cause of peace among Nations is the highest in the
Community of God, and man. Today, we re-enlist in its crusade. /
Let us recall men like Ray Emory, who was on the USS Honolulu,
reading the morning newspaper, when the enemy attacked. //
After the war, Ray spent two years building a garage-size,
three-dimensional map of Pearl Harbor -- just as it was that day,
with each ship in exact location. // Why? A magazine drawing
had placed the ships wrong -- and to Ray Emory, as he said,
"Pearl Harbor is sacred. 11 / He saw that map and said: "I'm going
to make a map of how it was that day, and I'll make it right. " //
And by God, he did. 11
Ray -- fellow veterans -- by God -- with God -- the men of
Pearl Harbor got it right. They knew that there are things worth
living for -- but also worth dying for: Things like principle /
decency / fidelity / honor. //
Look at the water here -- quiet and clear, bidding us to sum
up and remember. One day -- in what now seems another lifetime -
- it wrapped its arms around the finest sons any Nation could
ever have; and it carried them to a better world. //
God bless them. Let me close with words worthy of the
Heroes of the Harbor: God Bless America -- the most wondrous
land on earth. // Thank you very much.
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