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323154551
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Institute of International Education 10/25/89 [OA 8748]
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323154551
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document
title
Institute of International Education 10/25/89 [OA 8748]
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13871-016
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Mark Davis Subject Files
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Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Davis, Mark, Files
Subseries:
Subject File, 1989-1991
OA/ID Number:
13871
Folder ID Number:
13871-016
Folder Title:
Institute of International Education, 10/25/89 [2]
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
19
2
6
4
Davis/Martin
Oct. 18, 1989
Title: Study
Draft: One
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: INST. OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION, Rm. 450
Wednesday, Oct. 25, 11 a.m.
Thank you, Dick Krasno, Henry Kaufman, for this award. And
I guess I should thank you for Sichan Siv, your former manager of
Asian and Pacific programs, now with my Administration. Let me
also say it's a delight to be among the supporters of the
Institute for International Education, and so many students from
so many foreign lands.
Let me tell you how I came to know your achievements, and to
appreciate what you do. In the 1950s, Barb and I were raising a
young family in Houston. We have many fond memories of those
days: a time for cookouts, softball and tail-gate parties. But
among our fondest memories is the delight of having young men and
women from so many countries joining us for conversation and
supper at our home.
We became involved with your Institute as a host family
through a very good friend, Alice Pratt -- whose work is now
being carried on in Houston by Fentress Bracewell. But it was
Alice who taught us how much fun it is to show a young foreigner
the way through the academic, business and social maze of a big
American city. And, because of Alice, we learned that by seeing
your country through another's eyes, we could be tourists at
home.
2
Today, at the White House, when Barb and I dine with foreign
visitors, our guests are rarely students. In fact, they tend to
be presidents, prime ministers and foreign secretaries. But
we've noticed something that makes us think back to our Houston
days: a very large portion of our foreign guests once worked and
studied in the United States, often under the auspices of your
Institute. 11 This can only be to the benefit of all countries.
But you do more than bring the world to America. You open
the cultures of the world to our people as well. Mark Twain said
that "broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot
be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all
one's lifetime."
Thomas Jefferson, our first education president, perfected
such a broad, wholesome and charitable view when he left the
familiar Piedmont of Virginia to represent the American cause in
France. In more recent times, many Americans have had the
liberating experience of living abroad. Certainly, Barbara and I
felt transformed by our China days, a time when we traveled the
dusty roads of Beijing by bicycle. Days we will never forget.
of course, we learned a lot about the Chinese people. But
most of all, we learned a lot about ourselves. Every American
who lives abroad returns home with a new perspective and deeper
feeling for our native land.
Your Institute promotes this kind of understanding through
249 programs, assisting more than 10,000 people from 155
3
countries every year. Innumerable are the new friendships made;
incalculable is the goodwill generated.
When your organization was founded seventy years ago, there
was a belief that the exchange of students, scholars and
professionals from country to country would promote peace and
understanding. Some regarded that ideal as hopelessly naive.
Some still do.
And it is true that the cynics can point to seventy years of
conflict and suspicion. But I believe they miss the point.
International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all
differences. But they will slowly wear away at the obstacles to
peace as surely as water wears away hard stone.
So I thank you for this award. Yet I can't help but feel I
should be giving you an award, for all you do to promote peace
and understanding. Thank you and God bless you all.
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