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tv   The Presidency Lech Walesa on President Reagans Legacy  CSPAN  March 2, 2024 12:29pm-1:19pm EST

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>> good morning and welcome the reagan library. for those of you i've not yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is david trulio and i have the privilege of serving as president of the ronald reagan foundation and institute. thank you for joining us today as we celebrate what would have been president reagan's i would like to begin by recognizing some of the special guests with us today. from the reagan family, president reagan's son, michael. president reagan's granddaughter ashley and her husband joe. former congressman elton and hi. former congresswoman mimi walters. the mayor of simi valley, fred thomas.
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members of the simi valley city council, mike judge and alain lister. weo g members of the board of trustees of the ronald reagan presidential foundation and institute. please hold your applause. we have kathy bush and her daughter charlotte, former labor secretary and transportation secretary elaine chao, former president assistance to ronald reagan, peggy noonan, former u.s. solicitor ted olson and pete wilson and the former first lady of california, mrs. gail wilson. i am so pleased to introduce our chairman of the board of trustees of the ronald reagan presidential foundation and institute, fred ryan. fred has serve president and mrs. reagan since 1980 in a variety of roles, including
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director of presidential appointments and scheduling in the white house and as president reagan's first post presidency chief of staff. today in addition to serving as our board chairman, fred heads our new center on civility and democracy, which was launched last year to address through actionable solutions the dolc:ar station and decision -- depolarizations and divisions in our society. with that, mr. fred ryan. fred: thank you, dave, for that kind introduction. please be seated. as dave mentioned, seeing the divisions and the serious threats to our democracy, we've launched this new center on civility and democracy and it was created to advance principles of civil discourse, collaboration, and dialogue on the political process on social media and on university campuses. as president reagan once said, democracy is not a fragile flower, still it needs cultivating.
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and no one lived that more than ronald reagan and perhapsoday who shares president reagan's vision of human rights, freedom and democracy around the world. so today we gather to celebrate president reagan's 113th birthday or as he would have described it, the anniversary of his 39th birthday. but before we begin our program, i'd like to say how delighted and honored we are to have the t lequaessa today and is here with the executive director of the foundation who happens to be his son-in-law, adam diminski and two members of the board. thank you all for joining us today. and of course our very special thanks to all the service men
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and women here today from camp pendleton. this is the reagan library's 19th year in working with camp pendleton to pay tribute to president reagan on his birthday and we'ref our service men and women, such an important military installation and i know on behalf of everyone here and i'm sure on behalf of all americans, thank you for honoring our country. nowofficially begin our program in honor of the 113th birthday of ronald wilson reagan, please re on of the coe playing of our national anthem and the invocation by chaplain wayne mccraig, captain united states navy.■
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>> attention! ♪ >> color guard. all together. forward. ♪u >> color guard.
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♪ [the star spangled banner playsw
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>> color guard. together. march.
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>> would you please bow your heads with me for prayer. back in 1984, president reagan uttered the following. i believe that faith and
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religion play a critical role in the political life of our nation and always have, and that the church, and by that i mean all churches, has had a strong influence on the state, and this has worked to our benefit as a nation. those who created our country, the founding fathers and mothers understood that there is a define order which transcends the human order. they saw the state, in moral ort that the bedrock of moral order is religion.■9 above, today we gather to remember your servant president ronald reagan. we remember■ the wisdom which recognized that we humans are not the final arbiters of all
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things. nor are we even the majority member in all things. bu world is yours and we are actors in it.@é president reagan understood that our institutions function better when they bedrock of identity when it comes from a transcendent creator. he understood that moral order and reasoning have their genesis in you. and that the institutions of hunkwork best when they allow for and adhere to your moral order. father, may your presence guide our remembrance in this hour,
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help us to not only enjoy story and memory but lead us to understand from lived example and see before us the path that our great nation needs to follow. may we live in a manner worthy of the blessings we seek from you. amen.■■é >> chaplain mccray, please be seated. ladies and gentlemen, it's now my pleasure to welcome a man with a distinguished record of service to our country, including that of being an f-18 pilot at miramar and then commanding officer at miramar, multiple deployments and operations around the world, commanding gener of the marine base brigadier general jason whitworth.
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general: thank you, mr. ryan and mr. trulio and thencredible staff at the reagan library. i was going to make a joke for the tent but i don't think it's raining that much. thank you for the tent and everything do you everda in memr great president. good morning, distinguished guests. and thank you for the warm welcome.h you here today to commemorate the birthday of our 40th president ronald reagan. on behalf of the marine corps and sailors of camp pendleton and the west coast, thank for you inviting us to participate in great american. special welcome to the true icon of democracy and fellowender of freedom. first i'd like to thank the marines from camp pendleton supporting today's ceremony, including the first marine
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division band. warriors and also amazing musicians. the marine corps air station camp and marines from headquarterst s today's honor guard.ur dedicatie service today and i thank for you representing our institution so well. president reagann a time of uncertainty with the threat of nuclear warfare at every turn. elementary school children like mylf were taught to duck and cover in their classrooms while he formulated some of the boldest diplomaticegies in
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history, leading our nation, increasing our military might, limiting soviet expansion, and negotiating with a highly effective and tenacious spirit. he engaged gorba a respect, empd conviction through his ability to try to understand their perspective and communicate with them. that conviction led and didn't n crisis and embodied executive accountability. when a terrorist bombing took the lives of 220 marines in beirut, lebanon, he said the words, if there is to be blame, it probably rests here in this office and with this president. i take responsibility for the bad as well as the good.
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reagan stood with the american people as a stanchion of hope and leading by example in each of his days as president. he instilled his military with a sense of pride and unwavering leadership, emphasizing that service is a proceed found investment and betterment of humankind. the reagan library stands today as a reminder history, the permanent exhibits captured here show president reagan's patriotic spirit, respect for individualf in global democracy. it provides a glimpse of the impact president reagan made on our world. and as we leave here today after this ceremony, let us each consider the role we play in preserving the ideals president reagan held so dear. may we draw inspiration from his leadership and face future challenges with the same courage
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and conviction that defined his presidency. thank you very much, semper fidel us and god bless america. >> thank you, general,hose inspiring words. we're here today to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of president reagan. president reagan stood for freedom and democracy around the world. and he would be so incredibly honored that his fellow freedom fighter, his friend who traveled all the wayrom poland to be in california to celebrate with us today. president reagan once said that lech walesaymbolizes hope, justice, and human dignity to all americans and to countless millions of people around the world. and here at the ronald reagan presidential foundation and institute, we couldn't agree more. in fact, we believe so strongly in his principles we awarded president walesa, the
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distinguished president reagan freedom award not once but twice, the only two-time recipient of that prestigious award. i'm proud to be able to say i had the good fortune of being able to travel with president reagan the first time he met lech walesa in poland when he was a rising force for democracy but before the polish people had elected him to be their president. tens of thousands of people had gathered since the earliest hours of the morning at that shipyard to see president reagan. and it was pouring rain, something we all can relate to here. in raining so hard the decision had to be made to have the two men meet privately inside and with the hopes that the rain would lighten up enough for them e the crowd that had gathered for the rally. i have to admit, once inside,
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awed in the presence of lech walesa, i had a signing pen i hoped he would sign fo mementc occasion but maybe it was the fact he was new to politics and the language barrier but i handed him the photo and he looked at it and smiled and folded it up and put it in his pocket and said thank you very much so i was hoping maybe he would bring that photo back to me today. so following up on the private meeting president reagan and lech walesa had, they went outside to address the crowd. and not a single person had left. and president reagan stood before them and tried to thank the crowd. and every time he spoke, the crowd would continuously start to sing a song. and i would wait and start to sing again and they'd come back
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with a song and wouldn't speak and he returned to lech walesa, what a td he turned to him and t was a song to the president and what they were saying in polish is may you live 100 years. though president reagan lived to be 93, we tip to honor him on the anniversary of his birth and it seems quite fitting president walesa be with us today to deliver the keynote remarks. and mr. walesa, though we're sheltered from the rain today, i can tell you withórence, we alld in the pouring rain because of our high sentiments for you. so please join me in welcoming one of the greatest champions of freedom and democracy in our time, the former president of poland, lech walesa.
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ery much. i'd rather get all the applause at the end, not the beginning. . ladies and gentlemen, i turn 80 in september. my life is almost ending. so i decided to summarize my life and talk about interesting subjects during such gathering.
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i was not prepared to do the job that i was given in this world. and my success in life was tremendous, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others. and i'd like to give you some remarks, and this rld might be even greater than mind. because you have many possibilities here than i ever had. you are more educated than i am. you have more money than i did. so is the mother of willingness
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and if you try it hard enough, then the victory will be yours. so you have to understand the challenges of the world that we currently live in. because i was able only to understand what was happening around me. i had nothing against theory, but from theory i only took what worked for me and to what i was able to implement. and i was always very practical when i was looking at the world. and the world was always divided. but when the worlwa developing, it was bringing the
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structures to the achievements. because when you look at the world today, all the countries thatñ)■8 were growing were basiy incorporating the smaller countries. very often by force. up until the end of the 20th century, that's the way it was happening. but at the end of the 19th century there was a new concept, in order to expand it was through technology. and the concept is now that we expand the european union, nato, the united nations.
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and the old world order, president reagan was the one that started to destroy the old world order. i'm just wondering if he knew that this was the way the world has to go or just the way it happened to so. then together with reagan, to dd world order.■. and we overthrew the old world order so we could build a better one. so the first step we did is done. but the second step we have to discuss how the new world order
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will look like. maybe you don't see it here because you live in such a big country, but in europe you can see it better. there are so many different small there are so many borders. two world wars started in and how many revolutions? but today there are no borders, the development is pretty much the same. but now we hit a wall. so in order to keep on winning, in order to implement this new world order, we need a country that would be a leader.
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so no country in the world, not even the united states can deal ■w■lwith the programs that are introduced in the world today. it's not but has many other issues. it's possible we could destroy the life on this planet. unless we reorganize the world so we can tackle all the issues that challenge the world today. so in this revolution. so i believe the globalization, that the preparation for the entire continent of those issues belongs and should belong to the united states of america.
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because if you do not lead, then i do not seerld. because when it comes to continent, countries that lead to certain continents can take care of it. the revolutionary, i know we have to go towards this direction. because you have invested so much in different places. so there are two, that i can put the definition of the issue. that we have to resolve together the first subject. well, because the countries in
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europe are divided, they develop harm to each other. so you cannot develop if you cannot create clear sentiments everyone agrees on. so what we have together that we can build upon. so when i present the problem in a gathering like this, so there are usually two different concepts. that half of the world wants to build this world on basically law and all kinds of freedoms and liberties and this would be the common ground thatould connect us all together. the other half says no, that's not a good idea.
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first, we have to agree on the values that will lead us. and then we can talk about the law and then we canout free economy. and this is the problem, the division the world cannot get out from. because one side does one thing and the other side on the other. and then we have a second problem afterwards. what kind of an economical system can we base on for europe and then the other know, there t economical systems, democracy and capitalism. the economy looks better on
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paper. that's why so many people feel attracted to it. well, that's something very nice, you know, equality, this, that and the other. yeah, that sounds nice. but what the young people do not realize -- it will never work. so please, throw away the idea of a common state system.■ so what we have left, a free economy, capitalism. but smaller mark because
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capitalism means there's competition. sometimes it's not fair. sometimes they say it's a rat race between countries. sometimes there is unemployment because nobody wants to help the losers but then -- you have to have economy and the other issues could be managed in a different manner. an■#d the unemployed can be foud and put to work. there are good jobs. and under the old capitalism, that was not possible.■ but know they are connecting together and continents and
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globalization is all possible. there is our times today, how do we deal with demagogues, how do we deal with people who cheat, who are dishonest? you have to remember up until the end of the 20th centuryvy, because even though the nationalities and countries wouldn't in their consciousness, they called god different names but it was always in the consciousness of a society. but we left it. we left that i we were afraid of the soviet
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union, but we took care of that. so now the question remains, so how do we keep nations, how we keep the order in this world if you have no fear, if you have no stop sign? these are the issues that i can see. so i would like for you, the leader of the world, to think about that. and also toe that all -- from the old system, the old sys do not fit into the modern world. because toda the left parties have more right-wing programs than the right-wing
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parties. but the most interesting parties are the christian parties. they they are christians but you do not have one person, one man of faith in there. in the old days, yeah, that worked. there is only oneture that works from the old days in today's world. traffic laws.■g but today our political arena looks as the stop signs and all the street signs down. because the old concept we have with the help of president reagan was overthrown.
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so that the technogy that we built depends that we extend our structures. a lot of pe won't be able to coe with each other because the technology was in this world like five times. have in the par technology and today we are not able to build that. and that was destroyed. so the question is, are we going to get destroyed as well as a civilization, or are we going to move forward? because if we do not start the work right here, right now this.
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adam and eve will come back and we'll start from the beginning. i know, forgive me, i know this is not the place and time for this type of subject. but i feel responsible. i think this is my responsibility to talk about it
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