The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
Edited compilation of speeches with a military theme made by Ronald Reagan during his Presidency. - Veterans
The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
DO NOT USE Glowing, sentimental opening spot with titles.
The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
DO NOT USE Excerpt from FOR GOD AND COUNTRY (1943), a World War Two film in which RONALD REAGAN the actor portrays a brave chaplain on the front; he refuses a pistol, the rescues a wounded GI but a mortar blast blows them both to bits.
The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
January 20, 1981 Excerpts from Inauguration Address. Ronald Reagan, "When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act. We will maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be, knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of never having to use that strength. Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have." LS solemn white grave markers in Arlington National Cemetery. "... the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery, with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. Each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, The Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno, and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam. Under one such marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in a small town barbershop in 1917 to go to France with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire. We're told that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading, ``My Pledge,'' he had written these words: 'America must win this war. Therefore I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.'''
The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
January 27, 1981 Excerpts from Remarks at the Welcoming Ceremony for the Freed American Hostages. White House Ceremony honoring the freed Iranian hostages: C/As of hostages. Ronald Reagan, "I'm told that Sergeant Lopez here put up a sign in his cell, a sign that normally would have been torn down by those guards. But this one was written in Spanish, and his guards didn't know that ``Viva la roja, blanco, y azul'' means ``Long live the red, white, and blue.'' They may not understand what that means in Iran, but we do, Sergeant Lopez, and you've filled our hearts with pride."
The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
February 24, 1981 Excerpts from Remarks on Presenting the Medal of Honor to Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez. Ronald Reagan praises those who served in Vietnam, that the veterans were denied "permission to win". "Men and women of the Armed Forces, ladies and gentlemen: Several years ago, we brought home a group of American fighting men who had obeyed their country's call and who had fought as bravely and as well as any Americans in our history. They came home without a victory not because they'd been defeated, but because they'd been denied permission to win. They were greeted by no parades, no bands, no waving of the flag they had so nobly served. There's been no ``thank you'' for their sacrifice. There's been no effort to honor and, thus, give pride to the families of more than 57,000 young men who gave their lives in that faraway war." edit "Bob Hope, who visited our men there as he had in two previous wars, said of them, ``The number of our GI's who devote their free time, energy, and money to aid the Vietnamese would surprise you.'' And then he added, ``But maybe it wouldn't. I guess you know what kind of guys your sons and brothers and the kids next door are.'' Well, yes, we do know. I think we just let it slip our minds for a time."
The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
November 22, 1982 Excerpts from Address to the Nation. Reagan discusses the Vietnam Memorials in Washington, thanks the vets "from the bottom of my heart". "The week before last was an especially moving one here in Washington. The Vietnam veterans finally came home once and for all to America's heart. They were welcomed with tears, with pride, and with a monument to their great sacrifice. Many of their names, like those of our Republic's greatest citizens, are now engraved in stone in this city that belongs to all of us. On behalf of the Nation, let me again thank the Vietnam veterans from the bottom of my heart for their courageous service to America."
The Great Communicator Vol 2: The Military and the Soviet Union - Vetrans
February 18, 1983 Excerpt from Remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference Dinner. Ronald Reagan talks about the Vietnam Memorial. "Last November, on the Mall, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, a new memorial was dedicated - one of dark, low-lying walls inscribed with the names of those who gave their lives in the Vietnam conflict. Soon, there will be added a sculpture of three infantrymen representing different racial and ethnic backgrounds. During the dedication ceremonies, the rolls of the missing and dead were read for 3 days, morning till night, in a candlelight ceremony at the National Cathedral. And those veterans of Vietnam who were never welcomed home with speeches and bands, but who were undefeated in battle and were heroes as surely as any who ever fought in a noble cause, staged their own parade on Constitution Avenue. As America watched them, some in wheelchairs, all of them proud, there was a feeling that as a nation we were coming together, coming together again, and that we had at long last brought the boys home." edit "We've learned that government owes the people an explanation and needs their support for its actions at home and abroad. And we've learned -- and I pray this time for good -- that we must never again send our young men to fight and die in conflicts that our leaders are not prepared to win." [Applause]