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Delivered at the Rotunda of the Capitol During the State Funeral of General Dwight David Eisenhower
on March 30, 1969
Mrs. Eisenhower, Your Excellencies, friends of Dwight David Eisenhower in
America and throughout the world:
We gather today in mourning, but also in gratitude.
We mourn Dwight Eisenhower's death, but we are grateful for his life.
We gather, also, conscious of the fact that in paying tribute to Dwight
Eisenhower, we celebrate greatness. When we think of his place in history, we
think, inevitably, of the other giants of those days of World War II; and we
think of the qualities of greatness and what his were that made his unique among
all.
Once, perhaps without intending to do so, he, himself, put his finger on it. It
was
1945, shortly after VE-Day, at a ceremony in London's historic Guildhall. The
triumphant Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe was officially given
the Freedom of the City of London.
In an eloquent address that day, Dwight Eisenhower said: "I come from the heart
of America."
Perhaps no one sentence could better sum up what Dwight Eisenhower meant to a
whole generation of Americans. He did come from the heart of America, not only
from its geographical heart, but from its spiritual heart.
He exemplified what millions of parents hoped that their sons would be: strong
and courageous and honest and compassionate. And with his own great qualities of
heart, he personified the best in America.
It is, I think, a special tribute to Dwight Eisenhower that despite all of his
honors, despite all of his great deeds and his triumphs, we find ourselves today
thinking, first, not of his deeds but of his character. It was the character of
the man, not what he did, but what he was that so captured the trust and faith
and affection of his own people and of the people of the world.
Dwight Eisenhower touched something fundamental in America which only a man of
immense force of mind and spirit could have brought so vibrantly alive. He was a
product of America's soil and of its ideals, driven by a compulsion to do right
and to do well; a man of deep faith who believed in God and trusted in His will;
a man who truly loved his country and for whom words like "freedom" and
"democracy" were not cliches, but they were living truths.
I know Mrs. Eisenhower would permit me to share with you the last words he spoke
to her on the day he died. He said: "I have always loved my wife. I have always
loved my children. I have always loved my grandchildren. And I have always loved
my country." That was Dwight Eisenhower.
He was a man who gave enormously of himself. His way of relaxing from the
intense pressures of office or command was to do something else intensely,
whether as a fierce competitor on the golf course or executing one of those
hauntingly beautiful paintings that he did with such meticulous care. But even
more than this, he gave enormously of himself to people. People loved Dwight
Eisenhower. But the other side of this coin was that he loved people.
He had the great leader's capacity to bring out the best in people. He had the
great humanist's capacity to inspire people, to cheer them, to give them lift.
I remember, for example, just a few months ago when I asked all of the members
of the Cabinet to go out and call on him. And each of them returned with wonder
and admiration and said: "You know, I went out there to cheer him up and instead
I found he cheered me up."
His great love of people was rooted in his faith. He had a deep faith in the
goodness of God and in the essential goodness of man as a creature of God.
This feeling toward people had another side. In the political world, strong
passions are the norm and all too often these turn toward personal
vindictiveness. People often disagreed with Dwight Eisenhower, but almost nobody
ever hated him. And this, I think, was because he, himself, was a man who did
not know how to hate.
Oh, he could be aroused by a cause, but he could not hate a person. He could
disagree strongly, even passionately, but never personally.
When people disagreed with him, he never thought of them as enemies. He simply
thought: "Well, they don't agree with me."
I remember time after time, when critics of one sort or another were
misrepresenting him or reviling him, he would sit back in his chair and with
that wonderful half-smile and half-frown, he would say: "I am puzzled by those
fellows." And he was genuinely puzzled by frenzy and by hate. Because he was
incapable of it himself, he could never quite understand it in others.
The last time I saw him that was what he talked about. He was puzzled by the
hatreds he had seen in our times. And he said the thing the world needs most
today is understanding, an ability to see the other person's point of view and
not to hate him because he disagrees. That was Dwight Eisenhower.
And yet, of course, he was more than all that. He had a side more evident to
those of us who worked with him than to the rest of the world. He was a strong
man. He was shrewd. He was decisive.
Time and again I have seen him make decisions that probably made the difference
between war and peace for America and the world.
That was always when he was at his best. No matter how heated the arguments
were, he was always then the coolest man in the room.
Dwight Eisenhower was that rarest of men, an authentic hero.
Wars bring the names of many men into the headlines and of those some few become
national or even international heroes. But as the years then pass, their fame
goes down.
But not so with Dwight Eisenhower. As the years passed, his stature grew:
Commander of the mightiest expeditionary force ever assembled, receiver of the
surrender of the German Armies in World War II, president of Columbia
University, Supreme Commander of NATO, 34th President of the United States. The
honors, the offices were there in abundance. Every trust that the American
people had it in their power to bestow, he was given.
And, yet, he always retained a saving humility. His was the humility not of fear
but of confidence. He walked with the great of the world, and he knew that the
great are human. His was the humility of man before God and before the truth.
His was the humility of a man too proud to be arrogant.
The pursuit of peace was uppermost in his mind when he ran for the Presidency.
And it was uppermost in his conduct of that office. And it is a tribute to his
skill and determination that not since the 1930's has the Nation enjoyed so long
a period of peace, both at home and abroad, as the one that began in 1953 and
continued through his Presidency.
As Commander of the mightiest allied force ever assembled, he was the right man
at the right place at the right time. And as President, once again he was the
right man at the right place at the right time.
He restored calm to a divided nation. He gave Americans a new measure of
self-respect. He invested his office with dignity and respect and trust. He made
Americans proud of their President, proud of their country, proud of themselves.
And if we in America were proud of Dwight Eisenhower, it was partly because he
made us proud of America.
He came from the heart of America. And he gave expression to the heart of
America, and he touched the hearts of the world.
Many leaders are known and respected outside their own countries. Very few are
loved outside their own countries. Dwight Eisenhower was one of those few. He
was probably loved by more people in more parts of the world than any President
America has ever had.
He captured the deepest feelings of free men everywhere. The principles he
believed in, the ideals he stood for, these were bigger than his own country.
Perhaps he himself put it best again in that Guildhall speech in 1945. He said
then: "Kinship among nations is not determined in such measurements as
proximity, size and age. Rather, we should turn to those inner things--call them
what you will--I mean those intangibles that are the real treasures free men
possess.
"To preserve his freedom of worship, his equality before law, his liberty to
speak and act as he sees fit, subject only to provisions that he trespass not
upon similar rights of others--a Londoner will fight. So will a citizen of
Abilene.
"When we consider these things, then the Valley of the Thames draws closer to
the farms of Kansas and the plains of Texas."
Some men are considered great because they lead great armies or they lead
powerful nations: For 8 years now, Dwight Eisenhower has neither commanded an
army nor led a nation. And, yet, he remained through his final days the world's
most admired and respected man--truly, the first citizen of the world.
As we marvel at this, it leads us once again to ponder the mysteries of
greatness. Dwight Eisenhower's greatness derived not from his office, but from
his character, from a unique moral force that transcended national boundaries,
even as his own deep concern for humanity transcended national boundaries.
His life reminds us that there is a moral force in this world more powerful than
the might of arms or the wealth of nations. This man who led the most powerful
armies that the world has ever seen, this man who led the most powerful nation
in the world, this essentially good and gentle and kind man--that moral force
was his greatness.
For a quarter of a century to the very end of his life Dwight Eisenhower
exercised a moral authority without parallel in America and in the world. And
America and the world are better because of it.
And so today we render our final salute. It is a fond salute to a man we loved
and cherished. It is a grateful salute to a man whose whole extraordinary life
was consecrated to service. It is a profoundly respectful salute to a man larger
than life who by any standard was one of the giants of our time.
Each of us here will have a special memory of Dwight Eisenhower.
I can see him now standing erect, straight, proud, and tall 16 years ago as he
took the oath of office as the 34th President of the United States of America.
We salute Dwight David Eisenhower standing there in our memories, first in war,
first in peace, and, wherever freedom is cherished, first in the hearts of his
fellow men.
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