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“RENAMING WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT ``RONALD REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT''” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S221-S225 on Jan. 29, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
RENAMING WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT ``RONALD REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT''
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I wanted to update my colleagues on this issue of the cost of the renaming of Washington National Airport. C-
SPAN viewership is up today because our phones have been ringing quite a bit, both in my office and Senator Coverdell's office and others. This is a fax that I received just an hour or so ago. It says:
Dear Senator, I'm watching today's coverage of the Senate on C-SPAN. I note an objection to renaming Washington National Airport the Ronald Reagan National Airport was the
$60,000 cost of new signs. In the way that I honor President Reagan and you, I humbly offer the $60,000 cost of these signs.
I will repeat that, Mr. President.
I honor President Reagan. . . . I humbly offer the $60,000 cost of these signs. Having lived in Alexandria for 5 years, I know that the Washington airport has always been considered the Washington, DC, National Airport, and any argument otherwise is simply partisan and specious. I support you and Senator Coverdell in your effort to honor President Reagan on his birthday, which sadly could be his last.
Mr. President, I am not, obviously, going to give the name of the individual because of privacy considerations. But we are receiving call after call.
Let's not, as we go through these arguments one by one concerning the airport, let's be sure that the cost of renaming the signs--I find it interesting. They just went through a $1-point-some billion remodeling without a single additional flight going in or out of the airport, yet the question is raised about a $60,000 renaming.
Second, I want to point out again, it in no way affects the founder of our country, the father of our country, George Washington. I know Senator Coverdell and I--Senator Coverdell obviously speaks for himself, but I know of no objection if it was Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. I'm sure we could work out that difficulty.
I yield to the Senator from Georgia.
Mr. COVERDELL. In the original legislation it's the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The House removed the ``Washington''--
Ronald Reagan National Airport. My amendment was simply in conjunction with that. Yes, just to make it absolutely clear, the original concept of the sponsor was that it was the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. If that needed any further clarification, I wanted to add it.
Mr. McCAIN. Let me just finally say I am sorry this controversy has erupted. I hope we can work it out. I hope we can work it out within the next 24 hours amongst all of our colleagues in the Senate. I would like to move forward with it. As I said earlier, I regret we are starting out this year, the first real day of our session, in this kind of a difference of view.
Let me just make one additional point. I cannot speak for the Members on this side of the aisle, but I understand the reverence that many Americans--not just Democrats but also Republicans--have for Robert Kennedy and Jack Kennedy and the entire Kennedy family. If there is some proposal to name the Justice Department building after Robert Kennedy, I would strongly support such an effort. And I would support such a thing in any way. Obviously, he was a former Attorney General of the United States.
But let's not set up these straw men to kind of, certainly not poison the atmosphere here, but it's not a good way for us to begin. I know everyone knows how those of us who knew Ronald Reagan, and the vast majority of Americans, feel about him. So I hope we can get this thing resolved. Again, I thank Senator Coverdell, who served under President Reagan and knew him as well as anyone and whose idea this was for this very appropriate action. I just hope Senator Coverdell will be able to make a phone call out to California very soon, at the time of President Reagan's birthday, and inform both President Reagan and Mrs. Reagan that we are honoring him in this very small way. There really is no way we can ever fully honor him for what he has done for the Nation and the world.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Arizona for returning to the floor, for reading this very emotional letter. You know, in a sense the remarks that we have heard here this afternoon all have this common thread of admiration running through them, such as is expressed in this letter, almost as if there is--just during that period of time there was a connection between this man and his call for optimism, his belief in the country. And it evokes these kinds of emotions that were just expressed to us by Senator McCain.
I appreciate the Senator's, in a sense, admonition that if there is some common ground here, that would be useful to pursue. At this point, in my view, a statement like this about a figure such as President Reagan stands on its own. That takes nothing away from anyone else or other heroes and heroines. But, if the other side has a goal or something of this nature, I am sure they would find many Republicans who would join with them in honoring that person. We have.
I mention my good friend and colleague from my own State for whom we have named a very prominent new courthouse. I mentioned the Roosevelt Memorial and others. This has not been, as Senator McCain indicated, a very good way to begin this session of the Congress.
He has mentioned cost. He has mentioned this article that we are renaming an airport that was named for George Washington. That is not the case. These are roadblocks, and they can only be viewed as an attempt to either throttle the legislation or to extract something from it, which I think diminishes what we are trying to do here.
The suggestion that we are naming a building downtown and that somehow that is all that needs to be done to honor this man--if you go to Eastern Europe and ask the people if that is enough, they would tell you in a hurry, no.
It is surprising to me that, given all that historical period, fewer than a dozen landmarks in our country are dedicated to Ronald Reagan. Fewer than a dozen. Because of President Reagan's enduring legacy and the American people's continuing respect and affection for him, it is fitting that the national airport bear his name for all those who come here, all those from our own country and all those who visit our country. This is a fitting acknowledgment of a massive role in American history.
Many airports are named after famous people. From San Diego's Lindbergh to New York's LaGuardia, Chicago's O'Hare, Washington's Dulles. I might point out that often we refer to it as Washington Dulles Airport. If you look at the little marker for arrivals and destinations, it doesn't just say ``D,'' it alludes to the city, Dulles Washington. It is not because of George Washington, but because of the Capital City.
The airport is named after former Secretary of State Dulles.
Orange County's John Wayne; and currently there is an effort underway to rename the Los Angeles airport after actor and World War II aviator Jimmy Stewart. President John F. Kennedy was honored by having the Nation's largest international airport named after him in 1964. Sponsors contend that no American statesman of this century deserve this honor more than former President Reagan, our Nation's 40th President. The Reagan era, fondly remembered by tens of millions of Americans, marked the turning point in America's declining fortunes after our defeat in Vietnam and the oil crisis of the seventies.
Buoyed by the contagious optimism of what they call ``the Great Communicator''--I never really bought into that term. I accept it, but I always thought some of the people who communicated it were taken aback by his ability to overpower them through his communications, and they would write it off that he is just a great communicator. As history bore out, he was a great leader who had the skill of communicating--Americans were reawakened to their image of themselves and to a great people with a great future. The far-reaching Reagan tax cuts ignited what remains the longest post-World War II economic recovery, a sharp reversal from stagflation of the high tax, high inflation seventies. How quickly we forget the millions and millions and millions of people who secured economic independence because of the economic boom that he unleashed by the argument that if we lower the tax burden on the American people, they will respond with entrepreneurship and hard work, and it will make America strong again. And that is exactly what they did.
His restoration of America's neglected defenses--of course, the Persian Gulf war was led by President George Bush, but I am sure that former President Bush, my good friend, would acknowledge that he had the tools to use that were prepared for by his predecessor for whom he served as Vice President, President Ronald Reagan, the buildup that occurred that allowed us to so successfully vanquish Saddam Hussein.
His restoration of America's neglected defenses, combined with his forceful and eloquent advocacy of American values against the failed ideology of communism, epitomized by his demand in Berlin, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,'' set the stage for the collapse of the evil empire.
How many of us remember the ridicule when he came up with SDI and how fearful it made the Soviet Union, probably one of the single greatest strokes to bring down what he characterized as the evil empire?
According to Russian sources, the technological challenge of the Strategic Defense Initiative, as I just referred to, SDI, envisioned by President Reagan to defend the American people from nuclear attack forced the Soviet regime to adopt policies, like glasnost and perestroika, in a vain attempt to keep up, and instead unleashed the social forces that brought down the system built by Lenin and Stalin.
In short, President Reagan's commitment to restoring the fundamental ideals of the Founding Fathers and the traditional beliefs of the American people to the helm of American national policy at home and abroad marks him as one of America's greatest leaders and a central figure of the 20th century.
Mr. President, throughout the day, as this debate has progressed, beginning with Majority Leader Lott, who quoted former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her genuine deep-felt respect for President Reagan, I want to read--there was recently a book published where they had world figures comment on President Reagan's Presidency. It would, of course, been incomplete without a statement from Margaret Thatcher. She says:
I . . . met Governor Reagan shortly after my becoming Conservative leader in 1975.
This is long before she was Prime Minister and long before Governor Reagan had been elected President, 5 years.
Even before then, I knew something about him because Denis--
Her husband--
had returned home one evening in the late 1960s full of praise for a remarkable speech Ronald Reagan had just delivered to the Institute of Directors. I read the text myself and quickly saw what Denis meant. When we met in person, I was immediately won over by his charm, sense of humour--
We have heard references all day long to that disarming sense of humor and the ability to communicate by that disarming smile.
. . . I was immediately won over by his charm, sense of humour and directness.
Firmness.
In the succeeding years I read his speeches, advocating tax cuts as the root to wealth creation and stronger defenses as an alternative to detente.
You see, SDI, which we have just heard from Russian authorities broke their back, was not detente. That is not saying we both can obliterate each other. We are saying we are going to protect ourselves from you and we consider yours to be an evil force and we won't accept it. Look how different the world is.
Remember when they met in a summit and the Russians were endeavoring to do SDI in, and it had been built up. He was under enormous pressure to come to an agreement. But when he realized he could not have the agreement, President Reagan, without undoing this new tool to defend the country, said, ``I'm leaving.'' Because despite the embarrassment that might have been to have left without anything productive, the principle outweighed his own fortunes, and he was ready to get on a plane and fly home, having failed but having kept his commitment. That is what she is alluding to here.
In the succeeding years I read his speeches, advocating tax cuts as the root of wealth . . . I also read many of his . .
. [radio] broadcasts. . .which his Press Secretary sent over regularly for me. I agreed with them all. In November 1978 we met again in my room in the House of Commons.
In the early years Ronald Reagan had been dismissed by much of the American political elite--
Which, I might add, is probably the reason I read a moment ago that there are fewer than a dozen landmarks to this great American figure--
fewer than a dozen. I think we are still dealing with America's political elite.
. . . though [Ronald Reagan was] not [dismissed] by the American electorate, [the political elite saw him] as a right-wing maverick who could not be taken seriously. Now he was seen by many thoughtful Republicans as their best ticket back to the White House. Whatever Ronald Reagan had gained in experience, he had not done so at the expense of his beliefs--
Taking you back to the meeting he had with the Russians over SDI. His beliefs were more important to him than his political fortunes, returning without an agreement. Of course, at the end, as you know, he got the agreement.
I found [his beliefs] stronger than ever. When he left my study, I reflected on how different things might look if such a man [Ronald Reagan] were President of the United States. But, in November 1978, such a prospect seemed a long way off.
The so-called Reagan Doctrine, which Ronald Reagan developed in a speech to both Houses of Parliament in 1982, demonstrated just how potent a weapon in international politics human rights could be. His view was that we should fight the battle of ideas for freedom against communism throughout the world, and refuse to accept the permanent exclusion of the captive nations from the benefits of freedom.
Ronald Reagan understood that America's glory was founded in freedom. And he wanted all the world to be able to enjoy these same benefits.
This unashamedly philosophical approach and the armed strength supporting it transformed the political world. President Reagan undermined the Soviet Union at home by giving hope to its citizens, directly assisted rebellions against illegitimate Communist regimes in Afghanistan and Nicaragua, and facilitated the peaceful transition to democracy in Latin American countries and the Philippines. Of course, previous American Governments had extolled human rights, and President Carter had even declared that they were the ``soul'' of U.S. foreign policy. Where President Reagan went beyond [he went beyond] these, however, was in making the Soviets the principal target of his human rights campaign, and in moving from rhetorical to material support for anti-Communist guerrillas in countries where Communist regimes had not securely established themselves. The result
[the result] was a decisive advance for freedom in the world
. . .. In this instance, human rights and wider American purposes were in complete harmony.
And yet here we are at 4:15 in January 1998, in the twilight of his years, and we are in an argument over whether we ought to name the Nation's Capital airport for him.
How nice it would be if all these new people from Nicaragua to Poland, from East Germany to Afghanistan could have a presence here this afternoon. And we could ask them, ``Do you think we ought to name this National Airport for this man of freedom?'' I think the resounding ovation would be so loud as to have been heard around the world.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. GRAMS. Thank you very much.
Mr. President, I just wanted to come to the floor here for a few minutes this afternoon to somewhat join in the debate, but also to add my support to Senate bill S. 1297, that is, renaming the Washington National Airport to the Ronald Reagan National Airport.
I have been kind of saddened by the debate that I have been hearing today on S. 1297 and, again, to rename Washington National Airport as the Ronald Reagan National Airport. I simply cannot believe some of the things I have heard on the floor, that somehow this effort would require a quid pro quo.
Mr. President, in diluting this effort, I think it is insulting that this legislation is being demagoged in this way. This should be a noncontroversial bill. It is a very fitting tribute to a very wonderful American hero. He was a President not just for Republicans, but he was a President for all people. And it should be passed.
This bill should be passed before President Reagan's birthday, which occurs just a week from tomorrow, that is, February the 6th. What a great tribute it would be. You know, I am very proud that this Senate has taken the time to propose that such a fitting tribute be paid to Ronald Reagan. Again, I do not think that it should be turned in any way into a petty or partisan tirade.
I have heard and had a chance to listen to a few of my other colleagues who have been to the floor. And they have delivered some real eloquent statements on what Ronald Reagan has done, what it has meant to them, what they feel that he has done for America.
President Reagan inspired or maybe we could say reinspired a whole generation of Americans, millions of Americans, much in the same way that John F. Kennedy inspired Americans 20 years earlier in 1960. I believe that President Reagan is a man who wanted to leave a legacy, but not a legacy to himself. President Reagan was a man who wanted to leave a legacy to his children and grandchildren and to all Americans that America can be a better place if we only believe in ourselves and what we can do and strive to do better.
I remember listening to him way back in 1976 when he first appeared on the national scene. And I listened to him--and this was at a time when I was not actively involved in politics --but the things he was saying in 1976 were things that I brought to my campaign as late as 1992 and again in 1994. And that was for a better America, a more responsible America, one that was going to deevolutionize Washington, DC, and put more of the control and power back into the hands of State and local governments, but most importantly back into the hands of individuals.
He talked then about a tax cut, balancing the budget, which is all kind of the legacy that we now have the great opportunity to be talking about here as we begin the second half of the 105th Congress in 1998. I think he filled a void in many of us with those words and that inspiration.
I am very proud that this Senate is proposing this fitting tribute. Again, we are not renaming an airport that was originally named in honor of another individual. This is Washington National Airport. It is named after the City of Washington. Renaming the airport does not somehow politicize it. It would not convey some sort of partisan advantage, but it would simply provide, again, a tribute to a great American who has been honored by so many on both sides of the aisle.
This isn't a time to count how many Republicans and how many Democrats have buildings or public facilities that are named after them. This legislation has been around for some time. It simply is not appropriate to make demands at the last minute to hold up this legislation.
Mr. President, the City of Washington has a new airport terminal. It is a magnificent structure that speaks volumes about the pride that Washingtonians feel for this city. It is a fitting reflection of the pride that Americans feel as well for their National Capital.
So again, I cannot think of a more appropriate time than now to give our airport a new name, especially when it is the name of a man who represents such hope and inspiration. Ronald Reagan embodies America, and by giving his name to that of our Capital City airport I think is an honor that he has earned and one that he deserves.
So I am very proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation. And I strongly urge my colleagues to end this debate, to come to the floor and support this legislation and let us pass it.
So I compliment Senator Coverdell on his efforts on this. And again, I hope we can move this legislation forward and make sure that it is passed by the Senate and the House and signed by the President by next week so we can honor Ronald Reagan on his birthday on February the 6th.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
I yield the floor.
Mr. COVERDELL addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the distinguished Senator from Georgia.
Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from New Mexico, Senator Domenici, be added as a cosponsor of this legislation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Minnesota for his very fitting and gracious remarks.
I think Senator McCain of Arizona has properly framed a certain sadness about this afternoon. This is a surprising way to start this new session of Congress with the other side constructing roadblocks in front of this type of legislation or trying to exact a quid pro quo,
``Well, you can name this if we name that,'' as we approach, as he calls it, the sunset of his life. He has a birthday next month.
While you might not have always agreed with him, it is clear that former President Reagan was a giant in our time, a giant on the world stage. If you are going to fight him even at this moment, don't do it by minimalist activity, don't do it by some nuance argument over whether or not the name ``Washington'' is for the city or for former President George Washington. Don't fight an epic world figure by disputing whether or not it will take $60,000 to repaint the signs. What a classic disconnect. Don't do it by saying, ``There is another building downtown that has his name on it, isn't that enough?''
I frankly think the former President would feel as Maggie Thatcher suggested, complimented, if you just said we don't want to do it; we just don't want to do that--rather than all these minimalist, ineffective, of absolutely nonequal standing diminutive assertions. It is OK to disagree about doing it or not, but don't do it in this way. Let's at least have respect.
Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleagues in supporting S. 1297, Senator Coverdell's bill to rename Washington National Airport in honor of former President Ronald Reagan. As we seek to pay tribute to him, it is important for us to reflect upon President Reagan's place in history. Few modern leaders have had such an enduring impact on our lives.
President Reagan was elected at a critical time in the history of our nation and our world. In the early 1980s, the country was struggling with an economy plagued with high inflation and unemployment. In the wake of Watergate, the Vietnam War, and the oil crisis, society at large was told by President Carter we were subject to a ``national malaise,'' not without reason. In addition, our armed forces were underfunded and low in morale. The Cold War still dominated our view of the world.
Into this unsettled environment, Ronald Reagan was elected president. His determined leadership, strength of conviction, positive attitude, and faith in his fellow Americans helped change the nation and the world profoundly during his two terms. President Reagan's commitment to national security and the men and women of the armed forces gave our military renewed respect and self-confidence. The nation then took a strong stand against the Soviet Union and helped peaceably to bring about the end of the Cold War and the demise of communism.
President Reagan's view of the role of government still defines the debates we hold in this chamber on a daily basis. He firmly believed that Americans were far better than the government at running their own lives. He also was committed to the free enterprise system and the dynamic spirit of the entrepreneur. Today there are few legislators or other policymakers who cling to the idea that bigger government and more federal spending is good for our economy or the freedom of our citizens.
Mr. President, one of the more important and lasting contributions of our 40th president was the way in which he was able to restore the confidence and optimism of the United States. President Reagan transformed the so-called ``malaise'' of the late 1970s into a positive attitude that helped give the country faith in its institutions and its future. That is why he justly remains an immensely popular figure in our history.
The foregoing account of President Reagan's achievements is only the beginning of a long list of accomplishments that highlight his time as leader of the free world. One more effort he undertook, however, is worthy of note in this debate. As others have mentioned, it was the Reagan Administration that was able to remove the federal bureaucracy from direct control over National and Dulles Airports. By releasing these airports to local control, they were able to go to the private sector for funding and begin needed improvements. The idea of devolving federal control to the States and localities was at the very core of the president's political philosophy.
For these and many other reasons, I urge my colleagues to support Senator Coverdell's proposal to rename Washington National Airport as
``Ronald Reagan National Airport.'' Visitors who fly to our nation's capital will always be reminded of the lasting and important contributions made to our country and the world by President Ronald Reagan. I thank the leadership for trying to let us address this bill in time for President Reagan's 87th birthday on February 6, 1998.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise today to add my voice to the chorus calling on us to honor a great American and one of our greatest Presidents, Ronald Reagan; a man who in his own words ``meant to change a nation and instead changed the world.''
President Reagan indeed changed the world in which we live, and much for the better. It is only right, in my view, that we add to the many honors bestowed upon him since his leaving office the important recognition involved in renaming Washington National Airport, in an important sense the nation's airport, the Ronald Reagan National Airport.
It is, of course, a long-standing tradition for us to name important buildings and facilities after those who have rendered extraordinary service to our country. Indeed, the monuments just outside this Chamber were constructed to show our gratitude toward and to honor the memory of great men like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, Presidents who helped build America, and led her to safety in time of peril.
These monuments testify to our recognition, as a people, of the greatness of certain leaders; of their contributions and of their character. By these standards, Mr. President, Ronald Reagan well deserves the undoubted honor of having his name affixed to our national airport.
Born of poor parents in America's heartland, Ronald Wilson Reagan worked to put himself through school, to forge for himself a career in Hollywood, the land of American dreams, and finally to rise to the highest office in the land. By the time he left office in 1989, President Reagan had shown his dedication to our nation, her people, her principles and her dreams. He restored our economic health, revived the American spirit, and won the Cold War.
Now in his twilight years, Ronald Reagan can look back on a life of great success, made all the more worthy because it was imbued with what the eminent statesman Edmund Burke called the moral imagination. Few called him an intellectual. But he was blessed with an instinctive sense of right and wrong and the prudence to apply this instinct for himself and the nation he led.
Mr. President, many people find it difficult to fully appreciate the debt we owe Ronald Reagan. But why is this difficult? Because he was so successful at facing down the crises of his time.
Today we find interest rates of 21 percent almost unimaginable. But that is what we had when Ronald Reagan took office. We think of double digit inflation as something only developing nations must face. But Ronald Reagan faced it when he became President. Communism seems a nightmare from the past, best forgotten. But we should not forget that, when Ronald Reagan came to office, it enslaved more than half the people of the world.
America was in peril in 1981. Buffeted by the blows of economic stagflation, mired in spiritual malaise, on the defensive in a hostile world, our nation was in need of a leader with the moral imagination, the faith in himself, our people and God's will necessary to get us back on course. And this Ronald Reagan provided.
With his economic plan emphasizing tax cuts, sound money, deregulation, and free trade, he produced the longest peacetime expansion since World War II. He slew the dragon of inflation, reducing it to a steady 3 percent through his second term. He brought interest rates down into single digits. He put nearly 30 million Americans into new jobs. He increased our national income by nearly a third.
He saved family savings from the ravages of inflation, allowed us once again to make real our dreams of owning our own homes, put us to work and renewed our confidence in our future. In the process he renewed America, and by so doing he literally changed the world.
Mr. President, now that the United States enjoys the luxury of being the world's only superpower, it is easy to forget the world we faced less than two decades ago. But it was a grim prospect, as illustrated by the pundits of the era who encouraged us to get used to an era of
``limits'' in which we would steadily lose power and influence to an ever-expanding ideology of centralized state power.
Ronald Reagan was considered foolish, even dangerous, because he refused to accept the inevitable spread of communism. He called the Soviet Union an evil empire and predicted its demise within his lifetime. Sheer lunacy, said his critics. And in a sense one can understand this perspective. America's policy elites had been accustomed to a ``pragmatic'' approach in foreign affairs; one in which America would seek to accommodate Soviet demands and aspirations in the interests of stability. This approach characterized the 1970's--an era during which democracy and freedom were on the run worldwide. Marxist governments gained power in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, South Yemen, Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Grenada. For the first time the Soviet nuclear arsenal surpassed America's. And even our allies seemed leery of identifying themselves too closely with us. Surely, if hard-nosed realism had produced such a disastrous decade, a moral crusade aimed at freeing peoples from the chains of communism would produce armageddon.
We now know, Mr. President, that moral conviction, combined with determination and a prudent use of national power, need not produce armageddon. Under President Reagan it produced the single greatest outpouring of human freedom ever seen on this planet.
We live in a freer, safer, more humane world because Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. His insistence, against strong resistance from a Democratic Congress, that we restore our military power rolled back the Soviet legions and bankrupted their economy. His tough bargaining and his willingness to call evil by its name disoriented our Soviet adversaries and eventually brought their downfall.
By 1991, a broken and dispirited Soviet Union collapsed and disintegrated. President Reagan went to Berlin and called on Mikhail Gorbachev to ``tear down this wall.'' Mr. Gorbachev deserves credit for his role in bringing down the Soviet empire. Unfortunately, he had neither the courage nor the foresight to tear down that wall. But the people of Berlin, thanks to Ronald Reagan, had that courage, and they tore down that wall, freeing half a continent, and eventually nearly half the world.
Without firing a shot, Ronald Reagan changed our world for the better. He freed us from fear of nuclear conflagration. He freed us from the dreary acceptance of declining standards of living and the loss of our way of life through slow attrition. He brought America back from the brink of despair, into the shining light of a new dawn of freedom and prosperity.
Ronald Reagan has earned the eternal gratitude of every American, and of every lover of freedom the world over. He has earned his place in the history books as a leader of vision and a man of moral imagination. His name should adorn our national airport.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Faircloth). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Grams). Without objection, it is so ordered.
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