50th Anniversary of the Veterans Administration Remarks During a Program Celebrating the Anniversary.

Max Cleland, Administrator of the Veterans Administration, Harold Brown, Secretary of Defense, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, other Cabinet Secretaries, Members of Congress, and particularly those representatives of the Veterans Administration who work with Max, who've been so instrumental in giving a new life and new hope to literally millions of Americans who have offered their lives for the freedom and for the service of our country:

Fifty years ago the Veterans Administration was formally organized, but of course, this was not the first time our Nation had paid homage to and provided services for those who were willing to give their lives for freedom and for our Nation. Even while the Revolutionary War was actually in progress, the Continental Congress provided those services necessary for veterans who had suffered during that war and for the widows and orphans who were left by them.

In his second inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln said these words, which have now been adopted as a motto for the Veterans Administration, and I quote: "It's purpose is to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." Very simple words, but deep with significance and with meaning for all of us who hear them and contemplate on them, and particularly a deep meaning for those who receive those benefits, who have suffered, and who need a helping hand.

Since the Veterans Administration was formed, three wars and 50 years of an uneasy peace have indeed created tremendous opportunities for service, and also tremendous responsibilities to those who were willing to serve. We now have 30 million veterans, six times more than were present in our country in 1930, when the Veterans Administration was formed. And at this time, about 90 million Americans-about 40 percent of our total population-are theoretically qualified for Veterans Administration services. This is a tremendous commitment to our Nation and also a wonderful opportunity for our Nation to repay their sacrifice.

Each generation, I'm sure, particularly 50 years ago, it was hoped that the First World War was the last war, that there would be no more veterans coming back who were wounded or who left their lives overseas and left widows and orphans here. But we've not been yet so fortunate. It has been necessary for men and women to be strong, to be courageous, to be heroes, to be willing to offer themselves to preserve peace, through the strength of a mighty nation and through the strength of offered and sometimes granted personal sacrifice.

It would be difficult and mistaken for us to look upon the Veterans Administration service as just a negative kind of investment to repay those who've suffered deeply and to repair the ravages of war. In October of 1943, Franklin Roosevelt, in building a new program for the rehabilitation of all veterans and offering them a new life, by giving education and home benefits, pointed out the advantages to our country in investment in the future, in new prosperity for the entire Nation, in new happiness within homes where the suffering had not been personally deep, but where the sacrifice offered had been equally great.

One major element of the Veterans Administration service growing quite rapidly is that of hospitals. There's been an increase, of course, more than threefold, in the last 50 years in the number of hospitals provided for veterans. And the outpatient services have grown by leaps and bounds, because we have recognized, particularly under Max Cleland's leadership, the advantage of quick treatment, outpatient if possible, relatively inexpensive, and also designed to prevent further suffering instead of just trying to treat suffering after it occurs.

Research has benefited veterans, of course, in the treatment of medical afflictions, also in rehabilitation, but it has provided untold benefits for millions of people all over the Earth who have not been directly related to our important and highly skilled medical services in the Veterans Administration. By joining with others, we've learned through the Veterans Administration how best to treat and prevent tuberculosis. The heart pacer was developed, the process for kidney transplants was assisted by Veterans Administration research. The laser-beam walking cane for blind veterans is now available to all who need it. The prevention of sickle cell anemia, particularly in our minority groups, was a major project of the Veterans Administration. And the psychotropic drugs have given new life and new hope to many who suffer from mental health problems.

I'm completely committed to a highquality, independent health care system for veterans in this Nation. And I'm particularly grateful to Max Cleland, who, under his leadership, was able to prevail in Congress after 10 years of effort in setting up a new psychological readjustment service. This program, which operates in a very inexpensive way—most of the time in storefronts—has been one of the finest and best-received and most deeply appreciated programs we have ever seen in this country. Already, after just a few months, we have treated 15,000 veterans by giving them a way to overcome psychological problems.

We now provide for dependents and for survivors of veterans—to 5 million in our country—increased compensation each year. I'm glad to say that since I've been in office, we've increased that compensation substantially each year so far. This is money deeply needed, deeply appreciated, and also an excellent investment for our Nation's future.

It would be good for us to remember the rapidly aging group of veterans served. The doughboys who served in 1918 are now in their eighties, and of course, those of us who went to the military service early in the forties are rapidly approaching our sixties or have already reached that time. When I was Governor, and still, I was surprised to know that we still provide services for dependents and widows of those who served in the War Between the States and a larger number, of course, who served in the Spanish-American War. Along with that is the service of those who have recently offered their lives in Vietnam.

There would hardly be a family here, perhaps no families here, which has not felt directly the .effect of service in the military. My own father was a first lieutenant in the First World War. He was fortunate. But when I grew up in Plains, it was a common thing along the streets of my little town to know those people intimately who had been in combat in Europe during that war. They suffered permanent disability, diseases that were inevitably producing an early death for them, and long pain and also an early death from gas and other poisons.

My mother's youngest brother, Tom Gordy, was a radioman in the Second World War, on Guam, and less than a week after the war began, after Pearl Harbor, he was captured. After a few months, we were notified that he was dead. At the end of the war, he was found alive. He weighed less than a hundred pounds. He had been in prison in Japan since the early days of the war. He came home as one who had been missing in action, who had been reported dead. He led a good life until his death recently.

This is a vivid reminder to me of those who are still listed as missing in action and the suffering of families who still look toward Southeast Asia for a word of truth and certainty about the whereabouts or the status of their loved ones. And no one in this country can rest until those answers come to families still waiting with a question in their hearts.

My oldest son volunteered and served in Vietnam, and he, along with millions of other young men, including Max Cleland, again offered their lives under the most difficult of circumstances. They suffered the pain and anguish of danger and suffering in Vietnam, and in addition, they had an additional burden to bear, because our Nation was divided about that war. And the deep love and appreciation, the outpouring and the expressions of care when other veterans returned quite often were not available to Max Cleland, to my oldest son, and to many others.

In all this time, and for all these veterans, when the Nation forgot in a time of certainty and stability and peace, the Veterans Administration was there, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, year after year, providing love, care, attention, sometimes publicity when the Nation turned its head the other way, struggling in the Congress, struggling in the home communities to provide for those who had offered everything for us. The Veterans Administration bound their wounds, provided new limbs for those who'd lost them, made new lives for widows, provided jobs, provided college education, provided homes, provided new happiness.

Some day we hope that there will be no war, that there will be no threat of war, no need to call Americans to duty in a time of peace in order to preserve that peace. That time has not yet come. It is still necessary for our Nation to have a strong defense. It is still necessary for young men and women to demonstrate patriotism in a time of peace in order to prevent war and to prevent death. George Washington, our first President, said, "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."

We will continue to have new veterans; I'm thankful for that. But we do not want them to be joining more than 1 million other veterans who died in war for our Nation during the last 204 years. We want them to serve without death, without firing their weapons in anger, to preserve our Nation as it is—at peace, strong, secure, united, confident, filled with courage and conviction—to preserve the principles which have made us great, so that our veterans can now continue to come home to families, to safety, to respect and appreciation, to health, to a full life, enjoying the peace they helped to preserve with the courage that they exhibited in their commitment to freedom.

This is the kind of life, the kind of commitment the Veterans Administration helps to provide. And I'm very deeply grateful to those of you assembled here who represent that wonderful organization, many of you that I see who received the benefits directly from that organization, and to Max Cleland, a wonderful leader of the Veterans Administration, who will now speak to us.

Max Cleland, God bless you and all those who work with you.