Presidential Medal of Freedom Remarks on Presenting the Award to Arthur J. Goldberg.

THE PRESIDENT. This is a good day for me and is a memorable day in the history of our Nation.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award issued very rarely. I've only given two of them before, one to Dr. Jonas Salk, who was instrumental in eliminating polio as a plague for the entire world, and the other one for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This third award is one that's equally well deserved.

There are many people in our Nation who have had notable achievements, quite often in a narrowly defined field of interest. But Arthur Goldberg is a man who has devoted his life to humanitarian pursuits in the widest possible range of both interest and notable accomplishment.

As an attorney, he became an expert in labor relations, learning how to understand people, to mediate, to negotiate, quite often under the most strenuous and potentially divisive circumstances. The ability to understand conflicting ideas and to find common ground between them has been used later on in public service to the best interest of our country.

He became Secretary of Labor and performed so superbly there that his interests were retained in that field and also expanded into others. He has served as a member of the United States Supreme Court, a Justice there, and participated in notable decisions that helped to shape the attitude of our Nation toward basic civil rights, basic human rights. No one has ever doubted his purpose nor his credentials. And as our Representative to the United Nations, he brought a standard of performance there that was an inspiration to others.

Perhaps one of the most difficult international disputes ever witnessed, certainly in modern history, has been in the Middle East. And when the time came to hammer out a set of principles in writing which would be the basis for temporary periods of peace already and, perhaps, permanent peace in the future, Arthur Goldberg was the one who was able to accomplish this great achievement.

"United Nations Resolution 242" is now a standard phrase, a pat series of letters and numbers that people speak about as an unshakable basis for ultimate agreement in the Middle East. Those of us assembled here this morning who have tried to carve out mutual principles for agreement, even in the most general language, know the difficulty of it. And his language, which was adopted by the United Nations, by all the disputing parties, is still our guide in how to make progress in the future.

At Helsinki, an agreement was signed by, I believe, 34 nations, spelling out how we might have more cooperation, more exchange among nations who were potential adversaries, and the first international commitment with specific bounds for the honoring of the right of human beings to emigrate from a country, to be part of the united family, to have at least a modicum of free speech. And the signatories of that agreement at Helsinki were expected to have their activities monitored.

At Belgrade this past year, there was an international assembly to provide the first assessment of compliance with the Helsinki agreement, and Secretary Vance and I were determined to have the best possible leader there to represent our country. He was a foremost spokesman and established the principle, permanently, I hope, that there is indeed an international accountability for compliance with human rights commitments that were made at Helsinki.

There is no way nor need to outline the numbers of special ad hoc commissions and committees on which Arthur Goldberg has served our country, other Presidents. But I look upon him as a man who still has a long career ahead of him, but already has exemplified in his personal and public life principles committed to basic human rights, to legal, diplomatic, and political justice, sensitivity about the needs of those who have been deprived of the blessings of a modern society that most of us enjoy, and a man whose own personal principles have never deviated from the highest possible standard, and who has let those principles affect the attitude and the reputation of an entire Nation, the Nation that we love so much.

I would like now to read the citation for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[At this point, the President read the citation, the text of which follows:]

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AWARDS THIS PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM TO ARTHUR J. GOLDBERG

Arthur J. Goldberg, Secretary of Labor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador at Large and soldier in World War II. During an eminent career of almost fifty years, Arthur Goldberg has shown his deep commitment to individual human dignity, to peace and to the cause of human rights. As a practicing attorney and counsel for the labor movement, a legal scholar, educator and a public servant, he has displayed an extraordinary capacity to bring people together, mediate differences, and to help solve the pressing problems of our age. By combining idealism and vision with wisdom and common sense, Arthur Goldberg has served his country well.

Signed, Jimmy Carter, The White House, Washington, D.C., July 26, 1978. Arthur, congratulations. I'm very proud of you.

MR. GOLDBERG. Mr. President, Secretary Vance, Under Secretary Christopher, Counselor Nimetz, Mr. Hansell, Mr. Chairman—my chairman—and Cochairman, Dante Fascell and Senator Pell; this eminent member of the National Security Council, Bob Hunter; the Assistant Secretary of State, George Vest; the Deputy Assistant for Management, Ben Read; and many others—I should like to single out three, if you don't mind, of my colleagues, Mrs. Guilbert, Mrs. Passemante, Miss West, and the one who was on my tail all the time at Belgrade, Bob Oliver, the Director of the Commission; ladies and gentlemen:

Mr. President, my wife, my children-two of whom are stranded in Alaska with three grandchildren who are very put out, so you're going to have to see them—and I wish to thank you, Mr. President, for the highest of Presidential awards. You have honored our family, and for this we are profoundly grateful. To serve our beloved country is its own reward. But to receive acknowledgement of this service by this award, particularly at your hands, Mr. President, is, I fear, more than I merit.

Mr. President, you have put respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms high on the international agenda. This respect will not be achieved overnight, as you well knew, but it cannot be denied, for it represents ultimate truth.

The poet John Milton said, "Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to the conscience, above all liberties. Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field. We do injuriously, by prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple; whoever knew truth to be put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?"

That's the essence, I think, of human rights.

Again, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your support in my tenure as Ambassador at Large and Chairman of our Delegation in Belgrade, and also express my affectionate regards and appreciation to the members of the CSC Commission, its Director, to my friends of long standing in the State Department—Secretary Vance, Under Secretary Christopher, and their colleagues at the State Department-Dr. Brzezinski and the staff of the National Security Council, and others at the White House for their support of my tenure as Ambassador at Large and my mission to Belgrade.

I thank you very much, Mr. President, for this highest of honors.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you very much.

Arthur's son and grandchildren couldn't get here because they were bumped off a plane in Alaska. So he and I are going to go inside and talk to them by telephone now. But I'm very proud of what this means to our country, and I appreciate very much your coming to pay your respects to a truly great American. Thank you very much.