Rescue Attempt for American Hostages in Iran Message for the Memorial Service for the Eight Airmen Who Died During the Operation.

I grieve with you for eight fine men who died in the service of America. You have as consolation in your sorrow the memory of their lives. These airmen were your family, your friends and fellow workers, and the job they gave you in their lives can help, in memory and in time, to cover the wound of their deaths.

To me and to their country they have left an equal gift: the legacy of their daring spirit. It is the quality which Pericles, some 2500 years ago, marked in the soldiers of his city, when he said:

"When Athens shall appear great to you, consider that her glories were produced by valiant men and by men who knew their duty, by men who felt the urgings of honor when they came to act." These men of your family, of America's family, acted for our nation's honor. Their bravery and their free acceptance of great hazards in the line of duty ennoble not just them but all of us.

I pray with you, in memory of them, for the freedom of 53 other Americans in Iran, for the freedom our eight brothers lived to defend and died to try to win. And I pledge myself, in their memory and for all of us, to the other cause worthy of their daring spirit—the cause of a lasting peace for a free America.