Remarks at the Dedication of the Italian Community Center in Stamford, Connecticut

Mr. Chairman, all of the distinguished guests on the platform, and all of you gathered here in Stamford:

May I tell you how very much Mrs. Nixon and I appreciate your very warm welcome. We are sorry we were a bit late and we are sorry for the delay. But I understand as the helicopter landed that the sound system went out and we had to wait until it was repaired. I hope that all of you can hear so that we can have the chance to express our very best wishes to you.

I am very honored to be here to participate in this dedication ceremony for the Italian Community Center. And as I see this great audience here, I realize that I am really seeing a cross section of America. When I think of the State of Connecticut, I think of a State that owes so much of its greatness to all the people that make up America.

Connecticut has a proud heritage of groups, nationalities, of all kinds, and among the proudest, of course, is the Italian heritage.

As I speak to you today with regard to this center, I naturally have some comments with regard to this Italian Center for Stamford, Connecticut. I wish to speak on Columbus Day of what America owes to those of Italian background, the many that have contributed to this country.

On that point, I think that one indication of what we owe we see right up here on this platform. One of the most valuable members of our administration team, a man that has been particularly strong in the whole field of transportation and many other fields, and who has made an announcement today with regard to our transportation system, particularly the transit system as it affects commuters and the rest, is Secretary John Volpe. I want Secretary Volpe to stand up again.

John Volpe was Governor of your neighboring State of Massachusetts. He has served as Secretary of Transportation for this administration. He has handled many other assignments for us. But one thing that always impressed me about John Volpe is the way that he speaks so movingly of his background. He is proud that he is a first-generation Italian-American. He is proud of that background and justly so.

When I was in Rome just a week, 2 weeks ago, I recall that as we spoke in that great city, that one of my Italian friends there said there were twice as many Italians living in America as live in Rome, 8 1/2 million.

I was thinking not only of the number of those of Italian background who live in America, 8 1/2 million, but of the long history that we have of those of Italian background and what they have contributed to America. Everyone knows this is Columbus Day. We also know that through the years those of Italian background in all areas in the field of science, in music, in art, in business, in government, have made their contributions to America's greatness.

But today I think it is important for us to think not just of those of Italian background but of all of those who came to this New World, and to this new country, and created an entirely new people.

When I speak of a new people, I think of the backgrounds of all of you in this audience. Some, I am sure, are proud of your Italian ancestry; others, perhaps, of some other background. I was just thinking of the people here on this platform. My wife, for example. Her mother was born in Germany, her grandfather was born in Ireland. I was thinking, for example, of Tom Meskill. His grandfather on his mother's side was born in Ireland, and his grandfather on his mother's side was a Ryan and you can guess where he was from.

I was thinking, too, of Lowell Weicker. His background is German, two generations back, and British. We could go on down the line.

When we think of this great country of ours, we are all proud that before we are anything else, we are Americans. We are Americans. But we can also be proud in this country that we have a very diverse heritage, and it makes this country richer because of it; that there are people of Irish background, German, Italian, Polish, French--all the nations of the world, all the races of the world are here in America, and we are a richer country because of it, richer in our culture, richer in our tradition, and stronger.

I was talking, at the time of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, to former President Hoover, who was in charge of relief operations at that time, about the fears that many Americans had of the influx of approximately 200,000 Hungarian refugees. He made a very interesting comment. He said, "You know Americans. There have been some from the beginning of our history who have always worried about these immigrants or that one, the fact that they would come in, take the jobs away from others, or have a bad effect on the future of this great people." And he said that his study of American history showed that every group that came from abroad to America made America stronger, made America richer. It gave us a new vitality. It gave us a richer background. It gave us more strength and that, I hope, all of you who are young here will remember. You can be proud that you live in this great country of 200 million people.

You can be proud that wherever you go in the world you will find there are those who will criticize the United States about this policy or that policy. But I can assure you if you ask people in other parts of the world where they would like to go, the traffic is all one way. They want to come to the United States. They don't want to go anyplace else.

And we in the United States also have a very great responsibility at this time. It happens that we have a responsibility because we are the strongest nation in the free world to have policies that will bring peace to the world and that will keep the peace. It is very difficult. I know there are those who criticize what America has done in this century for that cause. We have fought two World Wars. We fought in Korea. We are now trying to bring the war in Vietnam to a conclusion.

But let us be proud of one thing: Young Americans have gone abroad. They have fought and they have died. We can be proud of the fact that America in this century has never gone abroad to conquer anybody else. We have gone abroad to defend their freedom rather than to take it away.

And in the years ahead, as we bring this present war to a conclusion, and as we work for policies that will bring peace for a whole generation, something we haven't had in this century, as we work for those things let us remember that what we must always remind ourselves of is of our heritage, is of our background. Be proud of the fact that your parents or your grandparents were Italian, if they were, or Irish, if they were, or, for that matter, as my father used to say--I once asked him what was mine--"You are Heinz, 57 varieties."

But in any case, be proud of your American heritage because that is what makes America great, the fact that we come from all the nations and all the races, and here in this climate of opportunity and this climate of freedom we have a chance, and we want to make it an equal chance for everybody to go just as high as he can go. That is the American dream and that is what we want you all to believe in.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to speak in a very personal vein about the heritage that we owe to those of Italian background, not simply Christopher Columbus, the navigator who found the New World, and not Enrico Fermi, the man who found another new world along with other scientists, the breaking of the secret with regard to nuclear power. But I think of what happened recently in the world of sports that to all of us who follow sports moved us very greatly.

I think of Vince Lombardi and what he meant. We think of him as a great coach. As I recall, as we walked out of the Cathedral of St. Matthew's in Washington, Cardinal O'Boyle spoke to me about Vince Lombardi. He noticed there were so many young people there worshiping at that mass, as we were. And he made this point: He said that Vince Lombardi, at a time when it seems to be unfashionable to have very close family ties, was a man devoted to his family; at a time when permissiveness and lack of discipline seemed to be the order of the day he was a man who believed in playing by the rules and following the rules, playing hard. And he was a man, in addition to that, who, at a time that it seemed not to be the thing to be patriotic, who was deeply dedicated, a patriot in the very best sense of the word.

What he stood for basically was something that every young person in this audience particularly, I know, will want to stand for. He stood for character. He stood for strength. He believed deeply in his family, in his church, and in whatever cause he was involved. He believed that a man had to become involved in a cause deeper, bigger than himself in order to reach the fulfillment of all of his talents.

I simply say, as I dedicate this center, let us think back to the history of America. Let us think of all of those who came across the seas, at very great sacrifice, to this country and then helped to make it greater. And then let us think of what we have. Here we are, 200 million Americans, the richest country in the world, the strongest country in the world, and the chance--the chance that comes only to one people in a century--the chance to provide leadership which will bring peace to a troubled world, and the possibility of progress and prosperity not just for Americans but for all people.

That is what Americans stand for. That is what we are here for. I dedicate this center to that cause.

Thank you.