March 31, 1969
Page 8089
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, for more than a quarter of a century, Dwight Eisenhower has been a familiar and well-loved name in American homes and in distant lands around the globe.
It is a name associated with historic events and historic achievements; with great leadership; with the skills which led us to victory in war; and with a deep-seated urge to lead mankind toward peace.
Above all, however, he was a man and a human being whose quality and character made a deep and lasting impact upon each of us.
To those of us who served in World War II, he was more than a superlative military leader. He was a man whose warmth, simplicity, and sturdiness were reassuring, inspiring, and comforting.
To all of us, his postwar leadership in Europe, as the first commander of NATO, represented an appropriate conversion of his talent for leadership from war to his unceasing search for peace.
It was understandable and inevitable, notwithstanding the frustration of his political opposition, that he should be called to the Presidency.
And again, in the 8 years of his Presidency, it was the quality of the man which we remember most – his capacity to inspire the trust and confidence of his people.
It was because his countrymen believed him to be a good man that they entrusted him with leadership and responded to it.
And it is thus that we will remember him – a good man who loved his countrymen and who was loved by them.