WELCOME PRESIDENT ADAMS |
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xINTRODUCTION GARY BERTSCH |
| KEYNOTE ADDRESS GEN. JOHN GALVIN |
| AMBASSADOR'S ROUNDTABLE |
| QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE |
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THE RUSSELL SYMPOSIUM |
October 1, 2001
The Richard B. Russell Symposium: The United States, NATO, and International Security in the 21st Century
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Gary Bertsch
Thank you President Adams, for that introduction, and for the leadership you continue to provide for the University of Georgia. We all recognize that the events of September 11 have focused the attention of all Americans on the challenges ahead. I agree with President Adams that universities have a unique responsibility, a role, and an opportunity to help us better understand and respond to these challenges. I must say how pleased I have been with the students and faculty of the University of Georgia over the last three weeks as they have met and discussed and sought to understand and I think prepare to respond. There is much that universities can do.
I direct the Center for International Trade and Security and I’m inspired each day when I come in and see the students and faculty and outside experts working together to respond to these challenges. We are creating a new school for international and public affairs at the University of Georgia. This school will prepare people to respond not only to the challenges that we read about in our newspapers today but to others that will be of great importance to our future and the future of the world.
We have the opportunity to mold future Richard Russells, Dean Rusks, and Sam Nunns on the campus of the University of Georgia. It’s a great responsibility we don’t take lightly. I hope you’ll join me just for a moment to think about a young man by the name of Richard Russell, who came from the red clay of Georgia, who came from this university, and who went on to serve the nation and the world with great distinction. Richard Russell was born in 1897 just down the road on a family farm in Winder, Georgia. I see a lot of students out there and I want you to pay attention to what Richard Russell did when he graduated from the University of Georgia. He was elected the next year at the age of 22 to the Georgia House of Representatives. Ten years later, at the age of 32, Richard Russell became governor of the state of Georgia. Three years later, at the age of 35, he became the youngest senator. For those of you approaching your twenties and for those of you who are already in your thirties, we’d better get moving if we’re going to keep up with Richard Russell.
Richard Russell served in the United States Senate for 38 years. He really became a living legend. He headed up the Senate’s Armed Services Committee for nearly 16 years. He was chairman of the Senate. Appropriations Committee. Dean Rusk, a former professor and for you young students, former Secretary of State for 8 years under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, once said that Richard Russell became for a period of about 20 years the second most powerful and influential man in Washington, second only to the President of the United States. President Johnson said, "I don’t think I have ever know a greater legislator, a man of more ability, or a wiser or better man." President Nixon said Richard Russell was one of the most magnificent Americans of all time. Who will be the future Richard Russells to come from this campus? The University of Georgia is pleased and proud to honor again Senator Russell, particularly during this critical time of national and global challenge and need.
We’re honored today to have with us General John Galvin to help us understand and to respond to these challenges. I can think of no other person that I would be more pleased to introduce to you this morning to talk to us about these issues in this time of our nation’s history.
John Galvin is a great American, an internationally admired statesman, a respected citizen of the nation and the world. He started out as a private soldier, a medic, an ambulance driver in a National Guard Infantry regimen in the late 1940s. Later he graduated from West Point, the United States’ military academy, and a bit later he graduated with a Masters in English from Columbia University. This is a special man, a special general who went on to have a distinguished career in public service. He taught English at West Point in the 60s, and he served in Vietnam, in Germany, in Belgium, and in Latin America. He was the commanding general of the infantry division here in Georgia at Fort Stewart in the Savannah area in the 1980s. He served as NATO’s top military commander during the five years after the Cold War. In the 1990s he was sent by our government to Bosnia as an ambassador to unite the Muslim and Croat military structures, and after that he headed the Fletch School of Law and Diplomacy as their dean for five years.
He’s now writing his fourth book, Memoir, that we talked about at dinner last night, and we all look forward to its publication. General Galvin has a wonderful family, including his wife, Jenny, who is here with us this morning, and four daughters, one of whom was engaged under the Arch here on the campus of The University of Georgia, and one of whom is a fine law student. They have ties to Georgia. General Galvin told me the other day that he thanks Georgians for tolerating him, particularly his New England accent and all that comes with it. General Galvin, this morning we thank you for what you have done, what you are doing, and for being here today. Thank you very much.
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SPECIAL REPORT / September 11, 2001 : UGA Responds is produced by the UGA News Service, a unit of UGA Public Affairs.
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