Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. General Powell, General McCaffrey, and my good friend Lew Puller, whom I did not know was coming…”

“Thank you very much. General Powell, General McCaffrey, and my good friend Lew Puller, whom I did not know was coming here today, I thank you so much. To all of you who are shouting, I have heard you. I ask you now to hear me. I have heard you. Some have suggested that it is wrong for me to be here with you today because I did not agree a quarter of a century ago with the decision made to send the young men and women to battle in Vietnam. Well, so much the better. Here we are celebrating America today. Just as war is freedom's cost, disagreement is freedom's privilege, and we honor it here today. But I ask all of you to remember the words that have been said here today. And I ask you at this monument: Can any American be out of place? And can any Commander in Chief be in any other place but here on this day? I think not. Many volumes have been written about this war and those complicated times. But the message of this memorial is quite simple: These men and women fought for freedom, brought honor to their communities, loved their country, and died for it. They were known to all of us. There's not a person in this crowd today who did not know someone on this wall. Four of my high school classmates are there. Four who shared with me the joys and trials of childhood and did not live to see the three score and ten years the Scripture says we are entitled to. Let us continue to disagree, if we must, about the war. But let us not let it divide us as a people any longer.…”