http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMhrBKwtbVs

Former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford shares his favorite memory of meeting Martin Luther King Jr. and remembers discussing the inevitable assassination of such a prominent civil rights leader with his wife, Coretta Scott King. Wofford then explains what MLK Day means to him and how he thinks the holiday should celebrate King’s goals of equality. He also recalls the fight it took to create the holiday in the first place, though it had support from many sides. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that all 50 states celebrated MLK Day. The day was singed into law as a Federal holiday by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and was first celebrated in 1986 after Wofford and other politicians voiced their support.

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‘A Day When We Try to Fulfill the Goals MLK Gave His Life For’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlaewpvuEAY

On December 20, 1989, the United States Armed Forces invaded Panama in Operation Just Cause. As a result of the invasion, dictator Manuel Noriega was deposed, the Panamanian Defense Force dissolved, and president-elect Guillermo Endara was sworn into office. The U.S. relationship with Noriega had started out on a more positive note, with Noriega becoming a paid informant of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1967, and siding with the U.S. over the USSR in Central American affairs. In the mid-1980s, the relationship between the U.S. and Noriega began to turn, and in 1989 Noriega declared Panama’s presidential election null and maintained power by force. In this video, President George H.W. Bush announces the invasion of Panama and explains why it is happening: “For nearly two years, the United States, the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean have have worked together to resolve the crisis in Panama. The goals of the United States have been: to safe guard the lives of Americans, to defend Democracy in Panama, to combat drug trafficking ,and to protect the integrity of the Panama Canal treaty. Many attempts have been made to resolve this crisis through diplomacy and negotiations. All were rejected by the dictator of Panama, General Manuel Noriega, an indicted drug trafficker. Last Friday, Noriega declared his military dictatorship to be at a state of war with the United States and publicly threatened the lives of Americans in Panama.”

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George H. W. Bush’s Panama Invasion Address appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ekfej_kmHQ

On December 11, 1964, Che Guevara addressed the United Nations General Assembly as head of the Cuban delegation. In expressing Cuba’s frustration with the actions of the United States, he says: “The United States, furthermore, tried to get the UN to inspect our territory. But we emphatically refuse, since Cuba does not recognize the right of the United States, or of anyone else in the world, to determine the type of weapons Cuba may have within its boarders… So long as the world is governed by these principles, so long as the world is governed by those concepts that have universal validity because they are universally accepted and recognized by the peoples, we will not accept the attempt to deprive us of any of those rights, and we will renounce none of them.”

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Che Guevara Addresses The United Nations appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B8R-umE0s0

On December 8, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly entitled “Atoms for Peace”. Following this speech, the United States launched the “Atoms for Peace” program, which supplied equipment and information to schools, hospitals and research institutions both in the U.S. and abroad. This video shows part of Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace speech, in which he says: “Clearly, if the peoples of the world are to conduct an intelligent search for peace, they must be armed with the significant facts of today’s existence.”

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Eisenhower’s Atoms For Peace Speech appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pbp0hur9RU

On October 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a speech in support of Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater that launched Reagan’s political career. The speech became known as “A Time for Choosing.” This video shows a clip from the speech in which Reagan discusses the Democrat’s attitude towards the Soviet Union, saying: “But every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face. That their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand, the ultimatum, and what then?”

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Ronald Reagan Steps Into The Political Spotlight appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niN-eCcRUBQ

“I speak to you tonight in a spirit of hope”. On July 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation regarding the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, also known as the Partial Test Ban Treaty. Explaining the treaty, he says: “Negotiations were concluded in Moscow on a treaty to ban all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and underwater. For the first time an agreement has been reached on bringing the forces of nuclear destruction under international control”. While expressing optimism, President Kennedy also notes the treaty’s shortcomings: “The treaty is a limited treaty which permits continued underground testing, and prohibits only those tests that we ourselves can police”. A nation could also withdraw from the treaty in times of war, or if events had “jeopardized its extreme interest”.

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President John F. Kennedy on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9LcAJOsFGg

On September 23, 1952, Richard Nixon, a California senator at the time, went on air to defend himself against accusations of an established fund–created by his backers–that would reimburse him for his political expenses. He says, “Not one cent of the 18 thousand dollars or any other money of that type ever went to me or my personal use.”

He famously states in his speech that the one gift he plans to keep a is a dog that his kids named Checkers: “A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.”

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Nixon’s ‘Checkers’ Speech in 1952 appeared first on Witnify.

Charles de Gaulle. (1942). Source: Library of Congress.

On August 25, 1944, French General Charles de Gaulle entered Paris, which had been liberated the day before. From the Hôtel de Ville, he made a spirited speech to a large crowd with these famous lines, “Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated!” An audio recording of Gaulle’s speech is available below. The English translation of his speech:

Why do you wish us to hide the emotion which seizes us all, men and women, who are here, at home, in Paris that stood up to liberate itself and that succeeded in doing this with its own hands?

No! We will not hide this deep and sacred emotion. These are minutes which go beyond each of our poor lives. Paris! Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! But Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the French armies, with the support and the help of all France, of the France that fights, of the only France, of the real France, of the eternal France!

Well! Since the enemy which held Paris has capitulated into our hands, France returns to Paris, to her home. She returns bloody, but quite resolute. She returns there enlightened by the immense lesson, but more certain than ever of her duties and of her rights.

I speak of her duties first, and I will sum them all up by saying that for now, it is a matter of the duties of war. The enemy is staggering, but he is not beaten yet. He remains on our soil.

It will not even be enough that we have, with the help of our dear and admirable Allies, chased him from our home for us to consider ourselves satisfied after what has happened. We want to enter his territory as is fitting, as victors.

This is why the French vanguard has entered Paris with guns blazing. This is why the great French army from Italy has landed in the south and is advancing rapidly up the Rhône valley. This is why our brave and dear Forces of the interior will arm themselves with modern weapons. It is for this revenge, this vengeance and justice, that we will keep fighting until the final day, until the day of total and complete victory.

This duty of war, all the men who are here and all those who hear us in France know that it demands national unity. We, who have lived the greatest hours of our History, we have nothing else to wish than to show ourselves, up to the end, worthy of France. Long live France!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpKVtyZISfQ

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[Text] Charles de Gaulle’s ‘But Paris Liberated!’ Speech appeared first on Witnify.

“I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur…Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it.”

President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, Theodore Roosevelt is considered the “Father of Conservation,” a lifelong naturalist and avid explorer. In his 1903 speech–set amidst the backdrop of the Grand Canyon–Roosevelt urges the preservation of the canyon as he addresses his former soldiers from the Spanish-American War of 1898. In 1908, Roosevelt proclaimed a large portion of the Grand Canyon as a national monument along with several other terrains throughout the country. His speech was given in Arizona on May 6, 1903:

Mr. Governor, and you, my Fellow-Citizens:

I am glad to be in Arizona to-day. From Arizona many gallant men came into the regiment which I had the honor to command. Arizona sent men who won glory on fought fields, and men to whom came a glorious and an honorable death fighting for the flag of their country. As long as I live it will be to me an inspiration to have served with Bucky O Neill. I have met so many comrades whom I prize, for whom I feel respect and admiration and affection, that I shall not particularize among them except to say that there is none for whom I feel all of respect and admiration and affection more than for your Governor.

I have never been in Arizona before. It is one of the regions from which I expect most development through the wise action of the National Congress in passing the irrigation act. The first and biggest experiment now in view under that act is the one that we are trying in Arizona. I look forward to the effects of irrigation partly as applied by and through the government, still more as applied by individuals, and especially by associations of individuals, profiting by the example of the government, and possibly by help from it I look forward to the effects of irrigation as being of greater consequence to all this region of country in the next fifty years than any other material movement whatsoever.

In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in the interest of the
country to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I was delighted to learn of the wisdom of the Santa Fe railroad people in deciding not to build their hotel on
the brink of the canyon. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see. We have gotten past the stage, my fellow-citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part of our country as some thing to be skinned for two or three years for the use of the present generation, whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children’s children will get the benefit of it. If you deal with irrigation, apply it under circumstances that will make it of benefit, not to the speculator who hopes to get profit out of it for two or three years, but handle it so that it will be of use to the home-maker, to the man who comes to live here, and to have his children stay after him. Keep the forests in the same way. Preserve the forests by use; preserve them for the ranchman and the stockman, for the people of the Territory, for the people of the region round about. Preserve them for that use, but use them so that they will not be squandered, that they will not be wasted, so that they will be of benefit to the Arizona of 1953 as well as the Arizona of 1903.

To the Indians here I want to say a word of welcome. In my regiment I had a good many Indians. They were good enough to fight and to die, and they are good enough to have me treat them exactly as squarely as any white man. There are many problems in connection with them. We must save them from corruption and from brutality; and I regret to say that at times we must save them from unregulated Eastern philanthropy. All I ask is a square
deal for every man. Give him a fair chance. Do not let him wrong any one, and do not let him be wronged.

I believe in you. I am glad to see you. I wish you well with all my heart, and I know that your future will justify all the hopes we have.

Source: The Works of Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt, Memorial Edition.

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[Text] Theodore Roosevelt’s Admiration for the Grand Canyon appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynq9Aikz36Q

In this audio recording, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a speech to incite confidence and inspiration to his countrymen on August 20, 1940 as the United Kingdom prepared for a German invasion during World War II. The Allies had suffered some demoralizing defeats in the past few months but Churchill tells his country that the Allies are looking stronger than ever. He states one of his most famous lines: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” with the Royal Air Force (RAF), who were fighting the Battle of Britain at the time, being “the few.” The success in the following battle by the Allies’ aircrew was thought to be in part due to these encouraging words spoken by this iconic British leader.

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Churchill’s ‘Never Was So Much Owed by So Many to So Few’ Speech appeared first on Witnify.