Herbert London: It is my distinct pleasure to introduce the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney. (Applause.)
Cheney: Thank you. (Applause continues.) Thank you very much. (Applause continues.) Thank you. Well, thank you very much. And Herb, let me thank you
for your kind comments.
It's a special privilege to be asked to come back today and to join all of you in the Hudson Institute in awarding the General Doolittle Award to a
old friend of mine, the secretary of Defense, Mr. Rumsfeld. I was invited today, I thought, for a couple of reasons: partly because I'm a big fan of
General Doolittle's; I think he's clearly one of the greatest Americans of the 20th century, been one of my heroes; perhaps because I was the award
winner a few years ago, but I suppose most importantly because I know a little something about Secretary Rumsfeld.
And Herb mentioned that he'd plucked me from the Congress in 1969, made me a special assistant, and of course the rest is history. But it didn't go
quite that smoothly. (Light laughter.)
The true story of that first meeting is that I flunked my first interview. And I'd arrived in Washington as a young congressional fellow. Then I
spent a year on the Hill working on a Ph.D dissertation, and then I was to go back to the University of Wisconsin and teach.
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