 Thank you, John. And thank you all very much. Please be seated. I know that all the students here have been studying the language as well as technical skills, so you'll probably understand my English much better than my Spanish. And I'm going to have a try at it anyway. Buenos Dias y bienvenidos a la Casa Blanca. It's a genuine pleasure to welcome all of you here, senators and congressmen and the private citizens and government officials who've worked so hard throughout the years to further the cause of peace in Central America. And all of us are especially pleased to welcome these fine young men and women, our neighbors from the South who've come to study in the United States. We see in you the hope and the future of Central America. The room we're meeting in couldn't be more full of historical significance. We call it the Roosevelt room after two of our United States presidents, Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. They came from opposite political parties. One was a Republican, the other a Democrat. There were a lot of things they probably wouldn't have agreed on, but there was one subject in which they saw eye to eye, that from Tierra del Fuego to the upper reaches of Baffin Bay, we are all Americans, brothers and sisters with a shared history and a common birthright, freedom. Our efforts to protect that birthright, to make it real for every American is what brings us here together today. 1983, I appointed the Commission, National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, what's become known as the Kissinger Commission, to help us come to a better understanding of that troubled region. Their report was blunt and compelling. The crisis in Central America is, to quote them, real and acute. The stakes are large for the United States, for the hemisphere and most poignantly for the people of Central America. The roots of that crisis, the complex problems of the region, economic, social, political and military, are all part of a seamless web, the report said, requiring a sustained response in all areas from the United States and the free world. We responded immediately with a multi-year, multi-billion dollar program of economic assistance and one that we hope to extend and expand in the 90s. Based on the Kissinger Commission recommendations, Congress and the executive branch have worked together to develop programs that have strengthened democratic institutions, helped stabilize economies and improved health and nutrition, built better housing and water sewage and other infrastructures. The fact is our military assistance has only been a modest fraction of our overall economic aid. Dr. Silber, one of the members of the Commission, was the inspiration for this scholarship program. Senator Castan, who is also here with us today, was instrumental in Congress making it a reality. And since the program has started, over 4,100 Central American students have studied in the United States. Many under the guiding hand of Father Harold Bradley of Georgetown University. Congratulations to you all. I know the students have learned much in their studies here. Sometimes I think an even greater benefit of these programs is the education it gives us in the United States. Because seeing you here brings the reality of your homelands, the great hope and the great peril so much closer to us all. Seeing you here, we realize that we cannot be agnostic in this struggle, that we cannot be a loof and uncaring because in a very real sense our fates and our futures are intertwined as one. It was this face-to-face contact, this immersion in the problems of Central America, that forged the bipartisan consensus of the Kissinger Commission. Representatives of both parties united on common ground. It's important to remember some of the men who did such fine work on that commission. AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, Governor Bill Clements of Texas, Robert Strauss, then chairman of the Democratic Party, the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, Dr. John Silver, of course, and Richard M. Scammon. That list isn't complete, but it gives a good idea of the stature and wide representation of the commission. Democrat and Republican, representing government, academia, business, and labor. They defined the bipartisan mainstream response to the crisis in Central America, one that this administration has been diligently following. There was no partisan disagreement on their assignment of the crisis. It had both indigenous and foreign roots, and with the exception of two members, there was no disagreement on the need for a sustained response that included both economic and military aid. Finally, I just want to say to you, students, since you've been in places like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Piwaki, Wisconsin, I know you've seen the heart of America. I come from that neighborhood myself, which is between those two states, Illinois. But I know that Americans are so pleased that you've been able to be here so that they can get to know you better. This is just the kind of freedom that we as a country believe in, giving a helping hand so that you, in turn, can help those in your countries. And I'm going to be brave again, or maybe foolhardy, and say that though you will soon be traveling back to your own countries, Siempre, Hesteran, and the Westeros, Corazonas, Bayon Codillas. Thank you all. God bless you. Mr. President, my name is Oscar Rosales. I'm from El Salvador, and I'm 20 years old. I speak to you today as a representative of students from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, who are now studying at community colleges. We thank you and the North American people for the opportunity to study in the United States. Except for those from Belize, none of us spoke English before we came here. We came to learn about agriculture, computer science, and machine tool operations. We will take our new skills home and seek jobs to put them on use. Hopefully, we will teach others what we have learned. We are going to do the best we can to make a valuable contribution toward the development of our countries. We want you to know, Mr. President, that learning new skills is not the only thing we have done in the United States. Most of us have met or lived with U.S. families and grown to love them as our own. We now know that U.S. families are not always like what we see sometimes in TV or in the movies. In fact, they are very much like ours at home. We have worked alongside our U.S. friends in the community, coaching, soccer teams, working at local co-ops, and organizing international friendship days. We have told the Americans who we have met how much our countries are like the United States. Of great importance in this program is the opportunity Central Americans from six countries have had to meet one another. Before coming to the United States, we didn't know what other Central Americans thought or felt. Now, we have a new sense of the oneness of our region. In six months, we will return to our countries, to our own families, whom is us very much. At home, we will continue our role as ambassadors between our countries, through our jobs, community leadership, and by sharing with our friends the experiences we have had in this country, I mean in your generous country. Mr. President, we know you are a busy man and you have to get back to work, but muchas gracias, which means thank you very much for being with us. Oh, my nose gets last all the time. What he's talking about is I went out in the sun to do a little peeling here on my nose. How can sooner are you about tomorrow, sir? No more than about any other tomorrow. How do you feel? Fine. Are you going to stay overnight in the hospital? And even a little finer and inspired after coming here with these young people. Thank you.