 Thank you. Thank you so much. Good evening and welcome to this great USIA private sector family reunion. My name is Louise Wheeler and I have had the great honor and privilege of working for Charles Wick. I have also had the great honor of working for the greatest president Ronald Reagan. Mr. President, we are so honored and grateful to have you here this evening because, and Mrs. Reagan of course, because you are the reason we are here. It is because of your wonderful idea to include the private sector in public programs that this wonderful group of Americans are here tonight to celebrate what we think has been a very successful enterprise at USIA. And I would like to add to that it was Charlie Wick's great determination to make sure that idea was a reality that made it all happen. I am very pleased this evening to introduce the chairman of this dinner Harold is a remarkable man himself. A wise counselor, an effective implementer, a staunch supporter of the efforts that have contributed to this great and productive administration that's about to complete its mandate from the American people. To others he has been the initiator and the catalyst for members of the private sector committees who know firsthand of Charlie Wick's commitment and his achievement at USIA. And still to others Charlie and his lovely wife Mary Jane have been loyal and giving friends. It's really not true that Charlie Wick defies description. How about indefatigable or perhaps a man of all seasons or as Rupert Murdoch said in one of his introductions of Charlie a one-man global communications empire sought of. Under Charlie Wick the United States Information Agency has had its finest hour and under Charlie the USIA began to fulfill the role assigned to it in the legislation that brought it into being. He has indeed facilitated the free flow of information about our country to all in the world who would read or listen and even to others who at the outset of his directorship were otherwise inclined. Under Charlie Wick the United States Information Agency has had a seat at the policy table of diplomacy the table where decisions were made where programs and initiatives took shape. How best to summarize the contribution of Charlie Wick in his near eight years as head of USIA. As a rejuvenator of the voice of America once the primary object of Soviet jamming and now with his very own reporter in Moscow. As a catalyst for radio martyr today's Cuba's most listened to radio station. As a creator of WorldNet our great not-so-secret weapon in the arsenal we depend on to tell the story of America to the peoples of the world. Charlie Wick you are indeed indescribable one in a million perhaps even more you have been here with us at the right time and in the right place and in the right job your friends gathered here tonight salute you. At this point in our brief program for tonight we were to have heard from the Secretary of State Mr. Schultz but due to a wedding in his family he is not able to be here with us but he has asked me to read this message to Charlie Wick. Charlie Wick has over the past eight years defined the concept of public diplomacy in the information age. A man famous throughout the federal government for his never give up attitude and his innovative approaches to international communication and cross cultural understanding Charlie has helped to shape and define America's leadership image throughout the world. Charlie Wick's vision has turned scientific fantasy into reality. A revitalized voice of America that reaches listeners from the cities of Europe to the distant valleys of Afghanistan and the jewel in USIA's crown WorldNet regrettably off the air at the moment the television network through which leaders and dissidents scholars and artists share ideas and images across continents and oceans at the push of a button. In response to President Reagan's emphasis on cooperation between the government and private sector Charlie established USIA's private sector committees whose members have donated vast amounts of time and financial resources to demonstrate that diplomacy can be truly public. Charlie's faith in the private sector was demonstrated again just over a month ago when he led a delegation of US media executives to the Soviet Union to let them argue for a freer flow of information between the United States and a rapidly changing Soviet society. In the years to come I am certain that public diplomacy will play an ever-growing role in US foreign policy. The worldwide expansion of democracy means that the conduct of US foreign policy has become a truly public exercise both at home and abroad. Throughout the world higher levels of development and education are drawing more and more people into the political process and advances in technology have given unprecedented reach to political views and public opinion. Now more than ever we have to reach those newly involved people. We need to speak out for and stand up for the values that have made us great. Respect for the dignity of the individual, dedication to open trade and market-based economics, and commitment to government by the people and for the people. As a Reagan administration takes its place in history President-Elect Bush and his team will be well equipped to do this vital job to better understand the world around us and to be better understood by all the peoples of the world thanks to Charlie Wick's tireless efforts to bring American diplomacy into the information age. And those were the words of Secretary Schultz that he asked be delivered here tonight. We are going to have three rather short addresses, messages to Charlie Wick, the deliverers of these messages of people who need no detailed introduction. First person I would like to ask to speak for Mrs. Jean Kirkpatrick who couldn't be here because of illness, Mrs. Anwar Sadat. Dear friends, it's an honor and great pleasure to attend this evening especially when President Reagan and Mrs. Reagan are here. I'm thrilled to be with them today. For you Charlie I don't, there is no words to explain my feelings, my real feelings to you and to your charming wife. You have done such a wonderful job that no one will ever forget what you have done. We are going to miss you so much. I'm going to talk about on behalf of Jean Kirkpatrick who is a dear friend as I am very happy to to talk about you Charlie. After eight years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, freedom is again on the offensive throughout the world. Charles Wick has known how to communicate and amplify this message for diverse peoples throughout the world. And now people everywhere understand that there is an alternative to collectice, stagnation and tyranny. Under Charles Wick's effective leadership USIA has recovered its voice and freedom has found a tireless advocate. Thank you very much. Thank you Mrs. Siddharth. To this audience certainly Jack Valenti needs no introduction. Jack Valenti we would like very much to hear from you now. Mrs. Reagan, Mr. President, Mrs. Graham, Mr. Murdock. You see I know where the real power lies around here and my fellow Americans. I want to tell Mrs. Reagan I think I like the sound of that so much I think I may run for public office myself so I can say it often. At any rate when Louise Wheeler called me and suggested that I might rise and pray at the first Charles Wick memorial dinner I said yes I'd be delighted to do so. Mary Margaret and I have vast and enduring affection for Charlie and Mary Jane and and the whole Wick family I am besotted by Cynthia Wick. My wife understands however so it's all right. And I said to Louise look I want to do whatever's right for Charlie Wick but I'm bound to confess to you that I'm a Texas Democrat who loyally served Lyndon Johnson and so I want you to go back and tell Charlie that I'll be glad to be there and I will rise and I will speak for him or against him whichever will help him the most. I think I have some credentials to gauge the worth and the value of a USIA director. I arrived in this town on November 22nd 1963 a newly hired special assistant to the new 36th president of the United States on a day that will be forever seared by a senseless act of mindless malice. I have seen that 25 years every USIA director from Ed Merle on. Each of these men several of whom are here tonight are men of talent and skill and each did their dead level best to really carry out the mandate of this very important agency and with due respect to those people I want to declare to you with all the passion that I can summon that I think Charlie Wick is the best and I you might say well it's an easy thing to say why why is he the best well I'll tell you Charlie Wick possesses in large degree the singular asset without which no man in the performance of his duties can ever lay claim to greatness. Mr Churchill once said that courage is rightly esteemed the first of all human qualities because it is the one quality which guarantees all others. Charlie Wick has courage it has illuminated everything that he's done in the USIA and I followed it very closely he takes risk he leaps over the ordinary in the safe and he moves an uncharted terrain and that my dear friends is what a great captain is all about and it's why I think the president Reagan's legacy to this country will be large and enduring risk-taking. I will tell you that he founded WorldNet created it I think that's one of the largest and most smashing innovative successes of the USIA and I hope that his successor and the 101st Congress and the new president and the new administration will not only retain it but enlarge it and give it greater stature. He has restored morale in an agency not only here in the headquarters in Washington but in every USIA station around the world and all you need to do is what I've done talk to people in embassies US embassies all over the world and they will confirm to you of what I'm saying. I think that he's been quite marvelous about all the things that he has done and most of all I think that that Charlie Wick has shown that he has the ability to move in the area of public diplomacy. I was privileged to be among the few businessmen, artists, creative people who went on the Wick mission to Moscow and I will tell you this it was a brilliant success and I've been going to the Soviet Union as my 12th trip. What happened there was quite unique in movies, television, home video, publishing, books, newspaper, concerts, government exchange of culture. It was a brilliant journey and a courage will reach with the Soviets and the Americans that never before had ever been achieved and I watched Charlie Wick move among these most powerful members of the Soviet Politburo and he played the political chess game with them, matched them all the way along the line and with wit and with humor and with the toughness, Mr. President, that was an equal mixture of silk and steel. He was masterly. He really was. Don't ask me, ask anybody else who was there and so Charlie if you can somehow withstand the loving praise of a LBJ Democrat, I salute you because you have a laurel wreath that I think is the greatest compliment that I can pay anybody. You have been faithful to the people that you have by solemn oath sworn to serve. No public man can do more and so that is why you're going to be missed in your job and in this town and we owe you a debt of thanks. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Thank you Harold. Thank you. Thank you all very much. It's a delight to join you tonight as we honor a dear friend of mine and Nazis but what brings me here is a lot more than our friendship. It is to recognize and express my gratitude for the remarkable job Charles Wick has done at USIA. To put it simply, Charles is the man who brought our international communications agency into the 20th century and you know this happens to be one of my favorite centuries. Charlie and I have shared a considerable portion of it together. Over the years, Charlie has distinguished himself as a businessman, an entrepreneur, an attorney, a musician, an ardent and devoted patron of the arts, and a passionate patriot and lover of freedom and now he can add to this litany the unique distinction of being the longest-serving director, as you've been told, in the history of USIA. Certainly one of the very finest and boy has he worked hard. Charlie is a man who loves puns but I'll tell you this wick has been burning his candle at both ends. It was Charlie who introduced the revolutionary concept of WorldNet, successfully launched Radio Marti, gave us Rios TV, the television counterpart to our radio station in Berlin, in modernizing the voice of America and helped the United States get its message out to the world with a degree of technological sophistication never seen before. Now people have asked me how I discovered this very effective public servant. Well I just looked for someone with the balance of two qualities, a greatness of vision yet still able to understand Washington. And when I found the man who had produced the classic film that combined Snow White and the Three Stooges I said I have found that man. But the truth is that Charlie has played a central role in making US information policy a key part of our international activities and foreign policy. He's worked in concert with the top policy officials at the State Department and on the National Security Council and has served as my principal advisor on international information and cultural matters. In 1983 when Korean Airlines Flight 007 was shot down it was USIA under Charlie's direction that produced the dramatic video presentation we took to the United Nations to show the world what happened in the final minutes of that doomed flight. And as the Soviet Union began to introduce Glasnost, Charlie arranged the US information talks to address key issues on the bilateral flow of information. With his ongoing efforts new understandings were reached on disinformation and on the exchange of films and publications. The Voice of America is no longer jammed with the Soviets and they have granted permission for the first time for Voice of America to open a bureau in Moscow. The genius of Charlie Wick lies in his ability to recognize how changing information technology especially satellite communications has transformed the international political landscape. He understands the need for the United States to convey its message to the people of the world if we're to succeed internationally and he knows how to do it better than it's ever been done before. One thing that he also knows so well is that the United States government can't do it alone. He we couldn't have done it without you. All of you who have participated in the private sector committees and been so generous in your support have been a critical part of our success. Private sector volunteers people like you working in such areas as medicine labor publishing public relations marketing engineering radio television and other fields have done much more than help USIA to do its important work. You've made it possible for us to show the world the essence of the American idea and to present to the planet our truest face the one that says we the people only in a country in which it really is the people who rule would the government depend so greatly on private citizens like yourselves to help America share our message with the world and only in a country as great as America would the response be as great as yours has been. We've accomplished great things these past eight years under Charlie's inspired leadership and with your strong support USIA has undergone a rebirth of vision and a renewal of capability that will guide it well into the next century and for which America is truly grateful. So my good friend Charlie Wick and all of you thank you and God bless you. Thank you Mr. President for those stirring remarks and thank you also on behalf of the public sector committees private sector committees and the people of this country for your tremendous support for Charlie Wick without your support they would never have been the funding to do all the wonderful things that have been accomplished and I think that the tribute that we're paying here to Charlie tonight is one that in which you have a great stake in also so I think that all of us are grateful to you