 of having been made an honorary woman but I rather I but but but given give the illustrious example that I'm following I rather think not but still I would like to welcome you all here and say that though I must say that it proved to be for me one of the most challenging and enjoyable and educative experiences that I have ever had it was not only a privilege to be able to work on the conference itself and the important issues that we were dealing with there but I think that it was a remarkable experience to work with a woman of such capacity and dedication and intelligence and real political skill as Maureen Reagan so I would like know there were a lot of people who there are a lot of people who say about the UN and about our participation in it that there's really not very much we can do and I suppose that if I took that sort of an attitude coming into the job that I now have I wouldn't really have very much to do in it except I suppose to preside over the slow deterioration that proved to me that if you have a dedicated leadership and real skill and if you are willing to work at it in an organized fashion we can overcome the greatest of odds in order to achieve a success that was a success I think not only for the United States but for all the men and women who participated in the conference in Nairobi and most importantly for all of those who will participate in the benefits that can be brought from such cooperation in the pursuit of equality and human dignity for all people and for women in particular for all of us of sometimes great difficulty and sometimes great challenges there were times I suppose when most of us would have been willing to and she was going to make it a success and that's exactly what she did so I would like to say that the work that we have done and bringing you all here this evening is just the very slightest the very slightest of it finally I would like to say a few words about our other honored guests this evening now this is an honored guest about whom I can say quite truly that without him I certainly would not be here but but I decided leadership that he provides I think I certainly had the experience of that firsthand working as I do now in my capacity as assistant secretary had the ability to experience that we undertake in the UN system are a clear indication that whatever the critics may say and whatever others may say we are dealing with a now marine we all love you that's why we're here and and you all know when marine gives you the large hello boy it's terrific and I want to give you a little personal incident because first time I met marine I was the secretary of the Treasury and the president of the United States said to me one day why don't you go down to Austin Texas and other cabinet members will go other places and engage in the registration process it'll be good for the political system so down I went to Austin Texas where a local Texan was to be my partner in registration I guess who it turned out to be Marine Reagan and did we have fun she led me around from doorbell to doorbell and we announced ourselves and told them about the election and tried to get them to register if they were Republicans and if we found out they weren't we made a hasty retreat but I am here to tell you that no one is better qualified than Marine Reagan to represent this country at the UN Commission on the status of women and I'm really happy to be here and to honor her most of you are familiar with Marines great performances head of our delegation to the UN Women's Conference in Nairobi last summer that brilliant effort came as no surprise she has a long and distinguished record speaking out to the American public on women's issues I think sometimes she even speaks out to her father on women's issues she's been active in Republican women's issues as founder and present chairman of the newly created GOP Women's Political Action League and a special consultant for women's issues to the Republican National Chairman as head of our Nairobi delegation at the conferences leading up to the one in Nairobi Marine excelled at multilateral diplomacy how about that again this was not surprising given Marines extensive worldwide travel on behalf of American export trade as anyone who has worked with her knows she is a determined champion of the causes in which she believes she has devoted years of service to the arthritis foundation on whose behalf she's hosted many telethons major fundraising events Marine has already been hard at work in New York during the recently concluded UN General Assembly debate on women's issues her job there was the difficult one of carrying forward the work she began last summer to encourage the women's Commission to follow through on the forward-looking strategies document adopted by the Nairobi conference this will be her chief goal as our representative to the Commission she will have responsibility for representing our views and interests on women's issues at its meetings in fact she will be off to Vienna to head our delegation to the upcoming Commission meeting on February 24th with Marines efforts we look forward to seeing the Commission strengthened so that it becomes a more effective part of the UN system and implementing and implementing the Nairobi document I know that Marine and Allen keys have formed a great partnership their teamwork will continue to build for the United States a strong record on women's issues in the United Nations they are both interested in the same thing concrete action to promote worldwide equality of men and women as well as women's rights in the political economic social and educational fields so we're all here today to honor you marine and to endorse that goal and I want you to know how personally gratified I am at your success and that I look forward to hearing great things about you in the future now no gathering of this kind is complete without a real surprise and I think that you deserve a surprise and you stood patiently in the receiving line this great multitude came by however somebody who didn't come by is anxious to be here tonight and if you will make way I think Marines husband will enter over here and give you the surprise I know it but here he comes I think and now if that isn't a big enough surprise Marine we've got another one for you quiet please ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States and Mrs. Reagan well I want to thank Secretary Schultz and assistant secretary keys for hosting this reception and all of you for coming by this evening and I can't tell you how much it fun it is to spring this little surprise on Maureen some of you may think it a little unfair to catch her off guard like this but let me assure you I'm only returning a favor she's been doing for me all my life the truth is Maureen's been surprising me and making me very proud for a very long time if you just let me tell this one little story I think all of you know that when a candidate for president gets the required number of votes at a political convention it's traditional for the press and the cameras to come bursting into his hotel room for pictures of the family celebrating well back in 1980 when we were in that gigantic renaissance center in Detroit I noticed just before the magic moment that everybody in the Reagan clan was there except Maureen naturally with only a few minutes to go I started asking everyone to say where's Maureen where's Maureen and I could already hear some commentators saying oh yeah that's this fellow who just been nominated to run for the most powerful post in the free world he can't even find his own daughter then sure enough it hit me and everyone else in the room and only a few seconds later there was confirmation right there on the television set in front of us Maureen wasn't there because she had duties to perform as an alternate delegate and leader in the California delegation and one of which come to think of it was voting for me I hadn't been in politics as long as some people but I did know that that was the wrong moment to start taking anything for granted so as I listened to Maureen on television just this once I was glad she was I was glad she was on the floor and not with us and there's a little sequel to this last year I kept seeing in the press all those reports about the UN conference wrapping up the decade of women I think some of you remember that there was a good deal of speculation that the whole conference was going to become politicized matters a propaganda exercise on extraneous matters rather than a serious exchange on the issues that uniquely affect women and there was some talk too about how the American delegation which Maureen was heading was going to be outsmarted outmaneuvered and probably embarrassed by all of this and you know every time I read one of those reports I got this big Cheshire cat like grin because I was thinking to myself somebody out there sure doesn't know my daughter well those of us here today do know Maureen at state you know her but the wonderful job she did do in Nairobi you know effectively she worked to get agreement on the consensus document that would make the conference the success that it was and bring the American delegation the credit it deserved and you know too that she'll do a fine job as our representative to the UN Commission on the status of women and of course for Nancy and me Maureen is someone we love dearly and yet someone whom we also recognize as the extraordinary individual that she is and that is in all that easy as I said it's always a little bit of a surprise for a father just as it was that night in Detroit to realize that that's your daughter up there on the TV screen not only a grown woman I'm not that old yet but a leader a mover someone who's making the world a whole lot better place to live but all these things Maureen is and that's why Nancy and I and all of you love her for it so I want to thank Maureen today as her father for making me so proud of her on this occasion and so many others but also as her president I want to thank her on behalf of the American people for a distinguished service to her country the cause of human freedom and well my husband said he went home close I don't want to know and and I get a copy of their schedule and this wasn't on it Fred Ryan heard of pulling off one surprise in a week but this lady has succeeded in pulling off at least two that I know of in the last week oh my goodness gracious well thank you and thank you Alan for for having us all here and for giving this party and Mr. Secretary I do appreciate it little did I know when I had you tromping the turf in Austin that someday I would work for you I know you prayed that day would never come and I look out here and I see so many familiar faces and certainly all of our of our delegates from Nairobi and I when I travel around the country and I tell people about what happened there and what we did the one thing that I always tell them is that if sometime they have a chance to meet any one of you individually that they should give you a big hug and a kiss and tell you thank you because you are my best friends for my whole life I promise what we did in Nairobi was important to all the people of the world women and men because we we build a platform on which the spotlight shines on the unique concerns of women the dreams and the goals and the ambitions of all women in the world and the things that we have in common are much greater than the things that divide us and now we have to go to Vienna and begin the process of implementing the forward looking strategies and those dreams and goals and ambitions and we will do that I can't guarantee that it will be over in the first 30 days I can guarantee I will live to see it and so will all of you and we are we are determined that what happened in Nairobi will not end in Nairobi and the feeling and the spirit that all of us and those of you here tonight from the diplomatic community know that incredible spirit that we all feel and that we this kinship that that we developed and we are determined to have successful years in the future to match our successful year of 1985 thank you all very much for coming all of you and it really was a huge surprise and then are we even now well I tell you what I'll start adding mine up again and then we'll see what happens next but thank you all and I love every one of you thank you well I would like to add my thanks to all of you to coming Mr. President Mrs. Reagan Mr. Secretary and I would especially like to thank Marine for being the person who can inspire this great affection and admiration in all of us and I would invite you Mr. President to meet some of our guests if you have time thank you sir