 They say that patriotism doesn't make sense anymore. They say it's out of style. Well who the hell is they? In the United States name any point of view and somebody will have it and say it. At least here they are free to say it. And I'm free to disagree. I like that freedom. And all the others. If that makes me patriotic, okay. I'm patriotic. So sue me. Patriotism to me is being willing to do your part and to carry your share of the load. And that's just the way I feel about it. To me patriotism is standing for the best that your country stands for. And that includes standing against the mistakes, the wrong things. But it's true. In this country you can protest what you feel is wrong. I feel it's something very personal. It's hard to put into words. You're right friend. When you say American you're talking about all kinds of people from all over the earth. We live under one flag but we have the right to see things and express ideas each in our own way. That's why we set it up. That's what our revolution was all about. And the heart of those ideals rings in a single sentence of Thomas Jefferson's. I don't know how anybody could say it better. I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. The citizen soldier had fought well. But as soon as the fighting was over he went home. There was a lot to do. Long before its hundredth birthday the country was shaken right down to its roots. The question was is this union of states going to remain one nation or not? It was a bitter sad time. Cost more than anyone likes to remember. But out of it the union was preserved. The tall stringy president from Illinois said what everybody felt and hoped and prayed. That these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom. And that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. Well, we're still here. Still working at it. We grew so fast in the 19th century we could hardly keep up with ourselves. But in the first three quarters of our century everything took off. We went from horse and buggy to jet and rockets in one man's lifetime. We'd been tested in two world wars and a handful of smaller ones. We're still here. 210 million of us. Maybe we've changed some, but the whole world has. Still when you listen to people who've lived through all that change you find that the basing things haven't changed at all. The world must be safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon trusted foundations of political liberty. To such a task we can dedicate our lives, our fortunes, everything we are, everything we have. With the pride of those who know the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and might for the principles that gave her birth and the happiness and peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other. The quality of patriotism in my mind is believing in something so much that you are willing to suffer those kind of hardships and willing if necessary to die for what you believe in. But I think that patriotism is something that can be applied between people just the same as it can between an inanimate object such as a flag for our country. The industrial momentum we built up during that first global war kept on rolling. By the late 1930s that capacity to produce had become the key to victory in a war that we didn't even know was going to start. Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. With confidence in our armed forces with the unfounding determination of our people will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God. The American soldier has been willing to fight for his country and for the things he believes in. I think when you boil it down that's probably what patriotism is, is things you're willing to fight for and things you believe in. June of 1944, there never was, never has been since, a military operation like the one called D-Day. Twelve days it took to secure that beachhead, 600,000 men, 90,000 vehicles, weapons, gas, ammunition, food and all the rest they needed to push on in. And that's what they did in twelve days. Of course not everybody came to Europe by way of Normandy. There was another front in Italy and it was no easy place to be. Patriotism to me is a person realizing the great privilege that they have of being born in a free country like we have and doing everything they can not only to assist in making it that way but to make it better. There were some bright spots in that war and one of the brightest was this, the liberation of Paris. The French had some long years with very little to smile about. The day the Allies rolled in it looked like the whole city was trying to make up for lost time. Americans saw patriotism bursting out of concealment that day. Maybe it had a French accent but it spoke the same language as our own. Even now the enemy had one big push left. The newspapers named it the Battle of the Bulge, the enemy's last big try. I never wanted war to come to the United States. After seeing war let it happen over there, not here. Don't let it happen to my people, to my mother because it's a sad situation to see how people have to do and what they have to do to exist. Patriotism is doing what your government tells you to do and feeling good about it. I have been in 44 different countries. There's nothing like America. By the finish of World War II whole new technologies had been born. The atomic bomb was a fact. Planes had started to fly by jet power. Rocket scientists were laying the groundwork for the space age. The United States had become the most powerful nation in the history of the world. It was a new level of responsibility and it didn't go unchallenged. There was Korea for example. On Sunday June 25th, Communist forces attacked the Republic of Korea. This attack has made it clear beyond all doubt that the international Communist movement is willing to use armed invasion to conquer independent nations. An act of aggression such as this creates a very real danger to the security of all free nations. We have sent land, sea and air forces to assist in these operations. We have done this because we know that what is at stake here is nothing less than our own national security and the peace of the world. Patriotism to me is doing something in defense of your country, love of your country. And you could see it. I saw men come in privates and go back as first lieutenants a year later. And you don't do that unless you really have a feeling. You have that patriotic feeling toward your country. I mean this is a good country. I thought for it twice or fight for it again if I have to. Only once since then have large numbers of American service people been called on to fight overseas, Vietnam. And this may be more than any other conflict tested the steadiness and the strength of the citizen soldier. Today's army is called a volunteer army and it is. The men and women who wear the army uniform today are volunteers just like those citizen soldiers of the Revolution 200 years ago. They're committed citizens not only to their military community but to the civilian community as well. There's the same rich variety that marked Americans from the beginning and the same unifying determination that right to see things and express ideas in our own way belongs to us all. And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of man. When you fall out you won't fall out like some things after you men, do you understand? I pulled three tours in Vietnam from period 1963 until 1971. There was never what we would normally refer to as a war in as much as two lines of men fighting each other. There was simply guerrilla activity and hit and run. They hit and they run and you chase them. My feeling about the Vietnam War is that it was a proud nation that had they been more trained and had they had better leadership, they would have eventually won the war themselves. I believe that if I had it to do over, I'd do it again. We had told us for so long that the American public wasn't behind us. God bless America. Americans that fought in every war since time began, since we've been our country. They made you proud again. Maybe that we did something there, that it wasn't all in vain. People like the V only know fear and if they can't rule with that, the Americans are free and they're there because they're free men, because they wanted to. Not because someone was forced them to or someone drove them up there to make them do it. And that's enough to make you proud in those five or six years that we spent up there or seven or whatever they may be. Well I was born in East Texas and used to watch convoys go by quite a bit. They would go by often enough for me to get a chance to see them say every other month or so during the summertime especially. And to me that was very glorious and I guess to me as a child it was like a Superman is to a kid today, or being some great space hero or something. So I just sort of wanted to swing into that type of thing and that's what I am now and I enjoy it quite a bit. Giving me a chance to do something for man, humanity and the United States of America also. I know today many people feel that the word patriotism doesn't have any meaning, but I think that depends upon the individual. My definition of the word patriotism is really just being loyal to what you believe in, a right to fight and to win that fight for whatever wants to ever take the right away from it. Patriotism is freedom and there is a saying that goes that freedom has a cost and it has a taste, a flavor that many people never get a chance to taste because they don't have to fight for it. And being a part of the Army that's our first thing is to go through that type of drill to understand that for others to be free you might have to lose your own life, but then blood that is spent or cut or dropped or however it is spilled for the cost of freedom is being a true patriot. To me patriotism is simple, you love your country, you take care of it, that's it. It's a good country, it's a country worth loving, there's an awful lot of good people. I'm not going to say it's perfect, but let's face it, if you're waiting for perfection you'll never love anything. I don't know, maybe you just can't help loving the place that happens to be your place. I guess maybe what it all boils down to is this, when it comes to the quality we call patriotism, everybody has a voice. Anybody can tell you what patriotism is to him, but nobody can tell you what it has to be for you. Since this soldier's time just about everything has changed, just about everything, but one thing stays the same. We are still each of us one of a kind, individual, non-interchangeable. We build everything on that idea and it still stands out. It's alive and well and it's working in the United States. The idea, whatever you call it, however you describe it, or if you choose not to describe it at all, the thing called patriotism is every individual's legacy and private property. It's mine and wherever you are right now and whoever you are, it's yours. Have it your way. I wish you well.