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[Page: S11243]  GPO's PDF
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   Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, it is sad and unfortunate that I and this chamber must say farewell to Senator MAX CLELAND. As a student, a soldier, a public servant, and a U.S. Senator, MAX CLELAND has always personified the best of this country. His has been a life of patriotism and sacrifice, of struggle and of triumph.

   After graduating from college, which included an internship on Capitol Hill, and receiving a master's degree in American history, MAX CLELAND volunteered for the Army and then volunteered for service in Vietnam. In that brutal conflict, he lost both of his legs and an arm in a grenade explosion. But MAX CLELAND never gave up. He refused to become simply a tragic symbol of an unwanted and unpopular war.

   At the age of 28, MAX CLELAND became the youngest State Senator in Georgia. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to head the Veterans Administration, the youngest person ever to hold that post, and one of the best. In that position, among his many accomplishments, MAX CLELAND helped to improve the VA hospital system and reduce delays in paying veterans' benefits.

   After that, he was elected to four terms as Secretary of State of Georgia.

   In 1996, Senator Cleland was elected to the U.S. Senate. After being sworn into office, he told supporters:

   Your dreams can come true if you continue to believe in them long enough, hard enough, and never give up on them.

   What a role model MAX CLELAND is, not only for disabled Americans but for all Americans. His life demonstrates what overcoming adversity--probably adversity at its worst, or almost that, at least--really means.

   As a triple amputee, life and work have not come easily. I have read it takes him 3 hours just to prepare for work each day. I would imagine it takes him longer than that, because it takes me that long many days. But I cannot imagine the amount of pure grit it takes for this man just to live. At times I get up from my bed at 1 o'clock in the morning, 3 o'clock in the morning, whatever, and adjust the temperature in my room. If it is a little too cold or a little too warm, I have to get up and go outside my room and adjust the temperature. I think of that poor man, MAX CLELAND, and how it is for him if he gets too cold or too warm and has to adjust the temperature in the room. He has to get out of bed with much more difficulty than I, and go to the thermostat and do that. So what grit it must take of him just to live.

   Well, one of MAX CLELAND's heroes is the great Franklin Roosevelt who, confined to a wheelchair because of paralysis, encountered many of the same obstacles and challenges that face MAX. Still, Franklin Roosevelt was elected President four times and, as President, saw this country through the Great Depression and World War II.

   I am proud to point out that another one of MAX CLELAND's heroes is one of my heroes, a Senator who is one of my mentors in this Chamber, Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia. MAX CLELAND met Senator Russell while serving as a congressional intern. When MAX returned from Vietnam several years later, with both legs gone and only one arm, he met Senator Russell again. That grand old Senator was so impressed with the young soldier that he had his driver give the young man a tour of the Nation's capital.

   During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Senator Cleland has used Senator Russell's old telephone number, and has often taken his visitors to see the statue of Senator Russell in the Russell Senate Office Building, telling them, ``So much of me is tied up in Dick Russell.''

   MAX CLELAND truly knows the horrors of war. Knowing that ``war is hell,'' he has been one of the Chamber's leading skeptics about the use of military force abroad and has always proved cautious when it comes to committing American troops overseas. In the 106th Congress, for example, he was

[Page: S11244]  GPO's PDF

   I must point out that I have not always been in agreement with Senator Cleland. I strongly opposed a balanced budget

   constitutional amendment, and I think MAX CLELAND supported it. I opposed the line-item veto, and I believe that MAX supported the line-item veto. But I have never, never, not for a second, questioned his sincerity, his integrity, or his respect for our Government and his love of this country.

   MAX CLELAND is an outstanding Senator, a great American. He lost his Senate seat, at least for the foreseeable future, but he will never lose his integrity. Senator Cleland is a real winner. Just as his military buddies were proud to have served with MAX CLELAND in Vietnam, I am honored to have served with him in the Senate. MAX CLELAND is a hero. He will always remain so.

   May God bless MAX CLELAND. I wish him nothing but happiness and success in the future.

God give us men!
A time like this demands strong minds,
great hearts, true faith, and ready hands.
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie.

Men who can stand before a demagogue
And brave his treacherous flatteries without winking.

Tall men, sun-crowned;
Who live above the fog,
In public duty and in private thinking.

For while the rabble with its thumbworn creeds,
Its large professions and its little deeds, mingles in selfish strife,
Lo! Freedom weeps!
Wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps.
God give us men!

Men who serve not for selfish booty;
But real men, courageous, who flinch not at duty.
Men of dependable character;
Men of sterling worth;
Then wrongs will be redressed, and right will rule the earth.
God Give us Men!

   Mr. President, MAX CLELAND is that kind of man.

   I yield the floor.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada is recognized.

   Mr. REID. Mr. President, I certainly confirm, underscore, and applaud the statement of the Senator from West Virginia about MAX CLELAND. I don't know of anyone in my life who has given me more inspiration than MAX CLELAND. Whenever things seem a little bit dark and dreary, I always see that smiling face of MAX CLELAND. He is a tremendous man, a fine human being, and he has a lot more to contribute. His name will grow from where it is today. The people of Georgia and this country have not heard the last of MAX CLELAND.

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