[applause] good evening. Address,o the keynote the vietnam war summit. The university of texas is truly honored to welcome secretary of state, john kerry. Just last friday, on earth day, secretary kerry helped lead 175 countries in signing the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. [applause] there is a lot of work to achieve the goals of the agreement. Earlier today, the secretary toward toured our research where we are developing technologies to generate renewable energy. He led a discussion with faculty, his research Whose Research can help achieve the goals of the agreement. Secretary kerry was focused and knowledgeable about the technology and science and the policy and Business Issues involved in reaching those goals. Tonight, we are very much looking forward to hearing the secretarys thoughts on a very different topic. Histhat is so important to life experience. The vietnam war remains a complicated and controversial part of American History. As a young boy, i grew up during the vietnam war, watching it on the news, usually the cbs news. And hearing the support and opposition for the war. It was informative time for my generation. And i am proud that the lbj library and university of texas are now convening this dialogue and this interest introspection, so we may like from the past, educate our students and ourselves, and work to build a Better Future for our country. Fork you, secretary kerry coming to the vietnam war summit and now it is my pleasure to introduce ben barnes, a distinguished alumnus of the university, who formerly served as the speaker of the house of representatives in texas, and is Lieutenant Governor of texas. A protege of president johnson, then ben took to heart the president s belief in education. His legislative legacy in texas has benefited students in the state. As speaker, he established the Higher Education coronary board coronation board. And throughout his terms in office, texas increased funding for education, rising to the top of its rankings among the 50 states. Several new universities and graduate schools were created and there is no doubt that the state of texas advanced because of his leadership. Then ben has taken his leadership skills to washington dc, where his law firm is located in the former home of teddy roosevelt. When i visit him, i think of the office as the embassy of texas in the nations capital. Please welcome the honorable ben barnes. [applause] barnes thank you, very much. It is my pleasure this evening to introduce our secretary of state, my friend, secretary john kerry. As he prepares to speak tonight, i am reminded of the many years of dedication and service that he has brought to our country. Before graduating from yale university, secretary kerry voluntarily enlisted in the u. S. Navy. Serving two terms tours of duty in vietnam as an officer. He was awarded the silver star, the bronze star, and three purple hearts. Upon his return from vietnam, he became a National Spokesman for the efforts of veterans to win speaking about the war that he believed had gone off the tracks. His words echoed with value your, sincerity, and deep consideration, qualities that he has always embodied. I first met secretary kerry when he was serving as a senator. During his 28 years in the senate, he served on the Foreign Relations committee, where he was one of the most respected voices on Foreign Policy international security. Was in 2008 and 2004, he was the president ial nominee. In 2012, he was nominated to become the United States secretary of state. Upon his confirmation, he became the first sitting chairman of the Foreign Relations committee to become secretary of state in more than a century. With center till once said, Winston Churchill once said, success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the current to continue courage to continue that counts. John kerry has shown this courage time and time again. He has traveled over one million miles, visited 81 countries, and hours, or 99 days in flight time and we complain about sitting in traffic on i35. Secretary kerry has dealt with a ride range of problems, including the rise of disturbance in the middle east, the ebola epidemic, the emergence of isis in syria and iraq, the russian invasion into crisis, a global refugee in which more people have been displaced them at any time than at any time since world war ii. I agree that our world is much safer since john kerrys leadership. [applause] barnes this past august, secretary kerry, in front of all of the eyes of the world, raised the flag upon the United States embassy in cuba, as it reopened for the first time in five decades. [applause] in the words of harry truman, america was not built on fear, america was built on courage. Determination and to do the job at hand. I do not know a person that embodies the courage, the imagination, the unbeatable determination more than secretary john kerry. Mr. Secretary, we are humbled to have you here tonight and i can say to all the people in the sound of my voice and other people that will learn of your service, that when history is quarter ofr the last the 20th century and the first part of the 21st century, the name of john kerry will be indelibly written as a voice for unity, as a voice for security and liberty for all of the free people around the world. Please join me in welcoming the distinguished and honorable, john kerry. Secretary john kerry. [applause] secretary kerry very nice. Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. Everybody. Ben, for an extraordinary introduction. I will have to find some way to bottle that one. I am appreciative of it and humbled by it. It is good to have a good friend like ben barnes. Anyone in politics in austin during the 1960s knew about then ben, who had barely started shaving before he was elected to the house of representatives. Then he went on to become the speaker and later Lieutenant Governor. Now he continues his service at the lbj foundation. And wherever you are, ben, thank you so much for being a friend to those in Public Service and your continued contributions. It is much appreciated. [applause] secretary kerry i want to thank greg for the welcome to the university of texas. He mentioned in the introduction, the time we were able to spend at the goal pickles research, what a group of people. What really struck me, while texas is so well known as the oilproducing part of america and has built a reputation on that for years, it really is now the Energy Producing center of america. And what you are doing with respect to research on solar and wind and renewable, is exactly what president obama and i and others hope would happen in the context of our efforts on Global Climate change and the agreement that we signed in paris. The agreement will not get the the guarantee that we will have the decrease in tempter, but it will send a message to the nexttplace, exciting our Thomas Edison or bill gates or steve jobs to find a way to have Battery Storage or a cheaper form of a solar cell and that is the way that we will solve this problem and the university of texas will contribute to that significantly, so thank you for what you are doing. I want to add my voice to that of so many people here, that i know beforehand that i have always been crazy. What ken burns has done to the study of history and the art of documentary film. I listened in the corner to the conversation that was taking place and it was fascinating, honest, which is important, on this topic. And i thought immediately that what i need to do is not give quote, keynote addresses, but try to share quick observations with you and then have the time to be able to have ken grill me and we can have a good conversation. I think that will be a little more productive and rewarding for everybody. But his unbelievable accomplishments, the brooklyn bridge, the conservation of our national parks, the epic narrative of the civil war, his new and latest film on jackie robinson, on baseball this guy really taps into the pulse of our nation and he has a way of presenting it that is absolutely sheer delight, subtle,brilliant j brilliant, honest. I am more than confident that the extraordinary time and passion that is consumed in this project, means that the final product is not only going to be a work of art. You heard him come and they are changing a word or two, but after it is done it will be the definitive examination of with profound impact, not only on the way that america thinks about that war, but i think on americas engagement with the issue of war itself. I think it will do so for the better. I know that this conference and tonight, this topic, these couple of days, call for a serious analysis of what happened and why. It is about history. But it is also about us, our heart and soul and our gut. How wrenching it was in the ways that ken and ben just described. And this examination will help us to understand the famous warning to those who do not need the lessons of the past heed the lessons of the past. So i look forward to a good exchange. As you lay the groundwork for the conversation, let me make key points i think arche are key, that might not otherwise surface as we are principally looking backwards. First, those who express concern about the way that the war in Southeast Asia was conducted, will i think the film show, were clearly justified in those concerns. I will not judge up dredge up all of the arguments. Ground, itl tread tread and i think we will be reminded that there were mistakes in leadership, communication, strategy, they were viewed mistakes huge mistakes in the basic assumptions about the war. So it is not a surprise that public support virtually disappeared at a critical point of time. And we can talk about that a little bit. , thecond point is confusion that some americans showed, blending the warriors for the war itself blaming the warriors for the work itself, was tragically displaced. The veterans did not receive the welcome home [applause] veterans kerry our did not receive either the welcome home or the benefit or treatment that they not only desert, deserved or needed. And the contract between government and soldiers was not honored. As a result, the vets themselves had to go out and buy another round of battles. I know that well as one of the four cofounders of the Vietnam Veterans of america. They had to fight to get an increase in the g. I. Bill, to deal with homelessness, to deal with the ultimate sacrifice of buddies memorialized on the National Mall and i think thank mr. Scruggs in respect to that. [applause] talktary kerry so when we about vietnam, to me here is less than number one whether a war is popular or unpopular, or not even a war, but a conflict, we must always treat the returning vets with the dignity and respect they have of ourthrough the virtue nation. My third and final point is that hard. E right to work we still are working to move forward from the pain and division of the war, to begin the process of healing, within our country and between the United States and vietnam. We were right to think about what had gone wrong and enact laws that shed Greater Light on how our government goes about its business. We were right to take steps to help the children and to welcome ese many thousands of vietnam refugees after the fall of saigon. Our Supreme Court was right to uphold the pentagon papers, so that more of the truth of the war would be revealed. And we were right to pursue a full accounting of our fellow citizens who were missing or unaccounted for, even after our pows returned to our shores. [applause] secretary kerry let me say a word about this accounting. It is not a wellknown story in america. But it should be. Mccain andf us, john myself particularly as we approach the issue of normalization with vietnam, the mia and powshat come a it was a prerequisite and nonnegotiable. The process tells you not only about us as americans and are keeping faith with those who have fallen in battle, but it also tells you something quite remarkable about the extraordinary openness of the vietnamese people, who helped us search for the remains of our fallen troops. Even as the vast majority of theirs, one million strong probably, would never be found. They allowed helicopters to land unannounced, bringing back bitter memories of the war. I remember negotiating with them and they permitted us to do that, we needed the element of surprise to show that we were not moving people from where they were kept. The vietnamese did so because they wanted to move beyond the war. Usy dug up fields and let into their homes and history houses, their jails, on more than one occasion they guided us across what were actually minefields. Even today as i stand here, thank you to a process that was george wraced by bush who i visited yesterday in houston, one of the greatest people in america, together we are able to engage in what has become the single most significant, most comprehensive, most exhausted accounting of the missing and dead in any war in the history of humankind. And i think that the United States should be very proud of that. [applause] literally, wey have people over there still today as we sit here, working to complete that task of accountability. I have to tell you, having flown in a russian helicopter, which was an experience of holding your breath for hours, across vietnam and landing in these places, i remember walking down 20 feet deep into a pit that was dug for archaeologists because it was a crash site, and looking at the wall of mud in which c130, looking for remains to bring them home. That is the extent to which we currently go. , i want tolear emphasize this today, certainly for me and i think for most veterans, whatever their feelings were about the war and what happened in america around the war, the process of reconciliation and restoring diplomatic ties was not about forgetting. If we forget, we cease to learn. And the tragedy of what happened in vietnam have to be a constant reminder of the capacity to make mistakes, the capacity to see things in the wrong ones, the capacity to miss signals, and ultimately, to miss the constant reminder of the four horror and suffering that war inflicts. Neither should we become the prisoners of history. I want you to think for a moment, this is what i thought was a little different from where we would be otherwise, i want you to consider how far we have come since normalization. 20 years ago there were fewer than 60,000 american visitors annually to vietnam. Today, it is nearly half a million. 20 years ago, bilateral trade in only 451 vietnam was million. Today, it is more than 45 billion a year. 20 years ago, there were fewer than 800 the enemies students vietnamese student studying in the u. S. Today, there are nearly 19,000. I was very proud as a senator to join in creating with my friend and others, the fulbrights goal that exists school that sts today in ho man city and later this year we will be moving ahead with the founding of the Fulbright University in vietnam, little operate worldclass education and deepen ties between our peoples. I can tell you, a huge percentage of the current , government of vietnam, have come over here to go to a university and share in education. That is a small measure, those statistics, of a remarkable transformation. And i can tell you a story, i remember during the war, securing a short pass to get to and then saigon, and coming up from the delta where we were, and is sitting on top of the hotel. In a momentary thought from all frome craziness pause the craziness, and i was watching the players hopping flying around,s and occasionally we would hear the the magic dragon puff the magic dragon. It was surreal. The essence of a war zone. You go back there today and what i have done, the same hotel and same rooftop, but completely different view. A different nation. The Traffic Circle outside is filled with motorbikes, it is full of passengers and commerce, from air conditioners, to computer monitors, smartphones, nobody is thinking about the war. In fact, most people, the majority are too young to remember it. It is a different era and that calls for a very different relationship. No one back in 1968, i can tell you, could have imagined the insit to washington t last year, or the president s visit to vietnam, next month. Nobody could have imagined the agenda we have developed, including science, health, education, the internet, and military to military cooperation. And nobody could have imagined the United States and vietnam joining 10 other nations to achieve a priceless opportunity on trade, the Transpacific Partnership agreement that represents nearly 40 of the worlds gdp. Enhanceill create jobs, the environment, strengthen commercial ties from hanoi to tokyo to washington. And to be sure, let me make it clear, the true measure of the partnership is not just whether the economies grow, but how they grow. We are working carefully on all those issues with respect to freedom and human rights. By the way, within the partnership, vietnam has accepted labor unions, the right to strike which many of you think we made a mistake, but the rights have been enhanced. I have to tell you all, i never thought when i was patrolling in vietnam, then nearly 50 years later i would be involved in a plan to help save that river. But together with partners in the lower initiative, we are working to improve vietnams resilience to the effects of climate change, which they are already feeling, hugely. And we are focusing aid on clean energy and the development of sustainable infrastructure, and ecosystem resource management. We are working together in the academic arena, the institute of international education, Arizona State university, harvard medical school, and the university of hawaii all have partnerships with institutions in vietnam, several with participation in the private sector. Two decades ago, when the Unite