Toasts of the President and President Sadat at a Dinner in Alexandria Honoring the President of Egypt

President Sadat, Mrs. Sadat, and all of our distinguished guests:

Mr. President, this dinner tonight affords an opportunity for us, in a very small way, to indicate our very grateful appreciation to you for the hospitality that you and your people have shown to us on the occasion of our visit to Egypt.

We thought yesterday, after the magnificent reception in Cairo, that it would be impossible to see more people in one day again in our lives, but I remember you told me, "Wait until we get to Alexandria." And you were right, because on the journey that we took by train through the rich delta country and then through the streets of Alexandria, going clear out by the sea as well as through the downtown area, we again had the privilege, as we did yesterday, of seeing literally millions of people who were there to greet us and to welcome us.

And there is an old saying that you can turn people out, but you can't turn them on. They will only be turned on if they want to be. And we felt, as you said to us so often, that there was no question about the people that we saw yesterday and today-they were from their hearts giving us a warm welcome--and I can assure you, Mr. President, they touched our hearts and, I am sure, the hearts of millions of Americans who saw that welcome on television, with what they did.

Let me say, too, that we are grateful that on this visit, brief though it is, that you, in arranging our itinerary, saw to it that we were not only in Cairo, the capital of the nation, but that we should see another part of the country as well.

We in Washington often say as we think of our Nation's Capital, of which we are very proud because it is a beautiful city, that Washington is not all of America and that one must travel to other cities as well. And you gave us a double pleasure today because we saw the countryside, the farmers, the peasants tilling the rich lands with three crops a year growing there, some with the equipment that goes back many centuries and others with the most modern equipment. And we saw, also, one of the great cities of the world, Alexandria, which we would otherwise not have seen had you not planned our schedule in such a way that we could extend it to include other parts of Egypt than just the capital.

And here in Alexandria, I would like to add that we feel certainly in the presence of--and I have no other, better word to describe it than this--in the presence of the whole heritage of learning which our civilization has benefited from. We think of the great library that was here. We think of, for example, those who landed on the Moon and that the abilities that developed those high techniques were based on the great scholars of the past, many of whom centered here in Alexandria-the mathematicians, the astronomers, and the like. And as we think of that heritage of learning which Alexandria signifies to the whole world today, it reminds us of how much both Egypt and America will gain from this new relationship which we have established.

I say a new relationship--it is the reestablishment of a relationship that was always there, but one which we now have formalized to an extent, as our statement tomorrow will indicate, and one on which we will build, because there are perhaps some things that we have learned in the new world in America that you will find useful in the development of your country. But you can be very sure that we who have learned so much from the civilization which is represented in this land, that we also will profit from this mutual exchange of ideas and that the wisdom that is here, the wisdom not only of the past but the wisdom which is now being developed to meet the challenge of the future, will benefit not only you but benefit us as we learn to work together in developing and meeting the policies which will lead to a peaceful and a prosperous world for all of us.

So finally, Mr. President, I want you to know that as I announced tonight to our guests with very great pleasure the fact that you have accepted an invitation to visit the United States on a State visit and that Mrs. Sadat will accompany you, that that will occur before the end of this year, that it is going to be my privilege to give you an itinerary also where you will see not only Washington but, we trust, other parts of the country that you have not seen before. And in that connection, we will not be able, of course, to match certainly what we have seen in the way of the antiquities of the past that we have here, but I can assure you that we will do our best to demonstrate to you, as you and your people have demonstrated to us, that the American people in their hearts have nothing but the greatest affection and the highest hopes for our friends in Egypt.

We welcome this opportunity to work together again as friends, and that friendship that we have had the privilege of sealing after Dr. Kissinger and his colleagues on his side and your representatives on your side laid the foundation, that friendship is one that we will treasure and, we trust, pass on to future generations to enjoy for years to come.

So, ladies and gentlemen, all of us, I think, would want to join, including our American friends particularly and our Egyptian guests as well, in a toast to the President in the sense that he has been such a great host for us.

And also, shall we toast him and Mrs. Sadat a little in advance, wishing him what he will have, a very fine and warm welcome in the United States of America when he returns this visit later this year.

To President Sadat.