Former U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzalez shares experiences with students
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
Serving in a presidential administration can be one of the most exciting yet most onerous experiences one can have.
Alberto Gonzalez, U.S. attorney general from 2005-2007 and counsel to the president from 2001-2005 in the George W. Bush presidential administration, knows that well. On Sept. 11, 2001, he experienced the worse terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from the front-line vantage point of the White House, and was on the front lines for many other significant events throughout his public service. Today he is dean of Belmont University’s College of Law.
He recently met with a group of Lipscomb students to share his experiences, lessons learned and his newly released book, “True Faith and Allegiance: A Story of Service and Sacrifice in War and Peace.”
“The purpose of the book is to open the curtains a little bit and let audiences know about how your government works,” Gonzalez told the group of students packed into a classroom in Swang Business Center. “I got to experience so many incredible things during my service.”
“I remember arriving at Andrews Air Force Base in the hanger with Air Force One early in the Bush presidency. I was met there by representatives of every major department and agency who were carrying these thick black binders of protocol,” he continued. “We all got on the airplane to go to places unknown. I settled in to watch the president’s State of the Union address – just like most other Americans. During that speech it suddenly hit me, oh my goodness. What would happen if something happened back at the Capitol? I had experienced some pretty big moments before and been involved in some very serious decisions before. I advised Bush through two wars. It was a great privilege to serve.”
Gonzalez said that through his work he visited more than 30 countries.
“There are many wonderful things beyond our borders,” said Gonzalez, a native of San Antonio, Texas. “But beyond a doubt America still remains the greatest country on the face of the earth. Obviously we have our challenges and our problems. But America is still worth fighting for.”
“The future of this country lies with you,” he told the students. “That’s why I’m here today, because I care about the decisions you’re going to make that shape the future of this country. Your decisions are going to shape the world that my sons will live in. That’s why I believe it’s so important for me to share some of the things I’ve learned.”
He admitted, though, that serving as attorney general was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Some of my family is still bitter today about the attacks on my integrity and on my reputation while I served in that role,” he said. “Public service should not be that hard. As a result of (the difficulty in serving in these roles), too many good people are staying away because they don’t want to get involved or to get criticized. But we cannot continue to be a great country and to have the freedoms we have today if good people are not willing to step into the arena of public service.”
“It depends on all of you,” Gonzalez encouraged the students. “To be silent, to be missing, to not assume the responsibility of service means a less bright future for America.”
Gonzalez shared his memories of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Gonzalez took a flight out of Dulles airport in Washington, D.C., about 7:30 a.m. heading to Norfolk, Virginia, to speak to a group of government officials. American Airlines Flight 77 took off from this same airport at 8:20 a.m. and crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. that same morning.
Upon landing in Norfolk, Gonzalez was informed that one of the two World Trade Center towers had been hit by a plane, but that they were not certain at that point if it was an accident. He gave his speech and at the conclusion he learned that the second tower had been hit.
“Now I was stuck in Norfolk with directions to get back to the White House as soon as I can,” he recalled. “I rushed to the airport and learned that all flights had been grounded. I wanted to get back to my post in the White House.”
He ended up talking to a Navy officer who took him to Naval Station Norfolk, a U.S. Navy base, to talk to the commander there. The base was in the process of quickly transitioning to a high state of alert when Gonzalez arrived. He ended up flying back to Washington in a Navy helicopter that took him to Andrews Air Force Base and arrived about 2 p.m. From there he was taken to the White House to an underground bunker with Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior administration officials.
“I spent the rest of the afternoon going between that location to the situation room under the West Wing of the White House to my office on the second floor,” he said. “Just back and forth, looking at legal issues. Then we got word about 7 p.m. that President Bush was coming back to the White House and would be landing on the south lawn.”
“Standing there on the porch of the Oval Office watching Marine 1 bring President Bush home on that historic day is a moment that stands out more than any other,” he said. “Because I knew him pretty well and I was very curious to see what I would see in his face.”
Bush exited the helicopter and walked toward Gonzalez and continued on to a small dining room in the White House. But Gonzalez saw what he wanted to see in the demeanor of the president.
“As soon as I saw his face, I knew that as a nation we would be okay because he was determined and he was ready to go,” said Gonzalez. “He had a job to do and it was to protect all of you and your families. Our job during that moment was to support him. I’m often asked if we were scared. Never once did I see anyone who was scared because we were too busy. We all had jobs to do to help protect America. We worked very, very hard to do what we could to preserve the safety and freedom of this nation.”
“Following 9-11 the focus was on protecting our nation and protecting our freedom, and the biggest load was on the shoulders of our service men and women,” he said. There were thousands of civilians also involved as well working day in and day out to preserve our freedom.”
At the age of 18, Gonzalez enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. After a year of service in Alaska, he received an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy. After two years there, he transferred to Rice University to complete his undergraduate degree in political science. Three years later, he earned his law degree from Harvard. Before entering public service, Gonzalez practiced business law for 13 years at the Houston law firm Vinson & Elkins. In 1994, Bush, who had been elected governor of Texas, appointed Gonzalez general counsel to the governor. Three years later, Gonzalez was appointed Texas’s secretary of state, and in 1999 he was appointed a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.
Gonzalez was counsel to President Bush from 2001-2005 then was nominated by the president and confirmed by the United States Senate as the 80th attorney general of the United States in February 2005 and served in that capacity until September 2007. Gonzales has also served as a visiting professor and minority/veteran recruitment consultant at Texas Tech University.
In 2014, Gonzalez was appointed dean of Belmont’s law school and currently holds the Doyle Rogers Distinguished Chair of Law. He is a member of the NCAA Division I committee on infractions and serves on the board of directors for the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Previously he was also an appointee of Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to the Governor’s Commission for Judicial Appointments and the Governor’s Management Fellows Executive Committee.
For his many accomplishments and years of public service, Gonzales has been recognized as a distinguished alumnus of Rice University and received the Harvard Law School Association Award, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency’s Director’s Award and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. His work in the Latino community and his achievements as a role model have also earned him recognition as Hispanic American of the Year by HISPANIC Magazine and one of The 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America by TIME Magazine.
In addition to his latest book, Gonzalez is also author of “A Conservative and Compassionate Approach to Immigration Reform.”
The lecture and book signing was organized by Lipscomb University’s Young Americans for Freedom student chapter and the Department of History, Politics and Philosophy housed in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.