History
The IADC, located on Fort Lesley J. McNair, was formally opened on 9 October 1962 when the Honorable Dean Rusk, then Secretary of State of the United States, presented the building and furnishings donated by the United States Government. Doctor Jose A. Mora, then Secretary General of the Organization of American States, was the principal speaker at the opening ceremony. The first class, with 29 students representing 15 American republics, received their diplomas on 20 March 1963 with then Vice President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, giving the graduation address and awarding diplomas.
Since its opening more than 2,000 students have graduated from the IADC, of which many have gone on to become presidents, cabinet ministers, ambassadors, or general officers for their respective nations. In January 2006, Class 37 graduate Michelle Bachelet was elected president of Chile, becoming the second IADC graduate to be elected to presidential office, after Lucio Gutiérrez of Ecuador.
Read more about this topic: Inter-American Defense College
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.”
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“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)