President Barack Obama was among 350 people who attended a memorial service Tuesday in the U.S. Capitol building for Thomas Foley, former speaker of the House and ambassador to Japan, who died Oct. 18 at age 84.
"Tom Foley never lost that sense of wonder, never lost the sense of gratitude. . . . And he never forgot why he came here — on behalf of this nation and his state and the citizens that he loved and respected so much," Obama said.
Former President Bill Clinton, who sent Foley to Japan as ambassador, said the rest of the world was underestimating the Japanese people in the 1990s and he wanted to show that the United States still cared about Japan.