World News | Former President Bill Clinton Returns to Oklahoma City 30 Years After Bombing

Oklahoma City, Apr 19 (AP) Thirty years after the deadliest homegrown attack in US history, former President Bill Clinton will return to Oklahoma City on Saturday to remember the people who were killed and comfort those affected by the bombing.

Clinton was president on April 19, 1995, when a truck bomb exploded, destroying a nine-story federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. He will deliver the keynote address at a remembrance ceremony near the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum.

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Clinton, now 78, was widely praised for how he helped the city grapple with its grief in the wake of the bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. He says it was a day in his presidency that he will never forget.

“The nation's eyes were there. The nation's heart was broken there,” Clinton said in a video statement posted to the Clinton Foundation website.

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“I was privately praying that I would find the right words, the right tone, the right rhythm to somehow get into the mind and heart of as many Americans as possible.”

Clinton has visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum several times in the years since the bombing and delivered speeches on major anniversaries.

Among the memorial's top missions is to help people understand the senselessness of political violence and teach a new generation about the impact of the bombing, said Kari Watkins, the memorial's president and CEO.

“We knew when we built this place we would some day reach a generation of people who weren't born or who didn't remember the story,” Watkins said. “I think now, not just kids are coming through more and more, but teachers who are teaching those kids.”

Saturday's ceremony, scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., was originally scheduled to take place on the grounds of the memorial but has been moved inside an adjacent church because of inclement weather. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)