This is the President's speech as it appears in the paperback novel.

"Good morning... In less than an hour from now, over one hundred of you will fly north to confront an enemy more powerful than any the world has ever known. As you do so, you will be joined by pilots from around the world as they launch similar attacks against the other thirty-five ships attacking the earth. The battle you will join will be the single largest aerial conflict in the history of mankind. ...Mankind. The word takes on a new meaning for all of us today. If any good has come from this savage and unprovoked attack on our planet, it is the recognition of how much we humans share in common. It has given us a new perspective on what it means to live on this earth together. It has shown us the insignificance of our thousand petty differences from one another and reminded us of our deep and abiding common interests. The attack has changed the course of history and redefined what ut means to be human. From this day forward, it will be impossible to forget how interdependent the races and nations of the world truly are. I think that there's a certain irony that today is the Fourth of July, America's anniversary of independence. Perhaps it is fate that once again, this date will mark the beginning of a great struggle for freedom. But this time, we will fight for something even more basic than the right to be free of tyranny, persecution, or oppression. We will fight against an enemy who will be satisfied with nothing less than our total annihilation. This time we will be fighting for our right to live, for our very existence.
An hour from now, we will confront a strange and deadly adversary, an army more powerful than humanity has ever faced. I'm not going to make any false promises to you. I cannot offer any guarantee that we will prevai, but if ever there it is there were a battle worth fighting, this is it! And as I look around me this morning, I realize how extraordinarily lucky I am to be here, at this critical moment, surrounded by people like you. You are patriots in the original and truest sense of the word: people who love their home and are willing to lend their talents, skills and, in some cases, even their lives to the task of defending it. I consider it an honor to be allowed to fight alongside you, to raise my voice in chorus with yours and declare, whether we win or lose, we will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight, but struggle fiercely for what is rightfully ours, our heads held high until the very last moment.
And if we succeed... if we somehow accomplish this thing that seems so impossible, it will be the nost glorious victory imaginable. The Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when all the nations of the earth stood shoulder to shoulder and shouted: 'We will not lay down and die! We will live on! We will survive!' Today, we celebrate our INDEPENDENCE DAY!"