OKLAHOMA CITY — Former President Bill Clinton returned to Oklahoma City on Wednesday to remember the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Clinton said in the 15 years since the terrorist attack in downtown Oklahoma City, he has seen many examples of courage that were first put in place when the people of Oklahoma responded to the explosion.

“Many parts of the world have been affected by your courage,” Clinton said. “Courage that began here and echoed out into the rest of the world like a ripple in a pond.”

Clinton shared moments in his presidency and times in his global initiatives in which he said he could clearly see the lessons the world learned April 19, 1995.

“I met a man in a park in Haiti painting pictures outside of the airport right after the earthquake,” Clinton said. “He said he had lost his wife and all of his children, and that he came out there because that was his way of coping ... This man is your brother in spirit.”

The world learned lessons on how to cope with tragedy because of what happened how Oklahoma responded to the bombing of the federal building, Clinton said.

Before Clinton arrived at the dinner at the Oklahoma Western Heritage Museum, he made an unscheduled stop at the Oklahoma City National Memorial to lay a bouquet of flowers on the memorial chair of Alan Whicher, a secret service agent who protected Clinton in the first part of his presidency and then was transferred to the Murrah Building and died in the explosion.

“From that day on, I have never called anyone who works for the federal government a federal bureaucrat,” Clinton said. “He moved out here because he believed Oklahoma is one of the finest places to live in this country and he was absolutely right.”

Clinton said America must remain strong in its efforts to fight terrorism.

“I remember giving a speech to some college students telling them that terrorism for them will be like the nuclear bomb was to my generation, but as we’ve seen from other attacks that have come that isn’t so. I wish I was wrong,” he said.

Clinton said America must fight terrorism together without partisanship.

“We can’t kill and jail every terrorist this country can face,” Clinton said. “We can’t fight every enemy combatant, but we can work together to reduce future attacks.”