OKLAHOMA CITY -- "Oklahoma City gave us our heart back as a country," said former President Bill Clinton.

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Video: Oklahoma City 'Broke Our Hearts'
Slideshow: Oklahoma City Memorial Service

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He was among the speakers at a memorial in Oklahoma City on the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Clinton said people pulled together after the devastation and weren't "hardened" by hatred.

Vice President Dick Cheney, also speaking at the memorial, said that after the attack, the city showed "there is far more good than bad in this world." He said Oklahoma responded with heroism after experiencing "bottomless cruelty."

Before the dignitaries spoke, about 1,600 people who were gathered at First United Methodist Church were silent for 168 seconds -- one for each of the people killed by the blast.

After the speeches, the names of each of the victims of the attack were read.

The April 19, 1995, attack on the Murrah building killed 168 people and remains the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Organizers were expecting thousands of people to attend the Oklahoma City National Memorial this week.

Clinton and Cheney were the keynote speakers. Clinton visited Oklahoma City twice after the bombing and returned for the Oklahoma City National Memorial dedication five years later. Gov. Brad Henry and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett also spoke Tuesday.

Among survivors, family members of victims and others connected to the tragedy, the ceremony featured several children who survived the bombing.

OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING Video: Silence Marks Anniversary Interactive: OKC Bombing PDF: Read The Report

P.J. Allen, the bombing's youngest survivor, was joined by Brandon Denny, Rebecca Denny and Christopher Nguyen in a reading of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Statement. Of the 21 children who were inside the America's Kids day care during the bombing, the four are among only six children who survived."

During his speech, Cheney praised the people of Oklahoma City and said that Americans still respect them for the way they handled the bombing a decade ago. Cheney also offered the regards of President George W. Bush and remarked that he still remembers the moment he heard about the attack on the federal complex.

"That spring morning 10 years ago is still deeply etched in our memories," Cheney said. "I remember hearing the coverage on a car radio and trying to picture in my mind what the announcer was describing ... only to realize later that it was far worse than what I was imagining."

Gov. Brad Henry repeated his familiar refrain about the "Oklahoma standard" of compassion and giving that residents exhibited while Oklahoma City recovered from bombing. Henry also recounted the Rev. Billy Graham's reading of Psalm 46:5, when the legendary pastor comforted the people of Oklahoma City in 1995 with a homily about the "city that would not move."

But Henry did not forget the wounds of the bombing that are still felt by the survivors and those left behind by the victims.

"We will always remember the very real agony and loss unleashed 10 years ago," Henry said. "Lives were lost and lives were changed forever."

In a speech that brought the audience to its feet, Clinton spoke freely about his memories of the bombing and the way Oklahoma City reacted to the tragedy.

"Ten years later, we still grieve and remember, but we should be proud that Oklahoma City was not paralyzed by its pain nor hardened by its hatred," Clinton said. "This is a symbol of the human spirit."

A soft-spoken Clinton also recognized the efforts of former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who was recognized nationally for his leadership during the recovery effort. In one of several moments of humor during the ceremony, the former president couldn't resist a light-hearted partisan jab.

"When Frank Keating and I were classmates at Georgetown, we were in different parties even then," Clinton joked.

But the speech turned serious when Clinton gave perhaps the ultimate compliment to the people of Oklahoma City, who have rebuilt a shattered downtown and a new federal building in the decade since the devastating attack.

"Oklahoma City mourned its losses, embraced its survivors, built a monument to honor and remember, and then built a new federal building to show its citizens that a terrorist attack could not prevail," he said.

After the speeches, family members of the victims participated in an emotional reading of the names of all 168 people who were lost in the attack. Many on stage and in the audience cried during the reading, which has become a tradition during each bombing anniversary.

Organizers were expecting thousands of people to attend the Oklahoma City National Memorial site this week. More than 1,000 had already gathered in downtown Oklahoma City by Tuesday morning.

Ten years before Tuesday's ceremony, a truck bomb made of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil sheared off the north side of the Murrah building. Aside from causing the deaths of 168 people, the bomb injured hundreds of others and caused millions of dollars in damage to downtown Oklahoma City.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted on multiple first-degree murder charges for his role in the bombing and was sentenced to death in 1997. He was executed at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., in 2001.

Terry Nichols was also convicted in 1997 on federal conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter charges.

During his Oklahoma trial in 2004, Nichols was found guilty of 161 counts of first-degree murder. Oklahoma prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Nichols, but the jury deadlocked and a judge issued a life sentence.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial planned to continue the city's remembrance of the bombing with a week of special events. The memorial chose to name its commemoration of the tragedy "A Decade Of Hope."

McVeigh's Father Tries To Treat It Like Any Other Day

Bill McVeigh said he'll try to spend today "doing the same old stuff."

The blast killed 168 people and wounded hundreds more.

While Cheney and former Clinton joined survivors at a memorial ceremony at the Oklahoma city bombing site, Bill McVeigh said he would try to stick to his routine as if it were just another day.

Timothy McVeigh's 65-year-old father told The Buffalo News that he still has no idea why his son felt driven to attack the U.S. government.

Bill McVeigh lives in the town of Pendleton, N.Y., 10 miles north of Buffalo. He said he often thinks about the bombing victims and feels deep sympathy for them and their families.

Bomber Nichols Says No Plans For Second Bombing

Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols said there was never any plan for a second bombing.

He made the statement in a letter to a woman who lost two grandchildren in the bombing.

Nichols wrote the letter after the FBI found explosive materials under his former home in Kansas. The 50-year-old Nichols is a native of Lapeer County, Mich.

The FBI learned of the explosives from imprisoned mobster Gregory Scarpa, who told former Michigan state Representative Stephen Dresch.

Dresch said Scarpa told him Nichols wanted the materials found so they couldn't be used in a planned follow-up attack.