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13542-010
Folder Title:
United Nations General Assembly Address 10/1/90 [OA 5377] [1]
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26
16
4
6
Sun am,
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
Ed - Re UN speech:
Is it possible
to out refugees
fack in the list
other problems which (former
christmas of tree,
I 15 million, many/
liked!) ? There
most are are children.
Nancy Dyke
McNally/Simon
September 28, 1990
Draft Seven (B:UN)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK CITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1990, 11:40 A.M.
Mr. President. Mr. Secretary-General. Distinguished
delegates to the United Nations:
It is a great privilege to greet you today as we begin what
marks a new and historic Session of the General Assembly. My
congratulations to the Honorable Guido de Marco on your election
as President of the General Assembly. On a personal note, I want
to say that, having witnessed the unprecedented unity and
cooperation of the past two months, I have never been prouder to
have once served within your ranks, and never been prouder that
the U.S. is host to the U.N. III
45 years ago, while the fires of an epic war still raged
across two oceans and two continents, a small group of men and
women began a search for hope amid the ruins. They gathered in
San Francisco, stepping back from the haze and the horror to try
to shape a new structure that might support an ancient dream.
Intensely idealistic, and yet tempered by war, they sought
to build a new kind of bridge, a bridge between nations, a bridge
that might help carry humankind from its darkest hour to its
brightest day. III
The founding of the United Nations embodied our deepest
hopes for a peaceful world. And during the past year, we have
come closer than ever before to realizing those hopes. We've
seen a century sundered by barbed threats and barbed wire give
2
way to a new era of peace, cooperation, and freedom.
The Revolution of '89 swept the world almost with a life of
its own, carried by a new breeze of freedom that transformed the
political climate from Central Europe to Central America, and
touched almost every corner of the globe.
That breeze has been sustained by a now almost universal
recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The human spirit
can't be locked up forever. The truth is, people everywhere are
motivated in much the same ways. And people everywhere want much
the same things: The chance to live a life of purpose -- the
chance to choose a life -- in which they and their children can
learn, grow healthy, worship freely, and prosper through the work
of their hands, their hearts and their minds.
We're not talking about the power of nations, but the power
of individuals. The power to choose, the power to risk, the
power to succeed.
This is a new and different world. Not since 1945 have we
seen the real possibility of using the United Nations as it was
designed -- as a center for international collective security.
[[The changes in the Soviet Union have been critical to the
emergence of a stronger U.N. The U.S.-Soviet relationship is
finally beyond containment and confrontation, and now we seek to
fulfill the promise of mutually shared understanding. III
The long twilight struggle that for 45 years has divided
Europe, our two nations, and much of the world has to come to an
end. Much has changed over the last two years. The Soviet Union
3
has taken many dramatic and important steps to again join the
community of nations.
When the Soviet Union agreed with us, here in the United
Nations, to condemn the aggression of Iraq, there could be no
doubt that at long last, we can put four decades of history
behind us.
No longer will the machinery of the United Nations be frozen
by the Cold War. At long last, we can build new bridges, and
tear down old walls. At long last: The cold war is over.]]
Two days from now, the world will be watching when the [cold
war] is formally buried in Berlin. And in this time of testing,
a fundamental question must be asked. A question not for any one
nation -- but for the United Nations. And the question is this:
Can we work together in a new partnership of nations? Can the
collective strength of the world community, expressed by the
United Nations, unite to deter and defeat aggression?
Because the [cold war's] battle of ideas is not the last
epic battle of this century. Two months ago, in the waning weeks
of one of history's most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty
of the peaceful Kuwaiti desert was fouled by the stench of diesel
and the roar of steel tanks. Once again the sound of distant
thunder echoed across a cloudless sky. And once again the world
awoke to face the guns of August. III
But this time, the world was ready. The U.N. Security
Council's resolute response to Iraq's unprovoked aggression has
been without precedent. Since the invasion on August 2nd, the
4
Council has passed eight major resolutions setting the terms for
a solution of the crisis.
The Iraqi regime has yet to face the facts. But as I said
last month: The annexation of Kuwait will not be permitted to
stand. This is not simply the view of the United States. It is
the view of every Kuwaiti, the Arab league, and the United
Nations. Iraq's leaders should listen: it is Iraq against the
world. III
Let me take this opportunity to make the policy of my
government clear. The United States supports the use of
FACTUAL CH onap
sanctions to persuade Iraq's leaders to withdraw immediately and
without condition from Kuwait. We also support the provision of MEDICINE,
AND OF
food for humanitarian purposes so long as distribution can be
properly monitored. We have no quarrel with the people of Iraq;
we do not wish for them to suffer.
We have dispatched military forces to the region to enforce
sanctions; to deter and if need be defend against further
aggression. We seek no advantage for ourselves. Nor do we seek
to maintain our military forces in Saudi Arabia for one day
longer than is necessary. U.S. forces were sent at the request
of the Saudi Government; U.S. forces will depart the same way.
Let me also emphasize that we hope military forces will
never have to be used. We seek a peaceful outcome -- a
diplomatic outcome. And one more thing -- in the aftermath of
Iraq's unconditional departure from Kuwait, I truly believe that
there may be opportunities: for Iraq and Kuwait to settle their
5
differences permanently; for the states of the Gulf themselves to
build new arrangements for stability; and for all the states and
EXPMINS WHY
peoples of the region to settle the conflict that divides the
iest
OUR KEY TASK, NOW, FIRST AND ALWAYS
Arabs from Israel. But, first, we must demonstrate that
BE TO
aggression will not be tolerated or rewarded.
Through the U.N. Security Council, Iraq has been judged by a
jury of its peers -- the very nations of the Earth. Today, the
regime stands isolated and out of step with the times, separated
from the civilized world not by space, but by centuries.
Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throw-back to another era,
a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait,
terrorized innocent civilians, and held even diplomats hostage.
Iraq and its leaders must be held liable for these crimes of
abuse and destruction. But this outrageous disregard for basic
human rights does not come as a total surprise. Thousands of
Iraqis have been executed on political and religious grounds, and
even more through a genocidal, poison gas war waged against
Iraq's own Kurdish villagers.
As a world community, we must act -- not only to deter the
use of inhuman weapons like mustard and nerve gas -- but to
eliminate the weapons entirely. That is why, one year ago, I
came to the General Assembly with new proposals to banish these
terrible weapons from the face of the Earth.
I promised the United States would destroy over 98 percent
of its stockpile in the first eight years of a chemical weapons
ban treaty, and 100 percent -- all of them -- in 10 years, if all
6
chemical weapons-capable nations sign the treaty.
We've stood by those promises. In June, the U.S. and the
Soviet Union signed a landmark agreement to halt production, and
to destroy the vast majority of our stockpiles. Today, U.S.
chemical weapons are being destroyed.
But time is running out. This is not a merely bilateral
concern. The Gulf crisis proves how important it is to act
together -- and to act now -- to conclude an absolute, worldwide
ban on these weapons. We must also redouble our efforts to stem
the spread of nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and the bal-
listic missiles that can rain destruction upon distant peoples.
The United Nations can help bring about a new day, a day
when these kinds of terrible weapons -- and the terrible despots
who would use them -- are both a thing of the past. It is in our
hands to leave these dark machines behind, in the dark ages where
they belong, and to press forward to cap a historic movement
towards a new world order and a long era of peace.
We have a vision of a new partnership of nations that
transcends the Cold War. A partnership based on consultation,
cooperation and collective action, especially through inter-
national and regional organizations. A partnership united by
principle and the Rule of Law, and supported by an equitable
sharing of both cost and commitment. A partnership whose goals
are to increase democracy, increase prosperity, increase the
peace -- and reduce arms.
And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
7
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our progress
as a community of nations. 111
The Year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning not only the
turn of the decade, not only the turn of the century, but also
FACTUAL
the turn of the millennium. III 45
And 10 years from now, as the 55th Session of the General
Assembly begins, you will again find many of us in this Hall, our
hair a bit more gray, perhaps a bit less spring in our walk. But
you will not find us with any less hope or idealism, or any less
confidence in the ultimate triumph of humankind. 111
I see a world of open borders, open trade, and --- most
importantly -- open minds. A world that celebrates the common
heritage that belongs to all the world's people, taking pride not
just in hometown or homeland but in humanity itself. III
I see a world touched by a spirit like that of the Olympics:
Based not on competition that's driven by fear, but sought out of
joy and exhilaration and a true quest for excellence. 111
I see a world where democracy continues to win new friends
and convert old foes, and where the Americas can provide a model
for the future for all humankind -- the world's first completely
democratic hemisphere. III
And I see a world building on the emerging new model of
European unity. Not just Europe, but the whole world -- "whole
and free." 1111
This is precisely why the present aggression in the Gulf is
a menace not only to one region's security, but to the entire
8
world's vision of our future. It threatens to turn our dream of
a new international order into a grim nightmare of anarchy, in
which the law of the jungle supplants the law of nations.
That is why the United Nations reacted with such historic
unity and resolve. And that is why this challenge is a test we
cannot afford to fail. III I am confident we will prevail.
Success, too, will have lasting consequences -- reinforcing
civilized standards of international conduct, setting a new
precedent in international cooperation, brightening the prospects
for our vision of the future.
There are 10 more years until the century is out.
10 more years to put the struggles of the 20th century
permanently behind us.
10 more years to help launch a new partnership of nations.
And throughout those 10 years -- and beginning now -- the
U.N. has a new and vital role in building towards that partner-
BUILD A NOW DOCADO OF COOPERA TION.AND CHANGE.
ship. Last year's General Assembly showed how we can make
greater progress towards a more pragmatic and successful U.N.
And, for the first time, the U.N. Security Council is beginning
To
LIONISM IS
PACISM
to work as it was designed to work, Now IS THE TIME TO SBT ASIDE OLD
TIRLO
ALLUSION.
DEBATES, OLD PROCEDURES, OLD CONTROUERSIES AND OLD RESOLUTIONS, Now is TNO
We have shown that the U.N. can count on the collective
strength of the international community. We have shown that the
U.N. can rise to the challenge of aggression, as its founders
hoped it would. And now in this time of testing, we must also
show that the U.N. is the place to build international support
and consensus for meeting the other challenges we face.
9
The world remains a dangerous place. And our security and
well-being often depends, in part, on events occurring far away.
We need serious international cooperative efforts to make headway
on threats to the environment, on terrorism, on managing the debt
burden, on fighting the scourge of international drug
trafficking, and on peace-keeping efforts around the world.
But the world also remains a hopeful place. Calls for
democracy and human rights are being reborn everywhere. These
calls are an expression of support for the values enshrined in
the U.N. Charter. They encourage our hopes for a more stable,
more peaceful, more prosperous world.
Free elections are the foundation of democratic government,
and can produce dramatic successes, as we have seen in Namibia
and Nicaragua. And the time has come to structure the U.N. role
in such efforts more formally. And so today, I propose that the
United Nations establish a Special Coordinator for Electoral
Assistance, to be assisted by a U.N. Electoral Commission
comprised of distinguished experts from around the world.
As with free elections, we also believe that universal U.N.
membership for all States is central to the future of this
Organization, and to the new partnership we've discussed. In
support of this principle, and in conjunction with U.N. efforts
to reduce regional tensions, the United States fully supports
U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea. We do so without
prejudice to the ultimate objective of reunification of the
Korean peninsula, and without opposition to simultaneous
10
membership for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Building on these and other initiatives, we must join
together in a new compact -- all of us -- to bring the United
Nations into the 21st Century. And I call today for a major,
long-term effort to do this. We should build on the success of
our distinguished Secretary-General, my long-time friend and
colleague, Javier Perez de Cuellar. We should strive for greater
effectiveness and efficiency of the U.N.
The United States is committed to playing its part. We
offer our continuing leadership, helping to maintain global
security, promoting democracy and prosperity. My Administration
is fully committed to supporting the United Nations, and to
paying what we are obliged to pay by our commitment to the
Charter. International peace and security -- and international
freedom and prosperity -- require no less.
The world must know and understand: From this hour, from
this day, from this hall -- we step forth with a new sense of
purpose, a new sense of possibilities. We stand together,
prepared to swim upstream, to march uphill, to tackle the tough
challenges as they come -- not only as the United Nations -- but
as the nations of the world united.
Let it be said of the final decade of the 20th Century:
This was a time when humankind came into its own. When we
emerged from the grit and the smoke of the industrial age to
bring about a revolution of the spirit and of the mind, and began
11
a journey into a new day, a new age, and a new partnership of
nations. III
The U.N. is now fulfilling its promise as the world's
parliament of peace. I congratulate you. I support you. And I
wish you Godspeed in the challenges ahead.
Thank you.
#
#
#
No mition ??
McNally/Simon
September 28, 1990
or
Draft Seven (B:UN)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK CITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1990, 11:40 A.M.
Mr. President. Mr. Secretary-General. Distinguished
delegates to the United Nations:
It is a great privilege to greet you today as we begin what
marks a new and historic Session of the General Assembly. My
congratulations to the Honorable Guido de Marco on your election
as President of the General Assembly. On a personal note, I want
to say that, having witnessed the unprecedented unity and
cooperation of the past two months, I have never been prouder to
have once served within your ranks, and never been prouder that
the U.S. is host to the U.N.
45 years ago, while the fires of an epic war still raged
across two oceans and two continents, a small group of men and
women began a search for hope amid the ruins. They gathered in
San Francisco, stepping back from the haze and the horror to try
to shape a new structure that might support an ancient dream.
Intensely idealistic, and yet tempered by war, they sought
to build a new kind of bridge, a bridge between nations, a bridge
that might help carry humankind from its darkest hour to its
brightest day. III
The founding of the United Nations embodied our deepest
hopes for a peaceful world. And during the past year, we have
come closer than ever before to realizing those hopes. We've
seen a century sundered by barbed threats and barbed wire give
2
way to a new era of peace, cooperation, and freedom.
The Revolution of '89 swept the world almost with a life of
its own, carried by a new breeze of freedom that transformed the
political climate from Central Europe to Central America, and
touched almost every corner of the globe.
That breeze has been sustained by a now almost universal
recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The human spirit
can't be locked up forever. The truth is, people everywhere are
motivated in much the same ways. And people everywhere want much
the same things: The chance to live a life of purpose -- the
chance to choose a life -- in which they and their children can
learn, grow healthy, worship freely, and prosper through the work
of their hands, their hearts and their minds.
We're not talking about the power of nations, but the power
of individuals. The power to choose, the power to risk, the
power to succeed.
This is a new and different world. Not since 1945 have we
seen the real possibility of using the United Nations as it was
designed -- as a center for international collective security.
[[The changes in the Soviet Union have been critical to the
emergence of a stronger U.N. The U.S.-Soviet relationship is
finally beyond containment and confrontation, and now we seek to
fulfill the promise of mutually shared understanding. III
The long twilight struggle that for 45 years has divided
Europe, our two nations, and much of the world has to come to an
end. Much has changed over the last two years. The Soviet Union
3
7
has taken many dramatic and important steps to again join the
community of nations.
so many at
When the Soviet Union agreed with us, here in the United
Nations, to condemn the aggression of Iraq, there could be no
had indeed
Opr
doubt that at Long tast, we on put four decades of history
behind us.
we are hopeful that
will notonger
avisions
that
No plogue longer min] the machinery of the United Nations be frozen
That,
us
by the A Cold War. A At long last, we can build new bridges, and
That,
we will be able to build a new world based on an event
dumy tear down old walls. A At long last: The cold war is over ]] for which we
have all hoped--
plagued)
Two days from now, the world will be watching when the [cold an end
to The
war] is formally buried in Berlin. And in this time of testing,
cold war,
a fundamental question must be asked. A question not for any one
nation -- but for the United Nations. And the question is this:
Can we work together in a new partnership of nations? Can the
collective strength of the world community, expressed by the
United Nations, unite to deter and defeat aggression?
Because the [cold war's] battle of ideas is not the last
epic battle of this century. Two months ago, in the waning weeks
of one of history's most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty
of the peaceful Kuwaiti desert was fouled by the stench of diesel
and the roar of steel tanks. Once again the sound of distant
thunder echoed across a cloudless sky. And once again the world
awoke to face the guns of August. III
But this time, the world was ready. The U.N. Security
Council's resolute response to Iraq's unprovoked aggression has
been without precedent. Since the invasion on August 2nd, the
4
Council has passed eight major resolutions setting the terms for
a solution of the crisis.
The Iraqi regime has yet to face the facts. But as I said
last month: The annexation of Kuwait will not be permitted to
stand. This is not simply the view of the United States. It is
the view of every Kuwaiti, the Arab league, and the United
Nations. Iraq's leaders should listen: it is Iraq against the
world. 111
Let me take this opportunity to make the policy of my
government clear. The United States supports the use of
compel
sanctions to persuade Iraq's leaders to withdraw immediately and
without condition from Kuwait. We also support the provision of
food for humanitarian purposes, so long as distribution can be
and
IS not
properly monitored. We have no quarrel 1 World's with the people of Iraq;
We do not wish for them to suffer, The Sin quarral is with
the distator who ordered The invoice
story
other
We have dispatched military forces to the region to enforce
its
sanctions; to deter and if need be defend against further
aggression. We seek no advantage for ourselves. Nor do we seek
to maintain our military forces in Saudi Arabia for one day
longer than is necessary. U.S. forces were sent at the request
The A micon prople A This president went every single suman
of the Saudi Government; U.S. forces will depart the same way!
Let me also emphasize that we hope military forces will
sobher
brought
never have to be used. We seek a peaceful outcome -- a
home as so,
diplomatic outcome. And one more thing -- in the aftermath of
as this
Iraq's unconditional departure from Kuwait, I truly believe that
wissin
there may be opportunities: for Iraq and Kuwait to settle their
IS cough
5
differences permanently; for the states of the Gulf themselves to
build new arrangements for stability; and for all the states and
peoples of the region to settle the conflict that divides the
Arabs from Israel. But, first, we must demonstrate that
aggression will not be tolerated or rewarded.
Through the U.N. Security Council, Iraq has been judged by a
jury of its peers -- the very nations of the Earth. Today, the
regime stands isolated and out of step with the times, separated
from the civilized world not by space, but by centuries.
Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throw-back to another era,
a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait,
terrorized innocent civilians, and held even diplomats hostage.
Iraq and its leaders must be held liable for these crimes of
abuse and destruction. But this outrageous disregard for basic
human rights does not come as a total surprise. Thousands of
Iraqis have been executed on political and religious grounds, and
even more through a genocidal, poison gas war waged against
Iraq's own Kurdish villagers.
As a world community, we must act -- not only to deter the
use of inhuman weapons like mustard and nerve gas --- but to
eliminate the weapons entirely. That is why, one year ago, I
came to the General Assembly with new proposals to banish these
terrible weapons from the face of the Earth.
I promised the United States would destroy over 98 percent
of its stockpile in the first eight years of a chemical weapons
ban treaty, and 100 percent -- all of them -- in 10 years, if all
6
chemical weapons-capable nations sign the treaty.
We've stood by those promises. In June, the U.S. and the
Soviet Union signed a landmark agreement to halt production, and
to destroy the vast majority of our stockpiles. Today, U.S.
chemical weapons are being destroyed, even as we meet.
But time is running out. This is not a merely bilateral
concern. The Gulf crisis proves how important it is to act
together -- and to act now -- to conclude an absolute, worldwide
ban on these weapons. We must also redouble our efforts to stem
the spread of nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and the bal-
listic missiles that can rain destruction upon distant peoples.
The United Nations can help bring about a new day, a day
when these kinds of terrible weapons -- and the terrible despots
who would use them -- are both a thing of the past. It is in our
hands to leave these dark machines behind, in the dark ages where
they belong, and to press forward to cap a historic movement
towards a new world order and a long era of peace.
We have a vision of a new partnership of nations that
transcends the Cold War. A partnership based on consultation,
cooperation and collective action, especially through inter-
national and regional organizations. A partnership united by
principle and the Rule of Law, and supported by an equitable
sharing of both cost and commitment. A partnership whose goals
are to increase democracy, increase prosperity, increase the
peace -- and reduce arms.
And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
7
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our progress
as a community of nations. III
The Year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning not only the
turn of the decade, not only the turn of the century, but also
the turn of the millennium. 111
And 10 years from now, as the 55th Session of the General
Assembly begins, you will again find many of us in this Hall, our
hair a bit more gray, perhaps a bit less spring in our walk. But
you will not find us with any less hope or idealism, or any less
confidence in the ultimate triumph of humankind. 111
I see a world of open borders, open trade, and -- most
importantly -- open minds. A world that celebrates the common
heritage that belongs to all the world's people, taking pride not
just in hometown or homeland but in humanity itself. III
I see a world touched by a spirit like that of the Olympics:
Based not on competition that's driven by fear, but sought out of
joy and exhilaration and a true quest for excellence. 111
I see a world where democracy continues to win new friends
Nonth, central mal south
and convert old foes, and where the Americas can provide a model
for the future for all humankind -- the world's first completely
democratic hemisphere. III
And I see a world building on the emerging new model of
European unity. Not just Europe, but the whole world -- "whole
and free." 1111
This is precisely why the present aggression in the Gulf is
a menace not only to one region's security, but to the entire
8
world's vision of our future. It threatens to turn our dream of
a new international order into a grim nightmare of anarchy, in
which the law of the jungle supplants the law of nations.
That is why the United Nations reacted with such historic
unity and resolve. And that is why this challenge is a test we
cannot afford to fail. 111 I am confident we will prevail.
Success, too, will have lasting consequences -- reinforcing
civilized standards of international conduct, setting a new
precedent in international cooperation, brightening the prospects
for our vision of the future.
There are 10 more years until the century is out.
10 more years to put the struggles of the 20th century
permanently behind us.
10 more years to help launch a new partnership of nations.
And throughout those 10 years -- and beginning now -- the
U.N. has a new and vital role in building towards that partner-
ship. Last year's General Assembly showed how we can make
greater progress towards a more pragmatic and successful U.N.
And, for the first time, the U.N. Security Council is beginning
to work as it was designed to work.
We have shown that the U.N. can count on the collective
strength of the international community. We have shown that the
U.N. can rise to the challenge of aggression, as its founders
hoped it would. And now in this time of testing, we must also
show that the U.N. is the place to build international support
and consensus for meeting the other challenges we face.
9
The world remains a dangerous place. And our security and
well-being often depends, in part, on events occurring far away.
We need serious international cooperative efforts to make headway
on threats to the environment, on terrorism, on managing the debt
burden, on fighting the scourge of international drug
trafficking, and on peace-keeping efforts around the world.
But the world also remains a hopeful place. Calls for
democracy and human rights are being reborn everywhere. These
calls are an expression of support for the values enshrined in
the U.N. Charter. They encourage our hopes for a more stable,
more peaceful, more prosperous world.
Free elections are the foundation of democratic government,
and can produce dramatic successes, as we have seen in Namibia
and Nicaragua. And the time has come to structure the U.N. role
in such efforts more formally. And so today, I propose that the
United Nations establish a Special Coordinator for Electoral
Assistance, to be assisted by a U.N. Electoral Commission
comprised of distinguished experts from around the world.
As with free elections, we also believe that universal U.N.
membership for all States is central to the future of this
Organization, and to the new partnership we've discussed. In
support of this principle, and in conjunction with U.N. efforts
to reduce regional tensions, the United States fully supports
U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea. We do so without
prejudice to the ultimate objective of reunification of the
Korean peninsula, and without opposition to simultaneous
10
membership for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Building on these and other initiatives, we must join
together in a new compact -- all of us -- to bring the United
Nations into the 21st Century. And I call today for a major,
long-term effort to do this. We should build on the success of
our distinguished Secretary-General, my long-time friend and
colleague, Javier Perez de Cuellar. We should strive for greater
effectiveness and efficiency of the U.N.
The United States is committed to playing its part. We
a
partnership
offer our continuing leadership, helping to maintain global
??
security, promoting democracy and prosperity. My Administration
is fully committed to supporting the United Nations, and to
?
paying what we are obliged to pay by our commitment to the
Charter. International peace and security -- and international
freedom and prosperity -- require no less.
The world must know and understand: From this hour, from
this day, from this hall -- we step forth with a new sense of
purpose, a new sense of possibilities. We stand together,
prepared to swim upstream, to march uphill, to tackle the tough
challenges as they come -- not only as the United Nations -- but
as the nations of the world united. 1111
Let it be said of the final decade of the 20th Century:
This was a time when humankind came into its own. When we
emerged from the grit and the smoke of the industrial age to
bring about a revolution of the spirit and of the mind, and began
11
a journey into a new day, a new age, and a new partnership of
nations. \\\\
The U.N. is now fulfilling its promise as the world's
parliament of peace. I congratulate you. I support you. And I
wish you Godspeed in the challenges ahead.
Thank you.
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 28, 1990
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON CW
FROM:
EDWARD E. McNALLY gmw
SUBJECT:
ADDRESS TO THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
I.
SUMMARY
On Monday, October 1, at 11:40 a.m., you will address the
45th U.N. General Assembly. This draft was prepared with
guidance from General Scowcroft, Ambassador Pickering, the State
Department, Richard Haass, Nancy Dyke and other NSC staff.
II. DISCUSSION
This address (20 minutes, on teleprompter) builds on your
remarks in Helsinki, to the Joint Session of Congress, and at the
World Bank, calling for the world to move beyond containment and
the cold war to the "new partnership of nations" you've proposed.
The remarks praise the U.N., calling for a key role in
building the new partnership over the coming years. It includes
particular praise for the U.N.'s response to the Gulf crisis, and
renews last year's call for abolishing chemical weapons. The
draft also includes two new proposals: a U.N. Electoral
Commission, and U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea.
The U.N. speech also marks our last opportunity -- and our
best opportunity -- to say that "the cold war is over" -- a
predictable "headline" likely to resonate clear on into 1992.
It's the right thing to say because it matches the mood of
the times, the theme of your speech, and your vision of a new
partnership of nations. And it forthrightly acknowledges what we
have already as much as said -- and what everyone recognizes is a
reality.
It's the last opportunity because most observers will mark
German reunification on Oct. 3 as the formal end of the cold war
era. And it's the best opportunity because it's before not only
"a" world forum, but the world forum -- one we've asked to play a
key part in reintegrating the Soviet Union into the community of
nations. For these reasons, we've [bracketed] for your
consideration the "cold war is over" language that you looked at
for the Joint Session of Congress speech. (Please see the bottom
of page two and the top of page three.)
McNally/Simon
September 28, 1990
Draft Seven (B:UN)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK CITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1990, 11:40 A.M.
Mr. President. Mr. Secretary-General. Distinguished
delegates to the United Nations:
It is a great privilege to greet you today as we begin what
marks a new and historic Session of the General Assembly. My
congratulations to the Honorable Guido de Marco on your election
as President of the General Assembly. On a personal note, I want
to say that, having witnessed the unprecedented unity and
cooperation of the past two months, I have never been prouder to
have once served within your ranks, and never been prouder that
the U.S. is host to the U.N. 111
45 years ago, while the fires of an epic war still raged
across two oceans and two continents, a small group of men and
women began a search for hope amid the ruins. They gathered in
San Francisco, stepping back from the haze and the horror to try
to shape a new structure that might support an ancient dream.
Intensely idealistic, and yet tempered by war, they sought
to build a new kind of bridge, a bridge between nations, a bridge
that might help carry humankind from its darkest hour to its
brightest day. III
The founding of the United Nations embodied our deepest
hopes for a peaceful world. And during the past year, we have
come closer than ever before to realizing those hopes. We've
seen a century sundered by barbed threats and barbed wire give
2
way to a new era of peace, cooperation, and freedom.
The Revolution of '89 swept the world almost with a life of
its own, carried by a new breeze of freedom that transformed the
political climate from Central Europe to Central America, and
touched almost every corner of the globe.
That breeze has been sustained by a now almost universal
recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The human spirit
can't be locked up forever. The truth is, people everywhere are
motivated in much the same ways. And people everywhere want much
the same things: The chance to live a life of purpose -- the
chance to choose a life -- in which they and their children can
learn, grow healthy, worship freely, and prosper through the work
of their hands, their hearts and their minds.
We're not talking about the power of nations, but the power
of individuals. The power to choose, the power to risk, the
power to succeed.
This is a new and different world. Not since 1945 have we
seen the real possibility of using the United Nations as it was
designed -- as a center for international collective security.
[[The changes in the Soviet Union have been critical to the
emergence of a stronger U.N. The U.S.-Soviet relationship is
finally beyond containment and confrontation, and now we seek to
fulfill the promise of mutually shared understanding. III
The long twilight struggle that for 45 years has divided
Europe, our two nations, and much of the world has to come to an
end. Much has changed over the last two years. The Soviet Union
3.
has taken many dramatic and important steps to again join the
community of nations.
When the Soviet Union agreed with us, here in the United
Nations, to condemn the aggression of Iraq, there could be no
doubt that at long last, we can put four decades of history
behind us.
No longer will the machinery of the United Nations be frozen
by the Cold War. At long last, we can build new bridges, and
tear down old walls. At long last: The cold war is over.]]
Two days from now, the world will be watching when the [cold
war] is formally buried in Berlin. And in this time of testing,
a fundamental question must be asked. A question not for any one
nation -- but for the United Nations. And the question is this:
Can we work together in a new partnership of nations? Can the
collective strength of the world community, expressed by the
United Nations, unite to deter and defeat aggression?
Because the [cold war's] battle of ideas is not the last
epic battle of this century. Two months ago, in the waning weeks
of one of history's most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty
of the peaceful Kuwaiti desert was fouled by the stench of diesel
and the roar of steel tanks. Once again the sound of distant
thunder echoed across a cloudless sky. And once again the world
awoke to face the guns of August. 111
But this time, the world was ready. The U.N. Security
Council's resolute response to Iraq's unprovoked aggression has
been without precedent. Since the invasion on August 2nd, the
4
Council has passed eight major resolutions setting the terms for
a solution of the crisis.
The Iraqi regime has yet to face the facts. But as I said
last month: The annexation of Kuwait will not be permitted to
stand. This is not simply the view of the United States. It is
the view of every Kuwaiti, the Arab league, and the United
Nations. Iraq's leaders should listen: it is Iraq against the
world. III
Let me take this opportunity to make the policy of my
government clear. The United States supports the use of
sanctions to persuade Iraq's leaders to withdraw immediately and
without condition from Kuwait. We also support the provision of
food for humanitarian purposes, so long as distribution can be
properly monitored. We have no quarrel with the people of Iraq;
we do not wish for them to suffer.
We have dispatched military forces to the region to enforce
sanctions; to deter and if need be defend against further
aggression. We seek no advantage for ourselves. Nor do we seek
to maintain our military forces in Saudi Arabia for one day
longer than is necessary. U.S. forces were sent at the request
of the Saudi Government; U.S. forces will depart the same way.
Let me also emphasize that we hope military forces will
never have to be used. We seek a peaceful outcome -- a
diplomatic outcome. And one more thing -- in the aftermath of
Iraq's unconditional departure from Kuwait, I truly believe that
there may be opportunities: for Iraq and Kuwait to settle their
5
differences permanently; for the states of the Gulf themselves to
build new arrangements for stability; and for all the states and
peoples of the region to settle the conflict that divides the
Arabs from Israel. But, first, we must demonstrate that
aggression will not be tolerated or rewarded.
Through the U.N. Security Council, Iraq has been judged by a
jury of its peers -- the very nations of the Earth. Today, the
regime stands isolated and out of step with the times, separated
from the civilized world not by space, but by centuries.
Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throw-back to another era,
a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait,
terrorized innocent civilians, and held even diplomats hostage.
Iraq and its leaders must be held liable for these crimes of
abuse and destruction. But this outrageous disregard for basic
human rights does not come as a total surprise. Thousands of
Iraqis have been executed on political and religious grounds, and
even more through a genocidal, poison gas war waged against
Iraq's own Kurdish villagers.
As a world community, we must act -- not only to deter the
use of inhuman weapons like mustard and nerve gas -- but to
eliminate the weapons entirely. That is why, one year ago, I
came to the General Assembly with new proposals to banish these
terrible weapons from the face of the Earth.
I promised the United States would destroy over 98 percent
of its stockpile in the first eight years of a chemical weapons
ban treaty, and 100 percent -- all of them -- in 10 years, if all
6
chemical weapons-capable nations sign the treaty.
We've stood by those promises. In June, the U.S. and the
Soviet Union signed a landmark agreement to halt production, and
to destroy the vast majority of our stockpiles. Today, U.S.
chemical weapons are being destroyed, even as we meet. delete
But time is running out. This is not a merely bilateral
concern. The Gulf crisis proves how important it is to act
together -- and to act now -- to conclude an absolute, worldwide
ban on these weapons. We must also redouble our efforts to stem
the spread of nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and the bal-
listic missiles that can rain destruction upon distant peoples.
The United Nations can help bring about a new day, a day
when these kinds of terrible weapons -- and the terrible despots
who would use them -- are both a thing of the past. It is in our
hands to leave these dark machines behind, in the dark ages where
they belong, and to press forward to cap a historic movement
towards a new world order and a long era of peace.
We have a vision of a new partnership of nations that
transcends the Cold War. A partnership based on consultation,
cooperation and collective action, especially through inter-
national and regional organizations. A partnership united by
principle and the Rule of Law, and supported by an equitable
sharing of both cost and commitment. A partnership whose goals
are to increase democracy, increase prosperity, increase the
peace -- and reduce arms.
And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
7
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our progress
as a community of nations. III
The Year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning not only the
turn of the decade, not only the turn of the century, but also
the turn of the millennium. III
And 10 years from now, as the 55th Session of the General
Assembly begins, you will again find many of us in this Hall, our
hair a bit more gray, perhaps a bit less spring in our walk. But
you will not find us with any less hope or idealism, or any less
confidence in the ultimate triumph of humankind. III
I see a world of open borders, open trade, and -- most
importantly -- open minds. A world that celebrates the common
heritage that belongs to all the world's people, taking pride not
just in hometown or homeland but in humanity itself. III
I see a world touched by a spirit like that of the Olympics:
Based not on competition that's driven by fear, but sought out of
joy and exhilaration and a true quest for excellence. III
I see a world where democracy continues to win new friends
and convert old foes, and where the Americas can provide a model
for the future for all humankind -- the world's first completely
democratic hemisphere. 111
And I see a world building on the emerging new model of
European unity. Not just Europe, but the whole world -- "whole
and free." 1111
This is precisely why the present aggression in the Gulf is
a menace not only to one region's security, but to the entire
8
world's vision of our future. It threatens to turn our dream of
a new international order into a grim nightmare of anarchy, in
which the law of the jungle supplants the law of nations.
That is why the United Nations reacted with such historic
unity and resolve. And that is why this challenge is a test we
cannot afford to fail. III I am confident we will prevail.
Success, too, will have lasting consequences -- reinforcing
civilized standards of international conduct, setting a new
precedent in international cooperation, brightening the prospects
for our vision of the future.
There are 10 more years until the century is out.
10 more years to put the struggles of the 20th century
permanently behind us.
10 more years to help launch a new partnership of nations.
And throughout those 10 years -- and beginning now -- the
U.N. has a new and vital role in building towards that partner-
ship. Last year's General Assembly showed how we can make
greater progress towards a more pragmatic and successful U.N.
And, for the first time, the U.N. Security Council is beginning
to work as it was designed to work.
We have shown that the U.N. can count on the collective
strength of the international community. We have shown that the
U.N. can rise to the challenge of aggression, as its founders
hoped it would. And now in this time of testing, we must also
show that the U.N. is the place to build international support
and consensus for meeting the other challenges we face.
9
The world remains a dangerous place. And our security and
well-being often depends, in part, on events occurring far away.
We need serious international cooperative efforts to make headway
on threats to the environment, on terrorism, on managing the debt
burden, on fighting the scourge of international drug
trafficking, and on peace-keeping efforts around the world.
But the world also remains a hopeful place. Calls for
democracy and human rights are being reborn everywhere. These
calls are an expression of support for the values enshrined in
the U.N. Charter. They encourage our hopes for a more stable,
more peaceful, more prosperous world.
Free elections are the foundation of democratic government,
and can produce dramatic successes, as we have seen in Namibia
and Nicaragua. And the time has come to structure the U.N. role
in such efforts more formally. And so today, I propose that the
United Nations establish a Special Coordinator for Electoral
Assistance, to be assisted by a U.N. Electoral Commission
comprised of distinguished experts from around the world.
As with free elections, we also believe that universal U.N.
membership for all States is central to the future of this
Organization, and to the new partnership we've discussed. In
support of this principle, and in conjunction with U.N. efforts
to reduce regional tensions, the United States fully supports
U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea. We do so without
prejudice to the ultimate objective of reunification of the
Korean peninsula, and without opposition to simultaneous
10
membership for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Building on these and other initiatives, we must join
together in a new compact -- all of us -- to bring the United
Nations into the 21st Century. And I call today for a major,
long-term effort to do this. We should build on the success of
our distinguished Secretary-General, my long-time friend and
colleague, Javier Perez de Cuellar. We should strive for greater
effectiveness and efficiency of the U.N.
The United States is committed to playing its part. We
offer our continuing leadership, helping to maintain global
security, promoting democracy and prosperity. My Administration
is fully committed to supporting the United Nations, and to
paying what we are obliged to pay by our commitment to the
Charter. International peace and security -- and international
freedom and prosperity -- require no less. 1111
The world must know and understand: From this hour, from
this day, from this hall -- we step forth with a new sense of
purpose, a new sense of possibilities. We stand together,
prepared to swim upstream, to march uphill, to tackle the tough
challenges as they come -- not only as the United Nations -- but
as the nations of the world united. 1111
Let it be said of the final decade of the 20th Century:
This was a time when humankind came into its own. When we
emerged from the grit and the smoke of the industrial age to
bring about a revolution of the spirit and of the mind, and began
11
a journey into a new day, a new age, and a new partnership of
nations. - III
The U.N. is now fulfilling its promise as the world's
parliament of peace. I congratulate you. I support you. And I
wish you Godspeed in the challenges ahead.
Thank you.
#
#
#
#4087
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary.
(New York, New York)
For Immediate Release
October 1, 1990
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The United Nations Building
New York, New York
11:44 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, thank you very much. Mr.
Secretary General, distinguished delegates to the United Nations:
It is really a great privilege to greet you today as we
begin what marks a new and historic session of the General Assembly.
My congratulations to the Honorable Guido de Marco on your election,
sir, as President of the General Assembly. And on a personal note, I
want to say that, having witnessed the unprecedented unity and
cooperation of the past two months, that I have never been prouder to
have once served within your ranks, and never been prouder that the
United (Applause.) States is the host country for the United Nations.
Forty-five years ago, while the fires of an epic war
still raged across two oceans and two continents, a small group of
men and women began a search for hope amid the ruins. And they
gathered in San Francisco, stepping back from the haze and horror, to
try to shape a new structure that might support an ancient dream.
sought to build a new kind of bridge, a bridge between nations, a
Intensely idealistic, and yet tempered by war, they
brightest day.
bridge that might help carry humankind from its darkest hour to its
hopes for a peaceful world. And during the past year, we've come
The founding of the United Nations embodied our deepest
closer than ever before to realizing those hopes. We've seen a
century sundered by barbed threats and barbed wire give way to a new
era of peace and competition and freedom.
of its own, carried by a new breeze of freedom. It transformed a the
The Revolution of '89 swept the world almost with life
almost political climate from Central Europe to Central America, and touched
every corner of the globe.
That breeze has been sustained by a now almost universal
be recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The human spirit cannot
in locked up forever. The truth is, people everywhere are motivated
much the same ways. And people everywhere want much the
life things: the chance to live a life of purpose; the chance to same choose a
hearts and their minds.
worship freely, and prosper through the work of their hands and their
in which they and their children can learn, and grow healthy,
power of individuals. The power to choose, the power to risk, the
We're not talking about the power of nations, but the
power to succeed.
This is a new and different world. Not since 1945 have
designed -- as a center for international collective security.
we seen the real possibility of using the United Nations as it was
MORE
- 2 -
The changes in the Soviet Union have been critical to th.
emergence of a stronger United Nations. The U.S.-Soviet relationship
is finally beyond containment and confrontation, and now we seek to
fulfill the promise of mutually shared understanding.
The long twilight struggle that for 45 years has divided
Europe, our two nations, and much of the world has come to an end.
Much has changed over the last two years. The Soviet Union has taker
many dramatic and important steps to participate fully in the
community of nations.
And when the Soviet Union agreed with so many of us here
in the United Nations to condemn the aggression of Iraq, there could
be no doubt -- no doubt then -- that we had, indeed, put four decades
of history behind us.
We are hopeful that the machinery of the United Nations
will no longer be frozen by the divisions that plagued us during the
Cold War. That at last -- long last -- we can build new bridges and
tear down old walls. That at long last we will be able to build a
new world based on an event for which we have all hoped -- an end to
the Cold War.
Two days from now, the world will be watching when the
Cold War is formally buried in Berlin. And in this time of testing,
a fundamental question must be asked. A question not for any one
nation -- but for the United Nations. And the question is this: Can
we work together in a new partnership of nations? Can the collective
strength of the world community, expressed by the United Nations,
unite to deter and defeat aggression? Because the Cold War's battle
of ideas is not the last epic battle of this century.
Two months ago, in the waning weeks of one of history's
most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty of the peaceful Kuwaiti
desert was fouled by the stench of diesel and the roar of steel
tanks. Once again the sound of distant thunder echoed across a
cloudless sky. And once again the world awoke to face the guns of
August.
But this time, the world was ready. The United Nations
Security Council's resolute response to Iraq's unprovoked aggression
has been without precedent. Since the invasion on August 2nd, the
Council has passed eight major resolutions setting the terms for a
solution to the crisis.
The Iraqi regime has yet to face the facts. But as I
said last month, the annexation of Kuwait will not be permitted to
stand. (Applause.) And this is not simply the view of the United
States. It is the view of every Kuwaiti, the Arab League, the United
Nations. Iraq's leaders should listen: It is Iraq against the
world.
Let me take this opportunity to make the policy of my
government clear. The United States supports the use of sanctions to
compel Iraq's leaders to withdraw immediately and without condition
from Kuwait. We also support the provision of medicine and food for
humanitarian purposes, so long as distribution can be properly
monitored. Our quarrel is not with the people of Iraq. We do not
wish for them to suffer. The world's quarrel is with the dictator
who ordered that invasion.
Along with others, we have dispatched military forces to
the region to enforce sanctions, to deter and, if need be, defend
against further aggression. And we seek no advantage for ourselves;
nor do we seek to maintain our military forces in Saudi Arabia for
one day longer than is necessary. U.S. forces were sent at the
request of the Saudi government. And the American people, and this
President, want every single American soldier brought home as soon as
this mission is completed.
Let me also emphasize that all of us here at the U.N.
hope that military force will never be used. We seek a peaceful
MORE
- 3 -
outcome -- a diplomatic outcome. And one more thing: in the
aftermath of Iraq's unconditional departure from Kuwait, I truly
believe there may be opportunities -- for Irag and Kuwait to settle
their differences permanently; for the states of the Gulf themselves
to build new arrangements for stability; and for all the states and
the peoples of the region to settle the conflicts that divide the
Arabs from Israel. But, the world's key task -- now, first and
always -- must be to demonstrate that aggression will not be
tolerated or rewarded.
Through the U.N. Security Council, Iraq has been judged
-- fairly judged by a jury of its peers, the very nations of the
Earth. Today, the regime stands isolated and out of step with the
times, separated from the civilized world not by space, but by
centuries.
Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throwback to another
era, a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait; it has
terrorized innocent civilians; it has held even diplomats hostage.
Iraq and its leaders must be held liable for these crimes of abuse
and destruction. But this outrageous disregard for basic human
rights does not came as a total surprise. Thousands of Iraqis have
been executed on political and religious grounds, and even more
through a genocidal, poison gas war waged against Iraq's own Kurdish
villagers.
As a world community, we must act -- not only to deter
the use of inhumane weapons like mustard and nerve gas -- but to
eliminate the weapons entirely. And that is why, one year ago, I
came to the General Assembly with new proposals to banish these
terrible weapons from the face of the Earth.
I promised that the United States would destroy over 98
percent of its stockpile in the first eight years of a chemical
weapons ban treaty, and 100 percent -- all of them -- in 10 years, if
all nations with chemical weapons capabilities -- chemical weapons
signed the treaty.
We've stood by those promises. In June, the United
States and the Soviet Union signed a landmark agreement to halt
production and to detroy the vast majority of our stockpiles. Today,
U.S. chemical weapons are being destroyed.
But time is running out. This isn't merely a bilateral
concern. The Gulf crisis proves how important it is to act together,
and to act now, to conclude an absolute, worldwide ban on these
weapons. We must also redouble our efforts to stem the spread of
nuclear weapons, biological weapons and the ballistic missiles that
can rain destruction upon distant peoples.
The United Nations can help bring about'a new day, a day
when these kinds of terrible weapons, and the terrible despots who
would use them, are both a thing of the past. It is in our hands to
leave these dark machines behind, in the Dark Ages where they belong,
and to press forward to cap a historic movement towards a new world
order and a long era of peace.
We have a vision of a new partnership of nations that
transcends the Cold War. A partnership based on consultation,
cooperation and collective action, especially through international
and regional organizations. A partnership united by principle and
the rule of law and supported by an equitable sharing of both cost
and commitment. A partnership whose goals are to increase democracy,
increase prosperity, increase the peace and reduce arms.
And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our progress as
a community of nations.
The year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning not only
the turn of the decade, not only the turn of the century, but also
the turn of the millennium.
MORE
- 4 -
And 10 years from now, as the 55th session of the General
Assembly begins, you will again find many of us in this hall, hair a
bit more gray perhaps, maybe a little less spring in our walk. But
you will not find us with any less hope or idealism or any less
confidence in the ultimate triumph of mankind.
I see a world of open borders, open trade and, most
importantly, open minds. A world that celebrates the common heritage
that belongs to all the world's people taking pride not just in
hometown or homeland but in humanity itself.
I see a world touched by a spirit like that of the
Olympics -- based not on competition that's driven by fear, but
sought out of joy and exhilaration and a true quest for excellence.
And I see a world where democracy continues to win new
friends and convert old foes and where the Americas, North, Central
and South, can provide a model for the future of all humankind; the
world's first completely democratic hemisphere.
And I see a world building on the emerging new model of
European unity. Not just Europe, but the whole world whole and free.
This is precisely why the present aggression in the Gulf
is a menace not only to one region's security, but to the entire
world's vision of our future. It threatens to turn the dream of a
new international order into a grim nightmare of anarchy in which the
law of the jungle supplants the law of nations.
And that's why the United Nations reacted with such
historic unity and resolve. And that's why this challenge is a test
that we cannot afford to fail. I am confident we will prevail.
Success, too, will have lasting consequences -- reinforcing civilized
standards of international conduct, setting a new precedent in
international cooperation, brightening the prospects for our vision
of the future.
There are 10 more years until this century is out. Ten
more years to put the struggles of the 20th century permanently
behind us. Ten more years to help launch a new partnership of
nations. And throughout those 10 years, and beginning now, the
United Nations has a new and vital role in building towards that
partnership. Last year's General Assembly showed how we can make
greater progress toward a more pragmatic and successful United
Nations. And, for the first time, the U.N. Security Council is
beginning to work as it was designed to work.
And now is the time to set aside old and
counterproductive debates and procedures and controversies and
action. resolutions. It's time to replace polemic attacks with pragmatic
And we've shown that the U.N. can count on the collective
strength of the international community. We've shown that the U.N.
can rise to the challenge of aggression just as its founders hoped
that it would. And now is the time of testing. And we must also
show that the United Nations is the place to build international
support and consensus for meeting the other challenges we face.
The world remains a dangerous place. And our security
and well-being often depends, in part, on events occurring far away.
the threats to the environment, on terrorism, on managing the debt
We need serious international cooperative efforts to make headway on
on refugees and peace-keeping efforts around the world.
burden, on fighting the scourge of international drug trafficking and
But the world also remains a hopeful place. Calls for
democracy and human rights are being reborn everywhere. And these
calls are an expression of support for the values enshrined in the
United Nations Charter. They encourage our hopes for a more stable,
more peaceful, more prosperous world.
MORE
- 5 -
Free elections are the foundation of democratic
government and can produce dramatic successes, as we have seen in
Namibia and Nicaragua. And the time has come to structure the U.N.
role in such efforts more formally. And so today, I propose that the
U.N. establish a Special Coordinator for Electoral Assistance, to be
assisted by a U.N. Electoral Commission comprised of distinguished
experts from around the world.
As with free elections, we also believe that universal
U.N. membership for all states is central to the future of this
organization, and to this new partnership we've discussed. In
support of this principle, and in conjunction with U.N. efforts to
reduce regional tensions, the United States fully supports U.N.
membership for the Republic of Korea. We do so without prejudice to
the ultimate objective of reunification of the Korean Peninsula and
without opposition to simultaneous membership for the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea. (Applause.)
Building on these and other initiatives, we must join
together in a new compact -- all of us -- to bring the United Nations
into the 21st century. And I call today for a major long-term effort
to do SO. We should build on the success -- the admirable success --
of our distinguished Secretary General, my longtime friend and yours,
my longtime colleague I might also say, Javier Perez de Cuellar. We
should strive for greater effectiveness and efficiency of the United
Nations.
The United States is committed to playing its part,
helping to maintain global security, promoting democracy and
prosperity. And my aðministration is fully committed to supporting
the United Nations and to paying what we are obliged to pay by our
commitment to the Charter. International peace and security -- and
international freedom and prosperity -- require no less.
The world must know and understand: From this hour, from
this day, from this hall, we step forth with a new sense of purpose,
a new sense of possibilities. We stand together, prepared to swim
upstream, to march uphill, to tackle the tough challenges as they
come -- not only as the United Nations, but as the nations of the
world united.
And so let it be said of the final decade of the 20th
century, this was a time when humankind came into its own. When we
emerged from the grit and the smoke of the industrial age to bring
about a revolution of the spirit and the mind, and began a journey
into a new day, a new age, and a new partnership of nations.
The U.N. is now fulfilling its promise as the world's
parliament of peace. And I congratulate you. I support you. And I
wish you Godspeed in the challenges ahead.
Thank you very, very much.
(Applause.)
END
12:09 P.M. EDT
CW:
Here's an NSC staff mark-up. My guess is that Brent hasnt yet
had a chance to sign off on it. But it gives you some idea where
folks here are coming from.
Again, I would ax much of what is now in from the middle of page
8 onwards
it really does read like a christmas tree and in the
process dilutes our message and our priorities.
peace until you.
RH
ps i'll only be here until 5:30 today given the holiday that
starts at sundown
so get in touch before then if any questions
come up.
Haass/Charles 7689
CLOSE HOLD
Document No. 177903
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
09/26/90
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 4:00 p.m. 09/27
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
SUBJECT:
(09/26 draft four)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCRGF
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
CARD
UNTERMEYER
CICCONI
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to
Chriss Winston by 4:00 p.m., 09/27, with a copy to my
office. Thanks.
RESPONSE:
TO:
CHRISS WINSTON
NSC concurs with changes noted.
James W. Cicconi
Brent Scowcroft
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
CLOSE HOLD
Ext. 2702
CC: James W. Cicconi
Ronorable my election Guida to as de Marco President upon of
congratul ations to the
fin
the General
McNally/Simon
25 PM 5:
September 26, 1990
Draft Four (B:UN)
assembly.
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK CITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1990
Mr. President. Mr. Secretary-General. Distinguished
delegates of the United Nations:
It is a great privilege to greet you today as we begin what
marks a new and historic Session of the General Assembly.
And on
a personal note, I want to say that, having witnessed the
unprecedented unity and cooperation of the past two months, I
have never been prouder to have once served within your ranks,
and never been prouder that the U.S. is host to the U.N. III
45 years ago, while the fires of an epic war still raged
across two oceans and two continents, a small group of men and
women began a search for hope amid the ruins. They gathered in
San Francisco, stepping back from the haze and the horror to try
to shape a new structure that might support an ancient dream.
Intensely idealistic, and yet tempered by war, they sought
to build a new kind of bridge, a bridge between nations, a bridge
that might help carry humankind from its darkest hour to its
brightest day. III
The founding of the United Nations embodied our deepest
hopes for a peaceful world. And during the past year, we have
come closer than ever before to realizing those hopes. We've
seen a century sundered by barbed threats and barbed wire give
way to a new era of peace, cooperation, and freedom.
The Revolution of '89 swept the world almost with a life of
admounledge what
incroper recognings
is a reality.
2
its own, a new breeze of freedom that transformed the political
climate from Central Europe to Central America, and touched
almost every corner of the globe.
That breeze has been sustained by a now almost universal
recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The human spirit
can't be locked up forever. The truth is, people everywhere are
motivated in much the same ways. And people everywhere want much
the same things: The chance to live a life -- the chance to
choose a life in which they and their children can learn and grow
as we discussed yesterday at the world Summit for children
healthy worship freely, and prosper through the work of their
hands, their hearts and their heads.
We're not talking about the power of nations, but the power
of individuals. The power to choose, the power to risk, the
to the gence
power to succeed. \\\\
of a stronger UN.
This is a new and different world. Not since 1945 have we
seen the real possibility of using the United Nations as it was
designed -- as a center for international collective security.
The changes in the Soviet Union's attitude toward foreign
The US Loviet
policy and the United Nations have been critical Working
relationship is finally beyond containment and confrontation-
together, the United States and the Soviet Union have moved from
and now we stand at the portal of the promise of
the peril of mutually assured destruction, to the promise of
mutually shared understanding. III
[It is fitting that it is here, at the United Nations, that
we should declare an end to the Cold war, the long twilight
struggle that for 45 years has divided Europe, our two nations,
has come to an end.
and much of the world. For we meet, as Lincoln said of Gettys
3
burg, on a great battlefield of that war the battlefield of
ideas
It was here at the United Nations that some of the most
divisive, ideological battles of the past four decades were
fought. And, as at Gettysburg -- the battlefield that marks
America's own most costly and divisive war -- it is time to bury
the past and move on to a time of healing. Time to bury not each
other -- but the Cold War itself.
When the Soviet Union joined with us, here in the United
Nations, to condemn the aggression of a Iraq former ally, then I knew,
at long last, we can put 45 years of history behind us. III
No longer will the machinery of the United Nations be frozen
by the Cold War. At long last, we can build new bridges, and
tear down old walls. At long last: The Cold War is over. 1111
Two days from now, many of you will be there when the Cold
War is formally buried in Berlin. And in this time of testing, a
fundamental question must be asked. A question not for any one
nation -- but for the United Nations. And the question is this:
Can we work together in a new partnership of nations? Can the
collective strength of the world community, expressed by the
United Nations, unite to deter aggression?
and where necessary defeat
Because the Cold War's battle of ideas is not the last epic
?
battle of this century.
Two months ago, in the waning weeks of one of the world's historys
most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty of the peaceful
Kuwaiti desert was fouled by the stench of diesel and the roar of
(tonks are hade of steel)
4
iron tanks. Once again the sound of distant thunder echoed
across a cloudless sky. And once again the world awoke to face
the guns of August. \\\
But this time, the world was ready. The U.N. Security
Council's response to Iraq's unprovoked aggression has been
without precedent
nothing less than historic. nine Since the invasion on August 2nd,
the Council has passed eight major resolutions setting the terms
for a solution of the crisis.
The Iraqi regime has yet to face the facts. But as I said
last month: The annexation of Kuwait will not be permitted to
stand. What the regime is up against is not only the law of
This is not simply the view of the united states at is
the view of every Kuwaiti, the arab League, and the united Nation
nations -- but also the law of mathematics. The numbers are
drag's leaders should listen: it is
against them. Today it is not Iraq versus Kuwait, but Iraq
against the world. And you know what they say: When it's you
Insert against the world bet on the world.
Through the U.N. Security Council, Iraq has been judged by a
jury of its peers the very nations of the Earth. Today, the
regime stands isolated and out of step with the times, separated
from the civilized world not by space, but by centuries.
graft
Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throw-back to another era, its
a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait, terror-
leaders
must
ized innocent civilians, and held even diplomats hostage. In the be
past 10 years, Iraq's leadership has initiated wars of aggression
held
liable
against not one but two of their neighbors, in violation of
PP Lad to say, this does not come as at total surprise
international treaties. ^ Thousands of Iraqis have been executed
for
these
on political and religious grounds, and a genocidal, poison gas
crimes
even more
of abuse
owing to
and
destruction
5
war waged against Iraq's own Kurdish villagers.
Today, on the anniversary of the convictions at Nuremberg,
the lessons of another era provide names for these barbarous
acts: "War Crimes " "Crimes Against Peace." And "Crimes
Against Humanity."
highlight this
All three are punishable crimes under the principles adopted
by the Allies in 1945, and unanimously reaffirmed by the United
Nations in 1950. And the bottom line is this: Heads of state
Do
can be held responsible for crimes against world law -- and
crimes against world law are liable to punishment. The stakes
are high, the cause is just -- and here at the U.N. -- the
authority is real.
But the U.N. can do more than just deter the use of inhuman
weapons like mustard and nerve gas. The weapons themselves must
be eliminated. That is why, one year ago, I came to the General
Assembly with new proposals to banish these terrible weapons from
the face of the Earth.
I promised the United States would destroy over 98 percent
of its stockpile in the first eight years of a chemical weapons
ban treaty, and 100 percent -- all of them -- in 10 years, if all
chemical weapons-capable nations sign the treaty.
We've stood by those promises. In June, the U.S. and the
Soviet Union signed a landmark agreement to halt production, and
to destroy the vast majority of our stockpiles. Today, U.S.
chemical weapons are being destroyed, even as we meet.
and the fallistic missiles that can rain
distruction upon distant populations.
6
But time is running out. This is not a merely bilateral
concern. The Gulf crisis proves how important it is to act
together -- and to act now -- to conclude an absolute, worldwide
Today, it is within our hands
to leave these dark ress machines behind,
to stem the spread of nuclear weapons, biological Deapons
ban on these weapons. We must also redouble our efforts
The United Nations can help bring about a new day, a day
when these kinds of terrible weapons -- and the terrible despots
the ages, represent, and more
who would use them -- are both a thing of the past.
Thanks to U.N. solidarity, Iraq is cut off by land, sea, and
now air -- and becoming more isolated, and more alone, all the
time. And I can see a time when this regime may be little more
than a footnote, the catalyst that helped cap a historic movement
dark they
towards a new world order and a long era of peace
We have a vision of a new partnership of nations that
transcends the Cold War. A partnership based on consultation,
cooperation and collective action, especially through inter-
national and regional organizations. A partnership united by
principle and the Rule of Law, and supported by an equitable
sharing of both cost and commitment. A partnership whose goals
are to increase democracy, increase prosperity, increase the
peace -- and reduce arms.
And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our progress
as a community of nations.
The Year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning not only the
turn of the decade, not only the turn of the century, but also
the turn of the millennium.
7
And 10 years from now, as the 55th Session of the General
Assembly begins, you will again find many of us in this Hall, our
hair a bit more gray, perhaps a bit less spring in our walk. But
you will not find us with any less hope or idealism, or any less
confidence in the ultimate triumph of humankind. III
I see a world of open borders, open trade, and -- most
importantly -- open minds. A world that celebrates the common
heritage that belongs to all the world's people, taking pride not
just in hometown or homeland but in humanity itself. III
I see a world touched by a spirit like that of the Olympics:
Based not on competition that's driven by fear, but sought out of
joy and exhilaration and a true quest for excellence
I see a world where democracy continues to win new friends
and convert old foes, and where the Americas can provide a model
for the future for all humankind -- the world's first completely
democratic hemisphere. III
And I see a world building on the emerging new model of
European unity. Not just Europe, but the whole world -- "whole
and free."
This is precisely why the present aggression in the Gulf is
a menace not only to one region's security, but to the entire
world's vision of our future. It threatens to turn our dream of
a new international order into a grim nightmare of anarchy, in
which the law of the jungle supplants the law of nations.
That is why the United Nations reacted with such historic
unity and resolve. And that is why this challenge is a test we
8
cannot afford to fail.
The opportunity is truly historic. At the confluence of the
Tigris and Euphrates -- where civilization began -- civilization
can begin anew.
I am confident we will prevail. Success, too, will have
lasting consequences -- reinforcing civilized standards of
international conduct, setting a new precedent in international
cooperation, brightening the prospects for our vision of the
future.
There are 10 more years until the century is out.
10 more years to put the struggles of the 20th century
permanently behind us.
10 more years to help launch a new partnership of nations.
And during those 10 years -- and beginning now -- we can and
must build towards that new partnership by turning to the many
And first on that agenda hastobe
other issues on today's common agenda The scourge of drug abuse
UN efforts
must be vanquished, led by international cooperation such as/the
Cartegena Summit earlier this year. The needs of refugees must
be met, providing relief for the suffering of all victims of
disasters, whether natural or man-made. State-sponsored
terrorism must be stopped. And all the world's hostages --
wherever they are -- must be freed. III
We seek a world not only of shared peace, but also shared
prosperity. We will work together to eliminate the protectionism
that endangers the world trading system, building on the efforts
of the Houston Summit and the ongoing talks of the Uruguay Round
It is essential that all nations enact laws which will deny exports
of precursor chemicals to drug-producing centers. We must
also pursue a global strategy against money laundering.
We internati are mal trade & investment for
also taking action to promote through, more
of GATT. We will battle also the growing debt problem, seeking
instance,
new cooperation and new ideas, like the Enterprise for the
Americas Initiative we launched earlier this year which, on the debt
front, will complement the progress already achieved under Brady the
A thousand years ago, as the first Millennium approached,
plan.
some feared destruction of the Earth by act of God or nature.
Today, as we approach the Year 2000, many fear destruction of our
planet not by act of God but by act of Man; not by act of nature
but by acts against nature. I've said it before: Environmental
destruction knows no borders. And one of our first priorities
has to be protecting the environment -- but without endangering
economic growth.
The crisis in the Gulf also serves to remind us of other
unresolved regional conflicts that require U.N. mediation. One
promising model is Cambodia. This troubled land has suffered a
inference plays
generation of war and upheaval. including the nightmare of the
killing fields under the Khmer Rouge Now for the first time we
to KR hands
are on the brink of a settlement we hope can bring real peace through
of Hun
San
free and fair elections.
We salute the Cambodian parties for their acceptance of the U.N.
framework, and we salute our Perm Five colleagues for their
partnership in this unique and promising new peace initiative.
In all these endeavors, as with the partnership of nations
which we hope will evolve, the role of the U.N. must be
strengthened and perfected. And so let me today suggest two new
proposals -- two principles, really -- that we believe will help
strengthen the U.N.
First, the U.N. is being called on increasingly to support
10
new elections in the world's emerging democracies. Free
elections are the foundation of representative government and
can produce dramatic successes, as we have seen in Namibia and
Nicaragua.
And there are many other situations in which the
U.N.'s services in holding elections are being requested or
considered.
The time has come to structure the United Nations response
to such requests more formally. And so today, I propose that the
United Nations establish a Special Coordinator for Electoral
Assistance, to be assisted by a U.N. Electoral Commission
comprised of distinguished experts from around the world.
Second, we have long been advocates of the principle of
universality. In support of this principle, and in conjunction
with U.N. efforts to reduce regional tensions, the United States
fully supports U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea. We do
so without prejudice to the ultimate objective of reunification
of the Korean peninsula, and without opposition to simultaneous
membership for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Building on these and other initiatives, we must join
together in a new compact -- all of us -- to bring the United
Nations into the 21st Century. And I call today for a major,
aference new
long-term effort to do this. It would be built around the search
We should build on the successes of
our distinguished
my long -time friend + colleague gaver
UN546
for a new/Secretary-General, instituting programs of change and
Perez
mater matter
United little
revision as he or she assumes office. It should be based on a
We should strive for
de
Cuellar
ma jor legacy that will be left to us all for promoting the
greater
Afficiency and effectiveness of the U.N. the serious studies
of my long-time old friend and colleague, Javier Perez de Cuellar. III
11
The United States is committed to playing its part. We
offer our continuing leadership, helping to maintain global
security, promoting democracy and prosperity. My Administration
is fully committed to supporting the United Nations, and to
paying what we are obliged to pay by our commitment to the
Charter. International peace and security -- and international
no less.
Jechnica
freedom and prosperity -- require not a penny less 1111
correct
The world must know and understand: From this hour, from
this day, from this hall -- we step forth with a new sense of
purpose, a new sense of possibilities. We stand together,
prepared to swim upstream, to march uphill, to tackle the tough
challenges as they come -- not only as the United Nations -- but
as the nations of the world united. \\\\
Let it be said of the final decade of the 20th Century:
This was a time when humankind came into its own. When we
emerged from the grit and the smoke of the industrial age to
bring about a revolution of the spirit and of the mind, and began
a journey into a new day, a new age, and a new partnership of
nations.
The U.N. is now fulfilling its promise as the world's
parliament of peace. I congratulate you. I support you. And I
wish you Godspeed in the challenges ahead.
Thank you.
#
#
#
URGEIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
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Prepare Memo SCOWCROFT
to CHRISS WINSTON CICCONY
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PHONE* to action officer at ext.
to 6900
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honorable my election Guida to as de Marco president upon of
congratul ations to the
fin
McNally/Simon
the General
90 SEP 25 PM
September 26, 1990
Draft Four (B:UN)
assembly.
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK CITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1990
Mr. President. Mr. Secretary-General. Distinguished
delegates of the United Nations:
It is a great privilege to greet you today as we begin what
marks a new and historic Session of the General Assembly.
And on
a personal note, I want to say that, having witnessed the
unprecedented unity and cooperation of the past two months, I
have never been prouder to have once served within your ranks,
and never been prouder that the U.S. is host to the U.N. III
45 years ago, while the fires of an epic war still raged
across two oceans and two continents, a small group of men and
women began a search for hope amid the ruins. They gathered in
San Francisco, stepping back from the haze and the horror to try
to shape a new structure that might support an ancient dream.
Intensely idealistic, and yet tempered by war, they sought
to build a new kind of bridge, a bridge between nations, a bridge
that might help carry humankind from its darkest hour to its
brightest day. III
The founding of the United Nations embodied our deepest
hopes for a peaceful world. And during the past year, we have
come closer than ever before to realizing those hopes. We've
seen a century sundered by barbed threats and barbed wire give
way to a new era of peace, cooperation, and freedom.
The Revolution of '89 swept the world almost with a life of
2
its own, a new breeze of freedom that transformed the political
climate from Central Europe to Central America, and touched
almost every corner of the globe.
That breeze has been sustained by a now almost universal
recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The human spirit
can't be locked up forever. The truth is, people everywhere are
motivated in much the same ways. And people everywhere want much
the same things: The chance to live a life -- the chance to
choose a life in which they and their children can learn and grow
we discussed yesterday at the world Summit for children
healthy worship freely, and prosper through the work of their
hands, their hearts and their heads.
We're not talking about the power of nations, but the power
of individuals. The power to choose, the power to risk, the
to the emer gence
power to succeed. IIII
of a stronger UN.
This is a new and different world. Not since 1945 have we
seen the real possibility of using the United Nations as it was
designed -- as a center for international collective security.
The changes in the Soviet Union attitude toward foreign
The Loviet
policy and the United Nations have been critical. Working
relationship is finally beyond containment and confrontation
together, 1 the United States and the Soviet Union have moved from
and now we stand at the portal of the promise of
the peril of mutually assured destruction, to the promise of
mutually shared understanding. III
[It is fitting that it is here, at the United Nations, that
we should declare an end to the Cold war, the long twilight
struggle that for 45 years has divided Europe, our two nations,
has come toan end.
and much of the world. For we meet, as Lincoln said of Gettys
3
burg, on a great battlefield of that war the battlefield of
ideas
It was here at the United Nations that some of the most
divisive, ideological battles of the past four decades were
fought. And, as at Gettysburg -- the battlefield that marks
America's own most costly and divisive war -- it is time to bury
the past and move on to a time of healing. Time to bury not each
other -- but the Cold War itself.
When the Soviet Union joined with us, here in the United
Nations, to condemn the aggression of a Iraq former ally, then I knew,
at long last, we can put 45 years of history behind us. 111
No longer will the machinery of the United Nations be frozen
by the Cold War. At long last, we can build new bridges, and
tear down old walls. At long last: The Cold War is over. 1111
Two days from now, many of you will be there when the Cold
War is formally buried in Berlin. And in this time of testing, a
fundamental question must be asked. A question not for any one
nation -- but for the United Nations. And the question is this:
Can we work together in a new partnership of nations? Can the
collective strength of the world community, expressed by the
United Nations, unite to deter aggression?
and where necessary defeat
Because the Cold War's battle of ideas is not the last epic
?
battle of this century.
Two months ago, in the waning weeks of one of the world's history's
most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty of the peaceful
Kuwaiti desert was fouled by the stench of diesel and the roar of
(tonks are made of steel)
4
iron tanks. Once again the sound of distant thunder echoed
across a cloudless sky. And once again the world awoke to face
the guns of August. III
But this time, the world was ready. The U.N. Security
Council's response to Iraq's unprovoked aggression has been
without precedent
nothing less than historic. nine Since the invasion on August 2nd,
the Council has passed eight major resolutions setting the terms
for a solution of the crisis.
The Iraqi regime has yet to face the facts. But as I said
last month: The annexation of Kuwait will not be permitted to
This is not simply the view of the united states It is
stand. What the regime is up against is not only the law of
the view of every Kuwaiti, the arab League, and the united Nation
nations -- but also the law of mathematics. The numbers are
d leaders should listen: it is
against them. Today it is not Iraq versus Kuwait, but Iraq
against the world. And you know what they say: When it's you
against the world bet on the world
Through the U.N. Security Council, Iraq has been judged by a
jury of its peers -- the very nations of the Earth. Today, the
regime stands isolated and out of step with the times, separated
from the civilized world not by space, but by centuries.
graft
Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throw-back to another era, its
a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait, terror- leaders
must
ized innocent civilians, and held even diplomats hostage. In the be
past 10 years, Iraq's leadership has initiated wars of aggression held
against not one but two of their neighbors, in violation of
liable
P Lad to say, this does not come as a total suprise
international treaties. ^ Thousands of Iraqis have been executed
for
these
on political and religious grounds, and a genocidal, poison gas
crimes
even more
of abuse
owing to
and
destruction
insert to p. 4:
Let me take this opportunity to make the policy of my
government clear. The United States supports the use of
sanctions to persuade Iraq's leaders to withdraw immediately and
without condition from Kuwait. We also support the provision of
food for humanitarian purposes so long as distribution can be
properly monitored. We have no quarrel with the people of Iraq;
we do not wish for them to suffer.
We have dispatched military forces to the region to enforce
sanctions and to deter and if need be defend against further
aggression. We seek no advantage for ourselves. Nor do we seek
to maintain our military forces in Saudi Arabia for one day
longer than is necessary. U.S. forces were sent at the request
of the Saudi Government; U.S. forces will depart the same way.
Let me also emphasize that we wish for military forces never
to be used. We seek a peaceful outcome. And we seek a
diplomatic outcome. And one more thing: in the aftermath of
Iraq's unconditional departure from Kuwait, I truly believe that
there may be opportunities- for Iraq and Kuwait to settle their
differences permanently, for the states of the Gulf themselves to
build new arrangements for stability, and for all the states and
peoples of the region to settle the conflict that divides the
Arabs from Israel. But first we must demonstrate that aggression
is not to be tolerated or rewarded.
5
war waged against Iraq's own Kurdish villagers.
Today, on the anniversary of the convictions at Nuremberg,
we really want
the lessons of another era provide names for these barbarous
acts: "War Crimes. "Crimes Against Peace." And "Crimes
Against Humanity."
highlight this
All three are punishable crimes under the principles adopted
by the Allies in 1945, and unanimously reaffirmed by the United
Nations in 1950. And the bottom line is this: Heads of state
can be held responsible for crimes against world law -- and
crimes against world law are liable to punishment. The stakes
are high, the cause is just -- and here at the U.N. -- the
authority is real
But the U.N. can do more than just deter the use of inhuman
weapons like mustard and nerve gas. The weapons themselves must
be eliminated. That is why, one year ago, I came to the General
Assembly with new proposals to banish these terrible weapons from
the face of the Earth.
I promised the United States would destroy over 98 percent
of its stockpile in the first eight years of a chemical weapons
ban treaty, and 100 percent -- all of them -- in 10 years, if all
chemical weapons-capable nations sign the treaty.
We've stood by those promises. In June, the U.S. and the
Soviet Union signed a landmark agreement to halt production, and
to destroy the vast majority of our stockpiles. Today, U.S.
chemical weapons are being destroyed, even as we meet.
and the fallistic missiles that can rain
distruction upon distant populations.
6
But time is running out. This is not a merely bilateral
concern. The Gulf crisis proves how important it is to act
together -- and to act now -- to conclude an absolute, worldwide
ban on these weapons. We must also redouble our efforts
to stem the spread of nuclear weapons, biological weapons,
The United Nations can help bring about a new day, a day
when these kinds of terrible weapons -- and the terrible despots
who would use them -- are both a thing of the past.
Thanks to U.N. solidarity, Iraq is cut off by land, sea, and
now air and becoming more isolated, and more alone, all the
time. And I can see a time when this regime may be little more
than a footnote, the catalyst that helped cap a historic movement
towards a new world order and a long era of peace.
We have a vision of a new partnership of nations that
transcends the Cold War. A partnership based on consultation,
cooperation and collective action, especially through inter-
national and regional organizations. A partnership united by
principle and the Rule of Law, and supported by an equitable
sharing of both cost and commitment. A partnership whose goals
are to increase democracy, increase prosperity, increase the
peace -- and reduce arms.
And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our progress
as a community of nations.
The Year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning not only the
turn of the decade, not only the turn of the century, but also
the turn of the millennium.
7
And 10 years from now, as the 55th Session of the General
Assembly begins, you will again find many of us in this Hall, our
hair a bit more gray, perhaps a bit less spring in our walk. But
you will not find us with any less hope or idealism, or any less
confidence in the ultimate triumph of humankind. III
I see a world of open borders, open trade, and -- most
importantly -- open minds. A world that celebrates the common
heritage that belongs to all the world's people, taking pride not
just in hometown or homeland but in humanity itself. III
I see a world touched by a spirit like that of the Olympics:
Based not on competition that's driven by fear, but sought out of
joy and exhilaration and a true quest for excellence
I see a world where democracy continues to win new friends
and convert old foes, and where the Americas can provide a model
for the future for all humankind -- the world's first completely
democratic hemisphere. III
And I see a world building on the emerging new model of
European unity. Not just Europe, but the whole world -- "whole
and free."
This is precisely why the present aggression in the Gulf is
a menace not only to one region's security, but to the entire
world's vision of our future. It threatens to turn our dream of
a new international order into a grim nightmare of anarchy, in
which the law of the jungle supplants the law of nations.
That is why the United Nations reacted with such historic
unity and resolve. And that is why this challenge is a test we
8
cannot afford to fail.
The opportunity is truly historic. At the confluence of the
Tigris and Euphrates -- where civilization began -- civilization
can begin anew.
I am confident we will prevail. Success, too, will have
lasting consequences -- reinforcing civilized standards of
international conduct, setting a new precedent in international
cooperation, brightening the prospects for our vision of the
future.
There are 10 more years until the century is out.
10 more years to put the struggles of the 20th century
permanently behind us.
10 more years to help launch a new partnership of nations.
And during those 10 years -- and beginning now -- we can and
must build towards that new partnership by turning to the many
Vanquishing
And first on that agenda has to be
other issues on today's common agenda The scourge of drug abuse
UN efforts
must be vanquished, led by international cooperation such as/the the
Cartegena Summit earlier this year. The needs of refugees must
be met, providing relief for the suffering of all victims of
disasters, whether natural or man-made. State-sponsored
terrorism must be stopped. And all the world's hostages --
wherever they are -- must be freed. III
We seek a world not only of shared peace, but also shared
prosperity. We will work together to eliminate the protectionism
that endangers the world trading system, building on the efforts
of the Houston Summit and the ongoing talks of the Uruguay Round
It is essential that all nations enact laws which will deny exports
of precursor chemicals to drug-producing centers. We must
also pursue a global strategy against money laundering.
We internati are mal trade & investment for
also taking action to promote through, more
of
GATT. We will battle also the growing debt problem, seeking
instance,
new cooperation and new ideas, like the Enterprise for the
Americas Initiative we launched earlier this year which, on the debt
front, will complement the progress already achieved under Brady the
A thousand years ago, as the first Millennium approached,
plan.
some feared destruction of the Earth by act of God or nature.
Today, as we approach the Year 2000, many fear destruction of our
planet not by act of God but by act of Man; not by act of nature
but by acts against nature. I've said it before: Environmental
destruction knows no borders. And one of our first priorities
has to be protecting the environment -- but without endangering
economic growth.
The crisis in the Gulf also serves to remind us of other
unresolved regional conflicts that require U.N. mediation. One
promising model is Cambodia. This troubled land has suffered a
inference
generation of war and upheaval. including the nightmare of the
to KR plays
killing fields under the Khmer Rouge Now for the first time we
hands
free and fair elections. hope bring peace
are on the brink of a settlement we can real through
of Hun Sen
We salute the Cambodian parties for their acceptance of the U.N.
1
framework, and we salute our Perm Five colleagues for their
partnership in this unique and promising new peace initiative.
In all these endeavors, as with the partnership of nations
which we hope will evolve, the role of the U.N. must be
strengthened and perfected. And so let me today suggest two new
proposals -- two principles, really -- that we believe will help
strengthen the U.N.
First, the U.N. is being called on increasingly to support
10
new elections in the world's emerging democracies. Free
elections are the foundation of representative government and
can produce dramatic successes, as we have seen in Namibia and
Nicaragua. And there are many other situations in which the
U.N.'s services in holding elections are being requested or
considered.
The time has come to structure the United Nations response
to such requests more formally. And so today, I propose that the
United Nations establish a Special Coordinator for Electoral
Assistance, to be assisted by a U.N. Electoral Commission
comprised of distinguished experts from around the world.
Second, we have long been advocates of the principle of
universality. In support of this principle, and in conjunction
with U.N. efforts to reduce regional tensions, the United States
fully supports U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea. We do
so without prejudice to the ultimate objective of reunification
of the Korean peninsula, and without opposition to simultaneous
membership for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Building on these and other initiatives, we must join
together in a new compact -- all of us -- to bring the United
Nations into the 21st Century. And I call today for a major,
'ference Y, new
long-term effort to do this. It would be built around the search
We should fuild on the surcesses of
our distinguished
my long -time friend + colleague gaver
UNSYG
for a new Secretary-General, instituting programs of change and
Perez
little
We should strive for
de
revision as he or she assumes office. It should be based on a
promoter
Cuella
ma jor legacy that will be left to us all for promoting the
greater
efficiency and effectiveness of the U.N. the serious studies
of my long-time old friend and colleague, Javier Perez de Cuellar. III
11
The United States is committed to playing its part. We
offer our continuing leadership, helping to maintain global
security, promoting democracy and prosperity. My Administration
is fully committed to supporting the United Nations, and to
paying what we are obliged to pay by our commitment to the
Charter. International peace and security -- and international
less.
Technic
freedom and prosperity -- require not a penny less 1111
correct
The world must know and understand: From this hour, from
this day, from this hall -- we step forth with a new sense of
purpose, a new sense of possibilities. We stand together,
prepared to swim upstream, to march uphill, to tackle the tough
challenges as they come -- not only as the United Nations --- but
as the nations of the world united.
Let it be said of the final decade of the 20th Century:
This was a time when humankind came into its own. When we
emerged from the grit and the smoke of the industrial age to
bring about a revolution of the spirit and of the mind, and began
a journey into a new day, a new age, and a new partnership of
nations.
The U.N. is now fulfilling its promise as the world's
parliament of peace. I congratulate you. I support you. And I
wish you Godspeed in the challenges ahead.
Thank you.
#
#
#
Document No. 177903
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
90 OCT 1 P3:31
10/1/90
DATE:
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
SUBJECT:
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: ADDRESS TO THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
CARD
UNTERMEYER
CICCONI
Boskin
DEMAREST
winston
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
The attached has been forwarded to the President.
RESPONSE:
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
00 2a Pip 15
September 28, 1990
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
CHRISS WINSTON Cu
FROM:
EDWARD E. McNALLY gmw
SUBJECT:
ADDRESS TO THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
I. SUMMARY
On Monday, October 1, at 11:40 a.m., you will address the
45th U.N. General Assembly. This draft was prepared with
guidance from General Scowcroft, Ambassador Pickering, the State
Department, Richard Haass, Nancy Dyke and other NSC staff.
II. DISCUSSION
This address (20 minutes, on teleprompter) builds on your
remarks in Helsinki, to the Joint Session of Congress, and at the
World Bank, calling for the world to move beyond containment and
the cold war to the "new partnership of nations" you've proposed.
The remarks praise the U.N., calling for a key role in
building the new partnership over the coming years. It includes
particular praise for the U.N.'s response to the Gulf crisis, and
renews last year's call for abolishing chemical weapons. The
draft also includes two new proposals: a U.N. Electoral
Commission, and U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea.
The U.N. speech also marks our last opportunity -- and our
best opportunity -- to say that "the cold war is over" -- a
predictable "headline" likely to resonate clear on into 1992.
It's the right thing to say because it matches the mood of
the times, the theme of your speech, and your vision of a new
partnership of nations. And it forthrightly acknowledges what we
have reality. already as much as said -- and what everyone recognizes is a
It's the last opportunity because most observers will mark
German reunification on Oct. 3 as the formal end of the cold war
era. And it's the best opportunity because it's before not only
"a" world forum, but the world forum -- one we've asked to play a
key part in reintegrating the Soviet Union into the community of
nations. For these reasons, we've [bracketed] for your
consideration the "cold war is over" language that you looked at
for the Joint Session of Congress speech. (Please see the bottom
of page two and the top of page three.)
McNally/Simon
September 28, 1990
Draft Seven (B:UN)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK CITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1990, 11:40 A.M.
Mr. President. Mr. Secretary-General. Distinguished
delegates to the United Nations:
It is a great privilege to greet you today as we begin what
marks a new and historic Session of the General Assembly. My
congratulations to the Honorable Guido de Marco on your election
as President of the General Assembly. On a personal note, I want
to say that, having witnessed the unprecedented unity and
cooperation of the past two months, I have never been prouder to
have once served within your ranks, and never been prouder that
the U.S. is host to the U.N. 111
45 years ago, while the fires of an epic war still raged
across two oceans and two continents, a small group of men and
women began a search for hope amid the ruins. They gathered in
San Francisco, stepping back from the haze and the horror to try
to shape a new structure that might support an ancient dream.
Intensely idealistic, and yet tempered by war, they sought
to build a new kind of bridge, a bridge between nations, a bridge
that might help carry humankind from its darkest hour to its
brightest day. 111
The founding of the United Nations embodied our deepest
hopes for a peaceful world. And during the past year, we have
come closer than ever before to realizing those hopes. We've
seen a century sundered by barbed threats and barbed wire give
2
way to a fiew era of peace, cooperation, and freedom.
The Revolution of '89 swept the world almost with a life of
its own, carried by a new breeze of freedom that transformed the
political climate from Central Europe to Central America, and
touched almost every corner of the globe.
That breeze has been sustained by a now almost universal
recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The human spirit
can't be locked up forever. The truth is, people everywhere are
motivated in much the same ways. And people everywhere want much
the same things: The chance to live a life of purpose -- the
chance to choose a life -- in which they and their children can
learn, grow healthy, worship freely, and prosper through the work
of their hands, their hearts and their minds.
We're not talking about the power of nations, but the power
of individuals. The power to choose, the power to risk, the
power to succeed.
This is a new and different world. Not since 1945 have we
seen the real possibility of using the United Nations as it was
designed -- as a center for international collective security.
[[The changes in the Soviet Union have been critical to the
emergence of a stronger U.N. The U.S.-Soviet relationship is
finally beyond containment and confrontation, and now we seek to
fulfill the promise of mutually shared understanding. III
The long twilight struggle that for 45 years has divided
Europe, our two nations, and much of the world has to come to an
end. Much has changed over the last two years. The Soviet Union
3
has taken many dramatic and important steps to again join the
community of nations.
When the Soviet Union agreed with us, here in the United
Nations, to condemn the aggression of Iraq, there could be no
doubt that at long last, we can put four decades of history
behind us.
No longer will the machinery of the United Nations be frozen
by the Cold War. At long last, we can build new bridges, and
tear down old walls. At long last: The cold war is over.]
Two days from now, the world will be watching when the [cold
war] is formally buried in Berlin. And in this time of testing,
a fundamental question must be asked. A question not for any one
nation -- but for the United Nations. And the question is this:
Can we work together in a new partnership of nations? Can the
collective strength of the world community, expressed by the
United Nations, unite to deter and defeat aggression?
Because the [cold war's] battle of ideas is not the last
epic battle of this century. Two months ago, in the waning weeks
of one of history's most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty
of the peaceful Kuwaiti desert was fouled by the stench of diesel
and the roar of steel tanks. Once again the sound of distant
thunder echoed across a cloudless sky. And once again the world
awoke to face the guns of August. III
But this time, the world was ready. The U.N. Security
Council's resolute response to Iraq's unprovoked aggression has
been without precedent. Since the invasion on August 2nd, the
4
Council has passed eight major resolutions setting the terms for
a solution of the crisis.
The Iraqi regime has yet to face the facts. But as I said
last month: The annexation of Kuwait will not be permitted to
stand. This is not simply the view of the United States. It is
the view of every Kuwaiti, the Arab league, and the United
Nations. Iraq's leaders should listen: it is Iraq against the
world. 111
Let me take this opportunity to make the policy of my
government clear. The United States supports the use of
sanctions to persuade Iraq's leaders to withdraw immediately and
without condition from Kuwait. We also support the provision of
food for humanitarian purposes, so long as distribution can be
properly monitored. We have no quarrel with the people of Iraq;
we do not wish for them to suffer.
We have dispatched military forces to the region to enforce
sanctions; to deter and if need be defend against further
aggression. We seek no advantage for ourselves. Nor do we seek
to maintain our military forces in Saudi Arabia for one day
longer than is necessary. U.S. forces were sent at the request
of the Saudi Government; U.S. forces will depart the same way.
Let me also emphasize that we hope military forces will
never have to be used. We seek a peaceful outcome -- a
diplomatic outcome. And one more thing -- in the aftermath of
Iraq's unconditional departure from Kuwait, I truly believe that
there may be opportunities: for Iraq and Kuwait to settle their
5
differences permanently; for the states of the Gulf themselves to
build new arrangements for stability; and for all the states and
peoples of the region to settle the conflict that divides the
Arabs from Israel. But, first, we must demonstrate that
aggression will not be tolerated or rewarded.
Through the U.N. Security Council, Iraq has been judged by a
jury of its peers -- the very nations of the Earth. Today, the
regime stands isolated and out of step with the times, separated
from the civilized world not by space, but by centuries.
Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throw-back to another era,
a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait,
terrorized innocent civilians, and held even diplomats hostage.
Iraq and its leaders must be held liable for these crimes of
abuse and destruction. But this outrageous disregard for basic
human rights does not come as a total surprise. Thousands of
Iraqis have been executed on political and religious grounds, and
even more through a genocidal, poison gas war waged against
Iraq's own Kurdish villagers.
As a world community, we must act -- not only to deter the
use of inhuman weapons like mustard and nerve gas -- but to
eliminate the weapons entirely. That is why, one year ago, I
came to the General Assembly with new proposals to banish these
terrible weapons from the face of the Earth.
I promised the United States would destroy over 98 percent
of its stockpile in the first eight years of a chemical weapons
ban treaty, and 100 percent -- all of them -- in 10 years, if all
6
chemical Weapons-capable nations sign the treaty.
We've stood by those promises. In June, the U.S. and the
Soviet Union signed a landmark agreement to halt production, and
to destroy the vast majority of our stockpiles. Today, U.S.
chemical weapons are being destroyed, even as we meet.
But time is running out. This is not a merely bilateral
concern. The Gulf crisis proves how important it is to act
together -- and to act now -- to conclude an absolute, worldwide
ban on these weapons. We must also redouble our efforts to stem
the spread of nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and the bal-
listic missiles that can rain destruction upon distant peoples.
The United Nations can help bring about a new day, a day
when these kinds of terrible weapons -- and the terrible despots
who would use them -- are both a thing of the past. It is in our
hands to leave these dark machines behind, in the dark ages where
they belong, and to press forward to cap a historic movement
towards a new world order and a long era of peace.
We have a vision of a new partnership of nations that
transcends the Cold War. A partnership based on consultation,
cooperation and collective action, especially through inter-
national and regional organizations. A partnership united by
principle and the Rule of Law, and supported by an equitable
sharing of both cost and commitment. A partnership whose goals
are to increase democracy, increase prosperity, increase the
peace -- and reduce arms.
And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
7
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our progress
as a community of nations. 111
The Year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning not only the
turn of the decade, not only the turn of the century, but also
the turn of the millennium. 111
And 10 years from now, as the 55th Session of the General
Assembly begins, you will again find many of us in this Hall, our
hair a bit more gray, perhaps a bit less spring in our walk. But
you will not find us with any less hope or idealism, or any less
confidence in the ultimate triumph of humankind. 111
I see a world of open borders, open trade, and -- most
importantly -- open minds. A world that celebrates the common
heritage that belongs to all the world's people, taking pride not
just in hometown or homeland but in humanity itself. 111
I see a world touched by a spirit like that of the Olympics:
Based not on competition that's driven by fear, but sought out of
joy and exhilaration and a true quest for excellence. 111
I see a world where democracy continues to win new friends
and convert old foes, and where the Americas can provide a model
for the future for all humankind -- the world's first completely
democratic hemisphere. 111
And I see a world building on the emerging new model of
European unity. Not just Europe, but the whole world -- "whole
and free."
This is precisely why the present aggression in the Gulf is
a menace not only to one region's security, but to the entire
8
world's vision of our future. It threatens to turn our dream of
a new international order into a grim nightmare of anarchy, in
which the law of the jungle supplants the law of nations.
That is why the United Nations reacted with such historic
unity and resolve. And that is why this challenge is a test we
cannot afford to fail. III I am confident we will prevail.
Success, too, will have lasting consequences -- reinforcing
civilized standards of international conduct, setting a new
precedent in international cooperation, brightening the prospects
for our vision of the future.
There are 10 more years until the century is out.
10 more years to put the struggles of the 20th century
permanently behind us.
10 more years to help launch a new partnership of nations.
And throughout those 10 years -- and beginning now -- the
U.N. has a new and vital role in building towards that partner-
ship. Last year's General Assembly showed how we can make
greater progress towards a more pragmatic and successful U.N.
And, for the first time, the U.N. Security Council is beginning
to work as it was designed to work.
We have shown that the U.N. can count on the collective
strength of the international community. We have shown that the
U.N. can rise to the challenge of aggression, as its founders
hoped it would. And now in this time of testing, we must also
show that the U.N. is the place to build international support
and consensus for meeting the other challenges we face.
9
The world remains a dangerous place. And our security and
well-being often depends, in part, on events occurring far away.
We need serious international cooperative efforts to make headway
on threats to the environment, on terrorism, on managing the debt
burden, on fighting the scourge of international drug
trafficking, and on peace-keeping efforts around the world.
But the world also remains a hopeful place. Calls for
democracy and human rights are being reborn everywhere. These
calls are an expression of support for the values enshrined in
the U.N. Charter. They encourage our hopes for a more stable,
more peaceful, more prosperous world.
Free elections are the foundation of democratic government,
and can produce dramatic successes, as we have seen in Namibia
and Nicaragua. And the time has come to structure the U.N. role
in such efforts more formally. And so today, I propose that the
United Nations establish a Special Coordinator for Electoral
Assistance, to be assisted by a U.N. Electoral Commission
comprised of distinguished experts from around the world.
As with free elections, we also believe that universal U.N.
membership for all States is central to the future of this
Organization, and to the new partnership we've discussed. In
support of this principle, and in conjunction with U.N. efforts
to reduce regional tensions, the United States fully supports
U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea. We do so without
prejudice to the ultimate objective of reunification of the
Korean peninsula, and without opposition to simultaneous
10
membership for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Building on these and other initiatives, we must join
together in a new compact -- all of us -- to bring the United
Nations into the 21st Century. And I call today for a major,
long-term effort to do this. We should build on the success of
our distinguished Secretary-General, my long-time friend and
colleague, Javier Perez de Cuellar. We should strive for greater
effectiveness and efficiency of the U.N.
The United States is committed to playing its part. We
offer our continuing leadership, helping to maintain global
security, promoting democracy and prosperity. My Administration
is fully committed to supporting the United Nations, and to
paying what we are obliged to pay by our commitment to the
Charter. International peace and security -- and international
freedom and prosperity -- require no less.
The world must know and understand: From this hour, from
this day, from this hall -- we step forth with a new sense of
purpose, a new sense of possibilities. We stand together,
prepared to swim upstream, to march uphill, to tackle the tough
challenges as they come -- not only as the United Nations -- but
as the nations of the world united.
Let it be said of the final decade of the 20th Century:
This was a time when humankind came into its own. When we
emerged from the grit and the smoke of the industrial age to
bring about a revolution of the spirit and of the mind, and began
11
a journey"into a new day, a new age, and a new partnership of
nations. III
The U.N. is now fulfilling its promise as the world's
parliament of peace. I congratulate you. I support you. And I
wish you Godspeed in the challenges ahead.
Thank you.
#
# #
CLOSE HOLD Document No. 177903
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
DATE:
09/26/90
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 4:00 p.m. 09/27
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
SUBJECT:
(09/26 draft four)
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
CARD
UNTERMEYER
CICCONI
BOSKIN
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
GRAY
HAGIN
HOLIDAY
N/C
REMARKS:
Please provide any comments/recommendations directly to
Chriss Winston by 4:00 p.m., 09/27, with a copy to my
office. Thanks.
RESPONSE:
E2 Ld 92 JES 06
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
CLOSE HOLD
Ext. 2702
My congradulations to the Honorable
Guido de Marco on your electionas
President of the General assembly
McNally/Simon
90 SEP 25 PM
September 26, 1990
Draft Four (B:UN)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK CITY
MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1990
11:40 AM 11:40 AM
Mr. President. Mr. Secretary-General. Distinguished
to
delegates of the United Nations:
It is a great privilege to greet you today as we begin what
marks a new and historic Session of the General Assembly. And on
a personal note, I want to say that, having witnessed the
unprecedented unity and cooperation of the past two months, I
have never been prouder to have once served within your ranks,
and never been prouder that the U.S. is host to the U.N. III
45 years ago, while the fires of an epic war still raged
across two oceans and two continents, a small group of men and
women began a search for hope amid the ruins. They gathered in
San Francisco, stepping back from the haze and the horror to try
to shape a new structure that might support an ancient dream.
Intensely idealistic, and yet tempered by war, they sought
to build a new kind of bridge, a bridge between nations, a bridge
that might help carry humankind from its darkest hour to its
brightest day. III
The founding of the United Nations embodied our deepest
hopes for a peaceful world. And during the past year, we have
come closer than ever before to realizing those hopes. We've
seen a century sundered by barbed threats and barbed wire give
way to a new era of peace, cooperation, and freedom.
The Revolution of '89 swept the world almost with a life of
2
carried by
its own, a new breeze of freedom that transformed the political
climate from Central Europe to Central America, and touched
almost every corner of the globe.
That breeze has been sustained by a now almost universal
recognition of a simple, fundamental truth: The human spirit
can't be locked up forever. The truth is, people everywhere are
motivated in much the same ways. And people everywhere want much
of purpose
the same things: The chance to live a life, the chance to
choose a life -- in which they and their children can learn, grow
healthy, worship freely, and prosper through the work of their
minds
hands, their hearts and their heads.
We're not talking about the power of nations, but the power
of individuals. The power to choose, the power to risk, the
power to succeed.
This is a new and different world. Not since 1945 have we
seen the real possibility of using the United Nations as it was
designed -- as a center for international collective security.
The changes in the Soviet Union's attitude toward foreign
to the emergence of a stronger UN. The
policy and the United Nations have been critical. Working
US. - Soviet re lationship is -finally beyond containment and confrontation
together, the United States and the Soviet Union have moved from
and now we seek to fulfill the promise of
the peril of mutually assured destruction, to the promise of
mutually shared understanding. \\\
It is fitting that it is here, at the United Nations, that
we should declare an end to the Cold War, the long twilight
struggle that for 45 years has divided Europe, our two nations,
hescometoan end.
and much of the world. For we meet, as Lincoln said of Gettys-
Much has changed over the last two years. The Sovied leaven
has taken many cliamatre and import tont steps to came join
back again to the community of trons.
3
burg, on a great battlefield of that war -- the battlefield of
ideas.
It was here at the United Nations that some of the most
divisive, ideological battles of the past four decades were
fought. And, as at Gettysburg -- the battlefield that marks
America's own most costly and divisive war -- it is time to bury
the past and move on to a time of healing. Time to bury not each
other -- but the Cold War itself.
agreed
When the Soviet Union joined with us, here in the United
Nations, to condemn the aggression of a Irag former ally, then I knew,
there could be no
doubt
fourdecodes
at long last, we can put 45 years of history behind us. III
No longer will the machinery of the United Nations be frozen
by the Cold War. At long last, we can build new bridges, and
tear down old walls. At long last: The Cold War is over. 1111
the world
watching
Two days from now, many of you will be there when the Cold
War is formally buried in Berlin. And in this time of testing, a
fundamental question must be asked. A question not for any one
nation -- but for the United Nations. And the question is this:
Can we work together in a new partnership of nations? Can the
collective strength of the world community, expressed by the
and defeat
United Nations, unite to deter aggression?
Because the Cold War's battle of ideas is not the last epic
battle of this century.
historys
Two months ago, in the waning weeks of one of the world's
most hopeful summers, the vast, still beauty of the peaceful
Kuwaiti desert was fouled by the stench of diesel and the roar of
4
steel
iron tanks. Once again the sound of distant thunder echoed
across a cloudless sky. And once again the world awoke to face
the guns of August. III
But this time, the world was ready. The U.N. Security
resolute
Council's response to Iraq's unprovoked aggression has been
without precedent.
nothing less than historic. Since the invasion on August 2nd,
nine
the Council has passed eight major resolutions setting the terms
for a solution of the crisis.
The Iraqi regime has yet to face the facts. But as I said
last month: The annexation of Kuwait will not be permitted to
This is nat simply the view of the States. It is the view
stand. What the regime is up against is not only the law of
of every Kuwaiti, the arab heague. and the United Na from
nations -- but also the law of mathematics. The numbers are
Ivag's leaders should listen : it is Irag against the world.
against them. Today it is not Iraq versus Kuwait, but Iraq
against the world. And you know what they say: When it's you
against the world -- bet on the world. insertA
Through the U.N. Security Council, Iraq has been judged by a
jury of its peers -- the very nations of the Earth. Today, the
regime stands isolated and out of step with the times, separated
from the civilized world not by space, but by centuries.
Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throw-back to another era,
a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait, terror-
Iraq and its leaders must be held
ized innocent civilians, and held even diplomats hostage. In the
accountable liable for these crimes of abuse and destruction. But
past 10 years, Iraq's leadership has initiated wars of aggression
this outrageous disregard for basic human righ to class not come as
against not one but two of their neighbors, in violation of
a to tal surprise.
international treaties. Thousands of Iraqis have been executed
on political and religious grounds, and a genocidal, poison gas
even more
though
stet
5
war waged against Iraq's own Kurdish villagers
Today on the anniversary of the convictions at Nuremberg,
the lessons of another era provide names for these barbarous
acts: "War Crimes." "Crimes Against Peace.' And "Crimes
Against Humanity."
All three are punishable crimes under the principles adopted
by the Allies in 1945, and unanimously reaffirmed by the United
Nations in 1950. And the bottom line is this: Heads of state
can be held responsible for crimes against world law -- and
crimes against world law are liable to punishment. The stakes
are high, the cause is just --- and here at the U.N. -- the
authority is real.
But the U.N. can do more than just deter the use of inhuman
weapons like mustard and nerve gas. The weapons themselves must
be eliminated. That is why, one year ago, I came to the General
Assembly with new proposals to banish these terrible weapons from
the face of the Earth.
I promised the United States would destroy over 98 percent
of its stockpile in the first eight years of a chemical weapons
ban treaty, and 100 percent -- all of them -- in 10 years, if all
chemical weapons-capable nations sign the treaty.
We've stood by those promises. In June, the U.S. and the
Soviet Union signed a landmark agreement to halt production, and
to destroy the vast majority of our stockpiles. Today, U.S.
chemical weapons are being destroyed, even as we meet.
cuid the ballistic missles that con rain
destruction upon d. stant peoples.
6
But time is running out. This is not a merely bilateral
concern. The Gulf crisis proves how important it is to act
together -- and to act now -- to conclude an absolute, worldwide
ban on these weapons. we must also reclouble our efforts to stem the
spread of nuclear weapons, biological weapons,
The United Nations can help bring about a new day, a day
when these kinds of terrible weapons -- and the terrible despots
who would use them -- are both a thing of the past.
Thanks to U.N. solidarity, Iraq is cut off by land, sea, and
Today, it is within our hands to leave these dark
machines feh behind, in the dark ages where they belong,
now air -- and becoming more isolated, and more alone, all the
time. And I can see a time when this regime may be little more
than a footnote, the catalyst that helped cap a historic movement
towards a new world order and a long era of peace.
We have a vision of a new partnership of nations that
transcends the Cold War. A partnership based on consultation,
cooperation and collective action, especially through inter-
national and regional organizations. A partnership united by
principle and the Rule of Law, and supported by an equitable
and press forward to cap a
sharing of both cost and commitment. A partnership whose goals
are to increase democracy, increase prosperity, increase the
peace -- and reduce arms.
And as we look to the future, the calendar offers up a
convenient milestone, a signpost by which to measure our progress
as a community of nations.
The Year 2000 marks a turning point, beginning not only the
turn of the decade, not only the turn of the century, but also
the turn of the millennium.
7
And 10 years from now, as the 55th Session of the General
Assembly begins, you will again find many of us in this Hall, our
hair a bit more gray, perhaps a bit less spring in our walk. But
you will not find us with any less hope or idealism, or any less
confidence in the ultimate triumph of humankind. III
I see a world of open borders, open trade, and -- most
importantly -- open minds. A world that celebrates the common
heritage that belongs to all the world's people, taking pride not
just in hometown or homeland but in humanity itself. III
I see a world touched by a spirit like that of the Olympics:
7
Based not on competition that's driven by fear, but sought out of
joy and exhilaration and a true quest for excellence. III
I see a world where democracy continues to win new friends
and convert old foes, and where the Americas can provide a model
for the future for all humankind -- the world's first completely
democratic hemisphere. III
And I see a world building on the emerging new model of
European unity. Not just Europe, but the whole world -- "whole
and free."
This is precisely why the present aggression in the Gulf is
a menace not only to one region's security, but to the entire
world's vision of our future. It threatens to turn our dream of
a new international order into a grim nightmare of anarchy, in
which the law of the jungle supplants the law of nations.
That is why the United Nations reacted with such historic
unity and resolve. And that is why this challenge is a test we
8
cannot afford to fail.
The opportunity is truly historic. At the confluence of the
Tigris and Euphrates -- where civilization began -- civilization
can begin anew.
I am confident we will prevail. Success, too, will have
lasting consequences -- reinforcing civilized standards of
international conduct, setting a new precedent in international
cooperation, brightening the prospects for our vision of the
future.
There are 10 more years until the century is out.
10 more years to put the struggles of the 20th century
permanently behind us.
10 more years to help launch a new partnership of nations.
See NSC
And during those 10 years -- and beginning now -- we can and
must build towards that new partnership by turning to the many
other issues on today's common agenda. The scourge of drug abuse
must be vanquished, led by international cooperation such as the
Cartegena Summit earlier this year. The needs of refugees must
be met, providing relief for the suffering of all victims of
disasters, whether natural or man-made. State-sponsored
terrorism must be stopped. And all the world's hostages --
wherever they are -- must be freed.
We seek a world not only of shared peace, but also shared
prosperity. We will work together to eliminate the protectionism
that endangers the world trading system, building on the efforts
of the Houston Summit and the ongoing talks of the Uruguay Round
9
of GATT. We will battle also the growing debt problem, seeking
new cooperation and new ideas, like the Enterprise for the
Americas Initiative we launched earlier this year.
A thousand years ago, as the first Millennium approached,
some feared destruction of the Earth by act of God or nature.
Today, as we approach the Year 2000, many fear destruction of our
planet not by act of God but by act of Man; not by act of nature,
but by acts against nature. I've said it before: Environmental
destruction knows no borders. And one of our first priorities
has to be protecting the environment -- but without endangering
economic growth.
The crisis in the Gulf also serves to remind us of other
unresolved regional conflicts that require U.N. mediation. One
promising model is Cambodia. This troubled land has suffered a
generation of war and upheaval, including the nightmare of the
killing fields under the Khmer Rouge. Now for the first time we
are on the brink of a settlement we hope can bring real peace.
We salute the Cambodian parties for their acceptance of the U.N.
framework, and we salute our Perm Five colleagues for their
partnership in this unique and promising new peace initiative.
In all these endeavors, as with the partnership of nations
which we hope will evolve, the role of the U.N. must be
strengthened and perfected. And so let me today suggest two new
proposals -- two principles, really -- that we believe will help
strengthen the U.N.
First, the U.N. is being called on increasingly to support
10
new elections in the world's emerging democracies. Free
elections are the foundation of representative government, and
can produce dramatic successes, as we have seen in Namibia and
Nicaragua. And there are many other situations in which the
U.N.'s services in holding elections are being requested or
considered.
The time has come to structure the United Nations response
to such requests more formally. And so today, I propose that the
United Nations establish a Special Coordinator for Electoral
Assistance, to be assisted by a U.N. Electoral Commission
comprised of distinguished experts from around the world.
Second, we have long been advocates of the principle of
universality. In support of this principle, and in conjunction
with U.N. efforts to reduce regional tensions, the United States
fully supports U.N. membership for the Republic of Korea. We do
so without prejudice to the ultimate objective of reunification
of the Korean peninsula, and without opposition to simultaneous
membership for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Building on these and other initiatives, we must join
together in a new compact -- all of us -- to bring the United
Nations into the 21st Century. And I call today for a major,
we should build on the success of
long-term effort to do this. It would be built around the search
our distinguished
my long-time friend and colleasue, Jacier Perez de
for a new Secretary-General, instituting programs of change and Cuellar.
we should strive for greater effec tiveness and efficiency of the
revision as he or she assumes office. It should be based on a
U.N.
major legacy that will be left to us all for promoting the
efficiency and effectiveness of the U.N. the serious studies
11
of my old friend and colleague, Javier Perez de Cuellar III
The United States is committed to playing its part. We
offer our continuing leadership, helping to maintain global
security, promoting democracy and prosperity. My Administration
is fully committed to supporting the United Nations, and to
paying what we are obliged to pay by our commitment to the
Charter. International peace and security -- and international
freedom and prosperity -- require not mo a penny less.
The world must know and understand: From this hour, from
this day, from this hall -- we step forth with a new sense of
purpose, a new sense of possibilities. We stand together,
prepared to swim upstream, to march uphill, to tackle the tough
challenges as they come -- not only as the United Nations -- but
as the nations of the world united.
Let it be said of the final decade of the 20th Century:
This was a time when humankind came into its own. When we
emerged from the grit and the smoke of the industrial age to
bring about a revolution of the spirit and of the mind, and began
a journey into a new day, a new age, and a new partnership of
nations.
The U.N. is now fulfilling its promise as the world's
parliament of peace. I congratulate you. I support you. And I
wish you Godspeed in the challenges ahead.
Thank you.
#
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insert to p. 4:
A
Let me take this opportunity to make the policy of my
government clear. The United States supports the use of
sanctions to persuade Iraq's leaders to withdraw immediately and
without condition from Kuwait. We also support the provision of
food for humanitarian purposes so long as distribution can be
properly monitored. We have no quarrel with the people of Iraq;
we do not wish for them to suffer.
We have dispatched military forces to the region to enforce
sanctions and to deter and if need be defend against further
aggression. We seek no advantage for ourselves. Nor do we seek
to maintain our military forces in Saudi Arabia for one day
longer than is necessary. U.S. forces were sent at the request
of the Saudi Government; U.S. forces will depart the same way.
hope
well
Let me also emphasize that we wish for military forces never have
to be used. We seek a peaceful outcome. And we seek a
diplomatic outcome. And one more thing: in the aftermath of
Iraq's unconditional departure from Kuwait, I truly believe that
there may be opportunities for Iraq and Kuwait to settle their
differences permanently, for the states of the Gulf themselves to
build new arrangements for stability, and for all the states and
peoples of the region to settle the conflict that divides the
Arabs from Israel. But first we must demonstrate that aggression
will
is not to be tolerated or rewarded.