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Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
S; 1998-0188-F
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Speech File Draft Files
Subseries:
Chron File, 1989-1993
OA/ID Number:
13610
Folder ID Number:
13610-009
Folder Title:
Nixon Library Dinner 3/11/92 [OA 6099] [1]
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Row:
Section:
Shelf:
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26
17
7
4
Document No. 313693ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
92 MAR 10 P3: 30
DATE:
3/10/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY:
---
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY SPEECH
SUBJECT:
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
FITZWATER
YEUTTER
GRAY
FINDLAY
HOLIDAY
DELAND
KAUFMAN
REMARKS:
MCGROARTY
The attached has been forwarded to the President.
RESPONSE:
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
92 MAR 10 P1:59
March 10, 1992
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVID DEMAREST
44
FROM:
CURT SMITH
SUBJECT:
NIXON LIBRARY SPEECH
On Wednesday, March 11 at 9:35 p.m., you will address a
foreign policy forum sponsored by the Richard Nixon Library at
the Four Seasons Hotel. Your remarks (17 minutes, teleprompter)
focus on President Nixon's achievements in foreign policy; the
lessons learned from his stewardship; and how those lessons can
help build the New World Order.
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 10, 1992
Draft Four
A:3692RNIX
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President. Secretary Kissinger, Ambassador Annenberg.
Julie and David Eisenhower, Tricia Cox, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen. / It is indeed a pleasure to be among good
friends, and to renew old ties. //
((Let me say how impressed I am by this audience. / I'm
especially glad to see Henry Kissinger. / I didn't always
understand Henry, but I've now spent enough time around Arnold
Schwarzenegger that I understand him perfectly.) //
A writer once said of Henry's boss, "His life was somehow
central to the experience of being an American in the second half
of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute a President who
made a difference -- not because he wished it, but because he
willed it. //
Richard Nixon was born in the house his father built. Like
Dwight Eisenhower, he had the "great and priceless privilege of
being raised in a small town." // Later, as 37th President, he
founded the Environmental Protection Agency / placed crime and
drugs on the national agenda / created a pioneering cancer
initiative / and ended the draft. More people voted for him as
President than any other man in history. //
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
2
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
So, I could not be more pleased than to be here this evening
to speak before this gathering devoted to exploring "America's
Role in the Emerging World.' The subject could not be more
timely. And the auspices could not be more appropriate. / The
Richard Nixon Library stands as a monument to a President and to
an administration devoted to an active, thoughtful and above all,
realistic approach to the world. //
The challenge faced by President Nixon could hardly have
been more daunting: How to maintain domestic support for a
foreign policy mandated by a growing Soviet threat at a time an
over-burdened America was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam.
What emerged -- the policies of detente and the doctrine that
bears the name of the 37th President -- provided a balance
between confrontation and cooperation. //
President Nixon managed this and more, extricating us from a
war / negotiating the first comprehensive U.S. -Soviet arms
control agreements / opening up relations with China, mediating
disengagement pacts in the Middle East / all while preserving a
consensus at home favoring continued engagement in world affairs.
To be sure, today's challenge is fundamentally different.
Yet it does bear some resemblance. Once again we must find a way
to square the responsibilities of world leadership with the
requirements of domestic renewal. / What we must do is find a
3
way to maintain popular support for an active foreign policy and
a strong defense in the absence of an overriding external threat
to our nation's security. In this post-Cold War world, ours is
the wonderful yet no less real or difficult challenge of coping
with success. //
This challenge is by no means unprecedented. Think back to
the era after World War I or the years in the immediate wake of
World War II. In both instances, the American people were
anxious to bring their victorious troops home, to focus their
energies on making the American dream a reality. //
Perhaps more instructive, though, are the differences
between our reactions following this century's two great wars.
After World War I, the United States retreated behind its oceans.
Likewise, our initial reaction to victory in World War II showed
little learning. // But, galvanized by an emerging Communist
threat spearheaded by an imperialist Soviet Union, the United
States acted. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall Plan -
- these and other institutions prove that Americans grasped the
nature of the challenge and the need to respond. / Our military
was modernized, free trade nourished, U.S. support for former
adversaries Germany and Japan made generous. It was fitting that
Dean Acheson titled his memoirs "Present at the Creation", for
these years were truly creative. //
The result, as they say, is history. We kept the peace. We
won the Cold War. Democracy is today more the rule than
exception. Now, for the third time this century, we have emerged
4
on the winning side of a war -- the Cold War- involving the
great powers. The question before us is the same: We have won
the war. But are we prepared to secure the peace?
That is the challenge we must face. Yet already, there are
voices across the political spectrum calling -- in some cases,
shouting -- for America to "Come Home. II // "Gut defense, " they
say. "Spend the peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods."
"Slash foreign aid. " //
You all know the slogans. You all know the so-called
solutions: Protectionism. Isolationism. America First.
But now we have the obligation, the responsibility to our
children, to reject the false answers of isolation and
protection, to heed history's lessons. // Turning our back on
the world is no answer. To the contrary, the futures of the
United States and the world are inextricably linked. //
Just why this is so could not be more clear. Yes, the world
is a safer place. Yes, the Soviet Union that we feared is no
longer. But the successor republics are still struggling to
establish themselves as democracies, still struggling to make the
transition to Capitalism. We invested so much to win the Cold
War. Can we not afford to invest what is necessary to win the
peace? / If we fail, if we repeat the experience of the Weimar
Republic, we will create new problems for our security and that
of Europe and Asia. We must support reform, not only in Russia,
but throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. //
5
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote an early chapter of the New World Order. /
Today, like my friend and predecessor, Ronald Reagan, we are
building on RN's roots planted in Tel Aviv and Cairo and Moscow
and Bejing. We are building our New World Order not by shutting
out -- but by including others through the personal diplomacy
that must mark America's role in the emerging world. / Look at
the lands of the former Soviet Union, reaching out toward Western
ways. / or at the fledgling democracies here in our own
hemisphere. / Look at Cambodia and its neighbors in Southeast
Asia, yearning for peace. Or at the historic peace process in
the Middle East -- one that holds out hope of reconciling Israel
and her Arab neighbors and where the U.N. may be at long last in
a position to fulfill the vision of its founders. / The success
of each depends on U.S. support and leadership. / Look, too, at
the threats that know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease,
pollution -- and above all, the spread of weapons of mass
destruction and the means to deliver them. They, too, will yield
only to an America that is vigilant, and strong. //
In the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda there is a "World
Leaders" room of giants who provided such leadership --
Churchill, Chou En-Lai, Charles deGaulle. / President Nixon not
only knew the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century -- he became
one of them -- like them, judged both by disasters averted and
dreams achieved. / Crucial to the New World Order is preventing
crises before they happen -- as President Nixon did, for
6
instance, in 1970 in Jordan. Another part is stopping already
bad crises from turning worse -- as RN did in 1973, airlifting
arms to Israel in the Yom Kippur War. //
Former aide William Safire tells of how once President Nixon
asked about a foreign policy speech. Safire shook his head.
"Frankly," he said, "it's not going to set the world on fire. "
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself, "not to set the
world on fire. "
Yes, carrying out a leadership role in determining the
course of the emerging world will cost money. But like any
insurance policy, the premium is modest compared to the potential
cost of living in a warring and hostile world. //
Those who would have us do less, ignore the potential for
overseas developments to affect life here at home. If we had not
resisted aggression in the Gulf a year ago -- if we had not
liberated Kuwait and defeated Iraq's invading army -- we would
now be facing the economic consequences not of a mild recession,
but of depression brought on by Saddam Hussein's control over the
majority of the world's oil. It is a pipedream to believe that
we can somehow insulate our society or our economy or our lives
from the world beyond our borders. //
This is not meant to suggest that we should not do more here
at home. Of course we should. But foreign policy must not be
made the scapegoat for what ails America. //
7
Isolationism is not the only temptation we need to avoid.
Protectionism is another. It too will be difficult to resist.
There are many examples of unfair trade practices where U.S.
firms get shut out of foreign markets owing to trade barriers of
one sort or another or owing to government subsidies. / But the
way to bring down barriers abroad is not to raise them at home.
In trade wars there are no winners, only losers. It is not hard
to see why. Prices go up. Quality and choice go down. Our goal
should be to increase -- not restrict -- trade. Export growth is
a proven engine for economic growth. Every billion dollars in
our exports creates 20,000 jobs for Americans. And we should
have no doubts about the ability of our workers and farmers to
thrive in a competitive world. //
We all have thoughts on how best to cope with the challenges
of the emerging world. What matters most is that we understand
the nature of the challenges and commit ourselves to engaging
them. Opting out, be it under the banner of protection or
isolation, is nothing more than a recipe for weakness, and
ultimately, disaster. //
If I can choose a theme for you to take away from what I
have to say tonight, it is this: there is no distinction between
how we fare abroad and how we live at home. Foreign and domestic
policy are but two sides of the same coin. True, we will not be
able to lead abroad if we are not united and strong at home, but
it is no less true that we will be unable to build the society we
8
seek here at home in a world where military and economic warfare
is the norm. //
Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility for supporting an
active foreign policy is one for every American. But this task
falls especially upon those in this room tonight. Many of you
helped form the consensus that served us so well over the past
half-century. Now we face a challenge no less daunting. // If I
may cite your conference chairman Jim Schlesinger, "The Cold War,
despite its menace, had an elegant simplicity." I quote this not
out of any regret over the Cold War's passing, but to point out
the risks we face in its wake. / We are entering a world that
promises to be more rather than less complicated, more rather
than less difficult to lead. And again you have a special
responsibility to help show the way. //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live under communism" -- you responded that his grand-
children would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time
you were not sure you were right. Today, we know you were --
just as you were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful
world. /
9
As we look toward the future, the only thing that is certain
is that it will bring a new world. Our task -- our opportunity -
- is to make it orderly, to build a new world order of peace,
democracy and prosperity. Let us dedicate ourselves to making
the most of this precious opportunity, of this privilege. Thank
you. And may God bless the United States of America.
# # # #
ORART 6
Mar
'92
945
Rs
am
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 10 1992
Draft Four
A:3692RNIX
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President. Secretary Kissinger, Ambassador Annenberg.
Julie and David Eisenhower, Tricia Cox, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen. / It is indeed a pleasure to be among good
friends, and to renew old ties. //
( (Let me say how impressed I am by this audience. / I'm
especially glad to see Henry Kissinger. / I didn't always
understand Henry, but I've now spent enough time around Arnold
Schwarzenegger that I understand him perfectly.)
)
//
orFord? or With Ford ?
Richard,
A writer once said of Henry's boss, "His life was somehow
central to the experience of being an American in the second half
of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute a President who
made a difference -- not because he wished it, but because he
willed it. //
Richard Nixon was born in the house his father built. Like
Dwight Eisenhower, he had the "great and priceless privilege of
being raised in a small town." H Later as 37th President, he
founded the Environmental Protection Agency + placed crime and
drugs on the national agenda + created a pioneering cancer
initiative and ended the draft. More people voted for him as
President than any other man in history
+1
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
2
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
So, I could not be more pleased than to be here this evening
to speak before this gathering devoted to exploring "America's
Role in the Emerging World." The subject could not be more
timely. And the auspices could not be more appropriate. / The
Richard Nixon Library stands as a monument to a President and to
an administration devoted to an active, thoughtful and above all,
realistic approach to the world. //
The challenge faced by President Nixon could hardly have
been more daunting: How to maintain domestic support for a
foreign policy mandated by a growing Soviet threat at a time an
over-burdened America was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam.
What emerged -- the policies of detente and the doctrine that
bears the name of the 37th President -- provided a balance
between confrontation and cooperation. 11
President Nixon managed this and more, extricating us from a
war / negotiating the first comprehensive U.S.-Soviet arms
control agreements / opening up relations with China, mediating
disengagement pacts in the Middle East / all while preserving a
consensus at home favoring continued engagement in world affairs.
To be sure, today's challenge is fundamentally different.
Yet it does bear some resemblance. Once again we must find a way
to square the responsibilities of world leadership with the
requirements of domestic renewal. / What we must do is find a
3
way to maintain popular support for an active foreign policy and
a strong defense in the absence of an overriding external threat
to our nation's security. In this post-Cold War world, ours is
the wonderful yet no less real or difficult challenge of coping
with success. //
This challenge is by no means unprecedented. Think back to
the era after World War I or the years in the immediate wake of
World War II. In both instances, the American people were
anxious to bring their victorious troops home, to focus their
energies on making the American dream a reality. //
Perhaps more instructive, though, are the differences
between our reactions following this century's two great wars.
After World War I, the United States retreated behind its oceans.
We refused to support the League of Nations. We allowed our
military forces to shrink and grow obsolete. We helped
international trade plummet, the victim of beggar-thy-neighbor
protectionism. And we stood by and watched as Germany's
struggling democracy, the Weimar Republic, failed under the
weight of reparations, protectionism and depression, and gave way
to the horror of the Third Reich.
# Likewise, our initial reaction to victory in World War II showed
insert
little learning. // But, galvanized by an emerging Communist
threat spearheaded by an imperialist Soviet Union, the United
States acted. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall Plan -
- these and other institutions prove that Americans grasped the
nature of the challenge and the need to respond. / Our military
was modernized, free trade nourished, U.S. support for former
adversaries Germany and Japan made generous. It was fitting that
Dean Acheson titled his memoirs "Present at the Creation", for
these years were truly creative. 11
The result, as they say, is history. We kept the peace. We
onthemarch.
won the Cold War. Democracy is today more the rule than
exception. Now, for the third time this century, we have emerged
4
on the winning side of a war -- the Cold War-- involving the
great powers. The question before us is the same: We have won
the war. But are we prepared to secure the peace?
That is the challenge we must face. Yet already, there are
voices across the political spectrum calling -- in some cases,
shouting -- for America to "Come Home. If 11 "Gut defense,' they
say. "Spend the peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods."
"Slash foreign aid. " 11
You all know the slogans. You all know the so-called
solutions: Protectionism. Isolationism. America First.
But now we have the obligation, the responsibility to our
children, to reject the false answers of isolation and
protection, to heed history's lessons. // Turning our back on
the world is no answer. To the contrary, the futures of the
United States and the world are inextricably linked. 11
Just why this is so could not be more clear. Yes, the world
is a safer place. Yes, the Soviet Union that we feared is no
longer. But the successor republics are still struggling to
establish themselves as democracies, still struggling to make the
transition to Capitalism. We invested so much to win the Cold
War. Can we not afford to invest what is necessary to win the
peace? / If we fail, if we repeat the experience of the Weimar
and prolound
Republic, we will create new problems for our security and that
of Europe and Asia. We must support reform, not only in Russia,
but throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. / /
ther persewed
5
As a former President, Anderson Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote an early chapter of the New World Order. /
Today like my friend and predecessor, Ronald Reagan, we are
building on RN's roots planted in Tel Aviv and Cairo and Moscow
and Bejing. We are building our New World Order not by shutting
out -- but by including others through the personal diplomacy
?
that must mark America's role in the emerging world. / Look at
the lands of the former Soviet Union, reaching out toward Western
ways. / or at the fledgling democracies here in our own
hemisphere. / Look at Cambodia and its neighbors in Southeast
Asia, yearning for [peace.] or at the historic peace process in
all end to decides A adave.
the Middle East -- one that holds out hope of reconciling Israel
Look at aunithar
and her Arab neighbors, a ^ may be at long last in
a position to fulfill the vision of its founders. / The success
of each depends on U.S. support and leadership. / Look, too, at
the threats that know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease,
pollution -- and above all, the spread of weapons of mass
destruction and the means to deliver them. They, too, will yield
only to an America that is vigilant, and strong. 11
In the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda there is a "World
Leaders" room of giants who provided such leadership --
Churchill, Chou En-Lai, Charles deGaulle. / President Nixon not
only knew the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century -- he became
one of them -- like them, judged both by disasters averted and
dreams achieved. / Grucial to the New World 1d Order is preventing
crises before they happen as President Nixon did, for
Nrxon II.
6
instance, in 1970 in Jordan. Another part is stopping Tready
bad crises from turning worse as-RN did in 1923, sirlifting
Isrued in the Your Nippur Nar. 77
Former aide William Safire tells of how once told how President Nixon
He
Theaide
asked about a foreign policy speech. Safire shook his head.
STET
"Frankly," he said, "it's not going to set the world on fire."
Bracket
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself, not to set the
world on fire.
Yes, carrying out a leadership role in determining the
course of the emerging world will cost money. But like any
insurance policy, the premium is modest compared to the potential
cost of living in a warring and hostile world.
many // in Congress are
A internate intenstation
Those who would have us do less, ignore the potential for
ship between
and Those
1 overseas developments to affect life here at home. If we had not
resisted aggression in the Gulf a year ago -- if we had not
liberated Kuwait and defeated Iraq's invading army -- we would
now be facing the economic consequences not of a mild recession,
but of depression brought on by Saddam Hussein's control over the
majority of the world's oil. It is a pipedream to believe that
we can somehow insulate our society or our economy or our lives
from the world beyond our borders. //
This is not meant to suggest that we should not do more here
at home. of course we should. But foreign policy must not be
too wa powerful
determinent made the scapegoat for what avis of like America here // at home. in Congress
are calling for a peace dividend. They would have us slash
defense spending far below the reduced levels we have calculated
would be prudent. This must be resisted. The United States must
remain ready and able to keep the peace; a well-trained, well-
equipped military cannot be created overnight if and when the
need arises. Anyone who has ever gone to war knows that peace is
its own dividend.
7
Isolationism is not the only temptation we need to avoid.
Arrea song which
Protectionism mideed is another It too will be difficult to resist.
There are many examples of unfair trade practices where U.S.
firms get shut out of foreign markets owing to trade barriers of
one sort or another or owing foreign to government subsidies. / But the
way to bring down barriers abroad is not to raise them at home.
In trade wars there are no winners, only losers. It is not hard
to must see why. Prices go up. Quality and choice go down. Our goal
should (be to increase -- not restrict -- trade. Export growth is
a proven engine for economic growth. Every billion dollars in
our exports creates 20,000 jobs for Americans. And we should
have no doubts about the ability of our workers and farmers to
thrive in a competitive world. //
We all have thoughts on how best to cope with the challenges
of the emerging world. What matters most is that we understand
the nature of the challenges and commit ourselves to engaging
them. Opting out, be it under the banner of protection or
isolation, is nothing more than a recipe for weakness, and
ultimately, disaster.
we will have little success at
If I can choose a theme for you to take away from what I
have to say tonight, it is this: there is no distinction between
how we fare abroad and how we live at home. Foreign and domestic
policy are but two sides of the same coin. True, we will not be
able to lead abroad if we are not united and strong at home, but
it is no less true that we will be unable to build the society we
persuading others to do more if we choose to do less.
8
seek here at home in a world where military and economic warfare
is the norm. 11
Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility for supporting an
active foreign policy is one for every American. But this task
falls especially upon those in this room tonight. Many of you
helped form the consensus that served us so well over the past
half-century. Now we face a challenge no less daunting. 11 If I
may cite your conference chairman Jim Schlesinger, "The Cold War,
despite its menace, had an elegant simplicity." I quote this not
out of any regret over the Cold War's passing, but to point out
the risks we face in its wake. / We are entering a world that
promises to be more rather than less complicated, more rather
than less difficult to lead. And again you have a special
responsibility to help show the way. 11
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live under communism" -- you responded that his grand-
children would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time
you were not sure you were right. Today, we know you were --
just as you were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful
world. /
9
As we look toward the future, the only thing that is certain
is that it will bring a new world. Our task -- our opportunity -
- is to make it orderly, to build a new world order of peace,
democracy and prosperity. Let us dedicate ourselves to making
the most of this precious opportunity, of this privilege. Thank
you. And may God bless the United States of America.
# # # #
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 11, 1992
Draft Six
A:NIXONII
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President; Ambassador Annenberg; Julie and David
Eisenhower; [Tricia and Edward Cox]; George Argyrous; John
Taylor; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen. It is indeed
a pleasure to be among good friends, and to renew old ties. //
A writer once said of Richard Nixon, his life was "somehow
central to the experience of being an American in the second half
of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute a President who
made a difference -- not because he wished it, but because he
willed it. //
As our 37th President, he placed crime and drugs on the
national agenda / created a pioneering cancer initiative / ended
the draft / and created the EPA -- [[and we've been fighting over
the spotted owl ever since. ]]
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
So, I could not be more pleased than to be here this evening
to speak before this gathering devoted to exploring "America's
Role in the Emerging World." The subject could not be more
timely. And the auspices could not be more appropriate. / The
2
Richard Nixon Library stands as a monument to a President and to
an administration devoted to an active, thoughtful and above all,
realistic approach to the world. //
The challenge faced by President Nixon could hardly have
been more daunting: How to maintain domestic support for a
foreign policy mandated by a growing Soviet threat at a time an
over-burdened America was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam.
What emerged -- the policies of detente and the doctrine that
bears the name of the 37th President -- provided a balance
between confrontation and cooperation. //
President Nixon managed this and more, extricating us from a
war / negotiating the first comprehensive U.S.-Soviet arms
control agreements / opening up relations with China, mediating
disengagement pacts in the Middle East / all while preserving a
consensus at home favoring continued engagement in world affairs.
To be sure, today's challenge is fundamentally different.
Yet it does bear some resemblance. Once again we must find a way
to square the responsibilities of world leadership with the
requirements of domestic renewal. / What we must do is find a
way to maintain popular support for an active foreign policy and
a strong defense in the absence of an overriding external threat
to our nation's security and in the face of severe budgetary
problems. In this post-Cold War world, ours is the wonderful yet
no less real or difficult challenge of coping with success. //
This challenge is by no means unprecedented. Think back to
the era after World War I or the years in the immediate wake of
3
World War II. In both instances, the American people were
anxious to bring their victorious troops home, to focus their
energies on making the American dream a reality. //
Perhaps more instructive, though, are the differences
between our reactions following this century's two great wars.
After World War I, the United States retreated behind its oceans.
We refused to support the League of Nations. We allowed our
military forces to shrink and grow obsolete. We helped
international trade plummet, the victim of beggar-thy-neighbor
protectionism. And we stood by and watched as Germany's
struggling democracy, the Weimar Republic, failed under the
weight of reparations, protectionism and depression, and gave way
to the horror of the Third Reich.
Likewise, our initial reaction to victory in World War II
showed little learning. // But, galvanized by an emerging
Communist threat spearheaded by an imperialist Soviet Union, the
United States acted. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall
Plan -- these and other institutions prove that Americans grasped
the nature of the challenge and the need to respond. / Our
military was modernized, free trade nourished, U.S. support for
former adversaries Germany and Japan made generous. It was
fitting that Dean Acheson titled his memoirs "Present at the
Creation", for these years were truly creative. //
The result, as they say, is history. We kept the peace. We
won the Cold War. Democracy is on the March. Now, for the third
time this century, we have emerged on the winning side of a war -
4
- the Cold War -- involving the great powers. The question
before us is the same: We have won the war. But are we prepared
to secure the peace?
That is the challenge we must face. Yet already, there are
voices across the political spectrum calling -- in some cases,
shouting -- for America to "Come Home. " // "Gut defense, " they
say. "Spend the peace dividend. II "Shut out foreign goods."
"Slash foreign aid. " //
You all know the slogans. You all know the so-called
solutions: Protectionism. Isolationism. But now we have the
obligation, the responsibility to our children, to reject the
false answers of isolation and protection, to heed history's
lessons. // Turning our back on the world is no answer. To the
contrary, the futures of the United States and the world are
inextricably linked. //
Just why this is so could not be more clear. Yes, the world
is a safer place. Yes, the Soviet Union that we feared is no
longer. But the successor republics are still struggling to
establish themselves as democracies, still struggling to make the
transition to Capitalism. We invested so much to win the Cold
War. We must invest what is necessary to win the peace? / If we
fail, if we repeat the experience of the Weimar Republic, we will
create new and profound problems for our security and that of
Europe and Asia. If we succeed, we strengthen democracy and
build new market economies -- and in the process we create huge
new markets for America. We must support reform, not only in
5
Russia, but throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe. //
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote a chapter that previewed the New World
Order. / Today we are building on RN's roots planted in Tel Aviv
and Cairo and Moscow and Beijing. Look at the lands of the
former Soviet Union, reaching out toward Western ways. / Look at
the fledgling democracies here in our own hemisphere. / Look at
Cambodia and its neighbors in Southeast Asia, yearning for an end
to decades of violence. Or at the historic peace process in the
Middle East -- one that holds out hope of reconciling Israel and
her Arab neighbors. Look at a UN that may be at long last in a
position to fulfill the vision of its founders. / The success of
each depends on U.S. support and leadership. / Look, too, at the
threats that know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease,
pollution -- and above all, the spread of weapons of mass
destruction and the means to deliver them. They, too, will yield
only to an America that is vigilant, and strong. / /
In the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda there is a "World
Leaders" room of giants who provided such leadership --
Churchill, Chou En-Lai, Charles deGaulle. / President Nixon not
only knew the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century -- he became
one of them -- like them, judged both by disasters averted and
dreams achieved. /
6
A former aide once told of how President Nixon asked about
a foreign policy speech. The aide shook his head. "Frankly," " he
said, "it's not going to set the world on fire. "
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy, " he said almost to himself, "not to set the
world on fire.
Yes, carrying out a leadership role in determining the
course of the emerging world will cost money. But like any
insurance policy, the premium is modest compared to the potential
cost of living in a warring and hostile world. // Many in
Congress are calling for a peace dividend. They would have us
slash defense spending far below the reduced levels we have
calculated would be prudent. This must be resisted. The United
States must remain ready and able to keep the peace; a well-
trained, well-equipped military cannot be created overnight if
and when the need arises. Anyone who has ever gone to war knows
that peace is its own dividend.
Those who would have us do less ignore the intimate
interrelationship between overseas developments and those here at
home. If we had not resisted aggression in the Gulf a year ago -
- if we had not liberated Kuwait and defeated Iraq's invading
army -- we would now be facing the economic consequences not of a
mild recession, but of depression brought on by Saddam Hussein's
control over the majority of the world's oil. [I am absolutely
certain that is we had not moved against Saddam, he would be in
Saudi Arabia today.] It is a pipedream to believe that we can
7
somehow insulate our society or our economy or our lives from the
world beyond our borders. //
This is not meant to suggest that we should not do more here
at home. of course we should. But foreign policy too is a
powerful determinant of the quality of life here at home. //
Isolationism is not the only temptation we need to avoid.
Protectionism is another siren song which will be difficult to
resist. There are indeed many examples of unfair trade practices
where U.S. firms get shut out of foreign government markets owing
to trade barriers of one sort or another or owing to foreign
government subsidies. / But the way to bring down barriers
abroad is not to raise them at home. In trade wars there are no
winners, only losers. It is not hard to see why. Prices go up.
Quality and choice go down. Our goal must be to increase -- not
economic
restrict -- trade. Export growth is a proven engine. for economic
manufactured
growth. Every billion dollars in our exports creates 20,000 jobs. .
for Americans. And we should have no doubts about the ability of
our workers and farmers to thrive in a competitive world.
We all have thoughts on how best to cope with the challenges
of the emerging world. What matters most is that we understand
the nature of the challenges and commit ourselves to engaging
them. Opting out, be it under the banner of protection or
isolation, is nothing more than a recipe for weakness, and
ultimately, disaster. We will have little success at persuading
others to de more if we choose to do less. +1
8
If I can choose a theme for you to take away from what I
have to say tonight, it is this: there is no distinction between
how we fare abroad and how we live at home. Foreign and domestic
policy are but two sides of the same coin. True, we will not be
able to lead abroad if we are not united and strong at home, but
it is no less true that we will be unable to build the society we
seek here at home in a world where military and economic warfare
is the norm. //
Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility for supporting an
active foreign policy is one for every American. But this task
falls especially upon those in this room tonight. Many of you
helped form the consensus that served us so well over the past
half century. Now we face a challenge no less daunting. // If E
may cite your conference chairman Jim Schlesinger, "The Cold War
despite its menace, had an elegant simplicity. " I quote this not
out of any regret over the Cold War's passing, but to point out
the risks we face in its wake. We are entering a world that
promises to be more rather than less complicated, more rather
than less difficult to lead. And again you have a special
responsibility to help show the way. //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
9
will live under communism" -- you responded that his grand-
children would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time
you were not sure you were right. Today, we know you were --
just as you were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful
world. /
As we look toward the future, the only thing that is certain
is that it will bring a new world. Our task -- our opportunity -
- is to make it orderly, to build a new world order of peace,
democracy and prosperity. Let us dedicate ourselves to making
the most of this precious opportunity, of this privilege. Thank
you. And may God bless the United States of America.
#
#
#
#
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 11, 1992
Draft Six
A:NIXONII
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President; Ambassador Annenberg; Julie and David
Eisenhower; [Tricia and Edward Cox]; George Argyrous; John
Taylor; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen. It is indeed
a pleasure to be among good friends, and to renew old ties. //
A writer once said of Richard Nixon, his life was "somehow
central to the experience of being an American in the second half
of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute a President who
made a difference -- not because he wished it, but because he
willed it. //
As our 37th President, he placed crime and drugs on the
national agenda / created a pioneering cancer initiative / ended
the draft / and created the EPA -- [[and we've been fighting over
the spotted owl ever since. ]]
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
So, I could not be more pleased than to be here this evening
to speak before this gathering devoted to exploring "America's
Role in the Emerging World." The subject could not be more
timely. And the auspices could not be more appropriate. / The
2
Richard Nixon Library stands as a monument to a President and to
an administration devoted to an active, thoughtful and above all,
realistic approach to the world. //
The challenge faced by President Nixon could hardly have
been more daunting: How to maintain domestic support for a
foreign policy mandated by a growing Soviet threat at a time an
over-burdened America was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam.
What emerged -- the policies of detente and the doctrine that
bears the name of the 37th President -- provided a balance
between confrontation and cooperation. //
President Nixon managed this and more, extricating us from a
war / negotiating the first comprehensive U.S.-Soviet arms
control agreements / opening up relations with China, mediating
disengagement pacts in the Middle East / all while preserving a
consensus at home favoring continued engagement in world affairs.
To be sure, today's challenge is fundamentally different.
Yet it does bear some resemblance. Once again we must find a way
to square the responsibilities of world leadership with the
requirements of domestic renewal. / What we must do is find a
way to maintain popular support for an active foreign policy and
a strong defense in the absence of an overriding external threat
to our nation's security and in the face of severe budgetary
problems. In this post-Cold War world, ours is the wonderful yet
no less real or difficult challenge of coping with success. / /
This challenge is by no means unprecedented. Think back to
the era after World War I or the years in the immediate wake of
3
World War II. In both instances, the American people were
anxious to bring their victorious troops home, to focus their
energies on making the American dream a reality. //
Perhaps more instructive, though, are the differences
between our reactions following this century's two great wars.
After World War I, the United States retreated behind its oceans.
We refused to support the League of Nations. We allowed our
military forces to shrink and grow obsolete. We helped
international trade plummet, the victim of beggar-thy-neighbor
protectionism. And we stood by and watched as Germany's
struggling democracy, the Weimar Republic, failed under the
weight of reparations, protectionism and depression, and gave way
to the horror of the Third Reich.
Likewise, our initial reaction to victory in World War II
showed little learning. // But, galvanized by an emerging
Communist threat spearheaded by an imperialist Soviet Union, the
United States acted. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall
Plan -- these and other institutions prove that Americans grasped
the nature of the challenge and the need to respond. / Our
military was modernized, free trade nourished, U.S. support for
former adversaries Germany and Japan made generous. It was
fitting that Dean Acheson titled his memoirs "Present at the
Creation", for these years were truly creative. //
The result, as they say, is history. We kept the peace. We
won the Cold War. Democracy is on the March. Now, for the third
time this century, we have emerged on the winning side of a war -
4
- the Cold War -- involving the great powers. The question
before us is the same: We have won the war. But are we prepared
to secure the peace?
That is the challenge we must face. Yet already, there are
voices across the political spectrum calling -- in some cases,
shouting -- for America to "Come Home. " // "Gut defense," they
say. "Spend the peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods."
"Slash foreign aid." //
You all know the slogans. You all know the so-called
solutions: Protectionism. Isolationism. But now we have the
obligation, the responsibility to our children, to reject the
false answers of isolation and protection, to heed history's
lessons. // Turning our back on the world is no answer. To the
contrary, the futures of the United States and the world are
inextricably linked. //
Just why this is so could not be more clear. Yes, the world
is a safer place. Yes, the Soviet Union that we feared is no
longer. But the successor republics are still struggling to
establish themselves as democracies, still struggling to make the
transition to Capitalism. We invested so much to win the Cold
War. We must invest what is necessary to win the peace? / If we
fail, we will create new and profound problems for our security
and that of Europe and Asia. If we succeed, we strengthen
democracy and build new market economies -- and in the process we
create huge new markets for America. We must support reform, not
5
only in Russia, but throughout the former Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe. / /
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote a chapter that previewed the New World
Order. / Today we are building on RN's roots planted in Tel Aviv
and Cairo and Moscow and Beijing. Look at the lands of the
former Soviet Union, reaching out toward Western ways. / Look at
the fledgling democracies here in our own hemisphere. / Look at
Cambodia and its neighbors in Southeast Asia, yearning for an end
to decades of violence. Or at the historic peace process in the
Middle East -- one that holds out hope of reconciling Israel and
her Arab neighbors. Look at a UN that may be at long last in a
position to fulfill the vision of its founders. / The success of
each depends on U.S. support and leadership. / Look, too, at the
threats that know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease,
pollution -- and above all, the spread of weapons of mass
destruction and the means to deliver them. They, too, will yield
only to an America that is vigilant, and strong. //
In the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda there is a "World
Leaders" room of giants who provided such leadership ---
Churchill, Chou En-Lai, Charles deGaulle. / President Nixon not
only knew the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century -- he became
one of them -- like them, judged both by disasters averted and
dreams achieved. /
6
A former aide once told of how President Nixon asked about a
foreign policy speech. The aide shook his head. "Frankly," " he
said, "it's not going to set the world on fire."
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself, "not to set the
world on fire."
Yes, carrying out a leadership role in determining the
course of the emerging world will cost money. But like any
insurance policy, the premium is modest compared to the potential
cost of living in a warring and hostile world. // Many in
Congress are calling for a peace dividend. They would have us
slash defense spending far below the reduced levels we have
calculated would be prudent. This must be resisted. The United
States must remain ready and able to keep the peace; a well-
trained, well-equipped military cannot be created overnight if
and when the need arises. Anyone who has ever gone to war knows
that peace is its own dividend.
Those who would have us do less ignore the intimate
interrelationship between overseas developments and those here at
home. If we had not resisted aggression in the Gulf a year ago -
- if we had not liberated Kuwait and defeated Iraq's invading
army -- we would now be facing the economic consequences not of a
mild recession, but of depression brought on by Saddam Hussein's
control over the majority of the world's oil. [I am absolutely
certain that is we had not moved against Saddam, he would be in
Saudi Arabia today.] It is a pipedream to believe that we can
7
somehow insulate our society or our economy or our lives from the
world beyond our borders. //
This is not meant to suggest that we should not do more here
at home. Of course we should. But foreign policy too is a
powerful determinant of the quality of life here at home. //
Isolationism is not the only temptation we need to avoid.
Protectionism is another siren song which will be difficult to
resist. There are indeed many examples of unfair trade practices
where U.S. firms get shut out of foreign government markets owing
to trade barriers of one sort or another or owing to foreign
government subsidies. / But the way to bring down barriers
abroad is not to raise them at home. In trade wars there are no
winners, only losers. Export growth is a proven economic engine.
Every billion dollars in manufactured exports creates 20,000 jobs
for Americans. And we should have no doubts about the ability of
our workers and farmers to thrive in a competitive world. Our
goal must be to increase -- not restrict -- trade. Opting out,
be it under the banner of protection or isolation, is nothing
more than a recipe for weakness, and ultimately, disaster. //
If I can choose a theme for you to take away from what I
have to say tonight, it is this: there is no distinction between
how we fare abroad and how we live at home. Foreign and domestic
policy are but two sides of the same coin. True, we will not be
able to lead abroad if we are not united and strong at home, but
it is no less true that we will be unable to build the society we
8
seek here at home in a world where military and economic warfare
is the norm. //
Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility for supporting an
active foreign policy is one for every American. But this task
falls especially upon those in this room tonight. We are
entering a world that promises to be more rather than less
complicated, more rather than less difficult to lead. And again
you have a special responsibility to help show the way. //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live under communism" -- you responded that his grand-
children would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time
you were not sure you were right. Today, we know you were --
just as you were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful
world. /
As we look toward the future, the only thing that is certain
is that it will bring a new world. Our task -- our opportunity -
- is to make it orderly, to build a new world order of peace,
democracy and prosperity. Let us dedicate ourselves to making
the most of this precious opportunity, of this privilege. Thank
you. And may God bless the United States of America.
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 11, 1992
Draft Five
A:NIXONII
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President. Secretary Kissinger, Ambassador Annenberg.
Julie and David Eisenhower, Tricia Cox, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen. / It is indeed a pleasure to be among good
friends, and to renew old ties. //
( (Let me say how impressed I am by this audience. / I'm
when I first met Henry 20 yrs ago
especially glad to see Henry Kissinger. / I didn't always
him
understand Henry, but I've now spent enough time around Arnold
Schwarzenegger that I understand him perfectly. )) //
A writer once said of Henry's boss, Richard Nixon, his life
was "somehow central to the experience of being an American in
the second half of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute
a President who made a difference -- not because he wished it,
but because he willed it. // As our 37th President he placed cime
anddrugs on the national agenda/created a
pioneevins cancer initiative Tended ano
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be Created
the EPA-
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
[we've been
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
fighting
over the
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
spotted
owl
ever
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
since
So, I could not be more pleased than to be here this evening
to speak before this gathering devoted to exploring "America's
Role in the Emerging World." The subject could not be more
timely. And the auspices could not be more appropriate. / The
2
Richard Nixon Library stands as a monument to a President and to
an administration devoted to an active, thoughtful and above all,
realistic approach to the world. //
The challenge faced by President Nixon could hardly have
been more daunting: How to maintain domestic support for a
foreign policy mandated by a growing Soviet threat at a time an
over-burdened America was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam.
What emerged -- the policies of detente and the doctrine that
bears the name of the 37th President -- provided a balance
between confrontation and cooperation. 11
President Nixon managed this and more, extricating us from a
war / negotiating the first comprehensive U.S.-Soviet arms
control agreements / opening up relations with China, mediating
disengagement pacts in the Middle East / all while preserving a
consensus at home favoring continued engagement in world affairs.
To be sure, today's challenge is fundamentally different.
Yet it does bear some resemblance. Once again we must find a way
to square the responsibilities of world leadership with the
requirements of domestic renewal. / What we must do is find a
way to maintain popular support for an active foreign policy and
a strong defense in the absence of an overriding external threat
and inthe face of severe budgetary problems.
to our nation's security, In this post-Cold War world, ours is
the wonderful yet no less real or difficult challenge of coping
with success. //
This challenge is by no means unprecedented. Think back to
the era after World War I or the years in the immediate wake of
3
World War II. In both instances, the American people were
anxious to bring their victorious troops home, to focus their
energies on making the American dream a reality. //
Perhaps more instructive, though, are the differences
between our reactions following this century's two great wars.
After World War I, the United States retreated behind its oceans.
We refused to support the League of Nations. We allowed our
military forces to shrink and grow obsolete. We helped
international trade plummet, the victim of beggar-thy-neighbor
protectionism. And we stood by and watched as Germany's
struggling democracy, the Weimar Republic, failed under the
weight of reparations, protectionism and depression, and gave way
to the horror of the Third Reich.
Likewise, our initial reaction to victory in World War II
showed little learning. // But, galvanized by an emerging
Communist threat spearheaded by an imperialist Soviet Union, the
United States acted. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall
Plan -- these and other institutions prove that Americans grasped
the nature of the challenge and the need to respond. / Our
military was modernized, free trade nourished, U.S. support for
former adversaries Germany and Japan made generous. It was
fitting that Dean Acheson titled his memoirs "Present at the
Creation", for these years were truly creative. //
The result, as they say, is history. We kept the peace. We
won the Cold War. Democracy is on the March. Now, for the third
time this century, we have emerged on the winning side of a war -
4
- the Cold War -- involving the great powers. The question
before us is the same: We have won the war. But are we prepared
to secure the peace?
That is the challenge we must face. Yet already, there are
voices across the political spectrum calling -- in some cases,
shouting -- for America to "Come Home." // "Gut defense,' they
say. "Spend the peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods."
"Slash foreign aid." //
You all know the slogans. You all know the so-called
solutions: Protectionism. Isolationism. America First.
But now we have the obligation, the responsibility to our
children, to reject the false answers of isolation and
protection, to heed history's lessons. // Turning our back on
the world is no answer. To the contrary, the futures of the
United States and the world are inextricably linked. //
Just why this is so could not be more clear. Yes, the world
is a safer place. Yes, the Soviet Union that we feared is no
longer. But the successor republics are still struggling to
establish themselves as democracies, still struggling to make the
transition to Capitalism. We invested so much to win the Cold
we must
War. Canzwe not afford to invest what is necessary to win the
peace / If we fail, if we repeat the experience of the Weimar
build new
Republic, we will create new and profound problems for our
It we succeed we Strengthen democracy and market economies-
security and that of Europe and Asia. A We must support reform, and in
not only in Russia, but throughout the former Soviet Union and
the process
we create
Eastern Europe. //
huge new
markets
for
America.
5
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote a chapter that previewed the New World
Order. / Today we are building on RN's roots planted in Tel Aviv
and Cairo and Moscow and Beijing. We are building our New World
Order not by shutting out -- but by including others through the
personal diplomacy that must mark America's role in the emerging
world. / Look at the lands of the former Soviet Union, reaching
Look
out toward Western ways. / or at the fledgling democracies here
in our own hemisphere. / Look at Cambodia and its neighbors in
Southeast Asia, yearning for an end to decades of violence. or
at the historic peace process in the Middle East -- one that
holds out hope of reconciling Israel and her Arab neighbors.
Look at a UN that may be at long last in a position to fulfill
the vision of its founders. / The success of each depends on
U.S. support and leadership. / Look, too, at the threats that
know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease, pollution -- and
above all, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the
means to deliver them. They, too, will yield only to an America
that is vigilant, and strong. //
In the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda there is a "World
Leaders" room of giants who provided such leadership --
Churchill, Chou En-Lai, Charles deGaulle. / President Nixon not
only knew the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century -- he became
one of them -- like them, judged both by disasters averted and
dreams achieved. /
6
[[A former aide once told of how President Nixon asked about
a foreign policy speech. The aide shook his head. "Frankly," he
said, "it's not going to set the world on fire."
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself, "not to set the
world on fire. "]]
Yes, carrying out a leadership role in determining the
course of the emerging world will cost money. But like any
insurance policy, the premium is modest compared to the potential
cost of living in a warring and hostile world. // Many in
Congress are calling for a peace dividend. They would have us
slash defense spending far below the reduced levels we have
calculated would be prudent. This must be resisted. The United
States must remain ready and able to keep the peace; a well-
trained, well-equipped military cannot be created overnight if
and when the need arises. Anyone who has ever gone to war knows
that peace is its own dividend.
Those who would have us do less, ignore the intimate
interrelationship between overseas developments and those here at
home. If we had not resisted aggression in the Gulf a year ago -
- if we had not liberated Kuwait and defeated Iraq's invading
army -- we would now be facing the economic consequences not of a
mild recession, but of depression brought on by Saddam Hussein's
control over the majority of the world's oil. It is a pipedream
to believe that we can somehow insulate our society or our
economy or our lives from the world beyond our borders. //
(I am absolutely convinced certain that of we
had not moved against Saddam he would
be in Saudi Arabia today)
7
This is not meant to suggest that we should not do more here
at home. of course we should. But foreign policy too is a
powerful determinant of the quality of life here at home. //
Isolationism is not the only temptation we need to avoid.
Protectionism is another siren song which will be difficult to
resist. There are indeed many examples of unfair trade practices
where U.S. firms get shut out of foreign government markets owing
to trade barriers of one sort or another or owing to foreign
government subsidies. / But the way to bring down barriers
abroad is not to raise them at home. In trade wars there are no
winners, only losers. It is not hard to see why. Prices go up.
Quality and choice go down. Our goal must be to increase -- not
restrict -- trade. Export growth is a proven engine for economic
growth. Every billion dollars in our exports creates 20,000 jobs
for Americans. And we should have no doubts about the ability of
our workers and farmers to thrive in a competitive world. //
We all have thoughts on how best to cope with the challenges
of the emerging world. What matters most is that we understand
the nature of the challenges and commit ourselves to engaging
them. Opting out, be it under the banner of protection or
isolation, is nothing more than a recipe for weakness, and
ultimately, disaster. We will have little success at persuading
others to do more if we choose to do less. //
If I can choose a theme for you to take away from what I
have to say tonight, it is this: there is no distinction between
how we fare abroad and how we live at home. Foreign and domestic
8
policy are but two sides of the same coin. True, we will not be
able to lead abroad if we are not united and strong at home, but
it is no less true that we will be unable to build the society we
seek here at home in a world where military and economic warfare
is the norm. //
Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility for supporting an
active foreign policy is one for every American. But this task
falls especially upon those in this room tonight. Many of you
helped form the consensus that served us so well over the past
half-century. Now we face a challenge no less daunting. // If I
may cite your conference chairman Jim Schlesinger, "The Cold War,
despite its menace, had an elegant simplicity." I quote this not
out of any regret over the Cold War's passing, but to point out
the risks we face in its wake. / We are entering a world that
promises to be more rather than less complicated, more rather
than less difficult to lead. And again you have a special
responsibility to help show the way. //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live under communism" -- you responded that his grand-
children would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time
you were not sure you were right. Today, we know you were --
9
just as you were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful
world. /
As we look toward the future, the only thing that is certain
is that it will bring a new world. Our task -- our opportunity -
- is to make it orderly, to build a new world order of peace,
democracy and prosperity. Let us dedicate ourselves to making
the most of this precious opportunity, of this privilege. Thank
you. And may God bless the United States of America.
#
#
#
#
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 11, 1992
Draft Five
A:NIXONII
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President. Secretary Kissinger, Ambassador Annenberg.
Julie and David Eisenhower, Tricia Cox, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen. / It is indeed a pleasure to be among good
friends, and to renew old ties. //
((Let me say how impressed I am by this audience. / I'm
especially glad to see Henry Kissinger. / I didn't always
understand Henry, but I've now spent enough time around Arnold
Schwarzenegger that I understand him perfectly. )) //
A writer once said of Henry's boss, Richard Nixon, his life
was "somehow central to the experience of being an American in
the second half of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute
a President who made a difference -- not because he wished it,
but because he willed it. //
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
So, I could not be more pleased than to be here this evening
to speak before this gathering devoted to exploring "America's
Role in the Emerging World." The subject could not be more
timely. And the auspices could not be more appropriate. / The
2
Richard Nixon Library stands as a monument to a President and to
an administration devoted to an active, thoughtful and above all,
realistic approach to the world. //
The challenge faced by President Nixon could hardly have
been more daunting: How to maintain domestic support for a
foreign policy mandated by a growing Soviet threat at a time an
over-burdened America was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam.
What emerged -- the policies of detente and the doctrine that
bears the name of the 37th President -- provided a balance
between confrontation and cooperation. - //
President Nixon managed this and more, extricating us from a
war / negotiating the first comprehensive U.S.-Soviet arms
control agreements / opening up relations with China, mediating
disengagement pacts in the Middle East / all while preserving a
consensus at home favoring continued engagement in world affairs.
To be sure, today's challenge is fundamentally different.
Yet it does bear some resemblance. Once again we must find a way
to square the responsibilities of world leadership with the
requirements of domestic renewal. / What we must do is find a
way to maintain popular support for an active foreign policy and
a strong defense in the absence of an overriding external threat
to our nation's security. In this post-Cold War world, ours is
the wonderful yet no less real or difficult challenge of coping
with success. //
This challenge is by no means unprecedented. Think back. to
the era after World War I or the years in the immediate wake of
3
World War II. In both instances, the American people were
anxious to bring their victorious troops home, to focus their
energies on making the American dream a reality. //
Perhaps more instructive, though, are the differences
between our reactions following this century's two great wars.
After World War I, the United States retreated behind its oceans.
We refused to support the League of Nations. We allowed our
military forces to shrink and grow obsolete. We helped
international trade plummet, the victim of beggar-thy-neighbor
protectionism. And we stood by and watched as Germany's
struggling democracy, the Weimar Republic, failed under the
weight of reparations, protectionism and depression, and gave way
to the horror of the Third Reich.
Likewise, our initial reaction to victory in World War II
showed little learning. // But, galvanized by an emerging
Communist threat spearheaded by an imperialist Soviet Union, the
United States acted. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall
Plan -- these and other institutions prove that Americans grasped
the nature of the challenge and the need to respond. / Our
military was modernized, free trade nourished, U.S. support for
former adversaries Germany and Japan made generous. It was
fitting that Dean Acheson titled his memoirs "Present at the
Creation", for these years were truly creative. //
The result, as they say, is history. We kept the peace. We
won the Cold War. Democracy is on the March. Now, for the third
time this century, we have emerged on the winning side of a war -
4
- the Cold War -- involving the great powers. The question
before us is the same: We have won the war. But are we prepared
to secure the peace?
That is the challenge we must face. Yet already, there are
voices across the political spectrum calling -- in some cases,
shouting -- for America to "Come Home. " // "Gut defense, " they
say. "Spend the peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods."
"Slash foreign aid." //
You all know the slogans. You all know the so-called
solutions: Protectionism. Isolationism. America First.
But now we have the obligation, the responsibility to our
children, to reject the false answers of isolation and
protection, to heed history's lessons. // Turning our back on
the world is no answer. To the contrary, the futures of the
United States and the world are inextricably linked. //
Just why this is so could not be more clear. Yes, the world
is a safer place. Yes, the Soviet Union that we feared is no
longer. But the successor republics are still struggling to
establish themselves as democracies, still struggling to make the
transition to Capitalism. We invested so much to win the Cold
War. Can we not afford to invest what is necessary to win the
peace? / If we fail, if we repeat the experience of the Weimar
Republic, we will create new and profound problems for our
security and that of Europe and Asia. We must support reform,
not only in Russia, but throughout the former Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe. //
5
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote a chapter that previewed the New World
Order. / Today we are building on RN's roots planted in Tel Aviv
and Cairo and Moscow and Beijing. We are building our New World
Order not by shutting out -- but by including others through the
personal diplomacy that must mark America's role in the emerging
world. / Look at the lands of the former Soviet Union, reaching
out toward Western ways. / or at the fledgling democracies here
in our own hemisphere. / Look at Cambodia and its neighbors in
Southeast Asia, yearning for an end to decades of violence. Or
at the historic peace process in the Middle East -- one that
holds out hope of reconciling Israel and her Arab neighbors.
Look at a UN that may be at long last in a position to fulfill
the vision of its founders. / The success of each depends on
U.S. support and leadership. / Look, too, at the threats that
know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease, pollution -- and
above all, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the
means to deliver them. They, too, will yield only to an America
that is vigilant, and strong. //
In the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda there is a "World
Leaders" room of giants who provided such leadership --
Churchill, Chou En-Lai, Charles deGaulle. / President Nixon not
only knew the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century -- he became
one of them -- like them, judged both by disasters averted and
dreams achieved. /
6
[[A former aide once told of how President Nixon asked about
a foreign policy speech. The aide shook his head. "Frankly," he
said, "it's not going to set the world on fire."
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself, "not to set the
world on fire. "]]
Yes, carrying out a leadership role in determining the
course of the emerging world will cost money. But like any
insurance policy, the premium is modest compared to the potential
cost of living in a warring and hostile world. // Many in
Congress are calling for a peace dividend. They would have us
slash defense spending far below the reduced levels we have
calculated would be prudent. This must be resisted. The United
States must remain ready and able to keep the peace; a well-
trained, well-equipped military cannot be created overnight if
and when the need arises. Anyone who has ever gone to war knows
that peace is its own dividend.
Those who would have us do less, ignore the intimate
interrelationship between overseas developments and those here at
home. If we had not resisted aggression in the Gulf a year ago -
- if we had not liberated Kuwait and defeated Iraq's invading
army --- we would now be facing the economic consequences not of a
mild recession, but of depression brought on by Saddam Hussein's
control over the majority of the world's oil. It is a pipedream
to believe that we can somehow insulate our society or our
economy or our lives from the world beyond our borders. //
7
This is not meant to suggest that we should not do more here
at home. Of course we should. But foreign policy too is a
powerful determinant of the quality of life here at home. //
Isolationism is not the only temptation we need to avoid.
Protectionism is another siren song which will be difficult to
resist. There are indeed many examples of unfair trade practices
where U.S. firms get shut out of foreign government markets owing
to trade barriers of one sort or another or owing to foreign
government subsidies. / But the way to bring down barriers
abroad is not to raise them at home. In trade wars there are no
winners, only losers. It is not hard to see why. Prices go up.
Quality and choice go down. Our goal must be to increase -- not
restrict -- trade. Export growth is a proven engine for economic
growth. Every billion dollars in our exports creates 20,000 jobs
for Americans. And we should have no doubts about the ability of
our workers and farmers to thrive in a competitive world. //
We all have thoughts on how best to cope with the challenges
of the emerging world. What matters most is that we understand
the nature of the challenges and commit ourselves to engaging
them. Opting out, be it under the banner of protection or
isolation, is nothing more than a recipe for weakness, and
ultimately, disaster. We will have little success at persuading
others to do more if we choose to do less. //
If I can choose a theme for you to take away from what I
have to say tonight, it is this: there is no distinction between
how we fare abroad and how we live at home. Foreign and domestic
8
policy are but two sides of the same coin. True, we will not be
able to lead abroad if we are not united and strong at home, but
it is no less true that we will be unable to build the society we
seek here at home in a world where military and economic warfare
is the norm. //
Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility for supporting an
active foreign policy is one for every American. But this task
falls especially upon those in this room tonight. Many of you
helped form the consensus that served us so well over the past
half-century. Now we face a challenge no less daunting. // If I
may cite your conference chairman Jim Schlesinger, "The Cold War,
despite its menace, had an elegant simplicity." I quote this not
out of any regret over the Cold War's passing, but to point out
the risks we face in its wake. / We are entering a world that
promises to be more rather than less complicated, more rather
than less difficult to lead. And again you have a special
responsibility to help show the way. //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live under communism" -- you responded that his grand-
children would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time
you were not sure you were right. Today, we know you were --
9
just as you were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful
world. /
As we look toward the future, the only thing that is certain
is that it will bring a new world. Our task -- our opportunity -
- is to make it orderly, to build a new world order of peace,
democracy and prosperity. Let us dedicate ourselves to making
the most of this precious opportunity, of this privilege. Thank
you. And may God bless the United States of America.
# # # #
Document No. 313693ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
92 MAR 10 P2: 41
DATE: 3/9/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 11:00 A.M. 3/10/92
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
SUBJECT:
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, DC
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
I
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
FITZWATER
YEUTTER
GRAY
FINDLAY
HOLIDAY
KAUFMAN
MCGROARTY
DELAND
REMARKS:
Please forward your remarks directly to Dan McGroarty Rm 122,
Ext. 2930, NO LATER THAN 11:00 A.M., Tuesday, March 10, with
a copy to this office.
-
Thank you.
No Comment
RESPONSE:
-Shemic Rollins
Called in at 9:00
of AM
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 9, 1992
92 MAR 9 P4: 21
Draft Three
MILHOUS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President. Secretary Kissinger, Ambassador Annenberg.
Julie and David Eisenhower, Tricia Cox, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen. / It is indeed a pleasure to be among good
friends, and to renew old ties. //
((Let me say how impressed I am by this audience. / I'm
especially glad to see Henry Kissinger. / I didn't always
understand Henry, but I've now spent enough time around Arnold
Schwarzenegger that I understand him perfectly. " //
A writer once said of Henry's boss, "His life was somehow
central to the experience of being an America in the second half
of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute a President who
made a difference -- not because he wished it, but because he
willed it. //
Richard Nixon was born in the house his father built. Like
Dwight Eisenhower, he had the "rare and priceless privilege of
growing up in a small town.' // Later, as 37th President, he
founded the Environmental Protection Agency / revenue sharing / a
pioneering cancer initiative / and ended the draft. More people
voted for him as President than any man in history. //
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
2
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
As Vice President, his Six Crises ranged from Caracas to the
Kremlin. / His Memoirs told of great Leaders. / His goal was
Real Peace -- Victory Without War -- the triumph of freedom over
tyranny, plenty over want. / He achieved it by peace through
strength -- a just cause which last year led America to the
Persian Gulf. We went there to halt aggression. We stayed there
until we did. / Ask any of the brave men and women about the
legacy of the Gulf. They will tell you: No More Vietnams. //
For nearly half-a-century, Richard Nixon has been a man In
the Arena -- believing of America what Montaigne said of France:
"I love her so tenderly that even her blemishes are dear to me." "
/ His crusade hasn't changed since as a boy he heard train
whistles in the night: To Seize the Moment for the liberty which
is America's essence, and message. / So let me speak tonight
about the foreign policy lessons of his Presidency -- and how we
can use his Generation of Peace to help build a New World Order.
The first lesson is that a President must heed the lessons
of history. There is no substitute for a lifetime spent studying
international affairs. / Richard Nixon knew this -- understood
the nuances of world politics as perhaps no other President.
Once he said, and I agree: "Even a small mistake in foreign
policy can be the difference between life and death, peace and
war. " //
3
Look at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. You see a "World
Leaders" Room of giants -- Churchill, Ike, Chou En-Lai, Charles
DeGaulle. / President Nixon not only knew the greatest statesmen
of the 20th Century -- he became one of them -- like them, judged
both by disasters averted and dreams achieved. / Crucial to the
New World Order is preventing crises before they happen -- as
President Nixon did, for instance, in 1970 in Jordan. Another
part is stopping already bad crises from turning worse -- as RN
did in 1973, airlifting arms to Israel in the Yom Kippur War. //
Former aide William Safire tells of how once President Nixon
asked about a foreign policy speech. Safire shook his head.
"Frankly," he said, "it's not going to set the world on fire."
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself. "It's not to set
the world on fire.' 11
This brings me to a second lesson: Presidents must look
beyond tomorrow to the next decade or next millennium. //
Even as America acknowledges the limitations of its power -
- our adversaries must respect the power of its will. No Nation
will believe another which ignores its commitments. // I will
never forget May, 1972. Three weeks before the Soviet Summit,
President Nixon bombed Hanoi and mined Haiphong Harbor to stem a
North Vietnamese invasion of the South. / His advisors told him
he was risking both the Summit and his re-election. He replied
he would rather lose both than let down a friend. /
4
Yet President Nixon also knew that while Moscow and
Washington might not be friends -- we could not afford to be
enemies. So he signed the first agreement to limit strategic
nuclear arms. / He knew that nuclear war might especially erupt
in the Middle East. So he and Dr. Kissinger pioneered a cease
fire so that ancient foes could talk -- not die -- over
differences. / He knew, too, that the world's most powerful
nation could not ignore the world's most populous nation. So
twenty years ago, he opened America to China / opened China to
the world / and began the dialogue which events cannot -- and
will not -- sunder. // He did all of this while preserving a
consensus at home in favor of continued engagement in world
affairs. //
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote the opening chapter of the New World
Order. / Today, we are building on the roots planted in Tel Aviv
and Cairo and Moscow and Bejing. We are building our New World
Order not by shutting out -- but by including others through the
personal diplomacy that must mark America's role in the emerging
world. / Look at the lands of the former Soviet Union, reaching
out toward Western ways. / Look at the fledgling democracies
here in our own hemisphere. / Look at Cambodia and its neighbors
in Southeast Asia, yearning for peace. At the historic peace
process in the Middle East -- one that holds out hope of
reconciling Israel and her Arab neighbors. / The success of each
depends on U.S. support and leadership. // Look at the threats
5
that know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease, pollution -
- and above all, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and
the means to deliver them. They, too, will yield only to an
America that is vigilant, and strong. //
Some, of course, ignore these truths -- demanding that we
withdraw behind a wall -- militarily, and economically. Across
the political spectrum they call -- in some cases, shout -- for
America to "Come Home. " / "Gut defense, they say. "Spend the
peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods." "Slash foreign aid." H
/ You all know the slogans -- the so-called solutions:
Protectionism. Isolationism. America First. Here is my answer:
The real way to put America first is to put isolationism last. //
Remember: Imperial Communism is now a four-letter word: D-
E-A-D -- because America was, and will remain, engaged. 11 We
have the obligation -- the responsibility to our children -- to
reject the siren songs of isolationism and protectionism.
Allowing the world to become a worse place will not make America
a better place. // In his 1968 acceptance speech, RN called for
an open world, open sky, open hearts, open minds. / He knew that
the New World Order does not mean an America which cuts and runs.
All this, in turn, means what he said as President:
"America is not going to build protectionist walls to shelter us
from fair competition. We are not going to live in our own
cocoon while the rest of the world passes us by. / The way to
bring down barriers abroad is not to raise them at home. / In
trade wars there are no winners, only losers -- prices go up,
6
quality and choice go down. / We did not win the Cold War to
make the world safe for trade war. And we don't want a trade war
-- for America can outwork / outcompete / and outproduce anyone,
anytime. So we welcome peaceful competition -- and we will win
it, as we have before, through American ideals which have helped
change the world. Ideals which today form the basis of the New
World Order: Liberty, prosperity, and freedom without war. //
To achieve this will require perhaps the greatest foreign-
policy lesson of the Nixon Administration: A President must have
the courage to do right, and achieve good. / During the Gulf
War, a true heroine, Margaret Thatcher, said to me, "Now George,
this is no time to go wobbly." -- and because we didn't, Desert
Storm became a triumph for all time. / So it is of tonight's
guest. Agree with him -- disagree with him: I have never known
a more courageous President than Richard Milhous Nixon. //
Twenty years ago, I was reading a Nixon campaign brochure.
"For the first time," it said, "we are spending more of our
resources on human needs than military needs." / Today, that is
more true than ever. We will cut defense spending, but not our
national defense. We will turn resources to meeting human needs -
- but retain an effective nuclear deterrent, forward-deployment,
capacity for rapid response, and rebuild our forces. / The Cold
War is over -- and America won. / Freedom will win the peace
only if America's President commands the respect of the world. /
The historian, Theodore White, once wrote how the 37th
President's "virtuoso personal diplomacy" rearranged "the world
7
with exquisite skill." No wonder he had a profound effect on
those who served him. ((Still, I can't help wondering whatever
happened to a former Nixon speechwriter who seemed to have higher
ambitions.) ) / America's President acted for freedom's sake --
and for what Bulgaria's former president, Todor Zhivkov, told him
years later. He asked RN how many grandchildren he had. Told
three, Zhivkov said, "You are a very rich man. Having
grandchildren is the greatest wealth a man can have. " //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live in Communism" -- you responded that his grand-children
would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time you were
not sure you were right. Today, we know you were -- just as you
were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful world. /
As President, you showed how we must act for our
grandchildren and grandchildren all around the world. // Some
people talk of the Old or New Nixon. Go to Prague or Paris or
Budapest or Bombay. The real Nixon has always been good enough
for them. / Thank you for inviting me to address this conference.
God bless you, and the United States of America.
#
#
#
#
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
March 10, 1992
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVID DEMAREST
44
FROM:
CURT SMITH
SUBJECT:
NIXON LIBRARY SPEECH
On Wednesday, March 11 at 9:35 p.m., you will address a
foreign policy forum sponsored by the Richard Nixon Library at
the Four Seasons Hotel. Your remarks (17 minutes, teleprompter)
focus on President Nixon's achievements in foreign policy; the
lessons learned from his stewardship; and how those lessons can
help build the New World Order.
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 10, 1992
Draft Four
A:3692RNIX
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President. Secretary Kissinger, Ambassador Annenberg.
Julie and David Eisenhower, Tricia Cox, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen. / It is indeed a pleasure to be among good
friends, and to renew old ties. //
( (Let me say how impressed I am by this audience. / I'm
especially glad to see Henry Kissinger. / I didn't always
understand Henry, but I've now spent enough time around Arnold
Schwarzenegger that I understand him perfectly. )) //
A writer once said of Henry's boss, "His life was somehow
central to the experience of being an American in the second half
of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute a President who
made a difference -- not because he wished it, but because he
willed it. //
Richard Nixon was born in the house his father built. Like
Dwight Eisenhower, he had the "great and priceless privilege of
being raised in a small town. " // Later, as 37th President, he
founded the Environmental Protection Agency / placed crime and
drugs on the national agenda / created a pioneering cancer
initiative / and ended the draft. More people voted for him as
President than any other man in history. //
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
2
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
So, I could not be more pleased than to be here this evening
to speak before this gathering devoted to exploring "America's
Role in the Emerging World." The subject could not be more
timely. And the auspices could not be more appropriate. / The
Richard Nixon Library stands as a monument to a President and to
an administration devoted to an active, thoughtful and above all,
realistic approach to the world. //
The challenge faced by President Nixon could hardly have
been more daunting: How to maintain domestic support for a
foreign policy mandated by a growing Soviet threat at a time an
over-burdened America was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam.
What emerged -- the policies of detente and the doctrine that
bears the name of the 37th President -- provided a balance
between confrontation and cooperation. //
President Nixon managed this and more, extricating us from a
war / negotiating the first comprehensive U.S.-Soviet arms
control agreements / opening up relations with China, mediating
disengagement pacts in the Middle East / all while preserving a
consensus at home favoring continued engagement in world affairs.
To be sure, today's challenge is fundamentally different.
Yet it does bear some resemblance. Once again we must find a way
to square the responsibilities of world leadership with the
requirements of domestic renewal. / What we must do is find a
3
way to maintain popular support for an active foreign policy and
a strong defense in the absence of an overriding external threat
to our nation's security. In this post-Cold War world, ours is
the wonderful yet no less real or difficult challenge of coping
with success. //
This challenge is by no means unprecedented. Think back to
the era after World War I or the years in the immediate wake of
World War II. In both instances, the American people were
anxious to bring their victorious troops home, to focus their
energies on making the American dream a reality. //
Perhaps more instructive, though, are the differences
between our reactions following this century's two great wars.
After World War I, the United States retreated behind its oceans.
Likewise, our initial reaction to victory in World War II showed
little learning. // But, galvanized by an emerging Communist
threat spearheaded by an imperialist Soviet Union, the United
States acted. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall Plan -
- these and other institutions prove that Americans grasped the
nature of the challenge and the need to respond. / Our military
was modernized, free trade nourished, U.S. support for former
adversaries Germany and Japan made generous. It was fitting that
Dean Acheson titled his memoirs "Present at the Creation", for
these years were truly creative. //
The result, as they say, is history. We kept the peace. We
won the Cold War. Democracy is today more the rule than
exception. Now, for the third time this century, we have emerged
4
on the winning side of a war -- the Cold War-- involving the
great powers. The question before us is the same: We have won
the war. But are we prepared to secure the peace?
That is the challenge we must face. Yet already, there are
voices across the political spectrum calling -- in some cases,
shouting -- for America to "Come Home. " // "Gut defense, " they
say. "Spend the peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods."
"Slash foreign aid. //
You all know the slogans. You all know the so-called
solutions: Protectionism. Isolationism. America First.
But now we have the obligation, the responsibility to our
children, to reject the false answers of isolation and
protection, to heed history's lessons. // Turning our back on
the world is no answer. To the contrary, the futures of the
United States and the world are inextricably linked. //
Just why this is so could not be more clear. Yes, the world
is a safer place. Yes, the Soviet Union that we feared is no
longer. But the successor republics are still struggling to
establish themselves as democracies, still struggling to make the
transition to Capitalism. We invested so much to win the Cold
War. Can we not afford to invest what is necessary to win the
peace? / If we fail, if we repeat the experience of the Weimar
Republic, we will create new problems for our security and that
of Europe and Asia. We must support reform, not only in Russia,
but throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. //
5
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote an early chapter of the New World Order. /
Today, like my friend and predecessor, Ronald Reagan, we are
building on RN's roots planted in Tel Aviv and Cairo and Moscow
and Bejing. We are building our New World Order not by shutting
out -- but by including others through the personal diplomacy
that must mark America's role in the emerging world. / Look at
the lands of the former Soviet Union, reaching out toward Western
ways. / Or at the fledgling democracies here in our own
hemisphere. / Look at Cambodia and its neighbors in Southeast
Asia, yearning for peace. or at the historic peace process in
the Middle East -- one that holds out hope of reconciling Israel
and her Arab neighbors and where the U.N. may be at long last in
a position to fulfill the vision of its founders. / The success
of each depends on U.S. support and leadership. / Look, too, at
the threats that know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease,
pollution -- and above all, the spread of weapons of mass
destruction and the means to deliver them. They, too, will yield
only to an America that is vigilant, and strong. //
In the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda there is a "World
Leaders" room of giants who provided such leadership --
Churchill, Chou En-Lai, Charles deGaulle. / President Nixon not
only knew the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century -- he became
one of them -- like them, judged both by disasters averted and
dreams achieved. / Crucial to the New World Order is preventing
crises before they happen -- as President Nixon did, for
6
instance, in 1970 in Jordan. Another part is stopping already
bad crises from turning worse -- as RN did in 1973, airlifting
arms to Israel in the Yom Kippur War. //
Former aide William Safire tells of how once President Nixon
asked about a foreign policy speech. Safire shook his head.
"Frankly," he said, "it's not going to set the world on fire.'
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself, "not to set the
world on fire."
Yes, carrying out a leadership role in determining the
course of the emerging world will cost money. But like any
insurance policy, the premium is modest compared to the potential
cost of living in a warring and hostile world. //
Those who would have us do less, ignore the potential for
overseas developments to affect life here at home. If we had not
resisted aggression in the Gulf a year ago -- if we had not
liberated Kuwait and defeated Iraq's invading army -- we would
now be facing the economic consequences not of a mild recession,
but of depression brought on by Saddam Hussein's control over the
majority of the world's oil. It is a pipedream to believe that
we can somehow insulate our society or our economy or our lives
from the world beyond our borders. //
This is not meant to suggest that we should not do more here
at home. Of course we should. But foreign policy must not be
made the scapegoat for what ails America. //
7
Isolationism is not the only temptation we need to avoid.
Protectionism is another. It too will be difficult to resist.
There are many examples of unfair trade practices where U.S.
firms get shut out of foreign markets owing to trade barriers of
one sort or another or owing to government subsidies. / But the
way to bring down barriers abroad is not to raise them at home.
In trade wars there are no winners, only losers. It is not hard
to see why. Prices go up. Quality and choice go down. Our goal
should be to increase -- not restrict -- trade. Export growth is
a proven engine for economic growth. Every billion dollars in
our exports creates 20,000 jobs for Americans. And we should
have no doubts about the ability of our workers and farmers to
thrive in a competitive world. //
We all have thoughts on how best to cope with the challenges
of the emerging world. What matters most is that we understand
the nature of the challenges and commit ourselves to engaging
them. Opting out, be it under the banner of protection or
isolation, is nothing more than a recipe for weakness, and
ultimately, disaster. //
If I can choose a theme for you to take away from what I
have to say tonight, it is this: there is no distinction between
how we fare abroad and how we live at home. Foreign and domestic
policy are but two sides of the same coin. True, we will not be
able to lead abroad if we are not united and strong at home, but
it is no less true that we will be unable to build the society we
8
seek here at home in a world where military and economic warfare
is the norm. //
Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility for supporting an
active foreign policy is one for every American. But this task
falls especially upon those in this room tonight. Many of you
helped form the consensus that served us so well over the past
half-century. Now we face a challenge no less daunting. // If I
may cite your conference chairman Jim Schlesinger, "The Cold War,
despite its menace, had an elegant simplicity." I quote this not
out of any regret over the Cold War's passing, but to point out
the risks we face in its wake. / We are entering a world that
promises to be more rather than less complicated, more rather
than less difficult to lead. And again you have a special
responsibility to help show the way. //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live under communism" -- you responded that his grand-
children would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time
you were not sure you were right. Today, we know you were --
just as you were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful
world. /
9
As we look toward the future, the only thing that is certain
is that it will bring a new world. Our task -- our opportunity -
- is to make it orderly, to build a new world order of peace,
democracy and prosperity. Let us dedicate ourselves to making
the most of this precious opportunity, of this privilege. Thank
you. And may God bless the United States of America.
# # # #
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
March 10, 1992
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
THROUGH:
DAVID DEMAREST
44
FROM:
CURT SMITH
SUBJECT:
NIXON LIBRARY SPEECH
On Wednesday, March 11 at 9:35 p.m., you will address a
foreign policy forum sponsored by the Richard Nixon Library at
the Four Seasons Hotel. Your remarks (17 minutes, teleprompter)
focus on President Nixon's achievements in foreign policy; the
lessons learned from his stewardship; and how those lessons can
help build the New World Order.
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 10, 1992
Draft Four
A:3692RNIX
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President. Secretary Kissinger, Ambassador Annenberg.
Julie and David Eisenhower, Tricia Cox, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen. / It is indeed a pleasure to be among good
friends, and to renew old ties. //
( (Let me say how impressed I am by this audience. / I'm
especially glad to see Henry Kissinger. / I didn't always
understand Henry, but I've now spent enough time around Arnold
Schwarzenegger that I understand him perfectly. " //
A writer once said of Henry's boss, "His life was somehow
central to the experience of being an American in the second half
of this century.' / I am proud tonight to salute a President who
made a difference -- not because he wished it, but because he
willed it. //
Richard Nixon was born in the house his father built. Like
Dwight Eisenhower, he had the "great and priceless privilege of
being raised in a small town." // Later, as 37th President, he
founded the Environmental Protection Agency / placed crime and
drugs on the national agenda / created a pioneering cancer
initiative / and ended the draft. More people voted for him as
President than any other man in history. //
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
2
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books --- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
So, I could not be more pleased than to be here this evening
to speak before this gathering devoted to exploring "America's
Role in the Emerging World." The subject could not be more
timely. And the auspices could not be more appropriate. / The
Richard Nixon Library stands as a monument to a President and to
an administration devoted to an active, thoughtful and above all,
realistic approach to the world. //
The challenge faced by President Nixon could hardly have
been more daunting: How to maintain domestic support for a
foreign policy mandated by a growing Soviet threat at a time an
over-burdened America was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam.
What emerged -- the policies of detente and the doctrine that
bears the name of the 37th President -- provided a balance
between confrontation and cooperation. //
President Nixon managed this and more, extricating us from a
war / negotiating the first comprehensive U.S.-Soviet arms
control agreements / opening up relations with China, mediating
disengagement pacts in the Middle East / all while preserving a
consensus at home favoring continued engagement in world affairs.
To be sure, today's challenge is fundamentally different.
Yet it does bear some resemblance. Once again we must find a way
to square the responsibilities of world leadership with the
requirements of domestic renewal. / What we must do is find a
3
way to maintain popular support for an active foreign policy and
a strong defense in the absence of an overriding external threat
to our nation's security. In this post-Cold War world, ours is
the wonderful yet no less real or difficult challenge of coping
with success. //
This challenge is by no means unprecedented. Think back to
the era after World War I or the years in the immediate wake of
World War II. In both instances, the American people were
anxious to bring their victorious troops home, to focus their
energies on making the American dream a reality. //
Perhaps more instructive, though, are the differences
between our reactions following this century's two great wars.
After World War I, the United States retreated behind its oceans.
Likewise, our initial reaction to victory in World War II showed
little learning. // But, galvanized by an emerging Communist
threat spearheaded by an imperialist Soviet Union, the United
States acted. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall Plan -
- these and other institutions prove that Americans grasped the
nature of the challenge and the need to respond. / Our military
was modernized, free trade nourished, U.S. support for former
adversaries Germany and Japan made generous. It was fitting that
Dean Acheson titled his memoirs "Present at the Creation", for
these years were truly creative. //
The result, as they say, is history. We kept the peace. We
won the Cold War. Democracy is today more the rule than
exception. Now, for the third time this century, we have emerged
4
on the winning side of a war -- the Cold War-- involving the
great powers. The question before us is the same: We have won
the war. But are we prepared to secure the peace?
That is the challenge we must face. Yet already, there are
voices across the political spectrum calling -- in some cases,
shouting -- for America to "Come Home. " // "Gut defense, " they
say. "Spend the peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods." "
"Slash foreign aid." 11
You all know the slogans. You all know the so-called
solutions: Protectionism. Isolationism. America First.
But now we have the obligation, the responsibility to our
children, to reject the false answers of isolation and
protection, to heed history's lessons. // Turning our back on
the world is no answer. To the contrary, the futures of the
United States and the world are inextricably linked. //
Just why this is so could not be more clear. Yes, the world
is a safer place. Yes, the Soviet Union that we feared is no
longer. But the successor republics are still struggling to
establish themselves as democracies, still struggling to make the
transition to Capitalism. We invested so much to win the Cold
War. Can we not afford to invest what is necessary to win the
peace? / If we fail, if we repeat the experience of the Weimar
Republic, we will create new problems for our security and that
of Europe and Asia. We must support reform, not only in Russia,
but throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. //
5
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote an early chapter of the New World Order. /
Today, like my friend and predecessor, Ronald Reagan, we are
building on RN's roots planted in Tel Aviv and Cairo and Moscow
and Bejing. We are building our New World Order not by shutting
out -- but by including others through the personal diplomacy
that must mark America's role in the emerging world. / Look at
the lands of the former Soviet Union, reaching out toward Western
ways. / Or at the fledgling democracies here in our own
hemisphere. / Look at Cambodia and its neighbors in Southeast
Asia, yearning for peace. or at the historic peace process in
the Middle East -- one that holds out hope of reconciling Israel
and her Arab neighbors and where the U.N. may be at long last in
a position to fulfill the vision of its founders. / The success
of each depends on U.S. support and leadership. / Look, too, at
the threats that know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease,
pollution -- and above all, the spread of weapons of mass
destruction and the means to deliver them. They, too, will yield
only to an America that is vigilant, and strong. //
In the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda there is a "World
Leaders" room of giants who provided such leadership --
Churchill, Chou En-Lai, Charles deGaulle. / President Nixon not
only knew the greatest statesmen of the 20th Century -- he became
one of them -- like them, judged both by disasters averted and
dreams achieved. / Crucial to the New World Order is preventing
crises before they happen -- as President Nixon did, for
6
instance, in 1970 in Jordan. Another part is stopping already
bad crises from turning worse -- as RN did in 1973, airlifting
arms to Israel in the Yom Kippur War. //
Former aide William Safire tells of how once President Nixon
asked about a foreign policy speech. Safire shook his head.
"Frankly," he said, "it's not going to set the world on fire.'
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself, "not to set the
world on fire."
Yes, carrying out a leadership role in determining the
course of the emerging world will cost money. But like any
insurance policy, the premium is modest compared to the potential
cost of living in a warring and hostile world. //
Those who would have us do less, ignore the potential for
overseas developments to affect life here at home. If we had not
resisted aggression in the Gulf a year ago -- if we had not
liberated Kuwait and defeated Iraq's invading army -- we would
now be facing the economic consequences not of a mild recession,
but of depression brought on by Saddam Hussein's control over the
majority of the world's oil. It is a pipedream to believe that
we can somehow insulate our society or our economy or our lives
from the world beyond our borders. //
This is not meant to suggest that we should not do more here
at home. of course we should. But foreign policy must not be
made the scapegoat for what ails America. //
7
Isolationism is not the only temptation we need to avoid.
Protectionism is another. It too will be difficult to resist.
There are many examples of unfair trade practices where U.S.
firms get shut out of foreign markets owing to trade barriers of
one sort or another or owing to government subsidies. / But the
way to bring down barriers abroad is not to raise them at home.
In trade wars there are no winners, only losers. It is not hard
to see why. Prices go up. Quality and choice go down. Our goal
should be to increase -- not restrict --- trade. Export growth is
a proven engine for economic growth. Every billion dollars in
our exports creates 20,000 jobs for Americans. And we should
have no doubts about the ability of our workers and farmers to
thrive in a competitive world. //
We all have thoughts on how best to cope with the challenges
of the emerging world. What matters most is that we understand
the nature of the challenges and commit ourselves to engaging
them. Opting out, be it under the banner of protection or
isolation, is nothing more than a recipe for weakness, and
ultimately, disaster. //
If I can choose a theme for you to take away from what I
have to say tonight, it is this: there is no distinction between
how we fare abroad and how we live at home. Foreign and domestic
policy are but two sides of the same coin. True, we will not be
able to lead abroad if we are not united and strong at home, but
it is no less true that we will be unable to build the society we
8
seek here at home in a world where military and economic warfare
is the norm. //
Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility for supporting an
active foreign policy is one for every American. But this task
falls especially upon those in this room tonight. Many of you
helped form the consensus that served us so well over the past
half-century. Now we face a challenge no less daunting. // If I
may cite your conference chairman Jim Schlesinger, "The Cold War,
despite its menace, had an elegant simplicity." I quote this not
out of any regret over the Cold War's passing, but to point out
the risks we face in its wake. / We are entering a world that
promises to be more rather than less complicated, more rather
than less difficult to lead. And again you have a special
responsibility to help show the way. //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live under communism" -- you responded that his grand-
children would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time
you were not sure you were right. Today, we know you were --
just as you were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful
world. /
9
As we look toward the future, the only thing that is certain
is that it will bring a new world. Our task -- our opportunity -
- is to make it orderly, to build a new world order of peace,
democracy and prosperity. Let us dedicate ourselves to making
the most of this precious opportunity, of this privilege. Thank
you. And may God bless the United States of America.
# # # #
Document No. 313693ss
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
92 MAR 10 P2: 40
DATE: 3/9/92
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 11:00 A.M. 3/10/92
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
SUBJECT:
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, DC
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
HORNER
SKINNER
MCBRIDE
SCOWCROFT
MOORE
DARMAN
PETERSMEYER
BRADY
)
PORTER
BROMLEY
ROGICH
CALIO
ROLLINS
DEMAREST
SMITH
YEUTTER
FITZWATER
GRAY
FINDLAY
HOLIDAY
KAUFMAN
MCGROARTY
DELAND
REMARKS:
Please forward your remarks directly to Dan McGroarty Rm 122,
Ext. 2930, NO LATER THAN 11:00 A.M., Tuesday, March 10, with
a copy to this office.
-
Thank you.
RESPONSE:
To
A suggestions couple of
PHILLIP D. BRADY
Assistant to the President
and Staff Secretary
Ext. 2702
(Smith/Aarhus/Chia)
March 9, 1992
92 MAR 9 P4: 21
Draft Three
MILHOUS
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: NIXON LIBRARY
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1992
Mr. President. Secretary Kissinger, Ambassador Annenberg.
Julie and David Eisenhower, Tricia Cox, distinguished guests,
ladies and gentlemen. / It is indeed a pleasure to be among good
friends, and to renew old ties. //
( (Let me say how impressed I am by this audience. / I'm
especially glad to see Henry Kissinger. / I didn't always
understand Henry, but I've now spent enough time around Arnold
Schwarzenegger that I understand him perfectly. )) //
A writer once said of Henry's boss, "His life was somehow
central to the experience of being an America in the second half
of this century." / I am proud tonight to salute a President who
made a difference -- not because he wished it, but because he
willed it. //
Richard Nixon was born in the house his father built. Like
Dwight Eisenhower, he had the "rare and priceless privilege of
growing up in a small town." 11 Later, as 37th President, he
worth
founded the Environmental Protection Agency / revenue sharing /
a
highlig
pioneering cancer initiative / and ended the draft. More people
voted for him as President than any man in history. //
Yet as I said when his Library opened, Richard Nixon will be
remembered for another reason: Dedicating his life to the
2
noblest cause offered any President -- the cause of peace among
nations / a cause told in his books -- now, nine of them -- each
written out long-hand on his famous yellow legal pads. /
As Vice President, his Six Crises ranged from Caracas to the
Kremlin. / His Memoirs told of great Leaders. / His goal was
Real Peace -- Victory Without War -- the triumph of freedom over
tyranny, plenty over want. / He achieved it by peace through
strength -- a just cause which last year led America to the
Persian Gulf. We went there to halt aggression. We stayed there
until we did. / Ask any of the brave men and women about the
legacy of the Gulf. They will tell you: No More Vietnams. //
For nearly half-a-century, Richard Nixon has been a man In
the Arena -- believing of America what Montaigne said of France:
"I love her so tenderly that even her blemishes are dear to me."
/ His crusade hasn't changed since as a boy he heard train
whistles in the night: To Seize the Moment for the liberty which
is America's essence, and message. / So let me speak tonight
about the foreign policy lessons of his Presidency -- and how we
can use his Generation of Peace to help build a New World Order.
The first lesson is that a President must heed the lessons
of history. There is no substitute for a lifetime spent studying
international affairs. / Richard Nixon knew this -- understood
the nuances of world politics as perhaps no other President.
Once he said, and I agree: "Even a small mistake in foreign
policy can be the difference between life and death, peace and
war. " //
3
Look at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. You see a "World
Leaders" Room of giants -- Churchill, Ike, Chou En-Lai, Charles
DeGaulle. / President Nixon not only knew the greatest statesmen
of the 20th Century -- he became one of them -- like them, judged
both by disasters averted and dreams achieved. / Crucial to the
New World Order is preventing crises before they happen -- as.
President Nixon did, for instance, in 1970 in Jordan. Another
part is stopping already bad crises from turning worse -- as RN
did in 1973, airlifting arms to Israel in the Yom Kippur War. //
Former aide William Safire tells of how once President Nixon
asked about a foreign policy speech. Safire shook his head.
"Frankly," he said, "it's not going to set the world on fire.
President Nixon shook his head. "That's the whole object of
our foreign policy," he said almost to himself. "It's not to set
the world on fire. //
This brings me to a second lesson: Presidents must look
beyond tomorrow to the next decade or next millennium. //
Even as America acknowledges the limitations of its power -
- our adversaries must respect the power of its will. No Nation
will believe another which ignores its commitments. // I will
never forget May, 1972. Three weeks before the Soviet Summit,
President Nixon bombed Hanoi and mined Haiphong Harbor to stem a
North Vietnamese invasion of the South. / His advisors told him
he was risking both the Summit and his re-election. He replied
he would rather lose both than let down a friend. /
4
Yet President Nixon also knew that while Moscow and
Washington might not be friends -- we could not afford to be
enemies. So he signed the first agreement to limit strategic
nuclear arms. / He knew that nuclear war might especially erupt
in the Middle East. So he and Dr. Kissinger pioneered a cease
fire so that ancient foes could talk -- not die -- over
differences. / He knew, too, that the world's most powerful
nation could not ignore the world's most populous nation. So
twenty years ago, he opened America to China / opened China to
the world / and began the dialogue which events cannot -- and
will not -- sunder. // He did all of this while preserving a
consensus at home in favor of continued engagement in world
affairs. //
As a former President, Richard Nixon is a prolific author.
As President, he wrote the opening chapter of the New World
Order. / Today, we are building on the roots planted in Tel Aviv
and Cairo and Moscow and Bejing. We are building our New World
Order not by shutting out -- but by including others through the
personal diplomacy that must mark America's role in the emerging
world. / Look at the lands of the former Soviet Union, reaching
out toward Western ways. / Look at the fledgling democracies
here in our own hemisphere. / Look at Cambodia and its neighbors
in Southeast Asia, yearning for peace. At the historic peace
process in the Middle East -- one that holds out hope of
reconciling Israel and her Arab neighbors. / The success of each
depends on U.S. support and leadership. // Look at the threats
5
that know no boundaries: drugs, terrorism, disease, pollution -
- and above all, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and
the means to deliver them. They, too, will yield only to an
America that is vigilant, and strong. //
Some, of course, ignore these truths -- demanding that we
withdraw behind a wall -- militarily, and economically. Across
the political spectrum they call -- in some cases, shout -- for
America to "Come Home. " / "Gut defense," they say. "Spend the
peace dividend." "Shut out foreign goods." "Slash foreign aid."
/ You all know the slogans -- the so-called solutions:
Protectionism. Isolationism. America First. Here is my answer:
The real way to put America first is to put isolationism last. //
Remember: Imperial Communism is now a four-letter word: D-
E-A-D -- because America was, and will remain, engaged. // We
have the obligation -- the responsibility to our children -- to
reject the siren songs of isolationism and protectionism.
Allowing the world to become a worse place will not make America
a better place. // In his 1968 acceptance speech, RN called for
an open world, open sky, open hearts, open minds. / He knew that
the New World Order does not mean an America which cuts and runs.
All this, in turn, means what he said as President:
"America is not going to build protectionist walls to shelter us
from fair competition. We are not going to live in our own
cocoon while the rest of the world passes us by. " / The way to
bring down barriers abroad is not to raise them at home. / In
trade wars there are no winners, only losers -- prices go up,
6
quality and choice go down. / We did not win the Cold War to
make the world safe for trade war. And we don't want a trade war
-- for America can outwork / outcompete / and outproduce anyone,
anytime. So we welcome peaceful competition -- and we will win
it, as we have before, through American ideals which have helped
change the world. Ideals which today form the basis of the New
World Order: Liberty, prosperity, and freedom without war. //
To achieve this will require perhaps the greatest foreign-
policy lesson of the Nixon Administration: A President must have
partags
the courage to do right, and achieve good. /
During the Gulf
War, a true heroine, Margaret Thatcher, said to me, "Now George,
had
as
this is no time to go wobbly." -- and because we didn t, Desert courage
wated
Storm became a triumph for all time. / So it is of tonight's
guest. Agree with him -- disagree with him: I have never known
Matcher
Mrs.
up
a more courageous President than Richard Milhous Nixon. //
Twenty years ago, I was reading a Nixon campaign brochure.
"For the first time," it said, "we are spending more of our
resources on human needs than military needs." / Today, that is
more true than ever. We will cut defense spending, but not our
national defense. We will turn resources to meeting human needs -
- but retain an effective nuclear deterrent, forward-deployment,
capacity for rapid response, and rebuild our forces. / The Cold
War is over -- and America won. / Freedom will win the peace
only if America's President commands the respect of the world. /
The historian, Theodore White, once wrote how the 37th
President's "virtuoso personal diplomacy" rearranged "the world
7
with exquisite skill.' No wonder he had a profound effect on
those who served him. ((Still, I can't help wondering whatever
happened to a former Nixon speechwriter who seemed to have higher
ambitions.) ) / America's President acted for freedom's sake --
and for what Bulgaria's former president, Todor Zhivkov, told him
years later. He asked RN how many grandchildren he had. Told
three, Zhivkov said, "You are a very rich man. Having
grandchildren is the greatest wealth a man can have. " //
Mr. President, there have been literally millions of words
written about you. / As President Reagan said, some even have
been true. / But let me close with words that you used 33 years
ago, in the kitchen in Moscow, with former Premier Khrushchev. //
You describe the scene memorably in your latest book, Seize
the Moment. When Khrushchev bragged that, "Your grandchildren
will live in Communism" -- you responded that his grand-children
would live in freedom. / He was wrong, but at the time you were
not sure you were right. Today, we know you were -- just as you
were right in helping build a safer, more peaceful world. /
As President, you showed how we must act for our
grandchildren and grandchildren all around the world. // Some
people talk of the Old or New Nixon. Go to Prague or Paris or
Budapest or Bombay. The real Nixon has always been good enough
for them. / Thank you for inviting me to address this conference.
God bless you, and the United States of America.
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