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Speeches [Presidential Address to European Parliament in Strasbourg 05/08/1985] (1)
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Speeches [Presidential Address to European Parliament in Strasbourg 05/08/1985] (1)
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Jack F. Matlock, Jr.'s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) Subject Files
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Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
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This is a PDF of a folder from our textual collections.
Collection: Matlock, Jack F.: Files
Folder Title: Speeches [Presidential Address to
European Parliament in Strasbourg 05/08/1985] (1)
Box: 35
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PENDING REVIEW IN ACCORDANCE WITH E.O. 13233
Ronald Reagan Library
Collection Name MATLOCK, JACK: FILES
Withdrawer
LOJ 3/28/2007
File Folder
SPEECHES [PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO EUROPEAN
FOIA
PARLIAMENT IN STRASBOURG 5/8/85] (1/12)
F01-061
Box Number
35
ID Doc Type
Document Description
No of Doc Date
Pages
A OUTLINE
RE RECOMMENDED STRASBOURG
2
ND Opend 05/14/2008&
SPEECH STRUCTION [2-3]
Foreign Press Center
National Press Building
Room 898
Washington, D.C. 20045
USIA
26AP85
Amb. Matlock
Jack, the attached strikes me as a more
helpful contribution than any additional
lanaguage I could give you at the moment (I am
confident that you and Ty will **** have
already included the substantive material XXX I
xxxxx would have reinserted). The objective
in the Deaver meeting, it seems to me, is
provide a structure for the speechwriters, along
with as much illustrative language as possible,
and then let Deaver issue them firm marching
orders. I believe that something along the
attached lines (which is certainly not hardened,
and can be modified in the course of the
meeting) will help Mike direct the discussion.
I passed on a copy to Ty as well.
Jim R.
United States Information Agency
RECOMMENDED STRASBOURG SPEECH STRUCTURE
(Keyed to Noonan 11 a.m. draft)
BEYOND THIS CENTURY'S MOST ENDURING PEACE: THE FUTURE
OF THE DEMOCRATIC COMMUNITY
I.
Scene Setter
--40 years ago today (pp. 1-2) ;
-lessons/legacy of war and aftermath (pp. 3-6) ;
Needed: clear, sharp reference to a Europe still divided
after 40 years, one side free, other side denied free
enjoyment of democratic rights; not what the victorious
Western Allies intended or desired.
II. Europe Today
-Europessimism, Europaralysis, questioning (pp. 6-9) ;
--Economic stuff, origins of EC (pp. 7-9) ;
Needed: abbreviated emphasis on free enterprise
(buzz-word), put tighter focus on idea of sound economic
policy/cooperation as an indispensable component of Western
security.
III. The U.S. and European Unity
--morality, differences between East and West (pp. 10-11) ;
--arms negotiations, necessity of strong defense, SDI (pp.
12-14) ;
--U.S. -European partnership (p. 15) ;
Needed: clearer articulation of U.S. support for concept of
European Unity; graceful linking of SDI to vision of 21st
Century, i.e., future free from nuclear terror, an
initiative which puts President on side of angels and
provides appropriate lead-in to guts of speech in critical
concluding section.
IV. Toward A New Democratic Community
--call for forum, association, union of democracies (pp.
16-17);
--peroration/conclusion (pp.18-20);
Needed: Maximum strengthening, with more color and fleshing
out of specific initiative, i.e., reinsertion of Westminster
II language (judicious mixture of NSC/Rentschler/Shub
material), alternatives-to-partition theme, RR looking
toward the day when representatives from all of Europe, East
and West, can sit freely in the European Parliament, etc.
This should be constructed as the headline hook.
w)
(Noonan/BE)
April 26, 1985
11:00 a.m.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: TO EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
STRASBOURG, FRANCE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1985
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor to be with
you on this day.
We mark today the anniversary of the liberation of Europe
from tyrants who had seized this continent and plunged it into a
terrible war. Forty years ago today, the guns were stilled and
peace began -- a peace that has endured to become the longest of
this century.
On this day 40 years ago, they swarmed onto the boulevards
of Paris, rallied under the Arc de Triomphe and sang the
"Marseillaise" in the free and open air. In Rome, the sound of
shurch bells filled St. Peter's Square and echoed through the
ity. On this day 40 years ago, Winston Churchill walked out
onto a balcony in Whitehall and said to the people of Britain,
"This is your victory" -- and, the crowd yelled back, "No, it is
yours," in an unforgettable moment of love and gratitude.
Londoners tore the blackout curtains from their windows, and put
floodlights on the great symbols of English history. And for the
first time in 6 years Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's
Cathedral were illuminated against the sky
Across the ocean, a half million New Yorker's flooded Times
Square and, being Americans, laughed and posed for the cameras.
In Washington, our new President, Harry Truman, called reporters
into his office and said, "The flags of freedom fly all over
Europe.'
He added: "And it's my birthday too!"
Page 2
On this day 40 years ago, I was in
, and as I passed a
radio I heard the words, "Ladies and gentlemen, the war in Europe
is over," and like so many people that day I felt a chill, as if
a gust of cold wind had just swept past, and I realized: I will
never forget this moment.
This day can't help but be emotional, for in it we feel the
long tug of memory; we are reminded of shared joy and shared pain
and the terrible poignance of life. A few weeks ago in
California an old soldier touched on this. With tears in his
eyes he said, "It was such a different world then. It's almost =
impossible to describe it to someone who wasn't there, but when
they finally turned the lights on in the cities again it was like
being reborn."
If it is hard to communicate the happiness of those days, it
is even harder to remember Europe's agony.
So much of it, lay in ruins. Whole cities had been
destroyed. Children played in the rubble and begged for food.
The concentration camps had been opened, and had yielded their
terrible secrets, secrets that gave us a symbol of Europe: a
73
hollow-eyed woman, dazed with pain and disoriented from loss,
Ank
staring out from an empty doorway.
L.]
By this day 40 years ago, 40 million lay dead, and the
survivors composed a continent of victims. And to this day, we
wonder: How did this happen? How did civilization take such a
terrible turn? After all the books and the documentaries, after
all the histories, and studies, we still wonder: How?
Page 3
Hannah Arendt spoke of "the banality of evil" -- the
banality of the little men who did the terrible deeds. We know
what they were: totalitarians who used the State, which they had
elevated to the level of "God," to inflict war on peaceful
nations and genocide on an innocent people.
We know of the existence of evil in the human heart, and we
know that in Nazi Germany that evil was institutionalized --
given power and direction by the State by a corrupt regime, and
the jack boots who did its bidding
And we know, we learned,
that early attempts to placate the totalitarians did not save us-
from war. In fact, they guaranteed it. There are lessons to be
learned in this and never forgotten.
But there is a lesson too in another thing we saw in those
days; perhaps we can call it "the commonness of virtue." I am
speaking of the "common" men and women who somehow dug greatness
from within their/souls -- the people who sang to the children
during the blitz, who joined the Resistance and said 'No' to
tyranny, the people who hid the Jews and the dissidents, the
people who became, for a moment, the repositories of all the
courage of the West -- from a child named Anne Frank to a hero
Raurl
named Wallenberg.
inspiration
These names shine. They give us heart forever. And the
glow from their beings, the glow of their memories, lit Europe in
her darkest days.
Who can forget the days after the war? They were hard days,
yes, but we can't help but look back and think: Life was so
vivid then. There was the sense of purpose, the joy of shared
Page 4
effort, and, later, the impossible joy of our triumph. Those
were the days when the West rolled up her sleeves and repaired
the damage that had been done. Those were the days when Europe
rose in glory from the ruins.
Together, America and Europe created and put into place the
Marshall Plan to rebuild from the rubble. Together we created
RBabit Fall did Eurs
the Atlantic Alliance, the first alliance in the world which
proceeded not from transient interests of state but from shared
ideals. Together we created the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, a defense system aimed at seeing that the kind of
tyrants who had tormented Europe would never torment her again.
NATO was a triumph of organization and effort, but it was also
something very new, very different. For NATO derived its
strength directly from the moral values of the people it
represented. It was infused with their high ideals, their love
of liberty, their commitment to peace.
[ But perhaps the greatest triumph of all was not in the realm
of a sound defense or material achievement. No, the greatest
triumph of Europe after the war is that in spite of all the
chaos, poverty, sickness, and misfortune that plagued this
continent -- in spite of all that, the people of Europe resisted
the call of new tyrants and the lure of their seductive
philosophies. Europe did not become the breeding ground for new
extremist philosophies. Europe resisted the totalitarian
temptation. Instead, the people of Europe embraced democracy,
the strongest dream, the dream the fascists could not kill. They
chose freedom.
.]
8
Page 5
Today we celebrate the leaders who led the way -- Churchill
and Monnet, Adenauer and Schuman, de Gasperi and Spaak, Truman
and Marshall. And we celebrate, too, the free political parties
that contributed their share to greatness: the Liberals and the
Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats and Labour and the
Conservatives. Together they tugged at the same oar; and the
great and mighty ship of Europe moved on.
If any doubt their success, let them look at you. In this
room are the sons and daughters of soldiers who fought on
opposites sides 40 years ago. Now you govern together and lead =
Europe democratically. You buried animosity and hatręd in the
rubble. There is no greater testament to reconciliation and to
the peaceful unity of Europe than the men and women in this room.
In the decades after the war [Europe knew great growth and
power. You enjoyed amazing vitality in every area of life, from
fine arts to fashion, from manufacturing to science to the world
of ideas
Europe was robust and alive, and none of this was an
accident. It was the natural result of freedom, the natural
fruit of the democratic ideal. We in America looked at Europe
and called her what she was: an Economic Miracle.
And we could hardly be surprised. When we Americans think
about our European heritage we tend to think of your cultural
And
influences, and the rich ethnic heritage you gave us.
the
industrial revolution that transformed the American economy came
from Europe. [The The financing of the railroads we used to settle
OOP.?
the West came from Europe The guiding intellectual lights of
our free enterprise system -- Locke and Roussea, Hume and Adam
9
Page 6
Smith -- came from Europe. And the geniuses who ushered in the
modern industrial-technological age came from
well, I think
you know, but two examples will suffice. Alexander Graham Bell,
sharten
whose great invention maddened every American parent whose child
insists on phoning his European pen pal rather than writing to
him -- was a Scotsman. And Gugliemo Marconi, who invented the
radio -- thereby providing a living for a young man from Dixon,
Illinois, who later went into politics -- I guess I should
explain that's me -- now you know it's Marconi's fault -- Marconi
was born and bred, as you know, in Italy.
And so we owe you much. And we must continue to learn from
each other, and help each other.
[But But when I was preparing for this visit I talked to some of
your citizens and leaders, and those who had recently returned
from Europe. And I read your newspapers and magazines, and I
must tell you that I was struck by what you yourselves are,
Rownth
calling "Europessimism," "Europaralysis." I am told there are
those who feel that Europe these has lost days is seems competitive to have lost edge. her at; the
sense
g
confidence that dominated the post-war ern
****
will lost her way Perhaps part of this lost quality, if I can
Heard dov lulieve it,
call it that, is connected to the fact that some of us, in the
past few years, have begun to question the ideals and
philosophies that have guided the West for centuries We have
holush
been skeptical of our partnerships. In time, some of us even
questioned the moral and intellectual worth of the West
[
wish to speak, in part, to that questioning today. And
there is no better place to do it than Strasbourg -- where Goethe
studied, where Pasteur taught, where Hugo first Knew new inspiration.
10
Page 7
This has been a lucky city for questioning and finding valid
answers. It is also a city for which some of us feel a very
sweet affection. You know that our Statue of Liberty was a gift
from France, and its sculptor, F.A. Bartholdi, was a son of
France. I don't know if you have ever studied the face of the
Statue, but immigrants entering New York Harbor used to strain to
see it, as if looking for reassurance about their new country.
It is a strong, kind face; it is the face of Bartholdi's mother;
and she was a woman of Alsace., And so, among the many thing we
Americans thank you for, we thank you for her.
I believe that some of the doubts about the West are
directly connected to the performance of the West's economies.
For a quarter century after the war, Europe was the locomotive of
the world economy, pulling us all along. But in the past few
Strestive
years, Europe's dynamism has cooled. And I believe we can agree
on some reasons for this -- and some solutions.
I believe that we in the West -- all of us, to varying
degrees -- have been so preoccupied with providing economic
security for our people that we have inadvertently engaged in
policies that have reduced economic opportunity. We know what
those policies are: massive growth in public expenditure, both
in volume and as a percentage of G.N.P. -- and a bias against
entrepreneurship. The last is the key problem, I believe,
because a bias against entrepreneurship is a bias against
individual freedom -- and where there is no freedom, prosperity
perishes.
Page 8
Have we forgotten some bracing truths? Free enterprise --
from freedom of invention to freedom of investment -- is the one
system designed by man that succeeds in raising up the poor.
When men and women are encouraged and allowed to start their own
businesses, and create wealth and jobs, they not only add to the
sum total of happiness in their communities -- they add to the
sum total of economic energy in their country, and sum total of
economic strength in the West.
believe that
We are at a unique time in the world's history in that we
both know what to do and have the means to do it. Now is the
time to realize that all economic policies must be judged by
their effects on economic growth.
believe that now is the time
Reghama
to strengthen incentives and remove the impediments to growth --
to lower tax rates on our people, to let them enjoy more of the
tutoumL
HOWL
fruits of their labor, to restrain government spending, eliminate
regulatory burdens, and reduce tariff barriers.
And I would like to note here that all of us in the West
should honor the entrepreneur for his -- and her -- contributions
to the common good, the common welfare. To invest one's time and
money in an enterprise is a profoundly faithful act, for it is a
declaration of faith in the future. Entrepreneurs take risks
that benefit us all -- and they deserve rewards.
My friends, pre growth policies in one country enhance the
sconomic well being of all the world's citizens, for when we
increase the supply and the demand for goods and services in one
country, all the markets of the world are enhanced. And I
believe we must realize that if our young people feel powerless,
Page 9
part of the solution is returning to them a chance at economic
power.
be accolorated by
Europe's economic growth will require further development of
European unity. Tomorrow will mark the 35th anniversary of the
European Coal and Steel Community, the first block in the
creation of a united Europe. The purpose was to tie French and
German -- and European -- industrial production so tightly
together that war between them would "become not merely
unthinkable but materially impossible." Those are the words of
Robert Schumark the Coal and Steel Community was a child of his
genius. And if he were here today I believe he would say: We
have only just begun!
I am here to tell you America remains, as she was 40 years
ago, dedicated to the unity of Europe. We continue to see a
strong and unified Europe not as a rival but as an even stronger
partner. We favor the expansion of the European Community; we
welcome the entrance of Spain and Portugal into that Community,
for their presence makes for a stronger Europe, and a stronger
Europe is a stronger West.
The economic summit we have just concluded in Bonn has
reaffirmed once again the importance of Western economic
Day
cooperation. And it reaffirmed the importance of the commitment
we all share to liberalize trade and resist protectionist
m
pressures. I believe a key step to ensuring continued growth is
to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations next
year. And so I welcome the idea, given new impetus at Bonn, of a
"Brussels Round."
Page 10
If reality is on the side of capitalism, morality issurely on the
side of democracy. The Western ideal has become the standard
upon which the world's nations are judged and by which they judge
?
themselves: Western values and Western democracy have proven that
freedom does indeed work. But if we are to take advantage of
is great success, we must have confidence in our ability to
do so. Maintainng this confidence is an important common task.
I can assure you that America will do its part.
100 often me
This terrible moral confusion is reflected even in our
danguage. He speak of "East-West" tensions as if the West and
the East were equally responsible for the threat to world peace
today. We speak of "The Superpowers" as if they are moral
equals -- two huge predators composed in equal parts of virtue
and of vice. We speak of the "senseless spiral of the arms race"
as if the West and the East are equally consumed by the ambition
to dominate the world. We speak as if the world were morally
neutral -- when in our hearts, most of us know it is not.
Let us look at the world as it is. There is a destabilizing
force in the world -- and it is not the democracies of the West.
There is a political entity which, through its. enormous military
power, means to spread its rule -- and it is not the democracies
of the West.
The central cause of the tensions of our time is the
conflict between totalitarianism and democracy. The evidence of
this is all around us, all around you. Europe is split in two.
One side is free, democratic, non-expansionist, non-threatening
14
Page 11
and peace loving. The other side is populated by subjugated
peoples who, against their will, are suffering under the
dictatorship of an implacably expansionist power
In 1961, in Berlin, a city half free and half communist,
50,000 people a week were fleeing from one side to the other. I
would ask the young people of Europe: which side were these
people fleeing from, and why? And which regime had to build a
wall and imprison the people within so they would not flee?
TO the late 1970's, in Indochina, the boat people fled
communism. In Afghanistan they flee communism. In Ethiopia they
are starving to death because of communism. In Central America
they flee communism. In Eastern Europe, 40 years after she was
subsumed by the Soviet State, they still flee from communism.
It is the communist system, and especially the Soviet Union,
which is the principal destabilizing influence in the world
today. And it is the acquisitive impulses of communism against
which we are forced to defend ourselves. Knowing this, admitting
this, is the beginning of wisdom and security for the West. For
without this knowledge we cannot maintain the strength that
maintains our peace.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed a massive and
sustained military build-up by the Soviet Union. There is no
justification for this build-up -- and the Soviets know it. In
1979, we in the NATO countries were forced to deploy a limited
number of longer-range I.N.F. missiles to offset the Soviet
buildup of SS-20 missiles -- a build-up that had led to an
enormous and widening gap. It was not an easy decision and it
is
Page 12
keep LATO from redress-ung
the balance
was not made without political cost. Many of the leaders of
Europe were as brave as the great leaders of the World War II in
resisting pressures to stop deployment And on this day I thank
them.
Now new talks have begun between the United States and the
Soviet Union in Geneva, and we are hopeful that they will yield
fair and verifiable agreements that could lead to significant
reductions in the size of their nuclear arsenal and ours.
We will meet with the Soviet Union in good faith. We pray
that the Soviets, having decided to rejoin us at the negotiating
table, will adopt the same attitude. We will make it clear, as
we have in the past, that the United States continues to have
peaceful intentions -- and only peaceful intentions -- toward the
Soviet Union.
We do not go to the bargaining table expecting the Soviets
to suddenly change' their system or their intentions in a
magnanimous gesture of good will. But we hope to encourage the
Soviets to see that it is in their own interests to stop trying
to achieve a destabilizing superiority over the West -- for the
cost of their effort is great, and we will not allow it to
succeed.
There is one area of our common defense that I want to speak
about today because is mishnderstood by some of our friends
it to importance Ser the have
Ever since the Soviet Union came into possession of the secrets
of nuclear technology, we in the West have had no choice but to
rely upon the so-called "balance of terror" in order to deter
war. Deterrence has worked for 40 years now, and for the
on on this premise
16
Page 13
long and the
inveseable future it will remain the foundation of our common
must
security. But we have long hoped for a better way. I believe we
may have found it in emerging new technologies aimed at enhancing
our safety through defensive means -- non-nuclear means. The
United States has begun to investigate the feasibility of these
new technologies in a research program we call the Strategic
Defense Initiative -- or S.D.I.
an amb,tious undertaking
The research completed so far is promising, in fact, it is
the most hopeful development of our time. With it comes the -
possibility that we may myslear one wespon lay - be over Alle Launchedcat tenely fAr you or less
on the threat of maleur Re fal. Attr to keep the peHce
at NO we have to launch a míssile in response we will be
and to pely move on non- Nuc lever defense, which
able to stop the incoming missile before it reaches Earth.
threaten No one,
Can the potential benefits of these technologies be any
clearer? Certainly not to the Soviets janthosities, for they are doing the
same kind of research. And we do not fear this -- we welcome it.
Reseauch to explore, the gensils. lity of defence against weapons 8 destrict MA
S.A. is not an attempt to achieve nuclear superiority
it is an attempt to achieve greater security. It is not an
the Research
attempt to abrogate existing arms control treaties -- S.D.I.
This pesen.
will being carried out in full compliance with such treaties. S.D.I.
is not destabilizing -- in fact, as the Soviets have long pursued
such research, it would be destabilizing if the West isroned not. of. Aa
S.D.L. + will not "decouple" America from Europe -- S.D.I. is part
of the security system that will protect all of the West.
We all want peace; we all want to protect the world. But we
will preserve the peace only if we see the world as it is and
deal honestly with its hard realities. The peace movements of
the West call for disarmament, a thoroughly laudable and
Page 14
It is a hidden tribute to the West that so much effort is devoted
to appealing to Western governments for disarmament. Perhaps
this is because the East seems forbidding and implacable while
Western societies give a free and open hearing to such appeals.
The Soviet Union consigns to the Gulag or to the psychiatric
hospital S those few brave peace activists in their own sociwty
who dare speak out for true peace.
The United States welcomes serious and sincere interest in arms
control by people throughout the world. We are committed to arms
control. But we will not be satisfied just by signing
ceremonies. And those who really care about arms control will
also care about compliance. For arms control is nothing unless
both sides comly.
We have much to do-- and we must do it together.
We must always remember that unilateral concessions and
unilateral disarmament do not pave the road to peace. We must
remain unified in the face of attempts to divide us. We must
remain strong in spite of attempts to weaken us. And we must
remember that our unity and our strength are not a mere impulse
of like-minded allies, not a mere geopolitical calculation. Our
unity is the natural result of our shared love for liberty.
18
Page 15
wind up back in 1939 -- and the tanks of the totalitarians will
roll again.
History has taught a lesson we must never forget:
Totalitarians do not stop -- they veust be stopped, And we can do
this -- peacefully. I believe we must remember first of all that
we are not powerless before history. The answer to the dilemma
of the West resides within the heart of the West; it resides in
the knowledge that "the history of the world begins anew with
every man, and ends with him.".
We have much to do -- and we must do it together. We must
remember anew that the road to peace does not run through Munich.
We must remain unified in the face of attempts to divide us. We
must remain strong in spite of attempts to weaken us. And we
must remember that our unity and our strength are not a mere
impulse of like-minded allies, not a mere geopolitical
calculation. Our unity is the natural result of our shared love
for liberty.
I am here today to reaffirm to the people of Europe the
constancy of the American purpose. We were at your side through
two great wars; we have been at your side through 40 years of a
sometimes painful peace; and we are at your side today. It is
not mere sentiment that dictates this, though sentiment we feel.
We are here because, like you, we have not veered from the ideals
of the West -- the ideals of freedom, liberty, and peace. Let no
one -- no one -- doubt our purpose.
All of us in this room want to preserve and protect our own
democratic liberties -- but don't we have a responsibility to
encourage democracy throughout the world? And not because
Page 16
democracy is "our" form of government but because we have learned
that democracy is, in the last analysis, the only peaceful form
of government. It is, in fact, the greatest Conflict Resolution
Mechanism ever devised by man.
Democracy is the institutionalization of restraint on the
possibility of irresponsible behavior by governments. Democracy
is the forced submission of rulers to the peaceful desires of the
people. And only in an atmosphere of democracy can man
peacefully resolve his differences through the ballot, throùgh a
free press, through free speech and free political parties and
the right to redress injustice.
Throughout the world Freedom Fighters cry out for our
help -- in Afghanistan, in Asia il Africa and Central America,
in all the faraway places that are really so close. And the most
heartening thing, the most inspiring thing about these movements
is that they are dominated by the young It is freedom that is
new again, democracy that is the new idea. And we know why:
because their newness is eternal. All the other systems -- all
the "isms" -- reek with feebleness and age.
We in the United States are attempting, as you know, to give
aid and assistance to the democratic resistance of Nicaragua.
And I know this has garnered some criticism from those who have
labeled our policy hostile, unhelpful, and dangerous. But
history provides an answer: Churchill was not being "hostile"
when he tried to protect Europe from the totalitarians --
DeGaulle was not being unhelpful when he fought for freedom --
and the members of the French Underground were not encouraging
20
Page 17
tension when they ricked their lives to root out the source of
Europe's tensions. We in the West must stop being ashamed of
supporting the only political system ever devised by man to let
the fullness of God's gift of freedom flourish.
As we seek to encourage democracy, we must remember that
each country must struggle for democracy within its own culture;
emerging democracies have special problems and require special
help. Nearly 3 years ago in Westminster, I spoke of the need for
democratic governments to come together and help spread the -
democratic word throughout the world. Soon after, the Council of
Europe brought together delegates of 28 nations from four
continents. I congratulate these European Members of Parliament
for their work on what is now known as the "Strasbourg
Initiative."
But I believe we need more. I believe we need a community
to which nations can look for help as they try to strengthen
their institutions. I believe we should begin a democratic forum
in which practical training, moral encouragement, and financial
support can be given to pro-democratic political, labor, business
and civic organizations. I believe we must help those who strive
to improve living conditions in countries with a high level of
poverty. Whether this suggestion for a forum of democratic
governments is begun here in Strasbourg, or elsewhere, let us
begin. And let us use as our byword a simple phrase -- but one
that carries within it all the best of our past and the promise
Preedom works
of our future: "Democracies Unite After all, those we help
have nothing to. lose but their chains.
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Let me add that this ideal does not stop short because there are
arbitrary borders, some with barbed wires and control towers.
Here in Western Europe, you have created a Europe for yourselves
in which there is a free flow of people, of information, of goods
and of culture. It is the natural bent of all Europeans to move
freely in all directions. sharing and partaking of each other's
ladd
ideas and culture. It is my hoe, our hope, that in the 21sat
century-- which is only 15 years away-- all European, from Moscow
to Lisbon can travle without a pssport and the free flow of
people and ideas will include the other halve of Europe. It is
my fervent wish that in the next century there will once again be
one , free Europe.
And so, we in the West, we in this room, have great
challenges, great goals ahead of us, great missions inspired by
great love. There are some who say the West lacks energy -- the
moral and spiritual energy to carry forth these great hopes and
plans. But that is not true. As Churchill said, "We have not
come this far because we are made of sugar candy."
I do not believe those who say the people of Europe are
these days paralyzed and pessimistic. But if this is so, then
all I can say as an objective friend who has known you for over
40 years is:
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Page 19
Europe, beloved Europe, you are greater than you know. You
are the treasury of centuries of Western thought and Western
culture, you are the father of Western ideals and the mother of
Western faith.
Europe, you have been the power and the glory of the West,
and you are a moral success. In fact, in the horrors after World
War II, when you rejected totalitarianism, when you rejected the
lure of a new "Superman," and a "New Communist Man," you proved
that you were -- and are -- a moral triumph.
You are a Europe without illusions, a Europe firmly grounded
in the ideals and traditions that made her greatness, a Europe
authoritanian principles.
unbound and unfettered by communion or faboism. You are, today,
a New Europe on the brink of a New Century -- a democratic
continent with much to be proud of.
We have much to do. The work ahead is not unlike the
building of a great cathedral. The work is slow, complicated,
and painstaking. It is passed on with pride from generation to
generation. It is the work not only of leaders but of ordinary
people. The cathedral evolves as it is created, with each
generation adding its own vision -- but the initial spark of
vision remains constant, and the faith that drives the vision
persists. The results may be slow to see, but our children and
their children will trace in the air the emerging arches and
spires and know the faith and dedication and love that produced
them. My friends, Europe is the Cathedral -- and it is
illuminated still.
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Page 20
And if you doubt your will, and your spirit, and your
strength to stand for something, think of those people 40 years
ago -- who wept in the rubble, who laughed in the streets, who
paraded across Europe, who cheered Churchill with love and
devotion, and who sang the "Marseillaise" down the boulevards.
May I tell you: spirit like that does not disappear; it cannot
perish; it will not go away.
There's too much left unsung within
it.
Thank you, all of you, for your graciousness on this great
day. Thank you, and God bless you all.
24
(Noonan/BE)
April 26, 1985
11:00 a.m.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: TO EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
STRASBOURG, FRANCE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1985
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor to be with
you on this day.
We mark today the anniversary of the liberation of Europe
from tyrants who had seized this continent and plunged it into a
terrible war. Forty years ago today, the guns were stilled and
peace began -- a peace that has endured to become the longest of
this century.
On this day 40 years ago, they swarmed onto the boulevards
of Paris, rallied under the Arc de Triomphe and sang the
"Marseillaise" in the free and open air. In Rome, the sound of
church bells filled St. Peter's Square and echoed through the
city. On this day 40 years ago, Winston Churchill walked out
onto a balcony in Whitehall and said to the people of Britain,
"This is your victory" -- and, the crowd yelled back, "No, it is
yours," in an unforgettable moment of love and gratitude.
Londoners tore the blackout curtains from their windows, and put
floodlights on the great symbols of English history. And for the
first time in 6 years Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's
Cathedral were illuminated against the sky.
Across the ocean, a half million New Yorker's flooded Times
Square and, being Americans, laughed and posed for the cameras.
In Washington, our new President, Harry Truman, called reporters
into his office and said, "The flags of freedom fly all over
Europe." He added: "And it's my birthday too!"
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Page 2
On this day 40 years ago, I was in
, and as I passed a
radio I heard the words, "Ladies and gentlemen, the war in Europe
is over," and like so many people that day I felt a chill, as if
a gust of cold wind had just swept past, and I realized: I will
never forget this moment.
This day can't help but be emotional, for in it we feel the
long tug of memory; we are reminded of shared joy and shared pain
and the terrible poignance of life. A few weeks ago in
California an old soldier touched on this. With tears in his
eyes he said, "It was such a different world then. It's almost
impossible to describe it to someone who wasn't there, but when
they finally turned the lights on in the cities again it was like
being reborn."
If it is hard to communicate the happiness of those days, it
is even harder to remember Europe's agony.
So much of it lay in ruins. Whole cities had been
destroyed. Children played in the rubble and begged for food.
The concentration camps had been opened, and had yielded their
terrible secrets, secrets that gave us a symbol of Europe: a
hollow-eyed woman, dazed with pain and disoriented from loss,
staring out from an empty doorway.
By this day 40 years ago, 40 million lay dead, and the
survivors composed a continent of victims. And to this day, we
wonder: How did this happen? How did civilization take such a
terrible turn? After all the books and the documentaries, after
all the histories, and studies, we still wonder: How?
Page 3
Hannah Arendt spoke of "the banality of evil" -- the
banality of the little men who did the terrible deeds. We know
what they were: totalitarians who used the State, which they had
elevated to the level of "God," to inflict war on peaceful
nations and genocide on an innocent people.
We know of the existence of evil in the human heart, and we
know that in Nazi Germany that evil was institutionalized --
given power and direction by the State, by a corrupt regime and
the jack-boots who did its bidding. And we know, we learned,
that early attempts to placate the totalitarians did not save us
from war. In fact, they guaranteed it. There are lessons to be
learned in this and never forgotten.
But there is a lesson too in another thing we saw in those
days; perhaps we can call it "the commonness of virtue." I am
speaking of the "common" men and women who somehow dug greatness
from within their souls -- the people who sang to the children
during the blitz, who joined the Resistance and said 'No' to
tyranny, the people who hid the Jews and the dissidents, the
people who became, for a moment, the repositories of all the
courage of the West -- from a child named Anne Frank to a hero
named Wallenberg.
These names shine. They give us heart forever. And the
glow from their beings, the glow of their memories, lit Europe in
her darkest days.
Who can forget the days after the war? They were hard days,
yes, but we can't help but look back and think: Life was so
vivid then. There was the sense of purpose, the joy of shared
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Page 4
effort, and, later, the impossible joy of our triumph. Those
were the days when the West rolled up her sleeves and repaired
the damage that had been done. Those were the days when Europe
rose in glory from the ruins.
Together, America and Europe created and put into place the
Marshall Plan to rebuild from the rubble. Together we created
the Atlantic Alliance, the first alliance in the world which
proceeded not from transient interests of state but from shared
ideals. Together we created the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, a defense system aimed at seeing that the kind of
tyrants who had tormented Europe would never torment her again.
NATO was a triumph of organization and effort, but it was also
something very new, very different. For NATO derived its
strength directly from the moral values of the people it
represented. It was infused with their high ideals, their love
of liberty, their commitment to peace.
But perhaps the greatest triumph of all was not in the realm
of a sound defense or material achievement. No, the greatest
triumph of Europe after the war is that in spite of all the
chaos, poverty, sickness, and misfortune that plagued this
continent -- in spite of all that, the people of Europe resisted
the call of new tyrants and the lure of their seductive
philosophies. Europe did not become the breeding ground for new
extremist philosophies. Europe resisted the totalitarian
temptation. Instead, the people of Europe embraced democracy,
the strongest dream, the dream the fascists could not kill. They
chose freedom.
Page 5
Today we celebrate the leaders who led the way -- Churchill
and Monnet, Adenauer and Schuman, de Gasperi and Spaak, Truman
and Marshall. And we celebrate, too, the free political parties
that contributed their share to greatness: the Liberals and the
Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats and Labour and the
Conservatives. Together they tugged at the same oar; and the
great and mighty ship of Europe moved on.
If any doubt their success, let them look at you. In this
room are the sons and daughters of soldiers who fought on
opposites sides 40 years ago. Now you govern together and lead
Europe democratically. You buried animosity and hatred in the
rubble. There is no greater testament to reconciliation and to
the peaceful unity of Europe than the men and women in this room.
In the decades after the war, Europe knew great growth and
power. You enjoyed amazing vitality in every area of life, from
fine arts to fashion, from manufacturing to science to the world
of ideas. Europe was robust and alive, and none of this was an
accident. It was the natural result of freedom, the natural
fruit of the democratic ideal. We in America looked at Europe
and called her what she was: an Economic Miracle.
And we could hardly be surprised. When we Americans think
about our European heritage we tend to think of your cultural
influences, and the rich ethnic heritage you gave us. But the
industrial revolution that transformed the American economy came
from Europe. The financing of the railroads we used to settle
the West came from Europe. The guiding intellectual lights of
our free enterprise system -- Locke and Roussea, Hume and Adam
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Page 6
Smith -- came from Europe. And the geniuses who ushered in the
modern industrial-technological age came from -- well, I think
you know, but two examples will suffice. Alexander Graham Bell,
whose great invention maddened every American parent whose child
insists on phoning his European pen pal rather than writing to
him -- was a Scotsman. And Gugliemo Marconi, who invented the
radio -- thereby providing a living for a young man from Dixon,
Illinois, who later went into politics -- I guess I should
explain that's me -- now you know it's Marconi's fault -- Marconi
was born and bred, as you know, in Italy.
And so we owe you much. And we must continue to learn from
each other, and help each other.
But when I was preparing for this visit I talked to some of
your citizens and leaders, and those who had recently returned
from Europe. And I read your newspapers and magazines, and I
must tell you that I was struck by what you yourselves are
calling "Europessimism," "Europaralysis." I am told there are
those who feel that Europe these days seems to have lost her
will, lost her way. Perhaps part of this lost quality, if I can
call it that, is connected to the fact that some of us, in the
past few years, have begun to question the ideals and
philosophies that have guided the West for centuries. We have
been skeptical of our partnerships. In time, some of us even
questioned the moral and intellectual worth of the West.
I wish to speak, in part, to that questioning today. And
there is no better place to do it than Strasbourg -- where Goethe
studied, where Pasteur taught, where Hugo first new inspiration.
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Page 7
This has been a lucky city for questioning and finding valid
answers. It is also a city for which some of us feel a very
sweet affection. You know that our Statue of Liberty was a gift
from France, and its sculptor, F.A. Bartholdi, was a son of
France. I don't know if you have ever studied the face of the
Statue, but immigrants entering New York Harbor used to strain to
see it, as if looking for reassurance about their new country.
It is a strong, kind face; it is the face of Bartholdi's mother;
and she was a woman of Alsace. And so, among the many thing we
Americans thank you for, we thank you for her.
I believe that some of the doubts about the West are
directly connected to the performance of the West's economies.
For a quarter century after the war, Europe was the locomotive of
the world economy, pulling us all along. But in the past few
years, Europe's dynamism has cooled. And I believe we can agree
on some reasons for this -- and some solutions.
I believe that we in the West -- all of us, to varying
degrees -- have been so preoccupied with providing economic
security for our people that we have inadvertently engaged in
policies that have reduced economic opportunity. We know what
those policies are: massive growth in public expenditure, both
in volume and as a percentage of G.N.P. -- and a bias against
entrepreneurship. The last is the key problem, I believe,
because a bias against entrepreneurship is a bias against
individual freedom -- and where there is no freedom, prosperity
perishes.
Page 8
Have we forgotten some bracing truths? Free enterprise --
from freedom of invention to freedom of investment -- is the one
system designed by man that succeeds in raising up the poor.
When men and women are encouraged and allowed to start their own
businesses, and create wealth and jobs, they not only add to the
sum total of happiness in their communities -- they add to the
sum total of economic energy in their country, and sum total of
economic strength in the West.
We are at a unique time in the world's history in that we
both know what to do and have the means to do it. Now is the
time to realize that all economic policies must be judged by
their effects on economic growth. I believe that now is the time
to strengthen incentives and remove the impediments to growth --
to lower tax rates on our people, to let them enjoy more of the
fruits of their labor, to restrain government spending, eliminate
regulatory burdens, and reduce tariff barriers.
And I would like to note here that all of us in the West
should honor the entrepreneur for his -- and her -- contributions
to the common good, the common welfare. To invest one's time and
money in an enterprise is a profoundly faithful act, for it is a
declaration of faith in the future. Entrepreneurs take risks
that benefit us all -- and they deserve rewards.
My friends, pro-growth policies in one country enhance the
economic well-being of all the world's citizens, for when we
increase the supply and the demand for goods and services in one
country, all the markets of the world are enhanced. And I
believe we must realize that if our young people feel powerless,
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Page 9
part of the solution is returning to them a chance at economic
power.
Europe's economic growth will require further development of
European unity. Tomorrow will mark the 35th anniversary of the
European Coal and Steel Community, the first block in the
creation of a united Europe. The purpose was to tie French and
German -- and European -- industrial production so tightly
together that war between them would "become not merely
unthinkable but materially impossible." Those are the words of
Robert Schuman; the Coal and Steel Community was a child of his
genius. And if he were here today I believe he would say: We
have only just begun!
I am here to tell you America remains, as she was 40 years
ago, dedicated to the unity of Europe. We continue to see a
strong and unified Europe not as a rival but as an even stronger
partner. We favor the expansion of the European Community; we
welcome the entrance of Spain and Portugal into that Community,
for their presence makes for a stronger Europe, and a stronger
Europe is a stronger West.
The economic summit we have just concluded in Bonn has
reaffirmed once again the importance of Western economic
cooperation. And it reaffirmed the importance of the commitment
we all share to liberalize trade and resist protectionist
pressures. I believe a key step to ensuring continued growth is
to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations next
year. And so I welcome the idea, given new impetus at Bonn, of a
"Brussels Round."
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Page 10
If reality is on the side of capitalism, morality is surely
on the side of democracy. But I wonder, too, if all of us still
have complete faith in this fact. It seems to me the dilemma is
both political and perceptual. Forty years ago, the vast
majority of the good people of Europe knew who their adversaries
were and why. But some in the West today seem confused about
what is right and what is wrong, what is a decent system and what
is not, which philosophies should be resisted by man and which
encouraged.
This terrible moral confusion is reflected even in our
language. We speak of "East-West" tensions as if the West and
the East were equally responsible for the threat to world peace
today. We speak of "The Superpowers" as if they are moral
equals -- two huge predators composed in equal parts of virtue
and of vice. We speak of the "senseless spiral of the arms race"
as if the West and the East are equally consumed by the ambition
to dominate the world. We speak as if the world were morally
neutral -- when in our hearts, most of us know it is not.
Let us look at the world as it is. There is a destabilizing
force in the world -- and it is not the democracies of the West.
There is a political entity which, through its enormous military
power, means to spread its rule -- and it is not the democracies
of the West.
The central cause of the tensions of our time is the
conflict between totalitarianism and democracy. The evidence of
this is all around us, all around you. Europe is split in two.
One side is free, democratic, non-expansionist, non-threatening
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Page 11
and peace loving. The other side is populated by subjugated
peoples who, against their will, are suffering under the
dictatorship of an implacably expansionist power.
In 1961, in Berlin, a city half free and half communist,
50,000 people a week were fleeing from one side to the other. I
would ask the young people of Europe: which side were these
people fleeing from, and why? And which regime had to build a
wall and imprison the people within so they would not flee?
In the late 1970's, in Indochina, the boat people fled
communism. In Afghanistan they flee communism. In Ethiopia they
are starving to death because of communism. In Central America
they flee communism. In Eastern Europe, 40 years after she was
subsumed by the Soviet State, they still flee from communism.
It is the communist system, and especially the Soviet Union,
which is the principal destabilizing influence in the world
today. And it is the acquisitive impulses of communism against
which we are forced to defend ourselves. Knowing this, admitting
this, is the beginning of wisdom and security for the West. For
without this knowledge we cannot maintain the strength that
maintains our peace.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed a massive and
sustained military build-up by the Soviet Union. There is no
justification for this build-up -- and the Soviets know it. In
1979, we in the NATO countries were forced to deploy a limited
number of longer-range I.N.F. missiles to offset the Soviet
buildup of SS-20 missiles -- a build-up that had led to an
enormous and widening gap. It was not an easy decision and it
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Page 12
was not made without political cost. Many of the leaders of
Europe were as brave as the great leaders of the World War II in
resisting pressures to stop deployment. And on this day I thank
them.
Now new talks have begun between the United States and the
Soviet Union in Geneva, and we are hopeful that they will yield
fair and verifiable agreements that could lead to significant
reductions in the size of their nuclear arsenal and ours.
We will meet with the Soviet Union in good faith. We pray
that the Soviets, having decided to rejoin us at the negotiating
table, will adopt the same attitude. We will make it clear, as
we have in the past, that the United States continues to have
peaceful intentions -- and only peaceful intentions -- toward the
Soviet Union.
We do not go to the bargaining table expecting the Soviets
to suddenly change their system or their intentions in a
magnanimous gesture of good will. But we hope to encourage the
Soviets to see that it is in their own interests to stop trying
to achieve a destabilizing superiority over the West -- for the
cost of their effort is great, and we will not allow it to
succeed.
There is one area of our common defense that I want to speak
about today because it is misunderstood by some of our friends.
Ever since the Soviet Union came into possession of the secrets
of nuclear technology, we in the West have had no choice but to
rely upon the so-called "balance of terror" in order to deter
war. Deterrence has worked for 40 years now, and for the
Page 13
foreseeable future it will remain the foundation of our common
security. But we have long hoped for a better way. I believe we
may have found it in emerging new technologies aimed at enhancing
our safety through defensive means -- non-nuclear means. The
United States has begun to investigate the feasibility of these
new technologies in a research program we call the Strategic
Defense Initiative -- or S.D.I.
The research completed so far is promising, in fact, it is
the most hopeful development of our time. With it comes the
possibility that if a nuclear weapon is ever launched at you or
at us we won't have to launch a missile in response -- we will be
able to stop the incoming missile before it reaches Earth.
Can the potential benefits of these technologies be any
clearer? Certainly not to the Soviets, for they are doing the
same kind of research. And we do not fear this -- we welcome it.
S.D.I. is not an attempt to achieve nuclear superiority --
it is an attempt to achieve greater security. It is not an
attempt to abrogate existing arms control treaties -- S.D.I. is
being carried out in full compliance with such treaties. S.D.I.
is not destabilizing -- in fact, as the Soviets have long pursued
such research, it would be destabilizing if the West did not.
S.D.I. will not "decouple" America from Europe -- S.D.I. is part
of the security system that will protect all of the West.
We all want peace; we all want to protect the world. But we
will preserve the peace only if we see the world as it is and
deal honestly with its hard realities. The peace movements of
the West call for disarmament, a thoroughly laudable and
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Page 14
understandable desire. But I cannot help note that it is the
West, usually the United States, that they see as the chief
aggressor in the so-called arms race. And it is the West, and
only the West, to which they make their appeal. There is pathos
in this, and a strange, hidden tribute. Pathos because their
decision not to confront the creator of the arms race, the chief
aggressor of our time, dooms their movement to failure. And a
hidden tribute because they obviously feel that at least we, the
reasonable people of the West, will give them a hearing.
But I wonder if this one-way communication does not
contribute to the confusions of the modern age. I would ask the
members of the peace movement in Europe: does it make you feel
safer to know that the peace activists of the Soviet Union are in
the Gulag? Does it make you feel safer to know that the Russians
who truly desire peace with the West are in psychiatric
hospitals?
I would ask some of the members of the peace movement: Is
it really arms control you desire -- or only the signing
ceremonies? I ask because if you really care about arms control
you must care about compliance in arms control agreements. I
think it is important that you show some interest in this matter,
for arms control means nothing unless both sides comply. And I
would ask if it is not reasonable to state the following: that
anyone who talks arms control, but never about compliance is,
wittingly or unwittingly, contributing not to peace but to the
unilateral disarmament of the West. And we cannot have that,
because if the West and only the West is disarmed, then we will
Page 15
wind up back in 1939 -- and the tanks of the totalitarians will
roll again.
History has taught a lesson we must never forget:
Totalitarians do not stop -- they must be stopped. And we can do
this -- peacefully. I believe we must remember first of all that
we are not powerless before history. The answer to the dilemma
of the West resides within the heart of the West; it resides in
the knowledge that "the history of the world begins anew with
every man, and ends with him."
We have much to do -- and we must do it together. We must
remember anew that the road to peace does not run through Munich.
We must remain unified in the face of attempts to divide us. We
must remain strong in spite of attempts to weaken us. And we
must remember that our unity and our strength are not a mere
impulse of like-minded allies, not a mere geopolitical
calculation. Our unity is the natural result of our shared love
for liberty.
I am here today to reaffirm to the people of Europe the
constancy of the American purpose. We were at your side through
two great wars; we have been at your side through 40 years of a
sometimes painful peace; and we are at your side today. It is
not mere sentiment that dictates this, though sentiment we feel.
We are here because, like you, we have not veered from the ideals
of the West -- the ideals of freedom, liberty, and peace. Let no
one -- no one -- doubt our purpose.
All of us in this room want to preserve and protect our own
democratic liberties -- but don't we have a responsibility to
encourage democracy throughout the world? And not because
Page 16
democracy is "our" form of government but because we have learned
that democracy is, in the last analysis, the only peaceful form
of government. It is, in fact, the greatest Conflict Resolution
Mechanism ever devised by man.
Democracy is the institutionalization of restraint on the
possibility of irresponsible behavior by governments. Democracy
is the forced submission of rulers to the peaceful desires of the
people. And only in an atmosphere of democracy can man
peacefully resolve his differences through the ballot, through a
free press, through free speech and free political parties and
the right to redress injustice.
Throughout the world Freedom Fighters cry out for our
help -- in Afghanistan, in Asia, in Africa and Central America,
in all the faraway places that are really so close. And the most
heartening thing, the most inspiring thing about these movements
is that they are dominated by the young. It is freedom that is
new again, democracy that is the new idea. And we know why:
because their newness is eternal. All the other systems -- all
the "isms" -- reek with feebleness and age.
We in the United States are attempting, as you know, to give
aid and assistance to the democratic resistance of Nicaragua.
And I know this has garnered some criticism from those who have
labeled our policy hostile, unhelpful, and dangerous. But
history provides an answer: Churchill was not being "hostile"
when he tried to protect Europe from the totalitarians --
DeGaulle was not being unhelpful when he fought for freedom --
and the members of the French Underground were not encouraging
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Page 17
tension when they risked their lives to root out the source of
Europe's tensions. We in the West must stop being ashamed of
supporting the only political system ever devised by man to let
the fullness of God's gift of freedom flourish.
As we seek to encourage democracy, we must remember that
each country must struggle for democracy within its own culture;
emerging democracies have special problems and require special
help. Nearly 3 years ago in Westminster, I spoke of the need for
democratic governments to come together and help spread the
democratic word throughout the world. Soon after, the Council of
Europe brought together delegates of 28 nations from four
continents. I congratulate these European Members of Parliament
for their work on what is now known as the "Strasbourg
Initiative.'
But I believe we need more. I believe we need a community
to which nations can look for help as they try to strengthen
their institutions. I believe we should begin a democratic forum
in which practical training, moral encouragement, and financial
support can be given to pro-democratic political, labor, business
and civic organizations. I believe we must help those who strive
to improve living conditions in countries with a high level of
poverty. Whether this suggestion for a forum of democratic
governments is begun here in Strasbourg, or elsewhere, let us
begin. And let us use as our byword a simple phrase -- but one
that carries within it all the best of our past and the promise
of our future: "Democracies Unite." After all, those we help
have nothing to lose but their chains.
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And finally, we in the West must remember those who have,
for now, and only for now, lost out in the long fight for
freedom. On this 40th anniversary of the liberation of the
victims of yesterday, I wish to speak to the victims of today.
The people of the communist countries, the people who live lives
of quiet desperation. I wish to speak to the people of the
Soviet Union, the people of the nations of Eastern Europe, the
people of the fallen nations of Asia. I wish to speak to those
who live in the slave labor camps and the psychiatric hospitals,
the people behind the walls, and the barbed wire, and the secret
police border guards.
To them I say: We will not forget you nor forsake you. We
are your spiritual allies. We are with you as you suffer. We
know what you have been told to confuse you, but please
understand that we in the West want only peace, true peace, for
you and for ourselves.
And so, we in the West, we in this room, have great
challenges, great goals ahead of us, great missions inspired by
great love. There are some who say the West lacks energy -- the
moral and spiritual energy to carry forth these great hopes and
plans. But that is not true. As Churchill said, "We have not
come this far because we are made of sugar candy."
I do not believe those who say the people of Europe are
these days paralyzed and pessimistic. But if this is so, then
all I can say as an objective friend who has known you for over
40 years is:
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Europe, beloved Europe, you are greater than you know. You
are the treasury of centuries of Western thought and Western
culture, you are the father of Western ideals and the mother of
Western faith.
Europe, you have been the power and the glory of the West,
and you are a moral success. In fact, in the horrors after World
War II, when you rejected totalitarianism, when you rejected the
lure of a new "Superman," and a "New Communist Man," you proved
that you were -- and are -- a moral triumph.
You are a Europe without illusions, a Europe firmly grounded
in the ideals and traditions that made her greatness, a Europe
unbound and unfettered by communism or fascism. You are, today,
a New Europe on the brink of a New Century -- a democratic
continent with much to be proud of.
We have much to do. The work ahead is not unlike the
building of a great cathedral. The work is slow, complicated,
and painstaking. It is passed on with pride from generation to
generation. It is the work not only of leaders but of ordinary
people. The cathedral evolves as it is created, with each
generation adding its own vision -- but the initial spark of
vision remains constant, and the faith that drives the vision
persists. The results may be slow to see, but our children and
their children will trace in the air the emerging arches and
spires and know the faith and dedication and love that produced
them. My friends, Europe is the Cathedral -- and it is
illuminated still.
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And if you doubt your will, and your spirit, and your
strength to stand for something, think of those people 40 years
ago -- who wept in the rubble, who laughed in the streets, who
paraded across Europe, who cheered Churchill with love and
devotion, and who sang the "Marseillaise" down the boulevards.
May I tell you: spirit like that does not disappear; it cannot
perish; it will not go away. There's too much left unsung within
it.
Thank you, all of you, for your graciousness on this great
day. Thank you, and God bless you all.