I begin by paying a tribute to the new
Secretary-General, who has brought great
distinction to the office during his brief
tenure. Dag Hammarskjold once told the General
Assembly that whichever word one chooses
independence, impartiality, objectivity—they all
describe essential aspects of what, without
exception, must be in the attitude of the
Secretary-General . Javier Perez de CueBar, a man
of the third world, and, I am proud to note, of
the New World as well, has already demonstrated
his strict adherence to this most exacting
standard. In so doing, he has earned the esteem
of my Government and the gratitude of all who
believe in the purposes of the Charter.
197. I also congratulate Mr. Hollai of Hungary
upon his election as President of the
thirty-seventh session of the General Assembly.
198. As I stand here today I cannot help but
reflect on my relation to this city and to this
Hall. I was born about four miles from here. I
was reared and educated not far away, just across
the Hudson River, and I took a tour through this
building just after it opened in 1952, marveling
at the reality of a temple erected in the hope,
at least, of abolishing war. ,
199. When I took that tour back in the early
1950s, there was great public interest in what
was called the Meditation Room. I understand the
room is still here. But in the years since then
this institution has become more famous for talk
than for meditation. This Hall has heard great
ideas eloquently expressed. It has also heard
double-talk, platitudes and ringing protestations
of innocence—all too often aimed at camouflaging
outrageous and inhuman acts.
200. But we must not ridicule words. I believe
that the greatest advance in human history was
not the wheel, the use of electricity, or the
internal combustion engine. Indispensable to
progress as these have been, our most remarkable
achievement was the slow, clumsy but triumphant
creation of language. It was words that released
our ancestors from the prison of the solitary.
Words gave us the means to transmit to our
children and the future the crowning jewel of
human existence: knowledge. The Code of
Ham¬murabi, the Bible, the Analects of Confucius,
the teachings of the Buddha, the Koran, the
insights of Shakespeare, the creed of Mahatma
Gandhi or Martin Luther King—all these were
arrangements of words.
201. Is it not profoundly revealing that the
first victims of tyrants are words? No people
better know the meaning of freedom than those who
have been arrested or beaten or imprisoned or
exiled because of what they said. A single man
speaking out—a Lech Walesa, for example—is more
dangerous than an armored division.
202. All of us here, whether we arrived after
a short one-hour flight, as I did, or came from
the other side of the globe, as many others of
those present did, enter this auditorium for one
main purpose—to talk about what our Governments
see as the problems ahead and how they should be
solved. On one point at least we can all
agree—the problems are many and difficult. I
shall not try, in the minutes allotted me, to
deal with each, or even most, of these issues in
detail. Instead, I want to give the Assembly some
sense of the principles and general approach that
the United States will take toward our common
problems.
203. Americans are, by history and by
inclination, a practical and pragmatic people,
yet a people with a vision. It is the
vision—usually simple and sometimes naive—that
has so often led us to dare and to achieve.
President Reagan's approach to foreign policy is
grounded squarely on standards drawn from the
pragmatic American experience. As de Tocqueville
pointed out, To achieve its objective, America
relies on personal interest, and gives full reign
to the strength and reason of the individual.
That is as true now as when it was said 150 years
ago. Our principal instru¬ment, now as then, is
freedom. Our adversaries are the oppressors, the
totalitarian, the tacticians of fear and pressure.
204. On this foundation, President Reagan's
ideas and the structure of his foreign policy are
so straight-forward that those of us enmeshed in
day-to-day details may easily lose sight of them.
The President never does, he consistently brings
us back to funda¬mentals. Today I will talk about
those fundamentals. They consist of four ideas
that guide our actions: we will start from
realism; we will act from strength, both in power
and in purpose; we will stress the indispensable
need to generate consent, build agree¬ments and
negotiate on key issues, and we will conduct
ourselves in the belief that progress is
possible, even though the road to achievement is
long and hard.
205. If we are to change the world, we must
first understand it. We must face reality, with
all its anguish and all its opportunities. Our
era needs those who, as
Pericles said, have the clearest vision of what
is before them, glory and danger alike, and
notwithstanding that, go out to meet it.
206. Reality is not an illusion or a sleight
of hand, though many would have us believe
otherwise. The enormous, grinding machinery of
Soviet propaganda daily seeks to distort reality,
to bend truth for its own purposes. Our world is
occupied by far too many Governments which seek
to conceal truth from their own people. They wish
to imprison reality by con¬trolling what can be
read or spoken or heard. They would have us
believe that black is white and up is down.
207. Much of present-day reality is
unpleasant. To describe conditions as we see them
as I do today and as President Reagan has over
the course of his presidency, is not to seek
confrontation—far from it. Our purpose is to
avoid misunderstanding and to create the
necessary pre-conditions for change.
208. So, when we see aggression, we will call
it aggression. When we see subversion, we will
call it subversion. When we see repression, we
will call it repression.
209. The events in Poland, for example, cannot
be ignored or explained away. The Polish people
want to be their own master. Years of systematic
tyranny could not repress this desire; and nor
will martial law. But in Poland today truth must
hide in comers.
210. Nor can we simply turn our heads and look
the other way as Soviet divisions brutalize an
entire population in Afghanistan. The resistance
of the Afghan people is a valiant saga of our
times. We demean that valour if we do not
recognize its source.
211. And Soviet surrogates intervene in many
coun¬tries, creating a new era of colonialism at
the moment in history when peoples around the
globe had lifted that burden from their backs.
212. Nor will we shy away from speaking of
other problems affecting the free and the
developing worlds. Much of the developing world
is threatened by a crisis of confidence in
financial institutions and the stultifying
effects of State-controlled economies. The
naturally vibrant economies of many Western
nations and trade between the world's major
trading partners are threatened by recession and
rising protectionism. The great alliances that
shore up world stability and growth—our
hemispheric partnership, NATO—and the Western and
Japanese industrial democracies are challenged by
new as well as chronic strains.
213. Finally, the shadow of war still darkens
the future of us all. There is no ultimate safety
in a nuclear balance of terror constantly
contested. There is no peace of mind at a time
when increasing numbers of nations appear willing
to launch their armies into battle for causes
which seem local but have ramifica¬tions for
regional and even global harmony.
214. The list of troubles is long, the danger
of despair great. But there is another side to
the present reality; it is a reality of hope. We
are living in a fantastic time of opportunity.
215. Historians in the future will surely
marvel at the achievements of human beings in the
last half of this century. We have expanded the
frontiers of thought—in science, in biology, in
engineering, in painting and music and
mathematics, in technology and architecture—far
beyond the point anyone could have dared predict,
much less hope for. We know much today about the
oceans and forests and the geological strata that
lock in the story of our past. We have more
knowledge about a baby, or the brain, than was
accumulated in 10 millennia before our time. We
are learning to produce food for all of us; we
are no longer helpless before the threat of
disease; we explore our universe as a matter of
course. We are confronting the nature of Nature
herself. The oppor¬tunities are grand. This, too,
is a clear reality.
216. Thus realism shows us a world deeply
troubled, yet with reason for hope. There is one
necessary condition: the only way we can enhance
and amplify the human potential is by preserving,
defending and extending those most precious of
conditions—freedom and peace.
217. America's yearning for peace does not
lead us to be hesitant in developing our strength
or in using it when necessary. Indeed, clarity
about the magnitude of the problems we face leads
inevitably to a realistic appreciation of the
importance of American strength. The strength of
the free world imposes restraint, invites
accommodation and reassures those who would share
in the creative work that is the wonderful
consequence of liberty.
218. Strength means military forces to ensure
that no other nation can threaten us, our
interests or our friends. But when I speak of
strength I do not mean military power alone. To
Americans, strength derives as well from a solid
economic base and social vitality at home and
with our partners. And, most funda¬mentally, the
true wellspring of strength lies in America's
moral commitment.
219. The bulwark of America's strength is
military power for peace. The American people
have never accepted weakness, or hesitancy or
abdication. We will not put our destiny into the
hands of the ruthless. Americans today are
emphatically united on the neces¬sity of a strong
defense. This year's defense budget will ensure
that the United States will help its friends and
allies defend themselves—to make sure that peace
is seen clearly by all to be the only feasible
course in world affairs.
220. Along with military readiness and
capability must come the willingness to employ it
in the cause of peace, justice and security.
Today in Beirut the United States
Marines—together with our allies, Italy and
France—are helping the Lebanese Government und
armed forces ensure the safety of the peoples of
that tormented capital. I regret to report that I
have just learned that one American Marine died
and several were injured today in a mine
explosion at the Beirut airport. Our marines
represent an extension of American power not for
war but to secure the peace. They are there to
speed the moment when all foreign forces depart
from Lebanon. There must be an early agreement on
a timetable for the full application of Lebanon's
independence, sovereignty and territorial
integrity. Lebanon deserves the world's help—to
secure peace and to rebuild a thriving society.
221. America will continue to use its strength
with prudence, firmness and balance. We intend to
command the respect of adversaries and to deserve
the confidence of allies and partners.
222. The engine of America's strength is a sound economy.
223. In a time of recession, industrialized
and less developed nations alike are bedeviled by
excessive inflation, restricted markets, unused
capacity, stagnating trade, growing pressure for
protectionism and the most potent enemy of
expansion—pervasive uncertainty.
224. The United States with its vast human and
scientific resources can survive an era of
economic strife and decay. But our moral
commitment and our self-interest require us to
use our technological and productive abilities to
build lasting prosperity at home and to
contribute to a sound economic situation abroad.
225. President Reagan has instituted a bold
pro¬gram to get the American economy moving. Our
rate of inflation is down markedly, and we will
keep it down. That will add stability to the
value of the dollar and give greater confidence
to international financial markets.
226. The recent drop in United States interest
rates will stimulate new investments within and
beyond our shores. Conservation through market pricing
of energy has reduced United States demand for
world energy supplies. We are putting the
recession behind us. A growing and open American
economy will provide new markets for goods and
services produced elsewhere, and new
opportunities for foreign invest¬ments. Just as
we have a stake in world-wide recovery, others
will prosper as our recovery develops.
227. For wider prosperity to take hold, we
must co¬operatively attend to these international
issues. The lure of protectionist trade policies
must be resisted everywhere—here in the United
States and all over the world—whether in the form
of overt import restrictions and export subsidies
or by more subtle domestic pro¬grammes. These can
only distort world trade and impair growth
everywhere. Let us determine to make the November
ministerial meeting of GATT a time to stem these
protectionist pressures and to reinvigorate
positive efforts for a more open trading system.
228. The implications of the external debt of
many nations must be understood. Immediate debt
problems are manageable if we use good sense and
avoid destabilizing actions. But the magnitude of
external debt will almost inevitably reduce
resources available for future lending for
development purposes. Economic adjustment is
imperative. IMF can provide critical help and
guidance in any country's efforts to smooth the
adjustment process. The new borrowing
arrange¬ment proposed by the United States can be
crucial to this effort. '
229. And the necessity of reducing government
interference in the market must be recognized. Of
course every nation has the right to organize
society as its inhabitants wish, but economic
facts cannot be ignored. Those facts clearly
demonstrate that the world's command economies
have failed abysmally to meet the needs of their
peoples. The newly pros¬perous industrialized
nations are those with the most free and open
markets.
230. The bedrock of our strength is our moral
and spiritual character. The sources of true
strength lie deeper than economic or military
power. They lie in the dedication of a free
people which knows its responsibility. America's
institutions are those of freedom accessible to
every person and of govern¬ment as the
accountable servant of the people. Equal
opportunity, due process of law, open trial by
jury, freedom of belief, speech and assembly, our
Bill of Rights, our guarantees of liberty and
limited govern¬ment were hammered out in
centuries of ordeal. Because we care about these
human values for ourselves so must we then be
concerned, and legiti¬mately so, with abuses of
freedom, justice and humanitarian principles
beyond our borders. This is why we will speak and
act for prisoners of con¬science, against
terrorism and against the brutal silencing of the
Soviet Helsinki Watch Committee. This is why we
are anxious to participate in periodic reviews of
the human rights performance of ourselves as well
as of others. We welcome scrutiny of our own
system. We are not perfect and we know it, but we
have nothing to hide.
231. Our belief in liberty guides our policies
here in' the United Nations as elsewhere.
Therefore in this forum the United States will
continue to insist upon fairness, balance and
truth. We take the debate on human rights
seriously. We insist upon honesty in the use of
language; we will point out inconsistencies,
double standards and lies. We will not compromise
our commitment to truth.
232. The world has work to do for the
realists, the pragmatists and the free. With a
clear understanding of the troubled circumstances
of the hour and with a strengthened ability to
act, we need as well the vision to see beyond the
immediate present.
233. All of us here represent nations which
must understand and accept the imperative of fair
engage¬ment on the issues before us and, beyond
that, of common effort towards shared goals.
Whether we are seeking to bring peace to regional
conflict or a reso¬lution of commercial
differences, the time of imposed solutions has
passed. Conquest, pressure, acqui¬escence under
duress was common in decades not long past—but
not today. Not everybody who wants his concern
addressed will find us automatically receptive.
But when negotiations are in order America is
prepared to go to work on the global agenda and
to do so in a way that all may emerge better off
and more secure than before.
234. We manage our problems more intelligently
and with greater mutual understanding when we can
bring ourselves to recognize these problems as
expressions of mankind's basic dilemma. We are
seldom confronted with simple issues of right and
wrong, between good and evil. Only those who do
not bear the direct burden of responsibility for
decision and action can indulge themselves in the
denial of that reality. The task of statesmanship
is to mediate between two—or several— causes,
each of which often has a legitimate claim.
235. It is on this foundation that the United
States stands ready to try to solve the problems
of our time —to overcome chaos, deprivation and
the heightened dangers of an era in which ideas
and cultures too often tend to clash and
technologies threaten to out¬pace our
institutions of control.
236. We are engaged in negotiations and
efforts to find answers to issues affecting every
part of the globe and every aspect of our lives
upon it. Let me take up just two of these with
you.
237. The agony of the Middle East now exceeds
the ability of news bulletins or speeches to
express: it is a searing wound on our
consciousness. The region is in constant ferment.
Unrest flares into violence, terror, insurrection
and civil strife. War follows war. It is clear to
everyone in this Hall that international peace,
security and co-operative progress cannot be
truly achieved until this terrible regional
conflict is settled.
238. AM of us have witnessed in the past
several months a graphic reminder of the need for
practical peace negotiations in the Middle East.
Of the nations in the world which need and
deserve peace, Israel surely holds a pre-eminent
place. Of the peoples of the world who need and
deserve a place with which they can truly
identify, the Palestinian claim is undeniable.
239. But Israel can have permanent peace only
in a context in which the Palestinian people also
realize their legitimate rights. Similarly, the
Palestinian people will be able to achieve their
legitimate rights only in a context which gives
to Israel what it so clearly has a right to
demand: to exist, and to exist in peace and
security.
240. This most complex of international
conflicts cannot be resolved by force: neither
the might of armies nor the violence of
terrorists can succeed in imposing the will of
the strong upon the weak. Nor can it be settled
simply by the rhetoric of even the most carefully
worded document. It can be resolved only through
the give and take of direct negotiations, leading
to the establishment of practical arrangements on
the ground. In other words, it can be resolved
only through hard work. For those who believe
that there is no contradiction between permanent
peace for Israel and the legitimate rights of the
Palestinian people—and fbr those who believe that
both are essential for peace and that neither can
be achieved without the other—the task can truly
be a labour of love.
241. On 1 September President Reagan
challenged the parties to the Arab-Israeli
conflict to make a fresh start on the road to
peace in the Middle East. The Camp David
agreements, resting squarely on Security Council
resolution 242 (1967), with its formula of peace
for territory, remain available to those who
would accept the challenge to make this journey
with us. The road will not be easy, but in his
statement President Reagan made a number of
proposals which, for those who are willing to
join the effort, make the journey safer and
easier.
242. I call on all concerned to accept
President Reagan's challenge and hasten the
realization of true peace in the Middle East,
243. In addition to the imperative need to
resolve regional problems, there is an equally
significant global imperative: to halt, and
reverse, the global arms build¬up. As an
American, I am aware that arms control and
disarmament are a special responsibility of the
world's most powerful nations, the United States
and the Soviet Union. And as an American, I can
report that we are fulfilling our responsibility
to seek to limit and reduce conventional and
nuclear arms to the lowest possible levels.
244. With this goal in mind, President Reagan
has initiated a comprehensive program for
negotiated arms reductions. In Central Europe,
the most heavily armed region on this planet, the
Western allies are seeking substantial reductions
in troops of NATO and the Warsaw Pact to equal
levels. To achieve this goal, we have recently
introduced a new proposal designed to revitalize
the Vienna Talks on Mutual Reduction of Forces,
Armaments and Associated Measures in Central
Europe.
245. In the area of strategic arms, the United
States has also taken the initiative by calling
for a one-third reduction in the number of
nuclear warheads that American and Soviet
ballistic missiles can deliver. And in the talks
in Geneva on intermediate-range nuclear forces,
the United States has gone even further, by
asking the Soviet Union to agree to a bold
proposal for eliminating an entire category of
weapons from the arsenals of the two sides.
246. But important as these negotiations are,
the problems of arms controls cannot be left to
the two super-Powers. The threat of nuclear
proliferation extends to every region in the
world and demands the attention and energy of
every Government. This is not solely, or even
primarily, a concern of the super¬ powers. The
non-nuclear countries will not be safer if
nuclear intimidation is added to already deadly
regional conflicts. The developing nations will
not be more prosperous if scarce resources and
scientific talent are diverted to nuclear weapons
and delivery systems.
247. Unfortunately, as the task becomes more
im¬portant it also becomes more difficult.
Greater quantities of dangerous materials are
produced and new suppliers emerge who lack a
clear commitment to non-proliferation. But the
technology that helped to create the problems can
supply answers as well. Vigorous action to
strengthen the barriers to aggres¬sion and to
resolve disputes peacefully can remove the
insecurities that are the root of the problem.
The United States, for its part, will work to
tighten export controls; to promote broader
acceptance of safeguards; to urge meaningful
actions when agreements are violated; and to
strengthen IAEA. As our action last week in
Vienna should make clear, we will not accept
attempts to politicize—and therefore emasculate—
such vital institutions.
248. Perhaps the most common phrase spoken by
the American people in our more than two
centuries of national life has been you can't
stop progress . Our people have always been
imbued with the conviction that the future of a
free people would be good. America continues to
offer that vision to the world. With that vision,
and with the freedom to act creatively, there is
nothing that people of good will need fear.
249. I am not here to assert, however, that
the way is easy, or quick, or that the future is
bound to be bright. There is a poem by Carl
Sandburg in which a traveler asks the Sphinx to
speak and reveal the distilled wisdom of all the
ages. The Sphinx does speak. Its words are:
Don't expect too much . That is good counsel for
ail of us here. It does not mean that great
accomplishments are beyond our reach. We can help
shape more constructive international rela¬tions
and give our children a better chance at life. It
does mean, however, that risk, pain, expense, and
above all endurance are needed to bring these
achieve¬ments into our grasp.
250. We must recognize the complex and vexing
character of this world. We should not indulge
our¬selves in fantasies of perfection of
unfulfillable plans, or solutions gained by
pressure. It is the responsibility of leaders not
to feed the growing appetite for easy promises
and grand assurances. The plain truth is this: we
face the prospect of all too few decisive or
dramatic breakthroughs; we face the necessity of
dedicatingour energies and creativity to a
protracted struggle towards eventual success.
251. That is the approach of my country,
because we see not only the necessity but the
possibility, of making important progress on a
broad front. For example: despite deep-seated
differences between us and the Soviet Union, both
sides are now at work in a serious, businesslike
effort at arms control; Presi¬dent Reagan has
issued an important call for an inter¬national
conference on military expenditure. The
achievement of a common system for accounting and
reporting is the prerequisite for subsequent
agreement to limits or curtail defense budgets.
The Caribbean Basin Initiative establishes the
crucial bond between economic development and
economic freedom. It can be a model for fair and
productive co-operation between economies vastly
different in size and character; and the
diplomatic way is open to build stability and
progress in southern Africa through inde¬pendence
for Namibia under internationally accept-able
terms.
252. Realism and a readiness to work long and
hard for fair and freely agreed solutions—that is
our recipe for optimism. That is the message and
the offer which my Government brings to the
Assembly today.
253. I began my remarks here today with an
informal personal word. May I end in the same
spirit? We must be determined and confident. We
must be prepared for trouble, but always
optimistic. In that way the vast bounties
produced by the human mind and imagination can be
shared by all the races and nations we represent
here in this Hall.
254. A predecessor of mine as Secretary of
State, whose portrait hangs in my office,
conveyed the essence of America's approach to the
world's dangers and dilemmas. He said we would
act with a stout heart and a clear conscience
and never despair . That is what John Quincy
Adams said nearly a century and a half ago. I
give the Assembly my personal pledge today that
we will continue in that spirit, with that
determination, and with that confidence in the
future.