(Archived document, may contain errors)
]Freedom and the ]Future
By the Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher OM, FRS, MP
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, It's a very great pleasure
to be he re today, to be invited to address this distinguished
audience, and in particular to be the guest of the five prominent
conservative organisations which, though normally fierce rivals in
the struggle for influence, philosophy and funds, have come
together to be our joint host. An astounding event, Mr. Chairman,
it is, perhaps, what inspired President Bush's vision of a "new
world order". We have before us today the opportunities created by
two great victories: President Reagan's victory over communism in t
h e Cold War, and President Bush's victory over aggres- sion in the
Gulf. Both those victories were hard won. They required courage,
the vision to see what was pos- sible when others could not, and
the persistence to fight through to a full and final conclu s ion.
Very few leaders possess that combination of qualities. But in the
Gulf War, President Bush showed leadership of the very highest
order. He built a grand coalition of twenty-eight allies; he
assembled overwhelming force from around the world; he gave full
backing to a brilliant military concept which produced one of the
greatest feats of arms with the fewest casualties in history; and
he helped lay the founda- tions of future stability in the region.
He can truly say, as Pitt said in 1804: amid the wr e ck and misery
of nations, it is our just exaltation that we have continued
superior to all that ambition or that despotism could ef- fect; and
our still higher exaltation ought to be that we provide not only
for our own safety but hold out a prospect for n ations now bending
under the iron yoke of tyranny of what the exertions of a free
people can effect. But that victory was not won solely in the last
six months. It was the culmination of a decade's achievement - *
The military build up of the 1980s, * 'Me recovery of America's and
the West's self confidence,
The Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher OM, FRS, MY served as Prime Minister
of Great Britain Erom 1979 to 1990. She addressed an audience of
more than 400 conservative leaders, members of Congress, and
Administration officials at the Four Seasons Hotel, Washingto n,
D.C., on March 8,1991. The luncheon in her honor was sponsored by
The Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the
Hoover Institution, the Manhattan Institute, and Nadonal ReWew.
ISSN OZ72-IM.
* The technological advance that created t he Patriot missile
and the Apache attack helicopter, and * The revival of our
economies that made these miracles possible. Someone once said that
"the past is another country - they do things differently there".
It is difficult today to conjure up the des p airing and defeatist
atmosphere of the post-Vietnam '70s. But in those days the West was
on the decline and on the defensive. Our defences were neglected.
The Soviet Union steadily reinforced its military superiority. Our
allies felt abandoned. They felt t hey could no longer rely on a
hedonistic West. We coined the cynical joke: "lose a country, gain
a restaurant". In the battle of ideas, we had all but ceased to aim
at fin-thering freedom and had settled for containing communism.
This political weakness o nly mirrored deeper weaknesses in our
societies. Every such crisis is ultimately a crisis of the spirit.
We knew we had lost time, lost nerve and lost ground.
The '80s - A Now Direction So, as the '80s began, we in the United
States and Britain, set out i n a new direction. We wrestled with
the challenge of reviving our economies. We rebuilt our shattered
defences. We faced up to the threat of a Soviet Empire at the peak
of its military might, made still more dangerous by knowledge of
its own economic weak n ess and social fragility. We made it clear
that arms control would proceed on the basis of genuine equality of
weaponry between East and West - or not at all. The Soviet Union
built up its SS-20s. We deployed Cruise and Pershing missiles. The
result - the first ever agreement toreduce nuclear weapons. When
the Soviet Union said that Germany could only be united if it left
NATO, President Bush and I stayed firm. The result - a reunified
Germany fully m4thin NATO. At home we liberated enterprise and cut
taxe s, producing higher living standards, more jobs and the spread
of ownership. Capitalism made our peoples prosperous at home and
enabled us to feed the hungry abroad. Socialism, by contrast,
proved the road to poverty and serfdom.
The Truth Revealed As Eas tern Europe emerges from the darkness,
the truth is now fully known, and told even by communi ts: Behind
statistics boasting of bumper crops, food rotted; As economic
growth rates soared on paper, people queued for hours to buy goods
that a Western superr narket couldn't even give away;
2
As five year plan followed five year plan, comman economies
turned out products that no one wanted to buy, and created an en-
vironment in which no one wanted to five. But the world was
strangely reluctant to observe the se facts. A World Bank report
praised the Romanian economy for achieving high rates of growth
from the early50s on. A perceptive economist whose name is not
unknown to you, Alan Wal- ters, calculated backwards from the
current Romanian living standards to show that if these figures had
been accurate, the Romanian people would have all been dead in
1950. Since then, Mr. Chairman, the life has drained out of
communism entirely. And with it the heart went out of socialism.
Make no mistake. Ilese communist reg i mes were not some
unfortunate aberration, some historical deviation from a socialist
ideal. They were the ultimate expression, unconstrained by
democratic and electoral pressures, of what socialism is all about:
* State ownership at the expense of private property; * Government
control at the expense of individual enterprise; * The pursuit of
equality at the expense of opportunity for all. In short, the state
was everything and the individual nothing. Mr. Chairman, I freely
acknowledge that socialists and s tatists often begin by finding
injus- tices and wanting to remove them. But they go on to the
notion that only state ownership and state regulation can solve
such problems. You can only believe that by ignoring the lessons
history, the lessons of politics and the lessons of economics.
After the experience of this cen- tury and the testimony of Eastern
Europe, intellectual irresponsibility on this scale is also moral
irresponsibility. We knew that communism was spiritually bankrupt -
and we said so. We knew that the Stalinist system would always
produce misery and tyranny, but could never produce prosperity -
and we said so. We knew that the "captive nations" under communism
wanted and deserved to be free - and we said so. We even dared use
the phrase "capti v e nations". And the more we told the truth, the
more we restored our own peoples' self confidence and the hopes of
those still living under tyranny. In the decade of the '80s,
Western values were placed in the crucible and they emerged with
greater purity and strength. Mr. Chairman, so much of the credit
goes to President Reagan. Of him it can be said, as Canning said of
Pitt, that he was the "pilot that weathered the storm". The world
owes him an enormous dept and it saddens me that there are some who
ref use to acknowledge his achievements.
3
For the whole world changed; * The Cold War was won without a
shot being fired; Eastern Europe regained its freedom; its peoples
elected democratic governments and they announced their intention
to leave the Warsaw Pact; * The Berlin Wall came down and Germany
was reunified within NATO; she and Japan, the vanquished nations in
the Second World War, prospered mightily and ironically became the
the creditors in the new world of peace. * A weakened Soviet Union
was com p elled by the West's economic and military competition to
reform itself, a new more realistic and clear sighted leadership
came to the top; * Munost was launched, Pereovika was started and
we saw the begin- nings of democratic politics; * As the Soviet Uni
o n abandoned its revolutionary role in the world, the United
Nations became a more effective foram for active diplomacy; * And
the United States once again became the preeminent power in the
world. Mr. Chairman, these are great and for the most part benefi c
ial changes. They have been confirmed by the progress of the Gulf
War in which America has led, Britain and France have helped
militarily, together with many Arab nations, Germany and Japan have
con- tributed financially, the United Nations has given its b
lessing, and the Soviet Union while pursuing her own diplomatic
course at times, never quite departed from the U.N. resolutions she
had originally supported. Mr. Chairman- a new world means new
problem's and the need for new approaches. How do we deal wit h the
crisis in the Soviet Union? How do we reshape NATO in the post-Cold
War world? How do we preserve and strengthen the economic
foundations of the Western Alliance? How do we defend Western
interests elsewhere and extend stability beyond the West in th e
aftermath of the Gulf War? In my view, we shall tackle all of these
problems more effectively, as we won the Gulf War, by the tested
policy of Western unity based on the firm U.S. leadership of
sovereign nations in alliance.
Nationhood and East-West But not every change in recent months has
been for the better. In the Soviet Union there is accumulating
evidence that progress towards reform has been slowed, possibly
halted. Dark forces of riactio'n are on the rise. At such a time,
it is vital that all th o se committed to reform should not falter.
No doubt some reformers never expected reform to extend to
multi-party democracy and a free economy. "But no man can fix the
boundaries of the march of a nation". And divisions among reformers
now would only hand victory to the hard liners, whom I at least
refuse to call conservatives. The Soviet people have not gone so
far to have the prize of freedom and genuine democracy wrested from
their grasp.
4
But the task of reforming and liberalising the Soviet Union is a
far more difficult one than any of us had supposed a few years ago.
How do you persuade people brainwashed by egalitarian propaganda
that inequalities are the side-effect of rising prosperit y for
all? How do you tell them that higher living standards can only be
attained at the short term price of higher unemployment? And how do
you do any of this while the demoted bureaucrats, the discredited
politicians and all those who flourished under to t alitarian
mediocrity are out to undermine everything you do? I am often
asked: can we still do business with Mr. Gorbachev9 Mr. Chairman,
we should not underestimate the future reforming zeal of a man who
al- lowed Eastern Europe to grasp its freedom; who has begun the
withdrawal of Soviet troops; accepted arms reduction for the first
time; and cut support for communist insurgencies across the world.
We have to 90 on doing business with him. In the same way, he has
to do business with the democratic reform e rs if he is to succeed.
The pessimists among you will perhaps reply that the Soviet leader
embarked on reform so as not to be left behind by the military
build up and economic progress of ithe West in the '80s. I am the
last person - or maybe the second t o last person - to deny that
these played a major role in Mr. Gorbachev's calculations. We had
an economy driven by information tech- nology: he had an economy
fuelled by vodka! And the very realism that prompted these reforms
will persuade him to step up l iberalisa- tion, if he can, when the
present slowing ofperesfrotka pushes the Soviet economy further
into crisis, as it must. Perhaps, it does not really matter whether
the optimists or the pessimists are right. Be- cause optimism and
pessimism dictate th e same policy. If Mr. Gorbachev remains a
reformer at heart, as I believe, he will privately welcome Western,
pressure for reform and employ it against the hard liners. If he
himself has succumbed to the hard liners, as others believe, the
West's pressure w ill push him too in the direction of reform. So
what kind of reform should we be seeking for these people who have
rejected a false ideology but have not yet learnt the ways of
freedom? It is fashionable in some circles to argue for credits for
the St)vie t Union. But to give large credits to fill shops will
not help to build the necessary structures of liberty; they would
be dis- sipated quickly leaving an increasing burden of debt. Any
assistance to the Soviet Union must, therefore, be granted only in
res p onse to practi- cal economic reforms. Helping the present
structures will only keep reform at bay. We must instead encourage
the dispersal of power from Moscow to the republics. Five Soviet
republics are now negotiating for such a dispersal of power - let
us hope those negotiations succeed. Second, we have to stress to
the Soviets just how essential private property is to freedom.
History teaches that human rights will not long survive without
property rights; nor will prosperity be achieved without them. Nor
is freedom secure without independent courts and a rule of law.
Here we have ex- perience and knowledge totally denied to people
who have grown up in a totalitarian system.
5
Perhaps we should consider extending the Know-How funds for the
Soviet Un ion so that lawyers can go towards developing an
independent judiciary - a precondition of freedom. We must also
draw the Soviet Union closer to the institutions of the
international trading and payments system. Associating the Soviet
Economy more closely with these Will, over time, help to transform
that economy internally. Their rules will help promote sound money,
competition and genuine trade. No economy will prosper if it is
strangled by regulations and bureaucrats. So let us say to Mr.
Gorbachev that he can count on our help when he makes reforms. But
the reverse of this is that any evidence of a return to repression
must prompt from the West a swift and effective response. The
constant raising of human rights cases in the Soviet Union over
many years , especially since the Helsinki accords, did undoubtedly
have an effect - we must remember that lesson and act upon it. In
particular, we cannot overlook or condone the disgraceful abuses of
those rights which we have seen in the Baltic States. These State s
were seized by the Soviet Union not by law but by fraud and
violence. That seizure has never been regarded as legal by the
West. We fully support the right of the Baltic States to determine
their own future. We must make it clear to the Soviet Union that it
is not a question of whether they will be free - but only of when
they will be free. And they wX be free.
How Do We Reshape NATO? There are signs that the Soviet Union is
failing to fulfil either the letter or the spirit of the terms of
the treaty for reduction of conventional forces in Europe, signed
in Paris. And there are signs of pressure by the Soviet military to
reassert its position. Moreover, the reemergence of tension and
uncertainty on Europe's eastern border ought to remind NATO's
continent a l European members both that international dangers can
rare- ly be predicted and that sustained commitment is necessary to
deal with them. We must never forget that it is NATO - because it
is strong defence - which underpins that peace with freedom and ju
s tice which we in the West enjoy and now have the oppor- tunity to
extend to others. NATO has been uniquely successful in maintaining
liberty. It is not just a military afliance, but an alliance in
defence of a way of life. NATX) must not be discarded. It i s in
the interests of Europe that the United States should continue to
play that dominan role in NAT`O to which we have become accustomed.
Indeed, as was demonstrated in the Gulf, for all the assistance
which Britain and other powers gave, only one nation really has the
power to defend freedom and security in the world today. That is
and will for the foresee- able future remain the United States. The
pursuit of a new defence role for the countries of Europe is much
discussed. It is cer- tainly true that, w i thin NATO, the European
countries should make a greater contribution. The European
countries must also be prepared to take a more active military role
in response to events outside NATD's present area. Germany's
interpretation of its constitution has so f ar prevented it making
such a military contribution. But a full commitment to the defence
of international freedom and stability requires risking life as
well as treasure.
6
NATO has been a great success. We should be wary of creating new
institutions to replace or complement its unique and indispensable
role. Perhaps the most extraordinary suggestion yet to come out of
Brussels is that the disunity and half-heartedness of most European
na- tions during the Gulf crisis demonstrate the need for a united
European foreign and defence policy. A new structure, even if it
were necessary, can never be a substitute for will. Any ar-
rangements which denied Britain and France sovereign control of
their foreign and military e , especially determining these vital q
uestions by a majority vote, would almost certainly have excluded
Anglo-French forces from the Gulf - or at least long delayed their
ar- rival and limited their number. In those grim early days after
Iraq's invasion, America would have been left to stand a lone. And
it is far from certain that, even if after prolonged delibera-
tions, the European Community would have contributed military
assistance. The methods of compromise which underpin such decisions
would almost certainly have left Europe on the side l ines. For
many years, successive American Governments believed that progress
towards a United States of Europe would relieve America of the
burden of defending freedom. That hope, alas, turned out to be
greatly exaggerated. Moreover, this ldnd of geo-poli t ical grand
strategy should be regarded with the greatest scepticism. If a
European super-state were to be forged, it would almost certainly
develop interests and attitudes at variance with those of America.
We would thereby move from a stable internationa l order with the
United States in the lead to a more dangerous world of new
competing power blocs. This would be in no one's interest, least of
all America's - and certainly not of Europe. So NATO mil t remain
the principal defence organization of the West : instead of seeldng
to supplant it, we should aim to adapt and extend it to meet the
challenges of the post-Cold WarWorld.
Enlarging NATO's Role Our first step should be to enlarge its
political role. This great trans-Atlantic partnership should not
conf ine itself to matters of defence but should extend its
discussions into other political and economic areas. This would be
of benefit to countries on both sides of the Atlan- tic. Second,
those Eastern European countries which have left the Warsaw Pact
sho u ld be given a new, special status in NATO - something short
of full membership but well beyond mere observer status. Perhaps
France has pointed the way in this respect. Such a new status could
be an added source of stability in a traditionally unstable ar e a
and reassure these countries in troubled times. Even in periods of
warmer relations, you can have a chilly spell. Third, I believe
that NATO's role should be extended to threats which are
out-of-area. When I addressed the NATO Council at Turnberry, Scot l
and, last June, I warned that, "there is no guarantee that threats
to our security will stop at some imaginary line.... With the
spread of sophisticated weapons and of military technology to areas
like the Middle East, potential threats to NATO territory may
originate more from outside Europe". Within two months Saddam
Hussein had invaded Kuwait. Fortunately, although there was no
coordinated NATO response, several NATO nations acted vigorously to
ensure that ag- gression did not pay.
7
Saddam. Hussein h as been defeated. But Iraq is not alone in
acquiring the technology and power to turn regional conflict into
global crisis. Defence Secretary Richard Cheney has reminded us
that: by the year 2000, more than two dozen developing nations will
have bal- list i c missiles, fifteen of those countries will have
the scientific skills to make their own, and half of them either
have or are near to getting nuclear capability as well. Thirty
countries will have chemical weapons and ten will be able to deploy
biological weapons. This means that the NATO countries under
America's leadership must be in a position to deter aggression by
these countries and, if it occurs, to make a swift and devastating
response. Strong defence will continue to be necessary - and
costly. For technology does not stand still. It was the Coalition's
technological superiority which, with the courage of our fighting
men, enabled us to defeat the world's fourth largest army after
just four days of ground war. For myself, I believe, we must keep
up t he rate of technological advance which gave us the Patriot
missile and which is giving us SDI. All too often after wars,
democracies rush to cut back defence and increase domestic public
spending. The end of 'the Cold War led to a similar reaction. It is
t ime to consider whether the plans to reduce spending on defence
should be revised. Resolve is not enough, you must have the
military capability too. Perhaps, the single most important point
to be made today is that the only real peace dividend is, quite s
imply, peace. Our generation has enjoyed it because of the
investment of billions of dollars and pounds of defence.
Free Trade So the first way to ensure that freedom prevails is
to defend it - principally through NATO. But no less important is
the second means - the ce of world prosperity, founded upon an open
system of free trade. And if there are risks to our security, the
risks today to the open trading system are just as great. Ixt us
remember that the West's post-War prosperity could never have been
achieved without the orderly framework of free trade provided by
the GATT. Our response to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 was rising
protectionism which transformed it into a catastrophic economic
depression, slashing world trade inmanufactured goods by s o me 40
percent - and all but undermining the credibility of capitalism
itself. By contrast, our response to the world recession of the
early 1980s was to resist protectionist pressures. Free enterprise
and open trade duly swept us into years of unparallele d
prosperity. Yet the temptation to erect or retain tariff and other
barriers is understandable. M trade through a network of bilateral
agreements and tariff barriers has superficial political at-
tractions. But in the long term, it would make home industr ies
less efficient; consumers pay more for less choice; and condemn the
Third World to lower living standards by denying them markets.
8
It would serve no purpose for me now to attribute blame for the
failure, so far, of the Uruguay Round of the GATT. We might both be
embarrassed by the degree of our agree- ment. Anyway, I have had a
thing or two to say about this at European Councils. Of c ourse,
people are impatient after four years of negotiations in the GATT.
However, if there is evidence of a real and urgent commitment to
reach a settlement and more time is needed, it should be given.
Some of the best agreements have been reached after t he clock has
stopped. It would be a tragedy if the GATT talks were to fail
because the U.S., the Cairns Group and the European Community could
not reach an agreement on cutting farm subsidies. We cannot expect
the Third World to agree to what the West wan t s - protecting
intellectual property rights and liberalising services -when we
deprive them of their main export market, agricultural commodities,
and hence of the funds to improve and diversify their economies.
The stakes are high. If GATT should fail, w e would gradually drift
into a world of three powerful, protectionist trade blocs - based
on America, Europe and Japan - engaged in mutually destructive
trade wars. That would not only threaten world prosperity but it
could also damage the common sympathy v ital to defence ties across
the Atlantic. We should be moving in precisely the opposite
direction. Europe and North America, staying within GATr rules,
should move steadily to cut tariffs and other trade barriers
between them. In the short term, special p r ovision would have to
be made for the more difficult problems like agricul- ture; and
over the decades, we would create a free trade area in embryo
across the Atlantic. It would be the greatest concentration of
wealth and skills in history, encompassing 5 8 per- cent of the
world's GNP, and it would be a force for free trade rather than a
restraint upon it. The very size and prosperity of the group would
give it enormous influence in setting liberal rules for open world
trade. The inclusion of America would reassure the fears, however
unjus- tified, of some European countries about German economic
dominance. And, above all, it would provide the economic
underpinning for NATO and its out-of-area role. It is a vision- ary
prospect but we need a distant star to steer by.
Europe The European Community's response to the challenges and
opportunities of free trade will be crucial. Europe is now at the
crossroads. Amid the apparently technical arguments on monetary
union, institutional change and social dimension, a struggle is
underway for Europe's future. Only recently, perhaps, has America
begun to recognise that it too has a stake in the out- come. A
democratic Europe of nation states could be a force for liberty,
enterprise and open trade. But, if creating a Un i ted States of
Europe overrides these goals, the new Europe Will be one of subsidy
and protection. The European Community does indeed have a political
mission. It is to anchor new and vulnerable democracies more
securely to freedom to the West. This is wha t happened after the
end of authoritarian rule in Spain, Portugal and Greece. So the
offer of full Community membership must be open to the countries of
Eastern and Central Europe just as soon as democracy and the free
market have taken root. In the meanti me, we must strengthen links
of trade, investment and culture.
9
The false political mission which some would set for the European
Community is to turn it into an inward looking and protectionist
United States of Europe. A Europe in which in- dividual na tions
each with its own living democracy would be subordinated within an
artifi- cial federal structure which is inevitably bureaucratic. A
community lacking a common lan- guage can have no public opinion to
which the bureaucrats are accountable. American s and Europeans
allke sometimes forget how unique the United States of America is.
No other nation has been created so swiffly and successfully. No
other nation has been built upon an idea - the idea of liberty. No
other nation has so successfully combined people of different races
and nations within a single culture. Both the founding fathers of
the United States and successive waves of immigrants to your
country were determined to create a new identity. Whether in flight
from persecution or from poverty, t he huddled masses have, with
few exceptions, welcomed American values, the American way of life
and American op- portunities. And America herself has bound them to
her with powerful bonds of patriotism and pride. The European
nations are not and can never be like this. They are the product of
history and not of philosophy. You can construct a nation on an
idea; but you cannot reconstruct a nation on the basis of one. It
is in this light that we should consider the attempt which is being
made to create a Eu r opean Superstate. That aspiration has many
origins - some noble, some cynical, some just naive. But, in any
case, utopian aspirations never made for a stable polity. Political
institu- tions cannot be imposed if they are to endure. They have
to evolve and they have to com- mand the affection, loyalty and
respect of populations living under them. The kind of Europe which
all of us - on both sides of the Atlantic, and not least, in the
countries of Central and Eastern Europe so recently emerged from
the thra l l of communism - must see is no less visionary and far
more practical than the alternative. Our kind of Europe, of
sovereign states proud of their national identity, enjoying the
prosperity which free enterprise brings, a force for open trade,
democracy a nd liberty, would look outward to the world where
freedom must be defended and extended. And when we look westward,
we see not threatening rivals but staunch friends with common
purposes. That's my vision of a European future.
The Middle East and the Unit ed Nations Whether it is in Europe
or the wider world, we have to know clearly what we should expect
from international institutions. The Gulf War posed a sudden,
dramatic challenge to the in- ternational community. Indeed, "the
Gulf"was hardly on our age n da until the sudden in- vasion of
Kuwait on 2nd August last year. Yet, since then, the Gulf has
dominated all else. The war is now over and we are working to build
a secure and lasting peace. It is precisely the right time both to
look again at the issues which have so long divided the peoples of
the Middle East and to take stock of the future role of the United
Nations. It is not for others to come up with precise formulas for
solving the problems of the Nfiddle East - an area fought over more
than any ot her part of the world. Agreement will only come from
painstaking and persistent negotiation between the peoples
involved. An international conference could play a part in this -
not to arbitrate but its members could provide advice
1 0
on the preparation of an agenda, the development of proposals,
the framing of security arrangements and the course of diplomacy. I
believe that six items among others should be on our agenda for
peace in the Mddle East: First, the Gulf must be protected as an
international s eaway. Our navies will have to stay there and those
from the European countries must take a bigger and more prominent
share of the duty. Second, military equipment and supplies may need
to be prepositioned in the area, both to deter further aggression
and to enable the rapid deployment of Western troops should that
deterrent fail. Third, arrangements must be made to safeguard the
security of Kuwait. For who will be prepared to invest the enormous
sums required to rebuild Kuwait, unless security is properly
guaranteed? I believe a United Nations force would be right for
this purpose. It must be firm and strong due to past history and
recent events. Fourth, there is the question of biological,
chemical and nuclear weapons. We must be satisfied by observation t
hat Iraq's have been destroyed. We should have sanctions against
supplying them with equipment that could be used for that purpose.
And Iraq's territory must be open to rigorous inspection to ensure
that production has not begun again. - Fifth, countries w hich
engage in aggressive war cannot expect to be allowed freely and
quickly to build up their military strength. We must take steps to
ensure that the advanced weapons of war are withheld from Iraq,
which has, twice in ten years, invaded the territory of
neighbouring Islamic states. Finally, there is the Palestinian
question, so long encased in suspicion and hostility. It can only
be tackled by direct negotiation with the representatives of the
Palestinian people and Israel. But those leaders who supporte d
Saddam Hussein do not come to seek equity with clean hands. One
favourable development is that the Soviet Union in now playing a
very dif- ferent role than in the past. So some of the fears that a
Palestinian state - even though part of a Confederation w i th
Jordan - would be prey to communist subversion, have receded. But
we can well understand Israel's concern for secure borders and
indeed the concern of all states in the area for a system of
regional security. The United Nations was tested by the crisis in
the Gulf. And it came through it with an en- hanced reputation. The
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council worked together for
the first time since 1945 to defeat aggression - and not for one
resolution but for twelve. But the U.N. resolutions h ad to be
enforced by the actions and commitment of individual countries -
both America and her NATO allies and the other Arab countries of
the region which saw their interests threatened by Saddam Hussein's
aggression. This combination of in- ternational authority by the
United Nations and enforcement by the United States and other
sovereign countries may well prove to be the best model for future
contingencies.
Freedom and the Future Mr. Chairman, there can be no better time or
place to consider the fut ure of our nations than here - at the
heart of the free world. The role of practical statesmen in any age
is to cre- ate or adapt political structures for prosperity and
peace. Today, I have suggested how this may now be done - in NATO,
in the GATT, in th e Soviet Union, in Europe and in the United
Nations. But true statesmanship in a free country must be measured
by more than that. It requires an unswerving commitment to make the
sovereignty of justice prevail. It requires an ability to inspire
others with the rightness of a cause. It requires strong arms and
great hearts. We look to America for these things. And we do not
look in vain. After victory in the Cold War and in the GuK we face
a still nobler, still more chall task - to advance the reign of
freed o m and free enterprise throughout the world. It is now, more
than ever, America's destiny, supported by her faithful friends -
and no friends are truer than her friends in Britain - to press
ahead with that endeavour. In the words of President Abraham Linc
oln: "Let us strive on to finish the work we are in."
12
}}