America must remain engaged - military policy - President George Bush speech - Transcript

US Department of State Dispatch, Dec 21, 1992

Address at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, December 15, 1992

In 36 days, I'll hand over the stewardship of this great nation, capping a career in public service that began 50 years ago in wartime skies over the Pacific. Our country won that great contest but entered an uneasy peace. You see, the fires of World War II cooled into a longer Cold War, and one that froze the world into two opposing camps: on the one side, America and its allies-the forces of freedom--against an alien ideology that cast its shadow over every American.

And 3 years ago, when I was honored to address the graduating class here at Texas A&M, I spoke of the need to move "beyond containment." I said: "We seek the integration of the Soviet Union into the community of nations. Ultimately, our objective is to welcome the Soviet Union back into the world order." Was this aim too ambitious? Not for the American people.

Today, by the grit of our people and the grace of God, the Cold War is over. Freedom has carried the day. And I leave the White House grateful for what we have achieved together and exhilarated by the promise of what can come to pass.

This afternoon, I would like to just share some of my thoughts on the past few years and on America's purpose in the world. My thesis is a simple one. Amid the triumph and the tumult of the recent past, one truth rings out more clearly than ever. America remains today what Lincoln said it was more than a century ago: the last best hope of man on earth.

This is a fact--a truth made indelible by the struggles and the agonies of the 20th century--and in the sacrifice symbolized by each towering oak on Simpson Drill Field here at Texas A&M University. The leadership, the power, and, yes, the conscience of the United States of America--all are essential for a peaceful, prosperous international order, just as such an order is essential for us.

History's lesson is clear. When a war-weary America withdrew from the international stage following World War I, the world spawned militarism, fascism, and aggression unchecked, plunging mankind into another devastating conflict. But in answering the call to lead after World War II, we built from the principles of democracy and the rule of law a new community of free nations--a community whose strength, perseverance, patience, and unity of purpose contained Soviet totalitarianism and kept the peace.

In the end, Soviet communism proved no match for free enterprise beyond its borders or the yearning for liberty within them. American leadership that undermined the confidence and capacity of the communist regimes became a beacon for all the peoples of the world.

Steadfast and sure, generations of Americans stood in the path of the Soviet advance, while our adversary probed for weaknesses that were never found. Presidents from both parties led an Atlantic alliance held together by the bonds of principle and love of liberty, facing a Warsaw Pact lashed together by occupation troops and quisling governments and, when all else failed, the use of tanks against its own people.

By the 1980s, Kremlin leaders found that our alliance would not crack when they threatened America's allies with the infamous SS-20 nuclear missile. Nor did the alliance shrink from the deployment of countervailing missiles to defend against this menace.

In the Pacific, too, we built a new alliance with Japan, defended Korea, and called hundreds of thousands of Americans to sacrifice in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

The American people demonstrated that they would shoulder whatever defense burden, make whatever sacrifice was needed, to assure our freedom and protect our allies and interests. We made use of this superb technology that our free enterprise system has produced. Having learned that they could not divide our alliance, the Soviets eventually were forced to realize that their command economy simply could not compete. As the Soviet system stalled and crumbled, so too did the ability of its rulers to deny their people the truth--about us, and about them.

In the end, Soviet communism was destroyed by its own internal contradictions. New leaders with new vision faced the hard truths that their predecessors had long denied--glasnost, perestroika--they may have been Russian words, but the concepts at their core were universal.

The Soviet Union did not simply lose the Cold War. The Western democracies won it. I say this not to gloat but to make a key point. The qualities that enabled us to triumph in that struggle--faith, strength, unity, and above all, American leadership--are those we must call upon now to win the peace.

In recent years, with the Soviet empire in its death throes, the potential for crisis and conflict was never greater, the demand for American leadership never more compelling.

As the peoples of Eastern Europe made their bold move for freedom, we urged them along a peaceful path to liberation. They turned to us, they turned to America--and we did not turn away.

When our German friends took their hammers to tear down that wall, we encouraged a united Germany safely within the NATO alliance. They looked to America, and we did not look away.