eickmeye@girtab.usc.edu (Biff Henderson) (10/02/89)
The following article is from The New York Times, 26 September
1989, Page A8.
Excerpts From Bush's Speech at the Opening of the U.N. General
Assembly
Following are excerpts from President Bush's address yesterday to
the United Nations General Assembly, as recorded by The New York
Times:
. . . I feel a great personal pleasure on this occasion, for
this is a homecoming for both Barbara and me. The memories of my
time here in 1971 and 1972 are still with me today -- the human
moments, the humorous moments that are part of even the highest
undertaking.
With your permission, let me share one story from one of the
many sessions of the Security Council. I was the Permanent
Representative of the United States. I was 45 minutes late
getting to the meeting. And all 45 minutes were filled by the
first speaker to take the floor. And when I walked in and took
my seat, the speaker paused, with great courtesy, and said as
follows: "I welcome the Permanent Representative of the United
States and now, for his benefit, I will start my speech all over
again from the beginning."
That's a true story. And at that moment, differences of
alliance, ideology, didn't matter. The universal groan that went
up around that table from every member present, and then the
laughter that followed, united us all.
* * *
Condemning Terrorism
The United Nations was established 44 years ago upon the
ashes of war and amidst great hopes. And the United Nations can
do great things. No, the United Nations is not perfect. It's
not a panacea for world's problems. But it is a vital forum
where the nations of the world seek to replace conflict with
consensus and it must remain a forum for peace.
The U.N. is moving closer to that ideal. And it has the
support of the United States of America.
In recent years, certainly since my time here, the war of
words that has often echoed in this chamber is giving way to a
new mood. We've seen a welcome shift from polemics to
peacekeeping. U.N. peacekeeping forces are on duty right now and
over the years more than 700 peacekeepers have given their lives
in service to the United Nations.
Today I want to remember one of those soldiers of peace --
an American on a mission of peace under the United Nations flag
-- on a mission, really, for all the world. A man of
unquestioned bravery, unswerving dedication to the United Nations
ideal, Lieut. Col. William Richard Higgins.
And I call on the General Assembly to condemn the murder of
this soldier of peace and call on those responsible to have the
decency to return his remains to his family and let us all, right
now, right here, rededicate ourselves and our nations to the
cause the Colonel Higgins served so selflessly.
* * *
Openness in the East
Freedom's advance is evident everywhere -- Central Europe
and Hungary, where state and society are now in the midst of a
movement towards political pluralism and a free market economy,
where the barrier that once enforced an unnatural division
between Hungary and its neighbors to the West has been torn down.
Torn down. Replaced by a new hope for the future, a new hope in
freedom.
We see freedom at work in Poland, where in deference to the
will of the people the Communist Party has relinquished its
monopoly on power. And indeed in the Soviet Union, where the
world hears the voices of people no longer afraid to speak out or
to assert the right to rule themselves.
But freedom's mark is not confined to a single continent or
to the developed world alone. We see the rise of freedom in
Latin America where, one by one, dictatorships are giving way to
democracy. We see it on the continent of Africa where more and
more nations see, in the system of free enterprise, salvation for
economies crippled by excessive state control.
Collapse of Despotism
East and west, north and south, on every continent, we can
see the outlines of a new world of freedom.
Of course, freedom's work remains unfinished. The trend we
see is not yet universal. Some regimes still stand against the
tide. Some rulers still deny the right of the people to govern
themselves. But now the power of prejudice and despotism is
challenged. never before have these regimes stood so isolated
and alone, so out of step with the steady advance of freedom.
Today we are witnessing an ideological collapse -- the
demise of the totalitarian idea of the omniscient, all-powerful
state. There are many reasons for this collapse. But in the end
one fact alone explains what we see today. Advocates of the
totalitarian idea saw its triumph written in the laws of history.
They failed to see the love of freedom that was written in the
human heart.
* * *
Strengthening Freedom
Our challenge is to strengthen the foundations of freedom,
encourage its advance and face our most urgent challenges -- the
global challenges of the 21st century: economic health,
environmental well-being, the great questions of war and peace.
First, global economic growth.
During this decade a number of developing nations have moved
into the ranks of the world's most advanced economies, all of
them -- each and every one -- powered by the engine of free
enterprise.
In the decade ahead others can join their ranks.
But for many nations, barriers stand in the way. In the
case of some countries, these are obstacles of their own making
-- unneeded restrictions and regulations that act as dead weights
on their own economies and obstacles to foreign trade.
But other barriers to growth exist and those, too, require
effective action. Too many developing countries struggle today
under a burden of debt that makes growth all but impossible. The
nations of the world deserve better opportunity to achieve a
measure of control over their own economic fate and build better
lives for their own people.
The approach the U.S. has put forward -- the Brady plan --
will help these nations reduce that debt and at the same time
encourage the free market reforms that will fuel economic growth.
The Debt Crisis
In just two days, I will be speaking to the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank and I'll discuss there, in more
detail, the steps that our nations can take in dealing with the
debt problem.
But I can say now the new world of freedom is not a world
where a few nations live in comfort while others live in want.
The power of commerce is a force for progress. Open markets
are the key to continued growth in the developing world.
It's time for the other advanced economies to follow suit,
to create expanded opportunities for trade. I believe we'll
learn, in the century ahead, that many nations of the world have
barely begun to tap their true potential for development.
The free market and its fruits are not the special preserve
of a few. They are a harvest that everyone can share.
Threat to the Environment
Beyond the challenge of global growth lies another issue of
global magnitude -- the environment.
No line drawn on a map can stop the advance of pollution.
Threats to our environment have become international
problems. We must develop an international approach to urgent
environmental issues. One that seeks common solutions to common
problems.
The United Nations is already at work on the question of
global warming and the effort to prevent oil spills and other
disasters from fouling our seas and the air we breathe.
And I will tell you now the United States will do its part.
We have committed ourselves to the world-wide phase-out of all
chlorofluorocarbons by the year 2000. We've proposed amending
our own Clean Air Act to insure clean air for our citizens within
a single generation.
We've banned the import of ivory to protect the elephant and
rhinoceros from the human predators who exterminate them for
profit. And we've begun to explore ways to work with other
nations, with the major industrialized democracies, and in Poland
and in Hungary, to make common cause for the sake of our
environment.
The environment belongs to all of us. In this new world of
freedom the world citizens must enjoy this common trust for
generations to come.
Banning Chemical Weapons
Global economic growth. The stewardship of our planet.
Both are critical issues. But as always questions of war and
peace must be paramount to the United Nations.
We must move forward to limit and eliminate weapons of mass
destruction.
Five years ago, at the United Nations Conference on
Disarmament, in Geneva, I presented a United States draft treaty
outlawing chemical weapons. Since then, progress has been made
but time is running out. The threat is growing. More than 20
nations now possess chemical weapons or the capability to produce
them. And these horrible weapons are now finding their way into
regional conflicts. This is simply unacceptable. For the sake
of mankind, we must halt and reverse this threat.
Today I want to announce steps that the United States is
ready to take -- steps to rid the world of these truly terrible
weapons. Towards a treaty that will ban, eliminate, all chemical
weapons from the earth 10 years from the day it is signed. This
initiative contains three major elements.
Three Steps to a Treaty
First, in the first eight years of a chemical weapons
treaty, the U.S. is ready to destroy nearly all -- 98 percent --
of our chemical weapons stockpile, provided the Soviet Union
joins the ban, and I think they will.
Second, we are ready to destroy all of our chemical weapons
-- 100 percent -- every one -- within 10 years once all nations
capable of building chemical weapons sign that total-ban treaty.
And third, the United States is ready to begin now. We will
eliminate more than 80 percent of our stockpile even as we work
to complete a treaty if the Soviet Union joins us in cutting
chemical weapons to an equal level and we agree on the
conditions, including inspections, under which stockpiles are
destroyed.
We know that monitoring a total ban on chemical weapons will
be a challenge. But the knowledge we've gained from our recent
arms control experience and our accelerating research in this
area makes me believe that we can achieve the level of
verification that gives us confidence to go forward with the ban.
The world has lived too long in the shadow of chemical
warfare. So let us act together beginning today to rid the earth
of this scourge.
Conventional Arms
We are serious about achieving conventional arms reductions
as well. And that's why we tabled new proposals just last
Thursday at the Conventional Forces in Europe Negotiations in
Vienna, proposals that demonstrate our commitment to act rapidly
to ease military tensions in Europe and move the nations of that
continent one step closer to their common destiny -- a Europe
whole and free.
And the United States is convinced that open and innovative
measures can move disarmament forward and also ease international
tensions. And that's the idea behind the "open skies" proposal
about which the Soviets have now expressed a positive attitude.
It's the idea behind the "open lands" proposal permitting, for
the first time ever, free travel for all Soviet and American
diplomats throughout each other's country.
Openness is the enemy of mistrust. And every step towards a
more open world is a step toward the new world we seek.
1990 Summit Meeting
And let me make this comment on our meetings with the
distinguished Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, Mr.
Shevardnadze, over the past few days. I am very pleased by the
progress made. The Soviet Union removed a number of obstacles to
progress on conventional and strategic arms reduction. We
reached agreements in principle on issues from verification to
nuclear testing. And, of course, we agreed to a summit in the
spring or early summer of 1990.
And I look forward to meeting Mr. Gorbachev there.
Each of these achievements is important in its own right.
But they are more important still as signs of a new attitude that
prevails between the United States and the U.S.S.R.
Serious differences remain. We know that.
But the willingness to deal constructively and candidly with
those differences is news that we, and indeed the world, must
welcome.
Regional Conflicts
We have not entered into an era of perpetual peace. The
threats to peace that nations face may today be changing but
they've not vanished.
In fact, in a number of regions around the world, a
dangerous combination is now emerging: Regimes armed with old and
unappeasable animosities and modern weapons of mass destruction.
This development will raise the stakes whenever war breaks
out. Regional conflicts may well threaten world peace as never
before. The challenge of preserving peace is a personal one for
all of you right here in this, in this hall.
Mr. Secretary General, with great respect, you have made it
your own.
The United Nations can be a mediator, a forum where parties
in conflict come in search of peaceful solutions. For the sake
of peace, the U.N. must redouble its support for the peace
efforts now underway in regions of conflict all over the world.
And let me assure you the United States is determined to
take an active role in settling regional conflicts.
Sometimes our role in regional disputes is and will be
highly public. And sometimes, like many of you, we work quietly
behind the scenes. But always we are working for positive change
and lasting peace.
The Drug Scourge
Our world faces other, less conventional, threats no less
dangerous to international peace and stability.
Illegal drugs are a menace to social order and a source of
human misery wherever they gain a foothold. The nations who
suffer this scourge must join forces in the fight. And we are.
And let me salute the commitment and extraordinary courage
of one country in particular, Colombia, where we are working with
the people and their President, Vergilio Barco, to put the drug
cartels out of business, bring the drug lords to justice.
And finally, we must join forces to combat the threat of
terrorism. Every nation and the United Nations must send the
outlaws of the world a clear message: Hostage-taking and the
terror of random violence are methods that cannot win the world's
approval. Terrorism of any kind is repugnant to all values that
a civilized world holds in common. And make no mistake,
terrorism is a means that no end, no matter how just that end,
can sanctify.
* * *
The Dream of Peace
When I began today, I spoke to you about peacekeeping.
I want to speak to you now about peacemaking.
We must bring peace to the people who have never known its
blessings. There's a painting that hangs on the wall of my
office in the White House and it pictures President Abraham
Lincoln and his generals meeting near the end of a war that
remains the bloodiest in the history of my country.
Outside at that moment a battle rages -- in this picture --
and yet what we see in the distance is a rainbow -- a symbol of
hope, of the passing of the storm. That painting is called "The
Peacemakers." For me, it is a constant reminder that our
struggle, the struggle for peace, is a struggle blessed by hope.
I do remember sitting in this hall. I remember the mutual
respect among all of us proudly serving as representatives.
Yes, I remember the almost endless speeches. And I don't
want this to be one of them. The Security Council sessions, the
receptions, those long receiving lines, the formal meetings of
this assembly and the informal discussions in the delegates
lounge over here.
And I remember something more -- something beyond the
frantic pace and sometimes frustrating experiences of daily life
here. The heartbeat of the United Nations. The quiet conviction
that we could make the world more peaceful, more free. What we
sought then -- all of us -- now lies within our reach.
Unity of Purpose
I ask each of you here in this hall: Can we not bring a
unity of purpose to the United Nations? Can we not make this new
world of freedom the common destiny we seek?
I believe we can. I know we must.
My solemn wish today is that here among the United Nations,
that spirit will take hold and that all man and all nations will
make freedom's moment their own.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the work of
the United Nations.
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | BBS: 201-795-0733
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