US Presidency
1988

What was begun that morning in Geneva has shown results, in the INF treaty; in my recent visit to Moscow; in my opportunity to meet there with Soviet citizens and dissidents and speak of human rights, and to speak, too, in the Lenin Hills of Moscow to the young people of the Soviet Union about the wonder and splendor of human freedom. The results of that morning in Geneva are seen in peace conferences now underway around the world on regional conflicts and in the work of the U.N. here in New York as well as in Geneva. But, Mr. Secretary-General, history teaches caution. Indeed, that very building in Geneva where important negotiations have taken place, the Geneva accords on Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq negotiations, for example, we see it today as stonelike testimony to a failed dream of peace in another time. The Palais des Nations was the headquarters of the League of Nations, an institution that was to symbolize an end to all war.