US Presidency
1971

After a long and unpopular war, there is temptation to turn inward, to withdraw from the world, to back away from our commitments. That deceptively smooth road of the new isolationism is surely the road to war. Our foreign policy today steers a steady course between the past danger of over involvement and the new temptation of under involvement. That policy, which I first enunciated in Guam 19 months ago represents our basic approach to the world: We will maintain our commitments, but we will make sure our own troop levels or any financial support to other nations is appropriate to current threats and needs. We shall provide a shield if a nuclear power threatens the freedom of a nation allied with us or of a nation whose survival we consider vital to our security. But we will look to threatened countries and their neighbors to assume primary responsibility for their own defense, and we will provide support where our interests call for that support and where it can make a difference. These principles are not limited to security matters.