FOR RELEASE UPON DELIVERY

September 7, 1973

STATEMENT BY
HENRY A. KISSINGER
BEFORE
THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
SEPTEMBER 7, 1973

Mr. Chairman, and distinguished members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee;

After talking to the Chairman and most members of the Committee, I have the impression that your purposes would best be served if we moved quickly to your questions. Therefore, I shall confine my opening remarks to a statement outlining the attitude I propose to bring to the Office of Secretary of State if the Committee and Senate should confirm my nomination. I take this approach, moreover, because the close and cooperative relationship that we shall seek between the Executive and the Legislative branches in foreign affairs depends ultimately on the spirit with which it is implemented.

My first thought is of the past and the great Americans who have held the office to which the President has nominated me. I derive both inspiration and a sense of gravity from that impressive roster, whether at the dawn of this nation's history -- Jefferson, Marshall, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Clay -- or just since World War II -- Byrnes, Marshall, Acheson, Dulles, Herter, Rusk, Rogers. These men, however different their styles and personalities, epitomized one fundamental reality: that the foreign policy of the United States transcends parties and Administrations. It expresses our ideals, our purposes and our hopes for the world. It must fulfill the best in America.

If confirmed, I shall always be conscious that I hold in trust the legacy of some of our greatest and noblest men.

Let me pay tribute to my predecessor who performed his duties with such dignity and decency for four and a half years. Secretary Rogers headed the Department of State during one of the most difficult periods in our history, when we had to adjust policies to new realities amid major domestic contention. His calm judgment and his humanity helped steer us through this passage and win the respect even of those who disagreed with Administration policies. The President and I will continue to look to him for counsel and support.

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Mr. Chairman, we have come to experience in recent years that peace at home and peace abroad are closely related. How well we perform in foreign policy depends importantly on how purposeful we are at home. America has passed through a decade of domestic turbulence which has deepened divisions and even shaken our national self-confidence in some measure. At the same time, profound changes have occurred in the world around us, a generation after World War II. Our era is marked by both the anxieties of a transitional period and the opportunities of fresh creation.

These challenges, though they appear as practical issues, cannot be solved in technical terms; they closely reflect our view of ourselves. They require a sense of identity and purpose as much as a sense of policy. Throughout our history we have thought of what we did as growing out of deeper moral values. America was not true to itself unless it had a meaning beyond itself. In this spiritual sense, America was never isolationist.

This must remain our attitude.

This is why our international policies must enlist the contributions of our best people regardless of political persuasion. Our task is to define -- together -- the contours of a new world, and to shape America's contribution to it. Our foreign policy cannot be effective if it reflects only the sporadic and esoteric initiatives of a small group of specialists. It must rest on a broad national base and reflect a shared community of values.

With good will on all sides, I deeply believe we can reach this goal. There is no dispute about many of the fundamental objectives of national policy. We are at a crucial point of transition in the international order, with major changes in the global structure promising a more peaceful world:

- Successful post-war policies have helped our friends to new strength and responsibilities. We shall work constructively and openly with our partners in Europe and Japan to give new impetus to associations based on shared purposes and ideals. We shall always remember that the vitality of our friendships is the necessary condition for the lowering of tensions with our opponents.

- We have developed fresh relationships with adversaries that can ease us away from confrontation toward cooperation. Tensions have been reduced in many areas. For the first

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time since the end of World War II, all great nations have
become full participants in the international system. There
is the hope that the arms race can be arrested and the burden
of armaments reduced.

-- Our most anguishing and divisive problem, the Vietnam war,
is behind us. We achieved a negotiated settlement last
January. The Congress has since expressed its
view on how to terminate our military participation in the last
area of conflict -- Cambodia. As you gentlemen know, the
Administration differs with that view. But it will not attempt
to circumvent it.

-- We face unprecedented issues which transcend borders and ideologies and beckon global cooperation. Many traditional assumptions need adjustment. We have viewed ourselves as blessed with unlimited agricultural surpluses; today we must contemplate scarcity in relation to world needs. We have assumed self-sufficiency in energy; now we face increasing needs for external supply at least for an interim period. Environmental problems used to be considered national issues, if they were considered at all; now many must be met internationally if they are going to be met at all. We need to explore new conceptual frontiers to reflect the new reality produced by both technology and human aspirations: that our planet has become a truly global society.

This Administration will continue to adapt America's role to these
new conditions. But we cannot take for granted what has been begun.
We cannot let irretrievable opportunities slip from our grasp. Just as
we have benefitted from the efforts of our predecessors, so must we
build for our successors. What matters to other countries -- and to
the world -- is not so much the work of one Administration as the
steadiness of America. So the nation is challenged to render our
purposes durable and our performance reliable. This we achieved
during most of a generation after the Second World War. We need to
continue to do so.

This will require mutual effort and mutual understanding. We will
do our part. The President has charged me with helping him to shape
a foreign policy that can endure because it is carried in the hearts as
well as the minds of Americans.

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