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our children will not judge us by the magnitude of our ordeal, but
only by the adequacy of the response. If history teaches nothing else,
it makes clear that no great nation can afford to pass by the moment
when, in Teddy Roosevelt's words "mighty things must be dared."
Once the opportunity is past, no rationalization or self-justification
will bring it back.

The United States, in my view, faces such an historic moment. That
moment exists for us as a people, not as partisans of any particular
cause. The consequences of failure will be borne not by this Adminis-
tration, but by its successors in the decades to come, not by our
contemporaries but by future generations.

Over the past four years major changes have been registered in this
nation's international relationships.

-- We have ended the war in Southeast Asia. We now seek to create conditions of stability and accommodation to enable political competition to replace the bloodshed and hatred which for over a generation have torn Indochina.

-- We are building a new relationship with an old adversary --
the People's Republic of China. The hostility of two decades
has been eased, normal relations are approaching, and for
the first time since the end of World War II all great nations
have become full participants in the international system.

-- We have worked persistently to resolve by negotiation many of the political issues which have made our relationship with the Soviet Union contentious, and which for so long threatened world peace. Even more importantly, the very process of negotiation, over a wide range of issues, has created the possibility of a strong and lasting mutual interest in peace and cooperation.

-- We are embarked upon reinvigorating traditional friendships
with our closest friends and allies in the Atlantic Community
and with Japan. It is a journey which we hope will end not
simply in a repetition of familiar liturgies but in a new recog-
nition that what unites a community of free nations far transcends
the secondary issues that divide us.

We found a world so accustomed to the ubiquity of the Cold War that even the most routine business of peaceful relations among nations was carried on in the shadow of global confrontation. Fundamental problems persist; but they are no longer so pervasive that they dominate the conduct of all international relations. The history of the post-war era has been a never-ending effort to maintain peace through crisis management. The structure of peace we envisage would, instead, be sustained by a growing realization on the part of all nations that they have a stake in stability and that this stability is ensured by acting from a sense of justice and with moderation. The world is beginning to sense that its purposes need not be the captive of its fears, that they can be shaped by its hopes and dreams.

But these are only beginnings, not accomplished facts. Whether the
shoots that have been planted will mature will depend in large measure
upon how we conduct ourselves as a nation over the course of the next

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decade. And what we are ten years hence depends upon what we do today, next week, and in the months that follow.

Our influence for good or ill will be measured by the world's judgment of our constancy and self-confidence. Our foreign policy will mean little if other nations see our actions as sporadic initiatives of a small group reflecting no coherent national purpose or consensus. No foreign policy -- no matter how ingenious -- has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

Foreign policy must not become an alibi or a distraction from domestic ills. But, equally, domestic problems must not be used as an excuse for abandoning our international responsibilities. There can be no moratorium in the quest for a peaceful world. And as we pursue that quest we will need to draw upon the country's best minds, no matter what their partisan political persuasion -- not on a bipartisan but on a nonpartisan basis. Especially at this moment of necessary self-examination, we must also reaffirm the basis of our national unity.

For the spirit and vitality that Teddy Roosevelt represented still run deep in America. Roosevelt did not insist on moral perfection before action, because he knew that to do so would mean that we would achieve neither perfection nor action. But, equally, he never forgot that we had to strive for moral greatness, for it alone made action worthwhile.

As someone who came to this country as a refugee from totalitarianism, I have a special feeling for what America can still mean to the world, and how a withdrawal of America from the world would deprive mankind of hope and purpose. This is why I pray that we will recapture the spirit that Teddy Roosevelt so well represented, and that once more a generation of Americans will be prepared to "enjoy and suffer much" and will strive mightily on frontiers that are set by our common purposes.

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