Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
SALT II does not rely on trust; it will be verifiable. We have very
sophisticated, proven means, including our satellites, to determine for
ourselves whether or not the Soviet Union is meeting its treaty
obligations. I will sign no agreement which cannot be verified.
The American nuclear deterrent will remain strong after SALT II. For
example, just one of our relatively invulnerable Poseidon
submarines--comprising less than 2 percent of our total nuclear force of
submarines, aircraft, and land-based missiles--carries enough warheads to
destroy every large- and medium-sized city in the Soviet Union. Our
deterrent is overwhelming, and I will sign no agreement unless our deterrent
force will remain overwhelming.
A SALT agreement, of course, cannot substitute for wise diplomacy or a
strong defense, nor will it end the danger of nuclear war. But it will
certainly reduce that danger. It will strengthen our efforts to ban nuclear
tests and to stop the spread of atomic weapons to other nations. And it can
begin the process of negotiating new agreements which will further limit
nuclear arms.
The path of arms control, backed by a strong defense, the path our Nation
and every President has walked for 30 years, can lead to a world of law and
of international negotiation and consultation in which all peoples might
live in peace. In this year 1979, nothing is more important than that the
Congress and the people of the United States resolve to continue with me on
that path of nuclear arms control and world peace. This is paramount.
I've outlined some of the changes that have transformed the world and which
are continuing as we meet here tonight. But we in America need not fear
change. The values on which our Nation was founded: individual liberty,
self-determination, the potential for human fulfillment in freedom, all of
these endure. We find these democratic principles praised, even in books
smuggled out of totalitarian nations and on wallposters in lands which we
thought were closed to our influence. Our country has regained its special
place of leadership in the worldwide struggle for human rights. And that is
a commitment that we must keep at home, as well as abroad.
The civil rights revolution freed all Americans, black and white, but its
full promise still remains unrealized. I will continue to work with all my
strength for equal opportunity for all Americans--and for affirmative
action for those who carry the extra burden of past denial of equal
opportunity.
We remain committed to improving our labor laws to better protect the
rights of American workers. And our Nation must make it clear that the
legal rights of women as citizens are guaranteed under the laws of our land
by ratifying the equal rights amendment.
As long as I'm President, at home and around the world America's examples
and America's influence will be marshaled to advance the cause of human
rights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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