64. Editorial Note
On January 19, 1978, at 9 p.m., President Jimmy Carter delivered his State of the Union address before both Houses of Congress. His remarks were broadcast live on radio and television. After an introduction by Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, the President devoted the first portion of his address to domestic items, including the establishment of a Department of Education and civil service reform, before emphasizing the main themes of his administration’s foreign policy:
“In our foreign policy, the separation of people from government has been in the past a source of weakness and error. In a democratic system like ours, foreign policy decisions must be able to stand the test of public examination and public debate. If we make a mistake in this administration, it will be on the side of frankness and openness with the American people.
“In our modern world, when the deaths of literally millions of people can result from a few terrifying seconds of destruction, the path of national strength and security is identical to the path of peace.
“Tonight, I am happy to report that because we are strong, our Nation is at peace with the world.
“We are a confident nation. We’ve restored a moral basis for our foreign policy. The very heart of our identity as a nation is our firm commitment to human rights.
“We stand for human rights because we believe that government has as a purpose to promote the well-being of its citizens. This is true in our domestic policy; it’s also true in our foreign policy. The world must know that in support of human rights, the United States will stand firm.
“We expect no quick or easy results, but there has been significant movement toward greater freedom and humanity in several parts of the world.
“Thousands of political prisoners have been freed. The leaders of the world—even our ideological adversaries—now see that their attitude toward fundamental human rights affects their standing in the international community, and it affects their relations with the United States.
“To serve the interests of every American, our foreign policy has three major goals.
“The first and prime concern is and will remain the security of our country.
“Security is based on our national will, and security is based on the strength of our Armed Forces. We have the will, and militarily we are very strong.
[Page 307]“Security also comes through the strength of our alliances. We have reconfirmed our commitment to the defense of Europe, and this year we will demonstrate that commitment by further modernizing and strengthening our military capabilities there.
“Security can also be enhanced by agreements with potential adversaries which reduce the threat of nuclear disaster while maintaining our own relative strategic capability.
“In areas of peaceful competition with the Soviet Union, we will continue to more than hold our own.
“At the same time, we are negotiating with quiet confidence, without haste, with careful determination, to ease the tensions between us and to ensure greater stability and security.
“The strategic arms limitation talks have been long and difficult. We want a mutual limit on both the quality and the quantity of the giant nuclear arsenals of both nations, and then we want actual reductions in strategic arms as a major step toward the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.
“If these talks result in an agreement this year—and I trust they will—I pledge to you that the agreement will maintain and enhance the stability of the world’s strategic balance and the security of the United States.
“For 30 years, concerted but unsuccessful efforts have been made to ban the testing of atomic explosives—both military weapons and peaceful nuclear devices.
“We are hard at work with Great Britain and the Soviet Union on an agreement which will stop testing and will protect our national security and provide for adequate verification of compliance. We are now making, I believe, good progress toward this comprehensive ban on nuclear explosions.
“We are also working vigorously to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons among the nations of the world which do not now have them and to reduce the deadly global traffic in conventional arms sales. Our stand for peace is suspect if we are also the principal arms merchant of the world. So, we’ve decided to cut down our arms transfers abroad on a year-by-year basis and to work with other major arms exporters to encourage their similar constraint.
“Every American has a stake in our second major goal—a world at peace. In a nuclear age, each of us is threatened when peace is not secured everywhere. We are trying to promote harmony in those parts of the world where major differences exist among other nations and threaten international peace.
“In the Middle East, we are contributing our good offices to maintain the momentum of the current negotiations and to keep open the [Page 308] lines of communication among the Middle Eastern leaders. The whole world has a great stake in the success of these efforts. This is a precious opportunity for a historic settlement of a longstanding conflict—an opportunity which may never come again in our lifetime.
“Our role has been difficult and sometimes thankless and controversial. But it has been constructive and it has been necessary, and it will continue.
“Our third major foreign policy goal is one that touches the life of every American citizen every day—world economic growth and stability.
“This requires strong economic performance by the industrialized democracies like ourselves and progress in resolving the global energy crisis. Last fall, with the help of others, we succeeded in our vigorous efforts to maintain the stability of the price of oil. But as many foreign leaders have emphasized to me personally and, I am sure, to you, the greatest future contribution that America can make to the world economy would be an effective energy conservation program here at home. We will not hesitate to take the actions needed to protect the integrity of the American dollar.
“We are trying to develop a more just international system. And in this spirit, we are supporting the struggle for human development in Africa, in Asia, and in Latin America.
“Finally, the world is watching to see how we act on one of our most important and controversial items of business—approval of the Panama Canal treaties. The treaties now before the Senate are the result of the work of four administrations—two Democratic, two Republican.
“They guarantee that the canal will be open always for unrestricted use by the ships of the world. Our ships have the right to go to the head of the line for priority of passage in times of emergency or need. We retain the permanent right to defend the canal with our own military forces, if necessary, to guarantee its openness and its neutrality.
“The treaties are to the clear advantage of ourselves, the Panamanians, and the other users of the canal. Ratifying the Panama Canal treaties will demonstrate our good faith to the world, discourage the spread of hostile ideologies in this hemisphere, and directly contribute to the economic well-being and the security of the United States.”
The President then acknowledged the applause from the audience before referencing two moments that had taken place during his recent trip to the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe that also “confirmed the final aims” of U.S. foreign policy:
“One was in a little village in India, where I met a people as passionately attached to their rights and liberties as we are, but whose chil [Page 309] dren have a far smaller chance for good health or food or education or human fulfillment than a child born in this country.
“The other moment was in Warsaw, capital of a nation twice devastated by war in this century. There, people have rebuilt the city which war’s destruction took from them. But what was new only emphasized clearly what was lost.
“What I saw in those two places crystallized for me the purposes of our own Nation’s policy: to ensure economic justice, to advance human rights, to resolve conflicts without violence, and to proclaim in our great democracy our constant faith in the liberty and dignity of human beings everywhere.” (Public Papers: Carter, 1978, Book I, pages 95–97)
The full text of the President’s State of the Union address is ibid., pages 90–98.