State of the Union | Page 2

to
achieve this goal in a separate report on foreign policy, which I shall
submit to the Congress at a later date.
Today, let me describe the directions of our new policies.
We have based our policies on an evaluation of the world as it is, not as
it was 25 years ago at the conclusion of World War II. Many of the
policies which were necessary and fight then are obsolete today.
Then, because of America's overwhelming military and economic
strength, because of the weakness of other major free world powers and

the inability of scores of newly independent nations to defend, or even
govern, themselves, America had to assume the major burden for the
defense of freedom in the world.
In two wars, first in Korea and now in Vietnam, we furnished most of
the money, most of the arms, most of the men to help other nations
defend their freedom.
Today the great industrial nations of Europe, as well as Japan, have
regained their economic strength; and the nations of Latin
America--and many of the nations who acquired their freedom from
colonialism after World War II in Asia and Africa--have a new sense of
pride and dignity and a determination to assume the responsibility for
their own defense.
That is the basis of the doctrine I announced at Guam.1
Neither the defense nor the development of other nations can be
exclusively or primarily an American undertaking.
1 See 1969 volume, Item 279.
The nations of each part of the world should assume the primary
responsibility for their own well-being; and they themselves should
determine the terms of that well-being.
We shall be faithful to our treaty commitments, but we shall reduce our
involvement and our presence in other nations' affairs.
To insist that other nations play a role is not a retreat from
responsibility; it is a sharing of responsibility.
The result of this new policy has been not to weaken our alliances, but
to give them new life, new strength, a new sense of common purpose.
Relations with our European allies are once again strong and healthy,
based on mutual consultation and mutual responsibility.
We have initiated a new approach to Latin America in which we deal
with those nations as partners rather than patrons.
The new partnership concept has been welcomed in Asia. We have
developed an historic new basis for Japanese-American friendship and
cooperation, which is the linchpin for peace in the Pacific.
If we are to have peace in the last third of the century, a major factor
will be the development of a new relationship between the United
States and the Soviet Union.
I would not underestimate our differences, but we are moving with
precision and purpose from an era of confrontation to an era of

negotiation.
Our negotiations on strategic arms limitations and in other areas will
have far greater chance for success if both sides enter them motivated
by mutual self-interest rather than naive sentimentality.
It is with this same spirit that we have resumed discussions with
Communist China in our talks at Warsaw.
Our concern in our relations with both these nations is to avoid a
catastrophic collision and to build a solid basis for peaceful settlement
of our differences.
I would be the last to suggest that the road to peace is not difficult and
dangerous, but I believe our new policies have contributed to the
prospect that America may have the best chance since World War II to
enjoy a generation of uninterrupted peace. And that chance will be
enormously increased if we continue to have a relationship between
Congress and the Executive in which, despite differences in detail,
where the security of America and the peace of mankind are concerned,
we act not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Americans.
As we move into the decade of the seventies, we have the greatest
opportunity for progress at home of any people in world history.
Our gross national product will increase by $500 billion in the next 10
years. This increase alone is greater than the entire growth of the
American economy from 1790 to 1950.
The critical question is not whether we will grow, but how we will use
that growth.
The decade of the sixties was also a period of great growth
economically. But in that same 10-year period we witnessed the
greatest growth of crime, the greatest increase in inflation, the greatest
social unrest in America in 100 years. Never has a nation seemed to
have had more and enjoyed it less.
At heart, the issue is the effectiveness of government.
Ours has become--as it continues to be, and should remain--a society of
large expectations. Government helped to generate these expectations.
It undertook to meet them. Yet, increasingly, it proved unable to do so.
As