Now, for decades, we and the Soviets have lived under the threat of mutual assured destruction; if either resorted to the use of nuclear weapons, the other could retaliate and destroy the one who had started it.  Is there either logic or morality in believing that if one side threatens to kill tens of millions of our people, our only recourse is to threaten killing tens of millions of theirs?

I have approved a research program to find, if we can, a security shield that would destroy nuclear missiles before they reach their target.  It wouldn’t kill people, it would destroy weapons.  It wouldn’t militarize space, it would help demilitarize the arsenals of Earth.  It would render nuclear weapons obsolete.  We will meet with the Soviets, hoping that we can agree on a way to rid the world of the threat of nuclear destruction.

We strive for peace and security, heartened by the changes all around us.  Since the turn of the century, the number of democracies in the world has grown fourfold.  Human freedom is on the march, and nowhere more so than our own hemisphere.  Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.  People, worldwide, hunger for the right of self-determination, for those inalienable rights that make for human dignity and progress.

America must remain freedom’s staunchest friend, for freedom is our best ally.

And it is the world’s only hope, to conquer poverty and preserve peace.  Every blow we inflict against poverty will be a blow against its dark allies of oppression and war.  Every victory for human freedom will be a victory for world peace.

So we go forward today, a nation still mighty in its youth and powerful in its purpose.  With our alliances strengthened, with our economy leading the world to a new age of economic expansion, we look forward to a world rich in possibilities.  And all this because we have worked and acted together, not as members of political parties, but as Americans.

My friends, we live in a world that is lit by lightning.  So much is changing and will change, but so much endures, and transcends time.

History is a ribbon, always unfurling; history is a journey.  And as we continue our journey, we think of those who traveled before us.  We stand together again at the steps of this symbol of our democracy—­or we would have been standing at the steps if it hadn’t gotten so cold.  Now we are standing inside this symbol of our democracy.  Now we hear again the echoes of our past:  a general falls to his knees in the hard snow of Valley Forge; a lonely President paces the darkened halls, and ponders his struggle to preserve the Union; the men of the Alamo call out encouragement to each other; a settler pushes west and sings a song, and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air.