Some Americans, especially during this election season, are tempted to overstate their role in ending the Cold War. (Applause) But still it would be wrong and dangerous for Americans to underestimate the part our country did play in the victory that was won.
It would be wrong because there is still great work to be done. The Cold War is won, but democracy's victory is far from assured. It would be dangerous for the world is still full of perils and of nations that could easily drift toward violence. If this work is left half finished, then we, our children, and multitudes abroad who now stand at the threshold of a nev life will suffer a crushing disappointment and live in a more dangerous world.
One of the reasons I'm running for President is that I believe Americans must help see that this work continues. We cannot turn away now and rest on our laurels. Our national interests oblige us to join in building a just, enduring and ever more democratic peace in the world. (Applause)
This is not the first time that our nation, victorious in a foreign struggle has faced such challenges. In the aftermath of World War I, Woodrow Wilson argued that we had to make the world a safer place and that it should be made more democratic. But the isolationists prevailed and it took the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt and the sacrifices of the American people in the second World War to protect the world's democracy from the aggression that followed from our isolationism after World War I. After World War II it fell to Harry Truman to shape a post-war world. We led in the creation of the United Nations and aid to Greece and Turkey, and the Marshall Plan and the policy of containment. And this time America joined behind a pro-democracy foreign policy.
Throughout the Cold War our nation's leaders carried on this tradition of supporting democracy around the world. From the gates of the Berlin Wall, John Kennedy reaffirmed America's commitment to liberty around the world. Senator Henry Jackson gave strength and hope to those seeking to escape tyranny behind the Iron Curtain. President Jimmy Carter challenged dictators of the left and the right when finally he put human rights on America's and the world's agenda. (Applause)
But to be fair, Republicans also played a very important
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