society's progress with pride. Politicians who talk about democracy and freedom but provide neither eventually will feel the sting of public disapproval and the power of peoples yearning to live free.

Some nations still deny their basic rights to the people, and too many voices cry out for freedom. For example, the people of Cuba suffer oppression at the hands of a dictator who has not got the word, the lone holdout in an otherwise democratic hemisphere, a man who has not adapted to a world that has no use for totalitarian tyranny. Elsewhere, despots ignore the heartening fact that the rest of the world is embarked upon a new age of liberty.

The renewal of history also imposes an obligation to remain vigilant about new threats and old. We must expand our efforts to control nuclear proliferation. We must work to prevent the spread of chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them.

will flare sometimes into violence. We can never say with confidence where the next conflict may arise. And we cannot promise eternal peace not while demagogues peddle false promises to people hungry with hope; not while terrorists use our citizens as pawns and drug dealers destroy our peoples. We, as a result, must band together to overwhelm affronts to basic human dignity. It is no longer acceptable to shrug and say that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Let us put the law above the crude and cowardly practice of hostage-holding.

In a world defined by change, we must be as firm in principle as we are flexible in our response to changing international conditions. That is especially true today of Iraq. Six months after the adoption of Security Council resolution 687 (1991) and 688 (1991), Saddam continues to rebuild his weapons of mass destruction and to subject the Iraqi people to brutal repression. Saddam's contempt for UN resolutions was first demonstrated back in August 1990, and it continues even as I am speaking. His Government refuses to permit unconditional helicopter inspections, and right now is refusing to allow UN inspectors to leave inspected premises with documents relating to an Iraqi nuclear weapons program. It is the view of the United States that we must keep the UN sanctions in place as

long as he remains in power. This also shows that we cannot compromise for a moment in seeing that Iraq destroys all of its weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. And we will not compromise.

This is not to say-let me be clear on this point-that we should punish the Iraqi people. Let me repeat: our argument has never been with the people of Iraq. It was, and is, with a brutal dictator whose arrogance dishonors the Iraqi people. Security Council resolution 706 (1991) created a responsible mechanism for sending humanitarian relief to innocent Iraqi citizens. We must put that mechanism to work. We must not abandon our principled stand against Saddam's aggression. This cooperative effort has liberated Kuwait. Now it can lead to a just government in Iraq. And when it does-when it does the Iraqi people can look forward to better lives, free at home, free to engage in a world beyond their borders.

The resumption of history also permits the United Nations to resume the important business of promoting the values that I have discussed today. This body can serve as a vehicle through which willing parties can settle old disputes. In the months to come, I look forward to working with Secretary General Perez de Cuellar and his successor as we pursue peace in such diverse and trou

bled lands as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cyprus, El Salvador and Western Sahara. The United Nations can encourage free market development through its international lending and aid institutions. However, it should not dictate the particular forms of government that nations should adopt. It can, and should, encourage the values upon which the organization was founded. Together, we should insist that nations seeking our acceptance meet standards of human decency.

Where institutions of freedom have lain dormant, the United Nations can offer them new life. These institutions play a crucial role in our quest for a new world order, an order in which no nation must surrender one iota of its own sovereignty, an order characterized by the rule of law rather than the resort to force, the cooperative settlement of disputes rather than anarchy and bloodshed, and an unstinting belief in human rights.

Finally, you may wonder about America's role in the new world that I have described. Let

me

assure you, the United States has no intention of striving for a pax americana. However, we will remain engaged. We will not retreat and pull back into isolationism. We will offer friendship and leadership. In short, we seek a pax universalis, built upon shared responsibilities and aspirations.

To all assembled: We have an opportunity to spare our sons and daughters the sins and errors of the past. We can build a future more satisfying than any our world has ever known. The future lies undefined before us, full of promise, littered with peril. We can choose the kind of world we want: one blistered by the fires of war and subjected to the winds of coercion and chance,

or one made more peaceful by reflection and choice. Take this challenge seriously. Inspire future generations to praise and venerate you, to say, "On the ruins of conflict, these brave men and women built an era of peace and understanding. They inaugurated a new world order, an order worth preserving for the ages."

Good luck to each and every one of you.