Nixon: on America's Example

``Western economic ideals produce growth and prosperity. Western political ideals produce liberty. The Third World yearns for both, but because the West has been better at sending money than at promoting its values the communists and now the Moslem fundamentalists rush to fill the void. In the years between now and 1999 the United States must lead the way in a campaign to seize the moral high ground from those who promise prosperity and fulfillment in the developing world and deliver poverty for the body and chains for the soul. ``If we have only twenty years before a reinvigorated Soviet Union turns its sights to renewed expansion, we have no time to lose. We must think boldly and act boldly. We must seek to shape the world; but we should not seek to remake the world in our image. We must recognize that a system which works for us may not work for others with different backgrounds. We must reject the fashionable but intellectually sterile doctrine of moral relativism. We deeply believe in our values. But one of the fundamental tenets of those values is that we will not try to impose them on others. Only by example and never by force will our values be extended to others.

``America was founded by individuals who sought religious freedom, who wanted the right to worship God in their own way and to look for meaning in life on their own terms. We must not lose sight of this animating principle of our country. We should not allow our competition with Moscow to degenerate into a contest over which side can create the most bombs, the tallest buildings, and the highest per-capita GNP. If material wealth is our only goal, we are no different from the communists.''

From ``1999: Victory Without War''