Statement on Transmitting the Annual National Security Strategy Report

Today I signed and forwarded to Congress the National Security Strategy Report for 1990. This report comes at a time when the international landscape is marked by change that is truly breathtaking in its character and pace. It is a time of great hope, a time when free peoples celebrate the march toward democracy that their commitment and steadfastness have helped bring about. Our national security strategy reflects these changes and joins in these hopes, but it is grounded in realism. We have arrived at a moment of historic opportunity, but continuing uncertainties and new dangers still threaten American interests and values. Today's opportunities have been created by our willingness to bear the burdens our security demands and to join in a common effort with others who share our values. Our strategy foresees many adaptations in how we go about ensuring our security, but we will not abandon the basis of our success.

This report outlines both continuities and changes in our national strategy. While addressing our strategic relationship with the Soviet Union as an inescapable priority, we will work toward a fuller integration of the Soviet Union into the broader community of nations. While contributing to the global balance in a way that only we can, we will make our military forces smaller, more agile, and better suited to likely contingencies. While keeping substantial nuclear and conventional forces in Europe as long as they are needed and wanted by our allies as part of the common defense, we will work for a new Europe, one truly whole and free. While welcoming the prospect of German unification, we join with the Government of the Federal Republic in expecting a united Germany to remain a full member of NATO, including its military structures. And while providing adequately for our defense, we will look to our economic well-being as the foundation of our long-term strength.

I look to this report to be the foundation for a productive, nonpartisan national dialog as we continue to develop and articulate a strategic approach that will take this nation and all who cherish freedom safely into the next century.