The President's Trip to Latin America and Africa Remarks on Departure From the White House.

THE VICE PRESIDENT. Mr. President and Rosalynn:

In our complete commitment to the success of this journey, we've decided to send with the President a mature adviser on foreign affairs, and I'm pleased to announce that we've been successful in our plans. Mr. Zbig Brzezinski, who is today 50 years old, carries with him all of those years and all of that experience and will bring that new talent and background to bear to assure the success of this mission.

Mr. President, in your commencement address at Notre Dame last year, you said that American foreign policy is based on an historical vision of America's role; derived from a larger view of global change; rooted in our moral values, which never change; reinforced by our military wealth and our material power; designed to serve mankind.

You pledged in your Notre Dame address that we will cooperate more closely with the newly influential countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. You said we need their friendship and cooperation in a common effort as the structure of the world changes.

The strength of your commitment to these objectives is demonstrated clearly by your travel this week to Venezuela, Brazil, Nigeria, and Liberia. Your journey underlines our friendship with these nations and the determination of the United States to work with them.

Mr. President and Rosalynn, we know your trip will be a success. You take with you the admiration and love of the American people, and we look forward to having you back with us.

THE PRESIDENT. When the Vice President was announcing that I was taking my .senior foreign affairs adviser with me, I thought surely he was going to introduce Amy, who's also going on the trip. [Laughter]

Yesterday was Cy Vance's birthday. And we've all formed a very close and harmonious relationship as we've studied how our Nation should deal with foreign countries in the crucial element of preparing American people for the years ahead.

Today I leave on a journey which will reflect our own Nation's ability to deal in a constructive and a creative way with the diversity of the world in which we live. At every stop on this trip, our guiding principles will be economic justice, human rights, fair relations among nations, and a search for a peaceful resolution of the world's conflicts and potential conflicts.

We have special and longlasting ties with both Latin America and with Africa. Many of our people trace their roots to these two continents, and we share with these nations a history of freedom won through combat from colonial domination and rule.

The countries that I will visit exemplify the profound changes that are taking place and the growing importance of our relations with new leaders of the developing world. In Venezuela, in Brazil, in Nigeria, in Liberia we will attempt to strengthen friendships to share mutual interests and mutual opportunities and to learn from the leaders of these very influential nations.

By the end of this century, 80 percent of all the world's people will live in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Rapidly developing countries such as the four that I will visit will play a larger and larger part in our own lives here in the United States. And in determining our shared human fate in this world of change, we will maintain our greatness only if we are able to change, while remaining true to the principles that have made our Nation strong.

I set out on this journey to explain our own American values proudly and clearly to our friends and to understand their opinions and their concerns. My greatest ambition will be to represent the people of my Nation truly and well. And that ambition, if realized, will ensure the success of my mission.

Thank you very much.