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Our new course of partnership in the world can only be steered with the sustained understanding of the American people.
With our allies and friends, first of all, we are deepening a partnership that provides the dignity and the stimulus of an increased role.
To those who have been our adversaries we offer a partnership on the paramount world interest-to rid the earth of the scourge of war.
For all nations we visualize a partnership that will make this planet better place to live.
And for the American people we seek a partnership of purpose.
Just as America will listen more to others abroad, so must Americans listen more to each other at home. We have a responsibility to debate the means of achieving our foreign policy goals. But these turbulent years have taught us not so much that we must know the right answers, but that we should ask the right questions. We, therefore, have an even greater responsibility to discuss the goals themselves and, together, understand the new character of America's ivolvement in the world.
This partnership at home must include the advice and support of the Congress. Charged with constitutional responsibilities in foreign policy, the Congress can give perspective to the national debate and serve as a bridge between the Executive and the people.
Our new direction abroad and our new approach at home are parts of a whole. Both rest on the belief that decisions are made better when they are made by those most directly concerned. At home as well as abroad, we seek to distribute responsibilities more widely, so that new partnerships flourish in which all contribute their ideas as well as their energies.
The essence of any kind of partnership is mutual respect.
We will build that mutual respect with our friends, without dominating them or abandoning them.
We will strive for that mutual respect with our adversaries, without compromising our principles or weakening our resolve.
And we will dedicate ourselves to that mutual respect among our own people, without stifling dissent or losing our capacity for decisive action.
In America this calls for tolerance that leads to understanding, not for sentimentality that clouds perceptions. It means as well that compassion is a more profound guide than righteousness. Leaders and the public alike must pursue their goals with a sense of interdependence.
Such qualities will enable us to bring Americans together and, in so doing, help to bring the world together.
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