Well, on the American side, every new administration has to cut its teeth in a crisis, because before a crisis, you don't really know what your various subordinates are thinking under stress.

The greatest need of the contemporary international system is an agreed concept of order.

I want to thank you for stopping the applause. It is impossible for me to look humble for any period of time.

Americans believe that you can alter people by conversion, and that everybody in the world is a potential American. The Chinese also believe that their values are universal, but they do not believe that you can convert to becoming a Chinese unless you are born into it.

The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions.

A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.

Let me make my point about Vietnam. When the Nixon initiation came into office, there were 550,000 Americans in combat. And ending the war was not a question of turning off a television channel. And so, debating on how we got there and what judgments were made was not going to help us.