When you're talking with a person at this level of the government, at the very highest level, I think you have to be very discreet because he, President Clinton, is very aware that anything he says publicly can have a profound impact on American politics and on world politics.

The U.S has acquired reservoirs of goodwill around the globe over many years. But it is clear - from polling data and ample anecdotal evidence - that America is losing its allure in much of the world.

So much of our attention is trained on the Middle East these days, but we cannot ignore East Asia.

A likely source for terrorists seeking to buy or steal nuclear materials is the former Soviet Union.

For decades the American people have had an addiction to oil and gas.

Our democracy is not a product but a continual process. It is preserved not by monuments but deeds. Sometimes it needs refining; sometimes it needs amending; sometimes it needs defending. Always, it needs improving.

This nation is never finished. It has to be re-created in each generation.