Ronald Reagan: “The core of our foreign policy is our permanent partnership with our fellow democracies in the Atlantic alliance.”

We have not come this far through lack of strength or any weakness in our resolve, nor has there been anything inevitable about what we've achieved.

I am delighted that later today I'll have the opportunity to welcome President Gorbachev to the United States and extend to him the hospitality and good wishes of the American people.

But there's nothing I can say that would make the situation right.

We have walked a long way together to clear a path for peace.