[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 172 (Wednesday, November 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H13210-H13213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY NICOLAS SARKOZY, PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH 
                                REPUBLIC

  (The following address was delivered in French, with a simultaneous 
translation in English.)
  President SARKOZY. Madam Speaker, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen 
of the United States Congress, I want to say firstly, friendship for 
France means first and foremost being true to one's friends, to one's 
values, to one's history and one's past. France is the friend of the 
United States of America.
  It is not simply the French President who says that. I am simply the 
expression, the voice of the people of France. Since the United States 
first appeared on the world scene, our two peoples, the French and the 
American people, have always been friends. And the hardship that both 
our peoples have endured simply steeled that friendship. We may have 
differences, we may disagree on things, we may even have arguments as 
in any family, but in times of difficulty, in times of hardship, one 
stands true to one's friends, one stands shoulder to shoulder with 
them, one supports them, and one helps them.
  In times of difficulty, in times of hardship, America and France have 
always stood side by side. They have always supported one another. They 
have helped one another. And each of us, America and France, has fought 
for each other's freedom.
  The United States and France remain true to the memory of their 
common history. Our duty is to remain true to the blood spilled by our 
children on both sides of the Atlantic in common battles. But the 
United States and France are not simply two nations that are true to 
the memory of what they accomplished together in the past. The United 
States and France are two nations that remain true to the same, to the 
one and the same ideals, who uphold the same principles, who believe in 
the same values.
  And I speak to you as I stand before the portraits of Washington and 
of Lafayette. Lafayette was the first to speak to both Chambers. What 
could possibly have brought together two men who were so different in 
terms of age and of origin, Lafayette and George Washington? It was 
their common values, their shared values, the same love of liberty and 
of justice. And when Lafayette joined George Washington, he said to 
him, ``I have come here to this land of America to learn and not to 
teach.'' He came from the Old World and he came to the New World and he 
said, ``I have come here to learn and not to teach.'' That was the new 
spirit and youth of the Old World coming to seek out the wisdom of the 
New World, to open here in America a new era for all of humankind.
  The American Dream, this American Dream, was from the very beginning, 
the very outset, a matter of putting into practice what the Old World 
had dreamt of without ever being able to build it and to accomplish it. 
From the very beginning, the American Dream meant proving to all men 
and women throughout the world that freedom, justice, human rights and 
democracy were not a utopia, but, quite the reverse, they were the most 
realistic policy there is and the most likely to improve the lot and 
fate of each and every one.
  To the millions of men and women who came from every country in the 
world and who, with their own hands, their intelligence and their 
hearts, built the greatest nation in the world, America did not say, 
``Come, and everything will be given to you.'' Rather, she said, 
``Come, and the only limits to what you will be able to achieve will be 
those of your own courage, your boldness and your talent.'' The America 
that we love throughout the world embodies this extraordinary ability 
to grant each and every person a second chance, another chance, because 
in America, failure is never the last word. There is always another 
chance. Here

[[Page H13211]]

in your country, on this soil, both the humblest and the most 
illustrious citizens alike know that nothing is owed to them and that 
everything has to be earned. That is what constitutes the moral value 
of America. America did not teach men the idea of freedom; she taught 
them how to practice it, how to practice freedom. And America fought 
for this freedom whenever she felt it to be threatened or jeopardized. 
And it was by watching America grow that men and women understood that 
freedom and liberty were possible, and it is that that gives you a 
special responsibility. What made America great was her ability to 
transform her own dream, the American Dream, into a source of hope for 
all of mankind.
  Ladies and gentlemen, the men and women of my generation heard their 
grandparents talk about how, in 1917, America saved France at a time 
when my country had reached the final limits of its strength, at a time 
when France was exhausted, had spent its strength in the most absurd 
and bloodiest of wars, and France was able to count upon the courage of 
American soldiers. And I have come to say to you on behalf of the 
French people that never, never will we forget that.
  The men and women of my generation heard their parents talk about how 
America returned in 1944 to free us from the horrifying tyranny that 
threatened to enslave us. And fathers in my country took their sons to 
see the vast cemeteries where, under thousands of white crosses so far 
from home, thousands of young American soldiers lay who had fallen not 
to defend their own freedom but the freedom of all others, who died far 
from their homes not to defend their own families and their own 
homeland but to defend humanity as a whole. That is why we love 
America.
  And the fathers took their sons to the beaches, the beaches where the 
young men of America had so heroically landed. And the fathers read to 
their sons the admirable letters of farewell that those soldiers, those 
20-year-old soldiers, had written to their families before the battle 
to say to them: ``We don't consider ourselves to be heroes. We want 
this war to be over. But however much dread we may feel, you can count 
on us.'' Before they landed, Eisenhower told them, and we have not 
forgotten in Europe these words: ``The eyes of the world are upon you, 
young men of America. The hopes and prayers of all liberty-loving 
people everywhere march with you.'' And the children of my generation, 
as they listened to their fathers, as they watched movies, as they read 
history books and the letters of your soldiers who died on our beaches 
in Normandy or Provence, as they visited the cemeteries where the Star-
Spangled Banner flies, the children of my generation have understood 
that these young 20-year-old Americans were true heroes to whom we owed 
the fact that we were free people and not slaves. America liberated us 
and this is an eternal debt we owe America.
  As President of the French Republic, my duty is to say to the people 
of America that you represent in its vast diversity, that France will 
never forget the sacrifice of your children. And to say to the families 
of those who did not return, those who did not come back, to those 
children who cried the loss of their fathers whom they had virtually 
had no time to know, that the gratitude of France is forever. On behalf 
of my generation that did not suffer under the war, on behalf of those 
children who will always remember, and to all the veterans present 
here, and in particular to the seven I was honored enough to decorate 
last night, one of whom, Senator Inouye, belongs to your Congress, I 
want to express the deep, sincere gratitude of the French people. And I 
want to tell you something, something important: Every time whenever an 
American soldier falls somewhere in the world, I think of what the 
American Army did for France. I think of them and I am sad, as one is 
saddened to lose a member of one's family.

  Ladies and gentlemen, that is more important than any disagreements 
that we may have or that we may have had or any disagreement which we 
may yet have. That is the bedrock of the friendship between France and 
the United States of America. The men and women in my generation 
remember the Marshall Plan that allowed their fathers to rebuild a 
devastated Europe. The men and women of my generation remember the Cold 
War, during which America again stood as the bulwark of the free world 
against the threat of a new tyranny. I remember the Berlin crisis and 
President Kennedy who unhesitatingly risked engaging the United States 
in the most destructive of wars so that Europe could preserve the 
freedom for which the American people had already sacrificed so much. 
To forget that would, for a man of my generation, be tantamount to 
self-denial. But my generation did not love America only because she 
had defended freedom. We also loved America because for us she embodied 
what was most audacious about the human adventure, the human 
enterprise, because America for us embodied the spirit of conquest. We 
loved America because for us America was a new frontier that was 
continuously being rolled back, a constantly renewed challenge to the 
inventiveness of the human spirit.
  My generation, without even coming to America, shared all of your 
dreams. And our imaginations were fueled by Hollywood. By the great 
conquest of the western territories. By Elvis Presley. You have often 
probably not heard his name quoted here, but from my generation he is 
universal. There was Duke Ellington, Hemingway, John Wayne, Charlton 
Heston, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth. But also Armstrong, Aldrin, 
Collins, who fulfilled mankind's oldest dream on the day when Americans 
walked on the Moon. That day America was universal and each one of us 
wanted to be part of this great adventure.
  What was most extraordinary for us was that through your literature, 
your cinema, your music, it seemed to us that America always seemed to 
emerge ever greater and stronger from the adversity and the challenges 
it faced. And it seemed to us that instead of causing America to engage 
in self-doubt, these difficulties only strengthened her belief in her 
values. What makes America strong is the strength of this ideal that is 
shared by all Americans and by all those who love her because they love 
freedom.
  And let me say this as I stand before you here in this Congress. 
America's strength is not only a material strength. It is first and 
foremost a moral strength, a spiritual strength. And no one expressed 
this better than a black pastor who asked just one thing of America: 
that she be true to the ideal in whose name he, he the grandson of a 
slave, felt so deeply American. That name was Martin Luther King. He 
made America a universal role model.
  The world still remembers his words, that not a single young 
Frenchman of my generation has forgotten, either, the words of Martin 
Luther King, words of love, words of dignity, words of justice. And 
these words, America heard, and as a result, America changed. And the 
men and women who had doubted America because they no longer recognized 
her began to love her once again.
  Fundamentally, what are those who love America asking of her if not 
to remain forever true to her founding values?
  Ladies and gentlemen, today as in the past, as we stand at the 
beginning of the 21st century, it is together that we must fight to 
defend and promote the values and ideals of freedom and democracy that 
men such as Washington and Lafayette coined and invented together.
  Together, united, we must fight against terror. On September 11, 
2001, all of France, horror-struck as we were, rallied to the American 
people. And the front-page headline of one of our major dailies read: 
We are all American on this 11th of September, 2001. And on that day, 
when you were mourning so many dead, never had America appeared to me 
as so great, so dignified, so strong. The terrorists had thought that 
they would weaken you, but they made you greater. And the people of 
America were admired worldwide for its courage. That is the truth. And 
from day one, France decided to participate shoulder to shoulder with 
you in the war in Afghanistan. And let me tell you solemnly today, 
France will remain engaged in Afghanistan for as long as it takes, 
because what is at stake in that country is the very future of our 
values and that of the Atlantic Alliance. Solemnly before you let me 
say, failure is not an option. Terrorism

[[Page H13212]]

will not prevail, for democracies are not entitled to be weak and 
because we, the free world, are not afraid of this new barbarism. And 
because of that, America can count on France in its battle on terror.
  And again it is together that we must fight against proliferation. 
Success in Libya and progress under way in North Korea show clearly 
that nuclear proliferation is not inevitable. And I say this as I stand 
before you, the prospect of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons is 
unacceptable for France. The Iranian people are a great people. The 
Iranian people who come from a great civilization deserve better than 
the toughened sanctions and growing isolation to which their leaders 
condemn it. We must persuade Iran to choose cooperation, dialogue and 
openness. And no one must doubt our determination. We will remain firm 
and we will engage in dialogue precisely because we have been able to 
remain firm.
  Together we must help the peoples of the Middle East to find the path 
that will lead them to peace and security. To the Israeli and 
Palestinian leaders, I wish to say this: Do not hesitate. Take whatever 
risks you need to take for peace. And do so now, because the status quo 
masks even greater dangers, that of delivering Palestinian society as a 
whole to the extremists that challenge in an unacceptable manner the 
very existence of Israel, that of playing into the hands of radical 
regimes that are exploiting the deadlock in the conflict in order to 
destabilize the region, that of fueling the propaganda of terrorists 
who want to pit Islam against the West. France wants security for 
Israel. It will not change its position, and it demands that there be a 
state for the Palestinians. And that is the only way forward for peace.
  And it is again together that we must help the Lebanese people affirm 
their independence, their sovereignty, their freedom, their democracy. 
No one is entitled to prevent Lebanon to live as a free country. What 
Lebanon needs today is a broad-based president elected by the Lebanese 
and in strict respect of its constitution. France will not accept 
anyone trying to subjugate the Lebanese people.
  Ladies and gentlemen, America feels that it has a vocation to inspire 
the world. America is the world's most powerful country, because for 
more than two centuries she has striven to uphold the ideals of 
democracy and freedom. And allow a friend of America to say this to 
her: This stated responsibility comes with duties, for France and for 
America, and the first of which is that of setting an example.
  Those who love this Nation, which, more than any other, has 
demonstrated the virtues of free enterprise, expect America to be the 
very first to denounce the abuses and the excesses of a financial 
capitalism that sets too great a store by speculation. They expect 
her to commit fully to the establishment of the necessary rules and 
safeguards. The America that I love is the one that encourages 
entrepreneurs, not speculators.

  Those who admire the Nation that has built the world's greatest 
economy and has never ceased trying to persuade the world of the 
advantages of free trade expect her to be the first to promote fair 
exchange rates. The yuan is already everybody's problem. The dollar 
cannot remain solely the problem of others. If we are not careful, 
monetary disarray could indeed morph into economic war. And we would 
all, all of us, be its victims.
  Those who love the country of wide open spaces, of national parks and 
protected nature reserves expect America to stand alongside Europe in 
leading the fight against global warming that threatens the destruction 
of our planet. I know that the American people and its cities and 
States are increasingly aware of the stakes and determined to act. 
Allow me to say, with all the friendship that I feel for America, that 
this fight is essential for the future of humanity, and we will not be 
able to achieve the results that we must achieve without America 
leading this fight for the safeguarding of our planet, of humankind, of 
the human species. We need America in order to protect our planet and 
its environment.
  Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to express one last conviction: Trust 
Europe.
  Our world is unstable. It is a dangerous world. And I state this as I 
stand before you, the United States of America needs a strong, 
determined Europe. The European Union, with the simplified treaty, is 
about to emerge from 10 years of discussion on its institutions and, 
therefore, 10 years of paralysis. Europe will soon have a stable 
president and a more powerful high representative for its foreign and 
security policy, and I want to explain to you that Europe must now 
reengage in the major construction of its military capacities.
  The aim and objective I am proposing to our partners is based on a 
simple observation, i.e., there are more crises than there are 
capabilities to cope with them. NATO cannot be everywhere. The European 
Union must be able to act as it did in the Balkans and in the Congo and 
as it will tomorrow in Sudan and Chad. And for that, Europeans must 
step up their efforts.
  My approach, I ask you to believe me, is not an ideological one. My 
approach is purely pragmatic. Having learned from history, the history 
I was recalling at the beginning of my statement, I want in the years 
to come for Europeans to have the means to shoulder a growing share of 
their defense. And I want to say these two sentences from the bottom of 
my heart so that each and every one of you should understand what I am 
referring to. Who could blame the United States for ensuring its own 
security? No one could. Who could blame me for wanting Europe to ensure 
more of its own security? No one. All our allies, to begin with the 
United States with whom we most often share the same interests and the 
same adversaries, have a strategic interest in ensuring that Europe be 
able to affirm and assert itself as a strong, credible security 
partner.
  At the same time, and with the same strength of belief, at the same 
time and likewise being familiar, very familiar with the political 
history of my country, I want to affirm my attachment to NATO. I say it 
here at the podium before this Congress, the more successful we are in 
establishing a European defense, the more France will be resolved to 
resume its full role in NATO.
  I would like France, a founding member of our Alliance and already 
one of its largest contributors, to assume its full role in the effort 
to renew NATO's instruments and means of action and, in this context, 
that it should allow its relations with the Alliance to evolve, just as 
European defense should grow and evolve. This is no time for 
theological quarrels. We do not have time on our side. We need to come 
up with pragmatic responses in order to make our security tools and 
instruments more effective and operational in the face of crises. The 
European Union and the alliance of NATO must march hand in hand. Our 
duty is to protect our fellow citizens, and we will protect them 
together, a European defense which is credible and strong within an 
alliance which is renewed.
  Ladies and gentlemen, in the long run, I want to say this: I want to 
be your friend, your ally, your partner. But I wish to be a friend who 
stands on his own two feet. I wish to be an independent ally, a free 
partner. Because these are the values that we share together. We need 
France to be stronger. I am determined to carry through with the 
reforms that my country has put off for all too long. I will not turn 
back. I will implement all of them, because France has turned back for 
all too long. My country has enormous assets. And I want, while 
respecting its very unique identity, to put my country in a position 
where it can win all the battles of globalization. I passionately love 
France, but I am lucid about the work that remains to be accomplished.
  It is this ambitious, lucid, farsighted France that I have come to 
present to you today, a France that comes out to meet America, to renew 
the covenant of friendship and alliance that Washington and Lafayette 
sealed in Yorktown.
  Together, ladies and gentlemen, let us be worthy of the example she 
set. Together, let us be equal to their ambition. Together, let us be 
true to their memories.
  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I say this to you on behalf of the French 
people: Long live the United States of America. Long live France. Long 
live French-American friendship.
  [Applause, the Members rising.]

[[Page H13213]]

  At 11 o'clock and 50 minutes a.m., His Excellency Nicolas Sarkozy, 
President of the French Republic, accompanied by the committee of 
escort, retired from the Hall of the House of Representatives.
  The Democratic Floor Manager escorted the invited guests from the 
Chamber in the following order:
  The Members of the President's Cabinet;
  The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

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