[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 24 (Monday, June 21, 1993)]
[Pages 1087-1088]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Members of the Diplomatic Corps

 June 15, 1993

    Thank you very much. I want to welcome all of you again to the White 
House, thank the Marine orchestra for providing the wonderful music, and 
tell you how very glad that Hillary and I are that you could all join us 
this evening to renew old friendships, begin new ones, and celebrate a 
new and challenging era in world affairs. I'm especially glad that we 
could be joined this evening by the Vice President and Mrs. Gore, and by 
Secretary of State and Mrs. Christopher, and by the dean of our 
diplomatic corps, Ambassador and Mrs. Pondi. The gathering of the 
Washington Diplomatic Corps offers us a good opportunity to become 
better acquainted and an opportunity to reflect on the state of the 
world we share.
    Standing here, we are within sight, just behind us, of the 
magnificent memorial to our third President and our first Secretary of 
State, Thomas Jefferson. He acutely understood the value of diplomacy to 
the United States. He also is the embodiment of our eternal quest for 
democracy. His words extolling democracy and human dignity still 
resonate in the hearts of all Americans and of people around the world.
    None of us here this evening can say we represent a nation that has 
arrived at a perfect solution for the problems of human governance. 
There will never be a perfect solution for the problems of people, who 
themselves are not perfect. But among the many clear facts of the era we 
all share is the remarkable worldwide movement toward democracy, from 
Russia to southern Africa, from Eastern Europe to Central and South 
America. There is great hope today that governments all around the 
world, beginning with our own, are becoming increasingly democratic and 
responsive to those whom they govern. And that is a hope I share. This 
time of hope is also clearly a time of urgency for the work we will do 
and must do in the months and years ahead.
    Today, billions of people look to us, indeed challenge us, to make 
progress against one of mankind's oldest enemies: poverty, disease, 
ignorance, bigotry, or armed strife, and perhaps all of them at once. 
And they look to us as well to make progress against our new challenges, 
such as the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the degradation of 
the global environment. The urgency of these problems is evident, and 
the complexity and difficulty of them is truly daunting. While none of 
us has absolute power to make these problems disappear, each of us has 
far too much power to pretend that we can do

[[Page 1088]]

nothing or that the problems do not exist. And while each of us here may 
hold only a piece or two of these troubling puzzles, surely we must 
remember that together we and the nations we represent hold all the 
pieces of the puzzles. So this evening, let us talk. And then tomorrow 
and the months ahead, let us try, for ultimately that is why our nations 
have sent us here.
    I look forward to working with you and the great nations you 
represent. I thank you again for joining us tonight. And I trust that 
all of us will always remember that we have been given great obligations 
and great opportunities and that together we can make a difference for 
the better.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:01 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House.