WESTERN PETROLEUM MARKETERS ASSOCIATION CONVENTION AND TRADE SHOW
MGM GRAND HOTEL, LAS VEGAS, NV. FEB. 22, 1995

I’m delighted with what I see happening in the House. In these first 50 days — well, when I was in Congress, we didn’t even meet for the first 50 days.

As a result of the end of the Cold War, I think we’ve fallen into the trap of assuming there’s nothing out there to worry about.

The last couple of elections, we’ve taken our concerns [about foreign policy] and set them aside. I think this is a big mistake.

Misperception #1: the end of the Cold War was preordained. That if we hadn’t done what we’d done over the last 50 years, the outcome would have been the same. I think that’s a lot of hogwash. I think we won the Cold War because the United States was determined to organize the democracies of the world.

Russians look to Ronald Reagan as the father of Perestroika.

Misperception #2: If the U.S. was responsible for the winning of the Cold War, now it’s time for someone else to take over. Let somebody else take on the leadership — one of the other nations that has benefited from the peace and prosperity that were provided for the last 50 years. There isn’t anybody who could do it. Nobody else has the respect and moral leadership.

Misperception #3: No problem. What could we possibly have to worry about? The Cold War is gone. The Soviet threat is gone. Global thermonuclear war danger is gone. We may lose sight of how dangerous the world actually is.

I think the real crisis in the second Russian Revolution is still ahead of us. Taking apart the largest nation in the world takes a very long time. For us to expect you can take apart something as big as the former Soviet Union at the end of the 20th century and expect it to be smooth is a mistake.

There are some very important things going on around the world that no one is paying attention to because of the O.J. Simpson trial.

The Russians still have 30,000 to 40,000 nuclear weapons. They are the only nation in the world who could destroy the U.S. within a number of hours.

We ought to spend a lot more time thinking about how we can consolidate our position in Central and Eastern Europe. We need to make Poland, Czechoslovakia part of the Western economic community. Realize our efforts on the inside of Russia are limited and make close ties to surrounding nations. Don’t bet the farm on Boris Yeltsin.

Be sure about what we stand for and don’t change our position. It is absolutely essential that we don’t dismantle our own military. We’re making the same mistakes we’ve made before. If you look at these cycles, we’ve never gotten it right.

It takes nine years to build a modern aircraft carrier. That’s twice as long as our involvement in World War II.

The decisions we make today will reflect our military 10 or 15 years from now.