 Arrival at the White House for the State Dinner of the President of the Ivory Coast, 7th of June, 1983. President and Misesoufouette Buanyet, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it's a special pleasure for me to welcome our guest of honor this evening. During the 1980 campaign, I suggested that the United States should return to some of the basics of free enterprise, policies that would encourage individual responsibility, hard work, and investment. It's taken time, but we're at last overcoming the economic uncertainty that we inherited. Now, I have to admit I've always been confident that we would. I just kept telling myself it worked in Ivory Coast, didn't it? Seriously, though, President, your many successes haven't gone unnoticed here in the United States. Unlike many other countries, some of which are far richer in natural resources, you chose the high road of political and economic freedom. In doing so, you've made Ivory Coast a shining example to the rest of Africa and the world. Mr. President, your wisdom has been a guiding light for your people and a beacon of reason and modernization in the world arena. You are a leader who stresses dialogue as a means of solving even the most vexing problems. You advocate compromise over confrontation, conciliation over conflict. Your humane and democratic values reflect well on the people of Ivory Coast. During our discussions today, we touched on many mutual areas of concern, especially those dealing with the promotion of economic growth. The President has been forced to make tough decisions concerning government spending. Well, I can identify with that, and I deeply admire his far-sighted commitment to the long-range interest of his people. Today, we're confident that closeness and interaction between our two peoples can be nothing but a blessing for us all. So I ask you now to join me in a toast to President Popoye Wanyet and to the continued friendship between our two peoples that his visit attests to. Mr. President, Madam Rihanna, allow me to first thank you for the warmth of your welcome and for all the attention that we have been around since our arrival. I would also like to express our gratitude to you for your kind appreciation of the Ivory policy and for your willingness to develop our cooperation. One of your predecessors was able to say that history entrusted to the United States the role of being, or the witness of the failure of freedom, or the artisan of his triumph. I can only sign this beautiful formula. However, the scope of the commitment, the immense responsibility that was given to the nation, the most powerful in the world, could make me die during the crisis period, especially on your own land, on your own continent, as well as in Asia or the Middle East. Problems as worrying as delicate require all your vigilance and that of your team. Your tension should not be turned away from less recent African affairs. I therefore prove a great discomfort to be observed. Your determination to help Africa has found peace, to conquer a prosperity that seems increasingly distant. You say on February 13, 1980 that the United States have the obligation against their citizens and against the people of the world to never allow the destructor of freedom to rejuvenate the future course of human existence on this planet. There is no smaller opportunity for these enemies of freedom in the misery, in ignorance, the best food for their business and business. It is therefore important not to neglect any sector, political, economic, social, cultural, any country, any region, any society where it can be turned away, developed, destroyed, the conflicts that they face or that they maintain. And as it is better to prevent than to cure, it is also necessary to watch not to let this perpetuation of the situation of injustice favoring them. Certainly, you have Mr. President, constantly put the emphasis, the need for individuals as well as for nations to take their own problems, to assume their future and to leave the situation of assisted where some are sometimes completed. As you can see, we have always asked our constituents not to count above all on themselves. However, nothing can deny that there are individuals and nations handicapped who cannot leave without the help of a long-term help of their tragic situation. Nothing can deny that the world is in an absurd situation, to waste, in the arms of the most expensive, the sums to which the credits devoted to the development of its territory. This situation is aggravated by the permanent threat of insecurity that upsets the developing countries to very modest and insufficient resources to fight at once on two fronts. The development front and the security front, the first being too often sacrificed after the second. That is to say, that all developing countries are singularly in Africa. The most needed is peace in the stable of all harmonious development. You Americans of the North, you are better placed to appreciate the delays that the countries do not have of political stability and which become more and more serious threats for the peace of the world. The best factor of peace is the happiness of the people. Peace and happiness are inseparable. From the West, there is a way to help Africa efficiently. But this will be a shame if our production efforts are constantly ruined by the speculators. Africa represents only 2% in international exchanges. It is not enough for us but it is the Africa of today. It is not the one of tomorrow nor the one after tomorrow that we want to fight with the West from our own efforts. Our potentials are great. I would like to quote a work by Alexis de Coteville entitled of democracy in America. It is written in conclusion. I feel full of fear and full of hope. I see great words of competitiveness or restraint. I have been more and more in this belief that to be prosperous and honest is enough to the democratic nation to want it. It is by these words that I would like to end this brief discussion by affirming our determination, our trust to the democratic nation among which occupies the greatest place, the first. Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to raise your glass in honor of Mr. President Ronald Reagan of Madame Reagan to whom I present the most different and the best for the happiness and prosperity of the American people and our friends. Mr. President, Mrs. Reagan allow me first of all to thank you for your warm welcome and for all the thoughtfulness that has been shown us since our arrival here. I should also like to express to you our sincere gratitude for your kind words describing Ivory Coast policies and for having affirmed and developed our cooperation. One of your predecessors remarked that history has given the United States the role of being either a witness to the failure of freedom or the architect of its triumph. I can only subscribe to that fine thought. Yet the extent of your commitments, the immense responsibility they imply even for the most powerful nation in the world might have led me to fear that in a time of crisis when especially in your own hemisphere as well as in Asia and the Middle East problems as worrisome as they are sensitive require all of your vigilance and that of the team around you I might have feared that your attention might have been diverted from the seemingly less pressing problems of Africa. It was therefore most reassuring for me to note your determination to regain its peace and to achieve a prosperity that seems discouragingly ever more remote. You Mr. President said on February 13, 1980 that the United States has an obligation to its citizens and to the people of the world never to let those who would destroy freedom dictate the future course of human existence on our planet. There is no lack of opportunity for the enemies of freedom to find in poverty and ignorance the best fuel for their sinister designs. It is therefore important not to neglect any political, social, economic, educational or cultural sector any country, any region any society where there may develop and explode the kind of conflicts that the enemies of freedom provoke or sustain. And since prevention is better than cure one must also be certain not to allow the perpetuation of unjust situations that foster them. To be sure you Mr. President have consistently stressed the need for individuals like nations to take their problems into their own hands to assume responsibility for their own future and to cease to rely solely on assistance as some at times are all too pleased to do. In Ivory Coast we have always urged our fellow citizens to rely first and foremost on themselves. But no one can deny that there are individuals and there are nations that are handicapped and cannot emerge from their tragic situation without aid extended aid. Nor can anyone deny that the world today finds itself in the absurd situation of wasting money on ever more costly weapons sums of money compared to which the amounts of money that go for development assistance are pitifully small. And the situation is aggravated by the constant threat of insecurity which compels the developing nations that have modest indeed even inadequate resources to fight simultaneously on two fronts the development front and the security front with development too often having to be sacrificed for the sake of security. So what the developing countries and Africa in particular need most is peace in stability the precondition for any harmonious development. You, the American people are the best equipped to recognize the lack of progress of countries that do not enjoy political stability and which are becoming increasingly serious threats to world peace. The best factor for peace is the well-being, the happiness of peoples. Peace and well-being are inseparable. The West has the means to lend effective assistance to Africa but that aid will be for naught if our own production efforts are constantly ruined by speculators. To be sure Africa at present only accounts for two percent of world trade. That is not a great deal we recognize that but that is the Africa of today. It is not the Africa of tomorrow the Africa of the future the Africa we want to build with the West drawing on our own efforts. Our potential is great. I should like to quote here that masterpiece of Alexis de Tocqueville democracy in America in his conclusion he wrote I am filled with fears and filled with hopes I see great evils that can be avoided or contained and I am becoming ever more firm in my conviction than in order to be honest and prosperous the democratic nations have only to determine that they will be so. I could not conclude more fittingly Mr. President than by expressing our confidence in the democratic nations among which the United States Ladies and gentlemen I would ask you to please join with me in a toast to President Ronald Reagan and to Mrs. Reagan to whom I present my most respectful and heartfelt compliments and also to the happiness and to the prosperity of the great people of the United States and to the friendship between the United States and the Ivory Coast. Thank you. We've got to stop meeting like that Well I think I speak for everyone here in expressing our appreciation of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center these fine musicians have been making their mark since 1969 not alone in New York but national tour television and radio several successful albums Kennedy Center and since music stills the savage breast I could even suggest several other buildings in Washington that you might play in from time to time and also our thanks to Charles Wasworth for his direction his fine direction of these fine musicians and again thank all of you very much it's been an enchanted evening