 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, and Mr. Brighton. Prime Minister Thatcher, on behalf of the American people, Nancy and I extend to you and your family a warm welcome to the United States. Your visit here renews the personal friendship we began in your country just before you took office. Today, as we meet in Washington at the start of my administration, we also renew the friendship and alliance of our people. Great Britain and the United States are kindred nations of like-minded people and must face their test together. We are bound by common language and linked in history. We share laws and literature, blood, and moral fiber. The responsibility for freedom is ours to share. When we talked in London just over two years ago, when neither of us was in office, I was impressed by the similar challenges our countries faced by your determination to meet those challenges. You have said that we enter into a decade fraught with danger, and so we have. But the decade will be less dangerous if the West maintains the strength required for peace. And in achieving that goal, there is one element that goes without question. Britain and America will stand side by side. Outside Cambridge, curving rows of simple white markers testify to a time when peace was lost, and Britons and Americans united to turn back threats to freedom. Our challenge today is to ensure that belligerence is not attempted again by the false perceptions of weakness. So long as our adversaries continue to arm themselves at a pace far beyond the needs of defense, so the free world must do whatever is necessary to safeguard its own security. A stronger, more vigilant NATO must be the background of that security and of our effort for equitable arms control. The Atlantic Alliance will continue to be the steadfast center of our mutual security. But we're also both concerned with the totality of the East-West relationship. The Soviet invasion in Afghanistan was a brutal invasion. You, Prime Minister, took a lead in rallying world opinion against it, and for that, we commend you. The tension in Poland commands the attention of the world. Clearly, the Polish people must be allowed to work out their own solutions to their problems. Outside intervention there would affect profoundly and in the long term, the entire range of East-West ties. There are problems in other parts of the world, such as regions of Africa and Central America, where Anglo-American cooperation is key to the success of Western efforts to find solutions. Americans are grateful for British efforts to bring the American prisoners home from Iran. We remember and are grateful for the support you gave us when you visited here a little more than a year ago. We remember your words of encouragement. They gave us heart. Together, we will work to continue to confront the scourge of international terrorism. Finally, our two nations know that there is no true security unless there is economic stability. We have both suffered from substantial economic difficulties. They might be different in their complexities and require appropriately different solutions, but we know that we share one basic commitment. We believe that our solutions lie within the people and not the state. We are committed to unleashing the natural power of the individual to produce more and to make a better life for all. We believe that people will stay free when enterprise remains free. And we believe that there are no insurmountable problems when we let individuals make decisions outside the restricting confines of government. Prime Minister Thatcher, I look forward to our discussions, to the pleasure of renewing our friendship and the opportunity to fortify the commitment between our countries. On behalf of all Americans, I welcome you and your family to the United States. Mr. President, I counted a double joy that I'm once again in the United States and that I'm being greeted here by you, Mr. President, newly in office after a splendid victory, but long since, for me, a trusted friend. Your warm welcome and this deeply moving ceremony will strike a chord in the hearts of British people everywhere. Mr. President, these are not easy times in which to assume and to bear the responsibilities of national and international leadership. The problems are many. The danger's real. The decision's difficult. Indeed, weaker spirits might even be tempted to give way to gloom, but others, like you, Mr. President, are stirred by the challenge. And that's why I value so greatly the opportunity to come to Washington, to talk with you and to discuss the way ahead on so many of the problems of which you've spoken this morning. We start from a common basis of understanding. For generations, our two countries have cherished the same ideals. We've defended the same causes. We've valued the same friendships, and together, we've faced the same dangers. Today, once again, our sense of common purpose and common resolution is being tested. It will not be found wanting. The message I've brought across the Atlantic is that we in Britain stand with you. America's successes will be our successes. Your problems will be our problems, and when you look for friends, we will be there. Mr. President, the natural bond of interest between our two countries is strengthened by the common approach which you and I have to our national problems. You have mentioned some of the relevant things. We're both trying to set free the energies of our people. We're both determined to sweep away the restrictions that hold back enterprise. We both place our faith, not so much in economic theory, but in the resourcefulness and the decency of ordinary people. Mr. President, you've spoken of a time for renewal. If we are to succeed in the battle of ideas, if we're to hold fast and extend the frontiers of freedom, we must first proclaim the truth that makes men free. We must have the courage to reassert our traditional values and the resolve to prevail against those who deny our ideals and threaten our way of life. You, Mr. President, have understood the challenge. You've understood the need for leadership. In Britain, you will find a ready response, an ally, valiant, staunch, and true. I just have a few both of us, but I also want to say that due to the range of the meetings with the Prime Minister yet to go to, there'll be no time for any questions. It's both appropriate and timely, I think the Prime Minister Thatcher should be the first West European leader to visit here in the new administration. Our deep ties and perceptions we share give us much to talk about. Together, we're confronting an extremely grave international situation we do so with determination and optimism. We're both committed to safeguarding fundamental Western interests worldwide, including Europe, the Persian Gulf, Southwest Asia, and Central America. Our partnership in NATO is a vital part of that effort. We're determined to consult closely with each other and with the rest of our allies on all matters involving our common security. And in that connection, we affirmed our support for the alliance's decision of December 1979 to modernize long range theater nuclear forces and to pursue arms control efforts at the same time in parallel. We've also noted the Soviet proposal for a summit meeting. We believe this proposal needs to be carefully studied and we will be consulting closely on this matter. For our part, we certainly have an interest in pursuing serious, constructive dialogue with the Soviets on those issues which divide us. And again, let me say, Madam Prime Minister, we're just delighted to have you here with us. Mr. President, friends, may I just add one or two things to what the President has said? We're very sensible in Britain of the honor you do as Mr. President by asking us to make the first official visit of head of government to see you here. And we have indeed taken advantage of the opportunity afforded us to discuss many things which will be extremely important in the coming months. The President and I had a chat for some time and then were joined by the Vice President and the foreign secretaries when we discussed many of the wider issues the world over. Of course, we take the same view in the United States and Britain that our first duty to freedom is to defend our own and our second duty is to try somehow to enlarge the frontiers of freedom so that other nations might have the right to choose it. It is indeed a very difficult time the world over and we have, of course, discussed the many problems as the President said, including President Brezhnev's recent speech, the problems in Africa, the problems in Middle East and the problems in Central and Southern America. I really regard it as the beginning of a process of consultation. We shall both of us be going to a number of summit meetings this year. It is absolutely vital that we coordinate our efforts and decide upon a common line to those many problems that will face us. Mr. President, thank you very much for the wonderful welcome you've given us. Thank you for giving us so much time and for talking in so much detail about the things which concern us both, which concern our peoples and which concern the peoples in the world everywhere. And I think if I may, can I just end on a note of optimism? Yes, there are enormous problems. Yes, there have always been enormous problems but I believe together we have the capacity to solve some of them and those which we do not solve, I believe we can improve so we can set them on their way to a solution in the end. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.