State of the Union Address

r-reaching eventscommand a break with tradition. This is such a time.I say this not only because 1970 marks the beginning of a new decade inwhich America will celebrate its 200th birthday. I say it because newknowledge and hard experience argue persuasively that both our programs andour institutions in America need to be reformed.The moment has arrived to harness the vast energies and abundance of thisland to the creation of a new American experience, an experience richer anddeeper and more truly a reflection of the goodness and grace of the humanspirit.The seventies will be a time of new beginnings, a time of exploring both onthe earth and in the heavens, a time of discovery. But the time has alsocome for emphasis on developing better ways of managing what we have and ofcompleting what man's genius has begun but left unfinished.Our land, this land that is ours together, is a great and a good land. Itis also an unfinished land, and the challenge of perfecting it is thesummons of the seventies.It is in that spirit that I address myself to those great issues facing ourNation which are above partisanship.When we speak of America's priorities the first priority must always bepeace for America and the world.The major immediate goal of our foreign policy is to bring an end to thewar in Vietnam in a way that our generation will be remembered not so muchas the generation that suffered in war, but more for the fact that we hadthe courage and character to win the kind of a just peace that the nextgeneration was able to keep.We are making progress toward that goal.The prospects for peace are far greater today than they were a year ago. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.