🗽 America, Prepared for Peace Pt 1 – Veterans of Foreign Wars – Ronald Reagan 1984 * PITD

America, Prepared for Peace Pt 1 – Veterans of Foreign Wars – #RonaldReagan 1984 * PITD
August 24, 1984 (Remarks at the National Convention) Excerpt
For 85 years, the VFW has stood united in support of the values which have made our Republic great, and today you're doing it better than ever.
Four years ago, right here in Chicago, I stood before your convention, and when you think back to 1980, it's hard to forget the mess America was in, hard to forget the foolish talk of a malaise, the unfairness of runaway price increases, 21 1/2-percent interest rates, weakened defenses, Americans held hostage, and the loss of respect for our nation abroad. It seemed that we woke up every morning wondering what new humiliation our country had suffered overseas, what disappointing economic news lay waiting for us on the front page.
We knew we couldn't continue on that road. We knew we had to change course and get America back on her feet. And we knew that peace and freedom could not be protected without cost and commitment, without perseverance and courage.
One cannot sit in the Oval Office without realizing the awesome responsibility of protecting peace and freedom and preserving human life. The responsibility cannot be met with halfway wishes. It can be met only by a determined effort to pursue and protect peace with all the strength that we can bring to bear.
My deepest commitment is to achieve a stable, enduring peace, not just by being prepared to deter aggression but also by bringing steadiness to American foreign policy, by being prepared to pursue all possible avenues for arms reduction, by ensuring that our economic strength leads the way to greater stability through growth and human progress, and by having the spiritual strength and self-confidence that enables us to reach out to our adversaries.
Well, I think we've come a long way together. In fact, I believe we've closed the books on that dismal chapter of failed policies and self-doubt. May it never return. And our progress wouldn't have been possible without you of the VFW and millions of other concerned Americans.
Gone are the days when we abandoned principle and common sense. Gone are the days when we meekly tolerated obvious threats to our peace and security. Gone are the days when we either sought to achieve overnight grandiose arms control agreements that were bound to fail, or when we set our sights so low that the agreements permitted the numbers and categories of weapons to soar.
We have made a new beginning, a dramatic, far-reaching step toward a much better, safer, and more secure future.
To all of you who have served your country with such courage and distinction, and to all the young men and women who look to their future, I can tell you today from my heart: The United States of America is prepared for peace.
And because we're stronger than before, we can be confident that we're in a position to secure a future of peace, not peace at any price, but a true, meaningful, lasting peace supported by freedom and human dignity.
As I said last night in Dallas, our military serves to protect our freedom and keep the peace. None of the four wars in my lifetime and none of the wars that you have seen came about because we were too strong. History shows that weakness invites tyrants to believe that the price of aggression will be cheap. And while military strength alone is not enough to ensure a more secure world, without military strength, there can be no effective diplomacy, no meaningful negotiations, no real security, no lasting peace.

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I am a proud American, blessed father, a staunch 2A activist and a Marine Corps Veteran that just happens to be 100% blind. This is a look at the Second Amendment, firearms, self Defense, Constitutionally protected rights, Liberty and Freedom from the perspective of a Visually Impaired, Blind American. #PatriotInTheDark
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