The focus is on the Sandinistas, their promises and their actions.  There is a consensus among the four Central American democratic Presidents that the Sandinistas have not complied with the plan to bring peace and democracy to all of Central America.  The Sandinistas again have promised reforms.  Their challenge is to take irreversible steps toward democracy.  On Wednesday my request to sustain the freedom fighters will be submitted, which reflects our mutual desire for peace, freedom, and democracy in Nicaragua.  I ask Congress to pass this request.  Let us be for the people of Nicaragua what Lafayette, Pulaski, and Von Steuben were for our forefathers and the cause of American independence.

So, too, in Afghanistan, the freedom fighters are the key to peace.  We support the Mujahidin.  There can be no settlement unless all Soviet troops are removed and the Afghan people are allowed genuine self-determination.  I have made my views on this matter known to Mr. Gorbachev.  But not just Nicaragua or Afghanistan—­yes, everywhere we see a swelling freedom tide across the world:  freedom fighters rising up in Cambodia and Angola, fighting and dying for the same democratic liberties we hold sacred.  Their cause is our cause:  freedom.

Yet even as we work to expand world freedom, we must build a safer peace and reduce the danger of nuclear war.  But let’s have no illusions.  Three years of steady decline in the value of our annual defense investment have increased the risk of our most basic security interests, jeopardizing earlier hard-won goals.  We must face squarely the implications of this negative trend and make adequate, stable defense spending a top goal both this year and in the future.

This same concern applies to economic and security assistance programs as well.  But the resolve of America and its NATO allies has opened the way for unprecedented achievement in arms reduction.  Our recently signed INF treaty is historic, because it reduces nuclear arms and establishes the most stringent verification regime in arms control history, including several forms of short-notice, on-site inspection.  I submitted the treaty today, and I urge the Senate to give its advice and consent to ratification of this landmark agreement.  Thank you very much.

In addition to the INF treaty, we’re within reach of an even more significant start agreement that will reduce U.S. and Soviet long-range missile—­or strategic arsenals by half.  But let me be clear.  Our approach is not to seek agreement for agreement’s sake but to settle only for agreements that truly enhance our national security and that of our allies.  We will never put our security at risk—­or that of our allies—­just to reach an agreement with the Soviets.  No agreement is better than a bad agreement.