BUSH: Mr Speaker, Mr President, distinguished Members of Congress, honored guests, and fellow citizens:

I mean to speak tonight of big things, of big changes and the promises they hold, and of some big problems and how together we can solve them and move our country forward as the undisputed leader of the age.

We gather tonight at a dramatic and deeply promising time in our history, and in the history of man on earth.

For in the past 12 months, the world has known changes of almost biblical proportions. And even now, months after the failed coup that doomed a failed system, I am not sure we have absorbed the full impact, the full import of what happened. But communism died this year.

Even as president, with the most fascinating possible vantage point, there were times when I was so busy helping to manage progress, and lead change, that didn't always show the joy that was in my heart.

But the biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life--in our lives--is this: by the grace of God, America won the Cold War.

I mean to speak this evening of the changes that can take place in our country now that we can stop making the sacrifices we had to make when we had an avowed enemy that was a superpower. Now we can look homeward even more and move to set right what needs to be set right.

I will speak of those things. But let me tell you something I've been thinking these past few months. It's a kind of roll call of honor. For the Cold War didn't "end"-- it was won.

And I think of those who won it, in places like Korea and Vietnam. And some of them didn't come back. Back then, they were heroes; but this year they became what they didn't know they were: victors.

The long roll call--all the G I Joes and Janes, all the ones who fought faithfully for freedom, who hit the ground and sucked the dust and knew their share of horror.

This may seem frivolous--I don't mean it so--but it's moving to me how the world saw them.

The world saw not only their special valor but their special style--their rambunctious. optimistic bravery, their do- or-die unity unhampered by class or race or region. What a group we've put forth, for generations now--from the ones who wrote "Kilroy was here" on the walls of German stalags, to those who left signs in the Iraq desert that said, "I saw Elvis." What a group of kids we've sent into the world.

And there's another to be singled out--though it may seem inelegant. I mean a mass of people called "the American taxpayer." No one ever thinks to thank the American people who pay a country's bills, or an alliance's bills. But for half a century now, the American people have shouldered the burden, and paid taxes that were higher than they would have been to support a defense that was bigger than it would have been if imperial communism had never existed.

But it did.

But it doesn't anymore.

And here is a fact that I wouldn't mind the world acknowledging: the American taxpayer bore the brunt of the burden and deserves a hunk of glory.

And so now, for the first time in 35 years, our strategic bombers stand down. No longer are they on 'round-the- clock alert. Tomorrow our children will go to school and study history and how plants grow. And they won't have, as my children did, air raid drills in which they crawl under their desks and cover their heads in case of nuclear war. My grandchildren don't have to do that, and won't have the bad dreams children had cone in decades past. There are still threats. But the long, drawn-out dread is over.

A year ago tonight I spoke to you at a moment of high peril. American forces had just unleased Operation Desert Storm. And after 40 days in the desert skies and 4 days on the ground, the men and women of America's armed forces and our allies accomplished the goals that I declared and you endorsed: we liberated Kuwait.

Soon after, the Arab world and Israel sat down to talk seriously and comprehensively about peace--an historic first. And soon after that, at Christmas, the last American hostages came home. Our policies were vindicated.

Much good can come from the prudent use of power. And much good can come of this: a world once divided into 2 armed camps now recognizes one sole and pre-eminent power-- the US of America.

And they regard this with no dread. For the world trusts us with power--and the world is right. They trust us to be fair and restrained; they trust us to be on the side of decency. They trust us to do what's right.

I use those words advisedly. A few days after the war began, I received a telegram from Joanne Speicher, the wife of the first pilot killed in the gulf, Lt Cmdr Scott Speicher. Even in her grief, she wanted me to know that some day when her children were old enough, she would them "that their father went away to war because it was the right thing to do." She said it all: It was the right thing to do.

And we did it together. There were honest differences here in this chamber. But when the war began, you put partisanship aside and supported our troops.

This is still a time for pride--but this is not time to boast. For problems face us, and we must stand together once again and solve them--and not let our country down.

Two years ago, I began planning cuts in military spending that reflected the changes of the new era. But now, this year, with imperial communism gone, that process can be accelerated.

Tonight I can tell you of dramatic changes in our strategic nuclear force. These are actions we are taking on our own--because they are the right thing to do.

After completing 20 planes for which we have begun procurement, we will shut down further production of the B-2 bomber. We will cancel the small ICBM program. We will cease production of new warheads for our sea-based ballistic missiles. We will stop all new production of the Peacekeeper missile. And we will not purchase any more advanced cruise missiles.

This weekend I will meet at Camp David with Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation. I have informed President Yeltsin that if the Commonwealth--the former Soviet Union--will eliminate all land-based multiple warhead ballistic missiles, I will do the following.

We will eliminate all Peacekeeper missiles. We will reduce the number of warheads on Minuteman missiles to one, and reduce the number of warheads on our sea-based missiles by about 1/3. And we will convert a substantial portion of our strategic bombers to primarily conventional use.

President Yeltsin's early response has been very positive, and I expect our talk at Camp David to be fruitful.

I want you to know that for half a century, American presidents have longed to make such decisions and say such words. But even in the midst of celebration we must keep caution as a friend.

For the world is still a dangerous place. Only the dead have seen the end of conflict. And though yesterday's challenges are behind us, tomorrow's are being born.

The secretary of defense recommended these cuts after consultation with the joint chiefs of staff. And I make them with confidence. But do not misunderstand me.

The reductions I have approved will save us an additional $50 billion over the next 5 years. By 1997 we will have cut defense by 30% since I took office. These cuts are deep and you must know my resolve: this deep and no deeper.

To do less would be insensible to progress--but to do more would be ignorant of history.

We must not go back to the days of "the hollow army." We cannot repeat the mistakes made twice in this century, when armistice was followed by recklessness and defense was purged as if the world were permanently safe.

I remind you this evening that I have asked for your support in funding a program to protect our country from limited nuclear missile attack. We must have this protection because too many people in too many countries have access to nuclear arms.

There are those who say that now we can turn away from the world, that we have no special role, no special place.

But we are the US of America, the leader of the west that has become the leader of the world. As long as I am president we will continue to lead in support of freedom everywhere--not out of arrogance, and not out of altruism, but for the safety and security of our children.

This is a fact: Strength in the pursuit of peace is no vice; isolationism in the pursuit of security is no virtue.

There is a mood among us. People are worried, there has been talk of decline. Someone even said our workers are lazy and uninspired.

And I thought, really. Go tell Neil Armstrong standing on the moon. Tell the men and women who put him there. Tell the American farmer who feeds his country and the world. Tell the men and women of Desert Storm.

Moods come and go, but greatness endures. Ours does. And maybe for a moment it's good to remember what, in the dailyness of our lives, we forget:

We are still and ever the freest nation on earth--the kindest nation on earth--the strongest nation on earth--

And we have always risen to the occasion.

We are going to lift this nation out of hard times inch by inch and day by day, and those who would stop us had best step aside. Because I look at hard times and I make this vow: This will not stand. And so we move on, together a rising nation, the once and future miracle that is still, this night, the hope of the world.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless our beloved country.