DECADE

You've been hearing and reading reports that nothing was really accomplished at the summit and the United States, in particular, came home empty-handed. Well, this was my seventh summit and the seventh time I've heard that same chorus. You know—it might be appropriate—a noted bullfighter wrote a poem, a few lines of which do seem appropriate: "The bullfight critics ranked in rows fill the enormous plaza full. But only one is there who really knows, and he's the one who fights the bull."

The truth is we came home from this summit with everything we'd hoped to accomplish. And tonight I want to report to you on decisions made there that directly affect you and your children's economic future. I also have a special message, one that's about our own economy, about actions that could jeopardize the kind of progress we made toward economic health last week in Venice as well as the prosperity that, during the last 6 years, all of us here in America have worked so hard to achieve.

But before beginning, I must make a personal note about something we saw on the last day of our journey when we stopped in Berlin to help celebrate the 750th anniversary of that noble city. I know that over the years many of you've seen the pictures and news clips of the wall that divides Berlin. But believe me, no American who sees firsthand the concrete and mortar, the guardposts and machinegun towers, the dog runs and the barbed wire can ever again take for granted his or her freedom or the precious gift that is America. That gift of freedom is actually the birthright of all humanity; and that's why, as I stood there, I urged the Soviet leader, Mr. Gorbachev, to send a new signal of openness to the world by tearing down that wall. 感谢lentrody