Speech at White House Dinner

Margaret Thatcher

East Room, the White House

17 Dec 1979

Mr. President, Mrs. Carter, ladies and gentlemen, it has been my first visit to Washington as head of the British government, and I should like, at the end of a memorable day, to say thank you. Thank you, to you, Mr. President, to you, Mrs. Carter, and through you to the American people for the wonderfully warm welcome I have been given everywhere.

I know, Mr. President, that as you pointed out at the beginning of your speech, the relationship between American and Britain started off with one or two errors of judgment on our side. (Laughter.) Looking around me at the beauty here and at the wonderful nation you have created I am really rather glad that my predecessors weren’t successful in all things they tried to carry out.

Now, I know that official visits to Washington recur almost with the regularity of the passing seasons, but as far as I am concerned, this really has been an exceptional event in the year for me. Alas, I will not be staying long, but it makes a great difference to me to have this chance of direct discussion and to sense at first hand what it is that quickens the pulse of the American people, their yearnings and preoccupations.

I am very much aware, Mr. President, of the ordeal that the United States is going through at the moment. It is a double ordeal, for the fate of the 50 hostages in Tehran, from whom our thoughts are never far, and for the temper of the United States as a whole. You will not want me to speak at length about this now, but I would be giving you a false impression if I allowed the evening to proceed any further without letting you know how much we, in Britain, support you in your ordeal at this time.

The United States is our friend, our ally, and our time-honored partner in peace and war. The history and the destiny of our countries have been and always will be inextricably intertwined. Our friendship goes back a very long way. We are, after all, among the very few countries in the world whose constitutions and national identities have remained intact over two centuries. I hope you won’t mind, Mr. President, my recalling that George Washington was a British subject until well after his 40th birthday. (Laughter.) I have been told, to my surprise, that he does not have a place in the British Dictionary of National Biography. I suppose the editors must have regarded him as a late developer. (Laughter.)

I confess to you that in some ways my visit got off to a rather shaky start, because I was told on arrival at Andrews Field that I had interrupted your Secretary of State, Mr. Vance, in one of his few moments of relaxation. He was watching the Redskins playing the Cowboys. (Laughter.) He had to take his eye off the game to greet me. (Laughter.) I am very grateful but I don’t think the Redskins can have been very grateful to me because it was no doubt as a result of this diversion of Mr. Vance’s attention that the Redskins lost the game. (Laughter.) I do apologize for having intervened in your internal affairs. (Laughter.)

Mr. Vance’s opposite number, Lord Carrington, who is with us this evening, has, as you know, and as you have very kindly said, Mr. President, had something of a triumph in the Rhodesia negotiations at Lancaster House in London. If you think he looks a little pale, it is because he has been shut up in Lancaster House for many months, indeed has become known as the prisoner of Lancaster House and he is so pleased to be free at last. Lord Carrington would, I know, want me to repeat this evening how grateful the British government are to the United States authorities for the stalwart support they have given us unfailingly over Rhodesia, and you, Mr. President, and you, Mr. Vance, we would like to give our warmest and most heartfelt thanks, because without your support the whole process would have been incomparably more difficult and we may never have reached success.

May I say one more thing, Mr. President. The government which I lead has been in power now for just over half a year. We face great difficulties, some of them deep seated and longstanding and some stemming from beyond our shores, and I don’t pretend that anything is going to be remedied immediately, but we are determined upon a change. We are determined to return to the first principles which have traditionally governed our political and economic life, namely, the overall responsibility of the individual rather than the state for his own welfare, and the paramountcy of Parliament for the protection of fundamental rights.

The government I lead has a resounding mandate to restore the face and the fortunes of the nation. We shall stick at the task whatever the difficulties and however great the endurance required, and we shall do so, Mr. President, in the conviction that our allies across the Atlantic have confidence in us, just as we have confidence in the strength and ingenuity of the United States to meet any challenge and triumph over any adversity that confronts them. And it is in that spirit that I would like to ask all your other guests this evening to drink a toast to you, the President of the United States of America. To the President.

Edited by: geilien.cn