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China: Our Rising Adversary

Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library – July 27, 2015 Text as prepared for delivery

Thank you for having me here tonight. In his farewell address, President Reagan said: “Don’t be afraid to see what you see.” I have always believed the role of a leader is to see the truth, speak the truth and act on the truth. I am here tonight to speak about what I see and to describe how I am prepared to act. I see a world in dire need of American leadership. I see President Obama and Secretary Clinton always speaking in terms of ambivalence and shades of gray, offering false choices and raising the shadow of doubt about our will to lead. The next President of the United States must reestablish our leadership—she must speak with clarity, accept that some things are black and white and act with courage. She must be prepared to challenge the status quo and change the way things are—whether in Washington or around the world. The world is a more tragic and dangerous place when America is not leading. Terrorists are on the march. Nearly 45,000 people are driven from their homes each day. Last week, four marines and a Navy officer were murdered here at home by a radicalized terrorist. Human trafficking is on the rise. Christians across the globe are persecuted. Women are denied the most basic rights. Girls live in fear of being mutilated, raped, or bought and sold as sex slaves. We tweet “save our girls,” but Boko Haram continues on a murderous rampage of kidnapping, pillaging and horrors we can barely imagine. President Obama has richly rewarded the bad behavior of Cuba, Russia, Syria, Iran and China—and Mrs. Clinton has signaled her approval. It is really quite simple. When you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. President Obama has negotiated a deal with an Iran that has repeatedly violated agreements, killed and wounded thousands of Americans, and flat-out lied about every nuclear facility they have built over the last three decades. He has negotiated with a state that refuses to release American prisoners. And for what? Yesterday we learned that the Iranian regime has decided that in fact inspectors will have no access to their military facilities—never mind 24 days’ notice, just no access. Period. Perhaps this is the content of the secret deal between Iran and the IAEA? In Russia, Secretary Clinton told us that she could “reset” our relationship there—a policy that has utterly failed. I’ve met Vladimir Putin. He craves power. He will not be stopped by a gimmicky red button. Putin’s ambition continues to grow, unchecked.

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When President Obama warned Assad not to cross a red line, Assad took this as an invitation, not an admonition. This administration’s blind eye to aggression has become a black eye for America. When we do not stand with our allies nor confront our adversaries, our friends lose courage and our enemies press forward. *** I know you are outraged. Sick of a professional political class that lectures and harangues —and never actually says anything at all. You know empty promises and bumper sticker rhetoric solve nothing. For too long we have had too many speeches and too few results. The American people deserve an honest leader. Who will own up to the difficulties of the job in front of her—and who has a track record of leadership, accomplishment, and challenging the status quo. As you are all aware, I am not a member of the professional political class. But I do have extensive national security and foreign policy experience. I have served as the Chairman of the CIA’s External Advisory Board and I have advised Secretaries of State and Defense as well as the NSA and Department of Homeland Security. I have done so with the highest civilian security clearances. I have led a company doing business in 170 countries. I have advised governments and done charitable work in their nations. I have met with and gotten to know many leaders around the world. They know me, respect me and, most importantly, they trust me as a woman of action and of my word. As President, I will not wait until things have reached the crisis level. And I will not shy away from the most important challenges facing our world today. Because without American leadership, we face two choices: regional hegemons who challenge America or global chaos. Here’s what I will do as Commander in Chief. First, we must have the strongest military on the face of the planet and everyone has to know it. This will take both an investment in our military and a reform of the Defense Department. We must fix what’s called the tooth-to-tail ratios. Tooth-to-tail ratios are measured regularly in the Defense Department. Tooth—tip of the spear, our fighting men and women, the weapons systems and the technology they require to fight and win. Tail — bureaucracy—much too large for what we need to defend our nation. In fact, our tooth-to-tail ratios are as bad right now as they have ever been. So it’s not just throwing more money at the problem. It’s investing the money as well as our intellect and our imagination in the right places—tooth—and reducing the amount spent on a bureaucracy in need of reform— tail.

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President Obama announces the lay-off of 40,000 troops in response to sequester cuts. Professional politicians have engaged in such brinksmanship which brought us the sequester. While everyone decries it, no one has fixed it. We must reinvest in our military. The next President of the United States, like Ronald Reagan, will need to rebuild our military capability. Morale of our armed forces is low. We need a Commander in Chief who will unabashedly celebrate their honor, courage, and sacrifice. I was recently on the phone with Leif Babin, a decorated former Navy SEAL who has received a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. We talked about the battle of Ramadi and what our men and women are capable of. We have the bravest and strongest fighting force the world has ever seen. It’s time we act like it. They deserve a Commander in Chief with a strategy for victory over there and they deserve a government that fulfills its promises when they get home. And so we must care for those who have served us. We need to overhaul the VA from top to bottom. It is a stain on our nation’s honor. Technology can do amazing things but our veterans are still waiting far too long for the benefits they earned. And we haven’t heard a lot from the political class in Washington about the VA since it dropped out of the headlines, but I can assure you it is still broken. And I will assure you that the political class in Washington that hasn’t fixed it for decades, isn’t going to fix it unless we elect someone who knows how to challenge the status quo and change bureaucracies. On my first day in the Oval Office, I will make two phone calls. The first will be to my friend Bibi Netanyahu. I will reassure him that the United States will always stand with the State of Israel. My second call will be to the Supreme Leader of Iran. He might not take the call, but he will get the message. I will tell him: new deal. Unless and until Iran opens itself to full and unfettered inspections of all nuclear and military facilities, we are going to make it very hard for Iran to move money around the global financial system. U.S. companies should not be profiting off of this murderous regime. The next President of the United States will have a lot to do with whether Apple and McDonald’s are doing business in Tehran. These two calls are also signals that the United States is back in the leadership business. I will not call Vladimir Putin. We have talked way too much to him. But he too will get the message. We must rebuild our Sixth Fleet. We must conduct military exercises in the Baltic States. President Obama unilaterally and inexplicably withdrew our missile defense programs in Poland—I will rebuild them. We learn more about atrocities committed by ISIS every day. Christians are being crucified. Children are used as body shields for jihadi soldiers. Muslims are killed for being the "wrong type" of Muslim. Women and girls are subject to systematic rape.