democracies. here in this country, once the battleground of europe, we meet in the hub of a union that brings together age-old adversaries in it peace and cooperation. the people of europe, hundreds of millions of citizens, east, west, north, south, are more secure and more prosperous because we stood together for the ideals we share. and this story of human progress was by no means limited to europe. indeed, the ideals that came to define our alliance also inspired movements across the globe. among those very people, ironically, who had too often been denied their full rights by western powers. after the second world war, people from africa to india threw off the yolk of