But im not going to make decisions that i think are wrong for america. New question, mr. President. Do you believe that diplomacy and sanctions can resolve the nuclear problems with north korea and iran, taking them in any order you would like. North korea, first i do. Let me say i certainly hope so. Before i was sworn in, the policy of this government was to have bri lateral negotiations with north korea, and we signed an agreement with north korea that my administration found out that was not being honored by the north koreans. So i decided that a better way to approach the issue was to get other nations involved, just besides us. And across texas, crawford and i agreed a free north Korean Peninsula was in his interest and our interest and the worlds interest. So we began a new dialogue in north korea, one that included not only the United States but now china and china has a lot of influence over north korea. In some ways more than we do. As well we included south korean, japan and
In the 2004 president ial race between president george w. Bush and senator john kerry, the two candidates met at the university of miami for the first of three president ial debates. It focused on foreign policy. [ applause ] good evening, mr. President , senator kerry. As determined by a coin toss, the first question goes to you, senator kerry. You have two minutes. Do you believe that you could do a better job than president bush in preventing another 9 11type terrorist attack on the United States . Yes, i do. But before i answer further, let me thank you for moderating. I want to thank the university of miami for hosting us, and i know the president will join me in welcoming all of florida to this debate. Youve been through the roughest weeks anybody could imagine. Our hearts go out to you, and we admire your pluck and perseverance. I can make america safer than president bush has made us. And i believe president bush and i both love our country equally, but we just have a differen
Lehrer good evening from the university of miami Convocation Center in coral gables, florida. Im jim lehrer of the newshour on pbs. And i welcome you to the first of the 2004 president ial debates between president george w. Bush, the republican nominee, and senator john kerry, the democratic nominee. These debates are sponsored by the commission on president ial debates. Tonights will last 90 minutes, following detailed rules of engagement worked out by representatives of the candidates. I have agreed to enforce their rules on them. The umbrella topic is Foreign Policy and Homeland Security, but the specific subjects were chosen by me, the questions were composed by me, the candidates have not been told what they are, nor has anyone else. For each question there can only be a twominute response, a 90 second rebuttal and, at my discretion, a discussion extension of one minute. A green light will come on when 30 seconds remain in any given answer, yellow at 15, red at five seconds, and
Good evening mister president saturday carry. First president goes to senator kennedy. You have two minutes. Do you believe you can do a better job than president bush and preventing another 9 11 terrorist attack on the United States . Yes i do. But before i answer further let me thank you for moderating, i want to thank the university of miami for hosting us and i know the president will join me in welcoming all of florida for all of this debate. Youve been through the roughest weeks it anyone can imagine, our hearts go out to you and we admire your pluck and perseverance. I can make american safer than president bushes made say made us, and i believe president bush and i both love our country equally, but we just have a different set of evictions convictions on how you make america safe. I believe america is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and leading strong alliances. Ill never give a veto to any country over our security but i also know how to lead those alliance
Are still there and we never change them theyre still dangerous and in some ways theyre more dangerous than ever because people are focused on other issues and they simply dont see the dangers that we face and sent in to parry why isnt it discussed. Thats that course is too deep for me to answer psychological question to fundamentally. When the cold war ended the danger and the worried that people had the fear that people had about a Nuclear Catastrophe just ended with it and they just dont want to pick it up again and soon again but unfortunately the reality is that the danger is still very much there. You searched at a time that the defining era of United States Nuclear Policy is that its focused on the wrong threat. What he talked about was the wrong threat so the threat that were focused on a leftover threat from the cold war is the threat of an intentional attack from russia that is simply not a likely threat because it would be suicidal for russia to watch that attack any attack