The speech of President Reagan

I like to think that my own relationship with President Reagan and the efforts I made to try to
establish common ground between the United States and the Europeans helped to prevent
disagreements over the pipeline and other trading issues from poisoning western co-operation at
this critical juncture. Certainly, the summer of 1982 saw some useful international diplomacy.
Between 4 and 6 June the heads of government of the G7 countries met amid the splendid opulenceof Versailles.

President Mitterrand, who chaired the summit, had prepared a paper on the impact of new technology on employment. It quite often happened that the country in the chair at summit meetings felt that they must introduce some new initiatives even at the cost of extra government intervention and increased bureaucracy. This was no exception. For my part, I had no doubt about the attitude to take to technological innovation: it must be welcomed not resisted. There might be “new” technology but technological progress itself was nothing new, and over the years it had not destroyed jobs but created them. Our task was not to make grand plans for technological innovation but rather to see how public opinion could be influenced in order to embrace not recoil from it.Fortunately, therefore, President Mitterrand’s paper was kicked into touch in the form of a working group.

But my most vivid recollection of the proceedings at Versailles is of the impression made by President Reagan. At one point he spoke for twenty minutes or so without notes, outlining his economic vision. His quite but powerful words provided those who did not yet know him with some insight into the qualities which made him such a remarkable political leader. After he had finished, President Mitterrand acknowledged that no one would criticize President Reagan for being true to his beliefs. Given President Mitterrand’s socialist policies, that was almost a compliment.