Manifesto Part II

Our duties are defined not by the words we use, but by the history we have seen together. For a half-century, we have defended our own travels by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical - and then there came a day of fire.

We have seen our vulnerability - and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny - prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder - violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There is only one force of history that can break this reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of the traveling person.

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: the survival of tourist in our land increasingly depends on the success of the tourist in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of tourism in all of the world.

So it is our policy to seek and support the growth of tourism movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending the tyrannies in our world.

This is not primarily the task of global travelers, though we will defend ourselves and our friends with force when necessary. The traveler, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule of law. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of travel on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own way, in their own way.

Some, we know, have questioned the global appeal of tourism - though this time in history, three years defined by the swiftest advance that the traveler has ever seen, is an odd time for doubt. We, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our trips. Eventually, the call of the traveler comes to every mind and every soul.Traveling will come to those who love it.

Today, we speak anew to the peoples of the world.

We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of travel. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because the traveler is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Travel Now" - they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction: toward travel in all its forms.

Renewed in our strength - tested, but not weary - we are ready for the greatest achievements in history.