Air Force Commencement Speech

President Bush delivered the commencement address to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s graduating class of 1991. The topic of the president’s speech was “The New World Order,” and he used the occasion to reveal his proposal to ban unconventional weapons in the Middle East. Specifically the ban would prohibit sales of ballistic missiles, chemical weapons and materials used in the construction of nuclear weapons. The goal of the ban is the “eventual creation of a nuclear-free zone” in the Middle East. President Bush also proposed restraints on sales of conventional arms to the region, with guidelines to be determined by the five largest arms suppliers: the U.S., Great Britain, China, France, and the Soviet Union. Although the president did not reveal a specific timetable for the ban, and he did not address specific concerns of countries in the region, the plan fulfills a promise he made in the 1991 State of the Union address in which he pledged to reduce the number of unconventional weapons i close