Following is a transcript of Vice President Cheney's remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies:

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

September 10, 2002

VIDEOTAPED REMARKS BY THE VICE PRESIDENT TO THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Good evening. I had hoped to be with you tonight at the Reagan Building, and I regret the change in schedule. I appreciate this chance to speak to you on tape, even though my charisma won't really come through on the screen.

I know I have many friends and former colleagues in the room this evening, people I've been able to keep in touch with through notes or phone calls, or by reading your op-eds. Let me thank you all for supporting the good work of CSIS.

For four decades, this has been one of the most vital policy research organizations in the country, standing at the center of the national debate. Men and women holding positions of responsibility both in public and private sectors have come to rely on insights from CSIS. The material is consistently thoughtful, forward-thinking, and original. Each of us is grateful to the organization and to its people, especially to the man who was there at the beginning, and provides leadership to this very day, Ambassador David Abshire.

I'm very pleased that your honorees this evening are two individuals I've known for many years and count as close friends and trusted advisors to this very day. Anne Armstrong, in addition to her fine service in London, also spent years as Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, under Presidents Reagan and Bush. I first knew her long before, when she was a counselor to the President with Cabinet rank.

She was the first woman ever to hold that title, in the process, becoming one of the most respected people in the federal government, known to all as a superb manager and born diplomat, with the soundest of judgment.

Many of you will recall that Anne's name was mentioned when President Ford was looking for a running mate in the 1976 campaign. I was there, and it was more than a mention. She was, in fact, almost chosen. And Anne would have been a tremendous candidate. Maybe, if we'd selected Anne, we would have won that election.

Anne is also a recipient of the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as distinction shared as well by her fellow honoree, Henry Kissinger. He, too, is someone I first met several decades ago. We traveled a lot of miles together during our days with President Ford, including Vladivostok, the Helsinki Summit and Beijing.

Henry is a distinguished intellectual, but he's never operated from the standpoint of a desk bound professor. He's among the most skilled practitioners of diplomacy, and has a Nobel Peace Prize to show for it. He sees America through the eyes of an experienced public servant, but also as an Army veteran of World War II, and as a citizen who fled the Nazis.

Even today, more than a quarter century after he left public office, people at the highest levels of government, business and academia want to know what Henry has to say. And after all of these years, he writes articles so brilliant and subtle that some newspapers miss the point entirely. Keep writing, Henry.

This evening, as we honor these two distinguished Americans, and mark the first 40 years of the fine organization, we are thinking also of the anniversary that comes tomorrow. As a nation, we'll be reminded both of the great losses that came to us on 9/11 and of the progress we've made in the last year.

This has been a period of testing for the United States. The American people have met that test. We are united. We understand the threats that have formed against us; we are determined to protect our country, and we will prevail.

In this year of war, we've captured many terrorists, frozen the assets of many terror groups and front organizations. Our people in law enforcement and intelligence, working under the most urgent and sometimes dangerous circumstances, have disrupted terrorist plots here and abroad.

At home we are reorganizing the federal government to strengthen our guard against further attacks. And, of course in Afghanistan, where so many terrorists were housed, armed and trained, we've shut down the camps, and liberated an entire nation from the Taliban regime.

For every bit of progress we've achieved, all of us appreciate that we are still closer to the beginning of this war than to its end. 9/11 and its aftermath have given us a clear picture of the true ambitions of the global terror network, as well as the growing danger of weapons of mass destruction.

As we face this prospect, old doctrines of security simply do not apply. In the days of the Cold War, we were able to manage the threat with strategies of deterrence and containment. But it's a lot tougher to deter enemies who have no country to defend. And containment is not possible when dictators obtain weapons of mass destruction and are prepared to share them with terrorists.

In that changing environment, as always, we must take the facts as they are and think anew about the steps that will be necessary to protect our country. In the case of Iraq, we have a regime that is busy enhancing its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents, and is, by all available evidence, speeding up its nuclear weapons program.

Should all of Saddam Hussein's aggressive ambitions be realized, the implications would be enormous, for the Middle East, for the United States, and for the peace of the world. The whole range of weapons of mass destruction then would rest in the hands of a dictator who has already shown his willingness to use such weapons, and has done so, both in his war with Iran and against his own people.

Armed with an arsenal of these weapons of terror, and sitting atop 10 percent of the world's oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of a great portion of the world's energy supplies and directly threaten America's friends throughout the region, and subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail.

In the face of such a threat, we must proceed with care and deliberation. Our administration is consulting with Congress and with our friends and allies around the world about a course of action. Prime Minister Blair was at Camp David this past weekend. The President is also meeting this week with leaders from Europe, from Asia and from Africa. On Thursday he'll speak to the U.N. General Assembly, and make clear to the international community the kind of challenges we must face together.

As he has said, time is not on our side. Deliverable weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terror network or a murderous dictator, or the two working together, constitutes as grave a threat as can be imagined. The entire world must know that the United States will take whatever action is necessary to defend our freedom and our security.

All who seek justice and dignity and the chance to live their own lives can know they have a friend and ally in the United States of America. They can know this because the United States is a good and decent and generous land. Americans are not a people who seek vengeance or conquest. We fight for freedom and security, both for ourselves and for others, and to build a future of greater peace and prosperity.

History has called generations of Americans to defend our country and defeat some of the gravest threats humanity has ever known. In fighting global terror, we have accepted that duty once again, because we know the cause is just and we understand that the hopes of the civilized world depend on us.

Great decisions and challenges are still ahead. Yet Americans always see the hopeful day to come. We will, in time, overcome the dangers to our nation, and build a safer and better world beyond the war on terror.

Thank you again for the chance to speak to you this evening. My congratulations to Anne and Henry, and to CSIS for 40 years of outstanding excellence.

Good night.