I have come here to Los Angeles with a mission, and that mission is to talk to you about the United Nations: why it is important to America's interests and why we need your help, not just to pay our arrears, but also to push the United Nations to some very needed reforms and, at the same time, protect America's interests. That was a very gracious introduction, which is par for the course for this very gracious organization. Despite the short notice, despite your having dinner last night for the distinguished former first lady of Israel, you have come here to hear my message. I want to thank Curtis Mack, who extended this very kind invitation for me to speak. I want to thank Mary Morris, who put this luncheon together, and, of course, my good friend Danny Villanueva, who is now a happy man because he does not have to raise money for me here in Los Angeles now that I am a diplomat and no longer a politician. I want to thank the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and I especially want to recognize my very good friend, the highest-ranking Hispanic woman elected in this country. I want you to recognize Supervisor Gloria Molina and her husband, Ron Martinez. That is a little bit of pride that I have because I am half Hispanic, despite the name Richardson. I represented an Hispanic state for 14 years in the United States Congress.

My message here is that today things are dramatically different in foreign policy than they were 52 years ago, when the United Nations was founded in San Francisco and a group of men and women got together to chart a course for the United Nations. In those days, it was very clear who the bad guys were, what the problems were, and what the tasks ahead were. But, interestingly, today we face the same kind of questioning about the United Nations and about its purpose. I do not need to tell you that, around the country, if you go to a town meeting or forum or talk show, the United Nations is not one of the most popular entities. Yet there is a crying need in this country to return to international engagement. This is why I am here: in the old days, foreign policy was made by a few in a board room in the Metropolitan Room in Washington, or at Yale or Princeton by a few very elite individuals. Today, foreign policy is made by citizens, by technology, by cyberspace, by the global village, by the cellular phone. I sit every morning in the United Nations Security Council - 15 members, five permanent members with a veto - and frequently a cellular phone will ring and an ambassador will pick it up and speak. No longer can anyone claim the old excuse of, "I don't know how we are going to vote because I have to get instructions from my government." That usually was an instruction that came through that cellular phone.

And all of you here are foot soldiers, community leaders, lawyers, bankers, players on the international scene who need to be a part of this new vanguard that is going to say to America and to our Congress - and I am hoping that you will talk to our Congress - the United Nations is an important tool of our American foreign policy. It is important that America's interests be represented there, and that, while we push for reforms in the United Nations so that it runs better, spends less money, has peacekeeping missions that work, lives under budget, has Inspector Generals, that concurrently, we go forth and pay our bills. We owe the United Nations $1 billion that we have refused to pay over four years, and that is hurting our influence.

This is why I have come to talk to you and I have come to local parts of this country: Los Angeles today, San Francisco this morning, San Diego this evening, and then to address the graduating Marines at Camp Pendleton, those who participate in this peace-keeping function. I shall then return to New York in time for a Security Council meeting on Burundi. And I am doing this because part of the job that President Clinton hired me to do is, number one, deal with the arrears issue in Congress (as a former Congressman, I think he felt that I should make a major effort), and number two, push within the United Nations for the reforms which are needed in terms of making the United Nations run more efficiently and respond to a Congress that is saying, "We want the United Nations to respond better to us. Maybe it won't vote with us all the time, but at least when it comes to dealing with international crises, in terms of running itself more efficiently."

But my third agenda item, and the third reason why I am here, is to explain to the American people why the United Nations is important to the United States. If there is a defining trend in our progression toward the millennium, it is the increasing empowerment of ordinary people through democracy to shape their destiny. If you look at the coverage of recent events in Europe and Asia, the most covered individual was not a head of state, it was not the European Summit; it was Bill Gates traveling through Europe and Asia and talking about technology and computers and telecommunications. This was young people, and businessmen, and housewives reading about this new shape of communicating that is also key as we move ahead in our foreign policy.

Why is the United Nations important? Here's the answer: the United Nations is important because the United Nations has certain foreign policy goals. If we approach these goals with full backing of our partners, it will be more salient and it will cost us less. The United Nations provides us cover for operations that are important to America's security interests. The United Nations was responsible for getting global support, particularly European support, when we went after Saddam Hussein and his invasion of Kuwait. It was a coalition of willing nations with full ratification of the United Nations backing essentially a United States effort which was in our interests. Several years later, we began saying to North Korea, "If you do not stop your nuclear development and freeze your nuclear weapons, which could de-stabilize Northeast Asia, the United Nations will put forth sanctions." Those are in the peace and security area. In the six weeks that I have been at the United Nations, we have formed peace-keeping missions in Zaire, we have dealt with peace-keeping efforts in Guatemala, we have closed peace-keeping operations in Cambodia and El Salvador, we have moved ahead in peace-keeping operations in Bosnia, we have dealt with increasing Great Lakes tragedies in Africa - incalculable to the human mind, but dealing with relief of thousands upon thousands of individuals who are trapped in genocidal war. We are dealing, too, with a variety of human rights issues around the globe. Just last week, I was in Geneva where we dealt with a variety of human rights resolutions of countries that have very sorry human rights records.

But closer to home, the United Nations can make a difference. Today is World Health Day, and the reason this is important is that, several years ago, it was a United Nations agency, the World Health Organization, which discovered the cure for small pox. This alone saves America $300 million per year in immunization costs. The International Labor Organization protects market access for American products and protects workers' rights. The International Civil Agency Aviation Association deals with safety of travelers, and 40% of all travelers are Americans.

There are many reasons why the United Nations advances our interest, but we must also be very clear that there are times when we do not need to use the United Nations, when it is better to deal on a bilateral basis, when it is better to go it alone or with a regional organization like NATO. This is why during my first week at the United Nations, I cast a veto on the Middle East: because it was America's view that it was better to deal with the troubles in the Middle East and the negotiations in the Middle East by negotiating with the parties themselves on the final status issue of Jerusalem, rather that to have the Security Council or General Assembly, a world forum that is very unfriendly to Israel, deal with those issues in a biased fashion. This is why, three weeks later, I cast another veto on behalf of the United States. This is why, at this very moment, the President of the United States is trying with the Prime Minister of Israel, with King Hussein, with the Saudis, with the Palestinians, with the many players, to bring forth a meeting of the minds so that the parties are talking to each other again, so that terrorism on the Palestinian side is reduced, so that some or more of these housing starts on the Israeli side are cooled down. All of this so that we can bring forth some serious negotiations.

As I go around the country, I say to young people and I say to international players like you, what are going to be the main issues that affect the United States in the days ahead? We do not have that bipolar world anymore. We do not have seven countries forming regional blocs and nuclear blocs. We have basically one superpower, and that is the United States - and frequently that superpower has responsibilities. But the main threats that we are going to face as a nation in the days ahead are going to be: regional conflicts based on ethnic hatred, like in Bosnia; tribal and ethnic bloodshed, as it occurred in Zaire; nuclear proliferation issues, as they have affected us in North Korea and India and Pakistan and the many other countries that do not sign non- proliferation treaties; the safety of nuclear weapons, tens of thousands of which are still in the Soviet Union. What will happen to those if something goes astray and they land in the hands of a terrorist? International terrorism, transnational, affecting not just one country, but several, operating in ways that affect not just one nation's security, but the security of many Western nations. The threat of environmental degradation, climate change, deforestation - issues which in the next ten to fifteen years are going to affect us profoundly. Who should know better than yourselves here in this very dynamic city. Threats of international trade tensions coming from market divisions and from talks between countries that might turn hostile.

Yet, at the same time, we must recognize that America has to be engaged internationally, that we as a country have to operate as a system of very competitive trade. On the vanguard of trade with the Pacific Rim, with the ability to trade with Mexico and be a gateway to two huge continents, Los Angeles is going to become and has become increasingly important. These are the threats that face our city: nuclear proliferation, international terrorism, drugs, international competition, environmental degradation, narcotics. The threat of narcotics is now becoming the biggest issue that we have with Mexico, no longer immigration or NAFTA, but the issue of narcotics. How are we going to deal with these problems? The answer: in a coordinated fashion with our allies, in a coordinated, yet simultaneously competitive fashion with those who disagree with us. This is why multilateral forums can gain importance. But again at the same time, when America's interests are directly threatened, we need to use our own bilateral options.

So I am here today. Eli made it very clear that the best kind of meetings are ones in which you can ask me questions, rather than my pontificating all afternoon, where you can ask the tough questions that I know can come from this group. I am here today so that we may have a dialogue such that, when you leave this room, you will feel that the Los Angeles World Affairs Council - a very vibrant and important group - can play a role in not just educating this huge city and this huge state, but your members of Congress, as well. They need to know that America must become re-engaged, that we must pay our bills at the United Nations, and that we are losing our influence by not doing that. We need to say to Congress, "You have made a good case that the United Nations needs to run itself better, that it needs to live under budget (which it has not done), that the new Secretary General Kofi Annan has made a good start by cutting staff ten percent across the board. But the United Nations must also have Inspector Generals to deal with waste, fraud, and abuse, and some of the perks that United Nations employees receive must be toned down to be similar to other countries' and other private sectors' participation efforts. You, as Congress, must ask the tough questions when you hear of United Nations peace-keeping missions: yes, it is good to bring peace, it is good to go into Bosnia and Somalia if our objective is to bring peace. But America must still ask the tough questions that have not been asked before: how much will it cost? What is the end game? What is the exit strategy? What are the command and control issues?"

When the United Nations says to America that our troops are fighting under foreign command, Americans go bananas. They want an explanation of the reasoning behind this. America also wants answers to the important questions of American sovereignty: what does it mean when we are part of a United Nations effort? How much control does America have in the protection of its parks and lands when you name a world heritage center?

There is much misinformation, such as the black helicopters coming into the United States from the United Nations, and world government threatening all of our interests. So the tasks ahead are very severe. I ask for your help today in being a part of this effort. In fact, you already are just by being venture capitalists in this very fine organization. I say to you that it is in our interest to stay engaged internationally. We are a world power, and while we cannot resolve every problem in the world -- and we should not have to -- we can have the United Nations as a vehicle to do some of those things that cry out for American action. Things like dealing with starvation in Africa, or the thousands of refugees who have no homes, or children who die before they are three because they are not immunized, or tribal conflicts that threaten to destroy the core of society, not just in Africa, but in Europe as well. No, it is not always American troops, but it is American leadership. And I ask you today to become partners in this effort, to restore our leverage and faith and commitment to the United Nations. I thank you.