Today I have once again accepted the trust of the people of the whole nation and election by the National Assembly and have been sworn into office as the fifth President of the Republic of China. I am deeply convinced that in terms of our national course, this present stage is the turning point on which hinges the perpetuation or extinction of our 5,000-year-old history and culture. Only by wresting victory from defeat at this critical moment of adversity can our age-old history and splendid cultural tradition survive and grow to new heights. From the standpoint of our national destiny, all of our 700 million people are actually in the same boat and confronting the same fate. Only when our government and people march forward together with a single heart and one will to recover our lost territory, rescue our millions of compatriots on the Chinese mainland from their sufferings in that vast hellish prison and restore them to freedom, only then can we jointly enjoy the blessings of peace and justice once more under the banner of the Three Principles of the People. For these reasons, I have summoned the courage and determination to accept this office, despite my advanced age and the gravity of the duties and responsibilities, and to continue contributing my loyalty and my knowledge to the struggle against the traitorous Maoist Communists for national life and survival in order to complete another Northward Expedition of our National Revolution and accomplish once more the reunification of the Republic of China. I swear to do my best to fulfill my duty, hoping sincerely to prove worthy of the Founding Father of our Republic and the revolutionary martyrs, and to live up to the expectations of the people of the whole nation.
The government of the Republic of China is a democratic government organized under the Constitution, and at the same time it has the revolutionary responsibility of relieving the people from their sufferings by punishing the wicked and preventing disaster by suppressing rebellion. Our government therefore must sustain itself with honest and able administration, on the one hand, and on the other must heighten the revolutionary morale of the people and accomplish the tasks of suppressing rebellion and rebuilding the nation.
The government of the Republic of China has consistently striven to move toward nationalism based on justice, true democracy, an economy based on the Principle of the People's Livelihood, armed forces of the people and a revolutionary diplomacy. It is high time to bring together all of our talents, especially our young and energetic people, and continuously to train them mentally and physically so as to make them a vital part of the combined undertakings of government and people. With reinforced unity and renewed determination, we shall rebuild our nation, rejuvenate our people and create through political renovation and social reform a new era of ethics, democracy and science.
Therefore, anything which may induce or hasten the birth of a new joint effort-so imminently required in our task of counterattack and national recovery-shall be done at once and decisively, even though it may invite criticism or denigration. Anything which tends to avoid difficulty or abet complacency, or which will hurt the people's livelihood or the national cause, or runs counter to our task of counterattack and national recovery, shall be stopped at once and decisively. This represents my political faith of a lifetime, and I have no reason to doubt that it also represents the will and understanding of the whole nation.
I have been deeply moved by the sorrow of our country and the misery of our people and have consequently continued to shoulder pre-eminent duty and responsibility in the cause of nation and people. Now we are in this bastion of freedom where one step backward would leave us no place for burial. I must urgently request our people, civilian and military alike, not to be satisfied with mere expectation or passive dependency. I ask that with all the wisdom, potential, morality and energy at your command, you join with me, this old soldier of National Revolution and public servant of the democratic Constitution, to sustain our purpose, cultivate our courage and devote the whole of energy and life to our avowed struggle to the end against the traitorous Mao Tse-tung, the merciless tyrant and most evil of criminals, who is the enemy of all the world and of mankind. So long as Mao and his traitorous accomplices survive, our national revolutionary task can never terminate, though thousands of setbacks be piled atop hundreds of frustrations.
My sincere belief is that our compatriots are not less patriotic than I. Together, Vice President Yen Chia-kan and I have persistently clung to our sense of dedication to duty, relying wholeheartedly upon the conviction that the heart and nature of mankind are bound to assert themselves in the direction of freedom and justice. In the past, the Chinese people have not been found wanting in facing up to countless heartrending challenges. They have no reason to fear any coming challenge or test. Imbued with the spirit of revolution, and in a determined campaign of great revolutionary action, we are pursuing victory in another Northward Expedition of our National Revolution and the glory of another reunification of the Republic of China. This will not only result in the suppression of rebellion and evil disturbance, but also will bring about ultimate peace and give rise to a new era in which the Three Principles of the People will illumine the whole nation.