Special Message to the Congress on
Urgent National Needs
Delivered in person before a
joint session of Congress
May 25, 1961
(Complete Text, Sound File Excerpt)
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, my copartners
in Government, gentlemen-andladies:
The
Constitution imposes upon me the obligation to "from time to
time give to the Congress information of the State of the
Union." While this has traditionally been interpreted as an
annual affair, this tradition has been broken in extraordinary
times.
These are
extraordinary times. And we face an extraordinary challenge. Our
strength as well as our convictions have imposed upon this nation
the role of leader in freedom's cause.
No role
in history could be more difficult or more important. We stand for
freedom.
That is
our conviction for ourselves--that is our only commitment to others.
No friend, no neutral and no adversary should think otherwise. We
are not against any man--or any nation--or any system--except as it
is hostile to freedom. Nor am I here to present a new military
doctrine, bearing any one name or aimed at any one area. I am here
to promote the freedom doctrine.
I.
The great
battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the
whole southern half of the globe--Asia, Latin America, Africa and
the Middle East--the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution
is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice,
tyranny, and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.
And
theirs is a revolution which we would support regardless of the Cold
War, and regardless of which political or economic route they should
choose to freedom.
For the
adversaries of freedom did not create the revolution; nor did they
create the conditions which compel it. But they are seeking to ride
the crest of its wave--to capture it for themselves.
Yet their
aggression is more often concealed than open. They have fired no
missiles; and their troops are seldom seen. They send arms,
agitators, aid, technicians and propaganda to every troubled area.
But where fighting is required, it is usually done by others--by
guerrillas striking at night, by assassins striking alone--assassins
who have taken the lives of four thousand civil officers in the last
twelve months in Vietnam alone--by subversives and saboteurs and
insurrectionists, who in some cases control whole areas inside of
independent nations.
[At
this point the following paragraph, which appears in the text as
signed and transmitted to the Senate and House of Representatives,
was omitted in the reading of the message:
They
possess a powerful intercontinental striking force, large forces
for conventional war, a well-trained underground in nearly every
country, the power to conscript talent and manpower for any
purpose, the capacity for quick decisions, a closed society
without dissent or free information, and long experience in the
techniques of violence and subversion. They make the most of their
scientific successes, their economic progress and their pose as a
foe of colonialism and friend of popular revolution. They prey on
unstable or unpopular governments, unsealed, or unknown
boundaries, unfilled hopes, convulsive change, massive poverty,
illiteracy, unrest and frustration.]
With
these formidable weapons, the adversaries of freedom plan to
consolidate their territory--to exploit, to control, and finally to
destroy the hopes of the world's newest nations; and they have
ambition to do it before the end of this decade. It is a contest of
will and purpose as well as force and violence--a battle for minds
and souls as well as lives and territory. And in that contest, we
cannot stand aside.
We stand,
as we have always stood from our earliest beginnings, for the
independence and equality of all nations. This nation was born of
revolution and raised in freedom. And we do not intend to leave an
open road for despotism.
There is
no single simple policy which meets this challenge. Experience has
taught us that no one nation has the power or the wisdom to solve
all the problems of the world or manage its revolutionary
tides--that extending our commitments does not always increase our
security--that any initiative carries with it the risk of a
temporary defeat--that nuclear weapons cannot prevent
subversion--that no free people can be kept free without will and
energy of their own--and that no two nations or situations are
exactly alike.
Yet there
is much we can do--and must do. The proposals I bring before you are
numerous and varied. They arise from the host of special
opportunities and dangers which have become increasingly clear in
recent months. Taken together, I believe that they can mark another
step forward in our effort as a people. I am here to ask the help of
this Congress and the nation in approving these necessary measures.
II. ECONOMIC AND
SOCIAL PROGRESS AT HOME
The first
and basic task confronting this nation this year was to turn
recession into recovery. An affirmative anti-recession program,
initiated with your cooperation, supported the natural forces in the
private sector; and our economy is now enjoying renewed confidence
and energy. The recession has been halted. Recovery is under way.
But the
task of abating unemployment and achieving a full use of our
resources does remain a serious challenge for us all. Large-scale
unemployment during a recession is bad enough, but large-scale
unemployment during a period of prosperity would be intolerable.
I am
therefore transmitting to the Congress a new Manpower Development
and Training program, to train or retrain several hundred thousand
workers, particularly in those areas where we have seen chronic
unemployment as a result of technological factors in new
occupational skills over a four-year period, in order to replace
those skills made obsolete by automation and industrial change with
the new skills which the new processes demand.
It should
be a satisfaction to us all that we have made great strides in
restoring world confidence in the dollar, halting the outflow of
gold and improving our balance of payments. During the last two
months, our gold stocks actually increased by seventeen million
dollars, compared to a loss of 635 million dollars during the last
two months of 1960. We must maintain this progress--and this will
require the cooperation and restraint of everyone. As recovery
progresses, there will be temptations to seek unjustified price and
wage increases. These we cannot afford. They will only handicap our
efforts to compete abroad and to achieve full recovery here at home.
Labor and management must--and I am confident that they will--pursue
responsible wage and price policies in these critical times. I look
to the President's Advisory Committee on Labor Management Policy to
give a strong lead in this direction.
Moreover,
if the budget deficit now increased by the needs of our security is
to be held within manageable proportions, it will be necessary to
hold tightly to prudent fiscal standards; and I request the
cooperation of the Congress in this regard--to refrain from adding
funds or programs, desirable as they may be, to the Budget--to end
the postal deficit, as my predecessor also recommended, through
increased rates--a deficit incidentally, this year, which exceeds
the fiscal 1962 cost of all the space and defense measures that I am
submitting today--to provide full pay-as-you-go highway
financing--and to close those tax loopholes earlier specified. Our
security and progress cannot be cheaply purchased; and their price
must be found in what we all forego as well as what we all must pay.
III. ECONOMIC
AND SOCIAL PROGRESS ABROAD
I stress
the strength of our economy because it is essential to the strength
of our nation. And what is true in our case is true in the case of
other countries. Their strength in the struggle for freedom depends
on the strength of their economic and their social progress.
We would
be badly mistaken to consider their problems in military terms
alone. For no amount of arms and armies can help stabilize those
governments which are unable or unwilling to achieve social and
economic reform and development. Military pacts cannot help nations
whose social injustice and economic chaos invite insurgency and
penetration and subversion. The most skillful counter-guerrilla
efforts cannot succeed where the local population is too caught up
in its own misery to be concerned about the advance of communism.
But for
those who share this view, we stand ready now, as we have in the
past, to provide generously of our skills, and our capital, and our
food to assist the peoples of the less-developed nations to reach
their goals in freedom--to help them before they are engulfed in
crisis.
This is
also our great opportunity in 1961. If we grasp it, then subversion
to prevent its success is exposed as an unjustifiable attempt to
keep these nations from either being free or equal. But if we do not
pursue it, and if they do not pursue it, the bankruptcy of unstable
governments, one by one, and of unfilled hopes will surely lead to a
series of totalitarian receiverships.
Earlier
in the year, I outlined to the Congress a new program for aiding
emerging nations; and it is my intention to transmit shortly draft
legislation to implement this program, to establish a new Act for
International Development, and to add to the figures previously
requested, in view of the swift pace of critical events, an
additional 250 million dollars for a Presidential Contingency Fund,
to be used only upon a Presidential determination in each case, with
regular and complete reports to the Congress in each case, when
there is a sudden and extraordinary drain upon our regular funds
which we cannot foresee--as illustrated by recent events in
Southeast Asia--and it makes necessary the use of this emergency
reserve. The total amount requested--now raised to 2..65 billion
dollars--is both minimal and crucial. I do not see how anyone who is
concerned--as we all are--about the growing threats to freedom
around the globe--and who is asking what more we can do as a
people--can weaken or oppose the single most important program
available for building the frontiers of freedom.
IV.
All that
I have said makes it clear that we are engaged in a world-wide
struggle in which we bear a heavy burden to preserve and promote the
ideals that we share with all mankind, or have alien ideals forced
upon them. That struggle has highlighted the role of our Information
Agency. It is essential that the funds previously requested for this
effort be not only approved in full, but increased by 2 million, 400
thousand dollars, to a total of 121 million dollars.
This new
request is for additional radio and television to Latin America and
Southeast Asia. These tools are particularly effective and essential
in the cities and villages of those great continents as a means of
reaching millions of uncertain peoples to tell them of our interest
in their fight for freedom. In Latin America, we are proposing to
increase our Spanish and Portuguese broadcasts to a total of 154
hours a week, compared to 42 hours today, none of which is in
Portuguese, the language of about one-third of the people of South
America. The Soviets, Red Chinese and satellites already broadcast
into Latin America more than 134 hours a week in Spanish and
Portuguese. Communist China alone does more public information
broadcasting in our own hemisphere than we do. Moreover, powerful
propaganda broadcasts from Havana now are heard throughout Latin
America, encouraging new revolutions in several countries.
Similarly,
in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, we must communicate our
determination and support to those upon whom our hopes for resisting
the communist tide in that continent ultimately depend. Our interest
is in the truth.
V. OUR
PARTNERSHIP FOR SELF-DEFENSE
But while
we talk of sharing and building and the competition of ideas, others
talk of arms and threaten war. So we have learned to keep our
defenses strong--and to cooperate with others in a partnership of
self-defense. The events of recent weeks have caused us to look anew
at these efforts.
The
center of freedom's defense is our network of world alliances,
extending from NATO, recommended by a Democratic President and
approved by a Republican Congress, to SEATO, recommended by a
Republican President and approved by a Democratic Congress. These
alliances were constructed in the 1940's and 1950's--it is our task
and responsibility in the 1960's to strengthen them.
To meet
the changing conditions of power--and power relationships have
changed--we have endorsed an increased emphasis on NATO's
conventional strength. At the same time we are affirming our
conviction that the NATO nuclear deterrent must also be kept strong.
I have made clear our intention to commit to the NATO command, for
this purpose, the 5 Polaris submarines originally suggested by
President Eisenhower, with the possibility, if needed, of more to
come.
Second, a
major part of our partnership for self-defense is the Military
Assistance Program. The main burden of local defense against local
attack, subversion, insurrection or guerrilla warfare must of
necessity rest with local forces. Where these forces have the
necessary will and capacity to cope with such threats, our
intervention is rarely necessary or helpful. Where the will is
present and only capacity is lacking, our Military Assistance
Program can be of help.
But this
program, like economic assistance, needs a new emphasis. It cannot
be extended without regard to the social, political and military
reforms essential to internal respect and stability. The equipment
and training provided must be tailored to legitimate local needs and
to our own foreign and military policies, not to our supply of
military stocks or a local leader's desire for military display. And
military assistance can, in addition to its military purposes, make
a contribution to economic progress, as do our own Army Engineers.
In an
earlier message, I requested 1.6 billion dollars for Military
Assistance, stating that this would maintain existing force levels,
but that I could not foresee how much more might be required. It is
now clear that this is not enough. The present crisis in Southeast
Asia, on which the Vice President has made a valuable report--the
rising threat of communism in Latin America--the increased arms
traffic in Africa--and all the new pressures on every nation found
on the map by tracing your fingers along the borders of the
Communist bloc in Asia and the Middle East--all make clear the
dimension of our needs.
I
therefore request the Congress to provide a total of 1.885 billion
dollars for Military Assistance in the coming fiscal year--an amount
less than that requested a year ago--but a minimum which must be
assured if we are to help those nations make secure their
independence. This must be prudently and wisely spent--and that will
be our common endeavor. Military and economic assistance has been a
heavy burden on our citizens for a long time, and I recognize the
strong pressures against it; but this battle is far from over, it is
reaching a crucial stage, and I believe we should participate in it.
We cannot merely state our opposition to totalitarian advance
without paying the price of helping those now under the greatest
pressure.
VI. OUR OWN
MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE SHIELD
In line
with these developments, I have directed a further reinforcement of
our own capacity to deter or resist non-nuclear aggression. In the
conventional field, with one exception, I find no present need for
large new levies of men. What is needed is rather a change of
position to give us still further increases in flexibility.
Therefore,
I am directing the Secretary of Defense to undertake a
reorganization and modernization of the Army's divisional structure,
to increase its non-nuclear firepower, to improve its tactical
mobility in any environment, to insure its flexibility to meet any
direct or indirect threat, to facilitate its coordination with our
major allies, and to provide more modern mechanized divisions in
Europe and bring their equipment up to date, and new airborne
brigades in both the Pacific and Europe.
And
secondly, I am asking the Congress for an additional 100 million
dollars to begin the procurement task necessary to re-equip this new
Army structure with the most modern material. New helicopters, new
armored personnel carriers, and new howitzers, for example, must be
obtained now.
Third, I
am directing the Secretary of Defense to expand rapidly and
substantially, in cooperation with our Allies, the orientation of
existing forces for the conduct of non-nuclear war, paramilitary
operations and sub-limited or unconventional wars.
In
addition our special forces and unconventional warfare units will be
increased and reoriented. Throughout the services new emphasis must
be placed on the special skills and languages which are required to
work with local populations.
Fourth,
the Army is developing plans to make possible a much more rapid
deployment of a major portion of its highly trained reserve forces.
When these plans are completed and the reserve is strengthened, two
combat-equipped divisions, plus their supporting forces, a total of
89,000 men, could be ready in an emergency for operations with but 3
weeks' notice--2 more divisions with but 5 weeks' notice--and six
additional divisions and their supporting forces, making a total of
10 divisions, could be deployable with less than 8 weeks' notice. In
short, these new plans will allow us to almost double the combat
power of the Army in less than two months, compared to the nearly
nine months heretofore required.
Fifth, to
enhance the already formidable ability of the Marine Corps to
respond to limited war emergencies, I am asking the Congress for 60
million dollars to increase the Marine Corps strength to 190,000
men. This will increase the initial impact and staying power of our
three Marine divisions and three air wings, and provide a trained
nucleus for further expansion, if necessary for self-defense.
Finally,
to cite one other area of activities that are both legitimate and
necessary as a means of self-defense in an age of hidden perils, our
whole intelligence effort must be reviewed, and its coordination
with other elements of policy assured. The Congress and the American
people are entitled to know that we will institute whatever new
organization, policies, and control are necessary.
VII. CIVIL
DEFENSE
One major
element of the national security program which this nation has never
squarely faced up to is civil defense. This problem arises not from
present trends but from national inaction in which most of us have
participated. In the past decade we have intermittently considered a
variety of programs, but we have never adopted a consistent policy.
Public considerations have been largely characterized by apathy,
indifference and skepticism; while, at the same time, many of the
civil defense plans have been so far-reaching and unrealistic that
they have not gained essential support.
This
Administration has been looking hard at exactly what civil defense
can and cannot do. It cannot be obtained cheaply. It cannot give an
assurance of blast protection that will be proof against surprise
attack or guaranteed against obsolescence or destruction. And it
cannot deter a nuclear attack.
We will
deter an enemy from making a nuclear attack only if our retaliatory
power is so strong and so invulnerable that he knows he would be
destroyed by our response. If we have that strength, civil defense
is not needed to deter an attack. If we should ever lack it, civil
defense would not be an adequate substitute.
But this
deterrent concept assumes rational calculations by rational men. And
the history of this planet, and particularly the history of the 20th
century, is sufficient to remind us of the possibilities of an
irrational attack, a miscalculation, an accidental war, [or a war of
escalation in which the stakes by each side gradually increase to
the point of maximum danger] which cannot be either foreseen or
deterred. It is on this basis that civil defense can be readily
justifiable--as insurance for the civilian population in case of an
enemy miscalculation. It is insurance we trust will never be
needed--but insurance which we could never forgive ourselves for
foregoing in the event of catastrophe.
Once the
validity of this concept is recognized, there is no point in
delaying the initiation of a nation-wide long-range program of
identifying present fallout shelter capacity and providing shelter
in new and existing structures. Such a program would protect
millions of people against the hazards of radioactive fallout in the
event of large-scale nuclear attack. Effective performance of the
entire program not only requires new legislative authority and more
funds, but also sound organizational arrangements.
Therefore,
under the authority vested in me by Reorganization Plan No. 1 of
1958, I am assigning responsibility for this program to the top
civilian authority already responsible for continental defense, the
Secretary of Defense. It is important that this function remain
civilian, in nature and leadership; and this feature will not be
changed.
The
Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization will be reconstituted as a
small staff agency to assist in the coordination of these functions.
To more accurately describe its role, its title should be changed to
the Office of Emergency Planning.
As soon
as those newly charged with these responsibilities have prepared new
authorization and appropriation requests, such requests will be
transmitted to the Congress for a much strengthened Federal-State
civil defense program. Such a program will provide Federal funds for
identifying fallout shelter capacity in existing, structures, and it
will include, where appropriate, incorporation of shelter in Federal
buildings, new requirements for shelter in buildings constructed
with Federal assistance, and matching grants and other incentives
for constructing shelter in State and local and private buildings.
Federal
appropriations for civil defense in fiscal 1962 under this program
will in all likelihood be more than triple the pending budget
requests; and they will increase sharply in subsequent years.
Financial participation will also be required from State and local
governments and from private citizens. But no insurance is
cost-free; and every American citizen and his community must decide
for themselves whether this form of survival insurance justifies the
expenditure of effort, time and money. For myself, I am convinced
that it does.
VIII.
DISARMAMENT
I cannot
end this discussion of defense and armaments without emphasizing our
strongest hope: the creation of an orderly world where disarmament
will be possible. Our aims do not prepare for war--they are efforts
to discourage and resist the adventures of others that could end in
war.
That is
why it is consistent with these efforts that we continue to press
for properly safeguarded disarmament measures. At Geneva, in
cooperation with the United Kingdom, we have put forward concrete
proposals to make clear our wish to meet the Soviets half way in an
effective nuclear test ban treaty--the first significant but
essential step on the road towards disarmament. Up to now, their
response has not been what we hoped, but Mr. Dean returned last
night to Geneva, and we intend to go the last mile in patience to
secure this gain if we can.
Meanwhile,
we are determined to keep disarmament high on our agenda--to make an
intensified effort to develop acceptable political and technical
alternatives to the present arms race. To this end I shall send to
the Congress a measure to establish a strengthened and enlarged
Disarmament Agency.
IX. SPACE
Finally,
if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world
between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space
which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as
did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds
of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of
which road they should take. Since early in my term, our efforts in
space have been under review. With the advice of the Vice President,
who is Chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined
where we are strong and where we are not, where we may succeed and
where we may not. Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a
great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a
clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may
hold the key to our future on earth.
I believe
we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of
the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or
marshalled the national resources required for such leadership. We
have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or
managed our resources and our time so as to insure their
fulfillment.
Recognizing
the head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket
engines, which gives them many months of leadtime, and recognizing
the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to
come in still more impressive successes, we nevertheless are
required to make new efforts on our own. For while we cannot
guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any
failure to make this effort will make us last. We take an additional
risk by making it in full view of the world, but as shown by the
feat of astronaut Shepard, this very risk enhances our stature when
we are successful. But this is not merely a race. Space is open to
us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by
the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind
must undertake, free men must fully share.
I
therefore ask the Congress, above and beyond the increases I have
earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which
are needed to meet the following national goals:
First, I
believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this
period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the
long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or
expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of
the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate
liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being
developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional
funds for other engine development and for unmanned
explorations--explorations which are particularly important for one
purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the
man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it
will not be one man going to the moon--if we make this judgment
affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work
to put him there.
Secondly,
an additional 23 million dollars, together with 7 million dollars
already available, will accelerate development of the Rover nuclear
rocket. This gives promise of some day providing a means for even
more exciting and ambitious exploration of space, perhaps beyond the
moon, perhaps to the very end of the solar system itself.
Third, an
additional 50 million dollars will make the most of our present
leadership, by accelerating the use of space satellites for
world-wide communications.
Fourth,
an additional 75 million dollars--of which 53 million dollars is for
the Weather Bureau--will help give us at the earliest possible time
a satellite system for world-wide weather observation.
Let it be
clear--and this is a judgment which the Members of the Congress must
finally make--let it be clear that I am asking the Congress and the
country to accept a firm commitment to a new course of action, a
course which will last for many years and carry very heavy costs:
531 million dollars in fiscal '62--an estimated seven to nine
billion dollars additional over the next five years. If we are to go
only half way, or reduce our sights in the face of difficulty, in my
judgment it would be better not to go at all.
Now this
is a choice which this country must make, and I am confident that
under the leadership of the Space Committees of the Congress, and
the Appropriating Committees, that you will consider the matter
carefully.
It is a
most important decision that we make as a nation. But all of you
have lived through the last four years and have seen the
significance of space and the adventures in space, and no one can
predict with certainty what the ultimate meaning will be of mastery
of space.
I believe
we should go to the moon. But I think every citizen of this country
as well as the Members of the Congress should consider the matter
carefully in making their judgment, to which we have given attention
over many weeks and months, because it is a heavy burden, and there
is no sense in agreeing or desiring that the United States take an
affirmative position in outer space, unless we are prepared to do
the work and bear the burdens to make it successful. If we are not,
we should decide today and this year.
This
decision demands a major national commitment of scientific and
technical manpower, materiel and facilities, and the possibility of
their diversion from other important activities where they are
already thinly spread. It means a degree of dedication, organization
and discipline which have not always characterized our research and
development efforts. It means we cannot afford undue work stoppages,
inflated costs of material or talent, wasteful interagency
rivalries, or a high turnover of key personnel.
New
objectives and new money cannot solve these problems. They could in
fact, aggravate them further--unless every scientist, every
engineer, every serviceman, every technician, contractor, and civil
servant gives his personal pledge that this nation will move
forward, with the full speed of freedom, in the exciting adventure
of space.
X. CONCLUSION
In
conclusion, let me emphasize one point. It is not a pleasure for any
President of the United States, as I am sure it was not a pleasure
for my predecessors, to come before the Congress and ask for new
appropriations which place burdens on our people. I came to this
conclusion with some reluctance. But in my judgment, this is a most
serious time in the life of our country and in the life of freedom
around the globe, and it is the obligation, I believe, of the
President of the United States to at least make his recommendations
to the Members of the Congress, so that they can reach their own
conclusions with that judgment before them. You must decide
yourselves, as I have decided, and I am confident that whether you
finally decide in the way that I have decided or not, that your
judgment--as my judgment--is reached on what is in the best
interests of our country.
In
conclusion, let me emphasize one point: that we are determined, as a
nation in 1961 that freedom shall survive and succeed--and whatever
the peril and set-backs, we have some very large advantages.
The first
is the simple fact that we are on the side of liberty--and since the
beginning of history, and particularly since the end of the Second
World War, liberty has been winning out all over the globe.
A second
real asset is that we are not alone. We have friends and allies all
over the world who share our devotion to freedom. May I cite as a
symbol of traditional and effective friendship the great ally I am
about to visit--France. I look forward to my visit to France, and to
my discussion with a great Captain of the Western World, President
de Gaulle, as a meeting of particular significance, permitting the
kind of close and ranging consultation that will strengthen both our
countries and serve the common purposes of world-wide peace and
liberty. Such serious conversations do not require a pale
unanimity--they are rather the instruments of trust and
understanding over a long road.
A third
asset is our desire for peace. It is sincere, and I believe the
world knows it. We are proving it in our patience at the test ban
table, and we are proving it in the UN where our efforts have been
directed to maintaining that organization's usefulness as a
protector of the independence of small nations. In these and other
instances, the response of our opponents has not been encouraging.
Yet it is
important to know that our patience at the bargaining table is
nearly inexhaustible, though our credulity is limited that our hopes
for peace are unfailing, while our determination to protect our
security is resolute. For these reasons I have long thought it wise
to meet with the Soviet Premier for a personal exchange of views. A
meeting in Vienna turned out to be convenient for us both; and the
Austrian government has kindly made us welcome. No formal agenda is
planned and no negotiations will be undertaken; but we will make
clear America's enduring concern is for both peace and freedom--that
we are anxious to live in harmony with the Russian people--that we
seek no conquests, no satellites, no riches--that we seek only the
day when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more."
Finally,
our greatest asset in this struggle is the American people--their
willingness to pay the price for these programs--to understand and
accept a long struggle--to share their resources with other less
fortunate people--to meet the tax levels and close the tax loopholes
I have requested--to exercise self-restraint instead of pushing up
wages or prices, or over-producing certain crops, or spreading
military secrets, or urging unessential expenditures or improper
monopolies or harmful work stoppages--to serve in the Peace Corps or
the Armed Services or the Federal Civil Service or the Congress--to
strive for excellence in their schools, in their cities and in their
physical fitness and that of their children--to take part in Civil
Defense--to pay higher postal rates, and higher payroll taxes and
higher teachers' salaries, in order to strengthen our society--to
show friendship to students and visitors from other lands who visit
us and go back in many cases to be the future leaders, with an image
of America--and I want that image, and I know you do, to be
affirmative and positive--and, finally, to practice democracy at
home, in all States, with all races, to respect each other and to
protect the Constitutional rights of all citizens.
I have
not asked for a single program which did not cause one or all
Americans some inconvenience, or some hardship, or some sacrifice.
But they have responded and you in the Congress have responded to
your duty--and I feel confident in asking today for a similar
response to these new and larger demands. It is heartening to know,
as I journey abroad, that our country is united in its commitment to
freedom and is ready to do its duty.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library -
Columbia Point - Boston, Massachusetts 02125 Tel: 1-877-616-4599
Fax: 617-929-4538 Email:library@kennedy.nara.gov
John Fitzgerald
Kennedy Library Foundation - Columbia Point - Boston, Massachusetts
02125 Tel: 617-929-1200
Fax: 617-436-3395
Email:foundation@kennedy.nara.gov