Six Crises (77 page)

Do you know why? Because, as Governor Rockefeller said in his remarks, we put our primary reliance not upon government but upon people for progress in America. That is why we will succeed.

We must never forget that the strength of America is not in its government, but in its people. And we say tonight there is no limit to the goals America can reach, provided we stay true to the great American traditions.

A government has a role, and a very important one. The role of government is not to take responsibility from people, but to put responsibility on them. It is not to dictate to people, but to encourage and stimulate the creative productivity of 180,000,000 free Americans. That is the way to progress in America.

In other words, we have faith in the people, and because our programs for progress are based on that faith, we shall succeed where our opponents will fail, in building the better America that I have described.

But if these goals are to be reached, the next President of the United States must have the wisdom to choose between the things government should and should not do. He must have the courage to stand against the pressures of the few for the good of the many. And he must have the vision to press forward on all fronts for the better life our people want.

•  •  •

I have spoken to you of the responsibilities of our next President at home.
Those which he will face abroad will be infinitely greater. But before I look to the future, let me say a word about the past.

At Los Angeles two weeks ago, we heard the United States—our government—blamed for Mr. Khrushchev's sabotage of the Paris Conference. We heard the United States blamed for the actions of Communist-led mobs in Caracas and Tokyo. We heard that American education and American scientists are inferior. We heard that America militarily and economically is a second-rate country. We heard that American prestige is at an all-time low.

This is my reply: I say that when the Communists are running us down abroad, it is time to speak up for America at home. Let us recognize that America has its weaknesses, and that constructive criticism of those weaknesses is essential—essential so that we can correct our weaknesses in the best traditions of our democratic process. But let us also recognize this: while it is dangerous to see nothing wrong in America, it is just as wrong to refuse to recognize what is right about America.

No criticism should be allowed to obscure the truth either at home or abroad that today America is the strongest nation militarily, economically, ideologically in the world; and we have the will and the stamina and the resources to maintain that strength in the years ahead.

•  •  •

Turning now to the future. We must recognize that the foreign policy problems of the '60's will be different and they will be vastly more difficult than those of the '50's through which we have just passed.

We are in a race tonight, my fellow Americans, a race for survival in which our lives, our fortunes, our liberties are at stake. We are ahead now, but the only way to stay ahead in a race is to move ahead; and the next President will make decisions which will determine whether we win or whether we lose this race.

What must he do? He must resolve first and above all that the United States must never settle for second best in anything. Militarily, the security of the United States must be put before all other considerations. Why? Not only because this is necessary to deter aggression, but because we must make sure that we are never in a position at the conference table where Mr. Khrushchev or his successor is able to coerce an American president because of Communist strength and our weakness.

Diplomatically, let us look at what the problem is. Diplomatically, our next President must be firm on principles; but he must never be belligerent. He must never engage in a war of words which might heat up the international climate to the igniting point of nuclear catastrophe.

But while he must never answer insults in kind, he must leave no doubt at any time that in Berlin or in Cuba or anywhere else in the world, America will not tolerate being pushed around by anybody. We have already paid a terrible price in lives and resources to learn that appeasement leads not to peace but to war.

It will indeed take great leadership to steer us through these years, avoiding the extremes of belligerency on the one hand, and appeasement on the other.

Now, Mr. Kennedy has suggested that what the world needs is young leadership; and, understandably this has great appeal. It is true that youth does bring boldness and imagination and drive to leadership, and we need all those things. But I think most people will agree with me tonight when I
say that President De Gaulle, Prime Minister Macmillan and Chancellor Adenauer may not be young men—but we are indeed fortunate in that we have their wisdom and their experience and their courage on our side in the struggle for freedom today in the world.

And I might suggest that as we consider the relative merits of youth and age, it is only fair to point out that it was not Mr. De Gaulle, Mr. Macmillan, or Mr. Adenauer, but Mr. Kennedy who made the rash and impulsive suggestion that President Eisenhower could have apologized or sent regrets to Mr. Khrushchev for the U
-2
flights which the President had ordered to save our country from surprise attack.

But formidable as will be the diplomatic and military problems confronting the next President, far more difficult and critical will be the decisions he must make to meet and defeat the enemies of freedom in an entirely different kind of struggle. Here I want to speak to you of another kind of aggression, aggression without war, where the aggressor comes not as a conqueror, but as a champion of peace, of freedom, offering progress and plenty and hope to the unfortunates of the earth.

I say tonight that the major problem confronting the next President of the United States will be to inform the people of the character of this kind of aggression, to arouse the people to the mortal danger it presents, and to inspire the people to meet that danger. He must develop a brand new strategy which will win the battle for freedom for all men and win it without a war. That is the great task of the next President of the United States. And this will be a difficult task, difficult because at times our next President must tell the people not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. Why, for example, it may be just as essential to the national interest to build a dam in India as in California.

It will be difficult, too, because we Americans have always been able to see and understand the danger presented by missiles and airplanes and bombs; but we have found it hard to recognize the even more deadly danger of the propaganda that warps the mind, the economic offensive that softens a nation, the subversion that destroys the will of a people to resist tyranny.

Yet while this threat is, as I believe it to be, the greatest danger we have ever confronted, this is no reason for lack of confidence in the outcome.

Do you know why? Because there is one great theme that runs through our history as a nation: “Americans are always at their best when the challenge is greatest.” And we Americans shall rise to our greatest heights in this decade of the '60's as we mount the offensive to meet those forces which threaten the peace and the rights of free men everywhere.

•  •  •

There are some things we can do and some things we must do, and I would like to list them for you tonight:

First, we must take the steps which will assure that the American economy grows at a maximum rate so that we can maintain our present massive lead over the Communist bloc. How do we do this? There isn't any magic formula by which government in a free nation can bring this about. The way to assure maximum growth in America is not by expanding the functions of government, but by increasing the opportunities for investment and creative enterprise for millions of individual Americans.

At a time when the Communists have found it necessary to turn to decentralization of their economy, and to turn to the use of individual incentives to increase productivity—at a time, in other words, when they are turning
our way—I say we must not and we will not make the mistake of turning their way.

There is another step that we must take: our government activities must be reorganized to take the initiative from the Communists and to develop and carry out a world-wide strategy and offensive for peace and freedom. The complex of agencies which have grown up through the years for exchange of persons, for technical assistance, for information, for loans and for grants—all these must be welded together into one powerful economic and ideological striking force.

What we must do is wage the battles for peace and freedom with the same unified direction and dedication with which we wage battles in war. And if these activities are to succeed, we must develop a better training program for the men and women who will represent our country at home and abroad. We need men with a broad knowledge of the intricacies and techniques of the strategies of the Communists, with the keen knowledge of the great principles for which free people stand, and, above all, men who with a zeal and dedication which the Communists cannot match will out-think, out-work and out-last the enemies of freedom wherever they meet them anywhere in the world. This is the kind of men we must train.

We must recognize that government cannot do this job alone. The most effective proponents of freedom are not governments, but free people; and this means that every American—every one of you listening tonight—who works or travels abroad, must represent his country at its best in everything that he does.

The United States, big as it is, strong as it is, cannot do this job alone. The best brains, the fullest resources of other free nations, which have as great a stake in freedom as we have, must be mobilized to participate with us in this task to the extent they are able.

But do you know what is most important of all? Above all, we must recognize that the greatest economic strength that we can imagine, and the finest government organization—all this will fail if we are not united and inspired by a great idea, an idea which will be a battlecry for a grand offensive to win the minds and the hearts and the souls of men. Do we have such an idea?

The Communists proclaim over and over again that their aim is the victory of Communism throughout the world. It is not enough for us to reply that our aim is to contain Communism, to defend the free world against Communism, to hold the line against Communism. The only answer to a strategy of victory for the Communist world is a strategy of victory for the free world.

Let the victory we seek be not victory over any other nation or any other people. Let it be the victory of freedom over tyranny, of plenty over hunger, of health over disease, in every country of the world.

When Mr. Khrushchev says our grandchildren will live under Communism, let us say his grandchildren will live in freedom. When Mr. Khrushchev says the Monroe Doctrine is dead in the Americas, let us say the Doctrine of Freedom lives everywhere in the world.

Let us welcome Mr. Khrushchev's challenge to peaceful competition of our systems; but then reply, “Let us compete in the Communist world as well as in the free world,” because the Communist dictators must not be allowed a privileged sanctuary from which to launch their guerilla attacks on the citadels of freedom.

Instead, we say, extend this competition, extend it to include not only
food and factories as he has suggested but extend it to include the great spiritual and moral values which characterize our civilization.

Also, my friends, let us welcome the challenge, not be disconcerted by it nor fail to meet it, but welcome the challenge presented by the revolution of peaceful peoples' aspirations in South America, in Asia, in Africa.

•  •  •

We must not fail in this mission. We must not fail to assist them in finding a way to progress with freedom so that they will not be faced with the terrible alternative of turning to Communism with its promise of progress at the cost of freedom.

Let us make it clear to them that our aim in helping them is not merely to stop Communism, but that in the great American tradition of concern for those less fortunate than we are, we welcome the opportunity to work with people everywhere to help them achieve their aspirations for a life of human dignity. And this means that our primary aim must be not to help governments but to help people—to help people attain the life they deserve.

In essence, what I am saying tonight is that our answer to the threat of the Communist revolution is renewed devotion to the great ideals of the American Revolution, ideals that caught the imagination of the world one hundred and eighty years ago and that still live in the minds and hearts of people everywhere.

I could tell you tonight that all you need to do to bring about these things that I have just described is to elect the right man as President of this country and leave these tasks to him. But, my fellow Americans, America demands more than that of me and of you.

When I visited the Soviet Union, in every factory there was a huge sign which read, “Work for the victory of Communism.” What America needs today is not just a President, not just a few leaders, but millions of Americans working for the victory of freedom. This means each American must make a personal and total commitment to the cause of freedom and all it stands for. It means wage earners and employers must make an extra effort to increase the productivity of our factories. It means our students in schools must strive for increasing excellence rather than adjustment to mediocrity.

It means supporting and encouraging our scientists to explore the unknown, not just for what we can get but for what we can learn. And it means assuming a personal responsibility for making this country which we love a proud symbol of freedom for all the world.

Each of us, for example, should be doing his part to end the prejudice which one hundred years after Lincoln, to our shame, still embarrasses us abroad and saps our strength at home.