But if there are some who do not believe this, then, in the name of justice, let them call for the contribution of those who live in the fullness of our blessing, rather than try to strip it from the hands of those that are most in need. And let no one think that the unfortunate and the oppressed of this land sit stifled and alone in their hope tonight. Hundreds of their servants and their protectors sit before me tonight here in this great Chamber. The Great Society leads us along three roads growth and justice and liberation. First is growth the national prosperity which supports the well-being of our people and which provides the tools of our progress. I can report to you tonight what you have seen for yourselves already in every city and countryside. Workers are making more money than ever with after-tax income in the past 5 years up 33 percent; in the last year alone, up 8 percent. More people are working than ever before in our history an increase last year of 2 1/2 million jobs. Corporations have greater after-tax earnings than ever in history. For the past 5 years those earnings have been up over 65 percent, and last year alone they had a rise of 20 percent. Over the past 5 years it is up 40 percent, and over the past year it is up 22 percent alone. I was informed this afternoon by the distinguished Secretary of the Treasury that his preliminary estimates indicate that our balance of payments deficit has been reduced from $2.8 billion in 1964 to $1.3 billion, or less, in 1965. This achievement has been made possible by the patriotic voluntary cooperation of businessmen and bankers working with your Government. We must now work together with increased urgency to wipe out this balance of payments deficit altogether in the next year. And as our economy surges toward new heights we must increase our vigilance against the inflation which raises the cost of living and which lowers the savings of every family in this land. It is essential, to prevent inflation, that we ask both labor and business to exercise price and wage restraint, and I do so again tonight. I believe it desirable, because of increased military expenditures, that you temporarily restore the automobile and certain telephone excise tax reductions made effective only 12 days ago. Without raising taxes or even increasing the total tax bill paid we should move to improve our withholding system so that Americans can more realistically pay as they go, speed up the collection of corporate taxes, and make other necessary simplifications of the tax structure at an early date.

Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union.


But if the necessities of Vietnam require it, I will not hesitate to return to the Congress for additional appropriations, or additional revenues if they are needed. Justice means a man's hope should not be limited by the color of his skin. I propose legislation to establish unavoidable requirements for nondiscriminatory jury selection in Federal and State courts and to give the Attorney General the power necessary to enforce those requirements. I propose legislation to strengthen authority of Federal courts to try those who murder, attack, or intimidate either civil rights workers or others exercising their constitutional rights and to increase penalties to a level equal to the nature of the crime. For that other nation within a Nation the poor whose distress has now captured the conscience of America, I will ask the Congress not only to continue, but to speed up the war on poverty. And in so doing, we will provide the added energy of achievement with the increased efficiency of experience. To improve the life of our rural Americans and our farm population, we will plan for the future through the establishment of several new Community Development Districts, improved education through the use of Teacher Corps teams, better health measures, physical examinations, and adequate and available medical resources. For those who labor, I propose to improve unemployment insurance, to expand minimum wage benefits, and by the repeal of section 14 of the Taft-Hartley Act to make the labor laws in all our States equal to the laws of the 31 States which do not have tonight right-to-work measures. And I also intend to ask the Congress to consider measures which, without improperly invading State and local authority, will enable us effectively to deal with strikes which threaten irreparable damage to the national interest. The third path is the path of liberation. It is to use our success for the fulfillment of our lives. A great nation is one which breeds a great people. A great people flower not from wealth and power, but from a society which spurs them to the fullness of their genius. Yet, slowly, painfully, on the edge of victory, has come the knowledge that shared prosperity is not enough. In the midst of abundance modern man walks oppressed by forces which menace and confine the quality of his life, and which individual abundance alone will not overcome.


We can subdue and we can master these forces bring increased meaning to our lives if all of us, Government and citizens, are bold enough to change old ways, daring enough to assault new dangers, and if the dream is dear enough to call forth the limitless capacities of this great people. This year we must continue to improve the quality of American life. Let us fulfill and improve the great health and education programs of last year, extending special opportunities to those who risk their lives in our Armed Forces. I urge the House of Representatives to complete action on three programs already passed by the Senate the Teacher Corps, rent assistance, and home rule for the District of Columbia. In some of our urban areas we must help rebuild entire sections and neighborhoods containing, in some cases, as many as 100,000 people. Working together, private enterprise and government must press forward with the task of providing homes and shops, parks and hospitals, and all the other necessary parts of a flourishing community where our people can come to live the good life. I will offer other proposals to stimulate and to reward planning for the growth of entire metropolitan areas. Of all the reckless devastations of our national heritage, none is really more shameful than the continued poisoning of our rivers and our air. We must undertake a cooperative effort to end pollution in several river basins, making additional funds available to help draw the plans and construct the plants that are necessary to make the waters of our entire river systems clean, and make them a source of pleasure and beauty for all of our people. To attack and to overcome growing crime and lawlessness, I think we must have a stepped-up program to help modernize and strengthen our local police forces. Our people have a right to feel secure in their homes and on their streets and that right just must be secured. Nor can we fail to arrest the destruction of life and property on our highways. I will propose a Highway Safety Act of 1966 to seek an end to this mounting tragedy. We must also act to prevent the deception of the American consumer requiring all packages to state clearly and truthfully their contents all interest and credit charges to be fully revealed and keeping harmful drugs and cosmetics away from our stores. It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention. We must change to master change. I propose to take steps to modernize and streamline the executive branch, to modernize the relations between city and State and Nation.


A new Department of Transportation is needed to bring together our transportation activities. The present structure 35 Government agencies, spending $5 billion yearly makes it almost impossible to serve either the growing demands of this great Nation or the needs of the industry, or the right of the taxpayer to full efficiency and real frugality. I will propose in addition a program to construct and to flight-test a new supersonic transport airplane that will fly three times the speed of sound in excess of 2,000 miles per hour. I propose to examine our Federal system-the relation between city, State, Nation, and the citizens themselves. We need a commission of the most distinguished scholars and men of public affairs to do this job. I will ask them to move on to develop a creative federalism to best use the wonderful diversity of our institutions and our people to solve the problems and to fulfill the dreams of the American people. As the process of election becomes more complex and more costly, we must make it possible for those without personal wealth to enter public life without being obligated to a few large contributors. Therefore, I will submit legislation to revise the present unrealistic restriction on contributions to prohibit the endless proliferation of committees, bringing local and State committees under the act to attach strong teeth and severe penalties to the requirement of full disclosure of contributions-and to broaden the participation of the people, through added tax incentives, to stimulate small contributions to the party and to the candidate of their choice. To strengthen the work of Congress I strongly urge an amendment to provide a 4-year term for Members of the House of Representatives-which should not begin before 1972. The present 2-year term requires most Members of Congress to divert enormous energies to an almost constant process of campaigning depriving this Nation of the fullest measure of both their skill and their wisdom. Today, too, the work of government is far more complex than in our early years, requiring more time to learn and more time to master the technical tasks of legislating. And a longer term will serve to attract more men of the highest quality to political life. The Nation, the principle of democracy, and, I think, each congressional district, will all be better served by a 4-year term for Members of the House. And I urge your swift action. Tonight the cup of peril is full in Vietnam. That conflict is not an isolated episode, but another great event in the policy that we have followed with strong consistency since World War II.


The touchstone of that policy is the interest of the United States the welfare and the freedom of the people of the United States. But nations sink when they see that interest only through a narrow glass. In a world that has grown small and dangerous, pursuit of narrow aims could bring decay and even disaster. An America that is mighty beyond description-yet living in a hostile or despairing world would be neither safe nor free to build a civilization to liberate the spirit of man. In this pursuit we helped rebuild Western Europe. We gave our aid to Greece and Turkey, and we defended the freedom of Berlin. In this pursuit we have helped new nations toward independence. We have extended the helping hand of the Peace Corps and carried forward the largest program of economic assistance in the world. And in this pursuit we work to build a hemisphere of democracy and of social justice. In this pursuit we have defended against Communist aggression in Korea under President Truman in the Formosa Straits under President Eisenhower in Cuba under President Kennedy and again in Vietnam. Tonight Vietnam must hold the center of our attention, but across the world problems and opportunities crowd in on the American Nation. I will discuss them fully in the months to come, and I will follow the five continuing lines of policy that America has followed under its last four Presidents. Tonight I can tell you that we are strong enough to keep all of our commitments. We will need expenditures of $58.3 billion for the next fiscal year to maintain this necessary defense might. While special Vietnam expenditures for the next fiscal year are estimated to increase by $5.8 billion, I can tell you that all the other expenditures put together in the entire Federal budget will rise this coming year by only $.6 billion. This is true because of the stringent cost-conscious economy program inaugurated in the Defense Department, and followed by the other departments of Government. A second principle of policy is the effort to control, and to reduce, and to ultimately eliminate the modern engines of destruction. We will vigorously pursue existing proposals-and seek new ones to control arms and to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. A third major principle of our foreign policy is to help build those associations of nations which reflect the opportunities and the necessities of the modern world. By strengthening the common defense, by stimulating world commerce, by meeting new hopes, these associations serve the cause of a flourishing world.


We will take new steps this year to help strengthen the Alliance for Progress, the unity of Europe, the community of the Atlantic, the regional organizations of developing continents, and that supreme association the United Nations. We will work to strengthen economic cooperation, to reduce barriers to trade, and to improve international finance. A fourth enduring strand of policy has been to help improve the life of man. From the Marshall plan to this very moment tonight, that policy has rested on the claims of compassion, and the certain knowledge that only a people advancing in expectation will build secure and peaceful lands. This year I propose major new directions in our program of foreign assistance to help those countries who will help themselves. We will conduct a worldwide attack on the problems of hunger and disease and ignorance. We will place the matchless skill and the resources of our own great America, in farming and in fertilizers, at the service of those countries committed to develop a modern agriculture. We will aid those who educate the young in other lands, and we will give children in other continents the same head start that we are trying to give our own children. To advance these ends I will propose the International Education Act of 1966. I will also propose the International Health Act of 1966 to strike at disease by a new effort to bring modern skills and knowledge to the uncared-for, those suffering in the world, and by trying to wipe out smallpox and malaria and control yellow fever over most of the world during this next decade; to help countries trying to control population growth, by increasing our research and we will earmark funds to help their efforts. In the next year, from our foreign aid sources, we propose to dedicate $1 billion to these efforts, and we call on all who have the means to join us in this work in the world. The fifth and most important principle of our foreign policy is support of national independence the right of each people to govern themselves and to shape their own institutions. For a peaceful world order will be possible only when each country walks the way that it has chosen to walk for itself. We follow this principle by encouraging the end of colonial rule. We follow this principle, abroad as well as at home, by continued hostility to the rule of the many by the few or the oppression of one race by another. We follow this principle by building bridges to Eastern Europe. And I will ask the Congress for authority to remove the special tariff restrictions which are a barrier to increasing trade between the East and the West.


The insistent urge toward national independence is the strongest force of today's world in which we live. In Africa and Asia and Latin America it is shattering the designs of those who would subdue others to their ideas or their will. It is eroding the unity of what was once a Stalinist empire. In recent months a number of nations have east out those who would subject them to the ambitions of mainland China. History is on the side of freedom and is on the side of societies shaped from the genius of each people. History does not favor a single system or belief unless force is used to make it so. That is why it has been necessary for us to defend this basic principle of our policy, to defend it in Berlin, in Korea, in Cuba-and tonight in Vietnam. For tonight, as so many nights before, young Americans struggle and young Americans die in a distant land. Tonight, as so many nights before, the American Nation is asked to sacrifice the blood of its children and the fruits of its labor for the love of its freedom. How many times in my lifetime and in yours have the American people gathered, as they do now, to hear their ENTITY tell them of conflict and tell them of danger? They have answered with all the effort that the security and the freedom of this Nation required. And they do again tonight in Vietnam. In the North was an independent Communist government. In the South a people struggled to build a nation, with the friendly help of the United States. There were some in South Vietnam who wished to force Communist rule on their own people. Their hope of success was dim. Then, little more than 6 years ago, North Vietnam decided on conquest. And from that day to this, soldiers and supplies have moved from North to South in a swelling stream that is swallowing the remnants of revolution in aggression. We could leave, abandoning South Vietnam to its attackers and to certain conquest, or we could stay and fight beside the people of South Vietnam. We will stay because a just nation cannot leave to the cruelties of its enemies a people who have staked their lives and independence on America's solemn pledge a pledge which has grown through the commitments of three American ENTITYs. We will stay because in Asia and around the world are countries whose independence rests, in large measure, on confidence in America's word and in America's protection. We would have to fight in one land, and then we would have to fight in another or abandon much of Asia to the domination of Communists.


And we do not intend to abandon Asia to conquest. Last year the nature of the war in Vietnam changed again. Swiftly increasing numbers of armed men from the North crossed the borders to join forces that were already in the South. Attack and terror increased, spurred and encouraged by the belief that the United States lacked the will to continue and that their victory was near. to hold back the mounting aggression, to give courage to the people of the South, and to make our firmness clear to the North. we began limited air action against military targets in North Vietnam. We increased our fighting force to its present strength tonight of 190,000 men. These moves have not ended the aggression but they have prevented its success. The aims of the enemy have been put out of reach by the skill and the bravery of Americans and their allies and by the enduring courage of the South Vietnamese who, I can tell you, have lost eight men last year for every one of ours. The enemy is no longer close to victory. Time is no longer on his side. Our decision to stand firm has been matched by our desire for peace. In 1965 alone we had 300 private talks for peace in Vietnam, with friends and adversaries throughout the world. Since Christmas your Government has labored again, with imagination and endurance, to remove any barrier to peaceful settlement. For 20 days now we and our Vietnamese allies have dropped no bombs in North Vietnam. Able and experienced spokesmen have visited, in behalf of America, more than 40 countries. We have talked to more than a hundred governments, all 113 that we have relations with, and some that we do not . We have talked to the United Nations and we have called upon all of its members to make any contribution that they can toward helping obtain peace. In public statements and in private communications, to adversaries and to friends, in Rome and Warsaw, in Paris and Tokyo, in Africa and throughout this hemisphere, America has made her position abundantly clear. We seek neither territory nor bases, economic domination or military alliance in Vietnam. We fight for the principle of self-determination that the people of South Vietnam should be able to choose their own course, choose it in free elections without violence, without terror, and without fear. The people of all Vietnam should make a free decision on the great question of reunification. This is all we want for South Vietnam. It is all the people of South Vietnam want.


And if there is a single nation on this earth that desires less than this for its own people, then let its voice be heard. We have also made it clear from Hanoi to New York that there are no arbitrary limits to our search for peace. We stand by the Geneva Agreements of 1954 and 1962. We will meet at any conference table, we will discuss any proposals four points or fourteen or forty and we will consider the views of any group. We will work for a cease-fire now or once discussions have begun. We will respond if others reduce their use of force, and we will withdraw our soldiers once South Vietnam is securely guaranteed the right to shape its own future. We have said all this, and we have asked-and hoped and we have waited for a response. So far we have received no response to prove either success or failure. We have carried our quest for peace to many nations and peoples because we share this planet with others whose future, in large measure, is tied to our own action, and whose counsel is necessary to our own hopes. We have found understanding and support. And we know they wait with us tonight for some response that could lead to peace. I wish tonight that I could give you a blueprint for the course of this conflict over the coming months, but we just cannot know what the future may require. We may have to face long, hard combat or a long, hard conference, or even both at once. We will act as we must to help protect the independence of the valiant people of South Vietnam. We will strive to limit the conflict, for we wish neither increased destruction nor do we want to invite increased danger. every gun, and every dollar, and every decision whatever the cost or whatever the challenge. And we will continue to help the people of South Vietnam care for those that are ravaged by battle, create progress in the villages, and carry forward the healing hopes of peace as best they can amidst the uncertain terrors of war. The days may become months, and the months may become years, but we will stay as long as aggression commands us to battle. There may be some who do not want peace, whose ambitions stretch so far that war in Vietnam is but a welcome and convenient episode in an immense design to subdue history to their will. But for others it must now be clear the choice is not between peace and victory, it lies between peace and the ravages of a conflict from which they can only lose.


the shared needs of man, the needs for food and shelter and education the chance to build and work and till the soil, free from the arbitrary horrors of battle the desire to walk in the dignity of those who master their own destiny. For many painful years, in war and revolution and infrequent peace, they have struggled to fulfill those needs. It is a crime against mankind that so much courage, and so much will, and so many dreams, must be flung on the fires of war and death. Let us choose peace, and with it the wondrous works of peace, and beyond that, the time when hope reaches toward consummation, and life is the servant of life. In this work, we plan to discharge our duty to the people whom we serve. This is the State of the Union. But over it all wealth, and promise, and expectation lies our troubling awareness of American men at war tonight. How many men who listen to me tonight have served their Nation in other wars? The war in Vietnam is not like these other wars. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate. Many of you share the burden of this knowledge tonight with me. For finally I must be the one to order our guns to fire, against all the most inward pulls of my desire. For we have children to teach, and we have sick to be cured, and we have men to be freed. I am hopeful, and I will try as best I can, with everything I have got, to end this battle and to return our sons to their desires. Yet as long as others will challenge America's security and test the clearness of our beliefs with fire and steel, then we must stand or see the promise of two centuries tremble. I believe tonight that you do not want me to try that risk. And from that belief your ENTITY summons his strength for the trials that lie ahead in the days to come. Scarred by the weaknesses of man, with whatever guidance God may offer us, we must nevertheless and alone with our mortality, strive to ennoble the life of man on earth.


I am , of course, very grateful to Dan Quayle, our Vice President, for his hard work on the issue that I want to discuss today, and to many of you here who have been very helpful in all of this. I want to single out our nominee for Attorney General, Bill Barr, the Acting Attorney General, and Ken Starr, the Solicitor General who headed the working group that produced what I think is a very fine report. A little more than 2 months ago, the Vice President outlined our agenda for civil justice reform before the American Bar Association. That speech unleashed a national debate, a flurry of mail here at the White House, I might add, and some of the best lawyer jokes that I have heard in years. But we are not here today to make an easy hit on lawyers. Frankly, I do not think that the problem rests with lawyers; the problem stems from a legal system that just spun out of control. Sadly, we have become the most litigious society in the world. In order to restore sanity to our civil justice system, the Competitiveness Council that the Vice President chairs has recommended extensive and concrete steps that we can take, starting today, to get our legal system back on track. There is 50 recommendations, and these 50 recommendations include changes in the rules of discovery, adoption in certain areas of the loser pays rule, encouragement of alternative dispute resolution, caps on punitive damages, and changes in the rules and expert evidence to end the use of junk science on the witness stand. I have named only a few of our many recommendations. Some of these proposals require Federal legislation, and we are going to be transmitting that up to the Congress very, very soon. Other proposals require action by the Supreme Court. Today's Executive order will apply most of these recommendations, where possible, to the Federal Government. And I am asking every agency head, many here today, to do everything possible to fully and effectively implement the Executive order. With all that said, let me get to the heart of the matter. Civil justice reform is absolutely essential to our country's well-being. I am talking about access to health care and quality of life. Parents are having a tough time finding an obstetrician just out there in some of the States because many obstetricians found it was not worth it to practice anymore. I am talking about beneficial new products that never reach the marketplace at all because of liability concerns. I am talking about jobs.

Remarks on Signing the Executive Order on Civil Justice Reform


We got a letter the other day from an architect in California named Charles Yaeger. Here is what he wrote, I have many friends who are going out of business because of fear of lawsuits. And I am talking about inflation and consumer prices. As a business owner myself, the liability insurance is getting out of hand. The manufacturers could significantly lower their prices both wholesale and retail, which would stimulate our economy. Maybe other countries do not have this problem because every other Western democracy has the loser pays rule in order to discourage senseless lawsuits. Maybe it is because we have most of the world's lawyers here in America. Maybe it is because the pop culture in this country encourages lawsuits. I do not know how many of you watch Hulk Hogan in the movie, but he is got a brand new movie out there, and at one point he asks the bad guys if they are going to beat him up. You know what the bad guys replied? Hey, this is the nineties; we are going to sue you. People around the country understand that, and they have understood it for some time. And we have got to get something done about it. You see the problem everywhere. From the hindrance of new medicines to local bans of firework displays on the Fourth of July, the fear of outlandish litigation has begun to strangle the American dream. Americans understand that civil justice reform means growth, competitiveness, and jobs. That is why I feel so strongly about these recommendations by Dan Quayle's Competitiveness Council. This is not a partisan issue; we keep making that point. It is a matter of overcoming the vested interests and changing the status quo to ensure a better and most prosperous life for all Americans. The Federal Government is the largest single consumer of legal resources. As the client, I am asking you, the Government's top lawyers, to help us change the status quo. The Executive order will hold you to higher standards than private practitioners. But it will also give us the opportunity to lead the country by example toward civil justice reform. Today we are taking the first step. And now I want to invite Bill Barr and Ken Starr to join Dan Quayle and me up here as I sign this Executive order.


Well, I have got two short statements I want to read to you to start things off with. Secretary Morgenthau has told me about the shocking cases of tax evasion his men have discovered, and I am thoroughly in sympathy with his plan to enlarge the Bureau of Internal Revenue forces to whatever extent is required to insure full compliance with the law. It will be good business for the Government, because every dollar we spend in collection and enforcement will produce $20 or more in revenue. And much more important is the matter of good morals. We are not fighting this war to make millionaires, and certainly we are not going to allow the black market operators or any other racketeers to be in a favored class, when the men in the armed forces, and our citizens generally, are sacrificing so heavily. Yesterday, I acquainted the top officials of the Civil Service Commission with our special tax drive and the necessity for an accelerated program of recruitment. Arrangements have been made with the Civil Service Commission to have placed at every ENTITY discharge center in the United States a qualified recruitment officer from the Civil Service Commission, fully versed in our recruitment requirements, who will steer to us the qualified veterans as they are discharged. The American people understand that sacrifices are necessary. The one thing that might break down their will to keep on to complete victory would be a feeling that a few were profiting from the sacrifices of the many. We must see that there is no justification for any such feeling, and that is just what we are going to do. I think there will be enough discharged veterans, probably, with the qualifications to meet this 10,000-man-program that Mr. Morgenthau is asking for. It is a crime to--a terrible crime, in my opinion, to find these people who are hoarding money and living off the black markets, and things of that sort, when the sons of the rest of the population are out getting killed to save the country. And we are going to try to put a stop to it. I have another short statement I would like to make, with regard to prisoners of war. I wish to express my very deep sympathy for the relatives of those members of our armed forces who have the misfortune still to be held as prisoners of war by the enemy. The welfare of these men is a matter of deep concern to me, and I am determined to do everything possible to help them and to bring about their release as soon as possible.

The President's News Conference


President Kim, Mrs. Kim, members of the Korean delegation, distinguished guests, Hillary and I welcome you to the White House. On our two trips to Korea, we experienced the great kindness of the Korean people. We hope you have experienced that same feeling from the American people. As you can see from looking around this room, the American people include more than 1 million Korean-Americans who make very strong contributions to the United States but never forget their brothers and sisters half a world away. I recall very well the day in 1992 we first met on the steps of the City Hall in Los Angeles, where we also met with citizens who were starting to rebuild their community after intense racial strife. You spent much of your period of exile in our country, and you have many great friends here, some of whom are with us tonight. They have stood by you through times of trouble, and in turn, you have been a real inspiration to them. Even if the heavens were to crash down, there is a hole through which to rise up; and even if taken in a tiger's teeth, there is a way to survive. Raised on an island with no paved roads or electricity, you were captured by the North Koreans in the war and nearly executed; elected to the national assembly only days before the assembly was disbanded by a coup; denied the Presidency in 1971 after voter intimidation and fraud by the ruling party; injured when a 14-ton truck tried to ram your car; kidnapped, taken to sea, prepared for drowning by Government agents; sentenced to death again in 1981 after a 6-minute trial. Through it all, you never lost hope that democracy and human rights could rise up in your beloved land. Now you are at the center of that democracy working to make the dreams of your people a reality. You are an inspiration, not only to your fellow Koreans but to people all around the world who seek freedom and a better life. Tonight we celebrate your triumphs and the triumph of democracy in so many nations that once were ruled by the iron hand of dictatorship. We also remember with gratitude those who bravely struggled for freedom but gave their lives before their dreams were realized. And we honor those around the world who still struggle to free their countries from tyranny. Their struggles and yours, Mr. President, remind us that we must never take freedom for granted. As Abraham Lincoln, whose life and words you have studied, once said, The fight must go on.

Remarks at the State Dinner Honoring President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea


In my last radio address, I discussed my decision not to impose quotas or tariffs on footwear imports. Protectionism, I said, costs consumers billions of dollars, damages the overall economy, and destroys jobs. Instead of closing down markets at home and throwing Americans out of work, we should be stepping up our efforts to open markets abroad and create American jobs by increasing exports. I instructed the United States Trade Representative to begin investigations of unfair trading practices on the part of our trading partners. We have the authority to counter unfair trading practices by initiating investigations, entering negotiations, and taking active countermeasures if those negotiations are unsuccessful. one, against a Korean law that prohibits fair competition of U.S. life and fire insurance firms in the Korean market in direct contradiction of treaty obligations; two, against a Brazilian law that has restricted U.S. exports of computers and related products and squeezed out some American computer firms operating there; and three, against restrictive practices dealing with tobacco products in Japan that unfairly block U.S. entry into that market. I have also ordered acceleration of ongoing efforts to open up Japanese markets in leather and leather footwear and to challenge the European Community's subsidies on canned fruit. On these two cases we are setting a deadline of December 1, 1985. I have directed that a list be prepared of countermeasures which will be taken if these disputes are not resolved by then. We hope that through these negotiations we will be able to convince our trading partners to stop their unfair trading practices and open those markets that are now closed to American exports. We will take countermeasures only as a last resort, but our trading partners should not doubt our determination to see international trade conducted fairly with the same rules applicable to all. I am committed to and will continue to fight for fair trade. American exporters and American workers deserve a fair shake abroad, and we intend to see they get it. Our objective will always be to make world trading partnerships freer and fairer for all. So, while we will use our powers as a lever to open closed doors abroad, we will continue to resist protectionist measures that would only raise prices, lock out trade, and destroy the jobs and prosperity trade brings to all. As we take these important steps to make our trading system freer and fairer, let us also look at the subject of trade in its broader context. Some point to our trade deficit with alarm, but our share of world exports has not declined.

Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade


I do not know how many of you are thinking of going with me up to the Adirondacks, as many as can I hope. Those who go I shall see up there. Those who stay in Washington I shall not of course see, and I wish to take this opportunity to express my amazement at the constant correctness of my views as you report them to the country. I would not be able to report as correctly the views of any one of you. I do not know how you get before the country so clearly and so well my views as you do. And I also want to thank you for the consideration with which you have always treated the Presidential office during the time that I have been President. It has been very helpful to me in the transaction of the public business and I think very helpful to the country in coming to a comprehension of what the Government is trying to do, how it is trying to function, what efforts it is making to benefit the condition of the people. I hope those of you that stay here or go to some other part of the country will have the opportunity to have as pleasant a summer as I expect to have and as those who go with me I know will have. I would like to say also that I am very much gratified with the work that the Congress did. The principal thing that will affect the country is the reduction of taxation. I was not able to do a great lot with the reduc-tion of expenditures, but we did keep expenditures down fairly well. There was no bill of general importance that passed that I did not approve. I sent up a couple of veto messages of personal and local significance and there were three or four bills that I decided not to sign. One of them I had not been able to make up my mind about it. That is the bill relative to taxation of lands in Oregon and Washington. That did not come in until just as I was about to leave the office to go to lunch and from lunch to the Capitol, so I did not have a chance to investigate it. I am investigating it now to see whether I ought to approve it or leave it disapproved. The tax measure I would say was the most important piece of legislation. The approval of the World Court and the manifest desire to place that on a basis where its independence would be made more secure than it is now, leaving the other nations to approve that policy, is a matter of importance in international relations.

Excerpts of the President's News Conference


I think that there was not much of anything in the way of treaties. The Lausanne treaty and the treaty relative to the sale of arms and the use of gas did not come up for final consideration. The Railroad Labor Bill will we hope develop into a very important policy, because of the significance of it of leaving the management of the railroads and the employees to agree among themselves with the very manifest disposition of a new desire on their part to harmonize difficulties that may arise and adjust them without the interference of the Government. And of course there is the building law which really represented a new policy of making a lump sum appropriation and leaving the administration of it and the disposition of it to the Secretary of the Treasury. I also believe the Postmaster General comes in on things that are of interest to the Post Office Department. Then the aviation bill was very important, which also is the adoption of a new policy of administration. With the great amount of discussion that had been going on through the summer months in relation to the aviation situation, the present bill is in a very wonderful way, I think, almost in entire harmony with the recommendations made by the Navy Air Board, a considerable step in advance. We passed a bill that had been agreed upon in the fall as a result of conferences between the Secretary of Agriculture and the Cooperative Farm Associations that is of considerable importance for the betterment of the cooperative farm movement in the country. I spoke of the two treaties. Another matter of importance which awaits future action is legislation relative to the licensing of radio plants. I think those are the principal features of this Congress. But the fact remains that no legislation of general import was passed that did not have my approval and in all the main features that I desired to have the Congress act upon I secured favorable action. I happened to express it in that way. I think some of the success of the present Congress was due to the fact that they assumed very largely their own responsibility and undertook to function as an independent legislative body without too much interference on the part of the Executive or too much subservience to the wishes of the Executive. That is I mean, trying to determine questions on their merits. As a result of that policy there was very little of partisanship that was shown in the decision of any large questions. There is another item that I left out, which of course is of tremendous importance, and that is the settlement of our foreign debts. I would place that as one of the major accomplishments of the last Congress.


To all you San Antonio Spurs fans, we are glad you are here in the Rose Garden. We want to congratulate you on a fantastic championship run. I first want to welcome my friend Peter Holt, who turned out to be a pretty darn good owner. It is more than I can say for the former Ranger ownership. I want to thank R.C. Buford, who is the general manager, and Gregg Popovich, who is the manager of-the coach of the club. And I want to welcome the players and your wives and friends and family here. After this is over, I'd like to invite you in the Oval Office and let you see where the decisions are made that affect the peace and freedom of this world. Senator John Cornyn from San Antonio; Lamar Smith and Henry Bonilla as well from San Antonio. You got to know that during the playoffs, these guys were touting the Spurs. They were giving a pretty hefty line to anybody who dared bet against the Spurs, and you did not let them down. He and I share an interesting relationship. As you may know, his father, Bob, won the NBA Championship ring. And so Danny and Bob Ferry are only the second father/son combination to ever win a championship ring- -if you get my drift. We are members of the famous fathers club. And anyway, I want to welcome you here. You will see where the-only the second son of a President office is in a minute. I also-one of the things that happens when a championship team comes here, it gives me a chance to talk about the development of a culture, a winning culture inside an organization. I like to call it a culture of service, people being willing to serve something greater than themself, in this case, a team. I was struck by Tim Duncan's comments after the sixth game when they were talking about the fantastic individual effort he had. And a reporter said, What about that effort? He said, It is cool, but then immediately went on to talk about the accomplishments of his teammates, recognizing that you cannot win a championship unless you are able to rely upon others and lift others up and participate with others and work hard with others. And it is a phenomenal tribute to the San Antonio Spurs that they have got such great individual players who are willing to work as a team. And it is a wonderful example for our country-it really is.

Remarks Honoring the 2003 National Basketball Association Champion San Antonio Spurs


You show your welcome in many delightful ways and in no more delightful way than that in which you have shown it in this room. The words which the mayor has uttered have touched me very much and I have been most touched and stimulated by the words which Senor Postorelli has so kindly uttered in behalf of the Government of this great kingdom. It is very delightful to feel my association with that government and with this city. I know how much of the vitality of Italian effort comes out of this great center of industry and of thought. As I passed through your streets I had this sensation, a sensation which I have often had in my own dear country at home-a sensation of friendship and close sympathetic contact. I could have believed myself in an American city. And I felt more than that. I felt, as I have also felt at home, that the real blood of the country flowed there in the street, in the veins of those plain people who more than some of the rest of us have borne the stress and burden of the war. Because think of the price at which you and at which we have purchased the victory which we have won. Think of the price of blood and treasure not only, but the price of tears, the price of hunger on the part of little children, the hopes delayed, the dismay of the prospects, that bore heavy upon the homes of simple people everywhere. That is the price of liberty. Those of us who plan battles, those of us who conceive policies, do not bear the burden of it. We plan and others suffer, and the conquest of spirit is greater than the conquest of arms. These are the people that never let go and say nothing. They merely live from day to day, determined that the glory of Italy or the glory of the United States shall not depart from her. I have been thinking as I have passed through your streets and sat here that this was the place of the labors of the great Cavour, and I have thought how impossible many of the things that have happened in Italy since, how impossible the great achievements of Italy in the last three years, would have been without the work of Cavour.

Remarks at The Philharmonic Club in Turin, Italy


Ever since I was a boy one of my treasured portraits has been a portrait of Cavour; because I had read about him, of the way in which his mind took in the nation, the national scope of it, of the strong determined patriotic endeavor that never allowed obstacles to dismay him, and of the way he always stood at the side of the King and planned the great things which the King was enabled to accomplish. And I have another thought. Perhaps you gentlemen think of the members of your Government and the members of the other governments who are going to confer now at Paris as the real makers of war and of peace. You are the makers of war and of peace. The pulse of the modern world beats on the farm and in the mine and in the factory. The plans of the modern world are made in the counting house. The men who do the business of the world now shape the destinies of the world, and peace or war is in large measure in the hands of those who conduct the commerce of the world. That is one reason why unless we establish friendships, unless we establish sympathies, we clog all the processes of modern life. As I have several times said, you can not trade with a man who does not trust you, and you will not trade with a man whom you do not trust. Trust is the very life and breadth of business; and suspicion, unjust national rivalry stands in the way of trade, stands in the way of industry. A country is owned and dominated by the capital that is invested in it. I do not need to instruct you gentlemen in that fundamental idea. In proportion as foreign capital comes in among you and takes its hold, in that proportion does foreign influence come in and take its hold. And therefore the processes of capital are in a certain sense the processes of conquest. I have only this to suggest, therefore. We go to Paris to conclude a peace. You stay here to continue it. We start the peace. It is your duty to continue it. We can only make the large conclusions. You constantly transact the details which constitute the processes of the life of nations. And so it is very delightful to me to stand in this company and feel that we are not foreigners to each other. We think the same thoughts. We entertain the same purposes. It has brought nations into close vital contact, so that they feel the pulses that are in each other, so that they know the purposes by which each is animated.


I am pleased to be back at the FBI to unveil a new line of attack on our war against terrorism, the Most Wanted Terrorist list. Terrorists try to operate in the shadows. They try to hide, but we are going to shine the light of justice on them. We list their names; we publicize their pictures; we rob them of their secrecy. Terrorism has a face, and today we expose it for the world to see. General, thank you very much for your leadership, your strong resolve, the values you espouse. I want to thank all the Justice Department folks who are here today. I am so honored to be up here with the Secretary of State. He is doing a fabulous job of rallying the world to our cause. And I want to thank the State Department officials who are here today, as well. And of course, Director Mueller, I want to thank you and the fine men and women of the FBI for your diligent efforts to disrupt and find anybody who tries to harm Americans. I also want to introduce Tom Ridge, the Director of the Office of Homeland Security. The men on the wall here have put themselves on the list because of great acts of evil. They plan, promote, and commit murder. They fill the minds of others with hate and lies. And by their cruelty and violence, they betray whatever faith they espouse. These 22 individuals do not account for all the terrorist activity in the world, but they are among the most dangerous, the leaders and key supporters, the planners and strategists. This effort is part of a worldwide assault on terror. All our allies and friends will now be familiar with these evildoers and their associates. For those who join our coalition, we expect results. And a good place to start-help us bring these folks to justice. Eventually, no corner of the world will be dark enough to hide in. I want to thank all the State Department employees for helping to build an unprecedented-I mean unprecedented-coalition to stand with us for freedom. I want to thank the American people for understanding that we are engaged in a new war, a war that will require a new way of thinking. There is a fascination about the conventional aspects of the military operations that are taking place now, and I can understand that. But the American people must understand that we are making great progress in other fronts, that we are halting their money, that we have got allies around the world helping us close the net.

Remarks Announcing the Most Wanted Terrorists List


What a moment of hope it was 1 year ago when Central American leaders concluded their meeting in Guatemala. The Sandinista Government of Nicaragua, a Communist regime fighting a civil war against 15,000 Nicaraguan freedom fighters opposed to their oppression, agreed to a series of sweeping democratic reforms. If carried out, those reforms would have ended the killing and brought peace to Nicaragua and Central America. It would also have meant that Nicaragua would at last join the family of free, democratic nations. To much media fanfare, the opposition newspaper in Nicaragua, La Prensa, was reopened. A few political prisoners were released, and political groups were allowed more latitude. Most important, Sandinistas finally agreed to the freedom fighters' request for direct negotiations for a peaceful, democratic settlement. Now the main reason the Sandinistas agreed to those steps a year ago was the steady progress of the freedom fighters, including important battlefield victories like the one at Los Minas. But tragically, at the very moment when continued strength and determination by the United States might have meant the continued success of the peace plan, the United States House of Representatives decided, and by only a very narrow margin, to refuse my request for further effective aid to the freedom fighters. This, of course, removed the principal prod-the military victories and popular success of the freedom fighters-to Sandinista participation in the peace plan and sent an immediate signal of American weakness to the Communists. This failure to support the freedom fighters has had costly and sad consequences-just how costly and sad we have seen during the past few weeks. Communist Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega has been visiting Castro in Cuba and voicing solidarity with the tyrant who has brought so much sadness and misery to that country while in Nicaragua , a renewed attack on political dissent is being led by the head of the secret police, Tomas Borge, a dedicated Communist and grim, hardened repressor of human rights whose office, according to our Commission on Organized Crime, has also been actively engaged in the international drug trade. Acting under the orders of the Communist leaders and Borge's supervision, Sandinista police and goon squads have brutally broken up a peaceful demonstration by 3,000 Nicaraguans. Opposition leaders were jailed or beaten and now sentenced to prison. The Communists ordered the Catholic archbishop to shut down the Catholic radio station, and for almost 2 weeks the independent newspaper, La Prensa, was refused permission to publish.

Radio Address to the Nation on Aid to the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance


It is more than 100 years since Abraham Lincoln charged the living to dedicate themselves to the unfinished work of the dead at Gettysburg. Even Lincoln, with his deep sense of man's imperfections, could not know that a century later we would still be striving to abolish racial injustice. No task is more deeply rooted in the complexities of American life. Poverty and tradition, fear and ignorance, the structure of our society and the workings of our economy, all converge on this enormous wrong which has troubled the American conscience from the beginning. Its just solution is essential, not only to give the full blessings of freedom to Negroes, but to liberate all of us. It will take another hundred years to finish the job. Well, I am here to say to you tonight that I do not agree. Great social change tends to come rapidly in periods of intense activity and progress before the impulse slows. I believe we are in the midst of such a period of change. So, it is our task to carry forward nothing less than the full assimilation of more than 20 million Negroes into American life. This is not to be an assimilation of bland conformity. It is, as it has always been, to allow ready access to every blessing of liberty, while permitting each to keep his sense of identity with a culture and tradition. In this way we enlarge our freedom and we enrich our Nation. We have just passed a milestone in this task. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 extends the protection of the law to many of the demands of justice. This act, of course, is not the whole answer. But tonight I ask each of you to think for a moment what an enormous setback the failure to pass it would have been. When I picked up after our beloved leader had been taken from us, I did not know and few in my vicinity knew that we would ever get as far as we have. Now, your Government must and will move rapidly to carry out this legislation. I have come here tonight to tell you and I expect you to tell those that you counsel with and those you lead that we intend to give new vigor to our many activities in the field of equal opportunity. The Congress, in title VI of the Civil Rights Act, established the principle that race or color can be no criteria for participation in Federal programs. Last week I approved the first set of regulations to implement that principle. Those regulations are designed to provide a just and prompt and reasoned resolution of all disputes.

Remarks at the National Urban League's Community Action Assembly


Our first objective will always be to assure nondiscriminatory operation rather than to put an end to programs which are vital to the welfare of all Americans. The widespread voluntary support, in all parts of the country, of the public accommodation title is proof of the educational value of law, and the great reservoir of good will among Americans. I believe this title, too, will find wide acceptance. It is simple justice that all should share in programs that are financed by all and that are directed by the Government of all the people. They range from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, the Civil Rights Commission and the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing to the Community Relations Service, the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity in Employment, and the soon to be created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Each of these groups has a distinct and a very important mission. Those now in existence have done a difficult task in an impressive way. But really they all aim toward the same general objective. And really they must pursue that objective through cooperation among themselves and with private groups such as the distinguished members of this organization who have helped us so much for so long. As long as I am your President, I want the Government of all of the people to speak with a single voice on this single question. Therefore, I am delighted to tell you tonight that I have asked Vice President-elect Hubert Humphrey, and he has agreed, to assume the responsibility for working with all of these groups, assisting in coordination of their efforts, and helping them to build toward an energetic pursuit of equal opportunity for all people in this Nation. These are some of the steps that we are taking, and there are going to be a good many more. For, as the problem of civil rights has grown in urgency, it has also grown in complexity. We must open the doors of opportunity. We must equip our people to walk through those doors. Thus, programs to eliminate poverty, to improve education, to provide housing by enlarging the opportunities of all Americans assure new opportunities for Negro Americans. There are those who predict that the struggle for full equality in America will be marked by violence and hate; that it will tear at the fabric of our society. Well, for myself, I cannot claim to see so clearly into that future. I know that racial feelings flow from many deep and resistant sources in our history, in the pattern of our lives, and in the nature of man.


But I believe there are other forces that are stronger because they are armed with truth which will bring us toward our goal in peace. These are our commitments to morality and to justice which are written in our laws and, more importantly, nourished in the hearts of our people. These commitments carried forward by men of good will in every part of this land will lead this Nation toward the great and necessary fulfillment of American freedom. In this way our peoples will once again prove equal to the ideals and the values on which this our beloved Nation rests. We have met and heard the problems of the Prime Minister of Malawi. We have met and visited at some length with the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the United Kingdom. We have met and discussed the problems of free men in southeast Asia. We have reviewed the lot of the people on the continent of Africa, and particularly the Congo. But in each and every one of these studies, we have tried to put the interest of the individual and the dignity of the person first and foremost in our minds. In a doubtful period in 1957, 85 years since the Congress acted on the subject of civil rights and protecting the constitutional rights of all of our people, I sat down with the leaders of the Urban League, and with their guidance and with their help and with their support, for the first time in 85 years, we passed the first Civil Rights Act through the Congress of the United States. We were just learning to walk, but by 1960 it was possible for us to implement that statute and to contribute some constructive improvements. Then, a new administration came to power in 1961 and at the end of 4 years we had passed the most comprehensive legislation-and signed it--ever to be put on our statute books in this field. Now, the lights are still on in the White House tonight--preparing programs that will keep our country up with the times, and it will keep our feet on the ground. We have a Great Society. We do not have to begin one; we just have to keep it, retain it, improve it, and develop it. We know that the education of our citizens, the employment of our people, the health of their bodies, the freedom they enjoy, the security that is theirs are all uppermost in the minds of those charged with the responsibility of leadership.


I would not be human if I did not say that under your leadership and the leadership of other conscious, concerned people in this country, you have placed upon me a terrifying responsibility and an obligation that it will be my determination to deserve every waking moment of my term of office. Your faith in the future of your land and the future of the leadership that has been chosen has already been expressed, but I wanted at the end of a long day to come here and tell you of my faith in you. There are many things I want for my people and a few things I want for my little girls. I am going to do what I can in the time allotted me to help bring those about. One of the Presidents that I admire most signed the Emancipation Proclamation 100 years ago. Until every qualified person regardless of the house where he worships or the State where he resides or the way he spells his name or the color of his skin--until he has the right unquestioned and unrestrained to go in and cast his ballot in every precinct in this country, I am not going to be satisfied. The finest compliment that I can pay to the Negroes of America is to say that if their constitutional rights are protected as mine are protected, if they have the privilege of voting as I am privileged to vote, then all these other problems will take care of themselves. Now, I want to say one word before I leave. But you people have been trusting me for a long, long time. A good many of you have been among my closest friends since I came here in 1937. There is just one thing I want to say to you. I want to thank each and every one of you who has spent an hour or a dollar with the Urban League, because it is through efforts that you have made and others like you that the shackles of bondage have been removed from your fellow man. There are men who are dying tonight in Viet-Nam to preserve the freedom of us all, and the least that you can do, until you are called upon to give your life, is to give your support, give your talent, and give your heart to organizations like this and to leadership of men like Whitney Young.


And it is very thoughtful, to say nothing about how generous it is of you to bring us all together for this most pleasant evening. You know I have been watching the polls pretty closely here of late. And as you might imagine, I like some of them quite a lot more than I like others. The ones I like best are those that like me best. But in this era in which we are living, I was not too sure of their credibility--so the other day I just went out and had a poll of my own made. If President Johnson were to run against the following nationally known Republican leaders, who would you vote for? Then we added another picture that would involve the entire ticket. The second pairing dealt with the ticket of both President and Vice President. Once again I am happy to report that I think we did very well under the circumstances. I think I should tell you that we circulated our poll among leading editors throughout the country--and other experts. One telegram I remember came in from a very important national magazine. Congratulations, Mr. President, on a very fine and well conducted poll. A President, of course, sees a great many expressions of public opinion. The earth is degenerating these days. Children no longer mind parents. Every man wants to write a book and it is evident that the end of the world is approaching fast. Later I discovered that, whoever he was, he wrote what he had to say on an Assyrian tablet almost 5,000 years ago. You do not have to look far to see the same kind of thing today--much of it is directed at the man in the kitchen that President Harry Truman talked about. Some people think we are spending too much, and some think we are not spending enough. Some people think we should not raise taxes, and some think we should have raised them last year. Some think that we are not doing enough for the people in need, and some think we have done too much already. Some think we should escalate the war in Vietnam, and some think we should get out of there tomorrow. In the crisis of this hour--as in all others that we have faced since our Nation began--there are plenty of recommendations on how to get out of trouble cheaply and fast. Deny your responsibilities.

Remarks at a Salute to the President Democratic Party Dinner in Washington


In world affairs, behave as if you were a small nation with few interests; behave as if the oceans were twice as wide as they really are; behave as if you do not care what happens to people with different tongues or different cultures, or colors of skin--so long as they are not shooting at your house--just now. Here at home, behave as if every baby is born with the same chance to succeed in life--although his crib may lie in the squalid back room of a slum. Behave as if rats were funny--too funny to fight with Federal help. Behave as if the farmer is getting as much as he deserves. Behave as if you have no interest in helping local authorities protect their communities from crime and violence. Behave as if runaway inflation is inevitable-above all, never send up a tax bill designed to fight inflation. I hear and read a good deal of this kind of advice. It is much more subtle than I have described it tonight, more reasonable. It is the voice not of the dove or the hawk, but of the ostrich. Be certain of this--in the time that I have been given to lead this country, I shah not follow that kind of advice. The Democratic Party has never chosen the road of irresponsibility. In the 1960's, America, under Democratic leadership, has faced up to the poverty and discrimination in its midst. It has not yet mastered them. But it has started--started on the road toward mastery--toward healing and educating and training and employing those whom life was passing by. This party, and the programs it has inspired and legislated and turned into action, has set a standard in the 1960's by which every administration that follows must be judged. poverty must be abolished, --a good education must be the birthright of every child, --our cities must be made fit for a free people, --the environment must be cleansed and protected for every family, --our streets must be made safe for law-abiding citizens, and --basic human rights must be made real for every man and woman among us. Let them say that we have aroused expectations. So have all of those who have liberated men from dreamless sleep and sullen apathy--and set them on the way to becoming what their Creator intended them to be.


Let them say that we have not accomplished our goals entirely--that there is still ignorance and misery and despair in our cities and in our rural towns. Yes, there is-and there always will be, unless America completes the work we have already begun in these 7 years. My friends, next year will be a testing time for America. Shall we go on building? --Or shall we become discouraged with ourselves, impatient that the work is not yet finished? Shall we bury all that we have begun--begun with such hope and promise--and bury it in a shroud of inaction and reaction? You here tonight have come a long way to give your answer. Every State in the Union is represented in this hall tonight. You are making it possible for the party that believes in building to take its case to the people--to tell them what we promised to do on that August evening in 1964 at Atlantic City we have done--and that America is a richer and a stronger and a fairer Nation today because Democrats made it so. Our party and our country is greater than any of us. It is entitled to the best from all of us. As for myself, my first and last business is trying to win and trying to secure the peace. That task will take all that I have--and I shall give it gladly. So tonight I tell you that I will work as hard as any man can work for his country, and I will do everything in my power to build a record for our Democratic Party that America will enthusiastically embrace 13 months from now. I regret that I cannot predict, this evening, when the issue that most concerns us will be resolved. I do know that we are following the road of responsibility in Vietnam, as we are here at home. I know--I know probably as well as any man, save those who are fighting for us out there tonight, at this very hour--that it is a rough road to travel. But the road, I think, does lead to a free Asia--and the road does lead, I think, to a freer and a happier and a more secure United States. I believe the American people will follow its course--not blithely, not cheerfully--for they all lament the waste of war; but they will follow it with a firm determination, now that we have begun it, to see it through all the way.


Now the age of consolidation is over and once again the age of change and challenge has come upon us. The next year, the next decade, in all likelihood the next generation, will require more bravery and wisdom on our part than any period in our history. We will be face to face, every day, in every part of our lives and times, with the real issue of our age--the issue of survival. I live with that knowledge. I live every day with the responsibilities it entails--with those our country bears, because it is the strongest and it is the freest of all nations--and also with those that I bear, because of the office I hold. If I may, let me speak quite personally to you for a moment. I have--as you know--spent my entire life in the political arena. I treasure the support of our people. I treasure that support as much, I think, as any man could. by softening or renouncing the struggle in Vietnam, or escalating it to the red line of danger, --by giving in and retreating on the tax proposal, --by abandoning the fight against discrimination--the fight for the poor-- here at home. Some may say there is short term political gain for me, and for our party, if we could follow this kind of a course. It would mean, in my opinion, greatly increasing the chances of a major war--not this year, but in the years immediately ahead. It would mean imposing a far more onerous tax, a tax of inflation, on all of our people--and the poorest among us--not just this year, but next year. It would mean dooming our cities to angry strife and squalor--in every year yet to come. So we do have a choice. We can take the easy road tonight, denying our responsibilities, hoping that a rise in our polls will compensate for what we ought to have done for our country. Or we can take the harder road of responsibility. We can do what we believe is right for our children's future, though it may mean a great deal of present pain. Well, I have made my choice. And I pray that I--and we--will have enough of that bravery, unselfishness, and wisdom that Jack Kennedy said we would need--to see it through, all the way.


Thank you very much, Secretary Perry, Admiral Miller, Admiral Owens, Admiral Flanagan, Admiral Murphy, Captain Gemmill, and to all of you who are here. I asked to see the person responsible for decorating the F-14 with my name and the Vice President's name there. I guess I am going to have to take flying lessons. I appreciate it. I told someone to take a picture of that, and I am going to take it back to the Vice President when I see him this afternoon and suggest that we both take flying lessons. Admiral Miller said, You understand on that plane, you would still control the eject seat. And I told him, I do not believe in ejecting. But I was glad to know that. I thank you all for your service. I am pleased and honored to be with you today. I understand that some of you have actually chosen to come back from your leave to be a part of this ceremony, and I am deeply grateful for yet another expression of your devotion to your country. I am proud of the job you have done, proud of the great work that all of our troops are doing in Haiti. And on behalf of the American people, the most important message I have to you today is a simple, straightforward, heartfelt thank you. I also want to thank, especially, Captain Gemmill and the crew of this magnificent carrier for the I Like Ike button. But obviously, I was an infant; I did not have much consciousness of it. President Eisenhower was elected in the year I went to the first grade, so he was the first President I really ever knew anything about. And all of us, regardless of our party, liked Ike. I can still remember when the country was united in a way that it is not now and when political arguments were a little more civil than they tend to be now. President Eisenhower's life of service to our country and his incredible leadership throughout his military career, culminating in his leadership in World War II and of course ultimately in his election to the Presidency, was an inspiration to me and to every other young American and I know is a continuing inspiration to all of you who are privileged to serve on this great carrier and in this group. Much has been asked of you, and you have delivered. Thanks to your efforts, the Haitian people are moving from fear to freedom. Thanks to your efforts, the democratically elected government will soon return to power.

Remarks Aboard the U.S.S. Eisenhower in Norfolk, Virginia


Thanks to your efforts, the world knows that the United States will stand up for human rights and against slaughter, stand up for democracy, honor our commitments, and expect those who make commitments to us to honor them as well. We gave our word, and you, the men and women of the Eisenhower Battle Group, kept the word of the United States. And for that, we are all in your debt. The stories from Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in Haiti have inspired all Americans. We have seen the moving images of Haitians approaching and thanking American troops for their new-found freedom. We have seen the joy in their eyes and the hope in their faces. Operation Uphold Democracy is not over yet, and you know well that it still presents dangers to the men and women of our Armed Forces. But look what has happened in less than 3 weeks. In less than 3 weeks, you have disarmed FRAPH, the attaches, and the other militia who terrorized thousands of Haitians. In less than 3 weeks, you took heavy weapons away from the military and made the cities and the towns more secure. In less than 3 weeks, you helped 1,900 refugees return home from Guantanamo, no longer afraid for their lives. In less than 3 weeks, you permitted Parliament once again to open its doors for business. And today, they are having a good, old-fashioned debate down there, about like what happens in Congress every day in Washington. In less than 3 weeks, you returned Port-au-Prince Mayor Evans Paul, a man in hiding in his own country for 3 years, back to his office. In less than 3 weeks, you put state radio and television back into the hands of people who want democracy. In less than 3 weeks, you even turned the lights back on in Cap Haitien after 2 years of darkness. In less than 3 weeks, you showed the world what the men and women of the American military can do. All of us owe these achievements to the fact that you are the best trained, best prepared, best equipped, most highly motivated fighting force in the world. Your reputation preceded you to Haiti. When the military rulers learned that you were on your way, they agreed to step down. The awesome force you represent is the steel in the sword of America's diplomacy. The success of the mission in Haiti to date also shows how flexible our military has become.


Thanks to careful planning by the U.S. Atlantic Command and the joint task force, we were able to quickly recall the massive assault force that was on its way. In its place, and within just hours of reaching agreement with Mr. Cedras and the other military leaders, we sent in troops, carried by the Eisenhower Battle Group, to keep the peace in Haiti. Operation Uphold Democracy demonstrates the value of mixing our four services together and drawing on the special capabilities of each of them, what Admiral Miller calls adaptive force packaging. You prepared the first-ever infantry air assault from a carrier. Had it not been for such innovation, it would have taken many more hours, if not days, for our troops to be on the ground there. I salute Admiral Miller and the members of his staff who developed this innovative plan, which will change our military planning and make it possible for us to do remarkable things well into the 21st century. You have laid the groundwork for a dramatic forward movement in a military planning and execution. You should be proud, and the Nation owes Admiral Miller and his staff a great deal. Of course, even the best strategists can only make a difference if they have the resources to do the job. That is why I was pleased yesterday to sign the fiscal year '95 defense authorization bill, which was passed with strong bipartisan support including the support of Virginia's two fine Senators, Chuck Robb and John Warner, and the two able Congressmen from this area, Norm Sisisky and Bobby Scott. This bill will assure that you remain better trained, better equipped, and better prepared than any other military in the world, and I am determined that it will always be that way. I know that one piece of this defense bill will be especially welcome news for all of you, the $3.6 billion we will spend on a new aircraft carrier, CVN-76. That carrier will be built right here in Norfolk by thousands of hard-working Virginians. Like the Eisenhower, it will give us the capability to project our power around the world, to support peacekeeping and humanitarian relief missions, and, if necessary, to fight and to win regional conflicts. In 2 weeks, just 2 weeks, you set sail for the Adriatic, to carry on your work of protecting our country's national interests around the world. I know you will demonstrate the same skill and professionalism on this journey that you have shown in Haiti.


Well, and already I have met someone from my hometown, Dixon, Illinois. It is wonderful to have you visit here in the Rose Garden, where you can still see a little of the summer's crop is left. I have been very interested in the Future Farmers of America, your program of building our American communities. And I commend all of you individually for your wonderful work in helping our rural communities. It is gratifying to me to see young people like yourselves volunteering your time to keep these communities strong. And everything you have done, including Care and Share and working with local churches and various groups and other private sector initiatives, is indispensable to the future of our farm communities. I want you to know that I have been thinking about the problems of the farm these past few years. In fact, we are , all of us here in this big house, constantly concerned about the challenges faced by American farmers during these difficult days. The American farmer not only feeds this country that is 238 million strong, the American farmer feeds the world. And so when we contemplate the problems farmers are facing these days, we realize that we are dealing with a problem that speaks to the heart of how America lives and what America is. A while back I received a letter from a daughter of a farmer in Louisiana. She wrote of how she remembered her father-up at last light, no time for breakfast, out milking the cows, gathering eggs, feeding the dogs. She spoke of how always in a farmer's day something will break down, and her father would have to fix it. And then he would hit the fields with the tractor and the earth tiller, and he would not mind because a farmer is part of the ground he works. Do not you think it is time to say thanks to the farmer? After all, you stick your feet under his table every day. Well, those are wonderful words, and they shine with truth. But we do thank the farmer. And when you go home, will you tell your parents how we feel? We have been trying to encourage a national farm bill that will help the farmer and ensure that you have a future in farming by making American agriculture more competitive. We want to put the agriculture industry on a firm and sound basis once and for all so that by the time you are ready to own and work a farm, you can count on being part of a strong and vibrant industry.

Remarks at a White House Reception for Members of the Future Farmers of America


And my great hope for you, for those of you who do aspire to farm for a living, is that you will be as wonderful as your parents are those people who are feeding a great nation and the world. They are the mainstay, the backbone of a great country. And I have got a little special place in my heart that is devoted to them alone. It is been wonderful to have you here, and I thank you all for coming. I'd like to just add something here. You know, about 135 years ago a Frenchman came to this country because this country had already become the great economic powerhouse that it has continued to be. His name was Alexis de Tocqueville, and he toured all over this country, as he said, looking for the secret of our greatness. And he told some wonderful things. We are pretty unique in all the world with things like you, yourselves, are doing volunteer programs where people set out to help others, to help their neighbors. And he described it as how, he said, a man would see a problem, and he would not call the Government. He'd cross the street and talk to a friend, and pretty soon a committee would be formed. And, he said, they would solve the problem. And then in his book to his own countrymen in France, he said, and you will not believe this, but there would not be a bureaucracy involved at any time in solving that problem. But he found the secret of America, and he also put this in his book. He said he had looked in the busy harbors; he'd looked in our industrial cities; he'd looked all over for the secret of our greatness. And then he said he looked in our churches, and he heard our pulpits aflame with righteousness. Well, I have taken more than my time here because I have got to get in Marine One out there on the South Lawn in just a few minutes and head off for New Hampshire with some of our people and talk to the people up there. And you are all invited to go on over there and you girls, it will kind of blow your hairdos a little bit when we take off. We will shortly be taking off in Marine One, as it is called, out to get on Air Force One. God bless all of you.


I have had a rare privilege in the past 3 days, one that comes to a President of the United States on occasions when he can leave Washington and get out into the country. In those 3 days I have visited New York City and then on to Illinois, at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, and then Idaho Falls in Idaho, the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, Dallas for the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and finally, today, Loma Linda, California. I can only say that after seeing this great country of ours, and hundreds of thousands of people, it is really good to be home in California, here at Loma Linda. I know that represented in this audience are a number of Californians, and a number from all parts of the country, because one of the greatnesses of California is that we come from all the States of the Nation and from most of the nations of the world. On this occasion, I would like to direct my remarks to the double purpose of the announcement that we are making today. The first is with regard to the hospital that Governor Reagan referred to that was destroyed in the earthquake of February 9. That was a hospital located in one of the most beautiful areas of southern California, on the tip of the San Fernando Valley. It no longer, of course, can be used, and it should not be rebuilt. Consequently, we are replacing it here, but not only replacing it, but making a bigger hospital and a better hospital than we had before, right here in Loma Linda. What do we do with the land that we had? Here we have a policy which, in our Administration, we are implementing on a broad scale across the country. The Federal Government, for example, owns 45 percent of all the land in the State of California. We own land all over this country that the Federal Government does not need, land that could be better used by the States, by the counties, by the people of this country. So, under these circumstances, with regard to the 94 acres in the San Fernando Valley, we are declaring it surplus through the cooperation of the Veterans Administration, so that it can be made into a park, a park which will be available to the people in that area and all the people of southern California. Let me tell you why that kind of park is important.

Remarks at Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California.


When I was out there--and this was my first visit to Jackson Hole, the Grand Teton National Park--and saw the magnificence of that park, I talked to hundreds of people from all over the country. I found from the Director of the Parks that hundreds of thousands, and sometimes even millions, go to those parks through a year. But I also know, and you know, that while millions of Americans are fortunate enough to be able to afford the time and the money to go to one of those great parks located mostly in the western part of the United States, the great majority of Americans, and particularly of American young people, never see one. They live in the cities. This is their home, and what we must do is to bring the parks to the people. That is what we are doing through this program. Governor, we know that whether it is the beach at San Clemente, which we declared surplus so that we can have a wonderful surfing beach down there that now can be used, or whether it is this 94 acres, that you, in cooperation with the city and county, will make good use of this land for the people of the State of California as they want it to be used. Now, let me turn to this great hospital, and to say something about it and those who administer it that I think needs to be recognized, and particularly should be recognized by ENTITY. Reference was made by the Mayor 1 in his remarks that in 1953 he got an autograph from me. At that time I had just become Vice President of the United States. And that same year, 1953, 18 years ago, I really learned what the people who have built Loma Linda University, what the Seventh Day Adventists, do, not only in America, because I visited Loma Linda University--it was then Loma Linda College, as I recall, in 1950--but I learned what they are doing in the world, because in that year, 1953, Mrs. Nixon and I took a trip clear around the world. 1 Douglas F. Welebir was mayor of Loma Linda. As we visited the countries of Southeast Asia and Southern Asia, we saw several hospitals run by various organizations. The most impressive ones were the ones run by the Seventh Day Adventists, people who were dedicated. There were doctors, there were nurses, there were others who were giving their lives for the purpose of helping those people in those poor countries develop a better system of medicine.


As I think of the desire all of us have to have a world of peace in which people of the world can work together and live together, rather than to fight each other, I think of nothing that does more to make friends for America abroad than that kind of selfless service by people like those from Loma Linda who have gone out through the world, as they have gone out. Now a word as to what this hospital will mean. First, to the veterans it means better care, because this will be a great hospital, I can assure you. A hospital is not just a magnificent building like this splendid building, but what really counts in a hospital is the dedication of the doctors and the nurses and the others. And I can assure you this hospital will have the most dedicated doctors, nurses, and personnel we can possibly find, and our veterans will benefit from that. The second thing I think is important to note is that all the community, all the Nation will benefit, because as Don Johnson, our Veterans Administrator, has often pointed out, and as he was telling me coming out on the plane from Dallas the other day, the work that is done in veterans hospitals makes breakthroughs that benefit all the country. For example, the treatment of so-called tropical diseases breakthroughs have been made already as a result of the work that has been done in the very difficult war in which we are presently engaged that we did not think was possible even in World War II, and more will come. So we see this hospital benefiting, as it should, first the veterans and providing better care for them, but beyond that, providing a basis for training for doctors, nurses, and others, and the basis for research which will improve the health of all the country; and then beyond that, as I have indicated, contributing to better health for all the people of the world. So I am sure you can understand why all of us at this very moment, as we make this announcement, can realize that this is an announcement that everybody can support. Without regard to party, we are all for good health. Without regard to party, we are all for better relations between nations. Without regard to party, thinking as Americans, we want to do everything that we can to help those veterans who have served our country, who have made sacrifices that we did not make ourselves.


And without regard to party, we are proud to participate in an event which we know is going to build America rather than tear it down, and that is what this event is doing. In that spirit, could I add just a word to the very eloquent remarks of Governor Reagan? As one travels across this country, he thinks of numbers of things. As you go from New York to Illinois, to Idaho, to Wyoming, to Texas, and then out to California, you realize this is a very big country. But also, despite what may be said and heard at tunes running America down, you realize America is a beautiful country. They are a people who have gone to war four times in this century, but to our credit, never for the purpose of destroying freedom, always for the purpose of defending it; never for the purpose of breaking the peace, only for the purpose of keeping it. America is the strongest nation in the world today; but why? a whole generation of peace--something we Americans have not had in a century. Americans are for it. Americans support it. And as we look toward that goal, and particularly as we see in this audience those who have given so much to their country, I say let us be worthy of them, worthy of the sacrifices of war by building a peace, a real peace, so that their sons and their children will not have to fight in another war, if that can be made possible. And second, to build a nation and a period of peace that means something more than simply the absence of war, that means a nation that has confidence in itself, a people that believe in this country, a people who are willing to make sacrifices for their country if they realize that what they give up is going to help all the country and all the people, and a people, also, who, as was the case in the beginning of this country, will recognize that America has a role in the world, and we are going to fulfill it. You remember 195 years ago when America was a poor nation, when it was a weak nation, Thomas Jefferson said, we act not just for ourselves, but for the whole human race. But it was true then, because he knew that wealth and power was not what made a people great; it was the spirit of the people, and we had a great spirit, the Spirit of '76.


I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America. I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me. Tonight I am asking you to join me to walk together to a better future. By my side, I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. He represents the best of America, a man who will always make us proud - my friend and America's next Vice President, Paul Ryan. In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna better. But last night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan - a strong and caring leader who is down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment demands. I love the way he lights up around his kids and how he is not embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom. But Paul, I still like the playlist on my iPod better than yours. Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than what divides us. When that hard fought election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were eager to go back to work, to live our lives the way Americans always have - optimistic and positive and confident in the future. It is what brought us to America. We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America could be better. They came not just in pursuit of the riches of this world but for the richness of this life. This is the essence of the American experience. We Americans have always felt a special kinship with the future. When every new wave of immigrants looked up and saw the Statue of Liberty, or knelt down and kissed the shores of freedom just ninety miles from Castro's tyranny, these new Americans surely had many questions. But none doubted that here in America they could build a better life, that in America their children would be more blessed than they. But today, four years from the excitement of the last election, for the first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future. It is not what we were promised.

Mitt Romney Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida


Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get ahead a little more, put aside a little more for college, do more for their elderly mom who is living alone now or give a little more to their church or charity. Every small business wanted these to be their best years ever, when they could hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them through the hard times, open a new store or sponsor that Little League team. Every new college graduate thought they'd have a good job by now, a place of their own, and that they could start paying back some of their loans and build for the future. This is when our nation was supposed to start paying down the national debt and rolling back those massive deficits. It is not just what we wanted. It is not just what we expected. It is what Americans deserved. You deserved it because during these years, you worked harder than ever before. You deserved it because when it cost more to fill up your car, you cut out movie nights and put in longer hours. Or when you lost that job that paid $22.50 an hour with benefits, you took two jobs at 9 bucks an hour and fewer benefits. You did it because your family depended on you. You did it because you are an American and you do not quit. You did it because it was what you had to do. But driving home late from that second job, or standing there watching the gas pump hit 50 dollars and still going, when the realtor told you that to sell your house you'd have to take a big loss, in those moments you knew that this just was not right. But what could you do? Hug your kids a little longer; maybe spend a little more time praying that tomorrow would be a better day. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. Now is the moment when we CAN do something. With your help we will do something. I make my destiny. And we deserve better! My children deserve better! My country deserves better! Americans have a choice. To make that choice, you need to know more about me and about where I will lead our country. I was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country, a classic baby boomer. It was a time when Americans were returning from war and eager to work. When President Kennedy challenged Americans to go to the moon, the question was not whether we'd get there, it was only when we'd get there.