[Delivered in person before a joint session at 9:33 p.m.] Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, distinguished Members of the Congress: I share with all of you the grief that you feel at the death today of one of the most beloved, respected, and effective Members of this body, the distinguished Representative from Rhode Island, Mr. Fogarty. I have come here tonight to report to you that this is a time of testing for our Nation. At home, the question is whether we will continue working for better opportunities for all Americans, when most Americans are already living better than any people in history. Abroad, the question is whether we have the staying power to fight a very costly war, when the objective is limited and the danger to us is seemingly remote. So our test is not whether we shrink from our country's cause when the dangers to us are obvious and close at hand, but, rather, whether we carry on when they seem obscure and distant--and some think that it is safe to lay down our burdens. I have come tonight to ask this Congress and this Nation to resolve that issue: to meet our commitments at home and abroad-to continue to build a better America--and to reaffirm this Nation's allegiance to freedom. As President Abraham Lincoln said, "We must ask where we are, and whither we are tending." I. The last 3 years bear witness to our determination to make this a better country. We have struck down legal barriers to equality. We have improved the education of 7 million deprived children and this year alone we have enabled almost 1 million students to go to college. We have brought medical care to older people who were unable to afford it. Three and one-half million Americans have already received treatment under Medicare since July. We have built a strong economy that has put almost 3 million more Americans on the payrolls in the last year alone. We have included more than 9 million new workers under a higher minimum wage. We have launched new training programs to provide job skills for almost 1 million Americans. We have helped more than a thousand local communities to attack poverty in the neighborhoods of the poor. We have set out to rebuild our cities on a scale that has never been attempted before. We have begun to rescue our waters from the menace of pollution and to restore the beauty of our land and our countryside, our cities and our towns. We have given 1 million young Americans a chance to earn through the Neighborhood Youth Corps--or through Head Start, a chance to learn. So together we have tried to meet the needs of our people. And, we have succeeded in creating a better life for the many as well as the few. Now we must answer whether our gains shall be the foundations of further progress, or whether they shall be only monuments to what might have been-abandoned now by a people who lacked the will to see their great work through. I believe that our people do not want to quit--though the task is great, the work hard, often frustrating, and success is a matter not of days or months, but of years-and sometimes it may be even decades. II. I have come here tonight to discuss with you five ways of carrying forward the progress of these last 3 years. These five ways concern programs, partnerships, priorities, prosperity, and peace. First, programs. We must see to it, I think, that these new programs that we have passed work effectively and are administered in the best possible way. Three years ago we set out to create these new instruments of social progress. This required trial and error--and it has produced both. But as we learn, through success and failure, we are changing our strategy and we are trying to improve our tactics. In the long run, these starts--some rewarding, others inadequate and disappointing--are crucial to SUCCESS. One example is the struggle to make life better for the less fortunate among us. On a similar occasion, at this rostrum in 1949, I heard a great American President, Harry S. Truman, declare this: "The American people have decided that poverty is just as wasteful and just as unnecessary as preventable disease." Many listened to President Truman that day here in this Chamber, but few understood what was required and did anything about it. The executive branch and the Congress waited 15 long years before ever taking any action on that challenge, as it did on many other challenges that great President presented. And when, 3 years ago, you here in the Congress joined with me in a declaration of war on poverty, then I warned, "It will not be a short or easy struggle-no single weapon... will suffice--but we shall not rest until that war is won." And I have come here to renew that pledge tonight. I recommend that we intensify our efforts to give the poor a chance to enjoy and to join in this Nation's progress. I shall propose certain administrative changes suggested by the Congress--as well as some that we have learned from our own trial and error. I shall urge special methods and special funds to reach the hundreds of thousands of Americans that are now trapped in the ghettos of our big cities and, through Head Start, to try to reach out to our very young, little children. The chance to learn is their brightest hope and must command our full determination. For learning brings skills; and skills bring jobs; and jobs bring responsibility and dignity, as well as taxes. This war--like the war in Vietnam--is not a simple one. There is no single battleline which you can plot each day on a chart. The enemy is not easy to perceive, or to isolate, or to destroy. There are mistakes and there are setbacks. But we are moving, and our direction is forward. This is true with other programs that are making and breaking new ground. Some do not yet have the capacity to absorb well or wisely all the money that could be put into them. Administrative skills and trained manpower are just as vital to their success as dollars. And I believe those skills will come. But it will take time and patience and hard work. Success cannot be forced at a single stroke. So we must continue to strengthen the administration of every program if that success is to come--as we know it must. We have done much in the space of 2 short years, working together. I have recommended, and you, the Congress, have approved, 10 different reorganization plans, combining and consolidating many bureaus of this Government, and creating two entirely new Cabinet departments. I have come tonight to propose that we establish a new department--a Department of Business and Labor. By combining the Department of Commerce with the Department of Labor and other related agencies, I think we can create a more economical, efficient, and streamlined instrument that will better serve a growing nation. This is our goal throughout the entire Federal Government. Every program will be thoroughly evaluated. Grant-in-aid programs will be improved and simplified as desired by many of our local administrators and our Governors. Where there have been mistakes, we will try very hard to correct them. Where there has been progress, we will try to build upon it. Our second objective is partnership--to create an effective partnership at all levels of government. And I should treasure nothing more than to have that partnership begin between the executive and the Congress. The 88th and the 89th Congresses passed more social and economic legislation than any two single Congresses in American history. Most of you who were Members of those Congresses voted to pass most of those measures. But your efforts will come to nothing unless it reaches the people. Federal energy is essential. But it is not enough. Only a total working partnership among Federal, State, and local governments can succeed. The test of that partnership will be the concern of each public organization, each private institution, and each responsible citizen. Each State, county, and city needs to examine its capacity for government in today's world, as we are examining ours in the executive department, and as I see you are examining yours. Some will need to reorganize and reshape their methods of administration-as we are doing. Others will need to revise their constitutions and their laws to bring them up to date--as we are doing. Above all, I think we must work together and find ways in which the multitudes of small jurisdictions can be brought together more efficiently. During the past 3 years we have returned to State and local governments about $40 billion in grants-in-aid. This year alone, 70 percent of our Federal expenditures for domestic programs will be distributed through the State and local governments. With Federal assistance, State and local governments by 1970 will be spending close to $110 billion annually. These enormous sums must be used wisely, honestly, and effectively. We intend to work closely with the States and the localities to do exactly that. Our third objective is priorities, to move ahead on the priorities that we have established within the resources that are available. I wish, of course, that we could do all that should be done--and that we could do it now. But the Nation has many commitments and responsibilities which make heavy demands upon our total resources. No administration would more eagerly utilize for these programs all the resources they require than the administration that started them. So let us resolve, now, to do all that we can, with what we have--knowing that it is far, far more than we have ever done before, and far, far less than our problems will ultimately require. Let us create new opportunities for our children and our young Americans who need special help. We should strengthen the Head Start program, begin it for children 3 years old, and maintain its educational momentum by following through in the early years. We should try new methods of child development and care from the earliest years, before it is too late to correct. And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress. Let us insure that older Americans, and neglected Americans, share in their Nation's progress. We should raise social security payments by an overall average of 20 percent. That will add $4 billion 100 million to social security payments in the first year. I will recommend that each of the 23 million Americans now receiving payments get an increase of at least 15 percent. I will ask that you raise the minimum payments by 59 percent--from $44 to $70 a month, and to guarantee a minimum benefit of $100 a month for those with a total of 25 years of coverage. We must raise the limits that retired workers can earn without losing social security income. We must eliminate by law unjust discrimination in employment because of age. We should embark upon a major effort to provide self-help assistance to the forgotten in our midst--the American Indians and the migratory farm workers. And we should reach with the hand of understanding to help those who live in rural poverty. And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress. So let us keep on improving the quality of life and enlarging the meaning of justice for all of our fellow Americans. We should transform our decaying slums into places of decency through the landmark Model Cities program. I intend to seek for this effort, this year, the full amount that you in Congress authorized last year. We should call upon the genius of private industry and the most advanced technology to help rebuild our great cities. We should vastly expand the fight for clean air with a total attack on pollution at its sources, and--because air, like water, does not respect manmade boundaries--we should set up "regional airsheds" throughout this great land. We should continue to carry to every corner of the Nation our campaign for a beautiful America--to clean up our towns, to make them more beautiful, our cities, our countryside, by creating more parks, and more seashores, and more open spaces for our children to play in, and for the generations that come after us to enjoy. We should continue to seek equality and justice for each citizen--before a jury, in seeking a job, in exercising his civil rights. We should find a solution to fair housing, so that every American, regardless of color, has a decent home of his choice. We should modernize our Selective Service System. The National Commission on Selective Service will shortly submit its report. I will send you new recommendations to meet our military manpower needs. But let us resolve that this is to be the Congress that made our draft laws as fair and as effective as possible. We should protect what Justice Brandeis called the "right most valued by civilized men"--the right to privacy. We should outlaw all wiretapping--public and private--wherever and whenever it occurs, except when the security of this Nation itself is at stake--and only then with the strictest governmental safeguards. And we should exercise the full reach of our constitutional powers to outlaw electronic "bugging" and "snooping." I hope this Congress will try to help me do more for the consumer. We should demand that the cost of credit be clearly and honestly expressed where average citizens can understand it. We should immediately take steps to prevent massive power failures, to safeguard the home against hazardous household products, and to assure safety in the pipelines that carry natural gas across our Nation. We should extend Medicare benefits that are now denied to 1,300,000 permanently and totally disabled Americans under 65 years of age. We should improve the process of democracy by passing our election reform and financing proposals, by tightening our laws regulating lobbying, and by restoring a reasonable franchise to Americans who move their residences. We should develop educational television into a vital public resource to enrich our homes, educate our families, and to provide assistance in our classrooms. We should insist that the public interest be fully served through the public's airwaves. And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress. Now we come to a question that weighs very heavily on all our minds--on yours and mine. This Nation must make an all-out effort to combat crime. The 89th Congress gave us a new start in the attack on crime by passing the Law Enforcement Assistance Act that I recommended. We appointed the National Crime Commission to study crime in America and to recommend the best ways to carry that attack forward. And while we do not have all the answers, on the basis of its preliminary recommendations we are ready to move. This is not a war that Washington alone can win. The idea of a national police force is repugnant to the American people. Crime must be rooted out in local communities by local authorities. Our policemen must be better trained, must be better paid, and must be better supported by the local citizens that they try to serve and to protect. The National Government can and expects to help. And so I will recommend to the 90th Congress the Safe Streets and Crime Control Act of 1967. It will enable us to assist those States and cities that try to make their streets and homes safer, their police forces better, their corrections systems more effective, and their courts more efficient. When the Congress approves, the Federal Government will be able to provide a substantial percentage of the cost: --90 percent of the cost of developing the State and local plans, master plans, to combat crime in their area; --60 percent of the cost of training new tactical units, developing instant communications and special alarm systems, and introducing the latest equipment and techniques so that they can become weapons in the war on crime; --50 percent of the cost of building crime laboratories and police academy-type centers so that our citizens can be protected by the best trained and served by the best equipped police to be found anywhere. We will also recommend new methods to prevent juvenile delinquents from becoming adult delinquents. We will seek new partnerships with States and cities in order to deal with this hideous narcotics problem. And we will recommend strict controls on the sale of firearms. At the heart of this attack on crime must be the conviction that a free America--as Abraham Lincoln once said--must "let reverence for the laws . . . become the political religion of the Nation." Our country's laws must be respected. Order must be maintained. And I will support--with all the constitutional powers the President possesses--our Nation's law enforcement officials in their attempt to control the crime and the violence that tear the fabric of our communities. Many of these priority proposals will be built on foundations that have already been laid. Some will necessarily be small at first, but "every beginning is a consequence." If we postpone this urgent work now, it will simply have to be done later, and later we will pay a much higher price. Our fourth objective is prosperity, to keep our economy moving ahead, moving ahead steadily and safely. We have now enjoyed 6 years of unprecedented and rewarding prosperity. Last year, in 1966: --Wages were the highest in history-and the unemployment rate, announced yesterday, reached the lowest point in 13 years; --Total after-tax income of American families rose nearly 5 percent; --Corporate profits after taxes rose a little more than 5 percent; --Our gross national product advanced 5.5 percent, to about $740 billion; --Income per farm went up 6 percent. Now we have been greatly concerned because consumer prices rose 4.5 percent over the 18 months since we decided to send troops to Vietnam. This was more than we had expected--and the Government tried to do everything that we knew how to do to hold it down. Yet we were not as successful as we wished to be. In the 18 months after we entered World War II, prices rose not 4.5 percent, but 13.5 percent. In the first 18 months after Korea, after the conflict broke out there, prices rose not 4.5 percent, but 11 percent. During those two periods we had OPA price control that the Congress gave us and War Labor Board wage controls. Since Vietnam we have not asked for those controls and we have tried to avoid imposing them. We believe that we have done better, but we make no pretense of having been successful or doing as well as we wished. Our greatest disappointment in the economy during 1966 was the excessive rise in interest rates and the tightening of credit. They imposed very severe and very unfair burdens on our home buyers and on our home builders, and all those associated with the home industry. Last January, and again last September, I recommended fiscal and moderate tax measures to try to restrain the unbalanced pace of economic expansion. Legislatively and administratively we took several billions out of the economy. With these measures, in both instances, the Congress approved most of the recommendations rather promptly. As 1966 ended, price stability was seemingly being restored. Wholesale prices are lower tonight than they were in August. So are retail food prices. Monetary conditions are also easing. Most interest rates have retreated from their earlier peaks. More money now seems to be available. Given the cooperation of the Federal Reserve System, which I so earnestly seek, I am confident that this movement can continue. I pledge the American people that I will do everything in a President's power to lower interest rates and to ease money in this country. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board tomorrow morning will announce that it will make immediately available to savings and loan associations an additional $1 billion, and will lower from 6 percent to 5 3/4 percent the interest rate charged on those loans. We shall continue on a sensible course of fiscal and budgetary policy that we believe will keep our economy growing without new inflationary spirals; that will finance responsibly the needs of our men in Vietnam and the progress of our people at home; that will support a significant improvement in our export surplus, and will press forward toward easier credit and toward lower interest rates. I recommend to the Congress a surcharge of 6 percent on both corporate and individual income taxes--to last for 2 years or for so long as the unusual expenditures associated with our efforts in Vietnam continue. I will promptly recommend an earlier termination date if a reduction in these expenditures permits it. This surcharge will raise revenues by some $4.5 billion in the first year. For example, a person whose tax payment, the tax he owes, is $1,000, will pay, under this proposal, an extra $60 over the 12-month period, or $5 a month. The overwhelming majority of Americans who pay taxes today are below that figure and they will pay substantially less than $5 a month. Married couples with two children, with incomes up to $5,000 per year, will be exempt from this tax--as will single people with an income of up to $1,900 a year. Now if Americans today still paid the income and excise tax rates in effect when I came into the Presidency, in the year 1964, their annual taxes would have been over $20 billion more than at present tax rates. So this proposal is that while we have this problem and this emergency in Vietnam, while we are trying to meet the needs of our people at home, your Government asks for slightly more than one-fourth of that tax cut each year in order to try to hold our budget deficit in fiscal 1968 within prudent limits and to give our country and to give our fighting men the help they need in this hour of trial. For fiscal 1967, we estimate the budget expenditures to be $126.7 billion and revenues of $117 billion. That will leave us a deficit this year of $9.7 billion. For fiscal 1968, we estimate budget expenditures of $135 billion. And with the tax measures recommended, and a continuing strong economy, we estimate revenues will be $126.9 billion. The deficit then will be $8.1 billion. I will very soon forward all of my recommendations to the Congress. Yours is the responsibility to discuss and to debate them-to approve or modify or reject them. I welcome your views, as I have welcomed working with you for 30 years as a colleague and as Vice President and President. I should like to say to the Members of the opposition--whose numbers, if I am not mistaken, seem to have increased somewhat--that the genius of the American political system has always been best expressed through creative debate that offers choices and reasonable alternatives. Throughout our history, great Republicans and Democrats have seemed to understand this. So let there be light and reason in our relations. That is the way to a responsible session and a responsive government. Let us be remembered as a President and a Congress who tried to improve the quality of life for every American--not just the rich, not just the poor, but every man, woman, and child in this great Nation of ours. We all go to school--to good schools or bad schools. We all take air into our lungs-clean air or polluted air. We all drink water--pure water or polluted water. We all face sickness someday, and some more often than we wish, and old age as well. We all have a stake in this Great Society--in its economic growth, in reduction of civil strife--a great stake in good government. We just must not arrest the pace of progress we have established in this country in these years. Our children's children will pay the price if we are not wise enough, and courageous enough, and determined enough to stand up and meet the Nation's needs as well as we can in the time allotted us. III. Abroad, as at home, there is also risk in change. But abroad, as at home, there is a greater risk in standing still. No part of our foreign policy is so sacred that it ever remains beyond review. We shall be flexible where conditions in the world change--and where man's efforts can change them for the better. We are in the midst of a great transition-a transition from narrow nationalism to international partnership; from the harsh spirit of the cold war to the hopeful spirit of common humanity on a troubled and a threatened planet. In Latin America, the American chiefs of state will be meeting very shortly to give our hemispheric policies new direction. We have come a long way in this hemisphere since the inter-American effort in economic and social development was launched by the conference at Bogota in 1960 under the leadership of President Eisenhower. The Alliance for Progress moved dramatically forward under President Kennedy. There is new confidence that the voice of the people is being heard; that the dignity of the individual is stronger than ever in this hemisphere, and we are facing up to and meeting many of the hemispheric problems together. In this hemisphere that reform under democracy can be made to happen--because it has happened. So together, I think, we must now move to strike down the barriers to full cooperation among the American nations, and to free the energies and the resources of two great continents on behalf of all of our citizens. Africa stands at an earlier stage of development than Latin America. It has yet to develop the transportation, communications, agriculture, and, above all, the trained men and women without which growth is impossible. There, too, the job will best be done if the nations and peoples of Africa cooperate on a regional basis. More and more our programs for Africa are going to be directed toward self-help. The future of Africa is shadowed by unsolved racial conflicts. Our policy will continue to reflect our basic commitments as a people to support those who are prepared to work towards cooperation and harmony between races, and to help those who demand change but reject the fool's gold of violence. In the Middle East the spirit of good will toward all, unfortunately, has not yet taken hold. An already tortured peace seems to be constantly threatened. We shall try to use our influence to increase the possibilities of improved relations among the nations of that region. We are working hard at that task. In the great subcontinent of South Asia live more than a sixth of the earth's population. Over the years we--and others--have invested very heavily in capital and food for the economic development of India and Pakistan. We are not prepared to see our assistance wasted, however, in conflict. It must strengthen their capacity to help themselves. It must help these two nations--both our friends--to overcome poverty, to emerge as self-reliant leaders, and find terms for reconciliation and cooperation. In Western Europe we shall maintain in NATO an integrated common defense. But we also look forward to the time when greater security can be achieved through measures of arms control and disarmament, and through other forms of practical agreement. We are shaping a new future of enlarged partnership in nuclear affairs, in economic and technical cooperation, in trade negotiations, in political consultation, and in working together with the governments and peoples of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The emerging spirit of confidence is precisely what we hoped to achieve when we went to work a generation ago to put our shoulder to the wheel and try to help rebuild Europe. We faced new challenges and opportunities then and there--and we faced also some dangers. But I believe that the peoples on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as both sides of this Chamber, wanted to face them together. Our relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are also in transition. We have avoided both the acts and the rhetoric of the cold war. When we have differed with the Soviet Union, or other nations, for that matter, I have tried to differ quietly and with courtesy, and without venom. Our objective is not to continue the cold war, but to end it. We have reached an agreement at the United Nations on the peaceful uses of outer space. We have agreed to open direct air flights with the Soviet Union. We have removed more than 400 nonstrategic items from export control. We are determined that the Export-Import Bank can allow commercial credits to Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia, as well as to Romania and Yugoslavia. We have entered into a cultural agreement with the Soviet Union for another 2 years. We have agreed with Bulgaria and Hungary to upgrade our legations to embassies. We have started discussions with international agencies on ways of increasing contacts with Eastern European countries. This administration has taken these steps even as duty compelled us to fulfill and execute alliances and treaty obligations throughout the world that were entered into before I became President. So tonight I now ask and urge this Congress to help our foreign and our commercial trade policies by passing an East-West trade bill and by approving our consular convention with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union has in the past year increased its long-range missile capabilities. It has begun to place near Moscow a limited antimissile defense. My first responsibility to our people is to assure that no nation can ever find it rational to launch a nuclear attack or to use its nuclear power as a credible threat against us or against our allies. I would emphasize that that is why an important link between Russia and the United States is in our common interest, in arms control and in disarmament. We have the solemn duty to slow down the arms race between us, if that is at all possible, in both conventional and nuclear weapons and defenses. I thought we were making some progress in that direction the first few months I was in office. I realize that any additional race would impose on our peoples, and on all mankind, for that matter, an additional waste of resources with no gain in security to either side. I expect in the days ahead to closely consult and seek the advice of the Congress about the possibilities of international agreements bearing directly upon this problem. Next to the pursuit of peace, the really greatest challenge to the human family is the race between food supply and population increase. That race tonight is being lost. The time for rhetoric has clearly passed. The time for concerted action is here and we must get on with the job. We believe that three principles must prevail if our policy is to succeed: First, the developing nations must give highest priority to food production, including the use of technology and the capital of private enterprise. Second, nations with food deficits must put more of their resources into voluntary family planning programs. And third, the developed nations must all assist other nations to avoid starvation in the short run and to move rapidly towards the ability to feed themselves. Every member of the world community now bears a direct responsibility to help bring our most basic human account into balance. IV. I come now finally to Southeast Asia-and to Vietnam in particular. Soon I will submit to the Congress a detailed report on that situation. Tonight I want to just review the essential points as briefly as I can. We are in Vietnam because the United States of America and our allies are committed by the SEATO Treaty to "act to meet the common danger" of aggression in Southeast Asia. We are in Vietnam because an international agreement signed by the United States, North Vietnam, and others in 1962 is being systematically violated by the Communists. That violation threatens the independence of all the small nations in Southeast Asia, and threatens the peace of the entire region and perhaps the world. We are there because the people of South Vietnam have as much right to remain non-Communist--if that is what they choose-as North Vietnam has to remain Communist. We are there because the Congress has pledged by solemn vote to take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression. No better words could describe our present course than those once spoken by the great Thomas Jefferson: "It is the melancholy law of human societies to be compelled sometimes to choose a great evil in order to ward off a greater." We have chosen to fight a limited war in Vietnam in an attempt to prevent a larger war--a war almost certain to follow, I believe, if the Communists succeed in overrunning and taking over South Vietnam by aggression and by force. I believe, and I am supported by some authority, that if they are not checked now the world can expect to pay a greater price to check them later. That is what our statesmen said when they debated this treaty, and that is why it was ratified 82 to 1 by the Senate many years ago. You will remember that we stood in Western Europe 20 years ago. Is there anyone in this Chamber tonight who doubts that the course of freedom was not changed for the better because of the courage of that stand? Sixteen years ago we and others stopped another kind of aggression--this time it was in Korea. Imagine how different Asia might be today if we had failed to act when the Communist army of North Korea marched south. The Asia of tomorrow will be far different because we have said in Vietnam, as we said 16 years ago in Korea: "This far and no further." I think I reveal no secret when I tell you that we are dealing with a stubborn adversary who is committed to the use of force and terror to settle political questions. I wish I could report to you that the conflict is almost over. This I cannot do. We face more cost, more loss, and more agony. For the end is not yet. I cannot promise you that it will come this year--or come next year. Our adversary still believes, I think, tonight, that he can go on fighting longer than we can, and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist. Our men in that area--there are nearly 500,000 now--have borne well "the burden and the heat of the day." Their efforts have deprived the Communist enemy of the victory that he sought and that he expected a year ago. We have steadily frustrated his main forces. General Westmoreland reports that the enemy can no longer succeed on the battlefield. So I must say to you that our pressure must be sustained--and will be sustained-until he realizes that the war he started is costing him more than he can ever gain. I know of no strategy more likely to attain that end than the strategy of "accumulating slowly, but inexorably, every kind of material resource"--of "laboriously teaching troops the very elements of their trade." That, and patience--and I mean a great deal of patience. Our South Vietnamese allies are also being tested tonight. Because they must provide real security to the people living in the countryside. And this means reducing the terrorism and the armed attacks which kidnaped and killed 26,900 civilians in the last 32 months, to levels where they can be successfully controlled by the regular South Vietnamese security forces. It means bringing to the villagers an effective civilian government that they can respect, and that they can rely upon and that they can participate in, and that they can have a personal stake in. We hope that government is now beginning to emerge. While I cannot report the desired progress in the pacification effort, the very distinguished and able Ambassador, Henry Cabot Lodge, reports that South Vietnam is turning to this task with a new sense of urgency. We can help, but only they can win this part of the war. Their task is to build and protect a new life in each rural province. One result of our stand in Vietnam is already clear. It is this: The peoples of Asia now know that the door to independence is not going to be slammed shut. They know that it is possible for them to choose their own national destinies--without coercion. The 'performance of our men in Vietnam-backed by the American people--has created a feeling of confidence and unity among the independent nations of Asia and the Pacific. I saw it in their faces in the 19 days that I spent in their homes and in their countries. Fear of external Communist conquest in many Asian nations is already subsiding--and with this, the spirit of hope is rising. For the first time in history, a common outlook and common institutions are already emerging. This forward movement is rooted in the ambitions and the interests of Asian nations themselves. It was precisely this movement that we hoped to accelerate when I spoke at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore in April 1965, and I pledged "a much more massive effort to improve the life of man" in that part of the world, in the hope that we could take some of the funds that we were spending on bullets and bombs and spend it on schools and production. Twenty months later our efforts have produced a new reality: The doors of the billion dollar Asian Development Bank that I recommended to the Congress, and you endorsed almost unanimously, I am proud to tell you are already open. Asians are engaged tonight in regional efforts in a dozen new directions. Their hopes are high. Their faith is strong. Their confidence is deep. And even as the war continues, we shall play our part in carrying forward this constructive historic development. As recommended by the Eugene Black mission, and if other nations will join us, I will seek a special authorization from the Congress of $200 million for East Asian regional programs. We are eager to turn our resources to peace. Our efforts in behalf of humanity I think need not be restricted by any parallel or by any boundary line. The moment that peace comes, as I pledged in Baltimore, I will ask the Congress for funds to join in an international program of reconstruction and development for all the people of Vietnam-and their deserving neighbors who wish our help. We shall continue to hope for a reconciliation between the people of Mainland China and the world community--including working together in all the tasks of arms control, security, and progress on which the fate of the Chinese people, like their fellow men elsewhere, depends. We would be the first to welcome a China which decided to respect her neighbors' rights. We would be the first to applaud her were she to apply her great energies and intelligence to improving the welfare of her people. And we have no intention of trying to deny her legitimate needs for security and friendly relations with her neighboring countries. Our hope that all of this will someday happen rests on the conviction that we, the American people and our allies, will and are going to see Vietnam through to an honorable peace. We will support all appropriate initiatives by the United Nations, and others, which can bring the several parties together for unconditional discussions of peace--anywhere, any time. And we will continue to take every possible initiative ourselves to constantly probe for peace. Until such efforts succeed, or until the infiltration ceases, or until the conflict subsides, I think the course of wisdom for this country is that we just must firmly pursue our present course. We will stand firm in Vietnam. I think you know that our fighting men there tonight bear the heaviest burden of all. With their lives they serve their Nation. We must give them nothing less than our full support--and we have given them that-nothing less than the determination that Americans have always given their fighting men. Whatever our sacrifice here, even if it is more than $5 a month, it is small compared to their own. How long it will take I cannot prophesy. I only know that the will of the American people, I think, is tonight being tested. Whether we can fight a war of limited objectives over a period of time, and keep alive the hope of independence and stability for people other than ourselves; whether we can continue to act with restraint when the temptation to "get it over with" is inviting but dangerous; whether we can accept the necessity of choosing "a great evil in order to ward off a greater"; whether we can do these without arousing the hatreds and the passions that are ordinarily loosed in time of war--on all these questions so much turns. The answers will determine not only where we are, but "whither we are tending." A time of testing--yes. And a time of transition. The transition is sometimes slow; sometimes unpopular; almost always very painful; and often quite dangerous. But we have lived with danger for a long time before, and we shall live with it for a long time yet to come. We know that "man is born unto trouble." We also know that this Nation was not forged and did not survive and grow and prosper without a great deal of sacrifice from a great many men. For all the disorders that we must deal with, and all the frustrations that concern us, and all the anxieties that we are called upon to resolve, for all the issues we must face with the agony that attends them, let us remember that "those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." But let us also count not only our burdens but our blessings--for they are many. And let us give thanks to the One who governs us all. Let us draw encouragement from the signs of hope--for they, too, are many. Let us remember that we have been tested before and America has never been found wanting. So with your understanding, I would hope your confidence, and your support, we are going to persist--and we are going to succeed.
[Delivered in person before a joint session at 9:33 p.m.] Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, distinguished Members of the Congress: I share with all of you the grief that you feel at the death today of one of the most beloved, respected, and effective Members of this body, the distinguished Representative from Rhode Island, Mr. Fogarty. I have come here tonight to report to you that this is a time of testing for our Nation. At home, the question is whether we will continue working for better opportunities for all Americans, when most Americans are already living better than any people in history. Abroad, the question is whether we have the staying power to fight a very costly war, when the objective is limited and the danger to us is seemingly remote. So our test is not whether we shrink from our country's because when the dangers to us are obvious and close at hand, but, rather, whether we carry on when they seem obscure and distant--and some think that it is safe to lay down our burdens. I have come tonight to ask this Congress and this Nation to resolve that issue: to meet our commitments at home and abroad-to continue to build a better America--and to reaffirm this Nation's allegiance to freedom. As President Abraham Lincoln said, "We must ask where we are, and whither we are tending." I. The last 3 years bear witness to our determination to make this a better country. We have struck down legal barriers to equality. We have improved the education of 7 million deprived children and this year alone we have enabled almost 1 million students to go to college. We have brought medical care to older people who were unable to afford it. Three and one-half million Americans have already received treatment under Medicare since July. We have built a strong economy that has put almost 3 million more Americans on the payrolls in the last year alone. We have included more than 9 million new workers under a higher minimum wage. We have launched new training programs to provide job skills for almost 1 million Americans. We have helped more than a thousand local communities to attack poverty in the neighborhoods of the poor. We have set out to rebuild our cities on a scale that has never been attempted before. We have begun to rescue our waters from the menace of pollution and to restore the beauty of our land and our countryside, our cities and our towns. We have given 1 million young Americans a chance to earn through the Neighborhood Youth Corps--or through Head Start, a chance to learn. So together we have tried to meet the needs of our people. And, we have succeeded in creating a better life for the many as well as the few. Now we must answer whether our gains shall be the foundations of further progress, or whether they shall be only monuments to what might have been-abandoned now by a people who lacked the will to see their great work through. I believe that our people do not want to quit--though the task is great, the work hard, often frustrating, and success is a matter not of days or months, but of years-and sometimes it may be even decades. II. I have come here tonight to discuss with you five ways of carrying forward the progress of these last 3 years. These five ways concern programs, partnerships, priorities, prosperity, and peace. First, programs. We must see to it, I think, that these new programs that we have passed work effectively and are administered in the best possible way. Three years ago we set out to create these new instruments of social progress. This required trial and error--and it has produced both. But as we learn, through success and failure, we are changing our strategy and we are trying to improve our tactics. In the long run, these starts--some rewarding, others inadequate and disappointing--are crucial to SUCCESS. One example is the struggle to make life better for the less fortunate among us. On a similar occasion, at this rostrum in 1949, I heard a great American President, Harry S. Truman, declare this: "The American people have decided that poverty is just as wasteful and just as unnecessary as preventable disease." Many listened to President Truman that day here in this Chamber, but few understood what was required and did anything about it. The executive branch and the Congress waited 15 long years before ever taking any action on that challenge, as it did on many other challenges that great President presented. And when, 3 years ago, you here in the Congress joined with me in a declaration of war on poverty, then I warned, "It will not be a short or easy struggle-no single weapon... will suffice--but we shall not rest until that war is won." And I have come here to renew that pledge tonight. I recommend that we intensify our efforts to give the poor a chance to enjoy and to join in this Nation's progress. I shall propose certain administrative changes suggested by the Congress--as well as some that we have learned from our own trial and error. I shall urge special methods and special funds to reach the hundreds of thousands of Americans that are now trapped in the ghettos of our big cities and, through Head Start, to try to reach out to our very young, little children. The chance to learn is their brightest hope and must command our full determination. For learning brings skills; and skills bring jobs; and jobs bring responsibility and dignity, as well as taxes. This war--like the war in Vietnam--is not a simple one. There is no single battleline which you can plot each day on a chart. The enemy is not easy to perceive, or to isolate, or to destroy. There are mistakes and there are setbacks. But we are moving, and our direction is forward. This is true with other programs that are making and breaking new ground. Some do not yet have the capacity to absorb well or wisely all the money that could be put into them. Administrative skills and trained manpower are just as vital to their success as dollars. And I believe those skills will come. But it will take time and patience and hard work. Success cannot be forced at a single stroke. So we must continue to strengthen the administration of every program if that success is to come--as we know it must. We have done much in the space of 2 short years, working together. I have recommended, and you, the Congress, have approved, 10 different reorganization plans, combining and consolidating many bureaus of this Government, and creating two entirely new Cabinet departments. I have come tonight to propose that we establish a new department--a Department of Business and Labor. By combining the Department of Commerce with the Department of Labor and other related agencies, I think we can create a more economical, efficient, and streamlined instrument that will better serve a growing nation. This is our goal throughout the entire Federal Government. Every program will be thoroughly evaluated. Grant-in-aid programs will be improved and simplified as desired by many of our local administrators and our Governors. Where there have been mistakes, we will try very hard to correct them. Where there has been progress, we will try to build upon it. Our second objective is partnership--to create an effective partnership at all levels of government. And I should treasure nothing more than to have that partnership begin between the executive and the Congress. The 88th and the 89th Congresses passed more social and economic legislation than any two single Congresses in American history. Most of you who were Members of those Congresses voted to pass most of those measures. But your efforts will come to nothing unless it reaches the people. Federal energy is essential. But it is not enough. Only a total working partnership among Federal, State, and local governments can succeed. The test of that partnership will be the concern of each public organization, each private institution, and each responsible citizen. Each State, county, and city needs to examine its capacity for government in today's world, as we are examining ours in the executive department, and as I see you are examining yours. Some will need to reorganize and reshape their methods of administration-as we are doing. Others will need to revise their constitutions and their laws to bring them up to date--as we are doing. Above all, I think we must work together and find ways in which the multitudes of small jurisdictions can be brought together more efficiently. During the past 3 years we have returned to State and local governments about $40 billion in grants-in-aid. This year alone, 70 percent of our Federal expenditures for domestic programs will be distributed through the State and local governments. With Federal assistance, State and local governments by 1970 will be spending close to $110 billion annually. These enormous sums must be used wisely, honestly, and effectively. We intend to work closely with the States and the localities to do exactly that. Our third objective is priorities, to move ahead on the priorities that we have established within the resources that are available. I wish, of course, that we could do all that should be done--and that we could do it now. But the Nation has many commitments and responsibilities which make heavy demands upon our total resources. No administration would more eagerly utilize for these programs all the resources they require than the administration that started them. So let us resolve, now, to do all that we can, with what we have--knowing that it is far, far more than we have ever done before, and far, far less than our problems will ultimately require. Let us create new opportunities for our children and our young Americans who need special help. We should strengthen the Head Start program, begin it for children 3 years old, and maintain its educational momentum by following through in the early years. We should try new methods of child development and care from the earliest years, before it is too late to correct. And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress. Let us insure that older Americans, and neglected Americans, share in their Nation's progress. We should raise social security payments by an overall average of 20 percent. That will add $4 billion 100 million to social security payments in the first year. I will recommend that each of the 23 million Americans now receiving payments get an increase of at least 15 percent. I will ask that you raise the minimum payments by 59 percent--from $44 to $70 a month, and to guarantee a minimum benefit of $100 a month for those with a total of 25 years of coverage. We must raise the limits that retired workers can earn without losing social security income. We must eliminate by law unjust discrimination in employment because of age. We should embark upon a major effort to provide self-help assistance to the forgotten in our midst--the American Indians and the migratory farm workers. And we should reach with the hand of understanding to help those who live in rural poverty. And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress. So let us keep on improving the quality of life and enlarging the meaning of justice for all of our fellow Americans. We should transform our decaying slums into places of decency through the landmark Model Cities program. I intend to seek for this effort, this year, the full amount that you in Congress authorized last year. We should call upon the genius of private industry and the most advanced technology to help rebuild our great cities. We should vastly expand the fight for clean air with a total attack on pollution at its sources, and--because air, like water, does not respect manmade boundaries--we should set up "regional airsheds" throughout this great land. We should continue to carry to every corner of the Nation our campaign for a beautiful America--to clean up our towns, to make them more beautiful, our cities, our countryside, by creating more parks, and more seashores, and more open spaces for our children to play in, and for the generations that come after us to enjoy. We should continue to seek equality and justice for each citizen--before a jury, in seeking a job, in exercising his civil rights. We should find a solution to fair housing, so that every American, regardless of color, has a decent home of his choice. We should modernize our Selective Service System. The National Commission on Selective Service will shortly submit its report. I will send you new recommendations to meet our military manpower needs. But let us resolve that this is to be the Congress that made our draft laws as fair and as effective as possible. We should protect what Justice Brandeis called the "right most valued by civilized men"--the right to privacy. We should outlaw all wiretapping--public and private--wherever and whenever it occurs, except when the security of this Nation itself is at stake--and only then with the strictest governmental safeguards. And we should exercise the full reach of our constitutional powers to outlaw electronic "bugging" and "snooping." I hope this Congress will try to help me do more for the consumer. We should demand that the cost of credit be clearly and honestly expressed where average citizens can understand it. We should immediately take steps to prevent massive power failures, to safeguard the home against hazardous household products, and to assure safety in the pipelines that carry natural gas across our Nation. We should extend Medicare benefits that are now denied to 1,300,000 permanently and totally disabled Americans under 65 years of age. We should improve the process of democracy by passing our election reform and financing proposals, by tightening our laws regulating lobbying, and by restoring a reasonable franchise to Americans who move their residences. We should develop educational television into a vital public resource to enrich our homes, educate our families, and to provide assistance in our classrooms. We should insist that the public interest be fully served through the public's airwaves. And I will propose these measures to the 90th Congress. Now we come to a question that weighs very heavily on all our minds--on yours and mine. This Nation must make an all-out effort to combat crime. The 89th Congress gave us a new start in the attack on crime by passing the Law Enforcement Assistance Act that I recommended. We appointed the National Crime Commission to study crime in America and to recommend the best ways to carry that attack forward. And while we do not have all the answers, on the basis of its preliminary recommendations we are ready to move. This is not a war that Washington alone can win. The idea of a national police force is repugnant to the American people. Crime must be rooted out in local communities by local authorities. Our policemen must be better trained, must be better paid, and must be better supported by the local citizens that they try to serve and to protect. The National Government can and expects to help. And so I will recommend to the 90th Congress the Safe Streets and Crime Control Act of 1967. It will enable us to assist those States and cities that try to make their streets and homes safer, their police forces better, their corrections systems more effective, and their courts more efficient. When the Congress approves, the Federal Government will be able to provide a substantial percentage of the cost: --90 percent of the cost of developing the State and local plans, master plans, to combat crime in their area; --60 percent of the cost of training new tactical units, developing instant communications and special alarm systems, and introducing the latest equipment and techniques so that they can become weapons in the war on crime; --50 percent of the cost of building crime laboratories and police academy-type centers so that our citizens can be protected by the best trained and served by the best equipped police to be found anywhere. We will also recommend new methods to prevent juvenile delinquents from becoming adult delinquents. We will seek new partnerships with States and cities in order to deal with this hideous narcotics problem. And we will recommend strict controls on the sale of firearms. At the heart of this attack on crime must be the conviction that a free America--as Abraham Lincoln once said--must "let reverence for the laws . . . become the political religion of the Nation." Our country's laws must be respected. Order must be maintained. And I will support--with all the constitutional powers the President possesses--our Nation's law enforcement officials in their attempt to control the crime and the violence that tear the fabric of our communities. Many of these priority proposals will be built on foundations that have already been laid. Some will necessarily be small at first, but "every beginning is a consequence." If we postpone this urgent work now, it will simply have to be done later, and later we will pay a much higher price. Our fourth objective is prosperity, to keep our economy moving ahead, moving ahead steadily and safely. We have now enjoyed 6 years of unprecedented and rewarding prosperity. Last year, in 1966: --Wages were the highest in history-and the unemployment rate, announced yesterday, reached the lowest point in 13 years; --Total after-tax income of American families rose nearly 5 percent; --Corporate profits after taxes rose a little more than 5 percent; --Our gross national product advanced 5.5 percent, to about $740 billion; --Income per farm went up 6 percent. Now we have been greatly concerned because consumer prices rose 4.5 percent over the 18 months since we decided to send troops to Vietnam. This was more than we had expected--and the Government tried to do everything that we knew how to do to hold it down. Yet we were not as successful as we wished to be. In the 18 months after we entered World War II, prices rose not 4.5 percent, but 13.5 percent. In the first 18 months after Korea, after the conflict broke out there, prices rose not 4.5 percent, but 11 percent. During those two periods we had OPA price control that the Congress gave us and War Labor Board wage controls. Since Vietnam we have not asked for those controls and we have tried to avoid imposing them. We believe that we have done better, but we make no pretense of having been successful or doing as well as we wished. Our greatest disappointment in the economy during 1966 was the excessive rise in interest rates and the tightening of credit. They imposed very severe and very unfair burdens on our home buyers and on our home builders, and all those associated with the home industry. Last January, and again last September, I recommended fiscal and moderate tax measures to try to restrain the unbalanced pace of economic expansion. Legislatively and administratively we took several billions out of the economy. With these measures, in both instances, the Congress approved most of the recommendations rather promptly. As 1966 ended, price stability was seemingly being restored. Wholesale prices are lower tonight than they were in August. So are retail food prices. Monetary conditions are also easing. Most interest rates have retreated from their earlier peaks. More money now seems to be available. Given the cooperation of the Federal Reserve System, which I so earnestly seek, I am confident that this movement can continue. I pledge the American people that I will do everything in a President's power to lower interest rates and to ease money in this country. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board tomorrow morning will announce that it will make immediately available to savings and loan associations an additional $1 billion, and will lower from 6 percent to 5 3/4 percent the interest rate charged on those loans. We shall continue on a sensible course of fiscal and budgetary policy that we believe will keep our economy growing without new inflationary spirals; that will finance responsibly the needs of our men in Vietnam and the progress of our people at home; that will support a significant improvement in our export surplus, and will press forward toward easier credit and toward lower interest rates. I recommend to the Congress a surcharge of 6 percent on both corporate and individual income taxes--to last for 2 years or for so long as the unusual expenditures associated with our efforts in Vietnam continue. I will promptly recommend an earlier termination date if a reduction in these expenditures permits it. This surcharge will raise revenues by some $4.5 billion in the first year. For example, a person whose tax payment, the tax he owes, is $1,000, will pay, under this proposal, an extra $60 over the 12-month period, or $5 a month. The overwhelming majority of Americans who pay taxes today are below that figure and they will pay substantially less than $5 a month. Married couples with two children, with incomes up to $5,000 per year, will be exempt from this tax--as will single people with an income of up to $1,900 a year. Now if Americans today still paid the income and excise tax rates in effect when I came into the Presidency, in the year 1964, their annual taxes would have been over $20 billion more than at present tax rates. So this proposal is that while we have this problem and this emergency in Vietnam, while we are trying to meet the needs of our people at home, your Government asks for slightly more than one-fourth of that tax cut each year in order to try to hold our budget deficit in fiscal 1968 within prudent limits and to give our country and to give our fighting men the help they need in this hour of trial. For fiscal 1967, we estimate the budget expenditures to be $126.7 billion and revenues of $117 billion. That will leave us a deficit this year of $9.7 billion. For fiscal 1968, we estimate budget expenditures of $135 billion. And with the tax measures recommended, and a continuing strong economy, we estimate revenues will be $126.9 billion. The deficit then will be $8.1 billion. I will very soon forward all of my recommendations to the Congress. Yours is the responsibility to discuss and to debate them-to approve or modify or reject them. I welcome your views, as I have welcomed working with you for 30 years as a colleague and as Vice President and President. I should like to say to the Members of the opposition--whose numbers, if I am not mistaken, seem to have increased somewhat--that the genius of the American political system has always been best expressed through creative debate that offers choices and reasonable alternatives. Throughout our history, great Republicans and Democrats have seemed to understand this. So let there be light and reason in our relations. That is the way to a responsible session and a responsive government. Let us be remembered as a President and a Congress who tried to improve the quality of life for every American--not just the rich, not just the poor, but every man, woman, and child in this great Nation of ours. We all go to school--to good schools or bad schools. We all take air into our lungs-clean air or polluted air. We all drink water--pure water or polluted water. We all face sickness someday, and some more often than we wish, and old age as well. We all have a stake in this Great Society--in its economic growth, in reduction of civil strife--a great stake in good government. We just must not arrest the pace of progress we have established in this country in these years. Our children's children will pay the price if we are not wise enough, and courageous enough, and determined enough to stand up and meet the Nation's needs as well as we can in the time allotted us. III. Abroad, as at home, there is also risk in change. But abroad, as at home, there is a greater risk in standing still. No part of our foreign policy is so sacred that it ever remains beyond review. We shall be flexible where conditions in the world change--and where man's efforts can change them for the better. We are in the midst of a great transition-a transition from narrow nationalism to international partnership; from the harsh spirit of the cold war to the hopeful spirit of common humanity on a troubled and a threatened planet. In Latin America, the American chiefs of state will be meeting very shortly to give our hemispheric policies new direction. We have come a long way in this hemisphere since the inter-American effort in economic and social development was launched by the conference at Bogota in 1960 under the leadership of President Eisenhower. The Alliance for Progress moved dramatically forward under President Kennedy. There is new confidence that the voice of the people is being heard; that the dignity of the individual is stronger than ever in this hemisphere, and we are facing up to and meeting many of the hemispheric problems together. In this hemisphere that reform under democracy can be made to happen--because it has happened. So together, I think, we must now move to strike down the barriers to full cooperation among the American nations, and to free the energies and the resources of two great continents on behalf of all of our citizens. Africa stands at an earlier stage of development than Latin America. It has yet to develop the transportation, communications, agriculture, and, above all, the trained men and women without which growth is impossible. There, too, the job will best be done if the nations and peoples of Africa cooperate on a regional basis. More and more our programs for Africa are going to be directed toward self-help. The future of Africa is shadowed by unsolved racial conflicts. Our policy will continue to reflect our basic commitments as a people to support those who are prepared to work towards cooperation and harmony between races, and to help those who demand change but reject the fool's gold of violence. In the Middle East the spirit of good will toward all, unfortunately, has not yet taken hold. An already tortured peace seems to be constantly threatened. We shall try to use our influence to increase the possibilities of improved relations among the nations of that region. We are working hard at that task. In the great subcontinent of South Asia live more than a sixth of the earth's population. Over the years we--and others--have invested very heavily in capital and food for the economic development of India and Pakistan. We are not prepared to see our assistance wasted, however, in conflict. It must strengthen their capacity to help themselves. It must help these two nations--both our friends--to overcome poverty, to emerge as self-reliant leaders, and find terms for reconciliation and cooperation. In Western Europe we shall maintain in NATO an integrated common defense. But we also look forward to the time when greater security can be achieved through measures of arms control and disarmament, and through other forms of practical agreement. We are shaping a new future of enlarged partnership in nuclear affairs, in economic and technical cooperation, in trade negotiations, in political consultation, and in working together with the governments and peoples of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The emerging spirit of confidence is precisely what we hoped to achieve when we went to work a generation ago to put our shoulder to the wheel and try to help rebuild Europe. We faced new challenges and opportunities then and there--and we faced also some dangers. But I believe that the peoples on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as both sides of this Chamber, wanted to face them together. Our relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are also in transition. We have avoided both the acts and the rhetoric of the cold war. When we have differed with the Soviet Union, or other nations, for that matter, I have tried to differ quietly and with courtesy, and without venom. Our objective is not to continue the cold war, but to end it. We have reached an agreement at the United Nations on the peaceful uses of outer space. We have agreed to open direct air flights with the Soviet Union. We have removed more than 400 nonstrategic items from export control. We are determined that the Export-Import Bank can allow commercial credits to Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia, as well as to Romania and Yugoslavia. We have entered into a cultural agreement with the Soviet Union for another 2 years. We have agreed with Bulgaria and Hungary to upgrade our legations to embassies. We have started discussions with international agencies on ways of increasing contacts with Eastern European countries. This administration has taken these steps even as duty compelled us to fulfill and execute alliances and treaty obligations throughout the world that were entered into before I became President. So tonight I now ask and urge this Congress to help our foreign and our commercial trade policies by passing an East-West trade bill and by approving our consular convention with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union has in the past year increased its long-range missile capabilities. It has begun to place near Moscow a limited antimissile defense. My first responsibility to our people is to assure that no nation can ever find it rational to launch a nuclear attack or to use its nuclear power as a credible threat against us or against our allies. I would emphasize that that is why an important link between Russia and the United States is in our common interest, in arms control and in disarmament. We have the solemn duty to slow down the arms race between us, if that is at all possible, in both conventional and nuclear weapons and defenses. I thought we were making some progress in that direction the first few months I was in office. I realize that any additional race would impose on our peoples, and on all mankind, for that matter, an additional waste of resources with no gain in security to either side. I expect in the days ahead to closely consult and seek the advice of the Congress about the possibilities of international agreements bearing directly upon this problem. Next to the pursuit of peace, the really greatest challenge to the human family is the race between food supply and population increase. That race tonight is being lost. The time for rhetoric has clearly passed. The time for concerted action is here and we must get on with the job. We believe that three principles must prevail if our policy is to succeed: First, the developing nations must give highest priority to food production, including the use of technology and the capital of private enterprise. Second, nations with food deficits must put more of their resources into voluntary family planning programs. And third, the developed nations must all assist other nations to avoid starvation in the short run and to move rapidly towards the ability to feed themselves. Every member of the world community now bears a direct responsibility to help bring our most basic human account into balance. IV. I come now finally to Southeast Asia-and to Vietnam in particular. Soon I will submit to the Congress a detailed report on that situation. Tonight I want to just review the essential points as briefly as I can. We are in Vietnam because the United States of America and our allies are committed by the SEATO Treaty to "act to meet the common danger" of aggression in Southeast Asia. We are in Vietnam because an international agreement signed by the United States, North Vietnam, and others in 1962 is being systematically violated by the Communists. That violation threatens the independence of all the small nations in Southeast Asia, and threatens the peace of the entire region and perhaps the world. We are there because the people of South Vietnam have as much right to remain non-Communist--if that is what they choose-as North Vietnam has to remain Communist. We are there because the Congress has pledged by solemn vote to take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression. No better words could describe our present course than those once spoken by the great Thomas Jefferson: "It is the melancholy law of human societies to be compelled sometimes to choose a great evil in order to ward off a greater." We have chosen to fight a limited war in Vietnam in an attempt to prevent a larger war--a war almost certain to follow, I believe, if the Communists succeed in overrunning and taking over South Vietnam by aggression and by force. I believe, and I am supported by some authority, that if they are not checked now the world can expect to pay a greater price to check them later. That is what our statesmen said when they debated this treaty, and that is why it was ratified 82 to 1 by the Senate many years ago. You will remember that we stood in Western Europe 20 years ago. Is there anyone in this Chamber tonight who doubts that the course of freedom was not changed for the better because of the courage of that stand? Sixteen years ago we and others stopped another kind of aggression--this time it was in Korea. Imagine how different Asia might be today if we had failed to act when the Communist army of North Korea marched south. The Asia of tomorrow will be far different because we have said in Vietnam, as we said 16 years ago in Korea: "This far and no further." I think I reveal no secret when I tell you that we are dealing with a stubborn adversary who is committed to the use of force and terror to settle political questions. I wish I could report to you that the conflict is almost over. This I cannot do. We face more cost, more loss, and more agony. For the end is not yet. I cannot promise you that it will come this year--or come next year. Our adversary still believes, I think, tonight, that he can go on fighting longer than we can, and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist. Our men in that area--there are nearly 500,000 now--have borne well "the burden and the heat of the day." Their efforts have deprived the Communist enemy of the victory that he sought and that he expected a year ago. We have steadily frustrated his main forces. General Westmoreland reports that the enemy can no longer succeed on the battlefield. So I must say to you that our pressure must be sustained--and will be sustained-until he realizes that the war he started is costing him more than he can ever gain. I know of no strategy more likely to attain that end than the strategy of "accumulating slowly, but inexorably, every kind of material resource"--of "laboriously teaching troops the very elements of their trade." That, and patience--and I mean a great deal of patience. Our South Vietnamese allies are also being tested tonight. Because they must provide real security to the people living in the countryside. And this means reducing the terrorism and the armed attacks which kidnaped and killed 26,900 civilians in the last 32 months, to levels where they can be successfully controlled by the regular South Vietnamese security forces. It means bringing to the villagers an effective civilian government that they can respect, and that they can rely upon and that they can participate in, and that they can have a personal stake in. We hope that government is now beginning to emerge. While I cannot report the desired progress in the pacification effort, the very distinguished and able Ambassador, Henry Cabot Lodge, reports that South Vietnam is turning to this task with a new sense of urgency. We can help, but only they can win this part of the war. Their task is to build and protect a new life in each rural province. One result of our stand in Vietnam is already clear. It is this: The peoples of Asia now know that the door to independence is not going to be slammed shut. They know that it is possible for them to choose their own national destinies--without coercion. The 'performance of our men in Vietnam-backed by the American people--has created a feeling of confidence and unity among the independent nations of Asia and the Pacific. I saw it in their faces in the 19 days that I spent in their homes and in their countries. Fear of external Communist conquest in many Asian nations is already subsiding--and with this, the spirit of hope is rising. For the first time in history, a common outlook and common institutions are already emerging. This forward movement is rooted in the ambitions and the interests of Asian nations themselves. It was precisely this movement that we hoped to accelerate when I spoke at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore in April 1965, and I pledged "a much more massive effort to improve the life of man" in that part of the world, in the hope that we could take some of the funds that we were spending on bullets and bombs and spend it on schools and production. Twenty months later our efforts have produced a new reality: The doors of the billion dollar Asian Development Bank that I recommended to the Congress, and you endorsed almost unanimously, I am proud to tell you are already open. Asians are engaged tonight in regional efforts in a dozen new directions. Their hopes are high. Their faith is strong. Their confidence is deep. And even as the war continues, we shall play our part in carrying forward this constructive historic development. As recommended by the Eugene Black mission, and if other nations will join us, I will seek a special authorization from the Congress of $200 million for East Asian regional programs. We are eager to turn our resources to peace. Our efforts in behalf of humanity I think need not be restricted by any parallel or by any boundary line. The moment that peace comes, as I pledged in Baltimore, I will ask the Congress for funds to join in an international program of reconstruction and development for all the people of Vietnam-and their deserving neighbors who wish our help. We shall continue to hope for a reconciliation between the people of Mainland China and the world community--including working together in all the tasks of arms control, security, and progress on which the fate of the Chinese people, like their fellow men elsewhere, depends. We would be the first to welcome a China which decided to respect her neighbors' rights. We would be the first to applaud her were she to apply her great energies and intelligence to improving the welfare of her people. And we have no intention of trying to deny her legitimate needs for security and friendly relations with her neighboring countries. Our hope that all of this will someday happen rests on the conviction that we, the American people and our allies, will and are going to see Vietnam through to an honorable peace. We will support all appropriate initiatives by the United Nations, and others, which can bring the several parties together for unconditional discussions of peace--anywhere, any time. And we will continue to take every possible initiative ourselves to constantly probe for peace. Until such efforts succeed, or until the infiltration ceases, or until the conflict subsides, I think the course of wisdom for this country is that we just must firmly pursue our present course. We will stand firm in Vietnam. I think you know that our fighting men there tonight bear the heaviest burden of all. With their lives they serve their Nation. We must give them nothing less than our full support--and we have given them that-nothing less than the determination that Americans have always given their fighting men. Whatever our sacrifice here, even if it is more than $5 a month, it is small compared to their own. How long it will take I cannot prophesy. I only know that the will of the American people, I think, is tonight being tested. Whether we can fight a war of limited objectives over a period of time, and keep alive the hope of independence and stability for people other than ourselves; whether we can continue to act with restraint when the temptation to "get it over with" is inviting but dangerous; whether we can accept the necessity of choosing "a great evil in order to ward off a greater"; whether we can do these without arousing the hatreds and the passions that are ordinarily loosed in time of war--on all these questions so much turns. The answers will determine not only where we are, but "whither we are tending." A time of testing--yes. And a time of transition. The transition is sometimes slow; sometimes unpopular; almost always very painful; and often quite dangerous. But we have lived with danger for a long time before, and we shall live with it for a long time yet to come. We know that "man is born unto trouble." We also know that this Nation was not forged and did not survive and grow and prosper without a great deal of sacrifice from a great many men. For all the disorders that we must deal with, and all the frustrations that concern us, and all the anxieties that we are called upon to resolve, for all the issues we must face with the agony that attends them, let us remember that "those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." But let us also count not only our burdens but our blessings--for they are many. And let us give thanks to the One who governs us all. Let us draw encouragement from the signs of hope--for they, too, are many. Let us remember that we have been tested before and America has never been found wanting. So with your understanding, I would hope your confidence, and your support, we are going to persist--and we are going to succeed.
delivered in person before a joint session at speaker vice president distinguished members of the congress i share with all of you the grief that you feel at the death today of one of the most beloved respected and effective members of this body the distinguished representative from rhode island fogarty i have come here tonight to report to you that this is a time of testing for our nation at home the question is whether we will continue working for better opportunities for all americans when most americans are already living better than any people in history abroad the question is whether we have the staying power to fight a very costly war when the objective is limited and the danger to us is seemingly remote so our test is not whether we shrink from our country because when the dangers to us are obvious and close at hand but rather whether we carry on when they seem obscure and distant and some think that it is safe to lay down our burdens i have come tonight to ask this congress and this nation to resolve that issue to meet our commitments at home and continue to build a better america and to reaffirm this nation allegiance to freedom as president abraham lincoln said we must ask where we are and whither we are tending i the last 3 years bear witness to our determination to make this a better country we have struck down legal barriers to equality we have improved the education of 7 million deprived children and this year alone we have enabled almost 1 million students to go to college we have brought medical care to older people who were unable to afford it three and million americans have already received treatment under medicare since july we have built a strong economy that has put almost 3 million more americans on the payrolls in the last year alone we have included more than 9 million new workers under a higher minimum wage we have launched new training programs to provide job skills for almost 1 million americans we have helped more than a thousand local communities to attack poverty in the neighborhoods of the poor we have set out to rebuild our cities on a scale that has never been attempted before we have begun to rescue our waters from the menace of pollution and to restore the beauty of our land and our countryside our cities and our towns we have given 1 million young americans a chance to earn through the neighborhood youth corps or through head start a chance to learn so together we have tried to meet the needs of our people and we have succeeded in creating a better life for the many as well as the few now we must answer whether our gains shall be the foundations of further progress or whether they shall be only monuments to what might have now by a people who lacked the will to see their great work through i believe that our people do not want to quit though the task is great the work hard often frustrating and success is a matter not of days or months but of sometimes it may be even decades ii i have come here tonight to discuss with you five ways of carrying forward the progress of these last 3 years these five ways concern programs partnerships priorities prosperity and peace first programs we must see to it i think that these new programs that we have passed work effectively and are administered in the best possible way three years ago we set out to create these new instruments of social progress this required trial and error and it has produced both but as we learn through success and failure we are changing our strategy and we are trying to improve our tactics in the long run these starts some rewarding others inadequate and disappointing are crucial to success one example is the struggle to make life better for the less fortunate among us on a similar occasion at this rostrum in 1949 i heard a great american president harry truman declare this the american people have decided that poverty is just as wasteful and just as unnecessary as preventable disease many listened to president truman that day here in this chamber but few understood what was required and did anything about it the executive branch and the congress waited 15 long years before ever taking any action on that challenge as it did on many other challenges that great president presented and when 3 years ago you here in the congress joined with me in a declaration of war on poverty then i warned it will not be a short or easy single weapon will suffice but we shall not rest until that war is won and i have come here to renew that pledge tonight i recommend that we intensify our efforts to give the poor a chance to enjoy and to join in this nation progress i shall propose certain administrative changes suggested by the congress as well as some that we have learned from our own trial and error i shall urge special methods and special funds to reach the hundreds of thousands of americans that are now trapped in the ghettos of our big cities and through head start to try to reach out to our very young little children the chance to learn is their brightest hope and must command our full determination for learning brings skills and skills bring jobs and jobs bring responsibility and dignity as well as taxes this war like the war in vietnam is not a simple one there is no single battleline which you can plot each day on a chart the enemy is not easy to perceive or to isolate or to destroy there are mistakes and there are setbacks but we are moving and our direction is forward this is true with other programs that are making and breaking new ground some do not yet have the capacity to absorb well or wisely all the money that could be put into them administrative skills and trained manpower are just as vital to their success as dollars and i believe those skills will come but it will take time and patience and hard work success can not be forced at a single stroke so we must continue to strengthen the administration of every program if that success is to come as we know it must we have done much in the space of 2 short years working together i have recommended and you the congress have approved 10 different reorganization plans combining and consolidating many bureaus of this government and creating two entirely new cabinet departments i have come tonight to propose that we establish a new department a department of business and labor by combining the department of commerce with the department of labor and other related agencies i think we can create a more economical efficient and streamlined instrument that will better serve a growing nation this is our goal throughout the entire federal government every program will be thoroughly evaluated programs will be improved and simplified as desired by many of our local administrators and our governors where there have been mistakes we will try very hard to correct them where there has been progress we will try to build upon it our second objective is partnership to create an effective partnership at all levels of government and i should treasure nothing more than to have that partnership begin between the executive and the congress the 88th and the 89th congresses passed more social and economic legislation than any two single congresses in american history most of you who were members of those congresses voted to pass most of those measures but your efforts will come to nothing unless it reaches the people federal energy is essential but it is not enough only a total working partnership among federal state and local governments can succeed the test of that partnership will be the concern of each public organization each private institution and each responsible citizen each state county and city needs to examine its capacity for government in today world as we are examining ours in the executive department and as i see you are examining yours some will need to reorganize and reshape their methods of we are doing others will need to revise their constitutions and their laws to bring them up to date as we are doing above all i think we must work together and find ways in which the multitudes of small jurisdictions can be brought together more efficiently during the past 3 years we have returned to state and local governments about 40 billion in this year alone 70 percent of our federal expenditures for domestic programs will be distributed through the state and local governments with federal assistance state and local governments by 1970 will be spending close to 110 billion annually these enormous sums must be used wisely honestly and effectively we intend to work closely with the states and the localities to do exactly that our third objective is priorities to move ahead on the priorities that we have established within the resources that are available i wish of course that we could do all that should be done and that we could do it now but the nation has many commitments and responsibilities which make heavy demands upon our total resources no administration would more eagerly utilize for these programs all the resources they require than the administration that started them so let us resolve now to do all that we can with what we have knowing that it is far far more than we have ever done before and far far less than our problems will ultimately require let us create new opportunities for our children and our young americans who need special help we should strengthen the head start program begin it for children 3 years old and maintain its educational momentum by following through in the early years we should try new methods of child development and care from the earliest years before it is too late to correct and i will propose these measures to the 90th congress let us insure that older americans and neglected americans share in their nation progress we should raise social security payments by an overall average of 20 percent that will add 4 billion 100 million to social security payments in the first year i will recommend that each of the 23 million americans now receiving payments get an increase of at least 15 percent i will ask that you raise the minimum payments by 59 percent from 44 to 70 a month and to guarantee a minimum benefit of 100 a month for those with a total of 25 years of coverage we must raise the limits that retired workers can earn without losing social security income we must eliminate by law unjust discrimination in employment because of age we should embark upon a major effort to provide assistance to the forgotten in our midst the american indians and the migratory farm workers and we should reach with the hand of understanding to help those who live in rural poverty and i will propose these measures to the 90th congress so let us keep on improving the quality of life and enlarging the meaning of justice for all of our fellow americans we should transform our decaying slums into places of decency through the landmark model cities program i intend to seek for this effort this year the full amount that you in congress authorized last year we should call upon the genius of private industry and the most advanced technology to help rebuild our great cities we should vastly expand the fight for clean air with a total attack on pollution at its sources and because air like water does not respect manmade boundaries we should set up regional airsheds throughout this great land we should continue to carry to every corner of the nation our campaign for a beautiful america to clean up our towns to make them more beautiful our cities our countryside by creating more parks and more seashores and more open spaces for our children to play in and for the generations that come after us to enjoy we should continue to seek equality and justice for each citizen before a jury in seeking a job in exercising his civil rights we should find a solution to fair housing so that every american regardless of color has a decent home of his choice we should modernize our selective service system the national commission on selective service will shortly submit its report i will send you new recommendations to meet our military manpower needs but let us resolve that this is to be the congress that made our draft laws as fair and as effective as possible we should protect what justice brandeis called the right most valued by civilized men the right to privacy we should outlaw all wiretapping public and private wherever and whenever it occurs except when the security of this nation itself is at stake and only then with the strictest governmental safeguards and we should exercise the full reach of our constitutional powers to outlaw electronic bugging and snooping i hope this congress will try to help me do more for the consumer we should demand that the cost of credit be clearly and honestly expressed where average citizens can understand it we should immediately take steps to prevent massive power failures to safeguard the home against hazardous household products and to assure safety in the pipelines that carry natural gas across our nation we should extend medicare benefits that are now denied to permanently and totally disabled americans under 65 years of age we should improve the process of democracy by passing our election reform and financing proposals by tightening our laws regulating lobbying and by restoring a reasonable franchise to americans who move their residences we should develop educational television into a vital public resource to enrich our homes educate our families and to provide assistance in our classrooms we should insist that the public interest be fully served through the public airwaves and i will propose these measures to the 90th congress now we come to a question that weighs very heavily on all our minds on yours and mine this nation must make an effort to combat crime the 89th congress gave us a new start in the attack on crime by passing the law enforcement assistance act that i recommended we appointed the national crime commission to study crime in america and to recommend the best ways to carry that attack forward and while we do not have all the answers on the basis of its preliminary recommendations we are ready to move this is not a war that washington alone can win the idea of a national police force is repugnant to the american people crime must be rooted out in local communities by local authorities our policemen must be better trained must be better paid and must be better supported by the local citizens that they try to serve and to protect the national government can and expects to help and so i will recommend to the 90th congress the safe streets and crime control act of 1967 it will enable us to assist those states and cities that try to make their streets and homes safer their police forces better their corrections systems more effective and their courts more efficient when the congress approves the federal government will be able to provide a substantial percentage of the cost 90 percent of the cost of developing the state and local plans master plans to combat crime in their area 60 percent of the cost of training new tactical units developing instant communications and special alarm systems and introducing the latest equipment and techniques so that they can become weapons in the war on crime 50 percent of the cost of building crime laboratories and police centers so that our citizens can be protected by the best trained and served by the best equipped police to be found anywhere we will also recommend new methods to prevent juvenile delinquents from becoming adult delinquents we will seek new partnerships with states and cities in order to deal with this hideous narcotics problem and we will recommend strict controls on the sale of firearms at the heart of this attack on crime must be the conviction that a free america as abraham lincoln once said must let reverence for the laws become the political religion of the nation our country laws must be respected order must be maintained and i will support with all the constitutional powers the president possesses our nation law enforcement officials in their attempt to control the crime and the violence that tear the fabric of our communities many of these priority proposals will be built on foundations that have already been laid some will necessarily be small at first but every beginning is a consequence if we postpone this urgent work now it will simply have to be done later and later we will pay a much higher price our fourth objective is prosperity to keep our economy moving ahead moving ahead steadily and safely we have now enjoyed 6 years of unprecedented and rewarding prosperity last year in 1966 wages were the highest in the unemployment rate announced yesterday reached the lowest point in 13 years total income of american families rose nearly 5 percent corporate profits after taxes rose a little more than 5 percent our gross national product advanced percent to about 740 billion income per farm went up 6 percent now we have been greatly concerned because consumer prices rose percent over the 18 months since we decided to send troops to vietnam this was more than we had expected and the government tried to do everything that we knew how to do to hold it down yet we were not as successful as we wished to be in the 18 months after we entered world war ii prices rose not percent but percent in the first 18 months after korea after the conflict broke out there prices rose not percent but 11 percent during those two periods we had opa price control that the congress gave us and war labor board wage controls since vietnam we have not asked for those controls and we have tried to avoid imposing them we believe that we have done better but we make no pretense of having been successful or doing as well as we wished our greatest disappointment in the economy during 1966 was the excessive rise in interest rates and the tightening of credit they imposed very severe and very unfair burdens on our home buyers and on our home builders and all those associated with the home industry last january and again last september i recommended fiscal and moderate tax measures to try to restrain the unbalanced pace of economic expansion legislatively and administratively we took several billions out of the economy with these measures in both instances the congress approved most of the recommendations rather promptly as 1966 ended price stability was seemingly being restored wholesale prices are lower tonight than they were in august so are retail food prices monetary conditions are also easing most interest rates have retreated from their earlier peaks more money now seems to be available given the cooperation of the federal reserve system which i so earnestly seek i am confident that this movement can continue i pledge the american people that i will do everything in a president power to lower interest rates and to ease money in this country the federal home loan bank board tomorrow morning will announce that it will make immediately available to savings and loan associations an additional 1 billion and will lower from 6 percent to 5 percent the interest rate charged on those loans we shall continue on a sensible course of fiscal and budgetary policy that we believe will keep our economy growing without new inflationary spirals that will finance responsibly the needs of our men in vietnam and the progress of our people at home that will support a significant improvement in our export surplus and will press forward toward easier credit and toward lower interest rates i recommend to the congress a surcharge of 6 percent on both corporate and individual income taxes to last for 2 years or for so long as the unusual expenditures associated with our efforts in vietnam continue i will promptly recommend an earlier termination date if a reduction in these expenditures permits it this surcharge will raise revenues by some billion in the first year for example a person whose tax payment the tax he owes is will pay under this proposal an extra 60 over the period or 5 a month the overwhelming majority of americans who pay taxes today are below that figure and they will pay substantially less than 5 a month married couples with two children with incomes up to per year will be exempt from this tax as will single people with an income of up to a year now if americans today still paid the income and excise tax rates in effect when i came into the presidency in the year 1964 their annual taxes would have been over 20 billion more than at present tax rates so this proposal is that while we have this problem and this emergency in vietnam while we are trying to meet the needs of our people at home your government asks for slightly more than of that tax cut each year in order to try to hold our budget deficit in fiscal 1968 within prudent limits and to give our country and to give our fighting men the help they need in this hour of trial for fiscal 1967 we estimate the budget expenditures to be billion and revenues of 117 billion that will leave us a deficit this year of billion for fiscal 1968 we estimate budget expenditures of 135 billion and with the tax measures recommended and a continuing strong economy we estimate revenues will be billion the deficit then will be billion i will very soon forward all of my recommendations to the congress yours is the responsibility to discuss and to debate approve or modify or reject them i welcome your views as i have welcomed working with you for 30 years as a colleague and as vice president and president i should like to say to the members of the opposition whose numbers if i am not mistaken seem to have increased somewhat that the genius of the american political system has always been best expressed through creative debate that offers choices and reasonable alternatives throughout our history great republicans and democrats have seemed to understand this so let there be light and reason in our relations that is the way to a responsible session and a responsive government let us be remembered as a president and a congress who tried to improve the quality of life for every american not just the rich not just the poor but every man woman and child in this great nation of ours we all go to school to good schools or bad schools we all take air into our air or polluted air we all drink water pure water or polluted water we all face sickness someday and some more often than we wish and old age as well we all have a stake in this great society in its economic growth in reduction of civil strife a great stake in good government we just must not arrest the pace of progress we have established in this country in these years our children children will pay the price if we are not wise enough and courageous enough and determined enough to stand up and meet the nation needs as well as we can in the time allotted us iii abroad as at home there is also risk in change but abroad as at home there is a greater risk in standing still no part of our foreign policy is so sacred that it ever remains beyond review we shall be flexible where conditions in the world change and where man efforts can change them for the better we are in the midst of a great transition from narrow nationalism to international partnership from the harsh spirit of the cold war to the hopeful spirit of common humanity on a troubled and a threatened planet in latin america the american chiefs of state will be meeting very shortly to give our hemispheric policies new direction we have come a long way in this hemisphere since the effort in economic and social development was launched by the conference at bogota in 1960 under the leadership of president eisenhower the alliance for progress moved dramatically forward under president kennedy there is new confidence that the voice of the people is being heard that the dignity of the individual is stronger than ever in this hemisphere and we are facing up to and meeting many of the hemispheric problems together in this hemisphere that reform under democracy can be made to happen because it has happened so together i think we must now move to strike down the barriers to full cooperation among the american nations and to free the energies and the resources of two great continents on behalf of all of our citizens africa stands at an earlier stage of development than latin america it has yet to develop the transportation communications agriculture and above all the trained men and women without which growth is impossible there too the job will best be done if the nations and peoples of africa cooperate on a regional basis more and more our programs for africa are going to be directed toward the future of africa is shadowed by unsolved racial conflicts our policy will continue to reflect our basic commitments as a people to support those who are prepared to work towards cooperation and harmony between races and to help those who demand change but reject the fool gold of violence in the middle east the spirit of good will toward all unfortunately has not yet taken hold an already tortured peace seems to be constantly threatened we shall try to use our influence to increase the possibilities of improved relations among the nations of that region we are working hard at that task in the great subcontinent of south asia live more than a sixth of the earth population over the years we and others have invested very heavily in capital and food for the economic development of india and pakistan we are not prepared to see our assistance wasted however in conflict it must strengthen their capacity to help themselves it must help these two nations both our friends to overcome poverty to emerge as leaders and find terms for reconciliation and cooperation in western europe we shall maintain in nato an integrated common defense but we also look forward to the time when greater security can be achieved through measures of arms control and disarmament and through other forms of practical agreement we are shaping a new future of enlarged partnership in nuclear affairs in economic and technical cooperation in trade negotiations in political consultation and in working together with the governments and peoples of eastern europe and the soviet union the emerging spirit of confidence is precisely what we hoped to achieve when we went to work a generation ago to put our shoulder to the wheel and try to help rebuild europe we faced new challenges and opportunities then and there and we faced also some dangers but i believe that the peoples on both sides of the atlantic as well as both sides of this chamber wanted to face them together our relations with the soviet union and eastern europe are also in transition we have avoided both the acts and the rhetoric of the cold war when we have differed with the soviet union or other nations for that matter i have tried to differ quietly and with courtesy and without venom our objective is not to continue the cold war but to end it we have reached an agreement at the united nations on the peaceful uses of outer space we have agreed to open direct air flights with the soviet union we have removed more than 400 nonstrategic items from export control we are determined that the bank can allow commercial credits to poland hungary bulgaria and czechoslovakia as well as to romania and yugoslavia we have entered into a cultural agreement with the soviet union for another 2 years we have agreed with bulgaria and hungary to upgrade our legations to embassies we have started discussions with international agencies on ways of increasing contacts with eastern european countries this administration has taken these steps even as duty compelled us to fulfill and execute alliances and treaty obligations throughout the world that were entered into before i became president so tonight i now ask and urge this congress to help our foreign and our commercial trade policies by passing an trade bill and by approving our consular convention with the soviet union the soviet union has in the past year increased its missile capabilities it has begun to place near moscow a limited antimissile defense my first responsibility to our people is to assure that no nation can ever find it rational to launch a nuclear attack or to use its nuclear power as a credible threat against us or against our allies i would emphasize that that is why an important link between russia and the united states is in our common interest in arms control and in disarmament we have the solemn duty to slow down the arms race between us if that is at all possible in both conventional and nuclear weapons and defenses i thought we were making some progress in that direction the first few months i was in office i realize that any additional race would impose on our peoples and on all mankind for that matter an additional waste of resources with no gain in security to either side i expect in the days ahead to closely consult and seek the advice of the congress about the possibilities of international agreements bearing directly upon this problem next to the pursuit of peace the really greatest challenge to the human family is the race between food supply and population increase that race tonight is being lost the time for rhetoric has clearly passed the time for concerted action is here and we must get on with the job we believe that three principles must prevail if our policy is to succeed first the developing nations must give highest priority to food production including the use of technology and the capital of private enterprise second nations with food deficits must put more of their resources into voluntary family planning programs and third the developed nations must all assist other nations to avoid starvation in the short run and to move rapidly towards the ability to feed themselves every member of the world community now bears a direct responsibility to help bring our most basic human account into balance iv i come now finally to southeast to vietnam in particular soon i will submit to the congress a detailed report on that situation tonight i want to just review the essential points as briefly as i can we are in vietnam because the united states of america and our allies are committed by the seato treaty to act to meet the common danger of aggression in southeast asia we are in vietnam because an international agreement signed by the united states north vietnam and others in 1962 is being systematically violated by the communists that violation threatens the independence of all the small nations in southeast asia and threatens the peace of the entire region and perhaps the world we are there because the people of south vietnam have as much right to remain if that is what they north vietnam has to remain communist we are there because the congress has pledged by solemn vote to take all necessary measures to prevent further aggression no better words could describe our present course than those once spoken by the great thomas jefferson it is the melancholy law of human societies to be compelled sometimes to choose a great evil in order to ward off a greater we have chosen to fight a limited war in vietnam in an attempt to prevent a larger war a war almost certain to follow i believe if the communists succeed in overrunning and taking over south vietnam by aggression and by force i believe and i am supported by some authority that if they are not checked now the world can expect to pay a greater price to check them later that is what our statesmen said when they debated this treaty and that is why it was ratified 82 to 1 by the senate many years ago you will remember that we stood in western europe 20 years ago is there anyone in this chamber tonight who doubts that the course of freedom was not changed for the better because of the courage of that stand sixteen years ago we and others stopped another kind of aggression this time it was in korea imagine how different asia might be today if we had failed to act when the communist army of north korea marched south the asia of tomorrow will be far different because we have said in vietnam as we said 16 years ago in korea this far and no further i think i reveal no secret when i tell you that we are dealing with a stubborn adversary who is committed to the use of force and terror to settle political questions i wish i could report to you that the conflict is almost over this i can not do we face more cost more loss and more agony for the end is not yet i can not promise you that it will come this year or come next year our adversary still believes i think tonight that he can go on fighting longer than we can and longer than we and our allies will be prepared to stand up and resist our men in that area there are nearly now have borne well the burden and the heat of the day their efforts have deprived the communist enemy of the victory that he sought and that he expected a year ago we have steadily frustrated his main forces general westmoreland reports that the enemy can no longer succeed on the battlefield so i must say to you that our pressure must be sustained and will be he realizes that the war he started is costing him more than he can ever gain i know of no strategy more likely to attain that end than the strategy of accumulating slowly but inexorably every kind of material resource of laboriously teaching troops the very elements of their trade that and patience and i mean a great deal of patience our south vietnamese allies are also being tested tonight because they must provide real security to the people living in the countryside and this means reducing the terrorism and the armed attacks which kidnaped and killed civilians in the last 32 months to levels where they can be successfully controlled by the regular south vietnamese security forces it means bringing to the villagers an effective civilian government that they can respect and that they can rely upon and that they can participate in and that they can have a personal stake in we hope that government is now beginning to emerge while i can not report the desired progress in the pacification effort the very distinguished and able ambassador henry cabot lodge reports that south vietnam is turning to this task with a new sense of urgency we can help but only they can win this part of the war their task is to build and protect a new life in each rural province one result of our stand in vietnam is already clear it is this the peoples of asia now know that the door to independence is not going to be slammed shut they know that it is possible for them to choose their own national destinies without coercion the of our men in by the american people has created a feeling of confidence and unity among the independent nations of asia and the pacific i saw it in their faces in the 19 days that i spent in their homes and in their countries fear of external communist conquest in many asian nations is already subsiding and with this the spirit of hope is rising for the first time in history a common outlook and common institutions are already emerging this forward movement is rooted in the ambitions and the interests of asian nations themselves it was precisely this movement that we hoped to accelerate when i spoke at johns hopkins in baltimore in april 1965 and i pledged a much more massive effort to improve the life of man in that part of the world in the hope that we could take some of the funds that we were spending on bullets and bombs and spend it on schools and production twenty months later our efforts have produced a new reality the doors of the billion dollar asian development bank that i recommended to the congress and you endorsed almost unanimously i am proud to tell you are already open asians are engaged tonight in regional efforts in a dozen new directions their hopes are high their faith is strong their confidence is deep and even as the war continues we shall play our part in carrying forward this constructive historic development as recommended by the eugene black mission and if other nations will join us i will seek a special authorization from the congress of 200 million for east asian regional programs we are eager to turn our resources to peace our efforts in behalf of humanity i think need not be restricted by any parallel or by any boundary line the moment that peace comes as i pledged in baltimore i will ask the congress for funds to join in an international program of reconstruction and development for all the people of their deserving neighbors who wish our help we shall continue to hope for a reconciliation between the people of mainland china and the world community including working together in all the tasks of arms control security and progress on which the fate of the chinese people like their fellow men elsewhere depends we would be the first to welcome a china which decided to respect her neighbors rights we would be the first to applaud her were she to apply her great energies and intelligence to improving the welfare of her people and we have no intention of trying to deny her legitimate needs for security and friendly relations with her neighboring countries our hope that all of this will someday happen rests on the conviction that we the american people and our allies will and are going to see vietnam through to an honorable peace we will support all appropriate initiatives by the united nations and others which can bring the several parties together for unconditional discussions of peace anywhere any time and we will continue to take every possible initiative ourselves to constantly probe for peace until such efforts succeed or until the infiltration ceases or until the conflict subsides i think the course of wisdom for this country is that we just must firmly pursue our present course we will stand firm in vietnam i think you know that our fighting men there tonight bear the heaviest burden of all with their lives they serve their nation we must give them nothing less than our full support and we have given them less than the determination that americans have always given their fighting men whatever our sacrifice here even if it is more than 5 a month it is small compared to their own how long it will take i can not prophesy i only know that the will of the american people i think is tonight being tested whether we can fight a war of limited objectives over a period of time and keep alive the hope of independence and stability for people other than ourselves whether we can continue to act with restraint when the temptation to get it over with is inviting but dangerous whether we can accept the necessity of choosing a great evil in order to ward off a greater whether we can do these without arousing the hatreds and the passions that are ordinarily loosed in time of war on all these questions so much turns the answers will determine not only where we are but whither we are tending a time of testing yes and a time of transition the transition is sometimes slow sometimes unpopular almost always very painful and often quite dangerous but we have lived with danger for a long time before and we shall live with it for a long time yet to come we know that man is born unto trouble we also know that this nation was not forged and did not survive and grow and prosper without a great deal of sacrifice from a great many men for all the disorders that we must deal with and all the frustrations that concern us and all the anxieties that we are called upon to resolve for all the issues we must face with the agony that attends them let us remember that those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must like men undergo the fatigues of supporting it but let us also count not only our burdens but our blessings for they are many and let us give thanks to the one who governs us all let us draw encouragement from the signs of hope for they too are many let us remember that we have been tested before and america has never been found wanting so with your understanding i would hope your confidence and your support we are going to persist and we are going to succeed
delivered person joint session speaker vice president distinguished members congress share grief feel death today one beloved respected effective members body distinguished representative rhode island fogarty come tonight report time testing nation home question whether continue working better opportunities americans americans already living better people history abroad question whether staying power fight costly war objective limited danger us seemingly remote test whether shrink country dangers us obvious close hand rather whether carry seem obscure distant think safe lay burdens come tonight ask congress nation resolve issue meet commitments home continue build better america reaffirm nation allegiance freedom president abraham lincoln said must ask whither tending last 3 years bear witness determination make better country struck legal barriers equality improved education 7 million deprived children year alone enabled almost 1 million students go college brought medical care older people unable afford three million americans already received treatment medicare since july built strong economy put almost 3 million americans payrolls last year alone included 9 million new workers higher minimum wage launched new training programs provide job skills almost 1 million americans helped thousand local communities attack poverty neighborhoods poor set rebuild cities scale never attempted begun rescue waters menace pollution restore beauty land countryside cities towns given 1 million young americans chance earn neighborhood youth corps head start chance learn together tried meet needs people succeeded creating better life many well must answer whether gains shall foundations progress whether shall monuments might people lacked see great work believe people want quit though task great work hard often frustrating success matter days months sometimes may even decades ii come tonight discuss five ways carrying forward progress last 3 years five ways concern programs partnerships priorities prosperity peace first programs must see think new programs passed work effectively administered best possible way three years ago set create new instruments social progress required trial error produced learn success failure changing strategy trying improve tactics long run starts rewarding others inadequate disappointing crucial success one example struggle make life better less fortunate among us similar occasion rostrum 1949 heard great american president harry truman declare american people decided poverty wasteful unnecessary preventable disease many listened president truman day chamber understood required anything executive branch congress waited 15 long years ever taking action challenge many challenges great president presented 3 years ago congress joined declaration war poverty warned short easy single weapon suffice shall rest war come renew pledge tonight recommend intensify efforts give poor chance enjoy join nation progress shall propose certain administrative changes suggested congress well learned trial error shall urge special methods special funds reach hundreds thousands americans trapped ghettos big cities head start try reach young little children chance learn brightest hope must command full determination learning brings skills skills bring jobs jobs bring responsibility dignity well taxes war like war vietnam simple one single battleline plot day chart enemy easy perceive isolate destroy mistakes setbacks moving direction forward true programs making breaking new ground yet capacity absorb well wisely money could put administrative skills trained manpower vital success dollars believe skills come take time patience hard work success forced single stroke must continue strengthen administration every program success come know must done much space 2 short years working together recommended congress approved 10 different reorganization plans combining consolidating many bureaus government creating two entirely new cabinet departments come tonight propose establish new department department business labor combining department commerce department labor related agencies think create economical efficient streamlined instrument better serve growing nation goal throughout entire federal government every program thoroughly evaluated programs improved simplified desired many local administrators governors mistakes try hard correct progress try build upon second objective partnership create effective partnership levels government treasure nothing partnership begin executive congress 88th 89th congresses passed social economic legislation two single congresses american history members congresses voted pass measures efforts come nothing unless reaches people federal energy essential enough total working partnership among federal state local governments succeed test partnership concern public organization private institution responsible citizen state county city needs examine capacity government today world examining executive department see examining need reorganize reshape methods others need revise constitutions laws bring date think must work together find ways multitudes small jurisdictions brought together efficiently past 3 years returned state local governments 40 billion year alone 70 percent federal expenditures domestic programs distributed state local governments federal assistance state local governments 1970 spending close 110 billion annually enormous sums must used wisely honestly effectively intend work closely states localities exactly third objective priorities move ahead priorities established within resources available wish course could done could nation many commitments responsibilities make heavy demands upon total resources administration would eagerly utilize programs resources require administration started let us resolve knowing far far ever done far far less problems ultimately require let us create new opportunities children young americans need special help strengthen head start program begin children 3 years old maintain educational momentum following early years try new methods child development care earliest years late correct propose measures 90th congress let us insure older americans neglected americans share nation progress raise social security payments overall average 20 percent add 4 billion 100 million social security payments first year recommend 23 million americans receiving payments get increase least 15 percent ask raise minimum payments 59 percent 44 70 month guarantee minimum benefit 100 month total 25 years coverage must raise limits retired workers earn without losing social security income must eliminate law unjust discrimination employment age embark upon major effort provide assistance forgotten midst american indians migratory farm workers reach hand understanding help live rural poverty propose measures 90th congress let us keep improving quality life enlarging meaning justice fellow americans transform decaying slums places decency landmark model cities program intend seek effort year full amount congress authorized last year call upon genius private industry advanced technology help rebuild great cities vastly expand fight clean air total attack pollution sources air like water respect manmade boundaries set regional airsheds throughout great land continue carry every corner nation campaign beautiful america clean towns make beautiful cities countryside creating parks seashores open spaces children play generations come us enjoy continue seek equality justice citizen jury seeking job exercising civil rights find solution fair housing every american regardless color decent home choice modernize selective service system national commission selective service shortly submit report send new recommendations meet military manpower needs let us resolve congress made draft laws fair effective possible protect justice brandeis called right valued civilized men right privacy outlaw wiretapping public private wherever whenever occurs except security nation stake strictest governmental safeguards exercise full reach constitutional powers outlaw electronic bugging snooping hope congress try help consumer demand cost credit clearly honestly expressed average citizens understand immediately take steps prevent massive power failures safeguard home hazardous household products assure safety pipelines carry natural gas across nation extend medicare benefits denied permanently totally disabled americans 65 years age improve process democracy passing election reform financing proposals tightening laws regulating lobbying restoring reasonable franchise americans move residences develop educational television vital public resource enrich homes educate families provide assistance classrooms insist public interest fully served public airwaves propose measures 90th congress come question weighs heavily minds mine nation must make effort combat crime 89th congress gave us new start attack crime passing law enforcement assistance act recommended appointed national crime commission study crime america recommend best ways carry attack forward answers basis preliminary recommendations ready move war washington alone win idea national police force repugnant american people crime must rooted local communities local authorities policemen must better trained must better paid must better supported local citizens try serve protect national government expects help recommend 90th congress safe streets crime control act 1967 enable us assist states cities try make streets homes safer police forces better corrections systems effective courts efficient congress approves federal government able provide substantial percentage cost 90 percent cost developing state local plans master plans combat crime area 60 percent cost training new tactical units developing instant communications special alarm systems introducing latest equipment techniques become weapons war crime 50 percent cost building crime laboratories police centers citizens protected best trained served best equipped police found anywhere also recommend new methods prevent juvenile delinquents becoming adult delinquents seek new partnerships states cities order deal hideous narcotics problem recommend strict controls sale firearms heart attack crime must conviction free america abraham lincoln said must let reverence laws become political religion nation country laws must respected order must maintained support constitutional powers president possesses nation law enforcement officials attempt control crime violence tear fabric communities many priority proposals built foundations already laid necessarily small first every beginning consequence postpone urgent work simply done later later pay much higher price fourth objective prosperity keep economy moving ahead moving ahead steadily safely enjoyed 6 years unprecedented rewarding prosperity last year 1966 wages highest unemployment rate announced yesterday reached lowest point 13 years total income american families rose nearly 5 percent corporate profits taxes rose little 5 percent gross national product advanced percent 740 billion income per farm went 6 percent greatly concerned consumer prices rose percent 18 months since decided send troops vietnam expected government tried everything knew hold yet successful wished 18 months entered world war ii prices rose percent percent first 18 months korea conflict broke prices rose percent 11 percent two periods opa price control congress gave us war labor board wage controls since vietnam asked controls tried avoid imposing believe done better make pretense successful well wished greatest disappointment economy 1966 excessive rise interest rates tightening credit imposed severe unfair burdens home buyers home builders associated home industry last january last september recommended fiscal moderate tax measures try restrain unbalanced pace economic expansion legislatively administratively took several billions economy measures instances congress approved recommendations rather promptly 1966 ended price stability seemingly restored wholesale prices lower tonight august retail food prices monetary conditions also easing interest rates retreated earlier peaks money seems available given cooperation federal reserve system earnestly seek confident movement continue pledge american people everything president power lower interest rates ease money country federal home loan bank board tomorrow morning announce make immediately available savings loan associations additional 1 billion lower 6 percent 5 percent interest rate charged loans shall continue sensible course fiscal budgetary policy believe keep economy growing without new inflationary spirals finance responsibly needs men vietnam progress people home support significant improvement export surplus press forward toward easier credit toward lower interest rates recommend congress surcharge 6 percent corporate individual income taxes last 2 years long unusual expenditures associated efforts vietnam continue promptly recommend earlier termination date reduction expenditures permits surcharge raise revenues billion first year example person whose tax payment tax owes pay proposal extra 60 period 5 month overwhelming majority americans pay taxes today figure pay substantially less 5 month married couples two children incomes per year exempt tax single people income year americans today still paid income excise tax rates effect came presidency year 1964 annual taxes would 20 billion present tax rates proposal problem emergency vietnam trying meet needs people home government asks slightly tax cut year order try hold budget deficit fiscal 1968 within prudent limits give country give fighting men help need hour trial fiscal 1967 estimate budget expenditures billion revenues 117 billion leave us deficit year billion fiscal 1968 estimate budget expenditures 135 billion tax measures recommended continuing strong economy estimate revenues billion deficit billion soon forward recommendations congress responsibility discuss debate approve modify reject welcome views welcomed working 30 years colleague vice president president like say members opposition whose numbers mistaken seem increased somewhat genius american political system always best expressed creative debate offers choices reasonable alternatives throughout history great republicans democrats seemed understand let light reason relations way responsible session responsive government let us remembered president congress tried improve quality life every american rich poor every man woman child great nation go school good schools bad schools take air air polluted air drink water pure water polluted water face sickness someday often wish old age well stake great society economic growth reduction civil strife great stake good government must arrest pace progress established country years children children pay price wise enough courageous enough determined enough stand meet nation needs well time allotted us iii abroad home also risk change abroad home greater risk standing still part foreign policy sacred ever remains beyond review shall flexible conditions world change man efforts change better midst great transition narrow nationalism international partnership harsh spirit cold war hopeful spirit common humanity troubled threatened planet latin america american chiefs state meeting shortly give hemispheric policies new direction come long way hemisphere since effort economic social development launched conference bogota 1960 leadership president eisenhower alliance progress moved dramatically forward president kennedy new confidence voice people heard dignity individual stronger ever hemisphere facing meeting many hemispheric problems together hemisphere reform democracy made happen happened together think must move strike barriers full cooperation among american nations free energies resources two great continents behalf citizens africa stands earlier stage development latin america yet develop transportation communications agriculture trained men women without growth impossible job best done nations peoples africa cooperate regional basis programs africa going directed toward future africa shadowed unsolved racial conflicts policy continue reflect basic commitments people support prepared work towards cooperation harmony races help demand change reject fool gold violence middle east spirit good toward unfortunately yet taken hold already tortured peace seems constantly threatened shall try use influence increase possibilities improved relations among nations region working hard task great subcontinent south asia live sixth earth population years others invested heavily capital food economic development india pakistan prepared see assistance wasted however conflict must strengthen capacity help must help two nations friends overcome poverty emerge leaders find terms reconciliation cooperation western europe shall maintain nato integrated common defense also look forward time greater security achieved measures arms control disarmament forms practical agreement shaping new future enlarged partnership nuclear affairs economic technical cooperation trade negotiations political consultation working together governments peoples eastern europe soviet union emerging spirit confidence precisely hoped achieve went work generation ago put shoulder wheel try help rebuild europe faced new challenges opportunities faced also dangers believe peoples sides atlantic well sides chamber wanted face together relations soviet union eastern europe also transition avoided acts rhetoric cold war differed soviet union nations matter tried differ quietly courtesy without venom objective continue cold war end reached agreement united nations peaceful uses outer space agreed open direct air flights soviet union removed 400 nonstrategic items export control determined bank allow commercial credits poland hungary bulgaria czechoslovakia well romania yugoslavia entered cultural agreement soviet union another 2 years agreed bulgaria hungary upgrade legations embassies started discussions international agencies ways increasing contacts eastern european countries administration taken steps even duty compelled us fulfill execute alliances treaty obligations throughout world entered became president tonight ask urge congress help foreign commercial trade policies passing trade bill approving consular convention soviet union soviet union past year increased missile capabilities begun place near moscow limited antimissile defense first responsibility people assure nation ever find rational launch nuclear attack use nuclear power credible threat us allies would emphasize important link russia united states common interest arms control disarmament solemn duty slow arms race us possible conventional nuclear weapons defenses thought making progress direction first months office realize additional race would impose peoples mankind matter additional waste resources gain security either side expect days ahead closely consult seek advice congress possibilities international agreements bearing directly upon problem next pursuit peace really greatest challenge human family race food supply population increase race tonight lost time rhetoric clearly passed time concerted action must get job believe three principles must prevail policy succeed first developing nations must give highest priority food production including use technology capital private enterprise second nations food deficits must put resources voluntary family planning programs third developed nations must assist nations avoid starvation short run move rapidly towards ability feed every member world community bears direct responsibility help bring basic human account balance iv come finally southeast vietnam particular soon submit congress detailed report situation tonight want review essential points briefly vietnam united states america allies committed seato treaty act meet common danger aggression southeast asia vietnam international agreement signed united states north vietnam others 1962 systematically violated communists violation threatens independence small nations southeast asia threatens peace entire region perhaps world people south vietnam much right remain north vietnam remain communist congress pledged solemn vote take necessary measures prevent aggression better words could describe present course spoken great thomas jefferson melancholy law human societies compelled sometimes choose great evil order ward greater chosen fight limited war vietnam attempt prevent larger war war almost certain follow believe communists succeed overrunning taking south vietnam aggression force believe supported authority checked world expect pay greater price check later statesmen said debated treaty ratified 82 1 senate many years ago remember stood western europe 20 years ago anyone chamber tonight doubts course freedom changed better courage stand sixteen years ago others stopped another kind aggression time korea imagine different asia might today failed act communist army north korea marched south asia tomorrow far different said vietnam said 16 years ago korea far think reveal secret tell dealing stubborn adversary committed use force terror settle political questions wish could report conflict almost face cost loss agony end yet promise come year come next year adversary still believes think tonight go fighting longer longer allies prepared stand resist men area nearly borne well burden heat day efforts deprived communist enemy victory sought expected year ago steadily frustrated main forces general westmoreland reports enemy longer succeed battlefield must say pressure must sustained realizes war started costing ever gain know strategy likely attain end strategy accumulating slowly inexorably every kind material resource laboriously teaching troops elements trade patience mean great deal patience south vietnamese allies also tested tonight must provide real security people living countryside means reducing terrorism armed attacks kidnaped killed civilians last 32 months levels successfully controlled regular south vietnamese security forces means bringing villagers effective civilian government respect rely upon participate personal stake hope government beginning emerge report desired progress pacification effort distinguished able ambassador henry cabot lodge reports south vietnam turning task new sense urgency help win part war task build protect new life rural province one result stand vietnam already clear peoples asia know door independence going slammed shut know possible choose national destinies without coercion men american people created feeling confidence unity among independent nations asia pacific saw faces 19 days spent homes countries fear external communist conquest many asian nations already subsiding spirit hope rising first time history common outlook common institutions already emerging forward movement rooted ambitions interests asian nations precisely movement hoped accelerate spoke johns hopkins baltimore april 1965 pledged much massive effort improve life man part world hope could take funds spending bullets bombs spend schools production twenty months later efforts produced new reality doors billion dollar asian development bank recommended congress endorsed almost unanimously proud tell already open asians engaged tonight regional efforts dozen new directions hopes high faith strong confidence deep even war continues shall play part carrying forward constructive historic development recommended eugene black mission nations join us seek special authorization congress 200 million east asian regional programs eager turn resources peace efforts behalf humanity think need restricted parallel boundary line moment peace comes pledged baltimore ask congress funds join international program reconstruction development people deserving neighbors wish help shall continue hope reconciliation people mainland china world community including working together tasks arms control security progress fate chinese people like fellow men elsewhere depends would first welcome china decided respect neighbors rights would first applaud apply great energies intelligence improving welfare people intention trying deny legitimate needs security friendly relations neighboring countries hope someday happen rests conviction american people allies going see vietnam honorable peace support appropriate initiatives united nations others bring several parties together unconditional discussions peace anywhere time continue take every possible initiative constantly probe peace efforts succeed infiltration ceases conflict subsides think course wisdom country must firmly pursue present course stand firm vietnam think know fighting men tonight bear heaviest burden lives serve nation must give nothing less full support given less determination americans always given fighting men whatever sacrifice even 5 month small compared long take prophesy know american people think tonight tested whether fight war limited objectives period time keep alive hope independence stability people whether continue act restraint temptation get inviting dangerous whether accept necessity choosing great evil order ward greater whether without arousing hatreds passions ordinarily loosed time war questions much turns answers determine whither tending time testing yes time transition transition sometimes slow sometimes unpopular almost always painful often quite dangerous lived danger long time shall live long time yet come know man born unto trouble also know nation forged survive grow prosper without great deal sacrifice great many men disorders must deal frustrations concern us anxieties called upon resolve issues must face agony attends let us remember expect reap blessings freedom must like men undergo fatigues supporting let us also count burdens blessings many let us give thanks one governs us let us draw encouragement signs hope many let us remember tested america never found wanting understanding would hope confidence support going persist going succeed
deliver person joint session speaker vice president distinguish member congress share grief feel death today one beloved respected effective member body distinguished representative rhode island fogarty come tonight report time test nation home question whether continue work good opportunity american american already live good people history abroad question whether stay power fight costly war objective limited danger u seemingly remote test whether shrink country danger u obvious close hand rather whether carry seem obscure distant think safe lay burden come tonight ask congress nation resolve issue meet commitment home continue build good america reaffirm nation allegiance freedom president abraham lincoln say must ask whither tend last 3 year bear witness determination make good country strike legal barrier equality improve education 7 million deprive child year alone enable almost 1 million student go college bring medical care old people unable afford three million american already receive treatment medicare since july build strong economy put almost 3 million american payroll last year alone include 9 million new worker higher minimum wage launch new training program provide job skill almost 1 million american help thousand local community attack poverty neighborhood poor set rebuild city scale never attempt begin rescue water menace pollution restore beauty land countryside city towns give 1 million young american chance earn neighborhood youth corps head start chance learn together tried meet need people succeed create good life many well must answer whether gain shall foundation progress whether shall monument might people lack see great work believe people want quit though task great work hard often frustrating success matter day month sometimes may even decades ii come tonight discus five way carry forward progress last 3 year five way concern program partnerships priority prosperity peace first program must see think new program pass work effectively administer best possible way three year ago set create new instrument social progress require trial error produce learn success failure change strategy try improve tactic long run start reward others inadequate disappointing crucial success one example struggle make life good less fortunate among u similar occasion rostrum 1949 heard great american president harry truman declare american people decide poverty wasteful unnecessary preventable disease many listen president truman day chamber understood require anything executive branch congress wait 15 long year ever take action challenge many challenge great president present 3 year ago congress join declaration war poverty warn short easy single weapon suffice shall rest war come renew pledge tonight recommend intensify effort give poor chance enjoy join nation progress shall propose certain administrative change suggest congress well learn trial error shall urge special method special fund reach hundred thousand american trap ghetto big city head start try reach young little child chance learn bright hope must command full determination learn brings skill skill bring job job bring responsibility dignity well tax war like war vietnam simple one single battleline plot day chart enemy easy perceive isolate destroy mistake setback move direction forward true program make break new ground yet capacity absorb well wisely money could put administrative skill train manpower vital success dollar believe skills come take time patience hard work success force single stroke must continue strengthen administration every program success come know must do much space 2 short year work together recommended congress approve 10 different reorganization plan combine consolidate many bureaus government create two entirely new cabinet department come tonight propose establish new department department business labor combine department commerce department labor relate agency think create economical efficient streamline instrument good serve grow nation goal throughout entire federal government every program thoroughly evaluated program improve simplified desire many local administrator governor mistake try hard correct progress try build upon second objective partnership create effective partnership level government treasure nothing partnership begin executive congress 88th 89th congress pass social economic legislation two single congress american history member congress vote pas measure effort come nothing unless reach people federal energy essential enough total work partnership among federal state local government succeed test partnership concern public organization private institution responsible citizen state county city need examine capacity government today world examine executive department see examine need reorganize reshape method others need revise constitution law bring date think must work together find way multitudes small jurisdiction bring together efficiently past 3 year return state local government 40 billion year alone 70 percent federal expenditure domestic program distribute state local government federal assistance state local government 1970 spend close 110 billion annually enormous sum must use wisely honestly effectively intend work closely state locality exactly third objective priority move ahead priority establish within resource available wish course could do could nation many commitment responsibility make heavy demand upon total resource administration would eagerly utilize program resource require administration start let u resolve know far far ever do far far less problem ultimately require let u create new opportunity child young american need special help strengthen head start program begin child 3 year old maintain educational momentum follow early year try new method child development care early year late correct propose measure 90th congress let u insure old american neglect american share nation progress raise social security payment overall average 20 percent add 4 billion 100 million social security payment first year recommend 23 million american receive payment get increase least 15 percent ask raise minimum payment 59 percent 44 70 month guarantee minimum benefit 100 month total 25 year coverage must raise limit retired worker earn without lose social security income must eliminate law unjust discrimination employment age embark upon major effort provide assistance forgotten midst american indian migratory farm worker reach hand understand help live rural poverty propose measure 90th congress let u keep improve quality life enlarge mean justice fellow american transform decay slum place decency landmark model city program intend seek effort year full amount congress authorize last year call upon genius private industry advance technology help rebuild great city vastly expand fight clean air total attack pollution source air like water respect manmade boundary set regional airsheds throughout great land continue carry every corner nation campaign beautiful america clean town make beautiful city countryside create park seashore open space child play generation come u enjoy continue seek equality justice citizen jury seek job exercise civil right find solution fair housing every american regardless color decent home choice modernize selective service system national commission selective service shortly submit report send new recommendation meet military manpower need let u resolve congress make draft law fair effective possible protect justice brandeis call right value civilize men right privacy outlaw wiretapping public private wherever whenever occur except security nation stake strict governmental safeguard exercise full reach constitutional power outlaw electronic bugging snoop hope congress try help consumer demand cost credit clearly honestly express average citizen understand immediately take step prevent massive power failure safeguard home hazardous household product assure safety pipeline carry natural gas across nation extend medicare benefit deny permanently totally disabled american 65 year age improve process democracy pass election reform financing proposal tighten law regulate lobby restore reasonable franchise american move residence develop educational television vital public resource enrich home educate family provide assistance classroom insist public interest fully serve public airwave propose measure 90th congress come question weigh heavily mind mine nation must make effort combat crime 89th congress give u new start attack crime pass law enforcement assistance act recommend appoint national crime commission study crime america recommend best way carry attack forward answer basis preliminary recommendation ready move war washington alone win idea national police force repugnant american people crime must root local community local authority policeman must better train must well pay must well support local citizen try serve protect national government expect help recommend 90th congress safe street crime control act 1967 enable u assist state city try make street home safer police force good correction system effective court efficient congress approve federal government able provide substantial percentage cost 90 percent cost develop state local plan master plan combat crime area 60 percent cost train new tactical unit develop instant communication special alarm system introduce late equipment techniques become weapon war crime 50 percent cost building crime laboratory police center citizen protect best trained serve best equipped police find anywhere also recommend new method prevent juvenile delinquent become adult delinquent seek new partnership state city order deal hideous narcotic problem recommend strict control sale firearm heart attack crime must conviction free america abraham lincoln say must let reverence law become political religion nation country law must respect order must maintain support constitutional power president possess nation law enforcement official attempt control crime violence tear fabric community many priority proposal build foundation already lay necessarily small first every beginning consequence postpone urgent work simply do later later pay much high price fourth objective prosperity keep economy move ahead move ahead steadily safely enjoy 6 year unprecedented reward prosperity last year 1966 wage high unemployment rate announce yesterday reach low point 13 year total income american family rise nearly 5 percent corporate profit tax rise little 5 percent gross national product advance percent 740 billion income per farm go 6 percent greatly concerned consumer price rise percent 18 month since decide send troop vietnam expect government try everything knew hold yet successful wish 18 month enter world war ii price rise percent percent first 18 month korea conflict broke price rise percent 11 percent two period opa price control congress give u war labor board wage control since vietnam ask control tried avoid impose believe do well make pretense successful well wished great disappointment economy 1966 excessive rise interest rate tighten credit impose severe unfair burden home buyer home builder associate home industry last january last september recommend fiscal moderate tax measure try restrain unbalanced pace economic expansion legislatively administratively take several billion economy measure instance congress approve recommendation rather promptly 1966 end price stability seemingly restore wholesale price low tonight august retail food price monetary condition also ease interest rate retreat earlier peaks money seem available give cooperation federal reserve system earnestly seek confident movement continue pledge american people everything president power low interest rate ease money country federal home loan bank board tomorrow morning announce make immediately available saving loan association additional 1 billion low 6 percent 5 percent interest rate charge loan shall continue sensible course fiscal budgetary policy believe keep economy grow without new inflationary spiral finance responsibly need men vietnam progress people home support significant improvement export surplus press forward toward easy credit toward low interest rate recommend congress surcharge 6 percent corporate individual income tax last 2 year long unusual expenditure associate effort vietnam continue promptly recommend early termination date reduction expenditures permit surcharge raise revenue billion first year example person whose tax payment tax owe pay proposal extra 60 period 5 month overwhelming majority american pay tax today figure pay substantially less 5 month marry couple two child income per year exempt tax single people income year american today still pay income excise tax rate effect come presidency year 1964 annual tax would 20 billion present tax rate proposal problem emergency vietnam try meet need people home government asks slightly tax cut year order try hold budget deficit fiscal 1968 within prudent limit give country give fight men help need hour trial fiscal 1967 estimate budget expenditures billion revenue 117 billion leave u deficit year billion fiscal 1968 estimate budget expenditures 135 billion tax measure recommend continue strong economy estimate revenue billion deficit billion soon forward recommendation congress responsibility discus debate approve modify reject welcome view welcome work 30 year colleague vice president president like say member opposition whose number mistake seem increase somewhat genius american political system always best express creative debate offer choice reasonable alternative throughout history great republican democrat seem understand let light reason relation way responsible session responsive government let u remember president congress try improve quality life every american rich poor every man woman child great nation go school good school bad school take air air pollute air drink water pure water pollute water face sickness someday often wish old age well stake great society economic growth reduction civil strife great stake good government must arrest pace progress establish country year child child pay price wise enough courageous enough determine enough stand meet nation need well time allot u iii abroad home also risk change abroad home great risk stand still part foreign policy sacred ever remain beyond review shall flexible condition world change man effort change good midst great transition narrow nationalism international partnership harsh spirit cold war hopeful spirit common humanity trouble threatened planet latin america american chief state meeting shortly give hemispheric policy new direction come long way hemisphere since effort economic social development launch conference bogota 1960 leadership president eisenhower alliance progress move dramatically forward president kennedy new confidence voice people hear dignity individual strong ever hemisphere face meet many hemispheric problem together hemisphere reform democracy make happen happen together think must move strike barrier full cooperation among american nation free energy resource two great continent behalf citizen africa stand earlier stage development latin america yet develop transportation communication agriculture train men woman without growth impossible job best do nation people africa cooperate regional basis program africa go direct toward future africa shadow unsolved racial conflict policy continue reflect basic commitment people support prepare work towards cooperation harmony race help demand change reject fool gold violence middle east spirit good toward unfortunately yet take hold already torture peace seem constantly threaten shall try use influence increase possibility improve relation among nation region work hard task great subcontinent south asia live sixth earth population year others invest heavily capital food economic development india pakistan prepare see assistance waste however conflict must strengthen capacity help must help two nation friends overcome poverty emerge leader find term reconciliation cooperation western europe shall maintain nato integrated common defense also look forward time great security achieve measure arm control disarmament form practical agreement shape new future enlarge partnership nuclear affair economic technical cooperation trade negotiation political consultation work together government people eastern europe soviet union emerge spirit confidence precisely hop achieve go work generation ago put shoulder wheel try help rebuild europe face new challenge opportunity face also danger believe people side atlantic well side chamber wanted face together relation soviet union eastern europe also transition avoid act rhetoric cold war differ soviet union nation matter try differ quietly courtesy without venom objective continue cold war end reach agreement united nation peaceful us outer space agree open direct air flight soviet union remove 400 nonstrategic item export control determine bank allow commercial credit poland hungary bulgaria czechoslovakia well romania yugoslavia enter cultural agreement soviet union another 2 year agree bulgaria hungary upgrade legation embassy start discussion international agency way increase contact eastern european country administration take step even duty compel u fulfill execute alliance treaty obligation throughout world enter become president tonight ask urge congress help foreign commercial trade policy pass trade bill approve consular convention soviet union soviet union past year increase missile capability begin place near moscow limit antimissile defense first responsibility people assure nation ever find rational launch nuclear attack use nuclear power credible threat u ally would emphasize important link russia united state common interest arm control disarmament solemn duty slow arm race u possible conventional nuclear weapon defense think make progress direction first month office realize additional race would impose people mankind matter additional waste resource gain security either side expect day ahead closely consult seek advice congress possibilities international agreement bear directly upon problem next pursuit peace really great challenge human family race food supply population increase race tonight lose time rhetoric clearly passed time concert action must get job believe three principle must prevail policy succeed first develop nation must give high priority food production include use technology capital private enterprise second nation food deficit must put resource voluntary family planning program third developed nation must assist nation avoid starvation short run move rapidly towards ability fee every member world community bear direct responsibility help bring basic human account balance iv come finally southeast vietnam particular soon submit congress detailed report situation tonight want review essential point briefly vietnam united state america ally commit seato treaty act meet common danger aggression southeast asia vietnam international agreement sign united state north vietnam others 1962 systematically violated communist violation threaten independence small nation southeast asia threatens peace entire region perhaps world people south vietnam much right remain north vietnam remain communist congress pledge solemn vote take necessary measure prevent aggression well word could describe present course speak great thomas jefferson melancholy law human society compel sometimes choose great evil order ward great choose fight limited war vietnam attempt prevent large war war almost certain follow believe communist succeed overrun take south vietnam aggression force believe support authority check world expect pay great price check later statesman say debate treaty ratify 82 1 senate many year ago remember stood western europe 20 year ago anyone chamber tonight doubt course freedom change good courage stand sixteen year ago others stop another kind aggression time korea imagine different asia might today fail act communist army north korea march south asia tomorrow far different say vietnam say 16 year ago korea far think reveal secret tell deal stubborn adversary commit use force terror settle political question wish could report conflict almost face cost loss agony end yet promise come year come next year adversary still believe think tonight go fight longer long ally prepare stand resist men area nearly borne well burden heat day effort deprive communist enemy victory seek expect year ago steadily frustrate main force general westmoreland report enemy longer succeed battlefield must say pressure must sustain realizes war start cost ever gain know strategy likely attain end strategy accumulate slowly inexorably every kind material resource laboriously teach troops element trade patience mean great deal patience south vietnamese ally also test tonight must provide real security people live countryside mean reduce terrorism arm attack kidnap kill civilian last 32 month level successfully control regular south vietnamese security force mean bring villager effective civilian government respect rely upon participate personal stake hope government begin emerge report desire progress pacification effort distinguish able ambassador henry cabot lodge report south vietnam turn task new sense urgency help win part war task build protect new life rural province one result stand vietnam already clear people asia know door independence go slam shut know possible choose national destiny without coercion men american people create feel confidence unity among independent nation asia pacific saw face 19 day spend home country fear external communist conquest many asian nation already subside spirit hope rise first time history common outlook common institution already emerge forward movement root ambition interest asian nation precisely movement hop accelerate speak john hopkins baltimore april 1965 pledge much massive effort improve life man part world hope could take fund spend bullet bombs spend school production twenty month later effort produce new reality door billion dollar asian development bank recommend congress endorse almost unanimously proud tell already open asian engage tonight regional effort dozen new direction hop high faith strong confidence deep even war continue shall play part carry forward constructive historic development recommend eugene black mission nation join u seek special authorization congress 200 million east asian regional program eager turn resource peace effort behalf humanity think need restrict parallel boundary line moment peace come pledge baltimore ask congress fund join international program reconstruction development people deserve neighbor wish help shall continue hope reconciliation people mainland china world community include work together task arm control security progress fate chinese people like fellow men elsewhere depends would first welcome china decide respect neighbor right would first applaud apply great energy intelligence improve welfare people intention try deny legitimate need security friendly relation neighbor country hope someday happen rest conviction american people ally go see vietnam honorable peace support appropriate initiative united nation others bring several party together unconditional discussion peace anywhere time continue take every possible initiative constantly probe peace effort succeed infiltration cease conflict subsides think course wisdom country must firmly pursue present course stand firm vietnam think know fight men tonight bear heavy burden live serve nation must give nothing less full support give less determination american always give fight men whatever sacrifice even 5 month small compare long take prophesy know american people think tonight test whether fight war limit objective period time keep alive hope independence stability people whether continue act restraint temptation get invite dangerous whether accept necessity choose great evil order ward great whether without arouse hatred passion ordinarily loose time war question much turn answer determine whither tend time test yes time transition transition sometimes slow sometimes unpopular almost always painful often quite dangerous live danger long time shall live long time yet come know man bear unto trouble also know nation forge survive grow prosper without great deal sacrifice great many men disorder must deal frustration concern u anxieties call upon resolve issue must face agony attends let u remember expect reap blessing freedom must like men undergo fatigue support let u also count burden blessing many let u give thanks one govern u let u draw encouragement sign hope many let u remember test america never find want understand would hope confidence support go persist go succeed