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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: State of the Union Addresses of Lyndon B. Johnson + +Author: Lyndon B. Johnson + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5042] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 11, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY LYNDON B. JOHNSON *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by James Linden. + +The addresses are separated by three asterisks: *** + +Dates of addresses by Lyndon B. Johnson in this eBook: + January 8, 1964 + January 4, 1965 + January 12, 1966 + January 10, 1967 + January 17, 1968 + January 14, 1969 + + + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Lyndon B. Johnson +January 8, 1964 + +Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the House and Senate, my fellow +Americans: + +I will be brief, for our time is necessarily short and our agenda is +already long. + +Last year's congressional session was the longest in peacetime history. +With that foundation, let us work together to make this year's session the +best in the Nation's history. + +Let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for +civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined; as the session which +enacted the most far-reaching tax cut of our time; as the session which +declared all-out war on human poverty and unemployment in these United +States; as the session which finally recognized the health needs of all our +older citizens; as the session which reformed our tangled transportation +and transit policies; as the session which achieved the most effective, +efficient foreign aid program ever; and as the session which helped to +build more homes, more schools, more libraries, and more hospitals than any +single session of Congress in the history of our Republic. + +All this and more can and must be done. It can be done by this summer, and +it can be done without any increase in spending. In fact, under the budget +that I shall shortly submit, it can be done with an actual reduction in +Federal expenditures and Federal employment. + +We have in 1964 a unique opportunity and obligation--to prove the success +of our system; to disprove those cynics and critics at home and abroad who +question our purpose and our competence. + +If we fail, if we fritter and fumble away our opportunity in needless, +senseless quarrels between Democrats and Republicans, or between the House +and the Senate, or between the South and North, or between the Congress and +the administration, then history will rightfully judge us harshly. But if +we succeed, if we can achieve these goals by forging in this country a +greater sense of union, then, and only then, can we take full satisfaction +in the State of the Union. II. + +Here in the Congress you can demonstrate effective legislative leadership +by discharging the public business with clarity and dispatch, voting each +important proposal up, or voting it down, but at least bringing it to a +fair and a final vote. + +Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy--not +because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right. + +In his memory today, I especially ask all members of my own political +faith, in this election year, to put your country ahead of your party, and +to always debate principles; never debate personalities. + +For my part, I pledge a progressive administration which is efficient, and +honest and frugal. The budget to be submitted to the Congress shortly is in +full accord with this pledge. + +It will cut our deficit in half--from $10 billion to $4,900 million. It +will be, in proportion to our national output, the smallest budget since +1951. + +It will call for a substantial reduction in Federal employment, a feat +accomplished only once before in the last 10 years. While maintaining the +full strength of our combat defenses, it will call for the lowest number of +civilian personnel in the Department of Defense since 1950. + +It will call for total expenditures of $97,900 million--compared to $98,400 +million for the current year, a reduction of more than $500 million. It +will call for new obligational authority of $103,800 million--a reduction +of more than $4 billion below last year's request of $107,900 million. + +But it is not a standstill budget, for America cannot afford to stand +still. Our population is growing. Our economy is more complex. Our people's +needs are expanding. + +But by closing down obsolete installations, by curtailing less urgent +programs, by cutting back where cutting back seems to be wise, by insisting +on a dollar's worth for a dollar spent, I am able to recommend in this +reduced budget the most Federal support in history for education, for +health, for retraining the unemployed, and for helping the economically and +the physically handicapped. + +This budget, and this year's legislative program, are designed to help each +and every American citizen fulfill his basic hopes--his hopes for a fair +chance to make good; his hopes for fair play from the law; his hopes for a +full-time job on full-time pay; his hopes for a decent home for his family +in a decent community; his hopes for a good school for his children with +good teachers; and his hopes for security when faced with sickness or +unemployment or old age. III. + +Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope--some because +of their poverty, and some because of theft color, and all too many because +of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. + +This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on +poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me +in that effort. + +It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will +suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest Nation on +earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it. One thousand +dollars invested in salvaging an unemployable youth today can return +$40,000 or more in his lifetime. + +Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and +support. But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the +State and the local level and must be supported and directed by State and +local efforts. + +For the war against poverty will not be won here in Washington. It must be +won in the field, in every private home, in every public office, from the +courthouse to the White House. + +The program I shall propose will emphasize this cooperative approach to +help that one-fifth of all American families with incomes too small to even +meet their basic needs. + +Our chief weapons in a more pinpointed attack will be better schools, and +better health, and better homes, and better training, and better job +opportunities to help more Americans, especially young Americans, escape +from squalor and misery and unemployment rolls where other citizens help to +carry them. + +Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the +symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow +citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of +education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of +decent communities in which to live and bring up their children. + +But whatever the cause, our joint Federal-local effort must pursue poverty, +pursue it wherever it exists--in city slums and small towns, in +sharecropper shacks or in migrant worker camps, on Indian Reservations, +among whites as well as Negroes, among the young as well as the aged, in +the boom towns and in the depressed areas. + +Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, +above all, to prevent it. No single piece of legislation, however, is going +to suffice. + +We will launch a special effort in the chronically distressed areas of +Appalachia. + +We must expand our small but our successful area redevelopment program. + +We must enact youth employment legislation to put jobless, aimless, +hopeless youngsters to work on useful projects. + +We must distribute more food to the needy through a broader food stamp +program. + +We must create a National Service Corps to help the economically +handicapped of our own country as the Peace Corps now helps those abroad. + +We must modernize our unemployment insurance and establish a high-level +commission on automation. If we have the brain power to invent these +machines, we have the brain power to make certain that they are a boon and +not a bane to humanity. + +We must extend the coverage of our minimum wage laws to more than 2 million +workers now lacking this basic protection of purchasing power. + +We must, by including special school aid funds as part of our education +program, improve the quality of teaching, training, and counseling in our +hardest hit areas. + +We must build more libraries in every area and more hospitals and nursing +homes under the Hill-Burton Act, and train more nurses to staff them. + +We must provide hospital insurance for our older citizens financed by every +worker and his employer under Social Security, contributing no more than $1 +a month during the employee's working career to protect him in his old age +in a dignified manner without cost to the Treasury, against the devastating +hardship of prolonged or repeated illness. + +We must, as a part of a revised housing and urban renewal program, give +more help to those displaced by slum clearance, provide more housing for +our poor and our elderly, and seek as our ultimate goal in our free +enterprise system a decent home for every American family. + +We must help obtain more modern mass transit within our communities as well +as low-cost transportation between them. + +Above all, we must release $11 billion of tax reduction into the private +spending stream to create new jobs and new markets in every area of this +land. IV. + +These programs are obviously not for the poor or the underprivileged alone. +Every American will benefit by the extension of social security to cover +the hospital costs of their aged parents. Every American community will +benefit from the construction or modernization of schools, libraries, +hospitals, and nursing homes, from the training of more nurses and from the +improvement of urban renewal in public transit. And every individual +American taxpayer and every corporate taxpayer will benefit from the +earliest possible passage of the pending tax bill from both the new +investment it will bring and the new jobs that it will create. + +That tax bill has been thoroughly discussed for a year. Now we need action. +The new budget clearly allows it. Our taxpayers surely deserve it. Our +economy strongly demands it. And every month of delay dilutes its benefits +in 1964 for consumption, for investment, and for employment. + +For until the bill is signed, its investment incentives cannot be deemed +certain, and the withholding rate cannot be reduced-and the most damaging +and devastating thing you can do to any businessman in America is to keep +him in doubt and to keep him guessing on what our tax policy is. And I say +that we should now reduce to 14 percent instead of 15 percent our +withholding rate. + +I therefore urge the Congress to take final action on this bill by the +first of February, if at all possible. For however proud we may be of the +unprecedented progress of our free enterprise economy over the last 3 +years, we should not and we cannot permit it to pause. + +In 1963, for the first time in history, we crossed the 70 million job mark, +but we will soon need more than 75 million jobs. In 1963 our gross national +product reached the $600 billion level--$100 billion higher than when we +took office. But it easily could and it should be still $30 billion higher +today than it is. + +Wages and profits and family income are also at their highest levels in +history--but I would remind you that 4 million workers and 13 percent of +our industrial capacity are still idle today. + +We need a tax cut now to keep this country moving. V. + +For our goal is not merely to spread the work. Our goal is to create more +jobs. I believe the enactment of a 35-hour week would sharply increase +costs, would invite inflation, would impair our ability to compete, and +merely share instead of creating employment. But I am equally opposed to +the 45- or 50-hour week in those industries where consistently excessive +use of overtime causes increased unemployment. + +So, therefore, I recommend legislation authorizing the creation of a +tripartite industry committee to determine on an industry-by-industry basis +as to where a higher penalty rate for overtime would increase job openings +without unduly increasing costs, and authorizing the establishment of such +higher rates. VI. + +Let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear: All of +these increased opportunities--in employment, in education, in housing, and +in every field-must be open to Americans of every color. As far as the writ +of Federal law will run, we must abolish not some, but all racial +discrimination. For this is not merely an economic issue, or a social, +political, or international issue. It is a moral issue, and it must be met +by the passage this session of the bill now pending in the House. + +All members of the public should have equal access to facilities open to +the public. All members of the public should be equally eligible for +Federal benefits that are financed by the public. All members of the public +should have an equal chance to vote for public officials and to send their +children to good public schools and to contribute their talents to the +public good. + +Today, Americans of all races stand side by side in Berlin and in Viet Nam. +They died side by side in Korea. Surely they can work and eat and travel +side by side in their own country. VII. + +We must also lift by legislation the bars of discrimination against those +who seek entry into our country, particularly those who have much needed +skills and those joining their families. + +In establishing preferences, a nation that was built by the immigrants of +all lands can ask those who now seek admission: "What can you do for our +country?" But we should not be asking: "In what country were you born?" +VIII. + +For our ultimate goal is a world without war, a world made safe for +diversity, in which all men, goods, and ideas can freely move across every +border and every boundary. + +We must advance toward this goal in 1964 in at least 10 different ways, not +as partisans, but as patriots. + +First, wc must maintain--and our reduced defense budget will maintain--that +margin of military safety and superiority obtained through 3 years of +steadily increasing both the quality and the quantity of our strategic, our +conventional, and our antiguerilla forces. In 1964 we will be better +prepared than ever before to defend the cause of freedom, whether it is +threatened by outright aggression or by the infiltration practiced by those +in Hanoi and Havana, who ship arms and men across international borders to +foment insurrection. And we must continue to use that strength as John +Kennedy used it in the Cuban crisis and for the test ban treaty--to +demonstrate both the futility of nuclear war and the possibilities of +lasting peace. + +Second, we must take new steps--and we shall make new proposals at +Geneva--toward the control and the eventual abolition of arms. Even in the +absence of agreement, we must not stockpile arms beyond our needs or seek +an excess of military power that could be provocative as well as wasteful. + +It is in this spirit that in this fiscal year we are cutting back our +production of enriched uranium by 25 percent. We are shutting down four +plutonium piles. We are closing many nonessential military installations. +And it is in this spirit that we today call on our adversaries to do the +same. + +Third, we must make increased use of our food as an instrument of +peace--making it available by sale or trade or loan or donation-to hungry +people in all nations which tell us of their needs and accept proper +conditions of distribution. + +Fourth, we must assure our pre-eminence in the peaceful exploration of +outer space, focusing on an expedition to the moon in this decade--in +cooperation with other powers if possible, alone if necessary. + +Fifth, we must expand world trade. Having recognized in the Act of 1962 +that we must buy as well as sell, we now expect our trading partners to +recognize that we must sell as well as buy. We are willing to give them +competitive access to our market, asking only that they do the same for +us. + +Sixth, we must continue, through such measures as the interest equalization +tax, as well as the cooperation of other nations, our recent progress +toward balancing our international accounts. + +This administration must and will preserve the present gold value of the +dollar. + +Seventh, we must become better neighbors with the free states of the +Americas, working with the councils of the OAS, with a stronger Alliance +for Progress, and with all the men and women of this hemisphere who really +believe in liberty and justice for all. + +Eighth, we must strengthen the ability of free nations everywhere to +develop their independence and raise their standard of living, and thereby +frustrate those who prey on poverty and chaos. To do this, the rich must +help the poor--and we must do our part. We must achieve a more rigorous +administration of our development assistance, with larger roles for private +investors, for other industrialized nations, and for international agencies +and for the recipient nations themselves. + +Ninth, we must strengthen our Atlantic and Pacific partnerships, maintain +our alliances and make the United Nations a more effective instrument for +national independence and international order. + +Tenth, and finally, we must develop with our allies new means of bridging +the gap between the East and the West, facing danger boldly wherever danger +exists, but being equally bold in our search for new agreements which can +enlarge the hopes of all, while violating the interests of none. + +In short, I would say to the Congress that we must be constantly prepared +for the worst, and constantly acting for the best. We must be strong enough +to win any war, and we must be wise enough to prevent one. + +We shall neither act as aggressors nor tolerate acts of aggression. We +intend to bury no one, and we do not intend to be buried. + +We can fight, if we must, as we have fought before, but we pray that we +will never have to fight again. IX. + +My good friends and my fellow Americans: In these last 7 sorrowful weeks, +we have learned anew that nothing is so enduring as faith, and nothing is +so degrading as hate. + +John Kennedy was a victim of hate, but he was also a great builder of +faith--faith in our fellow Americans, whatever their creed or their color +or their station in life; faith in the future of man, whatever his +divisions and differences. + +This faith was echoed in all parts of the world. On every continent and in +every land to which Mrs. Johnson and I traveled, we found faith and hope +and love toward this land of America and toward our people. + +So I ask you now in the Congress and in the country to join with me in +expressing and fulfilling that faith in working for a nation, a nation that +is free from want and a world that is free from hate--a world of peace and +justice, and freedom and abundance, for our time and for all time to come. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Lyndon B. Johnson +January 4, 1965 + +On this Hill which was my home, I am stirred by old friendships. + +Though total agreement between the Executive and the Congress is +impossible, total respect is important. + +I am proud to be among my colleagues of the Congress whose legacy to their +trust is their loyalty to their Nation. + +I am not unaware of the inner emotions of the new Members of this body +tonight. + +Twenty-eight years ago, I felt as you do now. You will soon learn that you +are among men whose first love is their country, men who try each day to do +as best they can what they believe is right. + +We are entering the third century of the pursuit of American union. + +Two hundred years ago, in 1765, nine assembled colonies first joined +together to demand freedom from arbitrary power. + +For the first century we struggled to hold together the first continental +union of democracy in the history of man. One hundred years ago, in 1865, +following a terrible test of blood and fire, the compact of union was +finally sealed. + +For a second century we labored to establish a unity of purpose and +interest among the many groups which make up the American community. + +That struggle has often brought pain and violence. It is not yet over. But +we have achieved a unity of interest among our people that is unmatched in +the history of freedom. + +And so tonight, now, in 1965, we begin a new quest for union. We seek the +unity of man with the world that he has built--with the knowledge that can +save or destroy him--with the cities which can stimulate or stifle +him--with the wealth and the machines which can enrich or menace his +spirit. + +We seek to establish a harmony between man and society which will allow +each of us to enlarge the meaning of his life and all of us to elevate the +quality of our civilization. This is the search that we begin tonight. + +STATE OF THE WORLDBut the unity we seek cannot realize its full promise in +isolation. For today the state of the Union depends, in large measure, upon +the state of the world. + +Our concern and interest, compassion and vigilance, extend to every corner +of a dwindling planet. + +Yet, it is not merely our concern but the concern of all free men. We will +not, and we should not, assume that it is the task of Americans alone to +settle all the conflicts of a torn and troubled world. + +Let the foes of freedom take no comfort from this. For in concert with +other nations, we shall help men defend their freedom. + +Our first aim remains the safety and the well-being of our own country. + +We are prepared to live as good neighbors with all, but we cannot be +indifferent to acts designed to injure our interests, or our citizens, or +our establishments abroad. The community of nations requires mutual +respect. We shall extend it--and we shall expect it. + +In our relations with the world we shall follow the example of Andrew +Jackson who said: "I intend to ask for nothing that is not clearly right +and to submit to nothing that is wrong." And he promised, that "the honor +of my country shall never be stained by an apology from me for the +statement of truth or for the performance of duty." That was this Nation's +policy in the 1830's and that is this Nation's policy in the 1960's. + +Our own freedom and growth have never been the final goal of the American +dream. + +We were never meant to be an oasis of liberty and abundance in a worldwide +desert of disappointed dreams. Our Nation was created to help strike away +the chains of ignorance and misery and tyranny wherever they keep man less +than God means him to be. + +We are moving toward that destiny, never more rapidly than we have moved in +the last 4 years. + +In this period we have built a military power strong enough to meet any +threat and destroy any adversary. And that superiority will continue to +grow so long as this office is mine--and you sit on Capitol Hill. + +In this period no new nation has become Communist, and the unity of the +Communist empire has begun to crumble. + +In this period we have resolved in friendship our disputes with our +neighbors of the hemisphere, and joined in an Alliance for Progress toward +economic growth and political democracy. + +In this period we have taken more steps toward peace--including the test +ban treaty--than at any time since the cold war began. + +In this period we have relentlessly pursued our advances toward the +conquest of space. + +Most important of all, in this period, the United States has reemerged into +the fullness of its self-confidence and purpose. No longer are we called +upon to get America moving. We are moving. No longer do we doubt our +strength or resolution. We are strong and we have proven our resolve. + +No longer can anyone wonder whether we are in the grip of historical decay. +We know that history is ours to make. And if there is great danger, there +is now also the excitement of great expectations. + +AMERICA AND THE COMMUNIST NATIONSYet we still live in a troubled and +perilous world. There is no longer a single threat. There are many. They +differ in intensity and in danger. They require different attitudes and +different answers. + +With the Soviet Union we seek peaceful understandings that can lessen the +danger to freedom. + +Last fall I asked the American people to choose that course. I will carry +forward their command. + +If we are to live together in peace, we must come to know each other +better. + +I am sure that the American people would welcome a chance to listen to the +Soviet leaders on our television--as I would like the Soviet people to hear +our leaders on theirs. + +I hope the new Soviet leaders can visit America so they can learn about our +country at firsthand. + +In Eastern Europe restless nations are slowly beginning to assert their +identity. Your Government, assisted by the leaders in American labor and +business, is now exploring ways to increase peaceful trade with these +countries and with the Soviet Union. I will report our conclusions to the +Congress. + +In Asia, communism wears a more aggressive face. We see that in Viet-Nam. +Why are we there ? + +We are there, first, because a friendly nation has asked us for help +against the Communist aggression. Ten years ago our President pledged our +help. Three Presidents have supported that pledge. We will not break it +now. + +Second, our own security is tied to the peace of Asia. Twice in one +generation we have had to fight against aggression in the Far East. To +ignore aggression now would only increase the danger of a much larger war. + +Our goal is peace in southeast Asia. That will come only when aggressors +leave their neighbors in peace. + +What is at stake is the cause of freedom and in that cause America will +never be found wanting. + +THE NON-COMMUNIST WORLDBut communism is not the only source of trouble and +unrest. There are older and deeper sources--in the misery of nations and in +man's irrepressible ambition for liberty and a better life. + +With the free Republics of Latin America I have always felt--and my country +has always felt--very special ties of interest and affection. It will be +the purpose of my administration to strengthen these ties. Together we +share and shape the destiny of the new world. In the coming year I hope to +pay a visit to Latin America. And I will steadily enlarge our commitment to +the Alliance for Progress as the instrument of our war against poverty and +injustice in this hemisphere. + +In the Atlantic community we continue to pursue our goal of 20 years--a +Europe that is growing in strength, unity, and cooperation with America. A +great unfinished task is the reunification of Germany through +self-determination. + +This European policy is not based on any abstract design. It is based on +the realities of common interests and common values, common dangers and +common expectations. These realities will continue to have their +way--especially, I think, in our expanding trade and especially in our +common defense. + +Free Americans have shaped the policies of the United States. And because +we know these realities, those policies have been, and will be, in the +interest of Europe. + +Free Europeans must shape the course of Europe. And, for the same reasons, +that course has been, and will be, in our interest and in the interest of +freedom. + +I found this truth confirmed in my talks with European leaders in the last +year. I hope to repay these visits to some of our friends in Europe this +year. + +In Africa and Asia we are witnessing the turbulent unfolding of new nations +and continents. + +We welcome them to the society of nations. + +We are committed to help those seeking to strengthen their own +independence, and to work most closely with those governments dedicated to +the welfare of all of their people. + +We seek not fidelity to an iron faith, but a diversity of belief as varied +as man himself. We seek not to extend the power of America but the progress +of humanity. We seek not to dominate others but to strengthen the freedom +of all people. + +I will seek new ways to use our knowledge to help deal with the explosion +in world population and the growing scarcity in world resources. + +Finally, we renew our commitment to the continued growth and the +effectiveness of the United Nations. The frustrations of the United Nations +are a product of the world that we live in, and not of the institution +which gives them voice. It is far better to throw these differences open to +the assembly of nations than to permit them to fester in silent danger. + +These are some of the goals of the American Nation in the world in which we +live. + +For ourselves we seek neither praise nor blame, neither gratitude nor +obedience. + +We seek peace. + +We seek freedom. + +We seek to enrich the life of man. + +For that is the world in which we will flourish and that is the world that +we mean for all men to ultimately have. + +TOWARD THE GREAT SOCIETYWorld affairs will continue to call upon our energy +and our courage. + +But today we can turn increased attention to the character of American +life. + +We are in the midst of the greatest upward surge of economic well-being in +the history of any nation. + +Our flourishing progress has been marked by price stability that is +unequalled in the world. Our balance of payments deficit has declined and +the soundness of our dollar is unquestioned. I pledge to keep it that way +and I urge business and labor to cooperate to that end. + +We worked for two centuries to climb this peak of prosperity. But we are +only at the beginning of the road to the Great Society. Ahead now is a +summit where freedom from the wants of the body can help fulfill the needs +of the spirit. + +We built this Nation to serve its people. + +We want to grow and build and create, but we want progress to be the +servant and not the master of man. + +We do not intend to live in the midst of abundance, isolated from neighbors +and nature, confined by blighted cities and bleak suburbs, stunted by a +poverty of learning and an emptiness of leisure. + +The Great Society asks not how much, but how good; not only how to create +wealth but how to use it; not only how fast we are going, but where we are +headed. + +It proposes as the first test for a nation: the quality of its people. + +This kind of society will not flower spontaneously from swelling riches and +surging power. + +It will not be the gift of government or the creation of presidents. It +will require of every American, for many generations, both faith in the +destination and the fortitude to make the journey. + +And like freedom itself, it will always be challenge and not fulfillment. +And tonight we accept that challenge. + +A NATIONAL AGENDAI propose that we begin a program in education to ensure +every American child the fullest development of his mind and skills. + +I propose that we begin a massive attack on crippling and killing +diseases. + +I propose that we launch a national effort to make the American city a +better and a more stimulating place to live. + +I propose that we increase the beauty of America and end the poisoning of +our rivers and the air that we breathe. + +I propose that we carry out a new program to develop regions of our country +that are now suffering from distress and depression. + +I propose that we make new efforts to control and prevent crime and +delinquency. + +I propose that we eliminate every remaining obstacle to the right and the +opportunity to vote. + +I propose that we honor and support the achievements of thought and the +creations of art. + +I propose that we make an all-out campaign against waste and inefficiency. + +THE TASKOur basic task is threefold: + +First, to keep our economy growing; + +--to open for all Americans the opportunity that is now enjoyed by most +Americans; + +--and to improve the quality of life for all. + +In the next 6 weeks I will submit special messages with detailed proposals +for national action in each of these areas. + +Tonight I would like just briefly to explain some of my major +recommendations in the three main areas of national need. + +1. A GROWING ECONOMY + +BASIC POLICIESFirst, we must keep our Nation prosperous. We seek full +employment opportunity for every American citizen. I will present a budget +designed to move the economy forward. More money will be left in the hands +of the consumer by a substantial cut in excise taxes. We will continue +along the path toward a balanced budget in a balanced economy. + +I confidently predict--what every economic sign tells us tonight--the +continued flourishing of the American economy. + +But we must remember that fear of a recession can contribute to the fact of +a recession. The knowledge that our Government will, and can, move swiftly +will strengthen the confidence of investors and business. + +Congress can reinforce this confidence by insuring that its procedures +permit rapid action on temporary income tax cuts. And special funds for +job-creating public programs should be made available for immediate use if +recession threatens. + +Our continued prosperity demands continued price stability. Business, +labor, and the consumer all have a high stake in keeping wages and prices +within the framework of the guideposts that have already served the Nation +so well. + +Finding new markets abroad for our goods depends on the initiative of +American business. But we stand ready--with credit and other help--to +assist the flow of trade which will benefit the entire Nation. + +ON THE FARMSOur economy owes much to the efficiency of our farmers. We must +continue to assure them the opportunity to earn a fair reward. I have +instructed the Secretary of Agriculture to lead a major effort to find new +approaches to reduce the heavy cost of our farm programs and to direct more +of our effort to the small farmer who needs the help the most. + +INCREASED PROSPERITYWe can help insure continued prosperity through: + +--a regional recovery program to assist the development of stricken areas +left behind by our national progress; + +--further efforts to provide our workers with the skills demanded by modern +technology, for the laboring-man is an indispensable force in the American +system; + +--the extension of the minimum wage to more than 2 million unprotected +workers; + +--the improvement and the modernization of the unemployment compensation +system. + +And as pledged in our 1960 and 1964 Democratic platforms, I will propose to +Congress changes in the Taft-Hartley Act including section 14(b). I will do +so hoping to reduce the conflicts that for several years have divided +Americans in various States of our Union. + +In a country that spans a continent modern transportation is vital to +continued growth. + +TRANSPORTATION FOR GROWTHI will recommend heavier reliance on competition +in transportation and a new policy for our merchant marine. + +I will ask for funds to study high-speed rail transportation between urban +centers. We will begin with test projects between Washington and Boston. On +high-speed trains, passengers could travel this distance in less than 4 +hours. + +II. OPPORTUNITY FOR ALLSecond, we must open opportunity to all our people. + +Most Americans enjoy a good life. But far too many are still trapped in +poverty and idleness and fear. + +Let a just nation throw open to them the city of promise: + +--to the elderly, by providing hospital care under social security and by +raising benefit payments to those struggling to maintain the dignity of +their later years; + +--to the poor and the unfortunate, through doubling the war against poverty +this year; + +--to Negro Americans, through enforcement of the civil rights law and +elimination of barriers to the right to vote; + +--to those in other lands that are seeking the promise of America, through +an immigration law based on the work a man can do and not where he was born +or how he spells his name. + +III. TO ENRICH THE LIFE OF ALLOur third goal is to improve the quality of +American life. + +THROUGH EDUCATIONWe begin with learning. + +Every child must have the best education that this Nation can provide. + +Thomas Jefferson said that no nation can be both ignorant and free. Today +no nation can be both ignorant and great. + +In addition to our existing programs, I will recommend a new program for +schools and students with a first year authorization of $1,500 million. + +It will help at every stage along the road to learning. + +For the preschool years we will help needy children become aware of the +excitement of learning. + +For the primary and secondary school years we will aid public schools +serving low-income families and assist students in both public and private +schools. + +For the college years we will provide scholarships to high school students +of the greatest promise and the greatest need and we will guarantee +low-interest loans to students continuing their college studies. + +New laboratories and centers will help our schools--help them lift their +standards of excellence and explore new methods of teaching. These centers +will provide special training for those who need and those who deserve +special treatment. + +THROUGH BETTER HEALTHGreatness requires not only an educated people but a +healthy people. + +Our goal is to match the achievements of our medicine to the afflictions of +our people. + +We already carry on a large program in this country. for research and +health. + +In addition, regional medical centers can provide the most advanced +diagnosis and treatment for heart disease and cancer and stroke and other +major diseases. + +New support for medical and dental education will provide the trained +people to apply our knowledge. + +Community centers can help the mentally ill and improve health care for +school-age children from poor families, including services for the mentally +retarded. + +THROUGH IMPROVING THE WORLD WE LIVE IN + +The CityAn educated and healthy people require surroundings in harmony with +their hopes. In our urban areas the central problem today is to protect and +restore man's satisfaction in belonging to a community where he can find +security and significance. + +The first step is to break old patterns--to begin to think and work and +plan for the development of the entire metropolitan areas. We will take +this step with new programs of help for the basic community facilities and +for neighborhood centers of health and recreation. + +New and existing programs will be open to those cities which work together +to develop unified long-range policies for metropolitan areas. + +We must also make some very important changes in our housing programs if we +are to pursue these same basic goals. + +So a Department of Housing and Urban Development will be needed to +spearhead this effort in our cities. + +Every citizen has the right to feel secure in his home and on the streets +of his community. + +To help control crime, we will recommend programs: + +--to train local law enforcement officers; + +--to put the best techniques of modern science at their disposal; + +--to discover the causes of crime and better ways to prevent it. + +I will soon assemble a panel of outstanding experts of this Nation to +search out answers to the national problem of crime and delinquency, and I +welcome the recommendations and the constructive efforts of the Congress. +The Beauty of America + +For over three centuries the beauty of America has sustained our spirit and +has enlarged our vision. We must act now to protect this heritage. In a +fruitful new partnership with the States and the cities the next decade +should be a conservation milestone. We must make a massive effort to save +the countryside and to establish--as a green legacy for tomorrow--more +large and small parks, more seashores and open spaces than have been +created during any other period in our national history. + +A new and substantial effort must be made to landscape highways to provide +places of relaxation and recreation wherever our roads run, + +Within our cities imaginative programs are needed to landscape streets and +to transform open areas into places of beauty and recreation. + +We will seek legal power to prevent pollution of our air and water before +it happens. We will step up our effort to control harmful wastes, giving +first priority to the cleanup of our most contaminated rivers. We will +increase research to learn much more about the control of pollution. + +We hope to make the Potomac a model of beauty here in the Capital, and +preserve unspoiled stretches of some of our waterways with a Wild Rivers +bill. + +More ideas for a beautiful America will emerge from a White House +Conference on Natural Beauty which I will soon call. + +Art and ScienceWe must also recognize and encourage those who can be +pathfinders for the Nation's imagination and understanding. + +To help promote and honor creative achievements, I will propose a National +Foundation on the Arts. + +To develop knowledge which will enrich our lives and ensure our progress, I +will recommend programs to encourage basic science, particularly in the +universities--and to bring closer the day when the oceans will supply our +growing need for fresh water. + +For government to serve these goals it must be modern in structure, +efficient in action, and ready for any emergency. + +I am busy, currently, reviewing the structure of the entire executive +branch of this Government. I hope to reshape it and to reorganize it to +meet more effectively the tasks of the 20th century. + +Wherever waste is found, I will eliminate it. + +Last year we saved almost $3,500 million by eliminating waste in the +National Government. + +And I intend to do better this year. + +And very soon I will report to you on our progress and on new economies +that your Government plans to make. + +Even the best of government is subject to the worst of hazards. + +I will propose laws to insure the necessary continuity of leadership should +the President become disabled or die. + +In addition, I will propose reforms in the electoral college--leaving +undisturbed the vote by States--but making sure that no elector can +substitute his will for that of the people. + +Last year, in a sad moment, I came here and I spoke to you after 33 years +of public service, practically all of them here on this Hill. + +This year I speak after 1 year as President of the United States. + +Many of you in this Chamber are among my oldest friends. We have shared +many happy moments and many hours of work, and we have watched many +Presidents together. Yet, only in the White House can you finally know the +full weight of this Office. + +The greatest burden is not running the huge operations of government--or +meeting daily troubles, large and small--or even working with the +Congress. + +A President's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is +right. + +Yet the Presidency brings no special gift of prophecy or foresight. You +take an oath, you step into an office, and you must then help guide a great +democracy. + +The answer was waiting for me in the land where I was born. + +It was once barren land. The angular hills were covered with scrub cedar +and a few large live oaks. Little would grow in that harsh caliche soil of +my country. And each spring the Pedernales River would flood our valley. + +But men came and they worked and they endured and they built. + +And tonight that country is abundant; abundant with fruit and cattle and +goats and sheep, and there are pleasant homes and lakes and the floods are +gone. + +Why did men come to that once forbidding land ? + +Well, they were restless, of course, and they had to be moving on. But +there was more than that. There was a dream--a dream of a place where a +free man could build for himself, and raise his children to a better +life--a dream of a continent to be conquered, a world to be won, a nation +to be made. + +Remembering this, I knew the answer. + +A President does not shape a new and personal vision of America. + +He collects it from the scattered hopes of the American past. + +It existed when the first settlers saw the coast of a new world, and when +the first pioneers moved westward. + +It has guided us every step of the way. + +It sustains every President. But it is also your inheritance and it belongs +equally to all the people that we all serve. + +It must be interpreted anew by each generation for its own needs; as I have +tried, in part, to do tonight. + +It shall lead us as we enter the third century of the search for "a more +perfect union? + +This, then, is the state of the Union: Free and restless, growing and full +of hope. + +So it was in the beginning. + +So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to +keep the faith. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Lyndon B. Johnson +January 12, 1966 + +Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the House and the Senate, my fellow +Americans: + +I come before you tonight to report on the State of the Union for the third +time. + +I come here to thank you and to add my tribute, once more, to the Nation's +gratitude for this, the 89th Congress. This Congress has already reserved +for itself an honored chapter in the history of America. + +Our Nation tonight is engaged in a brutal and bitter conflict in Vietnam. +Later on I want to discuss that struggle in some detail with you. It just +must be the center of our concerns. + +But we will not permit those who fire upon us in Vietnam to win a victory +over the desires and the intentions of all the American people. This Nation +is mighty enough, its society is healthy enough, its people are strong +enough, to pursue our goals in the rest of the world while still building a +Great Society here at home. + +And that is what I have come here to ask of you tonight. + +I recommend that you provide the resources to carry forward, with full +vigor, the great health and education programs that you enacted into law +last year. + +I recommend that we prosecute with vigor and determination our war on +poverty. + +I recommend that you give a new and daring direction to our foreign aid +program, designed to make a maximum attack on hunger and disease and +ignorance in those countries that are determined to help themselves, and to +help those nations that are trying to control population growth. + +I recommend that you make it possible to expand trade between the United +States and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. + +I recommend to you a program to rebuild completely, on a scale never before +attempted, entire central and slum areas of several of our cities in +America. + +I recommend that you attack the wasteful and degrading poisoning of our +rivers, and, as the cornerstone of this effort, clean completely entire +large river basins. + +I recommend that you meet the growing menace of crime in the streets by +building up law enforcement and by revitalizing the entire Federal system +from prevention to probation. + +I recommend that you take additional steps to insure equal justice to all +of our people by effectively enforcing nondiscrimination in Federal and +State jury selection, by making it a serious Federal crime to obstruct +public and private efforts to secure civil rights, and by outlawing +discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. + +I recommend that you help me modernize and streamline the Federal +Government by creating a new Cabinet level Department of Transportation and +reorganizing several existing agencies. In turn, I will restructure our +civil service in the top grades so that men and women can easily be +assigned to jobs where they are most needed, and ability will be both +required as well as rewarded. + +I will ask you to make it possible for Members of the House of +Representatives to work more effectively in the service of the Nation +through a constitutional amendment extending the term of a Congressman to 4 +years, concurrent with that of the President. II. + +Because of Vietnam we cannot do all that we should, or all that we would +like to do. We will ruthlessly attack waste and inefficiency. We will make +sure that every dollar is spent with the thrift and with the commonsense +which recognizes how hard the taxpayer worked in order to earn it. + +We will continue to meet the needs of our people by continuing to develop +the Great Society. + +Last year alone the wealth that we produced increased $47 billion, and it +will soar again this year to a total over $720 billion. + +Because our economic policies have produced rising revenues, if you approve +every program that I recommend tonight, our total budget deficit will be +one of the lowest in many years. It will be only $1.8 billion next year. +Total spending in the administrative budget will be $112.8 billion. +Revenues next year will be $111 billion. + +On a cash basis--which is the way that you and I keep our family +budget--the Federal budget next year will actually show a surplus. That is +to say, if we include all the money that your Government will take in and +all the money that your Government will spend, your Government next year +will collect one-half billion dollars more than it will spend in the year +1967. + +I have not come here tonight to ask for pleasant luxuries or for idle +pleasures. I have come here to recommend that you, the representatives of +the richest Nation on earth, you, the elected servants of a people who live +in abundance unmatched on this globe, you bring the most urgent decencies +of life to all of your fellow Americans. + +There are men who cry out: We must sacrifice. Well, let us rather ask them: +Who will they sacrifice? Are they going to sacrifice the children who seek +the learning, or the sick who need medical care, or the families who dwell +in squalor now brightened by the hope of home? Will they sacrifice +opportunity for the distressed, the beauty of our land, the hope of our +poor? + +Time may require further sacrifices. And if it does, then we will make +them. + +But we will not heed those who wring it from the hopes of the unfortunate +here in a land of plenty. + +I believe that we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam. +But if there are some who do not believe this, then, in the name of +justice, let them call for the contribution of those who live in the +fullness of our blessing, rather than try to strip it from the hands of +those that are most in need. + +And let no one think that the unfortunate and the oppressed of this land +sit stifled and alone in their hope tonight. Hundreds of their servants and +their protectors sit before me tonight here in this great Chamber. III. + +The Great Society leads us along three roads--growth and justice and +liberation. + +I can report to you tonight what you have seen for yourselves already--in +every city and countryside. This Nation is flourishing. + +Workers are making more money than ever--with after-tax income in the past +5 years up 33 percent; in the last year alone, up 8 percent. + +More people are working than ever before in our history--an increase last +year of 2 1/2 million jobs. + +Corporations have greater after-tax earnings than ever in history. For the +past 5 years those earnings have been up over 65 percent, and last year +alone they had a rise of 20 percent. + +Average farm income is higher than ever. Over the past 5 years it is up 40 +percent, and over the past year it is up 22 percent alone. + +I was informed this afternoon by the distinguished Secretary of the +Treasury that his preliminary estimates indicate that our balance of +payments deficit has been reduced from $2.8 billion in 1964 to $1.3 +billion, or less, in 1965. This achievement has been made possible by the +patriotic voluntary cooperation of businessmen and bankers working with +your Government. + +We must now work together with increased urgency to wipe out this balance +of payments deficit altogether in the next year. + +And as our economy surges toward new heights we must increase our vigilance +against the inflation which raises the cost of living and which lowers the +savings of every family in this land. It is essential, to prevent +inflation, that we ask both labor and business to exercise price and wage +restraint, and I do so again tonight. + +I believe it desirable, because of increased military expenditures, that +you temporarily restore the automobile and certain telephone excise tax +reductions made effective only 12 days ago. Without raising taxes--or even +increasing the total tax bill paid--we should move to improve our +withholding system so that Americans can more realistically pay as they go, +speed up the collection of corporate taxes, and make other necessary +simplifications of the tax structure at an early date. + +I hope these measures will be adequate. But if the necessities of Vietnam +require it, I will not hesitate to return to the Congress for additional +appropriations, or additional revenues if they are needed. + +I propose legislation to establish unavoidable requirements for +nondiscriminatory jury selection in Federal and State courts--and to give +the Attorney General the power necessary to enforce those requirements. + +I propose legislation to strengthen authority of Federal courts to try +those who murder, attack, or intimidate either civil rights workers or +others exercising their constitutional rights--and to increase penalties to +a level equal to the nature of the crime. + +Legislation, resting on the fullest constitutional authority of the Federal +Government, to 'prohibit racial discrimination in the sale or rental of +housing. + +For that other nation within a Nation--the poor--whose distress has now +captured the conscience of America, I will ask the Congress not only to +continue, but to speed up the war on poverty. And in so doing, we will +provide the added energy of achievement with the increased efficiency of +experience. + +To improve the life of our rural Americans and our farm population, we will +plan for the future through the establishment of several new Community +Development Districts, improved education through the use of Teacher Corps +teams, better health measures, physical examinations, and adequate and +available medical resources. + +For those who labor, I propose to improve unemployment insurance, to expand +minimum wage benefits, and by the repeal of section 14(b) of the +Taft-Hartley Act to make the labor laws in all our States equal to the laws +of the 31 States which do not have tonight right-to-work measures. + +And I also intend to ask the Congress to consider measures which, without +improperly invading State and local authority, will enable us effectively +to deal with strikes which threaten irreparable damage to the national +interest. + +Yet, slowly, painfully, on the edge of victory, has come the knowledge that +shared prosperity is not enough. In the midst of abundance modern man walks +oppressed by forces which menace and confine the quality of his life, and +which individual abundance alone will not overcome. + +We can subdue and we can master these forces--bring increased meaning to +our lives--if all of us, Government and citizens, are bold enough to change +old ways, daring enough to assault new dangers, and if the dream is dear +enough to call forth the limitless capacities of this great people. + +This year we must continue to improve the quality of American life. + +Let us fulfill and improve the great health and education programs of last +year, extending special opportunities to those who risk their lives in our +Armed Forces. + +I urge the House of Representatives to complete action on three programs +already passed by the Senate--the Teacher Corps, rent assistance, and home +rule for the District of Columbia. + +In some of our urban areas we must help rebuild entire sections and +neighborhoods containing, in some cases, as many as 100,000 people. Working +together, private enterprise and government must press forward with the +task of providing homes and shops, parks and hospitals, and all the other +necessary parts of a flourishing community where our people can come to +live the good life. + +I will offer other proposals to stimulate and to reward planning for the +growth of entire metropolitan areas. + +Of all the reckless devastations of our national heritage, none is really +more shameful than the continued poisoning of our rivers and our air. + +We must undertake a cooperative effort to end pollution in several river +basins, making additional funds available to help draw the plans and +construct the plants that are necessary to make the waters of our entire +river systems clean, and make them a source of pleasure and beauty for all +of our people. + +To attack and to overcome growing crime and lawlessness, I think we must +have a stepped-up program to help modernize and strengthen our local police +forces. + +Our people have a right to feel secure in their homes and on their +streets--and that right just must be secured. + +Nor can we fail to arrest the destruction of life and property on our +highways. + +I will propose a Highway Safety Act of 1966 to seek an end to this mounting +tragedy. + +We must also act to prevent the deception of the American +consumer--requiring all packages to state clearly and truthfully their +contents--all interest and credit charges to be fully revealed--and keeping +harmful drugs and cosmetics away from our stores. + +It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring +institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich +fertility of American political invention. We must change to master +change. + +I propose to take steps to modernize and streamline the executive branch, +to modernize the relations between city and State and Nation. + +A new Department of Transportation is needed to bring together our +transportation activities. The present structure--35 Government agencies, +spending $5 billion yearly--makes it almost impossible to serve either the +growing demands of this great Nation or the needs of the industry, or the +right of the taxpayer to full efficiency and real frugality. + +I will propose in addition a program to construct and to flight-test a new +supersonic transport airplane that will fly three times the speed of +sound--in excess of 2,000 miles per hour. + +I propose to examine our Federal system-the relation between city, State, +Nation, and the citizens themselves. We need a commission of the most +distinguished scholars and men of public affairs to do this job. I will ask +them to move on to develop a creative federalism to best use the wonderful +diversity of our institutions and our people to solve the problems and to +fulfill the dreams of the American people. + +As the process of election becomes more complex and more costly, we must +make it possible for those without personal wealth to enter public life +without being obligated to a few large contributors. + +Therefore, I will submit legislation to revise the present unrealistic +restriction on contributions--to prohibit the endless proliferation of +committees, bringing local and State committees under the act--to attach +strong teeth and severe penalties to the requirement of full disclosure of +contributions-and to broaden the participation of the people, through added +tax incentives, to stimulate small contributions to the party and to the +candidate of their choice. + +To strengthen the work of Congress I strongly urge an amendment to provide +a 4-year term for Members of the House of Representatives-which should not +begin before 1972. + +The present 2-year term requires most Members of Congress to divert +enormous energies to an almost constant process of campaigning--depriving +this Nation of the fullest measure of both their skill and their wisdom. +Today, too, the work of government is far more complex than in our early +years, requiring more time to learn and more time to master the technical +tasks of legislating. And a longer term will serve to attract more men of +the highest quality to political life. The Nation, the principle of +democracy, and, I think, each congressional district, will all be better +served by a 4-year term for Members of the House. And I urge your swift +action. IV. + +Tonight the cup of peril is full in Vietnam. That conflict is not an +isolated episode, but another great event in the policy that we have +followed with strong consistency since World War II. + +The touchstone of that policy is the interest of the United States--the +welfare and the freedom of the people of the United States. But nations +sink when they see that interest only through a narrow glass. + +In a world that has grown small and dangerous, pursuit of narrow aims could +bring decay and even disaster. + +An America that is mighty beyond description-yet living in a hostile or +despairing world--would be neither safe nor free to build a civilization to +liberate the spirit of man. + +In this pursuit we helped rebuild Western Europe. We gave our aid to Greece +and Turkey, and we defended the freedom of Berlin. + +In this pursuit we have helped new nations toward independence. We have +extended the helping hand of the Peace Corps and carried forward the +largest program of economic assistance in the world. + +And in this pursuit we work to build a hemisphere of democracy and of +social justice. + +In this pursuit we have defended against Communist aggression--in Korea +under President Truman--in the Formosa Straits under President +Eisenhower--in Cuba under President Kennedy--and again in Vietnam. + +Tonight Vietnam must hold the center of our attention, but across the world +problems and opportunities crowd in on the American Nation. I will discuss +them fully in the months to come, and I will follow the five continuing +lines of policy that America has followed under its last four Presidents. + +While special Vietnam expenditures for the next fiscal year are estimated +to increase by $5.8 billion, I can tell you that all the other expenditures +put together in the entire Federal budget will rise this coming year by +only $.6 billion. This is true because of the stringent cost-conscious +economy program inaugurated in the Defense Department, and followed by the +other departments of Government. + +We will vigorously pursue existing proposals-and seek new ones--to control +arms and to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. + +By strengthening the common defense, by stimulating world commerce, by +meeting new hopes, these associations serve the cause of a flourishing +world. + +We will take new steps this year to help strengthen the Alliance for +Progress, the unity of Europe, the community of the Atlantic, the regional +organizations of developing continents, and that supreme association--the +United Nations. + +We will work to strengthen economic cooperation, to reduce barriers to +trade, and to improve international finance. + +From the Marshall plan to this very moment tonight, that policy has rested +on the claims of compassion, and the certain knowledge that only a people +advancing in expectation will build secure and peaceful lands. + +This year I propose major new directions in our program of foreign +assistance to help those countries who will help themselves. + +We will conduct a worldwide attack on the problems of hunger and disease +and ignorance. + +We will place the matchless skill and the resources of our own great +America, in farming and in fertilizers, at the service of those countries +committed to develop a modern agriculture. + +We will aid those who educate the young in other lands, and we will give +children in other continents the same head start that we are trying to give +our own children. To advance these ends I will propose the International +Education Act of 1966. + +I will also propose the International Health Act of 1966 to strike at +disease by a new effort to bring modern skills and knowledge to the +uncared-for, those suffering in the world, and by trying to wipe out +smallpox and malaria and control yellow fever over most of the world during +this next decade; to help countries trying to control population growth, by +increasing our research--and we will earmark funds to help their efforts. + +In the next year, from our foreign aid sources, we propose to dedicate $1 +billion to these efforts, and we call on all who have the means to join us +in this work in the world. + +For a peaceful world order will be possible only when each country walks +the way that it has chosen to walk for itself. + +We follow this principle by encouraging the end of colonial rule. + +We follow this principle, abroad as well as at home, by continued hostility +to the rule of the many by the few--or the oppression of one race by +another. + +We follow this principle by building bridges to Eastern Europe. And I will +ask the Congress for authority to remove the special tariff restrictions +which are a barrier to increasing trade between the East and the West. + +The insistent urge toward national independence is the strongest force of +today's world in which we live. + +In Africa and Asia and Latin America it is shattering the designs of those +who would subdue others to their ideas or their will. + +It is eroding the unity of what was once a Stalinist empire. + +In recent months a number of nations have east out those who would subject +them to the ambitions of mainland China. + +History is on the side of freedom and is on the side of societies shaped +from the genius of each people. History does not favor a single system or +belief--unless force is used to make it so. + +That is why it has been necessary for us to defend this basic principle of +our policy, to defend it in Berlin, in Korea, in Cuba-and tonight in +Vietnam. + +For tonight, as so many nights before, young Americans struggle and young +Americans die in a distant land. + +Tonight, as so many nights before, the American Nation is asked to +sacrifice the blood of its children and the fruits of its labor for the +love of its freedom. + +How many times--in my lifetime and in yours--have the American people +gathered, as they do now, to hear their President tell them of conflict and +tell them of danger? + +Each time they have answered. They have answered with all the effort that +the security and the freedom of this Nation required. + +And they do again tonight in Vietnam. Not too many years ago Vietnam was a +peaceful, if troubled, land. In the North was an independent Communist +government. In the South a people struggled to build a nation, with the +friendly help of the United States. + +There were some in South Vietnam who wished to force Communist rule on +their own people. But their progress was slight. Their hope of success was +dim. Then, little more than 6 years ago, North Vietnam decided on conquest. +And from that day to this, soldiers and supplies have moved from North to +South in a swelling stream that is swallowing the remnants of revolution in +aggression. + +As the assault mounted, our choice gradually became clear. We could leave, +abandoning South Vietnam to its attackers and to certain conquest, or we +could stay and fight beside the people of South Vietnam. We stayed. + +And we will stay until aggression has stopped. + +We will stay because a just nation cannot leave to the cruelties of its +enemies a people who have staked their lives and independence on America's +solemn pledge--a pledge which has grown through the commitments of three +American Presidents. + +We will stay because in Asia and around the world are countries whose +independence rests, in large measure, on confidence in America's word and +in America's protection. To yield to force in Vietnam would weaken that +confidence, would undermine the independence of many lands, and would whet +the appetite of aggression. We would have to fight in one land, and then we +would have to fight in another--or abandon much of Asia to the domination +of Communists. + +And we do not intend to abandon Asia to conquest. + +Last year the nature of the war in Vietnam changed again. Swiftly +increasing numbers of armed men from the North crossed the borders to join +forces that were already in the South. Attack and terror increased, spurred +and encouraged by the belief that the United States lacked the will to +continue and that their victory was near. + +Despite our desire to limit conflict, it was necessary to act: to hold back +the mounting aggression, to give courage to the people of the South, and to +make our firmness clear to the North. Thus. we began limited air action +against military targets in North Vietnam. We increased our fighting force +to its present strength tonight of 190,000 men. + +These moves have not ended the aggression but they have prevented its +success. The aims of the enemy have been put out of reach by the skill and +the bravery of Americans and their allies--and by the enduring courage of +the South Vietnamese who, I can tell you, have lost eight men last year for +every one of ours. + +The enemy is no longer close to victory. Time is no longer on his side. +There is no cause to doubt the American commitment. + +Our decision to stand firm has been matched by our desire for peace. + +In 1965 alone we had 300 private talks for peace in Vietnam, with friends +and adversaries throughout the world. + +Since Christmas your Government has labored again, with imagination and +endurance, to remove any barrier to peaceful settlement. For 20 days now we +and our Vietnamese allies have dropped no bombs in North Vietnam. + +Able and experienced spokesmen have visited, in behalf of America, more +than 40 countries. We have talked to more than a hundred governments, all +113 that we have relations with, and some that we don't. We have talked to +the United Nations and we have called upon all of its members to make any +contribution that they can toward helping obtain peace. + +In public statements and in private communications, to adversaries and to +friends, in Rome and Warsaw, in Paris and Tokyo, in Africa and throughout +this hemisphere, America has made her position abundantly clear. + +We seek neither territory nor bases, economic domination or military +alliance in Vietnam. We fight for the principle of self-determination--that +the people of South Vietnam should be able to choose their own course, +choose it in free elections without violence, without terror, and without +fear. + +The people of all Vietnam should make a free decision on the great question +of reunification. + +This is all we want for South Vietnam. It is all the people of South +Vietnam want. And if there is a single nation on this earth that desires +less than this for its own people, then let its voice be heard. + +We have also made it clear--from Hanoi to New York--that there are no +arbitrary limits to our search for peace. We stand by the Geneva Agreements +of 1954 and 1962. We will meet at any conference table, we will discuss any +proposals--four points or fourteen or forty--and we will consider the views +of any group. We will work for a cease-fire now or once discussions have +begun. We will respond if others reduce their use of force, and we will +withdraw our soldiers once South Vietnam is securely guaranteed the right +to shape its own future. + +We have said all this, and we have asked-and hoped--and we have waited for +a response. + +So far we have received no response to prove either success or failure. + +We have carried our quest for peace to many nations and peoples because we +share this planet with others whose future, in large measure, is tied to +our own action, and whose counsel is necessary to our own hopes. + +We have found understanding and support. And we know they wait with us +tonight for some response that could lead to peace. + +I wish tonight that I could give you a blueprint for the course of this +conflict over the coming months, but we just cannot know what the future +may require. We may have to face long, hard combat or a long, hard +conference, or even both at once. + +Until peace comes, or if it does not come, our course is clear. We will act +as we must to help protect the independence of the valiant people of South +Vietnam. We will strive to limit the conflict, for we wish neither +increased destruction nor do we want to invite increased danger. + +But we will give our fighting men what they must have: every gun, and every +dollar, and every decision--whatever the cost or whatever the challenge. + +And we will continue to help the people of South Vietnam care for those +that are ravaged by battle, create progress in the villages, and carry +forward the healing hopes of peace as best they can amidst the uncertain +terrors of war. + +And let me be absolutely clear: The days may become months, and the months +may become years, but we will stay as long as aggression commands us to +battle. + +There may be some who do not want peace, whose ambitions stretch so far +that war in Vietnam is but a welcome and convenient episode in an immense +design to subdue history to their will. But for others it must now be +clear--the choice is not between peace and victory, it lies between peace +and the ravages of a conflict from which they can only lose. + +The people of Vietnam, North and South, seek the same things: the shared +needs of man, the needs for food and shelter and education--the chance to +build and work and till the soil, free from the arbitrary horrors of +battle--the desire to walk in the dignity of those who master their own +destiny. For many painful years, in war and revolution and infrequent +peace, they have struggled to fulfill those needs. + +It is a crime against mankind that so much courage, and so much will, and +so many dreams, must be flung on the fires of war and death. + +To all of those caught up in this conflict we therefore say again tonight: +Let us choose peace, and with it the wondrous works of peace, and beyond +that, the time when hope reaches toward consummation, and life is the +servant of life. + +In this work, we plan to discharge our duty to the people whom we serve. +V. + +This is the State of the Union. + +But over it all--wealth, and promise, and expectation--lies our troubling +awareness of American men at war tonight. + +How many men who listen to me tonight have served their Nation in other +wars? How very many are not here to listen? + +The war in Vietnam is not like these other wars. Yet, finally, war is +always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It +is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate. + +Therefore, to know war is to know that there is still madness in this +world. + +Many of you share the burden of this knowledge tonight with me. But there +is a difference. For finally I must be the one to order our guns to fire, +against all the most inward pulls of my desire. For we have children to +teach, and we have sick to be cured, and we have men to be freed. There are +poor to be lifted up, and there are cities to be built, and there is a +world to be helped. + +Yet we do what we must. + +I am hopeful, and I will try as best I can, with everything I have got, to +end this battle and to return our sons to their desires. + +Yet as long as others will challenge America's security and test the +clearness of our beliefs with fire and steel, then we must stand or see the +promise of two centuries tremble. I believe tonight that you do not want me +to try that risk. And from that belief your President summons his strength +for the trials that lie ahead in the days to come. + +The work must be our work now. Scarred by the weaknesses of man, with +whatever guidance God may offer us, we must nevertheless and alone with our +mortality, strive to ennoble the life of man on earth. + +Thank you, and goodnight. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Lyndon B. Johnson +January 10, 1967 + +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 dose 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 m 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 dean 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 dean 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. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Lyndon B. Johnson +January 17, 1968 + +Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress, and my fellow +Americans: + +I was thinking as I was walking down the aisle tonight of what Sam Rayburn +told me many years ago: The Congress always extends a very warm welcome to +the President-as he comes in. + +Thank all of you very, very much. + +I have come once again to this Chamber-the home of our democracy--to give +you, as the Constitution requires, "Information of the State of the +Union." + +I report to you that our country is challenged, at home and abroad: + +--that it is our will that is being tried, not our strength; our sense of +purpose, not our ability to achieve a better America; + +--that we have the strength to meet our every challenge; the physical +strength to hold the course of decency and compassion at home; and the +moral strength to support the cause of peace in the world. + +And I report to you that I believe, with abiding conviction, that this +people--nurtured by their deep faith, tutored by their hard lessons, moved +by their high aspirations-have the will to meet the trials that these times +impose. + +Since I reported to you last January: + +--Three elections have been held in Vietnam--in the midst of war and under +the constant threat of violence. + +--A President, a Vice President, a House and Senate, and village officials +have been chosen by popular, contested ballot. + +--The enemy has been defeated in battle after battle. + +--The number of South Vietnamese living in areas under Government +protection tonight has grown by more than a million since January of last +year. + +These are all marks of progress. Yet: + +--The enemy continues to pour men and material across frontiers and into +battle, + +despite his continuous heavy losses. + +--He continues to hope that America's will to persevere can be broken. +Well--he is wrong. America will persevere. Our patience and our +perseverance will match our power. Aggression will never prevail. + +But our goal is peace--and peace at the earliest possible moment. + +Right now we are exploring the meaning of Hanoi's recent statement. There +is no mystery about the questions which must be answered before the bombing +is stopped. + +We believe that any talks should follow the San Antonio formula that I +stated last September, which said: + +--The bombing would stop immediately if talks would take place promptly and +with reasonable hopes that they would be productive. + +--And the other side must not take advantage of our restraint as they have +in the past. This Nation simply cannot accept anything less without +jeopardizing the lives of our men and of our allies. + +If a basis for peace talks can be established on the San Antonio +foundations--and it is my hope and my prayer that they can--we would +consult with our allies and with the other side to see if a complete +cessation of hostilities--a really true cease-fire--could be made the first +order of business. I will report at the earliest possible moment the +results of these explorations to the American people. + +I have just recently returned from a very fruitful visit and talks with His +Holiness the Pope and I share his hope--as he expressed it earlier +today--that both sides will extend themselves in an effort to bring an end +to the war in Vietnam. I have today assured him that we and our allies will +do our full part to bring this about. + +Since I spoke to you last January, other events have occurred that have +major consequences for world peace. + +--The Kennedy Round achieved the greatest reduction in tariff barriers in +all the history of trade negotiations. + +--The nations of Latin America at Punta del Este resolved to move toward +economic integration. + +--In Asia, the nations from Korea and Japan to Indonesia and Singapore +worked behind America's shield to strengthen their economies and to broaden +their political cooperation. + +--In Africa, from which the distinguished Vice President has just returned, +he reports to me that there is a spirit of regional cooperation that is +beginning to take hold in very practical ways. + +These events we all welcomed. Yet since I last reported to you, we and the +world have been confronted by a number of crises: + +--During the Arab-Israeli war last June, the hot line between Washington +and Moscow was used for the first time in our history. A cease-fire was +achieved without a major power confrontation. + +Now the nations of the Middle East have the opportunity to cooperate with +Ambassador Jarring's U.N. mission and they have the responsibility to find +the terms of living together in stable peace and dignity, and we shall do +all in our power to help them achieve that result. + +--Not far from this scene of conflict, a crisis flared on Cyprus involving +two peoples who are America's friends: Greece and Turkey. Our very able +representative, Mr. Cyrus Vance, and others helped to ease this tension. + +--Turmoil continues on the mainland of China after a year of violent +disruption. The radical extremism of their Government has isolated the +Chinese people behind their own borders. The United States, however, +remains willing to permit the travel of journalists to both our countries; +to undertake cultural and educational exchanges; and to talk about the +exchange of basic food crop materials. + +Since I spoke to you last, the United States and the Soviet Union have +taken several important steps toward the goal of international +cooperation. + +As you will remember, I met with Chairman Kosygin at Glassboro and we +achieved if not accord, at least a clearer understanding of our respective +positions after 2 days of meeting. + +Because we believe the nuclear danger must be narrowed, we have worked with +the Soviet Union and with other nations to reach an agreement that will +halt the spread of nuclear weapons. On the basis of communications from +Ambassador Fisher in Geneva this afternoon, I am encouraged to believe that +a draft treaty can be laid before the conference in Geneva in the very near +future. I hope to be able to present that treaty to the Senate this year +for the Senate's approval. + +We achieved, in 1967, a consular treaty with the Soviets, the first +commercial air agreement between the two countries, and a treaty banning +weapons in outer space. We shall sign, and submit to the Senate shortly, a +new treaty with the Soviets and with others for the protection of +astronauts. + +Serious differences still remain between us, yet in these relations, we +have made some progress since Vienna, the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban +missile crisis. + +But despite this progress, we must maintain a military force that is +capable of deterring any threat to this Nation's security, whatever the +mode of aggression. Our choices must not be confined to total war-or to +total acquiescence. + +We have such a military force today. We shall maintain it. + +I wish--with all of my heart--that the expenditures that are necessary to +build and to protect our power could all be devoted to the programs of +peace. But until world conditions permit, and until peace is assured, +America's might--and America's bravest sons who wear our Nation's +uniform--must continue to stand guard for all of us--as they gallantly do +tonight in Vietnam and other places in the world. + +Yet neither great weapons nor individual courage can provide the conditions +of peace. + +For two decades America has committed itself against the tyranny of want +and ignorance in the world that threatens the peace. We shall sustain that +commitment. This year I shall propose: + +--That we launch, with other nations, an exploration of the ocean depths to +tap its wealth, and its energy, and its abundance. + +--That we contribute our fair share to a major expansion of the +International Development Association, and to increase the resources of the +Asian Development Bank. + +--That we adopt a prudent aid program, rooted in the principle of +self-help. + +--That we renew and extend the food for freedom program. + +Our food programs have already helped millions avoid the horrors of +famine. + +But unless the rapid growth of population in developing countries is +slowed, the gap between rich and poor will widen steadily. + +Governments in the developing countries must take such facts into +consideration. We in the United States are prepared to help assist them in +those efforts. + +But we must also improve the lives of children already born in the villages +and towns and cities on this earth. They can be taught by great teachers +through space communications and the miracle of satellite television-and we +are going to bring to bear every resource of mind and technology to help +make this dream come true. + +Let me speak now about some matters here at home. + +Tonight our Nation is accomplishing more for its people than has ever been +accomplished before. Americans are prosperous as men have never been in +recorded history. Yet there is in the land a certain restlessness--a +questioning. + +The total of our Nation's annual production is now above $800 billion. For +83 months this Nation has been on a steady upward trend of growth. + +All about them, most American families can see the evidence of growing +abundance: higher paychecks, humming factories, new cars moving down new +highways. More and more families own their own homes, equipped with more +than 70 million television sets. + +A new college is founded every week. Today more than half of the high +school graduates go on to college. + +There are hundreds of thousands of fathers and mothers who never completed +grammar school--who will see their children graduate from college. + +Why, then, this restlessness? + +Because when a great ship cuts through the sea, the waters are always +stirred and troubled. + +And our ship is moving. It is moving through troubled and new waters; it is +moving toward new and better shores. + +We ask now, not how can we achieve abundance?--but how shall we use our +abundance? Not, is there abundance enough for all?--but, how can all share +in our abundance? + +While we have accomplished much, much remains for us to meet and much +remains for us to master. + +--In some areas, the jobless rate is still three or four times the national +average + +--Violence has shown its face in some of our cities. + +--Crime increases on our streets. + +--Income for farm workers remains far behind that for urban workers; and +parity for our farmers who produce our food is still just a hope--not an +achievement. + +--New housing construction is far less than we need--to assure decent +shelter for every family. + +--Hospital and medical costs are high, and they are rising. + +--Many rivers--and the air in many cities--remain badly polluted. And our +citizens suffer from breathing that air. + +We have lived with conditions like these for many, many years. But much +that we once accepted as inevitable, we now find absolutely intolerable. + +In our cities last summer, we saw how wide is the gulf for some Americans +between the promise and the reality of our society. + +We know that we cannot change all of this in a day. It represents the +bitter consequences of more than three centuries. + +But the issue is not whether we can change this; the issue is whether we +will change this. + +Well, I know we can. And I believe we will. + +This then is the work we should do in the months that are ahead of us in +this Congress. + +The first essential is more jobs, useful jobs for tens of thousands who can +become productive and can pay their own way. + +Our economy has created 7 1/2 million new jobs in the past 4 years. It is +adding more than a million and a half new jobs this year. + +Through programs passed by the Congress, job training is being given +tonight to more than a million Americans in this country. + +This year, the time has come when we must get to those who are last in +line--the hard-core unemployed--the hardest to reach. + +Employment officials estimate that 500,000 of these persons are now +unemployed in the major cities of America. Our objective is to place these +500,000 in private industry jobs within the next 3 years. + +To do this, I propose a $2. 1 billion manpower program in the coming fiscal +year-a 25 percent increase over the current year. Most of this increase +will be used to start a new partnership between government and private +industry to train and to hire the hard-core unemployed persons. I know of +no task before us of more importance to us, to the country, or to our +future. + +Another essential is to rebuild our cities. + +Last year the Congress authorized $662 million for the Model Cities +program. I requested the full amount of that authorization to help meet the +crisis in the cities of America. But the Congress appropriated only $312 +million--less than half. + +This year I urge the Congress to honor my request for model cities funds to +rebuild the centers of American cities by granting us the full amount that +you in the Congress authorized--$1 billion. + +The next essential is more housing--and more housing now. + +Surely a nation that can go to the moon can place a decent home within the +reach of its families. + +Therefore we must call together the resources of industry and labor, to +start building 300,000 housing units for low- and middle-income families +next year--that is three times more than this year. We must make it +possible for thousands of families to become homeowners, not rent-payers. + +I propose, for the consideration of this Congress, a 10-year campaign to +build 6 million new housing units for low and middle-income families. Six +million units in the next 10 years. We have built 530,000 the last 10 +years. + +Better health for our children--all of our children--is essential if we are +to have a better America. + +Last year, Medicare, Medicaid, and other new programs that you passed in +the Congress brought better health to more than 25 million Americans. + +American medicine--with the very strong support and cooperation of public +resources-has produced a phenomenal decline in the death rate from many of +the dread diseases. + +But it is a shocking fact that, in saving the lives of babies, America +ranks 15th among the nations of the world. And among children, crippling +defects are often discovered too late for any corrective action. This is a +tragedy that Americans can, and Americans should, prevent. + +I shall, therefore, propose to the Congress a child health program to +provide, over the next 5 years, for families unable to afford it--access to +health services from prenatal care of the mother through the child's first +year. + +When we do that you will find it is the best investment we ever made +because we will get these diseases in their infancy and we will find a cure +in a great many instances that we can never find by overcrowding our +hospitals when they are grown. + +Now when we act to advance the consumer's cause I think we help every +American. + +Last year, with very little fanfare the Congress and the executive branch +moved in that field. + +We enacted the Wholesome Meat Act, the Flammable Fabrics Act, the Product +Safety Commission, and a law to improve clinical laboratories. + +And now, I think, the time has come to complete our unfinished work. The +Senate has already passed the truth-in-lending bill, the fire safety bill, +and the pipeline safety laws. + +Tonight I plead with the House to immediately act upon these measures and I +hope take favorable action upon all of them. I call upon the Congress to +enact, without delay, the remainder of the 12 vital consumer protection +laws that I submitted to the Congress last year. + +I also urge final action on a measure that is already passed by the House +to guard against fraud and manipulation in the Nation's commodity exchange +market. + +These measures are a pledge to our people-to keep them safe in their homes +and at work, and to give them a fair deal in the marketplace. + +And I think we must do more. I propose: + +--New powers for the Federal Trade Commission to stop those who defraud and +who swindle our public. + +--New safeguards to insure the quality of fish and poultry, and the safety +of our community water supplies. + +--A major study of automobile insurance. + +--Protection against hazardous radiation from television sets and other +electronic equipment. + +And to give the consumer a stronger voice, I plan to appoint a consumer +counsel in the Justice Department--a lawyer for the American consumer--to +work directly under the Attorney General, to serve the President's Special +Assistant for Consumer Affairs, and to serve the consumers of this land. + +This Congress--Democrats and Republicans--can earn the thanks of history. +We can make this truly a new day for the American consumer, and by giving +him this protection we can live in history as the consumer-conscious +Congress. + +So let us get on with the work. Let us act soon. + +We, at every level of the government, State, local, Federal, know that the +American people have had enough of rising crime and lawlessness in this +country. + +They recognize that law enforcement is first the duty of local police and +local government. + +They recognize that the frontline headquarters against crime is in the +home, the church, the city hall and the county courthouse and the +statehouse--not in the far-removed National Capital of Washington. + +But the people also recognize that the National Government can and the +National Government should help the cities and the States in their war on +crime to the full extent of its resources and its constitutional authority. +And this we shall do. + +This does not mean a national police force. It does mean help and financial +support: + +--to develop State and local master plans to combat crime, + +--to provide better training and better pay for police, and + +--to bring the most advanced technology to the war on crime in every city +and every county in America. + +There is no more urgent business before this Congress than to pass the Safe +Streets Act this year that I proposed last year. That law will provide +these required funds. They are so critically needed that I have doubled my +request under this act to $100 million in fiscal 1969. + +And I urge the Congress to stop the trade in mail-order murder, to stop it +this year by adopting a proper gun control law. + +This year, I will propose a Drug Control Act to provide stricter penalties +for those who traffic in LSD and other dangerous drugs with our people. + +I will ask for more vigorous enforcement of all of our drug laws by +increasing the number of Federal drug and narcotics control officials by +more than 30 percent. The time has come to stop the sale of slavery to the +young. I also request you to give us funds to add immediately 100 assistant +United States attorneys throughout the land to help prosecute our criminal +laws. We have increased our judiciary by 40 percent and we have increased +our prosecutors by 16 percent. The dockets are full of cases because we +don't have assistant district attorneys to go before the Federal judge and +handle them. We start these young lawyers at $8,200 a year. And the docket +is clogged because we don't have authority to hire more of them. + +I ask the Congress for authority to hire 100 more. These young men will +give special attention to this drug abuse, too. + +Finally, I ask you to add 100 FBI agents to strengthen law enforcement in +the Nation and to protect the individual rights of every citizen. + +A moment ago I spoke of despair and frustrated hopes in the cities where +the fires of disorder burned last summer. We can-and in time we +will--change that despair into confidence, and change those frustrations +into achievements. But violence will never bring progress. + +We can make progress only by attacking the causes of violence and only +where there is civil order founded on justice. + +Today we are helping local officials improve their capacity to deal +promptly with disorders. + +Those who preach disorder and those who preach violence must know that +local authorities are able to resist them swiftly, to resist them sternly, +and to resist them decisively. + +I shall recommend other actions: + +--To raise the farmers' income by establishing a security commodity reserve +that will protect the market from price-depressing stocks and protect the +consumer from food scarcity. + +--I shall recommend programs to help farmers bargain more effectively for +fair prices. + +--I shall recommend programs for new air safety measures. + +--Measures to stem the rising costs of medical care. + +--Legislation to encourage our returning veterans to devote themselves to +careers in community service such as teaching, and being firemen, and +joining our police force, and our law enforcement officials. + +--I shall recommend programs to strengthen and finance our anti-pollution +efforts. + +--Fully funding all of the $2.18 billion poverty program that you in the +Congress had just authorized in order to bring opportunity to those who +have been left far behind. + +--I shall recommend an Educational Opportunity Act to speed up our drive to +break down the financial barriers that are separating our young people from +college. + +I shall also urge the Congress to act on several other vital pending +bills--especially the civil rights measures--fair jury trials, protection +of Federal rights, enforcement of equal employment opportunity, and fair +housing. + +The unfinished work of the first session must be completed--the Higher +Education Act, the Juvenile Delinquency Act, conservation measures to save +the redwoods of California, and to preserve the wonders of our scenic +rivers, the Highway Beautification Act--and all the other measures for a +cleaner, and for a better, and for a more beautiful America. + +Next month we'll begin our 8th year of uninterrupted prosperity. The +economic outlook for this year is one of steady growth-if we are vigilant. + +True, there are some clouds on the horizon. Prices are rising. Interest +rates have passed the peak of 1966; and if there is continued inaction on +the tax bill, they will climb even higher. + +I warn the Congress and the Nation tonight that this failure to act on the +tax bill will sweep us into an accelerating spiral of price increases, a +slump in homebuilding, and a continuing erosion of the American dollar. + +This would be a tragedy for every American family. And I predict that if +this happens, they will all let us know about it. + +We--those of us in the executive branch, in the Congress, and the leaders +of labor and business--must do everything we can to prevent that kind of +misfortune. + +Under the new budget, the expenditures for 1969 will increase by $10.4 +billion. Receipts will increase by $22.3 billion including the added tax +revenues. Virtually all of this expenditure increase represents the +mandatory cost of our defense efforts, $3 billion; increased interest, +almost $1 billion; or mandatory payments under laws passed by +Congress--such as those provided in the Social Security Act that you passed +in 1967, and to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, veterans, and farmers, +of about $4 1/2 billion; and the additional $1 billion 600 million next +year for the pay increases that you passed in military and civilian pay. +That makes up the $10 billion that is added to the budget. With few +exceptions, very few, we are holding the fiscal 1969 budget to last year's +level, outside of those mandatory and required increases. + +A Presidential commission composed of distinguished congressional fiscal +leaders and other prominent Americans recommended this year that we adopt a +new budget approach. I am carrying out their recommendations in this year's +budget. This budget, therefore, for the first time accurately covers all +Federal expenditures and all Federal receipts, including for the first time +in one budget $47 billion from the social security, Medicare, highway, and +other trust funds. + +The fiscal 1969 budget has expenditures of approximately $186 billion, with +total estimated revenues, including the tax bill, of about $178 billion. + +If the Congress enacts the tax increase, we will reduce the budget deficit +by some $12 billion. The war in Vietnam is costing us about $25 billion and +we are asking for about $12 billion in taxes--and if we get that $12 +billion tax bill we will reduce the deficit from about $20 billion in 1968 +to about $8 billion in 1969. + +Now, this is a tight budget. It follows the reduction that I made in +cooperation with the Congress--a reduction made after you had reviewed +every appropriations bill and reduced the appropriations by some $5 or $6 +billion and expenditures by $1.5 billion. We conferred together and I +recommended to the Congress and you subsequently approved taking 2 percent +from payrolls and 10 percent from controllable expenditures. We therefore +reduced appropriations almost $10 billion last session and expenditures +over $4 billion. Now, that was in the budget last year. + +I ask the Congress to recognize that there are certain selected programs +that meet the Nation's most urgent needs and they have increased. We have +insisted that decreases in very desirable but less urgent programs be made +before we would approve any increases. So I ask the Congress tonight: + +--to hold its appropriations to the budget requests, and + +--to act responsibly early this year by enacting the tax surcharge which +for the average American individual amounts to about a penny out of each +dollar's income. + +This tax increase would yield about half of the $23 billion per year that +we returned to the people in the tax reduction bills of 1964 and 1965. + +This must be a temporary measure, which expires in less than 2 years. +Congress can repeal it sooner if the need has passed. But Congress can +never repeal inflation. + +The leaders of American business and the leaders of American labor--those +who really have power over wages and prices--must act responsibly, and in +their Nation's interest by keeping increases in line with productivity. If +our recognized leaders do not do this, they and those for whom they speak +and all of us are going to suffer very serious consequences. + +On January 1st, I outlined a program to reduce our balance of payments +deficit sharply this year. We will ask the Congress to help carry out those +parts of the program which require legislation. We must restore equilibrium +to our balance of payments. + +We must also strengthen the international monetary system. We have assured +the world that America's full gold stock stands behind our commitment to +maintain the price of gold at $35 an ounce. We must back this commitment by +legislating now to free our gold reserves. + +Americans, traveling more than any other people in history, took $4 billion +out of their country last year in travel costs. We must try to reduce the +travel deficit that we have of more than $2 billion. We are hoping that we +can reduce it by $500 million--without unduly penalizing the travel of +teachers, students, business people who have essential and necessary +travel, or people who have relatives abroad whom they want to see. Even +with this reduction of $500 million, the American people will still be +traveling more overseas than they did in 1967, 1966, or 1965 or any other +year in their history. + +If we act together as I hope we can, I believe we can continue our economic +expansion which has already broken all past records. And I hope that we can +continue that expansion in the days ahead. + +Each of these questions I have discussed with you tonight is a question of +policy for our people. Therefore, each of them should be--and doubtless +will be--debated by candidates for public office this year. + +I hope those debates will be marked by new proposals and by a seriousness +that matches the gravity of the questions themselves. + +These are not appropriate subjects for narrow partisan oratory. They go to +the heart of what we Americans are all about--all of us, Democrats and +Republicans. + +Tonight I have spoken of some of the goals I should like to see America +reach. Many of them can be achieved this year-others by the time we +celebrate our Nation's 200th birthday--the bicentennial of our +independence. + +Several of these goals are going to be very hard to reach. But the State of +our Union will be much stronger 8 years from now on our 200th birthday if +we resolve to reach these goals now. They are more important-much more +important--than the identity of the party or the President who will then be +in office. + +These goals are what the fighting and our alliances are really meant to +protect. + +Can we achieve these goals? + +Of course we can--if we will. + +If ever there was a people who sought more than mere abundance, it is our +people. + +If ever there was a nation that was capable of solving its problems, it is +this Nation. + +If ever there were a time to know the pride and the excitement and the hope +of being an American--it is this time. + +So this, my friends, is the State of our Union: seeking, building, tested +many times in this past year--and always equal to the test. + +Thank you and good night. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Lyndon B. Johnson +January 14, 1969 + +Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress and my fellow +,Americans + +For the sixth and the last time, I present to the Congress my assessment of +the State of the Union. + +I shall speak to you tonight about challenge and opportunity--and about the +commitments that all of us have made together that will, if we carry them +out, give America our best chance to achieve the kind of great society that +we all want. Every President lives, not only with what is, but with what +has been and what could be. + +Most of the great events in his Presidency are part of a larger sequence +extending back through several years and extending back through several +other administrations. + +Urban unrest, poverty, pressures on welfare, education of our people, law +enforcement and law and order, the continuing crisis in the Middle East, +the conflict in Vietnam, the dangers of nuclear war, the great difficulties +of dealing with the Communist powers, all have this much in common: They +and their causes--the causes that gave rise to them--all of these have +existed with us for many years. Several Presidents have already sought to +try to deal with them. One or more Presidents will try to resolve them or +try to contain them in the years that are ahead of us. + +But if the Nation's problems are continuing, so are this great Nation's +assets: + +--our economy, + +--the democratic system, + +--our sense of exploration, symbolized most recently by the wonderful +flight of the Apollo 8, in which all Americans took great pride, + +--the good commonsense and sound judgment of the American people, and + +--their essential love of justice. + +We must not ignore our problems. But .neither should we ignore our +strengths. Those strengths are available to sustain a President of either +party--to support his progressive efforts both at home and overseas. + +Unfortunately, the departure of an administration does not mean the end of +the problems that this administration has faced. The effort to meet the +problems must go on, year after year, if the momentum that we have all +mounted together in these past years is not to be lost. + +Although the struggle for progressive change is continuous, there are times +when a watershed is reached--when there is--if not really a break with the +past--at least the fulfillment of many of its oldest hopes, and a stepping +forth into a new environment, to seek new goals. I think the past 5 years +have been such a time. + +We have finished a major part of the old agenda. + +Some of the laws that we wrote have already, in front of our eyes, taken on +the flesh of achievement. + +Medicare that we were unable to pass for so many years is now a part of +American life. + +Voting rights and the voting booth that we debated so long back in the +riffles, and the doors to public service, are open at last to all Americans +regardless of their color. + +Schools and school children all over America tonight are receiving Federal +assistance to go to good schools. + +Preschool education--Head Start--is already here to stay and, I think, so +are the Federal programs that tonight are keeping more than a million and a +half of the cream of our young people in the colleges and the universities +of this country. + +Part of the American earth--not only in description on a map, but in the +reality of our shores, our hills, our parks, our forests, and our +mountains--has been permanently set aside for the American public and for +their benefit. And there is more that will be set aside before this +administration ends. + +Five million Americans have been trained for jobs in new Federal programs. + +I think it is most important that we all realize tonight that this Nation +is close to full employment--with less unemployment than we have had at any +time in almost 20 years. That is not in theory; that is in fact. Tonight, +the unemployment rate is down to 3.3 percent. The number of jobs has grown +more than 8 1/2 million in the last 5 years. That is more than in all the +preceding 12 years. + +These achievements completed the full cycle, from idea to enactment and, +finally, to a place in the lives of citizens all across this country. + +I wish it were possible to say that everything that this Congress and the +administration achieved during this period had already completed that +cycle. But a great deal of what we have committed needs additional funding +to become a tangible realization. + +Yet the very existence of these commitments--these promises to the American +people, made by this Congress and by the executive branch of the +Government--are achievements in themselves, and failure to carry through on +our commitments would be a tragedy for this Nation. + +This much is certain: No one man or group of men made these commitments +alone. Congress and the executive branch, with their checks and balances, +reasoned together and finally wrote them into the law of the land. They now +have all the moral force that the American political system can summon when +it acts as one. + +They express America's common determination to achieve goals. They imply +action. + +In most cases, you have already begun that action--but it is not fully +completed, of course. + +Let me speak for a moment about these commitments. I am going to speak in +the language which the Congress itself spoke when it passed these measures. +I am going to quote from your words. + +In 1966, Congress declared that "improving the quality of urban life is the +most critical domestic problem facing the United States." Two years later +it affirmed the historic goal of "a decent home . . . for every American +family." That is your language. + +Now to meet these commitments, we must increase our support for the model +cities program, where blueprints of change are already being prepared in +more than 150 American cities + +To achieve the goals of the Housing Act of 1968 that you have already +passed, we should begin this year more than 500,000 homes for needy +families in the coming fiscal year. Funds are provided in the new budget to +do just this. This is almost 10 times--10 times--the average rate of the +past 10 years. + +Our cities and our towns are being pressed for funds to meet the needs of +their growing populations. So I believe an urban development bank should be +created by the Congress. This bank could obtain resources through the +issuance of taxable bonds and it could then lend these resources at reduced +rates to the communities throughout the land for schools, hospitals, parks, +and other public facilities. + +Since we enacted the Social Security Act back in 1935, Congress has +recognized the necessity to "make more adequate provision for aged persons +. . . through maternal and child welfare . . . and public health." Those +are the words of the Congress--"more adequate." + +The time has come, I think, to make it more adequate. I believe we should +increase social security benefits, and I am so recommending tonight. + +I am suggesting that there should be an overall increase in benefits of at +least 13 percent. Those who receive only the minimum of $55 should get $80 +a month. + +Our Nation, too, is rightfully proud of our medical advances. But we should +remember that our country ranks 15th among the nations of the world in its +infant mortality rate. + +I think we should assure decent medical care for every expectant mother and +for their children during the first year of their life in the United States +of America. + +I think we should protect our children and their families from the costs of +catastrophic illness. + +As we pass on from medicine, I think nothing is clearer to the Congress +than the commitment that the Congress made to end poverty. Congress +expressed it well, I think, in 1964, when they said: "It is the policy of +the United States to eliminate the paradox of poverty in the midst of +plenty in this nation." + +This is the richest nation in the world. The antipoverty program has had +many achievements. It also has some failures. But we must not cripple it +after only 3 years of trying to solve the human problems that have been +with us and have been building up among us for generations. + +I believe the Congress this year will want to improve the administration of +the poverty program by reorganizing portions of it and transferring them to +other agencies. I believe, though, it will want to continue, until we have +broken the back of poverty, the efforts we are now making throughout this +land. + +I believe, and I hope the next administration--I believe they believe--that +the key to success in this effort is jobs. It is work for people who want +to work. + +In the budget for fiscal 1970, I shall recommend a total of $3.5 billion +for our job training program, and that is five times as much as we spent in +1964 trying to prepare Americans where they can work to earn their own +living. + +The Nation's commitment in the field of civil rights began with the +Declaration of Independence. They were extended by the 13th, 14th, and 15th +amendments. They have been powerfully strengthened by the enactment of +three far-reaching civil rights laws within the past 5 years, that this +Congress, in its wisdom, passed. + +On January 1 of this year, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 covered over 20 +million American homes and apartments. The prohibition against racial +discrimination in that act should be remembered and it should be vigorously +enforced throughout this land. + +I believe we should also extend the vital provisions of the Voting Rights +Act for another 5 years. + +In the Safe Streets Act of 1968, Congress determined "To assist state and +local governments in reducing the incidence of crime." + +This year I am proposing that the Congress provide the full $300 million +that the Congress last year authorized to do just that. + +I hope the Congress will put the money where the authorization is. + +I believe this is an essential contribution to justice and to public order +in the United States. I hope these grants can be made to the States and +they can be used effectively to reduce the crime rate in this country. + +But all of this is only a small part of the total effort that must be +made--I think chiefly by the local governments throughout the Nation--if we +expect to reduce the toll of crime that we all detest. + +Frankly, as I leave the Office of the Presidency, one of my greatest +disappointments is our failure to secure passage of a licensing and +registration act for firearms. I think if we had passed that act, it would +have reduced the incidence of crime. I believe that the Congress should +adopt such a law, and I hope that it will at a not too distant date. + +In order to meet our long-standing commitment to make government as +efficient as possible, I believe that we should reorganize our postal +system along the lines of the Kappel1 report. + +1Frederick R. Kappel, Chairman of the Commission on Executive, Legislative +and Judicial Salaries. + +I hope we can all agree that public service should never impose an +unreasonable financial sacrifice on able men and women who want to serve +their country. + +I believe that the recommendations of the Commission on Executive, +Legislative and Judicial Salaries are generally sound. Later this week, I +shall submit a special message which I reviewed with the leadership this +evening containing a proposal that has been reduced and has modified the +Commission's recommendation to some extent on the congressional salaries. + +For Members of Congress, I will recommend the basic compensation not of the +$50,000 unanimously recommended by the Kappel Commission and the other +distinguished Members, but I shall reduce that $50,000 to $42,500. I will +suggest that Congress appropriate a very small additional allowance for +official expenses, so that Members will not be required to use their salary +increase for essential official business. + +I would have submitted the Commission's recommendations, except the advice +that I received from the leadership--and you usually are consulted about +matters that affect the Congress--was that the Congress would not accept +the $50,000 recommendation, and if I expected my recommendation to be +seriously considered, I should make substantial reductions. That is the +only reason I didn't go along with the Kappel report. + +In 1967 1 recommended to the Congress a fair and impartial random selection +system for the draft. I submit it again tonight for your most respectful +consideration. + +I know that all of us recognize that most of the things we do to meet all +of these commitments I talk about will cost money. If we maintain the +strong rate of growth that we have had in this country for the past 8 +years, I think we shall generate the resources that we need to meet these +commitments. + +We have already been able to increase our support for major social +programs--although we have heard a lot about not being able to do anything +on the home front because of Vietnam; but we have been able in the last + +5 years to increase our commitments for such things as health and education +from $30 billion in 1964 to $68 billion in the coming fiscal year. That is +more than double. That is more than it has ever been increased in the 188 +years of this Republic, notwithstanding Vietnam. + +We must continue to budget our resources and budget them responsibly in a +way that will preserve our prosperity and will strengthen our dollar. + +Greater revenues and the reduced Federal spending required by Congress last +year have changed the budgetary picture dramatically since last January +when we made our estimates. At that time, you will remember that we +estimated we would have a deficit of $8 billion. Well, I am glad to report +to you tonight that the fiscal year ending June 30, 1969, this June, we are +going to have not a deficit, but we are going to have a $2.4 billion +surplus. + +You will receive the budget tomorrow. The budget for the next fiscal year, +that begins July 1--which you will want to examine very carefully in the +days ahead--will provide a $3.4 billion surplus. + +This budget anticipates the extension of the surtax that Congress enacted +last year. I have communicated with the President-elect, Mr. Nixon, in +connection with this policy of continuing the surtax for the time being. + +I want to tell you that both of us want to see it removed just as soon as +circumstances will permit, but the President-elect has told me that he has +concluded that until his administration, and this Congress, can examine the +appropriation bills, and each item in the budget, and can ascertain that +the facts justify permitting the surtax to expire or to be reduced, he, Mr. +Nixon, will support my recommendation that the surtax be continued. + +Americans, I believe, are united in the hope that the Paris talks will +bring an early peace to Vietnam. And if our hopes for an early settlement +of the war are realized, then our military expenditures can be reduced and +very substantial savings can be made to be used for other desirable +purposes, as the Congress may determine. + +In any event, I think it is imperative that we do all that we responsibly +can to resist inflation while maintaining our prosperity. I think all +Americans know that our prosperity is broad and it is deep, and it has +brought record profits, the highest in our history, and record wages. + +Our gross national product has grown more in the last 5 years than any +other period in our Nation's history. Our wages have been the highest. Our +profits have been the best. This prosperity has enabled millions to escape +the poverty that they would have otherwise had the last few years. + +I think also you will be very glad to hear that the Secretary of the +Treasury informs me tonight that in 1968 in our balance of payments we have +achieved a surplus. It appears that we have, in fact, done better this year +than we have done in any year in this regard since the year 1957. + +The quest for a durable peace, I think, has absorbed every administration +since the end of World War II. It has required us to seek a limitation of +arms races not only among the superpowers, but among the smaller nations as +well. We have joined in the test ban treaty of 1963, the outer space treaty +of 1967, and the treaty against the spread of nuclear weapons in 1968. + +This latter agreement--the nonproliferation treaty--is now pending in the +Senate and it has been pending there since last July. In my opinion, delay +in ratifying it is not going to be helpful to the cause of peace. America +took the lead in negotiating this treaty and America should now take steps +to have it approved at the earliest possible date. + +Until a way can be found to scale down the level of arms among the +superpowers, mankind cannot view the future without fear and great +apprehension. So, I believe that we should resume the talks with the Soviet +Union about limiting offensive and defensive missile systems. I think they +would already have been resumed except for Czechoslovakia and our election +this year. + +It was more than 20 years ago that we embarked on a program of trying to +aid the developing nations. We knew then that we could not live in good +conscience as a rich enclave on an earth that was seething in misery. + +During these years there have been great advances made under our program, +particularly against want and hunger, although we are disappointed at the +appropriations last year. We thought they were woefully inadequate. This +year I am asking for adequate funds for economic assistance in the hope +that we can further peace throughout the world. + +I think we must continue to support efforts in regional cooperation. Among +those efforts, that of Western Europe has a very special place in America's +concern. + +The only course that is going to permit Europe to play the great world role +that its resources permit is to go forward to unity. I think America +remains ready to work with a united Europe, to work as a partner on the +basis of equality. + +For the future, the quest for peace, I believe, requires: + +--that we maintain the liberal trade policies that have helped us become +the leading nation in world trade, + +--that we strengthen the international monetary system as an instrument of +world prosperity, and + +--that we seek areas of agreement with the Soviet Union where the interests +of both nations and the interests of world peace are properly served. + +The strained relationship between us and the world's leading Communist +power has not ended--especially in the light of the brutal invasion of +Czechoslovakia. But totalitarianism is no less odious to us because we are +able to reach some accommodation that reduces the danger of world +catastrophe. + +What we do, we do in the interest of peace in the world. We earnestly hope +that time will bring a Russia that is less afraid of diversity and +individual freedom. + +The quest for peace tonight continues in Vietnam, and in the Paris talks. + +I regret more than any of you know that it has not been possible to restore +peace to South Vietnam. + +The prospects, I think, for peace are better today than at any time since +North Vietnam began its invasion with its regular forces more than 4 years +ago. + +The free nations of Asia know what they were not sure of at that time: that +America cares about their freedom, and it also cares about America's own +vital interests in Asia and throughout the Pacific. + +The North Vietnamese know that they cannot achieve their aggressive +purposes by force. There may be hard fighting before a settlement is +reached; but, I can assure you, it will yield no victory to the Communist +cause. + +I cannot speak to you tonight about Vietnam without paying a very personal +tribute to the men who have carried the battle out there for all of us. I +have been honored to be their Commander in Chief. The Nation owes them its +unstinting support while the battle continues--and its enduring gratitude +when their service is done. + +Finally, the quest for stable peace in the Middle East goes on in many +capitals tonight. America fully supports the unanimous resolution of the +U.N. Security Council which points the way. There must be a settlement of +the armed hostility that exists in that region of the world today. It is a +threat not only to Israel and to all the Arab States, but it is a threat to +every one of us and to the entire world as well. + +Now, my friends in Congress, I want to conclude with a few very personal +words to you. + +I rejected and rejected and then finally accepted the congressional +leadership's invitation to come here to speak this farewell to you in +person tonight. + +I did that for two reasons. One was philosophical. I wanted to give you my +judgment, as I saw it, on some of the issues before our Nation, as I view +them, before I leave. + +The other was just pure sentimental. Most all of my life as a public +official has been spent here in this building. For 38 years-since I worked +on that gallery as a doorkeeper in the House of Representatives--I have +known these halls, and I have known most of the men pretty well who walked +them. + +I know the questions that you face. I know the conflicts that you endure. I +know the ideals that you seek to serve. + +I left here first to become Vice President, and then to become, in a moment +of tragedy, the President of the United States. + +My term of office has been marked by a series of challenges, both at home +and throughout the world. + +In meeting some of these challenges, the Nation has found a new confidence. +In meeting others, it knew turbulence and doubt, and fear and hate. + +Throughout this time, I have been sustained by my faith in representative +democracy--a faith that I had learned here in this Capitol Building as an +employee and as a Congressman and as a Senator. + +I believe deeply in the ultimate purposes of this Nation--described by the +Constitution, tempered by history, embodied in progressive laws, and given +life by men and women that have been elected to serve their fellow +citizens. + +Now for 5 most demanding years in the White House, I have been strengthened +by the counsel and the cooperation of two great former Presidents, Harry S. +Truman and Dwight David Eisenhower. I have been guided by the memory of my +pleasant and close association with the beloved John F. Kennedy, and with +our greatest modern legislator, Speaker Sam Rayburn. + +I have been assisted by my friend every step of the way, Vice President +Hubert Humphrey. I am so grateful that I have been supported daily by the +loyalty of Speaker McCormack and Majority Leader Albert. + +I have benefited from the wisdom of Senator Mike Mansfield, and I am sure +that I have avoided many dangerous pitfalls by the good commonsense counsel +of the President Pro Tem of the Senate, Senator Richard Brevard Russell. + +I have received the most generous cooperation from the leaders of the +Republican Party in the Congress of the United States, Senator Dirksen and +Congressman Gerald Ford, the Minority Leader. + +No President should ask for more, although I did upon occasions. But few +Presidents have ever been blessed with so much. + +President-elect Nixon, in the days ahead, is going to need your +understanding, just as I did. And he is entitled to have it. I hope every +Member will remember that the burdens he will bear as our President, will +be borne for all of us. Each of us should try not to increase these burdens +for the sake of narrow personal or partisan advantage. + +Now, it is time to leave. I hope it may be said, a hundred years from now, +that by working together we helped to make our country more just, more just +for all of its people, as well as to insure and guarantee the blessings of +liberty for all of our posterity. + +That is what I hope. But I believe that at least it will be said that we +tried. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY LYNDON B. 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