Address in Laramie, Wyoming.

Senator O'Mahoney, Dr. Humphrey, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate very much that introduction, and I endorse every word the doctor said about Senator O'Mahoney. I think that way myself, and I know what I am talking about, because I served 10 years in the Senate with O'Mahoney, and I know that he can do it.

I am more than happy to be here tonight. You know, I am really partial to land grant colleges.

It is always a pleasure to visit Laramie, a landmark of the old West. It is a particular pleasure to speak here at the University of Wyoming, a symbol of the new West.

The West exerts a strong influence on the imagination of all of us--of all Americans, in fact. The stirring drama of the opening of the West is a part of our national folklore. And there isn't a thing like it in the history of the world anywhere.

I have a collection of booklets and pamphlets on the opening of the West about--oh, I suppose I have a hundred of them. The Congressman from North Dakota is a specialist in that line and he has a library of 35,000 books and pamphlets on the opening of the West. It is the most interesting story you can read anywhere, and I am filled with them.

It is a tradition that the West is a country of great distances and of isolated communities, of many days of travel between cities. That tradition has left a deep impression on all Americans.

It had much to do, I think, with the notion that many of us once held in the United States, that the United States was a vast distance away from foreign neighbors--that our Nation was an isolated community separated by days of travel from the other communities on the globe.

You know how the West has shrunk. Distances seem to have been wiped out by a network of railroads and highways, and now by the huge airliners that cross the entire Nation in less time than it used to take to cross a single county.

My grandfather used to run a wagon train from Westport--Kansas City now--out to Salt Lake City, and it would take him 3 months to get there and 3 months to get back. The last time I made that trip, I made it in 3 1/2 hours. So you see the difference.

The world's distances have likewise shrunk. To put Laramie in its right perspective, you should erect signboards in the center of town to read like this: one pointing east that says, "London, 30 hours"--one pointing west that says, "Shanghai, 44 hours"--one pointing south that says, "Santiago, 35 hours"--and one pointing north-listen to this, because it is important--one pointing north that says, "Moscow, 45 hours."

These are the normal flight times of commercial airliners.

There are military planes that fly even faster. We have military planes that can halve that time and do better.

It took two world wars to bring home to us the fact that world distances have disappeared. We are next-door neighbors now to people in other countries who once were scarcely more than names to us. We have become citizens of a larger community--we are citizens of the world.

It is the great problem--and the great challenge of our age--that strangers have become fellow citizens at a time when the world is so deeply divided. We have been forced into a common citizenship with peoples who do not understand our conception of democratic life. We must recognize-whether we like it or not--that we are neighbors with a government which denies all the values of American tradition, indeed all the ethical and moral traditions, and which seeks to spread its doctrine over the entire earth. We have become neighbors of a new and terrible tyranny.

Tyranny is not new in the world. As long as democracy has existed, tyranny has also existed. But never before has it been so difficult for tyranny and democracy to find a basis for peaceful coexistence.

There are two reasons for this. The first reason I have already mentioned--the elimination of distances. Where once we could ignore a far-off tyranny, there no longer are far-off places on this earth. Today, everybody on the globe is our neighbor.

The second reason is that this new tyranny of Soviet communism is giving no evidence that it is willing to let the free world exist peacefully. Communism has clearly shown its purpose to penetrate free countries, to divide free peoples and confuse them, to subvert their institutions, and to weaken their resistance. This is a method of attack far more subtle than the ancient and direct method of military attack. It requires more understanding, more alertness, and more determination on the part of those who want to preserve their freedom.

How do we meet this overriding problem--the most important one of our time? I will tell you two things we cannot do. First, we cannot compromise our own moral or ethical beliefs. We know, as our ancestors knew, that tyranny is evil. We know that this newest form of tyranny is a compound of evils. Communism denies all that we have come to know as democracy. It denies freedom and liberty and human dignity. It denies God. We cannot meet the challenge by any form of compromise with any such beliefs.

Second, we cannot isolate ourselves. The leadership of the free world, the hopes of millions of people who have not our strength and our resources, depend upon us. But even if we could forget our friends, we know that there is no salvation even for ourselves in any passive policy of withdrawal. If we permitted communism to engulf the rest of the world and to roll up to our borders, there would be no peace and there would be no security for us.

We cannot compromise our principles.

We cannot withdraw from the world.

Now, what can we do? What can we do?

We can do this: We can, together with other nations of the free world, dearly demonstrate the superiority of the ideals of freedom over the iron hand of tyranny. We can make clear that democracy and freedom bring to each individual, each day, more of what he wants than any other system of government.

The free world must demonstrate moral superiority. It must demonstrate material superiority.

The free world has the resources to make that demonstration. It has the tremendous advantage that always adheres to the cause of justice, liberty, and respect for human dignity. With leadership, with unity, with steadfastness, that demonstration of moral and material superiority can be made.

As the strength and the effectiveness of the system of freedom are made clear over the globe--as the peoples who now stand in doubt turn to democracy--the danger of communist domination will dwindle and it will finally disappear. The struggle for peace, security, and stability in world affairs can be won.

I can't emphasize that too much. This is a long-time project. This is not something that you can talk about today and do tomorrow. I know that the American people are impatient. We always want to get things done, right now. That is a good idea. But this is one thing we can't do right now, but in this instance we must be more than patient.

The conflict that exists in world affairs will be with us for a long, long time. There is no quick way, no easy way, to end it. In all our relations with other nations, we are following a consistent and forthright policy to strengthen the cause of freedom and bring about stability and peace in world affairs.

We are working, first of all, for unity among the nations. The foremost expression of our will for unity is our work within the United Nations. The United Nations was created on our soil. I was in San Francisco when the United Nations Charter was signed by all those Nations. Its headquarters are in New York City, in this country. We have worked unceasingly to make the United Nations, and its affiliated organizations, strong and effective agencies of peace and international cooperation.

We have done our best to settle--through the United Nations--some of the difficulties in the world today. You know the record. You know of the vetoes. You know that the failures in the United Nations cannot be laid to any lack of good faith on our part or any lack of our trying to do what was right.

In spite of all difficulties, the United Nations has done--and is continuing to do-work of tremendous value in helping the nations of the world to get along with one another and to solve their common problems. This work must continue--and it will continue.

As long as I am President of the United States, we shall support the United Nations with every means at our command.

Within the larger framework of the United Nations, we have joined the countries of Western Europe in a great combined effort to assure their economic recovery and political stability.

The decisive vote of 60 to 8 by which the Senate a few days ago approved the Foreign Assistance Act of 1950, is a forceful expression of the determination of the American people to carry forward our constructive foreign policy. This action by the Senate, following a large favorable vote by the House of Representatives, assures our partners in Western Europe that we will successfully complete the great recovery program that was launched 2 years ago.

To promote international peace and security in vital areas, we joined first with the other republics in North and South America in the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, and then with Canada and ten European nations in the North Atlantic Treaty. Through the Mutual Defense Assistance Program, we have joined with a number of free nations to strengthen our common military defense against aggression.

Secretary Acheson is now in Europe working out a number of problems with our partners in the North Atlantic Treaty. In this work that means so much to the peace of the world, I know that he has the confidence and the support of the vast majority of the American people.

In the former enemy countries of Germany and Japan, we have been working to restore them to the society of free nations as rapidly as they can build firm and reliable democratic institutions.

Our efforts in Germany have been delayed by attempts of the Soviet Union to turn Germany into another Communist satellite. Nevertheless, Western Germany has made great progress along the road toward democracy. We believe that the Germans will continue to build upon those elements in their traditions which are good. We want Germany to become more closely integrated with the free nations of Europe.

In Japan, we have also seen encouraging progress. The Japanese people, who have not had the same long familiarity with democratic ideals, are, nonetheless, learning the ways of democracy. They are rebuilding their economy along more democratic lines. In one field after another, the Japanese are reestablishing their contacts with the rest of the world in preparation for a resumption of full membership in the international community.

Elsewhere in Asia, we are encouraging the aspirations of the millions of people who are striving to establish new democratic governments. In this part of the world, we have witnessed since the end of the war a tremendous event in history--the birth of a great group of new nations--India, Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon, Indonesia, South Korea, and the Philippines. These new nations are now consolidating their independence and working out their problems of internal security and stability.

We welcome these new countries into the family of nations. We can--and shall-continue to give them support, material as well as moral, in their struggle to maintain their freedom.

The credit of $100 million to the United States of Indonesia is one type of material aid. Another type is the technical assistance we shall make available to underdeveloped countries under the program that has become known as point 4. This was approved by the Senate last week after earlier authorization by the House. Point 4 provides an example of broad-scale collective action on the part of many countries to bring the benefit of better living conditions to millions of individuals who are now suffering from ill health, illiteracy, and poverty. The point 4 program is one of the greatest contributions we can make to the cause of freedom.

While our support of the new nations of Asia has been of real benefit to them, we have recently been unable to be of any assistance at all to the people of one vast area-China. Since the Chinese National Government disintegrated and the Chinese Communists seized control on the mainland, the plight of hundreds of millions of Chinese has been tragic. Their new taskmasters have been heartlessly indifferent to the worst famine which has occurred in China in 100 years.

We have been working for some time on steps which our country might take to feed at least some of these stricken people. The attitude of the present authorities in China has forced the withdrawal of American official representatives from that country. However, there are still a number of American religious, educational, and charitable organizations which have representatives in China who might be able to help out. We are now trying to find a way for the Government to get food into the hands of these private agencies for distribution in China.

We do not know whether American private organizations will be permitted by the Chinese Communist authorities to provide this assistance. The Communists so far have tried to deny the existence of a famine. They have rebuffed efforts of others to discover the facts. They have even sent to the Soviet Union food which is desperately needed by the Chinese people. Nevertheless, we shall keep on trying to find ways to get some food to those starving Chinese people.

In Asia, and in the rest of the world, we are trying to do far more than to bring relief to people who are in want. We are working, by every means at our command, to build the kind of world community in which nations can be self-sustaining over the long run by their own efforts. This is of great importance, because there can never be political stability and peace unless there is a reasonable degree of economic stability and prosperity.

Our world economic policies are aimed at breaking down the barriers to world trade. We believe that a high level of trade can raise standards of living in our own country and in every other country in the world. This is the purpose of our reciprocal trade agreements program, and it is the purpose of the proposed International Trade Organization. And I sincerely hope that the 81st Congress will approve that international trade organization treaty.

Our economic policies are also aimed at increasing the international flow of investment capital. The industrial growth of underdeveloped areas will mean more production, better markets, and a stronger world economy.

All our international policies, taken together, form a program designed to strengthen and unite the free world in its resistance to the spread of communism. They are aimed at banding the free countries together in a great demonstration that the free way of life is more rewarding to the individual than any form of tyranny, old

or new.

I say again that we have a long task ahead. It may be many years before we can be sure that communism is no longer a threat, that our goals of stability and peace have been attained.

But those goals are clearly within our reach. The non-Communist nations together have two-thirds of the world's people and three-fourths of the world's productive power.

And we have much more than mere quantity and mere strength. We have the greatest attraction of all--we have human freedom. Our system of life satisfies the most fundamental desire of man--the opportunity to be his own master.

We can have faith that with these qualities, and with the help of Almighty God, we will attain a just and lasting peace throughout the world.

I have enjoyed immensely talking with you here tonight. You know, I never had the opportunity to go to college. You young men and women should feel very lucky that you have this chance to learn and to grow in your college years. I hope you will all make the most of your opportunities here to fit yourselves to be good citizens of the United States, the greatest Republic the world has ever seen, the greatest country that the sun ever shone on, a country which you young people are going to have to take over before you know it, a country which you can keep on making the greatest country in the world. It will soon be your responsibility to see that this country follows the policies that will lead to freedom and to peace. God bless you.