Remarks in Manchester to the Members of the New Hampshire Weekly Newspaper Editors Association

Mr. Piper, my friends, and your extremely valuable Senator, Tom McIntyre; your most distinguished and able Governor, John King; two brilliant young leaders, Ollie Huot and Charles Officer; State Chairman Murray Devine; and my fellow Americans:

First of all, I want to apologize to you, and then I want to say thank you very much. For you to know how I feel, you would have to trade places with me. But I came in the White House late last night from across the Nation, and I left early this morning for this wonderful section called New England. And it was from New England that all of us came. All of us have a little New England in us.

So I wanted to come here and see your people, exchange views with them, tell them what I stood for, and ask them to help me in the job that I am trying so hard to do. And I have one more engagement after this one this evening.

For some reason or other, we have been about 3 hours behind all day. I regret that. I wish there was something I could do about it. I don't want to ask people to wait on me. But I must admit in candor and frankness that I would rather be 3 hours late because people wanted to see me than to be 3 hours early because there was nobody there.

Now that I have told you how sorry we are that we are late, I want to introduce you to my sweetheart--Lady Bird.

[At this point Mrs. Johnson spoke briefly. The President then resumed speaking.]

It was 4 years ago that John F. Kennedy came here to Manchester. He answered questions that people from all parts of the Nation had asked him during the campaign.

From Portland, Oreg., he was asked, "How can you be sure that we will have peace?" And he answered, if you will remember, "We have to work at peace . . . the way to maintain peace is to maintain our strength, to speak quietly, to identify ourselves with the cause of other people, to make it very clear to the Communists that we do not want war, that we are going to be firm, that we are building in this country a strong and a vital society."

Well, that policy--strength and firmness matched to restraint and patience--has been the basic foreign policy of every American President, the basic foreign policy of both political parties for the past 20 years. Our hand has always been out, but our guard has always been up.

President Truman said, "Peace requires as much moral stamina as waging a war .... It requires undying patience and continuous application."

President Dwight Eisenhower said, "The path for America must be cooperation . . . as together we continue the search for peace, a search in which we shall persevere without tiring or without ceasing, . . ."

Call the roll of Americans who have shaped the world policy of the United States in your lifetime: Truman and Eisenhower and Kennedy, Acheson and John Foster Dulles, Arthur Vandenberg and Walter George, Warren Austin and Henry Cabot Lodge. These were men of every party, and I am proud to say of every section.

Everyone agreed on the great shaping principles of America's foreign policy. Together they offered the Biblical prayer, "Peace be to this house." For them the house of peace was the entire world.

And this is the same course that your Government is following tonight. And, God willing, it is the course that we shall continue to follow as long as I am your President.

Much has happened in the past 20 years. But through change after change, and crisis after crisis, and convulsion after convulsion, we have worked to build the four great pillars of policy on which the house of peace must rest.

First is the effort to persuade our adversaries that any attack upon us would immediately bring their own destruction. For this reason we have built the most powerful military force in the history of the world, and in the last 4 years you have spent $40 billion more than you would have spent had the spending of the last Eisenhower year for military and space continued. In other words, Mr. Kennedy has spent an average of $10 billion a year more on military preparedness and space than we were spending the last year of Mr. Eisenhower's administration, 1960.

Now, what has come from that? Tonight we have more than twice as many bombers that can be put over our adversaries' land than they can put over ours. Tonight we have more than twice as many intercontinental ballistic missiles that we can put over their land than they can put over ours.

We know that nobody can escape a hurricane simply by being in favor of good weather. Our strength is our surest shelter against war.

But don't get the idea that strength alone will deter an aggressor. Our adversaries must also be convinced that we have the will and the determination, and we maintain and intend to at all times in all places defend all American interests. We do not rattle our rockets and we don't throw our bombs around lightly. But we have never given them cause to doubt that America has the will.

In Greece and Turkey, and in Korea, President Truman halted Communist aggression.

In the Formosa straits President Eisenhower halted Communist aggression.

In Cuba--and that was the last country that has gone Communist--remember, not a single country in the world has gone Communist since 1959--in Cuba, President Kennedy halted the Communist aggression which threatened the mainland of the United States itself.

And in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Johnson administration acted, and will continue to act to halt Communist aggression.

These consistent actions contain two great lessons. We must stand firm when the vital interests of freedom are under attack. And we must use our overwhelming power with calm restraint.

Second, we have worked to strengthen the independence of others. We live in a world with 120-odd nations. We have done this strengthening by helping others resist direct aggression, from Berlin to the island of Formosa. We have done this by working with others to fight indirect aggression-from Viet-Nam to Venezuela.

We are doing this through the Peace Corps every day, through the Alliance for Progress, through foreign assistance, aiding others to build their nations and strengthen their independence, and bring hope to their people and give them education, and keep them from starvation. So we are strengthening the independence of others.

Third, we have worked to establish the rule of peaceful settlement in world affairs. The key to our own success as a Nation is obedience to the rule of law. This is also the hope for peace in the world community. So we will continue to work for this principle and we will continue our wholehearted support of the United Nations.

Fourth, we have worked to lessen the danger that nuclear weapons will destroy all mankind. From the Baruch plan of President Truman to the "open skies" proposal of President Eisenhower, to the test ban treaty and the "hot line," every President has worked to build the structure of agreement on which enduring peace must ultimately rest.

And as long as I am your President, I will propose new initiatives for effective arms control. I will try to reverse the arms race. I will try to lessen the tensions that endanger and imperil the world.

These are the four pillars on which the house of peace must rest.

Today there are some who attack these policies. They assault the steadfast principles of the last 20 years. They seek to substitute a new structure. But t think it is a dangerous, shaky, and unsafe place. For I think it is built on three illusions. These illusions, if believed and followed, would put our freedom and the peace of the world in mortal peril.

Let me, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Come now, let us reason together," let me take a moment to discuss these with you.

First is the illusion that force, or the threat of force, can solve all problems. I know you would respect my size and my strength, but I don't think there are many of you in this room who would quake in your boots if I threatened you with using force, and I think what is true of you is true of nations. Ours must never be a government of ultimatum. All people must know that we are slow to start, but hard to stop.

This afternoon I was in Portland, Maine, and I was reminded that the last President to visit Portland, Maine, was Theodore Roosevelt--a great President of another party who visited there in 1902. But what he said back there a half century or more ago is as true tonight as it was then: "Speak softly and carry a big stick."

In my country we are very proud of what we call the Texas Rangers. Sometimes when we have a little row or misunderstanding in our country, they call out a Ranger. One of our old cow puncher friends took some cattle up to Kansas City to sell, and one of the fellows out in the stockyards said to him, while they were waiting for the bidders to come in, "Please tell me what is really the difference between a Sheriff and a Texas Ranger."

The old man, a Ranger for many years, ran his hand through his hair and deliberated, and he said, "Well, a Ranger is one that when you plug him, when you hit him, he just keeps coming." And we must let the rest of the world know that we speak softly, we carry a big stick, but we have the will and the determination, and if they ever hit us it is not going to stop us--we are just going to keep coming.

Our military strength is vital to our security and it is very important to our influence. But it cannot and it must not be used to compel and to frighten all others into following our command and our every wish. Nor can it build the lasting framework of an enduring peace, because peace does not come from threats or intimidations, or humiliations, or overpowering. The only consequence of such a policy would be constant conflict, rising hostility, and deepening tension.

Force could not rebuild Europe. It took the vision and the statesmanship of the Marshall plan, and the patient molding of the NATO Alliances.

Force will not bring democratic progress to Latin America. It will take many years of the Alliance for Progress to create freedom's answer to false Communist promises. The ancient enemies of mankind thrive in that area of this hemisphere--disease, illiteracy, and ignorance.

Force will not bring an end to the arms race. We cannot coerce others to negotiate. We can't even compel them to be reasonable and wise. It takes skill and it takes patience, and it takes determination, and it takes a search for areas of common interest.

In the 10 months since that fateful day last November when tragedy cut our President down, and on a moment's notice, I had to step in and pick up and try to carry on for him, first, if you will remember, some of our soldiers were fired upon and killed in Panama, and there were those that shouted "Move in with the paratroopers."

Well, we went over to the Peace Corps and got one of our most skilled diplomats who had lived in Panama for years. We said to them, "We will not negotiate with a gun at our temple. We will not sign a blank check to a treaty, but we will treat you fairly and justly. We are a big Nation and you are a small one, and we are not going to take advantage of you. But you are not going to take advantage of us."

And we were criticized for weeks. But ultimately we reached an agreement on exactly the terms that I proposed the first day by telephone to the President of Panama.

A few days later Mr. Castro decided to cut our water off at our military base at Guantanamo. We were paying him for that water, and we were employing some 3,000 Cubans to do our work there. We were spending about $5 to $6 million a year with them. Suddenly and impetuously and impulsively, and I think irrationally, he cut our water off. The shout went up, "Send in the Marines."

I don't want the newspapermen to think f am quoting anybody now. But we let our coffee cool a little bit and we decided, for better or for worse, that it was wiser to send in one admiral to cut the water off than it was to send in a regiment of Marines to turn it on.

So we told Mr. Castro that we will make this base self-sufficient; we will make our own water. We cut off about $5 million worth of his exchange. Ever since he has been wanting to have a conference with us.

We had our troubles in Zanzibar. We still have our problems in Viet-Nam. Every day some one jumps up and shouts and says, "Tell us what is happening in Viet-Nam and why are we in Viet-Nam, and how did you get us into Viet-Nam?" Well, I didn't get you into Viet-Nam. You have been in Viet-Nam 10 years.

President Eisenhower wrote President Diem a letter in 1954 when the French pulled out of Viet-Nam, and said, "We want to help you to help your people keep from going Communist, and we will furnish you advice, we will furnish you assistance, and we will furnish you equipment, if you will furnish the men, and if you want to fight for your freedom we will try to help you."

New Englanders haven't forgotten it was less than 200 years ago when we were fighting for our freedom and people helped us. So President Eisenhower wrote that letter and he followed through on it. And President Kennedy followed through. And we have now had four or five governments in the last year. I can't tell you who runs the Government here, much less who runs it in Viet-Nam. As a matter of fact, I suspect some of you are going to have something to do with deciding who runs it here in November.

Now some of our people get awfully worried and talk about we have a crisis a week. Well, I wish we never did have a crisis. I would like to play with my radio or go to a football game, or go out in my speedboat. There are a lot of things I would like to do..

But if you just think we have a crisis a week you are optimistic. We have one a day. And the only thing you can do with them--you can't take an aspirin and get away from them--is you just have to take the best information you have got, take things as you found them, and make the best judgment you can under the circumstances.

Some of our people--Mr. Nixon, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Scranton, and Mr. Goldwater--have all, at some time or other, suggested the possible wisdom of going north in Viet-Nam. Well, now, before you start attacking someone and you launch a big offensive, you better give some consideration to how you are going to protect what you have. And when a brigadier general can walk down the streets of Saigon as they did the other day, and take over the police station, the radio station, and the government without firing a shot, I don't know how much offensive we are prepared to launch.

As far as I am concerned, I want to be very cautious and careful, and use it only as a last resort, when I start dropping bombs around that are likely to involve American boys in a war in Asia with 700 million Chinese.

So just for the moment I have not thought that we were ready for American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys. What I have been trying to do, with the situation that I found, was to get the boys in Viet-Nam to do their own fighting with our advice and with our equipment. That is the course we are following. So we are not going north and drop bombs at this stage of the game, and we are not going south and run out and leave it for the Communists to take over.

Now we have lost 190 American lives, and to each one of those 190 families this is a major war. We lost that many in Texas on the Fourth of July in wrecks. But I often wake up in the night and think about how many I could lose if I made a misstep.

When we retaliated in the Tonkin Gulf, we dropped bombs on their nests where they had their PT boats housed, and we dropped them within 35 miles of the Chinese border. I don't know what you would think if they started dropping them 35 miles from your border, but I think that that is something you have to take into consideration.

So we are not going north and we are not going south; we are going to continue to try to get them to save their own freedom with their own men, with our leadership, and our officer direction, and such equipment as we can furnish them. We think that losing 190 lives in the period that we have been out there is bad. But it is not like 190,000 that we might lose the first month if we escalated that war.

So we are trying somehow to evolve a way, as we have in some other places, where the North Vietnamese and the Chinese Communists will finally, after getting worn down, conclude that they will leave their neighbors alone. And if they do, we will come home tomorrow.

It is not any problem to start a war. That is the easiest thing in the world. I know some folks that I think could start one mighty easy. But it is a pretty difficult problem for all of us to prevent one, and that is what we are trying to do.

The second illusion I want to talk to you about is the illusion that the United States can demand resolution of all the world's problems and mash a button and get the job done.

In this nuclear age we have concern about the affairs of every continent, and that concern on some continents is increasing very much the last few days. That concern does not give us either the right or the responsibility to order the affairs of other nations. For example, two friendly nations, India and Pakistan, have been engaged in a long and often bitter dispute over the area of Kashmir. We are always ready to help. I have been out there and visited, and I have tried to take this ancient feud and pull these people together.

Most of the problems that we get in are ancient disputes that have been going on not for decades, not for generations, but for centuries among people--the Greeks and the Turks, the Pakistanis and the Indians.

Peaceful solution can mean much to the freedom of Asia, if we could only bring it about. But the responsibility of settlement must remain and should remain with these two nations involved. All we can do about two men that are arguing among themselves is to try to encourage them to settle their argument. We can't run in and get in the middle between a man and his wife because we will wind up getting hit. The same is true in many places throughout the world; independent nations with their own interests, with their own convictions, must work to settle their own problems.

We have willingly accepted the responsibilities of world leadership, and when our own vital interests are challenged we act. But we are not the sole captain of the ship.

Third is the illusion that we could, if only we tried hard enough, put an end to all difficulty and danger, and then retire from the world.

The sound of gunfire in Asia echoes in the homes of Manchester. The speeches of a leader in Moscow or Peiping help shape the life of a subway rider in New York. An angry cry for freedom in Africa requires an understanding act in Washington.

And as long as this Nation endures we are going to be engaged in the affairs of the world.

I welcome this involvement. I believe the American people welcome it. It may bring danger but it brings an added dimension to the prospects of freedom. In this world, as in life itself, there is really no escape from problems. You can't run away from them. No escape from peril.

Each of us in our own family faces continual change. We have our own desires-for a career and for more of the good things of life. These wishes often conflict with each other and with the wishes of others that we love. We must make constant compromise and we must make adjustment.

There are times that come when you have to decide whether the boy or the girl gets the car on Saturday night. There is no end to difficulties. We just can't wish them away or press a button or call on some general to solve everything for us. But we can hope to make progress toward a fuller and a happier life.

You have done that here in Manchester. You have done that in New Hampshire and in New England. You have done it in America.

In our own country, after two centuries-as a united people in an abundant land under a single Constitution--we still face great issues, and we still have difficult challenges. But we have made enormous, unbelievable progress.

How much more uncertain, then, is the life of the world? In six continents live over 100 nations. Some are far more ancient than our own. Others are barely begun. Some pursue hostile ambitions. Others are struggling for their survival. Some are flourishing and abundant; others desperately try to emerge from a poverty that is so bleak that it staggers the imagination.

So let no one tell you in this day and time that the problems of a world will be solved without sacrifice, and will be easily solved without years of effort. Because we just cannot ignore others. We tried to do it and two wars came as a result. Our future is tied to theirs. We can't abandon those who will not do exactly as we wish.

I remember one time when we were fighting an REA project in my State and I negotiated with the president of the power company for 2 days and I didn't make a bit of progress. He just sat there like a Methodist deacon and never gave an inch.

I was somewhat impulsive in my youth, somewhat erratic, and I finally got disgusted, and I said, "As far as I am concerned, you can take a running jump and go you know where." The old man just looked back at me as calm and restrained as he could be, and said, "But I don't want to go there." And all the board of directors came over and congratulated me on the fine speech I made and how courageous I was to tell the president of the power company to go to ....

Finally I went to one old lawyer who was wise and who had served me for years. I said, "Senator"--he had been a Senator-"how did you like my speech?" He said, "Well, son, you are young in public life, and I hope you go a long ways. But the first thing you have to learn is telling a man to go to hell and making him go are two different propositions!"

So we cannot abandon those who will not do exactly as we wish. To do this, or to withdraw from the United Nations--and they have prevented almost 20 wars from getting started--to cast aside our commitments, would endanger freedom everywhere. And I think it would end the hope for peace. And it would certainly revive the fast fading Communist hopes for world empire.

I do not think that our future is going to be a simple one. But like all of those who sat in the White House before me, I believe it will be one which free men will welcome.

I expect victory. We are going to have victory. But it is not going to be a swift victory. It is not going to be the victory of arms, and it is not going to be victory of the grave. Our victory will come over many years as people choose freedom, as nations grow up and become mature, and as they learn independence.

Moreover, as the threat of war fades, that victory, I want to warn you tonight, is going to take great strength and going to take patience. It will take men willing to deal with the real events of a real world and not trapped by the dangerous illusions of fantasy.

But above all, it will mean that we must turn toward the world with the grandeur and the generosity of that American spirit which on this continent has already built an enduring home for freedom.

This has been a delightful day for me in New England. I have come here as your President to counsel with you about your country and your future.

I am the 36th President of this country, but until January 20th I am the only President that you have. If I am weak, you are weak. If I am harassed and harangued, you are harassed and harangued. There is not anything that you can do about it from now until January 20th. But in November you are going to decide what kind of leadership you will have for 4 more years.

I am not here to do like the little boy that left the cotton patch down in my country and went over to hear a Senator speak one afternoon. He came back about dark and the boss said, "Where have you been all afternoon?" He said, "I have been listening to the United States Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey."

"Well," he said, "the Senator didn't speak all afternoon, did he?" He said, "Mighty near." He said, "What did the Senator say?" He said, "Boss, I don't remember. I don't recollect precisely what the Senator said, but the general impression I got was the Senator was recommending himself most highly!"

I believe in prudence and I believe in progress. I cut the budget, after working 37 days and nights, $1 billion instead of increasing it $5 billion as we had been customarily doing on account of the increase in population each year. I had 51 measures that we thought were important to pass in the Congress, and 51 of those measures have already passed the Senate.

I have called the leaders of the workingmen in this country, the labor leaders, to the White House for conference after conference, but this is not going to be any labor government. I have called the businessmen, more than 2,000 of them, from every State in the Union, to the White House to talk to them about their problems, but this is not going to be any business government.

I have called the farmers in to talk about their problems, but this is not going to be any farm government, because if the good Lord lets me live and lets me continue to serve you, I am going to be President of all the people instead of any single group.

But I don't think that we have to have a civil war in order for each person to have his rights. I don't think that labor has to harass business, and I don't think that business has to lock out labor, and I don't think the Government has to harass both of them. I believe if you give them all a fair shake that we can live under one great tent and develop this country, because united we stand; divided we fall.

So if you came out to meet me tonight to hear about my fears, you are going to be disappointed. If you came out to hear me speak like I had a martyr complex and nobody loves me, you are going to be disappointed, because I think that we have the greatest system of government in the world and I am proud of it. If you came out to hear me talk about all the things wrong, you are going home sad, because there are some things wrong, but the things that are right outnumber them a great deal.

I am for things, instead of against them. I know what I am for. I am for uniting my country. I am for a nation of lovers instead of a nation of haters. I am for a nation of trusters instead of a nation of doubters. I am not for arraying class against class, or region against region, or religion against religion, or color against color--because we are all Americans.

I have a dream and I have a hope, and I want to see the day come, and I hope I can speed it, when every home can house a happy family, when every child will have a classroom open to him and a teacher to teach him all he is capable of learning.

I want a nation where the businessman is prosperous and expanding, and taking on new adventures, and where the worker has some leisure time and some social security. I am not going to change my position on that, either. I want a nation of homeowners instead of home renters. I want a prosperous nation, a proud nation, a peaceful nation.

When I drove down the streets of Rome just a few months ago, a priest ran out and threw himself in front of my car. And he had 400 little boys following him. He said, "We want you to thank America--America. It is the only land in the world where the victors would treat the vanquished as you have treated us. You defeated us in war and then you came to help us rebuild. Look at that skyline and look at those people working, and look at the happiness on these children's faces. That must make you feel mighty good, that you have that much Christianity in your country."

It did make me feel good. I don't want to overlook my own people, though. I am going to see that the 43 months of prosperity that we have had in this country is continued. I am going to try to see that the peace that President John Kennedy fought so valiantly to preserve is kept.

You have that great right to change your quarterback. You have had one in now for part of the game. I have been in 10 months. You can change him in November if you want to, and I won't fall out with you if you do.

But I want you to know the kind of man you are going to get for another 4 years if you don't change him. And I want to ask you in advance, because I may just have some kind of illusion and some kind of dream about what is going to happen in November, I want to ask you in advance to give me your hand and give me your help, and give me your counsel and give me your heart, and give me your prayers, because the 37th President of this country is going to need them more than the 36th.

We are still going to have problems to solve, and they must be solved together, not as a divided nation, but as a united people.

Thank you and God bless you.

Before I leave, I want to thank Governor King for his hospitality and for his courtesy. I just left a Republican Governor in an adjoining State that was mighty nice to me. I am glad I walked into the arms of a Democratic Governor. I want to thank your new Congressman, Mr. Huot, and Mr. Officer, who are going to be elected, I think. And I want to thank you for sending to Washington one of the ablest and most respected Senators that I have seen come in the period of time I have been there, your own Tom McIntyre.

Thank you very much.