Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks Upon Presenting the Enrico Fermi Award to Admiral Rickover

January 14, 1965

Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members of Congress, Admiral and Mrs. Rickover, ladies and gentlemen:

I have a collection of presentations here, I hardly know which should come first, Admiral. One of them is a citation, the award; one of them is a medal; one of them is a check for $25,000; and the other one is my speech. So I guess we should begin with the least important, the speech, and get it behind us and then we will distribute the other recognitions.

Admiral Rickover, this is a very gratifying pleasure to have you here this morning to recognize your contributions to the security of the United States of America and to the peaceful economic growth of this country in the years ahead.

The citation of this eighth Enrico Fermi Award states: "For engineering and administrative leadership in the development of safe and reliable nuclear power and its successful application to our national security and economic needs."

In just 3 days we shall be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first sea voyage of a nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus. The Nation is grateful, Admiral, for your courageous and your dedicated role in this historic development.

Over the 10 years since, the Nautilus has been joined by more than 50 other nuclear-powered naval vessels, so today our nuclear fleet numbers 22 attack submarines, 29 Polaris submarines, and 3 surface ships. Together these nuclear-powered vessels have traveled a total of more than 4,300,000 miles on patrol for peace and freedom.

Admiral, your personal leadership has made an invaluable contribution to our national security and to America's capacity for keeping the peace. In the years ahead for this administration, and the years ahead for all of us, the most important assignment for humanity is keeping the peace. Your personal dedication to excellence, your personal faith in the future offer examples which this country must emulate if we are really to fulfill the potential that is ours.

In no field is the promise and the challenge more exciting than the peaceful potential of nuclear power. Beyond the present naval applications perhaps there may be much broader horizons for nuclear power on the high seas. I hope the day will come when nuclear power will be so economical for our merchant ships that the American maritime fleet will once again become preeminent with a new generation of swift, long-range, nuclear-powered vessels.

Admiral, you were instrumental in the construction of the world's first large nuclear generating station at Shippingport, Pa., way back in 1957. From that beginning we are now able to foresee the day only 15 years away when we shall have some 70 million kilowatts of installed capacity from nuclear-powered generation stations.

So I look forward with great pleasure to the day when this great energy resource can be fully applied to desalting the sea, to making our deserts bloom again by assuring us the additional fresh water that is needed for our growing population and for our expanding industries.

In these important years, Admiral, you have played a role of first importance in helping us to understand and certainly to use more rationally the great force of nuclear energy. It is often overlooked that your many accomplishments and contributions have been made while you were still in the service of your country and your Government. Your achievements and your career should stand as an example to the many present and future Government personnel that there is a large job that can be done and that a job well done is recognized.

For these significant contributions to our national security and growth I am privileged this morning, in the presence of some of the men who have pioneered this development with you, the members of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and their staffs, Members of the Appropriations Committee and other Members of Congress, I am privileged to present to you with great pleasure, on behalf of Chairman Seaborg and the other members of the Atomic Energy Commission as well as all the people of the United States, that includes all of you over there, too, the Enrico Fermi Award for 1964.

Note: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Glenn T. Seaborg, and Vice Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, Director of the Division of Naval Reactors, AEC, and his wife.

The text of introductory remarks by Mr. Seaborg and of Admiral Rickover's response to the President was also released.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks Upon Presenting the Enrico Fermi Award to Admiral Rickover Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241923

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