Remarks in Mexico City at the Dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Statue.

Mr. President, my friends:

It is impossible for me to tell you how proud I am to be here with you today, in company with the leadership of the United States Senate, prominent Members of the House of Representatives, and the Senators and Congressmen from the States of Illinois and Kentucky that gave us Abraham Lincoln.

The President of the United States could ask for no greater honor than to be invited to stand on the soil of our good friend, Mexico, beside a leader as beloved and respected as your great President, Diaz Ordaz.

For me this occasion has a very special meaning. All my life I have known, and lived with, and worked alongside the sons and the daughters of Mexico. I have been here on many different occasions; my wife and I spent the first days of our marriage here in this beautiful city, Mexico City.

To come back now to the people and the scenes of so many pleasant memories, to come as the leader of your sister Republic to the north, where your country is held in such high esteem, is for me a moment never to be forgotten.

The tribute that your great Foreign Secretary Carrillo Flores has just paid to Abraham Lincoln will touch the hearts of all of my countrymen.

All nations rightly praise their own famous men.

But only a truly great people pause to pay tribute to the great of other lands. And that is what Mexico is doing today. What Abraham Lincoln stood for is what binds our two nations--and, indeed, this entire hemisphere--together.

More than geography and common economic interests and a regional system of mutual assistance, we are held together by common values and by shared beliefs.

That is why we share equally Bolivar and Washington, San Martin and Jefferson, Juarez and Marti and Lincoln. They were sons of a common heritage.

In his time and place, Abraham Lincoln brought the best in our common civilization to bear on the cruelest problems that ever confronted a leader: civil war and the enslavement of a minority of his people.

In these trials he clung to the belief that every human being was unique and precious--equal in the eyes of God and before the law.

He believed that the pillars of a great society were equality of opportunity, individual freedom to excel, and justice--political and social justice--for every citizen.

And so he walked among us--bearing on his shoulders the burdens of a nation's greatest test--proving that true greatness lies in loyalty to those universal principles which span every age.

Now in this age, we in this hemisphere are today engaged in another great test--we are engaged in a vast social revolution touching the lives of millions of peoples on two continents.

And like Lincoln's, this is a test of whether freedom can work.

It is a test of whether men through liberty can overcome the weight of the past and lift from their brothers the blight of hunger, the blindness of ignorance, and the burden of disease.

We are in the midst of that test.

We must demonstrate to our peoples that their destiny is not class struggle but common struggle to achieve that proud and that modern Latin America which is at once the dream of a generation and the interest of the world community.

This is a battle which only the people of Latin America can win.

But it is the desire of my people, our commitment, and our privilege to work side by side in this great human adventure.

History will judge us not only by the nobility of our sentiments or the poetry of our words, but history will judge us by the action that we take to bring these sentiments to life.

For my country's part, we are guided by certain basic convictions upon which our faith in the future rests.

First, every member of the American community of nations has a natural right to its independence and sovereignty. No country may abridge those rights. For as your own Benito Juarez said, "Respect for the rights of others is peace."

Second, the United States maintains its commitment to government by consent of the governed--a consent to be granted in free and honest elections. It does not seek to impose on others any form of government. But let us stand determined on this principle: Despots are not welcome in this hemisphere.

Third, my administration believes that both stable democracy and effective economic development depend ultimately on social justice. There has never been stable democracy where economic power and privilege were concentrated in the hands of the few. Where the many work, let the many earn.

Fourth, we believe the struggle for social justice and more efficient and equitable use of natural resources must be led by each country in its own behalf. My administration will not be deterred by those who tenaciously or selfishly cling to special privileges from the past. And we will not be deterred by those who say that to risk change is to risk communism.

Fifth, we do not wish to see communism spread in this hemisphere, but we believe that the threat to the liberty and independence of the Latin American peoples from communism cannot be met merely by force. We will continue to concentrate our assistance mainly in economic and social fields and to encourage our Latin American neighbors, where possible, to limit their outlays for military purposes. We are encouraged that democracy flourishes in countries such as Mexico where expenditures for education and development are high.

Sixth, we are convinced that the future of Latin American industrialization--as well as the basic welfare of the peoples themselves--urgently requires the parallel modernization of rural life. This must combine more equitable forms of landholding and all the measures that are needed to raise production and productivity. And your two Presidents this morning discussed at length steps that we are going to take to do both.

Seventh, we shall continue to work with your own able President Diaz Ordaz and work with our Latin American friends throughout the hemisphere to augment and to stabilize earnings from traditional exports, while assisting efforts to expand those new exports on which Latin American trade will increasingly depend in the future.

Eighth, we believe that the drawing together of the economies of Latin America is critical to this hemisphere's future. Only in this way can the hemisphere develop

--truly efficient industries;

--expanded foreign exchange earnings; and

--a sound foundation for a full Latin American partnership in building a peaceful world community.

One of the challenges of hemispheric integration is the linking of North and South America through the Pan American Highway.

It is one ambition of my Presidency to work with the other nations of this hemisphere toward closing the several hundred miles of the gap that now exists. We must await the studies that are now nearing completion, but together we should look to the day when the old precolonial links across the Isthmus are fully restored, the good lands of Panama are open for agriculture, and families and commerce can move anywhere between Laredo and the southernmost tip of Argentina.

Senor Presidente Diaz Ordaz, my country takes great heart in what you, in Mexico, are doing. We see today a people who are forging ahead. We see today a nation that is proud and a people that are confident.

You are confident of the future because you are confident that you can secure for your people a constant increase in material well-being and social justice.

You are confident that you can deal with all other neighbors in independence, friendship, and dignity.

You are confident that you can help your less advanced neighbors also to move ahead with you.

And you are confident that you can maintain in the modern world your own personality--loyal to your own traditions and aspirations.

Mexico's progress is witness that the goals of the alliance are realistic and its methods are valid.

I have served with four American Presidents who showed their concern and their friendship for Mexico and Latin America. Franklin Roosevelt lifted our eyes to the promise and the problems of Latin America with the good-neighbor policy. Harry Truman's boldness brought forth point 4 and its compassion to the Western Hemisphere and to the entire world. Dwight Eisenhower plowed new and fertile and productive fields with the Act of Bogota. And John F. Kennedy, building on and expanding and refining that act, gave fresh impulse to all our ideals in the alliance.

Twenty-nine months ago, the first week of my Presidency, my first act as President of the United States was to pledge my country again to the faith and the direction of these four Presidents and their relations with the nations in this hemisphere.

I am proud today to report to the Mexican people and to all of our Latin American friends that our common effort is proving itself with specific results. Our dreams are becoming realities.

As I speak to you here today, I have been involved in the executive branch of my Government for 6 years. The first 3 years, the average growth rate in Latin America was 1 percent. In the last 3 years of my Presidency, that growth rate is now 2 1/2 percent. This achievement, in which Mexico, the United States, and all the other countries of Latin America can take great pride, will continue strong, I predict, in the year 1966. We believe that the growth rate in that year will exceed the 2 1/2 percent of this year.

Ahead, of course, lie many problems that are still yet to be overcome. Hard work and perseverance, not hope alone, will bend them to solution.

At the recent meeting of the Economic Ministers in Buenos Aires, we were right to take stock of what we have learned since 1961 and to plan and to chart the course ahead.

Now we must give necessary impulse to, as I said to your President this morning, new and additional initiatives; we must open new paths; we must breathe new energy into our efforts.

And to that end, I will in the months ahead join with Latin American leaders in exploring the proposal of the President of Argentina for a new meeting at the very highest level to examine our common problems and to give the Alliance for Progress increased momentum.

Such a conference should be prepared with the utmost care. We should examine every idea which might advance our common interest, be it old or new. Careful preparation need not be the enemy, however, of imaginative action and new adventures.

It will take time and faith and stubborn effort to achieve together the goals that we set ourselves in the Charter of Punta del Este 5 years ago.

But this we must do. This we will do. There is no other way, in our time and in this hemisphere, to show what free men and what free nations can do working together.

And so let all of us, let all of the world know that we know our challenge. I saw it, riding through the streets of your beautiful city with your great President last evening; I saw it in the hopeful face of young Mexico, in the hundreds of thousands of little children who are the future of this great land; I saw young people, with minds to be educated, with bodies to be protected from disease; I saw young boys and girls who one day will be able to find a job and who will raise their families in peace, and some will lead this great nation tomorrow.

And this is the challenge that faces the people of America and faces the people of Latin America, and this is a challenge that we will--shoulder to shoulder--accept.

Once again, I want to say how very proud and very happy I am to be here with you today, Senor Presidente, you, my good and warm friend, and to be among your gracious people of Mexico.

Very shortly I will return to the other side of the river, but I will leave, to enjoy the hospitality of your great people, Mrs. Johnson and my Secretary of State and the distinguished delegation from the Congress. And before I leave, I should like to say this: May we all always seek justice and peace together.

Come what may, may we always be good neighbors--and may we always be good amigos.