Remarks to Members of a Goodwill Delegation From Austria.

Mr. Flajnik, Ambassador Riddleberger, Ambassador Lemberger, Senator Fulbright, Members of the Congress, distinguished Members of the Austrian delegation, ladies and gentlemen:

As an American I was very proud as I listened to Mr. Flajnik's remarks a moment ago. I think it is a very great thing for the United States of America to have participated in the economic miracle of Austria.

It is a very great thing for the Western community that Austrian politics have evolved in a peaceful and constructive direction. I think it is a very great thing for our world that the major powers were able to work out a fair and a reasonable treaty which guarantees Austrian independence.

These are milestones in the quest for peace.

But we in this country feel humble in the face of that history. We are well aware who are the real heroes in this story. While the Marshall plan did help provide some of the financial resources that were needed during that time, we know that the real heart of this effort--the backbone of it all--was the strength, the fortitude, and the endurance of the Austrian people.

We stood here and watched with great admiration as they transformed the ruins of war into a modern and prosperous nation. We did try to help where we could and when we could. But the spirit and the energy which rebuilt your cities and factories and roads and schools were yours. That is something we need to recognize.

That is the only way that nations are really built--through their own efforts. It is a long and sometimes difficult way. But today's Austria is ample proof that it can be done--that it is worth the effort.

Most of all, the postwar history of Austria is a source of great encouragement. For the Austria of 1945 the confrontation of the great powers presented a danger and a challenge to peace in Europe. For years Austria hung in that balance called the cold war. For years there was doubt that settlement was even possible. It seemed neither side could afford to trust the other to permit a guarantee of independence and neutrality. Negotiations at first produced only failure and deadlock. Time and again success slipped through our fingers.

Finally, after years of negotiation--after nearly 400 meetings with Soviet representatives, reason prevailed. On May 15, 1955, the treaty was signed.

We learned that reconciliation does not always come quickly. But we also learned that if we are patient and sustain our commitments, if we maintain our efforts, and if we are certain of our principles--but willing always to negotiate as reasonable men--then fair and just solutions can usually be found.

So today, 11 years later, we meet here to observe and to comment on the benefits of this settlement. Despite limited natural resources and a very long history of economic hardship, Austria has today almost eliminated poverty. It has created a system of social security that is unparalleled in the world. It has raised per capita income from $417 in 1948 to $1,262 in 1965, an increase of 300 percent. It has been a force for good in the international organizations and in the other less developed parts of our world. It has exercised always a moderating influence on East-West relations.

Austria, I think, is an example of how unfinished business of peace in Europe can be attained through reason, patience, understanding, and determination, all based on strength and unity.

Austria is proof that intractable problems between the East and the West can be resolved at the expense of no nations or peoples.

The wounds of recent European history, it is true, are deep. And they will not heal overnight--nor do we expect them to.

But change is the one certitude in a changing world. The logic of history and economics--yes, indeed, of survival--should in due time move us all toward an increasing sense of mutual interests and inter-dependence. As this awareness increases, nations, hopefully, will abandon the idea that ideologies and parochial advantages can ever really be imposed by force.

Our own posture toward the East, I hope, is clear. As I told a group of our Polish friends who met here just a very few weeks ago, "We will encourage every constructive enrichment of the human, cultural, and commercial ties between Eastern Europe and the West." We have worked along these lines for some time. We have made some progress. And we will continue.

In the past year, for example, a few of the less known efforts:

--Educational and cultural exchanges with Czechoslovakia have almost doubled. Exchanges with Rumania are up about a third.

--Our universities have signed new and expanded exchange programs with Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.

--An American airline has opened the first direct American service to Czechoslovakia in almost 20 years.

--Rumania has allowed several hundred dual nationals and relatives of U.S. citizens to join their loved ones here in our country.

--For the past 2 years the United States has participated in the annual Budapest Industrial Fair.

--Our trade with Czechoslovakia rose from $24 million in 1964 to $44 million the next year, 1965.

--Peaceful trade with the Soviet Union is now up to $87 million in 1965 as against $54 million the year before--a hopeful sign; an encouraging sign.

--American exports to Rumania rose from $1 million in 1963 to $6 1/2 million last year.

--The Commodity Credit Corporation will now accept East European bank guarantees for credit up to 3 years on exports of our farm products.

--The Yugoslavs have been making a root-and-branch economic reform helped by the sale of American surplus farm products, export-import guarantees, and loan repayment extensions. Now their factories are competing with each other in the marketplace and increasingly with producers from abroad.

--Early last month I called for a treaty to keep the moon free for exploration and use by us all, and to prohibit the use of celestial bodies for weapons, for weapons tests, and for military maneuvers. I acknowledge the leadership of Ambassador Waldheim, the Austrian Ambassador to the United Nations, the distinguished Chairman of the Outer Space Committee.

I reviewed this only last evening in the White House with Ambassador Goldberg and others at the reception for members of the United Nations. At the end of the month the Soviet Union proposed a treaty very much along the same lines. So I am glad to tell you and proud to tell you and happy to tell you that we are encouraged that--we hope that negotiations looking toward agreements can be started at an early date and without great delay.

I do not want to overemphasize or to exaggerate. No one of these steps by itself will heal the wounds of the years gone by. But we are on a journey which will not end today or even in this decade. And I do believe that this journey is the right course for us to take. I do think each of these steps that I have enumerated, each of these exchanges, will produce better understanding, and will finally lead us to a solution that is much to be preferred to the ones that have been practiced in times gone by.

We are going to take new steps to consult with our allies in the days ahead. We are determined not to cease our efforts just because we have problems and because difficulties arise or because frustrations abound. In the course of things these are expected. They will diminish as the hope of unity in Europe increases.

We of the West must maintain our fundamental unity of purpose while we constantly search for areas of common understanding with the East. I hope to provide some leadership in that direction.

We must remain strong so that weakness never tempts the ambitious.

The division that has plagued Europe over the past two decades is slowly giving way, I believe, to new possibilities for understanding and to new possibilities for cooperation. I think your visit here is another evidence of that. So let us reach for those possibilities that are at hand. And let us work to create new opportunities along the way.

We are very pleased that you could come our way. We know that you will leave more than you will take with you, but we hope that in what you leave and what you take will be a promise for humanity and will be certainly worth the effort and the expense that has gone into it.

We are delighted that you could spend this time in our Rose Garden here. I am sorry that the clouds didn't cover up the sun a little bit. I am afraid the heat may be a little unbearable at the noon hour. We have so enjoyed your coming and I look forward to a little brief visit with each of you.

Thank you.