Remarks at the Airport Upon Arrival in Guam for Discussions on Vietnam

Governor and Mrs. Guerrero, Admiral Bird, members of the legislature, village commissioners, distinguished United States officials, ladies and gentlemen:

We have come to Guam to confer with our military commanders, our diplomatic representatives, and with those who are helping to wage the peaceful campaign against poverty and want in Vietnam.

We have come to meet once again with the leaders of South Vietnam, whose people continue to bear the great burdens of a war that they did not invite, but which was thrust upon them by Communist terror.

We will discuss the progress and the future course of our military effort.

We will review our diplomatic initiatives. And we will try to estimate the chances of bringing peace to Vietnam through an honorable settlement.

Our new team of representatives in Saigon-Ambassador Bunker, Ambassador Locke, Mr. Komer--will be here with us, as will the great patriot whom Mr. Bunker will succeed--Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge.

We chose Guam as the site of our meeting for its convenience to those who are conducting the military and peaceful development campaign in Vietnam. But beyond that consideration, there is a historical significance to this island that stirs the memories of those who remember the dark hours of World War II, and which strengthens our determination to persevere in Vietnam today.

Guam knows a war in a way that no other part of America knows it. It was the only inhabited part of our Nation to be occupied by hostile forces during the Second World War.

That war, and all of its anguish, changed forever the world as we had known it. It taught us lessons that we shall never forget-most important, that the peace of all the world is threatened when aggressors are encouraged to feed on any part of it.

America, which lost Guam and then freed it again with blood that now stains this ground, has not forgotten that lesson. And so American boys in Vietnam are once again carrying the American commitment to resist aggression and to make possible the sacred work of peace among men.

We are grateful to you--all of you--for coming out here to welcome us. Pray that our work here will bear fruit, for we labor for you, for your fellow Americans, for the people of Vietnam, and for all of those who love peace and freedom throughout the world.

And now I should like to address a very special word to my Guamanian friends.

I am proud of the distinction which this trip gives me of being the first American President to come here while in office. I am very proud of Guam. All America is proud of the record that it has made toward self-government in the short time since civil administration came to this island in 1950.

We are proud of the strides that you have taken under a very fine public servant, Governor Guerrero. His first term of office is now ending. It gives me real pleasure to tell you that just before we landed I signed a nomination to go to the United States Senate giving my recommendation that the Honorable Manuel Guerrero be appointed to a second term as the Governor of Guam.

I hope that Governor Guerrero will be the last Governor to be appointed by a President. If the Congress acts favorably on legislation that I have proposed, he will be. That legislation will give the American citizens of Guam, along with your fellow citizens in other parts of the United States, the right to elect your own Governor.

Then all of you who are already contributing so much to the efforts of your country and the effort that your country is making in Vietnam will at long last have one of the great rights of the American democracy. I look forward to the day when I may sign that bill that is now pending into the law of our land.

Thank you, my friends, for this warm welcome. I know that I shall enjoy spending the next few days with you.