Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks at a Ceremony in Observance of the Sixth Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress.

August 17, 1967

Secretary General Mora, Mr. Vice President, distinguished Ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, my friends:

It is right that we honor youth tonight as we celebrate the sixth anniversary of the Alliance for Progress.

For the more that we learn about this audacious human experiment we call the Alianza the more we know that it is as our late beloved President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, really envisioned it, a plan for the youth of this hemisphere. If someone asks "Is the Alliance a success?" we may very well answer, "Only our children or our grandchildren will know if it is a success-but we are all going to know if the Alliance is a failure."

So as we meet here this evening, we cannot claim victory for the Alliance. We can only say "so far, so good"--progress is being made, though the shining legacy that we would leave to our young remains to be delivered.

We can point with legitimate pride to the way-stops toward the success of the Alliance--we can point with pride to a better hemisphere for all of our children.

--This has been a year in which no single government in this hemisphere was taken over by force.

--Eleven countries of Latin America equaled, or surpassed, the per capita growth rate of 2.5 percent per year over the last year.

--An ever-increasing proportion of public resources is now being spent each year on education, on community development, on the things that really count, like health and sanitation.

--In the United States, our Congress has given initial approval to an increased level of Alliance spending--to a rate that now exceeds a billion dollars per year.

But for all of that--for all the bold new spirit that springs forth from the dynamic leaders of Latin America, for all the progress toward a Common Market, for all the promises of Punta del Este--nothing of permanence can be accomplished if we look only to the events of just 1 year.

If what we do is to really last, we must make this commitment to ourselves and to all of Latin America: We will persevere. There is no time limit to our commitment. We are in this fight to stay all the way.

We will persevere when the progress is apparent. We will persevere when the statistics of the progress are not as rosy as we would wish them. We will persevere when we have suffered reverses as we have this afternoon.

We will persevere in our conviction that change can come about peacefully--that, as one of the young essayists here put it, we can make a revolution of sweat rather than a revolution of blood and tears.

We will persevere in our belief that what happens in the Western Hemisphere, what happens in North and South America, will point the way ultimately to a more tranquil, more just, more fruitful world for all people.

The American policy of perseverance in a just cause is not exclusive to Latin America. It applies to our own country, where we have many problems. It applies particularly tonight to Southeast Asia.

If we do persevere at home and abroad, in this hemisphere and in the other--I believe that the day of justice and freedom for men on this planet can be brought within sight. One of the young essayists here has said it magnificently, and I quote:

"Latin American youth accepts the challenge of the struggle for progress, conscious of its responsibility before history and nation .... Our voices, shouted from the Andes .... will echo from the roof of the world: We can do it!"

Yes, you--you and we can do it--and you and we are going to do it.

Thank you, and good night.

Note: The President spoke at 7:51 p.m. at the Pan American Union in Washington. In his opening words he referred to Jose A. Morn, Secretary General of the Organization of American States.

In preparation for the anniversary celebration, an essay contest on the Alliance was sponsored by the Pan American Development Foundation in cooperation with the Agency for International Development, the United States Information Agency, and Alliance for Progress National Committees in member countries. Secondary school students from 15 Latin American nations, writing on the theme "Social and Economic Development--the Challenge to Youth," competed for 30 first-prize awards of trips to the United States. Winners were present for the President's remarks in which he quoted from two of the prize-winning essays.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at a Ceremony in Observance of the Sixth Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237890

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