Remarks at Ontario, California

Governor Reagan, all of these very distinguished celebrities on the platform, and all of you very distinguished people in our home State of California:

Earlier today we visited the State of North Carolina and, of course, in California there is probably somebody from every State in the Union, but in North Carolina, as we were there, where we had a very great airport rally, I thought of a book that had been written by one of the great American novelists, Thomas Wolfe. Many of you have read it. You remember the title, certainly, "You Can't Go Home Again."

When we landed here today, knowing that it has been a little misty earlier in the day, knowing that the traffic has been backed up for miles, and when we look back on all of the appearances in this campaign, and when we see this magnificent crowd, we know you can go home again--to California.

Tonight I want to express appreciation first to Governor Reagan for not only his very gracious introduction but for the remarks that he made before we arrived, and for the work he has done in this campaign in California` and across the Nation.

I want to express, of course, my support for all of our candidates for the House, for the Assembly, many of whom I know have been introduced. I think you should know when the mayor, Mayor Snider, presented me with a plaque, that was because it was 12 years ago we finished the campaign here in Ontario at one o'clock in the morning, and we wish him well in his contest particularly here in this area.

I want to express appreciation, too, on this occasion, and I have waited now to do it because they have traveled all over this land, to this group of--well, we call them celebrities, but they are from California. They are some of the greatest names in show business; that is one thing. But they have also the greatest hearts and the greatest courage in show business, and we are glad to have them on our side. I think we should give them a hand.

Could I also express the appreciation that we all must feel for what, to me, is the greatest, and I have seen all kinds, of course, at rallies, bands and massed bands. Isn't that a marvelous sight, those massed bands behind us? How about a hand for them?

And now could I take you back 12 years and relate what happened then to what can happen now? Twelve years ago, we finished a very long day of campaigning here in California. It was the last appearance of the campaign, as is this one.

I recall there was an enormous crowd here, not as big as this one, but it was late at night, at one o'clock, and it was quite cold. We were very heartened by it.

That year, in what was the closest election in this country, we lost the Nation but we won California. This year, based on the crowd I see here, we are going to win California and the Nation.

Could I tell you just a word about that Nation as I have seen it in just 2 days? As President, of course, I have had the opportunity, with Mrs. Nixon, to travel to 50 States, all the 50 States, the first President to have had such a privilege. But in the last 2 days we have really seen all parts of the Nation.

Yesterday we were in Chicago, Illinois, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in Providence, Rhode Island. And today we were at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and we were in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and now here in Ontario, California.

As you will note, we have covered the Northeast of the Nation in Rhode Island. We have been to the center of the Nation in Chicago. We have been down to the Southwest in Oklahoma. We have been in the South in North Carolina, and now we are in the capital of the West, California.

I want to tell you something about this country, and I particularly want all of you, the many wonderful young people here who--some are not old enough to vote, but you all will be---let me tell you something about this country: There was a time, and it was not too long ago, when if you traveled through the country you would see it deeply divided--the West against the East, the North against the South, and so on and so on, the cities against the farms, and so forth. But let me tell you, wherever you go, across America, this Nation is getting together.

I can tell you that whether it is in Illinois, or whether it is in Oklahoma, or whether it is in North Carolina or Rhode Island or in California, that across this Nation we find a phenomenon happening which is going to change the situation insofar as this country is concerned, and which is going to make this a better world for us as well, and it is this: An unprecedented number of people in this country are not thinking in regional terms, they are not thinking in partisan terms, but they are thinking in one term only: This year they are voting for what they think is best for America. That is what they are doing all across this Nation.

Everywhere I go, I find that people are united in what they believe is best for America. I want to speak about why they are united, and I want to ask you, my fellow citizens of California, to join people throughout this Nation--Democrats, Republicans, and independents in giving us the support that we need to continue the work that we have begun. We have begun, but we have much more to do.

I want to begin with that subject which, of course, is on the minds of everybody everyplace in this Nation. Governor Reagan has referred to the work that we have done to try to bring peace to this world.

We have approached this subject on a world scale in our trips to Peking and Moscow, and we have also worked on this subject in that area that has been nagging this country for so many years. When I came into office, we had been in a war in Vietnam for 5 years. There was no end in sight. There were 550,000 Americans there; 300 were being killed every week.

You know what has happened, the number that we have brought home, the casualties are down. But most important, finally we have had a breakthrough in the negotiations, and I can tell you today that the significant point of that breakthrough is that the three principles that I laid down when, on May 8, I ordered the bombing of North Vietnam and the mining of Haiphong for the purpose of stopping the Communist invasion of the South, those three principles have now been agreed to, and they are these:

First, all of our POW's will be returned and our missing in action will be accounted for; second, it has been agreed that there will be a cease-fire; and third, it has been agreed that the people of South Vietnam shall determine their own future without having a Communist government or a coalition government imposed upon them against their will.

Now we have a situation in which, having made this progress, we now must negotiate the final details. Those details must however be completed and be completed in a proper way. I want to tell you why. While the general principles have been agreed upon, we have often found in the history of settlements that unless you nail down the understandings and clear away the ambiguities you may get peace now, but not peace for the years ahead. We want peace that will last, not peace that will be simply for a little while.

You remember, for example, just before the election in 1968, when, with the very best of intentions, our Government agreed to a bombing halt in North Vietnam and we thought we were going to have peace or negotiations for peace. We thought so, but the understandings were not nailed down and as a result the war continued.

We are not making that mistake this time. I can simply say this: We have agreement on the general principles and I am confident we will negotiate the settlement which will end the war and bring us what we all want--peace with honor and not peace with surrender for the United States of America.

Now moving from that part of the world, which, although it is terribly important to the people that live there and to us because we have been involved there for so long, is only one small part of the world, let me tell you now what we have at stake in this election in terms of the other parts of the world.

I mentioned the trip to Peking and the trip to Moscow. I am going to tell you what they mean and to whom they mean so much. The trip to Peking, for example, has great meaning in one sense because it saw the President of the United States for the first time visiting that capital of the People's Republic of China. But it has meaning primarily, not so much to our generation, or mine I should say, but to this younger generation that we see here in such great numbers. Because, let me tell you, imagine how dangerous the world would be if one-fourth of all the people of the world who live in the People's Republic of China, 10, 15 years from now had gathered enormous nuclear capability and had no communication with the United States of America. We could not allow that danger to continue to exist.

I am not suggesting, and no one should believe, that there are not differences in philosophy, and deed ones, that will remain between our Government and theirs as long as theirs is Communist and ours is free. I am not suggesting that we do not have differences in terms of interests, but I do say this: I say that when we look at the future of the world we have to learn to live in this world in a way in which nations with different philosophies and different interests can settle those differences at the conference table and will not be involved in a nuclear war, and we have made a great step in that direction by that trip to Peking.

The trip to Moscow had a similar purpose. There we had a communication with the Soviet Union. We had had some progress. But look at what has happened this year. Here again, let us understand what the situation is. The Soviet Union's government is a Communist government. Our philosophies are totally different. They have different interests than we have in many parts of the world. That will continue. But again, imagine what we would leave to the younger generation had we not moved this year on that front. We would have gone down the road to an inevitable confrontation and a nuclear explosion, possibly, that would have destroyed civilization as we know it. I could not let that happen. You could not let it happen. That is why we went to Moscow. There we negotiated an historic number of agreements, agreements, for example, in the field of trade, agreements in the field of science, agreements in the field of space, and particularly those that you will remember, agreements to begin the limitation of nuclear arms.

But I again emphasize, it was only a beginning, just as the trip to Peking was a beginning. What we must do now is to go on from there and in going on from there what we must recognize is that just next month, for example, we are planning to meet with the leaders of the Soviet Union--our representatives--to negotiate the second round of arms limitation.

I am not suggesting that as a result of that meeting, any more than the first meeting, that all differences will disappear. But I do say this, and I say this as a message of hope to all of the wonderful young people here and your parents and your friends: that never since the end of World War II have the chances for peace for a whole generation been better than they are right today in the United States and in the world.

What we ask for is a chance to continue. What we ask for from the American people is a message to the leaders abroad, a message that the President of the United States, when he negotiates, has the support of the American people. We ask for that support in this election.

We also must recognize that in order to have these negotiations succeed to limit arms, in order for the United States to be able to play the role which we are destined to play, of building a peaceful world, it is vitally important that the President of the United States never be sent to the bargaining table with another country as the head of the second strongest nation in the world. We must remember that strength for the United States is vitally important to world peace.

I know there are those who say that we can cut our defenses so that we have the second strongest navy and the second strongest air force and the second strongest army and it doesn't really make any difference. But let me tell you, the day that happens peace and freedom will be in deadly jeopardy throughout the world. Let me say, keep America strong so that the President of the United States will represent a strong America and not a weak America.

Our thoughts, of course, turn also to our problems at home. We have moved forward to something we haven't had since President Eisenhower was President, and that is full prosperity without war and without inflation.

We have some way to go, but we now have the highest rate of growth of any industrial nation; we have the lowest rate of inflation of any of the great industrial nations. And we are going to continue on that road until Americans can have that opportunity that they have not had since 15 years ago when President Eisenhower was in the White House, and that is prosperity without war, without inflation.

We also ask you today for approval from my fellow Californians and for support in what we are doing in the field of fighting the rise in crime in this country and fighting dangerous drugs. It has to be done on all fronts, but one that is particularly important is in the appointment of judges to all the courts, and particularly to the Supreme Court.

Four years ago when I campaigned, I said that I would appoint judges who would recognize the necessity to strengthen the peace forces as against the criminal forces in this country. I have done so, but I have only had a beginning. We need 4 more years to strengthen the courts so we can have the peace forces strong, backed by the judges of this country, and if I could respectfully suggest you can help in this field, too.

I know that sometimes in recent years, in the late sixties, it became rather fashionable always to run down those who wore the uniform, whether it was a uniform serving their country abroad or the uniform of someone who was keeping our streets safe at home. Let me say: Back up the men on our peace forces in the United States, whether they are abroad or whether they are home. Give them the respect that they deserve.

There is one other great goal that I refer to today, and that is the goal of opportunity for all Americans. We in California feel so strongly about that because while we are the biggest State and the most populous State, we come from all the States and all the nations of the world. We believe in equal opportunity for everybody--an equal chance for the best education, an equal chance for good health, a chance for everybody to have a job, to go just as high as his talents will take him.

We want that. We can help in Washington in working toward that. We need your support to continue to develop that equal chance for every American, with ceiling unlimited as high as he or she wants to go.

And finally, may I say that as I look at this great crowd, I think of something else that we would like to leave during this next 4 years, something else in addition to peace which could last for a generation or longer, something in addition to prosperity without war and without inflation, to progress and opportunity for all Americans, and that is this:

I mentioned the fact that we have been to 50 States. Mrs. Nixon and I have traveled to 80 countries as Vice President and then as President. And in those travels as President of the United States I have visited four capitals that no President has ever been to before--Peking, Moscow, Bucharest, and Warsaw.

These were journeys for peace, but as those journeys took place, and as we saw those 80 countries, each time we came back to the United States and we saw this country, and we realized when we returned how very fortunate anyone is to live in the United States of America.

My fellow Californians, this is a great State, and this is a beautiful country. Oh, we have our problems, and we have those faults that we are trying to correct, but the wonder of it is, and the glory of it is that we have a system in which we can correct them in a peaceful way without resorting to violence, and that is the way we are going to do it.

I want you to know that as I look at America over these next 4 years and I think of your future, I believe that we have the chance--and this is our goal--to make the next 4 years the best 4 years in America's history. That is what I ask for tonight.

Now, if I could close with one personal note, I mentioned a moment ago that the last rally of the 1960 campaign was here at Ontario. Tonight, as I drove through this crowd, I was thinking back to the first rally I ever attended or spoke to. It was in 1945, November. That is quite a few years ago, before most of this audience was born. But as I was thinking back to that, I thought of how good the people of California have been to us: First to the House of Representatives for two terms, then the United States Senate, and then 8 years as Vice President, out of office for a period of 8 years, then back in office again.

But I want you to know that looking back over those years, in victory, the people of California have enjoyed the victory with us. In defeat, they have stood by us, and we are most grateful for that. This year we look forward to a victory, but as we look forward to it, we know that we owe it to thousands, yes, millions of people in this State and across this Nation that we will never get a chance to thank personally.

Tonight, as I speak to you here in Ontario, I think you should know that this, of course, not only is the last rally of this campaign that I will speak to, it is the last time I will speak to a rally as a candidate in my whole life, and I want to say to all of you here who worked on this, to all of you who took the time to come, thank you very much for making it probably the best rally that we have ever had.