Remarks of Welcome to President Giovanni Leone of Italy

Note: The President spoke at 11:09 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White House where President Leone was given a formal welcome with full military honors.

President Leone spoke in Italian. His remarks were translated by an interpreter as follows:

Mr. President, I thank you for the invitation that you extended to me immediately after taking over your high office as President of the United States of America, thus confirming an invitation I had received last year. Thank you for the warm welcome you have given me and for the kind words of welcome that you have just spoken.

It is a great honor for me to represent Italy on this official visit to this great country, which is striking in its vitality and creative capacity, which is in the vanguard of progress, which is strong in its democratic institutions which date back to the birth of a free nation.

And it is precisely to celebrate with just pride the birth of a free nation that you are about to celebrate the Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, which also carries the signature of an Italian, Guglielmo Paca.

It is an historic and solemn document which prepared the Constitution of the United States of America, among whose inspirers may I recall with pride the name of a great Neapolitan lawyer, Gaetano Filangieri.

The relations between our two nations have deep and long-standing roots, embodied by those millions of Italians, who at all times in every capacity, with their work and their intelligence and their thought, have made substantial contribution to the well-being and progress of this country.

Those relations are sustained by our common dedication to the principles of democracy and freedom and to the cause for peace.
Our common efforts, within the purview of our respective possibilities, are aimed at a constant quest for peace. The Atlantic Alliance is conceived and experienced by the United States, by Italy, and by all its members as an instrument for security and peace.

The commitment that Italy is pursuing with constancy, energy, and firmness is to achieve a unity that is not only economic but also political, so as to convey and channel the considerable resources of the old continent, in the light of its great traditions, to the service of the well-being of nations and the consolidation of peace.

The work of detente that Italy, like the United States and other countries, has been pursuing for years with constancy and firmness in close cooperation with its allies, knowing that we have the will of the peoples of the world behind us.

And it is in the same spirit that we think we must study and tackle the great economic problems which beset the world and the even greater problems posed by modern civilization, problems which affect very closely our social and private lives.

The vastness and urgency of the task and the importance of the resources that it requires are such as to call for a global answer resulting from the joint efforts of all.

I feel certain, Mr. President, that our talks will consolidate the friendship between the people of America and of Italy, and that they will develop our already excellent relations.

And I should like to extend to you also, on behalf of the Italian Government represented here by our Foreign Minister, Signor Moro, my warmest greetings and my good wishes to you for your Presidency, and I should like also to extend those greetings on behalf of my wife to Mrs. Ford and to your children.

And in conclusion, Mr. President, it is with great pride that I bring the fraternal greetings of the people of Italy to the great and generous people of the United States of America.