Statement by the President on Foreign Aid.

THE DRASTIC CUT in foreign aid funds recommended by the House Appropriations Committee poses a threat to free world security.

It makes no sense at all to make speeches against the spread of communism, to deplore instability in Latin America and Asia, to call for an increase in American prestige and an initiative in Eastern Europe--and then vote to cut back the Alliance for Progress, to hamper the Peace Corps, to repudiate our long-term commitments of last year and to undermine the efforts of those who are seeking to stave off chaos and communism in the most vital areas of the world. Foreign aid has increasingly meant trade, sales and jobs in this country, and reform, progress and new hope in the developing countries.

The Aid program is just as important as any military spending we do abroad. You cannot separate guns from roads and schools when it comes to resisting Communist subversion in under-developed countries. This is a lesson we have learned clearly in South Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. To mutilate the aid program in this massive fashion would be to damage the national security of the United States.

I cannot believe that those in both parties who have consistently voted in the course of three administrations to fulfill this nation's obligations of leadership will permit this irresponsible action to go uncorrected.