Remarks of Welcome at the White House to President Villeda of Honduras

Mr. President:

I want to express our very warm welcome to you and to your wife, who has been our guest before. I think that the people of this country are aware and certainly in recent days have become more aware of how strongly you personally, as well as the people of your country, are committed to the cause of freedom.

The cause of freedom is under attack in many parts of the world and certainly its external enemies proceed with a good deal of vigor and strength. We also have internal enemies and those are poverty, and illiteracy, and disease. We attempt, together, to combat both of these enemies; abroad by building our strength, making clear our commitments, fulfilling those commitments, and at home we fight these internal enemies with the great concentrated social effort of your Government, the effort of this Government, the mutual effort through the Alliance for Progress, the effort of the Central American countries through their Common Market.

It seems to me that in recent years this great hemispheric drive for a better life for our people, under a system of freedom, is meeting new strength, but the problems are many and in some degree they increase faster than our strength. A good deal needs to be done.

I want you to know, Mr. President, that the United States is doing and will do everything to play its proper role as a strong believer in not only the good neighbor policy, but the sense of partnership and alliance and an alliance firmly devoted to progress under freedom.

So we are particularly glad to have you here, Mr. President, because you have demonstrated, in your leadership of your country, your strong commitment to these common goals, your firm belief in freedom. One of the purposes of your visit here is to address those who still work for freedom for their own country of Cuba.

So we are very proud to have you, Mr. President. We're delighted that you are accompanied by Senora Villeda, who has played a most active role on behalf of the social progress of her own country. You could not come at a more appropriate time and we are delighted in welcoming you, as our first visitor from the countries to the south of us who has come in the last 5 or 6 weeks, to tell you how much we have appreciated the strong support we have received from you and your fellow Presidents of the free Republics of Central and Latin America. Mr. President.