Statement by the President on the Foreign Aid Bill.

THE CONGRESS is about to consider a critical piece of legislation--the continuation for another year of the foreign aid program. I want to emphasize to the American people and to all Members of Congress my conviction that passage of this legislation is absolutely essential.

I have just returned from Central America, where I saw and felt at first hand the needs and aspirations of people who look to us for leadership and help. These people, with energy and hope, are hard at work building a new life. They and the millions of others in Asia, in Africa, and Latin America who are struggling to better their own lives and the lives of their children, deserve the assurance that they are not alone and friendless.

The world's poor know that there is no moratorium on disease.

They know that there is no moratorium on hunger, starvation, or illiteracy.

And they know that there can be no moratorium on their own war against these age-old enemies. Can we do less than offer them a small measure of support and encouragement in this battle?

In the end, each citizen and each Member of Congress must make his own judgment of our national priorities. Let me only say that my foreign aid budget request takes into account our critical needs at home as well as those abroad. As the Congress knows, it was the lowest request in history.

The Foreign Affairs Committee has reduced this request by $600 million--about 20 percent. I regret this cut, but, in view of our joint concern for our fiscal problems, I will not oppose it.

But with these cuts, the program has been pared to the bone. Below this level the vitality of the regional initiatives we have stimulated in the developing areas would be severely threatened. Countries around the world which have trusted our resolve and heeded our advice would lose the confidence in peaceful progress which distinguishes this era from the long dark centuries of hopelessness which have been their common burden.

This is not, nor should it become, a partisan issue. Every President since Harry Truman has understood the importance of aid to our own security and to the future of the free world.

From hard-won personal experience, every postwar President learned this fact: Dollar for dollar, no U.S. expenditures contributed more to U.S. security and world peace than dollars spent in foreign aid.

Nor, if I may add a personal note, can I imagine a greater disservice to my successor than the defeat, or crippling, of this bill. Be he Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, he will be charged with executing the foreign policy of the United States. It is our common responsibility to pass on to him intact the full range of instruments necessary to the performance of his duties. I speak from my own experience--and the experience of my three predecessors--when I say that none is more vital than foreign aid.

We are now engaged in crucial talks looking toward the end of the tragic conflict in Vietnam. We are about to begin talks with the Soviet Union on limiting the arms race. At a time when America's commitment to peace with security has begun to bear fruit, we must not seem to be withdrawing from the struggle against the basic causes of war and unrest.

I call upon the Congress to reaffirm--as it has so resolutely in the past--America's moral and material commitment to help others help themselves toward a better and more peaceful future.