Toasts of the President and President de Gaulle at a Dinner at the American Ambassador's Residence

Mr. President and Madame de Gaulle and Your Excellencies:

It is a very great honor for us to have here in the American Embassy residence the President of the French Republic and Madame de Gaulle and the other representatives of the French Government.

On this occasion we would remind the President that we have tried to expose him as much as possible to the products of our country. He will have observed that during the course of the evening we have had several evidences of that type. For example, we have an American Air Force jazz combo which flew in from Wiesbaden for the occasion. And on the menu tonight we had cheese from Wisconsin, asparagus from California, and beef from Kansas City. But there was one very unusual combination: For the first time I have seen on one plate together, plain American baked potato and Russian caviar. There may be some significance in the fact that it took a French chef to bring the two together.

Mr. President, we are deeply grateful for the hospitality that you have extended to all of our party, to the Secretary of State and to me and to the rest of us on this occasion. We are deeply grateful, too, in a broader sense, for the very warm welcome that we have received from the French people.

Before I came to this country I had been reading accounts in our press to the effect that there was an anti-American sentiment among the French people. If ever an answer was needed, we saw it in the faces of thousands of Frenchmen in the last 2 days.

But most of all, we are in your debt for a gift which is the most precious, the gift of your time. The hours that we have spent together in which we have discussed the great problems that we face together in the world have been most helpful to all of us, and we shall always be grateful for the time you have given to that cause.

So, tonight, I feel that this marks, in a sense, the end of one journey and the beginning of another one; the end of a journey that has taken us in a very brief time to the major capitals of Europe, and the beginning of another journey, another journey in which our two peoples will be going forward together toward the same destination, sometimes on different roads, but always in the same direction and motivated by the same ideals and purposes.

I look forward, Mr. President, with great anticipation to working with you and with your country and with your Government for the cause to which you have dedicated your life, the cause of freedom and dignity for nations and for men and for peace and brotherhood for all people.

I ask you to rise and raise your glasses to French-American friendship and to President and Madame de Gaulle.