State of the Union AddressesEisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David)
History
State of the Union Addresses
Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
Their natural desire for a better life must not be frustrated by
withholding from them necessary technical and investment assistance. This
is a problem to be solved not by America alone, but also by every nation
cherishing the same ideals and in position to provide help.
In recent years America's partners and friends in Western Europe and Japan
have made great economic progress. Their newly found economic strength is
eloquent testimony to the striking success of the policies of economic
cooperation which we and they have pursued.
The international economy of 1960 is markedly different from that of the
early postwar years. No longer is the United States the only major
industrial country capable of providing substantial amounts of the
resources so urgently needed in the newly-developing countries.
To remain secure and prosperous themselves, wealthy nations must extend the
kind of cooperation to the less fortunate members that will inspire hope,
confidence and progress. A rich nation can for a time, without noticeable
damage to itself, pursue a course of self-indulgence, making its single
goal the material ease and comfort of its own citizens-thus repudiating its
own spiritual and material stake in a peaceful and prosperous society of
nations. But the enmities it will incur, the isolation into which it will
descend, and the internal moral and physical softness that will be
engendered, will, in the long term, bring it to disaster.
America did not become great through softness and self-indulgence. Her
miraculous progress and achievements flow from other qualities far more
worthy and substantial--
--adherence to principles and methods consonant with our religious
philosophy
--a satisfaction in hard work
--the readiness to sacrifice for worthwhile causes
--the courage to meet every challenge to her progress
--the intellectual honesty and capacity to recognize the true path of her
own best interests.
To us and to every nation of the Free World, rich or poor, these qualities
are necessary today as never before if we are to march together to greater
security, prosperity and peace.
I believe the industrial countries are ready to participate actively in
supplementing the efforts of the developing countries to achieve progress.
The immediate need for this kind of cooperation is underscored by the
strain in our international balance of payments. Our surplus from foreign
business transactions has in recent years fallen substantially short of the
expenditures we make abroad to maintain our military establishments
overseas, to finance private investment, and to provide assistance to the
less developed nations. In 1959 our deficit in balance of payments
approached $4 billion.
Continuing deficits of anything like this magnitude would, over time,
impair our own economic growth and check the forward progress of the Free
World.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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