State of the Union AddressesJohnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines)
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State of the Union Addresses
Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
First, we must maintain--and our reduced defense budget will maintain--that
margin of military safety and superiority obtained through 3 years of
steadily increasing both the quality and the quantity of our strategic, our
conventional, and our antiguerilla forces. In 1964 we will be better
prepared than ever before to defend the cause of freedom, whether it is
threatened by outright aggression or by the infiltration practiced by those
in Hanoi and Havana, who ship arms and men across international borders to
foment insurrection. And we must continue to use that strength as John
Kennedy used it in the Cuban crisis and for the test ban treaty--to
demonstrate both the futility of nuclear war and the possibilities of
lasting peace.
Second, we must take new steps--and we shall make new proposals at
Geneva--toward the control and the eventual abolition of arms. Even in the
absence of agreement, we must not stockpile arms beyond our needs or seek
an excess of military power that could be provocative as well as wasteful.
It is in this spirit that in this fiscal year we are cutting back our
production of enriched uranium by 25 percent. We are shutting down four
plutonium piles. We are closing many nonessential military installations.
And it is in this spirit that we today call on our adversaries to do the
same.
Third, we must make increased use of our food as an instrument of
peace--making it available by sale or trade or loan or donation--to hungry
people in all nations which tell us of their needs and accept proper
conditions of distribution.
Fourth, we must assure our pre-eminence in the peaceful exploration of
outer space, focusing on an expedition to the moon in this decade--in
cooperation with other powers if possible, alone if necessary.
Fifth, we must expand world trade. Having recognized in the Act of 1962
that we must buy as well as sell, we now expect our trading partners to
recognize that we must sell as well as buy. We are willing to give them
competitive access to our market, asking only that they do the same for
us.
Sixth, we must continue, through such measures as the interest equalization
tax, as well as the cooperation of other nations, our recent progress
toward balancing our international accounts.
This administration must and will preserve the present gold value of the
dollar.
Seventh, we must become better neighbors with the free states of the
Americas, working with the councils of the OAS, with a stronger Alliance
for Progress, and with all the men and women of this hemisphere who really
believe in liberty and justice for all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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