Address at the American Legion Convention.

Commander Connell, my fellow veterans, and friends:

For the third time since World War II, I am honored to join a national convention of the American Legion.

With you, I give thanks that at last we can come together at a time when the sounds of battlefields, everywhere in the world, have been stilled.

In such a gathering, made up of those who have served our country in time of war, it seems fitting that we turn our attention to our international affairs and the Nation's security. Now, in saying this, I do not mean that any group or any section of America has a monopoly either of interest or of wisdom in dealing with complex world problems.

The contrary is true. The term "bipartisan participation" is too narrow to describe accurately the attitude that all Americans should maintain in this great area of vital concern. Rather, we should speak of universal or national participation, which would in turn imply serious study, analysis, and debate of every proposal and issue presented.

The world must understand that there is stability in our international purposes. Obviously, this cannot be obtained if there is to be marked change or if the world is to fear a marked change with every varying of partisan political winds. The only answer is that the whole American people must be informed and their decisions be made clear.

Of course, it is obvious that much of the diplomatic work, particularly those efforts classed as preparatory toward the reaching of agreements, be conducted in confidence. The political situations in the several free countries are not identical, and premature disclosures of positions and arguments could very well bar the attainment of any reasonable solution. But on broad objectives and purposes, and on the acceptable methods for obtaining them, the American people must be fully informed. Thus, their decisions will be appropriate to the situation, and the world will know that they are stable in terms of time.

This comprehensive approach is difficult to achieve; perfection cannot, of course, be attained. But the first lesson in today's complicated world affairs is that they are far too important to all of us for any one party or any one group to risk the exclusion of other Americans in reaching answers that will eventually affect the fate of all of us. Success or failure in all we hope to accomplish in attaining a peaceful world may well hinge upon our success in eliminating politics and prejudice from our Nation's efforts toward this goal.

Basic to our analysis of our present world situation is clear recognition of several important truths. I mention only a few of these, but these few we can forget only at our peril.

The first is that the Communist dictatorship--ruthless, strong, insatiable-is determined to establish its sway over all the world. This truth requires no elaboration. All Americans recognize it as a fact.

The second truth is that the Communist dictatorship is adroit in its selection and use of every imaginable weapon to achieve its ends. It uses force and the threat of force. It uses bribery, subversion, and sabotage. It uses propaganda.

This last weapon--propaganda--is one which emphatically requires from us new and aggressive countermeasures. There is a dangerous disproportion between our country's efforts to tell the truth about freedom and our Nation's objectives, on the one hand, and the propaganda of the Red dictatorship on the other. For every spokesman of freedom that we assign to the struggle for men's minds and hearts, the Communists assign scores; for every dollar we spend for informational purposes, they spend fifty in opposition; for every word we utter in the cause of liberty and faith, they utter thousands to extol their system and to degrade and defame the values of the free.

Legionnaires, we must preach, demonstrate, and tirelessly sell the vitality and value of freedom in the world. Nothing is more dangerous to our cause than to expect America's message to be heard if we don't bother to tell it.

We must reaffirm to the oppressed masses of the earth the great truth that the God who gave life to humanity, at the same time gave the right of liberty to man. And in our own interest we must apply both our intelligence and the necessary material means to assist other peoples to realize for themselves the blessings of freedom and of self-government.

Now, another Red weapon which we must vigorously counter is subversion. This phase of the worldwide battle goes on constantly. Fortunately, many nations have become alerted to the dangers of this menace and are taking steps against it.

During the past year the nations of this hemisphere, at Caracas, jointly declared international communism to be a menace to all. Heartened by this resolute stand, the majority of the Guatemalan people rose to defeat the first specific attempt of Communist imperialism to establish a beachhead in this hemisphere.

In the battle against subversion within our own land, I am aware that you of the American Legion have been leaders for a third of a century. For this vigorous stand, the Nation has cause to be grateful. I know that from your determined leadership our people will continue to benefit.

Your Government will continue to wage relentless battle against subversion and infiltration. We shall do so not by half-hearted half measures which complacently accept or ignore the untrustworthy and the disloyal, but by measures realistically adjusted to the nature and magnitude of the Red conspiracy.

We have been intensively using existing laws against subversion. During the past 19 months the rate of convictions and deportations secured by the FBI and the Department of Justice has been stepped up. In addition, with the cooperation of the Congress we have written a number of new laws to help us blot out the Communist conspiracy. While a few of these may need modification based upon experience, the aggregate gain will be very substantial.

And of this you may be sure: as we continue this battle we shall not impair the constitutional safeguards protecting our liberties, yours and mine. Our Nation is too strong to give way to hysterical fear which, under the guise of preserving our institutions, would undermine the principles upon which they rest. I know the American Legion will support this wise, traditionally American approach.

I have dealt with two truths essential to our appraisal of the world situation--the implacability of the Communist drive toward world domination, and the readiness of the Communists to use any weapon to achieve their ends.

A third truth is this: the safety of any single nation in the free world depends directly upon the substantial unity of all nations in the free world. No nation outside the Iron Curtain can afford to be indifferent to the fate of any other nation devoted to freedom.

If each, ignoring all others, pursues only its own course toward its own ends, the Communists would have unlimited opportunity to turn the full force of their power upon any selected victim. Each, beginning with the weakest and the most exposed, might succumb in turn, until the strongest of all--ourselves--would be left alone to face a hostile world. The final result would be fearful to contemplate. We will never permit it to happen.

The free countries of the world have tremendous assets--in people, in productive resources, in the staying power and flexibility of free institutions. How effectively and how unitedly these countries employ these resources may well determine the outcome of the present world struggle.

This is why your national administration tirelessly seeks to solidify partnerships within the free world. I should like to talk to you briefly about certain meanings of those partnerships.

First and foremost, we can have no partnership with any nation that does not itself desire world peace and want to work for it. In this modern age, war as an instrument of deliberate policy is so unthinkable for us that we could not possibly work in permanent harmony with any nation which fails to share our peaceful convictions.

On this basis we participate in alliances with other nations of good will. Today we are allied with thirteen nations under the North Atlantic Treaty, with nineteen American nations in the Rio Pact, and with six nations in the Pacific.

Now, what should we expect of these partners? And what should they expect of us?

The answer should be sharply dear: we must work together on a principle of united freedom. In our common values and purposes, in our common interests and goals, we and our partners must be solidly joined together. To fail in this is to invite peril. At the same time, in our thoughts, in our practical decisions, in our actions as sovereign countries, we and our partners are and must be free. Because we can be at once united and free, we can be strong. And let no one ever mistake the origin of this strength.

This principle makes clear the scope of our mutual obligations. If we ignore it, we create unrealizable expectations on both sides. Then, any divergence in action or reaction is likely to give the impression that one side is "unfaithful" to the other.

In practical terms, this principle means that we are not committed to giving any of our partners a veto over our actions, nor do we have a veto over their actions. We must, therefore, guard against the dangerous assumption that other nations, as our allies, are bound to do what we want. They have never bound themselves in this sense. Nor have we bound ourselves to do what they want.

But all free nations have a continuing obligation to strengthen the recognition of the common values and interests of all peoples menaced by Communist imperialism. We must ceaselessly affirm our belief in the blessings of the hearts of free men, and must inspire their every free action and decision. For in these ideals is a rich and living unity. Free men who have it will never willingly exchange it for the stifling shroud of regimentation under which the Communist despotism hides its silent, captive peoples.

The fourth truth, closely related to the third, is this: from the resources of the free world must be developed the many kinds of strength required to oppose successfully the broad front of Communist pressure.

We and our friends must be strong spiritually and intellectually so that neither fear, nor ignorance, nor lack of determination can lead us into defeat.

There must be a strong, free world economy so that free nations can support the military strength they need and also to help alleviate hunger, privation, and despair, which the Communist leaders so successfully exploit.

The free world must be strong in arms--to discourage aggression, or to defeat it if the Communists are so unwise as to attack.

Now, this task of keeping the free world strong and healthy is complex and continuous. It is indeed difficult to organize world peace. It calls for steady effort by the free nations to work patiently together in solving problems reaching to every corner of the globe. Inevitably this process is marked by setbacks as well as successes. In Europe, for example, the progress of EDC has not fulfilled our hopes. Yet meanwhile, long-standing disputes in Egypt and Iran have been settled, and measures for the collective defense are going forward in Southeast Asia. Neither the ups nor downs justify any slackening of our efforts. The free world must build on its successes and be spurred to new endeavor by its setbacks.

The fifth truth--most important to us as a nation--involves our own place and function in the great cooperative effort to preserve security and peace.

Of all the free nations, our country is in many ways the richest and the strongest. Thus, there is imposed upon us a heavy share of the whole burden of free world security. Obviously, we cannot help others unless we remain strong ourselves--strong in spirit, strong in economy and productivity, and strong in military might.

Now, a few plain statistical facts about our military: our military strength is the product of our scientists, our working men and women, our industrialists, our military leadership--our entire people.

Today the United States has the most powerful and the most efficient fighting force it has ever maintained short of all-out war. In fact, in some respects it is the most powerful ever developed.

We have an Air Force of growing effectiveness. It has 50 percent more jets than it did last year. It possesses awesome power.

We have a mighty Navy, with thousands of active aircraft. It is a world leader in nuclear propulsion.

We have our strongest peacetime Army, equipped with modern weapons, trained under modern doctrine. It is capable of carrying out its assignments in the modern world.

We have a Marine Corps, tough and strong, rightly proud of its traditional esprit and readiness.

And all of this great power is supported by developing intelligence and warning systems of constantly increasing effectiveness and scope.

Perhaps you would permit me to interject here that the civil defense program must be remembered as another arm of our true national defense. What this American Legion can do to inspire people to participate actively as responsible citizens in the civil defense program adds that much to our national and our individual security.

Now, my friends, by no means do I intend this series of facts about the character of our fighting forces to be interpreted as blustering or as a threat to anyone.

Let us always remember that our basic objective is peace. But in our search for peace--indeed, in order to enhance that search--we are determined to remain secure.

Another thing about this fighting force: for a century and a half the Republic has prided itself on its refusal to maintain large standing military forces. We have relied, instead, upon the civilian soldier. But we have done so without being fair either to the private citizen or to the security of the Nation. We have failed miserably to maintain that strong, ready military reserve in which we have believed or professed belief for 150 years.

Now at long last, we must build such a reserve. And we must maintain it. Wishful thinking and political timidity must no longer bar a program so absolutely essential to our defense.

And one point about this needs special emphasis: this reserve will not unfairly burden men who have already served.

Establishment of an adequate reserve--an objective for which the American Legion and other patriotic organizations have vainly fought for a generation--will be a number one item submitted to the Congress next year.

And I repeat: as we contemplate this powerful military system, we must always remind ourselves that we maintain it only because we must. We must remember that armaments alone cannot provide for the world a future that is secure and peaceful and filled with promise for humankind.

Now, my friends, the foreign policy of our country is simply a program for pursuing peace under methods that conform to these and other truths of today's international existence. Essential to its success are the loyal and effective officers of our Foreign Service, serving under the inspired leadership of Secretary of State Dulles. With a few highly publicized exceptions, we have been fortunate in the high competence, professional ability, and devotion of these officers upon whom we must depend in our delicate and difficult negotiations with other nations and in assuring the world of our peaceful purposes.

In respect to that pursuit of peace, America does not change. No responsible individual no political party--wants war or wants to damage America. The only treasonous party we have is the Communist Party. No matter how deep may be our differences in other fields, in this we are all Americans--nothing else. Of course, we recognize that, in applying such a policy to the many troublesome and difficult problems which beset the free world, there will continue to be differences of opinion and frictions about particular issues.

But difficult as our course is, we would do well to reflect that we can, in wisdom and humanity, choose no other way. To follow the path of isolation would surrender most of the free world to Communist despotism and ultimately forfeit our own security. Deliberately to choose the road to war would needlessly place in jeopardy the civilization which we are determined to preserve.

We shall not be sidetracked into either of these dead ends. We shall continue to give expression to our people's deep-seated desire to live at peace with all nations. In pursuance of this effort, we have loyally supported and worked with the United Nations, which, in its first 9 years, has accomplished much in the cause of peace. Clearly it has often failed to fulfill our hopes. But that is no reason to weaken our support.

In the quest for peace, we have sought to resolve specific international disputes. In June of last year we negotiated a truce which ended the Korean War, preserved the Republic of Korea's freedom, and frustrated the Communist design for conquest. In January, at the Berlin Conference, we sought a Communist agreement to the establishment of a free and united Germany and an Austrian peace treaty. At Geneva in April we sought the peaceful unification of Korea, and tried to help settle the Indochinese war.

We have suggested other means for reducing tensions. In April last year, our Nation outlined general principles for world understanding. Last December we suggested the international pooling of atomic resources for peaceful purposes. Unfortunately, the Communist reaction to both proposals has been indifferent or negative.

This Government will continue, nevertheless, to examine, with our friends, applicable methods for making nuclear science serve the needs of mankind. Moreover, we will continue to give voice to the free world's aspiration for peace. Despite the discouraging results on specific proposals, I believe that continuing United States efforts to persuade the Soviets to consider such solutions advance the cause of peace. And the door will always be open for their participation whenever they demonstrate sincere purpose to do so.

Nor do we despair of eventual success. No human problem is insoluble. In the earnest belief that these basic purposes conform to the will of the Highest of All Rulers, the United States will continue to pursue them. In this paramount cause of this century, this Nation must have the help of all its citizens. It must have their understanding, their determination, their readiness to sacrifice--and, above all, the strength and daring of their faith.

To help keep America strong--to help keep her secure--to help guide her on the true path to peace, there is no group better qualified than you of the American Legion.

Specifically for this reason, I repeat my expressions of pride and distinction in having this opportunity to address you today.

May courage, wisdom and determination guide the deliberations of this convention, and make the American Legion an instrument of ever-increasing value to the whole of America and the free world.