Partial Transcript of the Remarks of the Vice President, Broome County Courthouse Steps, Binghamton, NY

Here I believe you should consider and examine our record.

Now, when I speak of our record, I have got to point out and I am proud to point out that Cabot Lodge, our candidate for Vice Presi-dent, and I have been part of this administration for 7½ years. We have sat in the meetings of the National Security Council with the President. We have sat in the meetings of the Cabinet. We have participated in the great discussions on Lebanon, Quemoy, Matsu, and others, which involve this delicate problem of avoiding war on the one side and surrender on the other. We're proud, I say, of this record.

There are others, I know, who don't think that record is good, and I'll have more to say about that in a minute, but to those who say there are things wrong with what we have been doing my answer is that we live in a difficult world. My answer is that certainly we can find those things to criticize; but, my friends, when you look at the whole record, 7½ years, none of the criticism can take away the truth, and the truth is that the American people will be eternally grateful to Dwight Eisenhower for getting this Nation out of one war, for keeping us out of others, and for giving us peace without surrender today for America and the world.

Now, that's my side of the case on the record.

There is another side. You had a chance to hear it in New York State here yesterday when my opponent was in this State talking about this same record, and if you read what he said - and I advise you to read what he said - I advise you to hear what he says, because you must hear both sides - but if you read what he says, it will sound like an altogether different record.

You'll read about an America that is losing its strength. You will read about an America that is losing its prestige around the world. You will read about an America that has lost the initiative every place in the world. The Communists are doing this; they're doing that; they're doing everything else, and we're doing nothing. In fact, one statement which I think summarizes the whole speech was this, and I repeat it as I recall it. What he said in New York State yesterday was that he, the candidate for the Presidency on the other ticket, was tired of reading in the paper about what Mr. Khrushchev did, about what Mr. Castro did; he wanted to be able to read in the paper what Mr. Eisenhower was doing.

Well, let me say this: If he would quit talking and start reading, he'd find out what President Eisenhower was doing for America.

I suppose he was referring to the fact as to what Mr. Khrushchev did, that he made somewhat of a fool of himself in the United Nations. Well, we know what President Eisenhower did. We're proud that President Eisenhower spoke for the whole free world so eloquently in the United Nations - and he could have referred to that, I think.

Maybe he was referring to the fact that Mr. Khrushchev spoke for 4½ hours in the United Nations, and again - I mean Mr. Castro, and he spoke for 4½ hours - Mr. Khrushchev could have spoken even longer, I know from experience; but, be that as it may, whatever it is, Khrushchev speaks in the U.N., Castro speaks in the U.N. They say everything that is wrong about us, and everything is right about them; but, my friends, they can't take away the fact that when President Eisenhower spoke the whole free world spoke with him, that when President Eisenhower spoke, he was not just talking - he was acting for the cause of peace, acting for the cause of freedom, standing for true disarmament, honest disarmament; and, as the President has said to me many times, and this I pledge to you in the future, we will always go an extra mile to negotiate. We will always be willing to disarm, but only if we are sure that the Communists are doing the same thing. We're never going to make America weak while they remain strong.

This is the kind of leadership that we need. And if you read what President Eisenhower said - he advanced proposals in the field of food for peace for the whole world, new proposals in this area and in others. What I am trying to say to this great audience is this: I am proud of the leadership of our President, as I think the American people are proud of it. I believe that that leadership has gained for us the initiative in the world, and I believe, further, that in the United Nations, itself, we can see what their verdict is.