Fellow Americans:
I have just talked to Major Cooper in the Pacific, and Mrs. Cooper in Houston, Tex. We are proud of both of them and, indeed, we take the greatest satisfaction as Americans in this extraordinary feat which has pushed the experience of man a good deal further in many ways than it has been.
We are proud of Major Cooper and we are proud of all those thousands of Americans who worked with him to make this flight possible. And, indeed, in a sense all Americans were on this flight because all of them nave sustained tins program m good times and in bad, and it represents a great achievement for our society and a great achievement for free men and women.
Peace has her victories as well as war, and this was one of the victories for the human spirit today.
Note: The President spoke at 8:15 p.m. from the Fish Room at the White House. The White House also released the text of his telephone conversation with Major Cooper who was aboard the aircraft carrier Kearsarge.
John F. Kennedy, Radio and Television Remarks Following the Flight of Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236342
