Remarks at Annual Convention of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

Chairman Talbott, President McDonnell, My fellow Americans:

When I was honored with the invitation of this Chamber to come to this conference this evening, I thought that I could not come and so informed your President. I did feel that I should like to send written greetings, but later in the day--this evening, it occurred to me that I should like to come over to bring to you personal greetings and to express to you personal and official appreciation not only of the work of this Chamber but of some of its recent actions which have been so heartwarming for me.

I thought of this because of a theme that the Chamber of Commerce is dedicating itself to this year: developing our capabilities, our determination and strength. It occurred to me that this is exactly what I am trying to do with respect to certain phases of America's activities and strength.

I want to see America's defensive shield as strong as a single American mind and determination can make it, so that we cannot possibly have in our hearts a fear of what might befall.

Now that strength is not merely to be attained by piling up weapons, by units of military force, by fortresses and walls and missiles and explosives. There is a certain phase of that strength that is military, but one of the greatest elements of American strength is its free economy. It is the right of 173 million people to make their own decisions in the economic field and in doing so to be responsible for the progress and the prosperity of this great nation. But, more than that, it is the cornerstone of our military security. Consequently, when we say "strength," when we are building up the security and the military strength of the United States we are talking also about the strength of the economy. And so our slogan is: safety and solvency.

That, I submit, is exactly the same theme that this Chamber is talking about when it uses its slogan to obtain and develop the strength of America. So this strengthening of our military establishment must be done in the most economical way we possibly can. We must not overspend ourselves and so weaken our security. And to do that we must have a single doctrine, a single theory, of defending our country. All of us, whether we be in the military services or in the political portions of government, or indeed any private citizen in this whole country-since each of us has a common purpose here, each must put his back into this job, to make certain that we have security and solvency.

So that means an American theory and practice of defense. Again, I say, it is security with solvency. We cannot afford divided councils that bring confusion. We cannot afford a public argument and division that means weakness in decision at a time of emergency. It is simply unthinkable that the American people, through their Congress, through their elected representatives, and the people appointed to be the military chiefs can do anything else than to bind themselves together into one solid, effective machine, to make certain that danger shall not threaten us, and in threatening our friends also threaten us.

I am not going to make a talk about the details of the defensive modernization plan that I have spoken of so often. I did want to come before this body and say that I believe that in your resolutions of defending and supporting--pushing--the kind of plan that has been laid before the Congress, you are doing for the United States a very tremendous service--one that shows the unity of our hearts, the unity of our determination, and the advancement and progress of our strength, in order that this safety may be achieved.

One other word about the defensive organization itself and laws applying to it, before I say to you "Goodnight." Because you must remember that I had no right to come here tonight; I merely crashed your party. Although I was polite enough to ask your Chairman whether I might come.

I want to talk to you for just a second about a word that is so important to military organization and operation: flexibility.

We must resist any attempt to write into rigid law every single detail of instruction and prescription that can possibly obtain with respect to logistics, to training, to supply, and certainly to strategic planning and operation. To do that would pre-suppose that the Congress could, by law, prescribe the conditions of any new war that could possibly emerge. It should have to determine the place, the time the time of day, even--the kinds of weapons that could be used in the quantity and for what purpose. Such things just cannot happen. The only thing we know about war is that it always occurs in a way other than that we expected.

One of our most recent examples is that of Pearl Harbor. No military man that I know of and no political leaders I ever heard speak even guessed that there would ever be an attack at Pearl Harbor. But that was the one thing that set us back on our heels for a long time, as all of you

know.

So, there must be flexibility in the executive control over the great organizations and formations that Congress sets up, so that a unified strategy may be decided upon within the Defense Department; that it may be executed by the unified commands set up by the Secretary of Defense and his principal associates, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There must be a sufficient administrative supervisory control in his hands so that he can direct the kind of support that those commands must receive if we are to be safe.

And that, my friends, is all there is to unification. So I have proposed to the Congress this legislation for which I repeat my thanks for your support. And if I could say just one final word to you, I would say this:

I believe, from the bottom of my heart, you can perform no greater service to the United States today, and to each of you--to yourselves-than by making certain that we develop our capabilities, our determination and our strength--and we include in this slogan our defensive forces.

And so, apologizing again for this intrusion upon your time, I say Thank You and Goodnight.