Remarks in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, During the Inspection of the Amistad Dam.

Mr. President and Mrs. Diaz Ordaz, Governor and Mrs. Aguirre, Governor Connally and Mrs. Connally, Secretary Teran, Ambassador Margain, Secretary Rusk, Secretary Udall, Ambassador Freeman, members of the official party, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

Last April we met in your beautiful city to pay homage to a hero of the past.

Today we meet here on the frontier to inspect a monument to the future.

The work that we see going on around us tells us the dramatic story of what two peoples working together can accomplish:

--Here we see the decisions of President Eisenhower and President Lopez Mateos to embark on this joint enterprise.

--Here we will see the action of two Congresses in voting the funds to build the dam.

--Here we see the Mexican and the United States technicians and laborers working side by side throwing up the earth embankments and erecting the concrete structures.

--And looking into the future, Mr. President, we will see millions of farmers and townspeople on both sides of this great river enjoying the protection which this great dam will afford and the resources and recreation which this great lake will provide.

What we are accomplishing along this river, Mr. President, sets a pattern which I hope will be increasingly repeated by neighboring countries throughout this hemisphere.

The future of Latin America's progress depends in considerable measure on the development of multinational projects such as we have here at the Amistad Dam:

--There are river basins like the River Plate system to be harnessed.

--There are roads like the Eastern Andean Highway to be built.

--There are petroleum and gas pipelines to be laid.

--There are satellite telecommunications systems to be designed.

--There are electric power grids, as in Central America, yet to be connected.

--There are basic industries like fertilizer, paper, and petrochemicals that are to be developed.

--And there are still inner frontiers in both Central and South America yet to be explored.

We have other frontiers to cross together: There are children to be educated, minds to be developed, bodies to be healed, health to be preserved.

These, too, are worthy goals for good neighbors who share a common dedication to human progress and to social justice.

At the forthcoming meeting of Presidents of the American Republics, there will be opportunity for all of us to give the multinational project movement added impetus.

For only by working across frontiers and pooling human and material resources--as we have done here--can a strong and an integrated Latin America be achieved.

Our common frontier, Mr. President, stretches for almost 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.

Amistad Dam is another link in the bridge of mutual trust, friendship, and progress which unite our two peoples.

Everyone here today in his own way has contributed to the building of Amistad Dam. You can be very proud of your contribution. I am very happy and very grateful to my good friend President Diaz Ordaz for the opportunity to share with him--and with you--the pleasure of this moment of fellowship and the excitement of the construction of a great project like Amistad Dam.

Long live the friendship between the people of the United States and the people of Mexico.