Remarks at a Dinner of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Commander Scerra, Senator Russell, distinguished Members of Congress, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, ladies and gentlemen:

I came here to join you briefly this evening because it gave me a chance to share in the high honor that your great organization is paying to a champion of the American fighting man, a great friend of the American veteran, a leader for decades of all the people of this country, and I am very proud to say my longtime and good friend, Richard Russell of Georgia.

I would also like to take a moment now to pay tribute to another splendid Georgian-a great American--Dean Rusk. I do not believe ever in our history has this office been filled by a more dedicated or by a more sincere American. I have never heard United States policy and our commitments so eloquently stated--and under such very trying circumstances--than was done by Secretary Rusk in the last 2 days before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

If this Nation is secure--and if it is kept secure--all Americans will owe a great debt to these two great Georgians, Dick Russell and Dean Rusk.

I have always heard that the Veterans of Foreign Wars dinner attracts more Members of Congress than any other social event. As I look around this room tonight, I can well believe that. I see many of my old-time friends from Capitol Hill here. I do still have some friends left up there.

Of course, many of my political friends are home tonight, watching TV. I am told that there is a special on tonight--from New Hampshire.

You know the New Hampshire primaries are unique in politics. They are the only races where anybody can run--and everybody can win.

I think New Hampshire is the only place where candidates can claim 20 percent is a landslide, and 40 percent is a mandate, and 60 percent is unanimous.

I had an early report from New Hampshire this morning on these unbiased television networks. They had counted 25 votes there--the first 25, and the vote for LBJ was zero. I said to Mrs. Johnson, "What do you think about that?" She answered, "I think the day is bound to get better, Lyndon."

Well, it has been a long day. And I have not been home to dinner yet. But I am proud to come here and to bring to this great organization my message of gratitude. I want to thank your commander and every member of this organization for all that you have done--for all that you are doing--for the security and well-being of the United States of America.

I want to thank you for the support that you gave our surtax proposal which would make fiscal responsibility possible and would give confidence to the rest of the world.

I want to thank you for your support when the debt ceiling had to be raised.

I want to thank you for joining me and helping me settle the railroad strike.

I want to thank you for endorsing the extension of the draft so we would not have to send our Army home.

I told Tiger Teague,¹ my dear friend, Chairman of the Veterans Committee, coming in tonight: I want to thank all of you for backing every piece of legislation to aid our men in Vietnam when they come home and when they join you as Veterans of Foreign Wars.

¹Olin E. Teague, Representative from Texas.

I want all of those who hear me or read me to know that I believe that you are great spokesmen for the American veteran--for the man who has laid his life on the line for his country.

But you have also been a voice for responsibility in all world affairs. You have understood that duty always travels with strength, that the greatness of a nation is measured by its willingness to fulfill its moral obligations to its own people, as well as to mankind.

The United States, at the end of the Second World War, did not go out in search of new obligations. Our strength, and our commitment to man's freedom, brought those obligations right here to our door. Four Presidents now have recognized those obligations. Ten Congresses have verified them.

They have been costly--in blood and in treasure. The only higher cost would have come from our ignoring them or from our failure to assume them. The price of isolationism--whether it is the old-fashioned kind of isolationism that is rooted in ignorance, or the new-fashioned kind that grows from weariness and impatience--whatever its kind, isolationism exacts the highest price of all and, ultimately, as we have learned, it is unpayable.

Our goal, my friends, is not the unlimited extension of American responsibilities anywhere. It is clearly not the conquest of a single foot of territory anywhere in the world. It is not the imposition of any form of government or economy on any other people on this earth.

Our goal is peace--the blessed condition that allows each nation to pursue its own purposes:

--free of marching invaders and aggressors;

--free of terror in the night;

--free of hunger, and ignorance, and crippling disease.

If we take up arms, we take them up only to guard against those enemies. It is to help the nation builders. It is to try to shield the weak so that time can make them strong. It is to bar aggression. It is to build the lasting peace. That is your country's single purpose today.

We send our young men abroad because peace is threatened--in other lands tonight, and ultimately in our own.

We take our stand to give stability to a world where stability is needed desperately.

We rattle no sabers. We seek to intimidate no man.

But neither shall we be intimidated. And from American responsibilities, God willing, we shall never retreat. There is no safety. in such a course. Neither reason nor honor nor good faith commends such a course.

You of the VFW have been the strong right arm of many Commanders in Chief, of many Presidents. You have been a voice of conscience and responsibility for many years for many millions of Americans. I ask only that you hold straight to that course. You will help to lead your Nation and you will help to lead your world beyond danger to the peaceful day when free men know not fear, but when free men know fulfillment.

I will leave you now in that confident expectation.

But before I go, just let me close as I began, with a word about our great honored guest who strives daily to make this Nation more secure, and also a word about a resident of his State in his early manhood-our great Secretary of State.

There is something I would like to say about Dean Rusk. He is a good and a wise man. He has known the heat of the kitchen--as well as the television lights. The dignity that comes from the clay soil from which he sprang--he has known it long enough to know that good humor and great patience also play their part in history, too.

So, I will return home now to watch another television replay--I am going home to look at the "Dean Rusk Show."

That's the show, you know, that was a years in production. We had a great cast-but no plot.

We also had trouble picking the title. "Gunsmoke" had already been taken. We finally decided on "Shoot-Out at Capitol Hill."

Then we couldn't find a sponsor. They all said, "Sorry, quiz shows are dead." I saw Secretary Rusk tonight before I came over here. He looked different. I said, "Where have you been?" And you know-for the first time in 2 complete days the Secretary of State did not have an answer.

But you men of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who, in order to qualify for your membership, have had the answer.

You have Dick Russell's appreciation and Dean Rusk's gratitude and my thankfulness.

Thank you so much.