Remarks to a Group of American field Service Students.

Mr. Galatti, Senator McCarthy, ladies and gentlemen:

I want to welcome you to the White House. 1 had understood that we had 2,000 foreign students, but I am afraid your year's stay in the United States has made you, at least on the surface, look like 2,000 Americans. Whether that is a good thing or not only time will tell, but we are glad to have you here.

I'd like to find out where most of you are from. First could we have those who come from this hemisphere, which I define as North and South America and Canada. Hold up your hands.

Now those who come from Western Europe, would they hold up their hands. Those who are from Africa. What about Asia? What about Australia and New Zealand and Hawaii?

In any case, we're delighted to have you here. I must say I am hopeful that in the coming months and years that others will come to the United States, and I am especially hopeful that we can secure more students from Africa and Asia. We're glad to have all of you here. We're glad to have all of you here from Western Europe, but we want to spread this out a little more.

As I said, speaking last week in Philadelphia, I'm strongly in favor of an Atlantic partnership, but I think that it should be a partnership that looks outward and invites the rest of the world, the free world, to participate in the great enterprise which is being formed in Western Europe.

I am glad that all of you have come here to the United States and taken a long look at us. I'm sure that when you go back to your own countries you will find yourselves like all those who have studied abroad, I think, defending, I hope, this country, and also serving in a sense as a bridge between your own countries and the United States.

We have been thrust, as Andre Malraux said when he was here, thrust on the world scene, this country, after a long isolationist tradition stretching really to the beginning of the Second World War. We have assumed some of the responsibilities which have gone with bearing our part in the free world with great reluctance. The American people prefer to stay at home. They prefer in their hearts, as you know, to really be disassociated from many of the great movements and struggles of the world. But events have compelled this country to assume heavy burdens and I, for one, feel that we should assume them. But I hope that when you go back to your own countries that you will attempt to interpret where we are in this country, where we've been, what we want to do, and that you will be somewhat understanding that our practices do not always reach as high as our ideals and our speeches, but that we are endeavoring as a nation to establish a more happy society here in this country and also to bear our fair share of the burden around the world of assisting others to move forward and upward. That is the objective of the United States, and it will. continue to be the objective of the United States, I am confident, in the days that come.

We are particularly glad to invite those of you who come from Great Britain--will they hold up their hands? Your forebears as you know burned our White House, and it is a pleasure to welcome you here on this peaceful occasion.

I want you to meet one of the distinguished members of the United States Senate, who was meeting with me this morning, a former teacher, the Senator from Minnesota. I never realized how powerful the Senate was until I left it and came up to this end of Pennsylvania Avenue. But I'd like to have you hear a word from Senator McCarthy of Minnesota, who will speak from the midlands of the United States, and tell you how glad we've been to see you. Come up here, Senator.

[At this point Senator McCarthy spoke briefly to the students, assuring them that the Congress was sympathetic to the president's "great international ideas and programs and projects." following his remarks the President resumed speaking.]

For the privilege of speaking before you Senator McCarthy owes me at least 3 votes now in the next 2 months l

I want to close by quoting a distinguished German, Mr. Bismarck, who once said that one third of the students of German universities broke down from overwork, another third broke down from dissipation, and the other third ruled Germany. I don't know which third we have here today, but I'm confident that some future President of the United States will welcome you as either President or perhaps even better, the wife of a President, to the White House, and you'll be able to say to him, "I have been here before." I am glad to see you.