Remarks at a Luncheon in the Cadet Dining Hall at West Point.

General Irving, distinguished visitors, and the Corps of Cadets at West Point:

I am having a wonderful time today. I was telling my Missouri cadet friends that the only ones who are suffering and having trouble are the ones who are my hosts. It is always a nuisance to have the President of the United States around. He has to have certain special treatment, which is for the Presidency and not for the individual. Always bear in mind that the Presidency of this great Republic of ours is the greatest office in the history of the world. It is the most important office in the world, and the man in it must do everything he can to cause all the people, at home and abroad, to respect that office for what it is.

World leadership came and was forced upon us, because we did not want to assume that responsibility--we refused to assume that responsibility in 1920; and the Second World War was the result.

Beginning in 1938--when Hitler went into Poland--it began to dawn on the people at the head of the Government of the United States, that we had a place in the world which had to be filled.

We are trying our best to fill that place in the world. You young men who will be the future generals, the men who will form the military policy of the United States, have a responsibility which you will have to assume just as soon as you finish your education.

Now, this is your great school--I was telling my young friends from Missouri here, that this school has produced some of the greatest men in the history of our country. This school has made a contribution that is one of the greatest in the history of the country. I am proud to be your guest today on that account. And I am just as proud--and I am interpolating here--of the Naval Academy and its cadets.

I want to see you become the leaders and the citizens in our military setup that you should. General Bradley this afternoon is going to give you a lecture on what it means to be a graduate of this school, and what your responsibilities are, and what our military policy really is.

Now I didn't intend to give you a lecture on citizenship and the Presidency of the United States, but I thought maybe you would be interested in knowing that the President himself--an individual like everybody else--must keep his eye on the ball, in an effort to attain the respect for the office that it deserves.

It took me a long time to understand why some people would come to see me and be timid or scared, and couldn't talk; and then I had to remember back when I was in the United States Senate, when I used to have to go and call on President Roosevelt once or twice a week. I was always scared and embarrassed, because I was before the greatest office in the world--and one of the finest men also that ever lived and ever occupied it.

And in order for me to understand how people feel when they come to see me, I have got to remember my experience myself. I couldn't appreciate it for a long time, but I do now. And I try my level best to make people feel that they do not have to be afraid of the President, because he is only interested in the welfare of the whole country. He has nothing else to do but to see that the country runs as it should, and to see that we keep our friends in the world, so we won't have a third world war, and so you won't have to go and be cannon fodder.

I hope you will remember that.