Remarks at a State Republican Rally in Phoenix, Arizona

Governor Williams, all of the distinguished guests on the platform, and all of the distinguished people here in this audience:

I want you to know that I am very honored to be here in Arizona, a State where, 45 years ago, for 3 years was my summer home, a second home. And I am very honored to be here, too, on this occasion to receive such a wonderfully warm welcome here in this hall.

Let me say, in the great American tradition we have some here who are against us; we have more who are for us. And all of you are welcome. We all believe in the great American right of free speech, and we all know that right of free speech for one individual carries with it the responsibility to keep quiet when someone else is trying to exercise his right of free speech.

I also am very grateful for the opportunity here in Arizona to pay tribute to some of the Nation's top leaders. I refer to them probably in order of seniority, if not in age.

First, to Governor Jack Williams. I have known many Governors, but of the chief executives of this land, he has been and is one of the very best. You can be very proud of him.

Ten years ago when a man lost running for the Presidency, it was written and spoken by many, "Well, we won't be hearing from Barry any more." They wrote and spoke too soon. He came back, and today, Barry Goldwater's voice is heard throughout this land, speaking courageously for what he believes in, for the cause of conservatism for his party and for the country he has served and loves so well.

And second, his colleague, Paul Fannin. Paul Fannin is one of those men in the United States Senate who does not speak very often, but because he speaks with such intelligence and such courage and such ability, he is listened to. He is, in my view, the top expert on energy in America today, and he is a valuable man for Arizona and the Nation.

And now, moving to the House of Representatives--not as a lower body, they don't like to be called that; having been a Member of both bodies, I know-I can say this: that Arizona can be proud that it is the home not only of the man who is now the Republican leader of the House of Representatives but a man that I predict will be, in the future, the Speaker of the House, Johnny Rhodes.

And his colleagues, I mention Sam Steiger, who represents that little town, mile high, in Prescott, that I knew so many years ago, and a man who is one of the Nation's top experts and my top adviser in the field of land use, who believes that those decisions should be made here and not in Washington, D.C.

As some of you have probably noted, I am somewhat of a baseball fan. I have learned that in this audience tonight is a man who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown next year, Jocko Conlan. And I would like to say that Jocko Conlan--and the people of Arizona can be proud of his son--when Jocko Conlan was there as an umpire, and I have seen him, he called them as he saw them. And his son, John, calls them as he sees them for the best interests of America and his district and his State.

I would not want this opportunity to pass, also, without expressing my appreciation for the services of a new member of our Cabinet, a Counsellor to the President, Dean Burch.

There are many subjects that I want to address tonight. I want to look primarily with you to the future of America, as I know you want to look to the future of America. Whatever we are--Democrats or Republicans--we want a better future for America and the world. I want to dispose, however, of one subject that has, of course, as Jack Williams implied, commanded a great deal of headlines over the past year.

In this past week, as you are aware, I have furnished not only to the Congress but to the American people all of the relevant evidence with regard to an issue that has been of very great interest to the American people. And I simply say this tonight: The time has come to get Watergate behind us and get on with the business of America.

The time has come for the President and the Congress to devote their full attention to what you, the people of Arizona and America, think are of your great concerns.

And so, tonight, I want to talk to you not about what we are against, but what we are for. I believe that is what Americans desperately want to hear.

We have heard so much about what is wrong about America. Let's hear something that is right about America. And you will hear it tonight.

I begin with the issue that Jack Williams mentioned very graciously and generously in his introduction, and that is the issue that we are all concerned about, the issue of peace for America and peace in the world.

I can refer only to the past in these terms: You knew the situation when I came into office. America was then in its longest war. There was no plan to bring it to an end. Casualties were 300 a week; 14,000 were being drafted into the armed services every month. And that war which did not begin when we were in power, we ended, and we can be proud that we brought that war to an end.

We can be proud that America's longest war has been brought to an end, and we can be proud that it was ended in the right way and that our prisoners of war came home on their feet and not on their knees.

And we can be proud that for the first time in 25 years, no young Americans, including some of those who may be here against us, are being drafted into the armed services today. Now, for some, that might appear to be a record to run on, but it is not enough. It is not enough because we have ended wars before. But you know the old story of this century. We fought World War I, came the armistice and we thought, "No more."

But then, the sons of those that fought in World War I were fighting in World War II. And then, when that ended and the United Nations came along, we thought, "There will not be another war." And then the younger brothers of those who fought in World War II, and even some of their sons, were fighting in Korea. And after that war was brought to an end by President Eisenhower, after that war was brought to an end, we thought, "There will not be another one." And the younger brothers of those who had fought in Korea and the sons of those who fought in World War II were fighting in Vietnam.

So, that is why our goal is not simply to say we rest on our laurels, we brought peace. Our goal is to bring a new generation, a new period, in which the whole world--not just America--can enjoy the blessings of peace. And we have that as a goal and one that we can achieve.

It is not an easy goal to achieve, because it has never been achieved before. But it is a goal that can be achieved, because America is going to be in the leadership in working toward that goal.

Running over some of the critical areas of the world: The Mideast now commands our attention. Four wars in a generation, thousands of years of hatred, and yet we are making progress, progress steadily toward a goal of peace in the Middle East in which every nation in that area will have security, independence, and progress without war. That is a great goal, and Americans are going to bring that goal about or help to achieve it.

Now, moving from that potential powder keg, we look at the whole world. I know that some of my friends have often asked, "How is it that President Nixon, of all people, would be talking to the Communist leaders of Russia, to the Communist leaders of the People's Republic of China?"

I will tell you why: because the alternative to talking to them is a war, not like World War I or World War II, but one that would destroy civilization as we know it. And that is why we negotiate now rather than have war later. That is the reason for it.

And so, we are making steady progress toward the next summit which will occur in June, a summit in which we will move again toward the limitation of nuclear arms and in other areas with regard to the Soviet Union.

That is why we are continuing our dialog with the leaders of the People's Republic of China, a nation that is not a nuclear power of great significance today, but will be within a few years, and a nation in which one-fourth of all the people in the world live.

There cannot be peace in the world unless the Soviet Union, unless the People's Republic of China, as well as the United States, talk with each other, negotiate with each other. That is what we have done. That is the great breakthrough that we are now going to exploit for all of the people of the world.

And at a time that we are talking to those who have been and might be in the future our potential adversaries, we have not forgotten our friends, our friends in Europe, our friends in Latin America, our friends in other parts of Asia as well as in the Mideast and Africa.

Now, what I have outlined for you here today is, therefore, when you look at it in a global sense, a pretty simple problem, but it requires leadership.

I want to tell you why America's leadership is so indispensable. Three weeks ago in Paris, I met with the leaders of most of the major nations of Europe, with Mr. Podgorny of the Soviet Union and with the leaders of 25 other countries. And I want you to know that as I talked to those leaders, one fact came through very loud and clear: that unless America assumes the responsibility of leadership, there is no chance for peace and freedom to survive in the world today.

And you wonder why, why after everything that we have done--Korea, Vietnam, World War I, World War II-why can't somebody else do it? There is no other free nation that has the power or can develop it. And so, the future of peace in the world is in our hands. And we are not going to fail the world or ourselves in attempting to bring about that peace.

If we are to provide that leadership, America is going to have to have strength in three areas that I would mention tonight. First, we must have military strength. Johnny Rhodes very properly referred to the need to keep our Government spending down. But let me just say this: Let us be sure that in the field of our military strength that no President of the United States ever goes to the conference table as the head of the second strongest nation in the world.

Second, in addition to the military strength necessary for America to be respected and to play the role of peacemaker, it is essential that we have economic strength.

Let us look at the American economy very briefly. It has been going through a very difficult period, primarily related to our energy problems. But as we look toward the future of the economy for this year, here is what we see: We see the economy moving up; automobiles finally beginning to move up; housing, which will receive stimulus from programs that we will announce this week, will begin to move up. And I would say tonight that I can make safely this prediction: that by the end of '74 we will say it was a good year economically, '75 will be a better ),ear, and '76 will be the very best year America has ever had economically.

Now, to accomplish those goals we need policies that are designed to deal with certain problems. One is the problem of inflation. The problem of inflation, of course, must be fought on all fronts. But one front we must remember is this, and that is what your Government spends in Washington, D.C. And that is why it is essential that we all remember that when we keep down the cost of Government in Washington, that helps you keep down the cost of living here in Arizona and all across this country.

A second way to fight inflation, one that we learned will not work, and that is we must fight it not through trying to control this economy. A free economy and more production that is the answer to bringing down prices.

And third, in order to have the progress we want, more jobs, more opportunity, more freedom--and we are the best in the world in all of these areas already--but more in order to have that, we must remember how we got where we are, the richest, the strongest nation in the world.

Looking back over our almost 200 years, we find that we got here not by what government did, but by what people did; not through government enterprise, but private enterprise. That is the way to progress in America.

I outlined in the State of the Union Address a number of goals in the field of health, in the field of education, and in many other areas. Let me give you two examples of why it is that it is through our activities as individuals in our private capacities rather than as a government that we can have great progress.

We have a choice in terms of the health program. All Americans want to be sure that every American has an opportunity to have the best health care. That is why we are for a program which provides for everybody to have health insurance who needs it or wants it, and also provides for catastrophic illnesses--and all this without new taxes.

That is why we have rejected, however, the proposition that what we should do is, in effect, to abolish the private health care system and to have it all taken over by the Federal Government. Let me say, I think every American, whenever he is ill, he wants a doctor that is working for him and not for the Federal Government.

Let me put it in better perspective, perhaps, in terms of numbers by pointing up our great goal of Project Independence 1980 for energy. You have heard what the Federal Government is going to do, and it sounds very big--$15 billion over the next 3 to 5 years the Federal Government will spend in research and a number of other areas in order to help achieve the goal of Project Independence in 1980.

But did you realize that over the next i o years, as compared to the $15 billion that I have just referred to, private enterprise will spend $500 billion, a half trillion dollars.

The way to make America achieve a goal which we want--of being independent of any other nation for our energy--is through unleashing private enterprise so that it can produce the energy that America has in such great resources. And that is why I say tonight to my colleagues in the Congress here, who don't need to hear it, but also to the Congress generally, that the time has come to move on the great number of energy proposals that we have before it:

One, to deregulate natural gas. Why? So that we can get more supplies and eventually bring down the price.

Two, to change the environmental restrictions with regard to the use of the resource in which we have two-thirds of the free world's capacity--coal. We should mine our coal and use our coal, and we can make it a clean fuel. But we must move forward, and the Congress must cooperate so that we can move forward.

And third, we must develop the great Federal lands that we have in terms of the production of oil and gas which can and will be made available for production.

And looking further down the road, we must move forward in areas that nobody ever thought of 10, 15 years ago: the development of nuclear power, the cleanest fuel of all; to develop too, in addition to nuclear power, of research in the field of solar energy in which you are so interested in this particular area. We must explore every possible area that we have.

But I am simply suggesting this insofar as this problem is concerned: The way to move forward, the way to become independent of any other nation for our energy supplies, is not to say, "What is the Federal Government going to do?" The way to do it is to remember how we got where we are, and that is through giving private enterprise a chance to develop the enormous resources of America, so that we can be the strongest in the world in terms of energy.

I know that many of you, of course, have heard of our programs. They are progressive programs providing for better education, providing for new transit for our cities and our rural areas as well, providing for better use and better planning for our lands and so forth across this country.

And I suppose some of you wonder if this isn't simply a throwback to the days of old when everything was done by the Government. Let me tell you the difference: We believe that the Federal Government has a role to play in all these areas. Federal money should be spent in the field of education. It should be spent in the field of transit. It should be spent in the field of land use. But there is this big difference: The decisions as to how that money should be spent should be made by the States, the local communities, and the people, and not by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.

And so I say to you tonight, through relying on the great resources, natural, that we are so richly blessed with, through relying on those principles that we believe in and that I have tried to enunciate to. night and those behind me have enunciated many times before audiences here and across the Nation, America can and wall have the economic strength that is needed to provide the leadership that is indispensable if we are going to have a world of peace.

And now to the third element. It is one that is perhaps more difficult to describe. Let me describe it, perhaps, in a way that may not have occurred to some of you who have not had the opportunities to see some of the nations that I have. The Soviet Union, 250 million Russians. The People's Republic of China, one-fourth of all the people in the world. They have systems of government with which I totally disagree and you disagree. And yet, I recognize as I met their leaders, I recognize as I saw their people, I recognize a steel-like strength and determination, even though their system is one that I totally disagree with.

And I look at America. Here we are, the richest nation in the world. Here we are, a very strong nation, and the question is: Does America have the strength of character, the sense of vision, the sense of destiny to provide the leadership? Our answer, I think, would be yes. But as you look at the history of great civilizations through the years, you find a very disturbing fact. Whether it was Greece or Rome or civilizations before that, they fell not when they were weak or poor, but when they were rich and thought they were strong.

The point of greatest danger for any nation is that when it becomes so rich, it becomes soft in its character. Let this not happen to America.

Sometimes, when we are in Washington, exposed only to what we read and hear there, we get an impression that maybe America is not up to this great task, that maybe Americans have lost their drive, their sense of destiny, that maybe at this time of our wealth and our power, America will not meet the challenge.

And then you leave Washington, and you see a different America. You see it here in Arizona. I saw it last week in Mississippi. I saw it perhaps most eloquently in a little town in Ohio--Xenia, Ohio. I went there because there had been a tornado.

It is a proud little city of 25,000. A tornado had swept through the residential areas. It left destruction such as I have never seen equaled except in an earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska.

I drove through those areas, and as I looked at what once were houses and saw the rubble there, it was a shocking thing to see. But then, as I went along, in lot after lot, somebody, the owner, had put up an American flag.

Now, people who can be that way when things are tough, you can be sure America has the strength, the guts to do what is necessary to lead in this critical period.

I have often quoted President de Gaulle, what he said to me when I saw him in 1963, and he said France is never her true self unless she is engaged in a great enterprise.

That, of course, was a very profound statement, not only about France but about all people. An individual can be only as great as an enterprise in which he is engaged is great. And all of us, whatever our jobs, must play a part. And a nation like America cannot and will not continue to be a great nation unless we are engaged in a great enterprise.

What is it? Bringing prosperity to America is a great enterprise. Bringing progress to America is a great enterprise. Bringing more opportunity for all Americans, whatever their background, is a great enterprise. But all of that is not enough. We have an even greater one, one that has never been given to a great people before, because there has never been a moment in history like this before, when the hopes of the whole human race depend upon what one nation does--the people of the United States.

My friends here in Arizona, I tell you we live at a great time in history--not a bad time. We live at a time when we have a chance not only to bring prosperity here and all these things that I have talked about but in which we have a chance to build a world of peace that the whole world can enjoy. And people, billions that we will never know or never see, can look to America and say they are thankful for what we have done.

That is our challenge, and my friends, I want to say to you, that is a great enterprise. And I can assure you tonight that I intend to stay on this job, and with your help, we shall meet that task.