Remarks at the Armed forces Dinner.

Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. Secretary of State, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:

I am most happy to be here tonight, and to have had this chance to listen to that great and splendid speech by the Secretary of State. I was especially interested in what he had to say about the State Department and the Department of Defense working together. You don't know what a lot of "corn hoeing" that has taken. But it is working, and it is working successfully.

And it is necessary now, more than ever in the history of the country, because of our position in the world as the great power of the free nations of the world. We have that leadership whether we like it or not, and we must assume it.

No President ever had such able people and such a fine organization to help him deal with foreign affairs as the one I have now. The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense I don't think have ever been equaled in those positions in my memory.

I have a Secretary of the Army, and Secretary of the Navy, and Secretary of the Air force who are as efficient as any three men could possibly be.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed by General Bradley, with General Collins for the Army, General Vandenberg for the Air Force, and General Fechteler for the Navy, have never been in better hands.

Admiral Fechteler--I'm sorry--I made a mistake. But it goes just the same. He would be just as good as a General as he is as an Admiral.

It is a good thing to have that sort of help--a very good thing, because our relations with other countries have become very complex and tremendously important, as the Secretary of State told you awhile ago.

When I attended this dinner last year, I told you we were in the midst of one of the greatest crises this country had ever faced. I told you that this crisis must be met, through the leadership of the United States of America.

That is what we have been trying to do. We have had our ups and downs, but we have come a long way. Our position is much better today than it was a year ago. Our Armed forces are stronger, our defense production is rolling on a large scale. We have made remarkable progress in firming up our defense arrangements with other countries, both in Europe and in Asia.

We have made enough progress so that the path of an aggressor would be much more difficult, and that means that the chances of a third world war are just that much less.

Now I spent 7 years, and some months, in the hardest kind of work, with but one object in view: to get peace in the world and to prevent a third world war.

And I believe we are on the verge of success in what we started out to do. But some people are discouraged. There are people high and low who want to give up when the going is rough, when it is tough to meet a situation.

I am here to tell you that I don't belong to that class.

Very few people have suffered any real hardship because of this great emergency. Only the men who have done the fighting in Korea have suffered real hardships.

So have their families. Their families have been real sufferers under the conditions we have had to face. And you mustn't forget that.

As I told you last year, we are here at a fine banquet, we are enjoying ourselves and we are telling how good we are. But there are men in the field who are working in the mud, who are facing artillery fire, who are sending artillery fire. There are men on the sea, who are flying and bombing the back places in Korea, who are trying to bring this thing to a conclusion.

You must not do anything that will cause those men to get shot in the back.

Certainly the rest of us--in gratitude to them--ought to be willing to carry through on the job they have given us a chance to do.

Our mobilization program has gained tremendous momentum. That program cannot be turned off and on like a water faucet for reasons of political expediency. We have men in and out of the Congress who played petty politics and hampered our efforts to obtain world peace.

If the defense effort is not carried forward on an orderly basis, it just won't work, and we will step right into world war three. And it can't be carried forward on an orderly basis without the necessary appropriations we need. And these appropriations should not be hamstrung with fool legislative riders. There is no use making the appropriations if you tie it up so that it can't be used.

I am here to tell you that I am not going to stand for it. I am in a position to cause you some trouble if you do it. And I am not running for office, either.

The defense program that has been put before the Congress is well within the economic capacity of this Nation. That budget is a tight budget, and an honest one. To win the cold war Congress must give what we ask.

All this talk about it being an insupportable burden and bringing on national bankruptcy is nothing in the world but poppycock. I don't think you believe a word of it. I don't.

I hope the country and this Congress will give the Armed forces the kind of support they deserve, and that they must have to win this cold war.

The Armed forces are doing a magnificent job, but in the final analysis they will be no stronger than the support they get from the home front. The responsibility rests with the Congress as well as it does with the President.

The part of the job that must be done is up to all of us. I hope that every one of you here tonight will do your best to help me see that our fighting men and our world defense program are given the adequate support which they deserve.