Remarks at the Department of Defense Cost Reduction Awards Ceremony

Secretary McNamara, Secretary Vance, the Service Secretaries, General Wheeler, members of the Joint Chiefs, very valued employees of the Government of the United States:

I always come here to the Pentagon with a great sense of pride and a deep sense of gratitude. As a citizen, not as Commander in Chief, I am both proud and grateful for all of you who serve our country with such dedication--military and civilian alike.

This morning I came over here with something more--a slightly sore arm. Over the weekend Secretary McNamara and Mrs. McNamara and their son came up and visited with us at Camp David. And somehow some of the newsmen learned that I sometimes bowl up there. And the White House Press Office put out the word that my high score was 165

. That was all right, but then they went on to say that no other score would be announced unless it was higher.

Now that is in the best Washington tradition-to take a great deal of pride in a figure only if it is higher than the last one. And that is a tradition we are trying very hard to change, and I came over here this morning to thank you for helping me. What happened at Camp David Saturday was this: I challenged Bob McNamara and I guess most of you know that was a mistake--for both him and me.

Under the McNamara influence, my bowling score was, shall we say, reduced considerably. But I took some comfort from the fact that it was 50 percent better than the Pentagon's leading tennis, squash, and ski enthusiasts.

A great deal has happened since I had the pleasure of coming and visiting with you here about a year ago. Among the many good things which have occurred are the benefits that we are enjoying as the result of your labors, and the savings and cost reduction actions that the Defense Department has taken. As a result of those achievements, our military strength has continued to increase faster than our Defense budget. And that is as it should be.

Last January, I told the Congress, and I quote:

"Defense expenditures in the years ahead must continue to be guided by the relentless pursuit of efficiency and intelligence of economy.

"There is no necessary conflict between the need for a strong defense and the principles of economy and sound management. And if we are to remain strong, then--

"Outmoded weapons must be replaced by new ones.

"Obsolete equipment and installations must be eliminated.

"Costly duplication of effort must be cut out.

"We are following this policy today, and so long as I am President, I continue to plan to follow that policy."

This is still our policy.

But I think I should tell you that I could not follow it successfully--and Secretary McNamara could not follow it at all--without your loyal and your energetic and your imaginative efforts.

So I have come here this morning first, to thank you, second, to congratulate you.

Secretary McNamara's report to me a few days ago tells an impressive story about your achievements. In the fiscal year 1964, you saved some $2 1/2 billion. Last year, you nearly doubled that amount. In fact, your actual savings of $4.6 billion for fiscal 1965 were actually $2.1 billion more than he originally estimated.

Now this is a record of which all of you can be proud--and for which this country can be proud of you, and grateful to you.

But there is a good deal more to that story. You have proved the truth of my assurance to the Congress that economy and efficiency can go hand in hand with a strong defense. Side-by-side with our cost-reduction measures, our military strength has continued to mount.

Secretary McNamara reports to me that in the past 4 years you have achieved the following:

First, a 200 percent increase in both the number and total megatonnage of nuclear weapons in strategic alert forces.

Second, a 67 percent increase in the tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Western Europe.

Third, a 45 percent increase in the number of combat-ready Army divisions.

Fourth, a 51 percent increase in the number of tactical fighter squadrons.

Fifth, a 100 percent increase in air-lift capability.

Sixth, a 100 percent increase in general ship construction and conversion to modernize the fleet.

Seventh, a 1,000 percent increase in the special forces that are trained to deal with counterinsurgency threats.

Now without this magnificent record, we would be very ill-equipped to meet the situation that we have encountered in Viet-Nam, or the many other worldwide commitments we have to the cause of peace and freedom.

I just finished reviewing with the leading Members of Congress, the leadership, the chairmen of the House and Senate committees, the problems that face America in the world. And today the future of the whole society of free men depends to a very large extent upon the strength that you have built.

So you and your colleagues in the Defense Department are the men and women to whom America looks to provide that strength--and you are providing it.

So long as I am permitted to be your President, we will continue to spend whatever is necessary to spend for the security of our people. We shall continue to maintain our military forces without regard to arbitrary budget ceilings. But, with your continued help, we will proceed to procure those forces always at the lowest possible cost. We will continue to operate them with the greatest possible economy and efficiency.

The first week I was in this Office I promised the people of this Nation that the country would get a dollar's worth of defense for every dollar spent, and now I wish to thank some of you for helping me to fulfill that promise.

We have 10 important departments in this Government. We have dozens of outstanding independent agencies that number their employees among the thousands. But I am proud this morning to acknowledge that you are the pacesetters. You are not only the leaders in protecting this Nation's security, but you are the leaders in protecting this Nation's solvency. And the work that the generals and the admirals and the secretaries and the stenographers have done together, by finding areas of agreement and uniting and following enlightened cost conscious 20th-century practices, is now being emulated in every single department in this Government.

I have been a Government employee all of my adult life for 35 years. I know the pride they take in their work and in their country. No person that ever served in uniform or ever served the men in uniform had more right to feel proud than those who are part of the Defense Establishment today.

Both in uniform and out, you have men of the highest caliber, of the highest integrity, the greatest quality of intelligence and dedication and leadership. I am proud of our Joint Chiefs of Staff. I am proud of their counselors. I am proud of our Service Secretaries and their assistants and their associates. And I need not tell you how grateful f am for the sacrifice that you Americans are willing to make in order to continue to keep this the home of the brave and the land of the free.

And heading all that list to whom I am indebted, I am indebted to none more, and there is none that I have a greater affection or admiration for than the man who ranks you all in this Department--the great Secretary of Defense, Bob McNamara. He gave up a great deal of his hobbies and his pleasures and hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, and millions of investments to come here and serve his country. He has served it faithfully and well. And if he has made mistakes, they have been mistakes of the head and not of the heart. And in the days ahead we will face many trying moments. We will go through many periods when our authority and our position and our system will be challenged, but under the leadership of what this building houses, we will meet every challenge, we will respond to every challenge, and we will, God willing, bring to all the peoples of all the world peace and progress.

Thank all of you so much.

[After the presentation of the awards the President resumed speaking.]

I want to thank you again before I leave, for having me here. During the last 3 years you have trained one of the outstanding administrators in this Government, and I get so many calls from the Defense Department to make decisions that I have just come over to the Defense Department and got one of your outstanding administrators, Mr. Joseph Califano, to move over to the White House and kind of help take charge of it. So he has not only been helping run the Pentagon, but now he is helping run the White House. And I want to thank you for making him available to me.

I want to publicly thank General Wheeler, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for his wise counsel during the period that I have been President.

There are many honored and hallowed names on the honor roll of the Chiefs of Staff and the Chairmen of the Chiefs of Staff, but there is none that is greater or has contributed finer service or more wisdom and understanding than the man who now occupies that high office, and if I weren't fearful that I would be charged with plagiarizing Jack Valenti, I would say that I sleep better every night when I sleep, because of General Wheeler.