Members of the Cabinet, Members of Congress, Dr. Hornig, distinguished guests, my friends:
I have heard it said that "everyone wishes to have the truth on his side, but it is not everyone that sincerely wants to be on the side of truth."
We are very pleased today to welcome men who have chosen to be on the side of truth, and to pursue truth as a way of life. They honor us by their presence--and by their accomplishments they honor the entire Nation.
We recognize those accomplishments today by conferring on these men the National Medal of Science, the highest tribute their Government can pay them.
One of these medals is being awarded posthumously to Dr. Hugh Dryden, who died last December after nearly 50 years of exceptional service to his Government. His work lives on. His contributions will enrich the lives of generations of Americans.
The National Medal of Science honors individual achievement. It reminds us that in a Nation of millions, and in a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change. Without the unfettered curiosity of individual men probing and reaching for new truth, our planet would be a dry and dreary place.
It is a truism, almost, to say that the individual matters most. The very simplicity of the statement lends itself to misunderstanding. Certainly the welfare and happiness of all our people must be the continuing quest of science and government. As neglected needs mount, a nation indifferent to the interests of the larger community of citizens only invites disorder and, ultimately, ruin.
But that pursuit must never tolerate apathy to the right of one man to be different. We are a Nation of differences, and the values and principles that protect those differences are the source of a unity far more lasting and strong than any contrived harmony could ever be.
One man alone with his conscience-whether in the laboratory, or the study, or the classroom, or on the street corner--is to be jealously guarded from the thousand who, believing him wrong, would deny his right to search and his right to speak the truth. On that fact we have built a free and great and diverse society.
The National Medal of Science symbolizes that from one individual's freedom to be different comes achievement to bless all of US.
The work of these men has been for all mankind. They have extended the frontier of our minds and the comfort of our bodies, and we are all the better for their efforts.
This is the 20th year of the atomic age. The power of the sun is in our hands. From this day forward there will be no excuses. There can be food, and shelter, and clothing, and health, and education, and meaningful leisure for every single human being on this earth.
Our children and our grandchildren are going to judge us. They are going to judge us by a standard more demanding than we have ever known before. For they will truly know if we fail at the moment of man's greatest opportunity, the fault will lay not in the stars, but the fault will lay in ourselves.
Now we will read the citations for the 1965 award of the National Medal of Science, and to each of you here this morning Mrs. Johnson and I extend a most cordial welcome.
Note: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. in the East Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to Dr. Donald F. Hornig, Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Science and Technology, who introduced the recipients and read the citations, as follows:
Dr. John Bardeen, Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois. Cited "For his brilliant contributions to the theory of electrical conductivity in solid materials, and especially those which led to the development of a successful theory of superconductivity."
Dr. Peter J. W. Debye, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, Cornell University. Cited "For sustained contributions of major concepts of modern chemistry and especially for the application of physical methods to the understanding of large molecules and their interaction in solution."
Dr. Hugh Latimer Dryden, former Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Cited posthumously "For contributions as an engineer, administrator, and civil servant for one-half century to aeronautics and astronautics which have immeasurably supported the Nation's preeminence in space."
Dr. Clarence Leonard Johnson, Vice President for Advanced Development Projects, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Cited "For bold innovations in the use of materials and in the design of aircraft of unusual configurations that pioneered new vistas for the possibility of flight."
Dr. Leon Max Lederman, Professor of Physics, Columbia University. Cited "For systematic studies of mesons, for his participation in the discovery of two kinds of neutrinos and of parity violation in the decay of mu-mesons."
Dr. Warren Kendall Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cited "For contributions as a scientist, teacher, and inventor who as the leader of modern chemical engineering has made the American chemical industry preeminent in the world."
Dr. Francis Peyton Rous, associated with the Rockefeller Institute. Cited "For the original discovery and continued elaboration of the relationship between viruses and tumors, which has come to form the biologic base for so much of our present research effort on cancer."
Dr. William Walden Rubey, Professor of Geology and Geophysics, University of California at Los Angeles. Cited "For showing by profoundly original observations and clear physical reasoning how sand grains and mountains move and from whence the oceans come."
Dr. George Gaylord Simpson, Agassiz Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology, Harvard University. Cited "For penetrating studies of vertebrate evolution through geologic time, and for scholarly synthesis of a new understanding of organic evolution based upon genetics and paleontology."
Dr. Donald Dexter Van Slyke, research chemist, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Cited "For classic studies of the chemistry of blood and of amino acid metabolism, and for the quantitative biochemical methodology underlying much of clinical medicine."
Dr. Oscar Zariski, Professor of Mathematics, Harvard University. Cited "For his creation of a rigorous abstract theory of algebraic geometry, and his profound influence-especially through many brilliant students--on the algebraic structure of contemporary pure mathematics."
The awards were made by the President on the basis of recommendations received from the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science, chaired by Dr. H. E. Carter of the University of Illinois.
The medal for the posthumous award to Dr. Hugh Dryden was presented to Mrs. Dryden.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the National Medal of Science Presentation Ceremony. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238387
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