Remarks at Tulsa, Oklahoma

Thank you very much. To all of you who are gathered here inside the hangar, and to the thousands more outside the hangar, thank you very much for a wonderful welcome to the Sooner State.

When I scheduled this stop in Oklahoma, there were those who said "Why?" I am going to give you the reasons why. I remember saying at the time of the nomination in Miami that we weren't going to take any State for granted, and that we were not going to concede any States to the opposition. Oklahoma is one State that I have always carried, and we are not going to start losing it now.

Every time I come here to Oklahoma, believe me--I remember in '52 as a candidate for Vice President, '56, '60, '68--you just give me a wonderful lift. Thank you for that wonderful lift that you give me.

Now, there is another reason that I am here, and that is to express appreciation not only for your support in the past, but also to ask for your help in the future. Naturally, I am going to talk about what I hope for the future for those 4 years you are talking about, but I also want to tell you that one man, the President of the United States, cannot do that job alone. He needs help. He needs it in the Senate and he needs it in the House of Representatives. I want you to know that in Henry Bellmon you have one of the strongest, best, most loyal Senators in the whole United States of America.

I know, too, that Oklahoma is a team State. You produce great teams. You believe in teamwork. You don't like to have one man cancel out another man's vote. Let me say that during the years that I have been President, I have had the opportunity to work with many Governors. Of all the 50 Governors, in this State one of my closest friends, but more important, one of the ablest men that I have met in terms of knowing the problems of his State, of knowing the problems of this Nation, is Dewey Bartlett, and I think that Bartlett and Bellmon would just make a great team in the United States Senate.

You know, another thought occurs to me. When they call that roll in the Senate, they do it alphabetically, and when you have those two "B's" high up on the roll it might affect a few more votes right down that way, so we want them both.

Over in the House of Representatives, you, of course, have had fine representation from this State. I would not want to come here, even though he is not a candidate this year, without paying the appreciation of the Nation to Page Belcher for the great service he has rendered as a Congressman, and to tell you that I, of course, support all of our splendid candidates for Congress. I will not have the time to mention them all individually, but particularly here in Tulsa the man who was your former mayor, the man who has all of the qualifications to step into those big shoes of Page Belcher, Jim Hewgley for the United States Congress.

Now, with that, if you would permit me, I would like to say a few words for myself, not really in that sense, and not just for a party. What I want to say to you now is that next Tuesday we have an election which is very different from most elections in this country. Usually an election is just a contest between two men, each of whom aspires to a high office, with somewhat different views, but some of the same views. Usually a contest for an election involves a contest between two parties; one party nominates one man and the other party nominates another man.

Let me tell you, this year what counts is not the man, and not the personality and not the party; what we need is what is best for America; Democrats, Republicans all joining together for what is best for America.

I think, for example, of those next 4 years, and naturally I think of the last 4 years and what I want and what you want for those 4 years. I was so delighted to see all these wonderful young people, most of them will not remember what I said here. They will only remember, perhaps, that they were here. But what we say here and what we do in these next 4 years will determine their futures and your future. That is what this is all about.

In that connection, for example, as I said on television last night, I want them to have the opportunity and to have something we haven't had since President Eisenhower was President, and that means prosperity without war and without inflation. I want them to have opportunity-opportunity to go as high as their abilities will take them, and we have moved in that direction in fields of education and health and environment over these past 4 years.

I want them also, all of our younger generation and the older generation, to really have a deep feeling of love and respect for this country. Let me say, I have noted that some of those who are campaigning across this country are constantly running America down. Let's speak up for America and speak up for her on November 7.

But above all, everybody here in Oklahoma, like everybody in Illinois where I was a few hours ago, and everybody in Rhode Island, where I will be about 3 hours from now, wants the same thing for their children, and that is a world of peace. Let me speak to that subject for just a moment so that you can see what is really at stake in this campaign, so that you can see the great difference between the candidates and what your votes will do for that great goal of peace in the United States.

In the first place, we have made great progress toward our goal of peace with honor over the last 4 years, I refer, for example, to the trips that I took to Peking and to Moscow which mean that those great nations, instead of being in confrontation with the United States, while we will still have differences, we will have the opportunities to have a peaceful relationship with them.

I speak also of the progress we have made toward peace in Vietnam. I speak of the fact that we have brought over 500,000 home. I also speak of what you have all read about, of the fact that we have finally made a breakthrough in the negotiations to bring about a peace with honor. We have already agreed on major provisions. Listen to these provisions because they are the ones that I laid down in my speech of May 8 when, as you remember, I ordered the mining of Haiphong and the bombing of North Vietnam: First, we have agreed, have an agreement, that all of our prisoners of war will be returned and all of our missing in action will be accounted for. Second, we have an agreement that we will have a cease-fire throughout Indochina, in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Third, and this is a very important part of what we have agreed to, we have agreed that the 17 million people of South Vietnam shall have the right to choose their own government without having a Communist government or a coalition government imposed upon them against their will.

We have not yet signed the final agreement and the reason that we have not is that some of the details, some of the issues, are still to be finally worked out. I am confident that they will soon be worked out. Let me tell you what the election has to do with this. As far as the election is concerned, it will not have any effect in hastening us to sign an agreement that would be wrong and it will have no effect in delaying us from signing an agreement that is right.

Let me tell you, what is far more important than this next election is peace for the next generation, and we are going to have the right kind of an agreement.

You remember in 1968 when a bombing halt agreement was made just before an election. It was made with the best of intentions, I am sure, by the previous Administration. But because it wasn't nailed down in its details the war went on.

We are not going to make that mistake. We are nailing down the details. We are getting an agreement which will not simply be an interlude between wars, but which will lay the foundation for peace in the years ahead. I know that peace with honor rather than peace with surrender is what all of the people of this State want.

Now, may I come to a fundamental proposition that the people of Oklahoma have always understood in great numbers and that we in this Nation must understand if we are going to be able to build that era of peace that we want to build in the years ahead. There are those who believe that as we now negotiate with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, and as we bring the war in Vietnam to an end, that the United States should drastically cut its national defense and then hope that the others do, too. Let me say this: I want all of you to know, I have sat for long days, day on day, in negotiations at the highest level in Peking and Moscow. They have been important negotiations. They have been successful negotiations. But they could not have been successful unless I was able to negotiate recognizing that I represented a nation that was strong and that was respected.

Let us now resolve that we shall never send the President of the United States to the negotiating table as the head of the second strongest nation--the United States of America. And so the issue is clear. The issue that you, the voters of this country--Democrats, Republicans, and independents--will all answer is this: Shall it be peace with surrender or peace with honor? I say peace with honor for America. That is what we stand for.

Shall it be a weak America or shall it be a strong America? I say a strong America.

Shall it be an America that withdraws from its responsibilities in the world, or an America that leads the way to peace in the world so that we can have peace at home? I say let us meet our responsibilities in the world. And also, as we look to the future of this country, let us remember that not only do we want peace for our younger generation and for ourselves, prosperity without war and without inflation, progress, but let us have in these next 4 years, as we come to the 200th birthday of this country, a restoration of something that Americans had in their youth and which we need now.

Do you remember when America was only 3 million people and 13 States, weak militarily and also poor economically? And yet that young America, 195 years ago, was respected all over the world. It was the hope of the world. Why? Because America then stood for spiritual and moral strength that could not be represented by military strength and that was stronger than any economic wealth and power.

Today America's military strength is unquestioned. America's economic strength is unquestioned. We are the richest nation in the world. Let us also remember that this is the time to strengthen that moral and religious heritage and principle in America that has made us the great nation that we are.

My friends in Oklahoma, as I said at the beginning, it is always a very great privilege to come here, to be received so warmly. It is also very heartening to know that out here in the middle of this country there are a people--a people who are strong, a people who have backbone, a people who will stand up for America, a people who believe in the religious and moral values that made this country great. Every time that I make a great decision, I know that I can count on the people of Oklahoma.

Thank you very much.