Remarks Upon Completing an Inspection of SAC Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha
General Power, General LeMay, ladies and gentlemen:
The Secretary General and I have now completed almost 2 hours of hard work with this brilliant and dedicated staff of the Strategic Air Command. I think that both of us have gained fresh understanding of the intimate relation between the strategic strength of the United States and the defense of the North Atlantic Alliance. We have had presented in some detail the military facts and figures which support the great and simple political reality that is set forth in our treaty, namely that the defense of one is the defense of all.
We have learned again what we already knew, that the strength and the skill of this Command are absolutely vital to the peace of the Atlantic world. We recognize that the mission of this Command is peace. And we had related to us this afternoon the capacity, the numbers, the procedures, the overall plans, and the great amount of thinking that has gone into accomplishing that mission, namely preserving the peace.
This day has thus brought new encouragement to me, and I hope also to my friend, the distinguished Secretary General.
So we are grateful to all of you and to the State of Nebraska for all that we have seen. We also thank you for your distance from Washington. On the plane ride out and back, Mr. Brosio and I are finding a chance for some quiet conversations together concerning the future needs and the future hopes of our great alliance. The success of NATO is evident in every member country, in peace and prosperity, and in confidence in the future. Yet our very success creates new problems for tomorrow.
The work of freedom is really never done, and as we go back to these discussions let me thank all of you again for this very profitable afternoon in Omaha. I have been here several times during the 13 years that General Power has been connected with the Strategic Air Command, and I have had numerous briefings from him and from his staff. I feel as I believe most Americans do, deeply in his debt, and the debt of the dedicated men who serve with him, for their love of country and for their proficiency to accomplish the mission assigned them.
I want to thank the members of the families of the men assigned to this Command. They are called upon to make many sacrifices, and just as their men's mission is peace, I guess they sacrifice with a smile, because wherever I go and I see the Strategic Air Force, I am stimulated and inspired.
Since General LeMay is here with us today, all of you really represent a great monument to his thinking and to his planning. Now that we realize the proof of the pudding is in the eating and you have preserved the peace now for almost 20 years, I think you can return to your homes this evening with a proper and justified "well done" from your Chief.
Incidentally, just to show you that I really mean it, I added a good deal to my budget this year by insisting on a pay raise for all of you.
Perhaps my colleague, Mr. Brosio, would have something that he would like to say to you now.
Note: The President spoke following an inspection with Manlio Brosio, Secretary General of NATO, of SAC Headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebr. His opening words referred to Gen. Thomas S. Power, Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command, and Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, Chief of Staff, Department of the Air Force.
The response of Secretary General Brosio follows:
Thank you. Mr. President; General Power. ladies and gentlemen of Omaha:
I want only to say that I am very happy to be back in Omaha again. I have been here a few years ago, that is in 1957, when General LeMay was still Commander here. I am very glad to be back tonight.
I have seen new, interesting things; I have learned a lot. But I am above all very deeply honored to have had the opportunity of coming tonight on the invitation and in the company of the President of the United States. This is a thing I am not going to forget so easily.
I have seen really the contribution to the defense not only of the United States, but also of Europe by this central base and Command of the Western World which is absolutely indispensable and decisive. That convinces me and convinces all Europeans, I think, of the absolute necessity of continuing the close links which tie us in our essential Atlantic Alliance. I also share entirely what the President of the United States has told you just now, that all this huge preparation which needs an enormous amount of intelligence, of skill, of patience and of courage, is intended only to defend peace, is intended primarily to prevent war. And in these 15 years of life of the Atlantic Alliance, thanks to this preparation, thanks to our unity and solidarity, peace has been preserved. I am sure we will be able to preserve it with the same methods and with the same spirit for the future in the interest of the freedom and the welfare of the people of the United States and Europe.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks Upon Completing an Inspection of SAC Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/242625
