The President's Remarks Upon Arrival at the White House Following the Glassboro Meetings With Chairman Kosygin

On my return tonight to the White House after 2 days of talks at Hollybush, I want to make this brief report to the American people.

We continued our discussions today in the same spirit in which we began them on Friday--a spirit of direct, race-to-face exchanges between leaders with very heavy responsibilities.

We wanted to meet again because the issues before us are so large and so difficult that one meeting together was not nearly enough. The two meetings have been better than one, and at least we learned--I know I did--from each hour of our talks.

You will not be surprised to know that these two meetings have not solved all of our problems. On some we have made progress-great progress in reducing misunderstanding, I think, and in reaffirming our common commitment to seek agreement.

I think we made that kind of progress, for example, on the question of arms limitation. We have agreed this afternoon that Secretary of State Rusk and Mr. Gromyko will pursue this subject further in New York in the days ahead.

I must report that no agreement is readily in sight on the Middle Eastern crisis, and that our well known differences over Vietnam continue. Yet even on these issues I was very glad to hear the Chairman's views face to face and to have a chance to tell him directly and in detail just what our purposes and our policies are and are not in these particular areas. The Chairman, I believe, made a similar effort with me.

When nations have deeply different positions, as we do on these issues, they do not come to agreement merely by improving their understanding of each other's views. But such improvement helps. Sometimes in such discussions you can find elements-beginnings--hopeful fractions of common ground even within a general disagreement. It was so in the Middle East 2 weeks ago when we agreed on the need for a prompt cease-fire. And it is so today in respect to such simple propositions as that every state has a right to live; that there should be an end to the war in the Middle East; and that in the right circumstances there should be withdrawal of troops.

This is a long way from agreement, but it is a long way, also, from total difference.

On Vietnam, the area of agreement is smaller. It is defined by the fact that the dangers and the difficulties of any one area must never be allowed to become a cause of wider conflict. Yet even in Vietnam I was able to make it very clear, with no third party between us, that we will match and we will outmatch every step to peace that others may be ready to take.

As I warned on Friday, and as I just must warn again on this Sunday afternoon, meetings like these do not themselves make peace in the world. We must all remember that there have been many meetings before and they have not ended all of our troubles or all of our dangers.

But I can also repeat on this Sunday afternoon another thing that I said on last Friday: that it does help a lot to sit down and look at a man right in the eye and try to reason with him, particularly if he is trying to reason with you.

We may have differences and difficulties ahead, but I think they will be lessened and not increased by our new knowledge of each other.

Chairman Kosygin and I have agreed that the leaders of our two countries will keep in touch in the future through our able Secretaries and Ambassadors, and also keep in touch directly.

I said on Friday that the world is very small and very dangerous. Tonight I believe that it is fair to say that these days at Hollybush have made it a little smaller still, but also a little less dangerous.