Remarks of Welcome to Vice President and Mrs. Johnson on Their Return From Southeast Asia
I WANT TO EXPRESS our great pride and satisfaction in having the Vice President and Mrs. Johnson back with us. And I also want to join our fellow countrymen in commending the people who went with them-Mr. Surfridge who is head of the Retail Clerks, who had a chance to communicate with some of the labor people in the countries which were visited by the Vice President; also Dr. Cain of the Mayo Clinic, who was a valuable participant in this voyage; and also my sister Jean and her husband Steve.
We are most grateful to the Ambassadors of the countries which the Vice President and his wife visited for coming today to join in this reception. I received today a communication from one of our Ambassadors, addressed to me, in which the first sentence was--this is from an American Ambassador in one of the countries which the Vice President visited--which I think reflects the reports we received from every country visited by the Vice President: "I believe the Vice President's timely and gallant enterprise of purpose accomplished the missions originally conceived in Washington."
I want to express, and I know he will, our great appreciation to the countries and to the people of the countries, their leaders, for the courtesy with which they received the Vice President, Mrs. Johnson and the members of their family. From all the information we received, there was not a single discordant note in their generous hand of welcome which they extended to this group of distinguished Americans.
Therefore I want to take this opportunity to express our thanks to the Ambassadors here, and through them to their countries, for their very kind action to a group of Americans in whom we have great confidence.
I think the Vice President's journey represented a great public service. There are members from both parties here today to greet him. There were members of both parties in his group going around the world. This was an American effort to indicate our great concern for the cause of freedom in significant and important countries around the world.
So Mr. Vice President, we're glad to have you back. We don't quite understand why all of you should look so well while those of us who are here resting look so pale, but nevertheless, we're glad to have you back, and we appreciate very much what you did.
Note: The President spoke at 11:20 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White House. Vice President Johnson responded as follows: "Thank you, Mr. President. The easiest way for you to understand why we are not pale is to spend 2 or 3 days in 110 degree temperature in India.
"This is one of the most challenging trips that I have ever taken. When we left, we said that it would be a trip of hope and a mission of purpose, and we return considerably strengthened and with much greater hope. We visited in several countries where the population would add up to more than three quarters of a billion people. We did not see all of those people but we saw a good many of them as well as their leaden. We never heard a hostile voice and we never shook a hostile hand. We went to listen and learn and to seek their counsel and to give them the benefit of the judgments of this country as expressed by the President in his letter and by our distinguished Secretary of State.
"Everywhere we went we found that the leadership and the government had great respect for our country, for our President, for our Secretary of State and for the policies pursued by our government. We received their suggestions and their recommendations and they will be given to the President in a report this afternoon.
"I will have a chance a little later m answer your questions and to talk to you about details of the trip.
"We are deeply indebted m the Speaker and the Majority and Minority leadership, and particularly to Chairman Fulbright and Dr. Morgan and the leaders of the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committee for their warm welcome here. I shall ask for an opportunity to visit with them this afternoon and tomorrow, and to ask their judgments before completing a detailed report to the President. We will have an interim memorandum for him before the day is over.
"I want to thank the Ambassadors who represent the countries we visited. They saw me away when we left on our journey, and they are here to receive me when we return.
"I believe that we will march closer together, that we will remain more united, that we will be a stronger force for freedom than we were when we last met.
"I am very grateful to all who took the time to come out here and welcome us home, and we are mighty glad to be back."
Following a request of the President that she tell something of her trip, Mrs. Johnson responded as follows:
"Well, after twenty-eight thousand miles in 13 days, my chief impression is that I have seen a world of people on the move. I did more people seeing than sightseeing. It was the most marvelous two weeks I have ever spent, and I am so grateful that I had a little opportunity to serve as one additional link between the United States and all of those countries to which we went."
In his opening remarks the President referred to Mr. James A. Surfridge, President of the Retail Clerks International Association; Dr. James C. Cain, Specialist in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic; and the President's sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen E. Smith.
John F. Kennedy, Remarks of Welcome to Vice President and Mrs. Johnson on Their Return From Southeast Asia Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234546
