His Majesty, Secretary Rusk, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
It has been said that America is the half brother of the world.
And certainly that is true, Your Majesty, of Norway and Norwegians. There are almost as many Norwegian Americans as there are Norwegians in your own country.
Here in our country, Americans of Norwegian descent number more than 3 million. They include many of our most distinguished Americans, our very able Vice President among them.
Your Majesty, it was just 21 years ago that President Truman spelled out America's family relationship with Europe.
1947 was the year of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. It was also the year that postwar isolationism in the United States was finally buried. President Truman understood the implications of America's involvement in European affairs. He said:
"This is a serious course upon which we embark. "I would not recommend it except that the alternative is much more serious."
Today there is no doubt that Europe is once again a very vital and prospering center of the world. There should also be no doubt that the United States remains as closely bound to our North Atlantic partners-closely joined in common history, culture, ideals, and endeavors.
The real question today is not whether America and Europe are still partners. Of course we are partners. But the real question is, what will we be partners for?
President Truman said back there in 1947, "... we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own ways."
If there is evidence anywhere in the world today that a small, free nation can become a great and creative and independent nation, that example is surely to be found in your country--Norway.
I believe that Americans and Europeans must rededicate themselves to the purposes of partnership that united us and has united us for 21 years.
The original concepts of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan are valid today, as we stand here. They are valid all over the world.
So, working together, I think there is nothing that we cannot do together. We can make every continent of this world a better and safer place for the children and the grandchildren of our world. We can better humanity wherever humanity exists.
It will not be easy. It will take us decades. It will require energy and talent and resources and treasure.
But as President Truman so wisely and courageously observed, the alternative is harder to accept.
Your Majesty, we celebrate the joint efforts of our past. We look forward to future cooperation for human dignity. I welcome you to America as an old friend of this country.
I thank you again on behalf of Mrs. Johnson and myself for the cordiality with which your people received us and for the warm exchanges we had in your country in our most pleasant visits with you.
We are so happy to have you in our country. The sunshine now is coming out to welcome you.
Note: The President spoke at 10:36 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White House where His Majesty was given a formal welcome with full military honors. In his opening words the President also referred to Secretary of State Dean Rusk. King Olav responded as follows:
Mr. President, Mrs. Johnson, ladies and gentlemen:
I would like to thank you for the very warm and friendly words which you have just directed to my country and to myself. I accept these kind words as a token of the exceptionally close relationship and strong sense of community which have for so many years existed between our two nations.
Let me in my turn tell you how happy I am to be here and to bring greetings from Norway to you, Mr. President, and to the people of America.
The strong friendship and admiration which we Norwegians feel towards the American people is indeed deep rooted. These sentiments go all the way back to the great American Revolution when Norwegians, themselves a dependent nation at that time, came to regard this new union of the 13 States on the other side of the Atlantic as an inspiring example and as a bold people's exercise of self-determination in the ideals of freedom and of human rights.
To the initial feeling of admiration was added the new sense of kinship and community based on the thousands of family bonds when, during the 19th century, more than half a million Norwegians came to this country to build a new future and make their contribution to the growth of the American Nation and to the development of the United States.
Needless to say, I am today looking forward with expectation and pride to meet again a great number of their descendants during my trip across this vast continent.
During the Second World War, when our two countries became allies, a new fundamental dimension was added to Norwegian-American relations. The rise of the United States of America to what it represents today has indeed been a great and breathtaking adventure.
But hardly in any period of this great Nation's history has there been so many dramatic events and such an unparalleled progress and affluence as the three decades which have lapsed since I, as Crown Prince of Norway, toured this country for more than 2 months.
I am, therefore, deeply grateful, Mr. President, for your kind invitation to revisit the United States, to renew my acquaintances with you personally and with other distinguished leaders of this great Nation and to take stock of the tremendous developments in all fields of human endeavor which have taken place here since my first visit.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks of Welcome at the White House to King Olav V of Norway Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237744
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