Remarks of Welcome to Prime Minister Holt of Australia on the South Lawn at the White House

Note: The President spoke at 12:25 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White House, where Prime Minister Harold E. Holt was welcomed with full military honors. The Prime Minister, whose visit was described as a working visit, responded as follows:

Mr. President and Mrs. Johnson:

Thank you for your warm welcome, Mr. President. You have said warm and generous things about Australia and its people.

What a memorable morning for the Australian people and for an Australian Prime Minister. I thank you for the honor which, by this ceremonial, you have accorded to my country and you have accorded to me. What has been done will be appreciated deeply by my people as it is by myself as head of my Government.

We meet, Mr. President, as heads of government while our two nations are again comrades in arms. This is at least the fourth time in this century that Americans and Australians have combined together with other friendly forces to resist aggression.

We fought alongside each other in two World Wars, and then Australia was the first country, I believe, to announce itself beside you when America made the historic decision to bring its strength to the aid of South Korea.

I say historic decision advisedly, because I believe that to have been, Mr. President, one of the turning points in human history. I believe at that critical point of time was decided the issue of whether we handed Asia over to penetrating, aggressive communism, or whether we kept intact a large part of Asia as member countries of the company of free people throughout the world.

Australia was with you when you decided on the decision, critical also to you and to us, in South Vietnam, another battleground against Communist aggression.

You have spoken of the task force of Australians which is now assembled in Saigon. You will be aware, Mr. President, that in other parts of Southeast Asia Australia is making a military contribution, small by the standards of your own great country, but useful in the company in which we find ourselves there.

I know that this task force in South Vietnam will acquit itself with distinction. The men that are serving there are men of quality. They are well-trained. The 1st Battalion was accorded the highest commendation by your own leaders and by the leaders of South Vietnam. The task force which follows them will acquit themselves with no less courage and distinction.

The outcome of this struggle is critical for the hopes that you and we share for a better and more secure way of life for the free people of Asia.

You have spoken of the vital free Asia that is emerging. I can speak of this from some personal experience, because not merely do we have a view from "Down Under" which is perhaps a different perspective from that of others in different parts of the world, but it has been my own good fortune in recent times to have traveled over several of these countries of Southeast Asia.

What has occurred over recent years is a transformation. To go through Thailand, Malaysia, and even South Vietnam itself, and see the massive support being rendered there, see the security, the progress which has been found possible by these other countries where communism has successfully been held in check--to see these things is to give heartening encouragement to go on with the job of resisting aggression where we find it.

But it does not take a war to bring Americans and Australians close together. We like each other. Friendships form quickly between us. We have many mutually beneficial links: our trade with each other; the investment that you make with us with your capital. We cooperate in many constructive international interests and causes.

You mentioned, Mr. President, your time in Australia 25 years ago. A new Australia has arisen since then. When can we see you there again? And this time we hope with Mrs. Johnson, and perhaps the whole family.

You will be encouraged to see the national growth in which many American skills and resources have assisted.

Mr. President, we recognize all too clearly in my own country that on you, personally, falls the heavy and at times lonely responsibility of free world leadership. On your country these burdens have been assumed in comparatively recent times in terms of modern history. But America has shouldered those burdens firmly, and you have inspired and encouraged us all by the strength of your own resolution.

You know that in Australia you have an understanding friend. I am here, sir, not asking for anything--an experience which I am sure you value at times when it is not so frequent as it might be.

You have in us not merely an understanding friend, but one staunch in the belief of the need for our presence with you in Vietnam. We are not there because of our friendship; we are there because, like you, we believe it is right to be there, and, like you, we shall stay there as long as seems necessary in order to achieve the purposes of the South Vietnamese Government and the purposes that we join in formulating and progressing together.

And so, sir, in the lonelier and perhaps even more disheartening moments which come to any national leader, I hope there will be a corner of your mind and heart which takes cheer from the fact that you have an admiring friend, a staunch friend, that will be "all the way with LBJ,"