Remarks at a Reception Marking the Sixth Anniversary of the Organization of African Unity.

Ambassador Peal and Mrs. Peal, all of the distinguished Ambassadors from the African nations and the other distinguished Ambassadors that are here, and Members of the Congress, and other distinguished guests:

I am very honored to be here to participate in the sixth anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity.

As I was listening to Ambassador Peal describe the problems of Africa and also of my relationship to those problems, both privately and now officially, I simply want to bring the proper bipartisan note into this occasion. I hope that on this occasion we carve up neither elephants nor donkeys.

We are glad that today we have our Democratic and Republican Representatives and Senators present, because there is one thing that I can assure all of our guests here: And that is that in this country, when it comes to support of the great goals that the Ambassador has described in his eloquent remarks of unity, of prosperity, and of the progress that we all want, that we in the United States, regardless of party, share your desires. We want to help you. We want to work with you. And this is true whether it is a Republican administration or a Democratic administration.

Having said that, I would like also to remind some of our hosts here today that while I do not know Africa as well as I would like to, that I have had the privilege of visiting more African countries than any man who has ever been President of the United States.

Now, for fear that my alleged very good memory--which I derived from my elephant association--might fail me, I will try to name those countries. If I leave one out, I trust someone in the audience will remind me.

But on those two trips--the one in 1957 where the Assistant Secretary of State, now the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Joseph Palmer, accompanied me, and then in another one, which came as a private citizen 10 years later--I learned to know this continent, to know its people, through visiting what few of the countries I was able to visit: Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, the Sudan, and Ethiopia, in the northern and central part of the continent, and then in 1957 to the independence celebration for Ghana, and then to Liberia, Uganda, and then in 1967 again returning on that occasion, I visited the Congo, Zambia, Ivory Coast, and Kenya. I think I have mentioned 12 countries. If there is another one, I may have made some airport stops.

I mentioned these countries not for the purpose of demonstrating any ability to memorize, but more to make a point. There are 41 nations in Africa. The Ambassador has spoken of the great hopes for African unity which were there 6 years ago when this organization was set up and which are there today.

And I would like to speak quite candidly and directly about African unity and unity in this world in which we live and to speak about it in terms of what we can expect and what we cannot expect.

First, one thing I learned about Africa is that we have a tendency in this Nation, particularly those of us who have not had the opportunity to know the continent well, to think of Africa as just one great continent very much the same.

Now, of course, any even unsophisticated observer knows that North Africa is different from Central Africa, and that is different from South Africa. But on the other hand, what I have found, as I traveled through Africa, whatever the place might be, that the diversity of the continent was what was impressive. Not one of the countries is the same.

The costumes are different. There are different religions. There are different traditions. There are different governments.

So when we talk about unity, the kind of unity that will be meaningful for the continent of Africa, it does not mean a unity in which all will be the same. It does mean the unity which will allow the diversity. Let me put it another way.

When ours was a very young country and we still are a young country by most standards, I suppose, but when we were a very young country, George Washington reminded the American people as he was finishing his second term as President of the United States that the new nation would find itself in great difficulty or greater difficulty as the glow of winning the War of Independence began to go away; and that then what the Nation had to guard against was the disunity that might follow.

The United States did have problems in that respect. And we survived those problems.

But I would simply say that as we look at the new nations of Africa, as we see the problems that are there, it is, of course, very natural to expect that a new country, a young country, starting with new programs dealing with great, great problems cannot be expected overnight to have the unity either within a country and certainly not the kind of a unity which covers a whole continent.

This should not be discouraging. It is only a challenge.

I would add another point. As we look back on our own history and as each of you look back on your history, we tend and you tend to think of those who led the revolutions. They are our great heroes. I would suggest that perhaps the more difficult task is not for those who lead a revolution, as difficult and as challenging as that is, but those who build a nation after the revolution is won.

And that is one problem that you have--the Ambassadors who are here, your governments at home. It is not as exciting. It sometimes may be very, very difficult and tortuous and sometimes almost dull. But this kind of work, the challenging job, day-in and day-out, of building rather than destroying, building a nation rather than destroying one, this is the true test of a people.

And all over this great continent, particularly in the newer countries, the people of Africa are meeting that test.

And then another point I would make with regard to the Organization for African Unity, I would emphasize that we would not want and you would not want to see that unity destroy the differences that can enrich the whole life of a continent and the life of this world.

What we want is the kind of unity which allows the diversity, which enriches a nation or a continent and avoiding the disunity which destroys.

As we consider that, we think, therefore, of the future of Africa, at this time, on the sixth anniversary of a very young organization, but an organization with tremendous responsibilities in the years ahead.

And I simply want to say that speaking as one who has visited several of your countries, speaking as one who knows that the problems of building a new government, building a new society, are perhaps infinitely greater than those of simply changing it through revolution, that I admire and respect those who are working in this difficult task.

I do not expect and no one should expect that that task will be achieved overnight. And I would say that what we all are privileged today to commemorate is the fact that people so diverse, so different over this great continent with 300 million people and all the potential for the future, that the people there are working in their different way toward the same goal, the unity which will avoid that destruction which comes from war, but also the diversity which will allow for the creative freedom which we all know leads to progress and prosperity.

Mr. Ambassador, I want you to know that Mrs. Nixon and I are privileged to be here in this house, to be here on this bit of African soil. As we are here, we want you to know, all of you from every one of the countries represented, that with all the grave problems we have in the world, the problems of Asia and Vietnam, of Europe, of Latin America, that you do have in the President of the United States a man who knows Africa, not as well as he should, but he knows it, he believes in its future, and he wants to work with you for that greater future.

Thank you.