Remarks on the 15th Anniversary of the Signing of the North Atlantic Treaty.

Ladies and gentlemen:

It is a very great pleasure for Mrs. Johnson and me to welcome you to the White House on this very special occasion.

We have with us today the distinguished representatives of the NATO family: the ambassadors and the charges from our 14 North Atlantic Treaty Organizations, the members of the North Atlantic military committee, and an attaché from each of the NATO nations.

Behind our own efforts in NATO are some most distinguished Members of our Senate and our House of Representatives: the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the chairman and the ranking minority member of several of the committees, all of them strong and determined supporters of the United States role in this most important alliance.

We have two or three of the former commanders of the military side of NATO: the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, General Gruenther, General Ridgway, General Norstad, also General Bradley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when NATO was founded. And from Norfolk today, Admiral Smith, who is the Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, and his deputy, Vice Admiral Beloe of the Royal Navy.

All of you are most welcome to this 15th anniversary ceremony. I am sure that many of us wondered when the treaty was signed 15 years ago, just as I wondered, whether or not this step forward in collective security for the Atlantic Community would ever really last. I know that we can all agree today that it has not only lasted, but it has progressed from its first concept of a military alliance to a true political entity.

I am glad that you could be here with us to express our mutual appreciation and our common interest in this alliance. And thank you again, to those of you in the audience, for coming to the East Room of the White House today to hear this broadcast on this notable occasion to the American people.

[Beginning at this point the President's remarks were broadcast over television.]

Fifteen years ago tomorrow, here in Washington, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed. Less than 5 months later, after due constitutional process in all the signing countries, the treaty entered into force. from that time to this, the treaty has served the peace of the world.

This short treaty commits its parties to meet an armed attack on any of them in Europe or North America as "an attack against all of them." for 15 years it has prevented any such attack. Created in response to Stalin's Iron Curtain and the loss of Czechoslovakian freedom, this treaty has lived through war in Korea, the threat of war over Berlin, and a crisis without precedent in Cuba. Each great event has tested NATO, and from each test we have gained increased strength.

We began as 12 countries; today we are 15. Those we have gained are among our most determined partners: Greece, Turkey, and the federal Republic of Germany.

What began as a treaty soon became a Command, and then a great international organization. The number of ready divisions, including 6 from the United States, has multiplied by 5. The number of modern aircraft has multiplied by 10--all more effective by far than any were in 1949. So the alliance is real. Its forces operate. Its strength is known. Its weapons cover the full range of power, from small arms to nuclear missiles of the most modern design.

From the beginning, this treaty has aimed not simply at defense, but has aimed at the cooperative progress of all of its members. On the day of signing, back there 15 years ago, President Truman described it as a "bulwark which will permit us to get on with the real business of government and society, the business of achieving a full and happier life for all of our citizens." This treaty, in fact, came 2 years after we and other friends had begun our historic enterprise of economic recovery under the Marshall plan. Our "real business" was already pretty well advanced.

The 15 years since 1949 have seen the longest upward surge of economic growth that our Atlantic world has ever known. Our production and trade have more than doubled; our population has grown by more than a hundred million; the income of the average man has grown by more than 50 percent. Our inward peace and our outward confidence have grown steadily more secure. The internal threat of communism has shriveled in repeated failure. A new generation, strong and free and healthy, walks our streets--and rides in our cars. Yes, we have done well.

Danger has receded, but it has not disappeared. The task of building our defenses is never really done. The temptation to relax must always be resisted. Our own Atlantic agenda has changed, but it is not short.

Our first common task, therefore, is to move onward to that closer partnership which is so plainly in our common interest. The United States, for one, has learned much from 15 years of danger and achievement. In 1949 the solemn commitment of this treaty was for us a historic departure from isolation, and we have many great men, some among us and some away today, to thank for their leadership.

Now it is a tested and recognized foundation stone of America's foreign policy. What Robert Schuman said for France in 1949 I repeat for my country today: "Nations are more and more convinced that their fates are closely bound together; their salvation and their welfare can no longer be based upon an egotistical and aggressive nationalism, but must rest upon the progressive application of human solidarity."

The ways of our growing partnership are not easy. Though the union of Europe is her manifest destiny, the building of that unity is a long, hard job. But we, for our part, will never turn back to separated insecurity. We welcome the new strength of our trans-Atlantic allies. We find no contradiction between national self-respect and interdependent mutual reliance. We are eager to share with the new Europe at every level of power and at every level of responsibility. We aim to share the lead in the search for new and stronger patterns of cooperation.

We believe in the alliance because in our own interest we must, because in the common interest it works, and because in the world's interest it is right.

We have other duties and opportunities. Our trade with one another and the world is not yet free and not yet broad enough to serve both us and others as it should. Our monetary systems have grown stronger, but they still too often limit us when they should be, instead, a source of energy and growth.

In ever growing measure we have set ourselves and others free from the burden of colonialism. We have also set new precedents of generous concern for those that are less prosperous than we. But our connection to the less developed nations is not yet what it should be, and must be. This is not a one-way street, but we must work to do our full part to make it straight and to make it broad.

We remain vigilant in defending our liberties, but we must be alert to any hope of stable settlement with those who have made vigilance necessary and essential. In particular we must be alive to the new spirit of diversity that is now abroad in Eastern Europe. We did not make the Iron Curtain. We did not build the Wall. Gaps in the Curtain are welcome, and so are holes in the Wall, whenever they are not hedged by traps. We continue to believe that the peace of all Europe requires the reunification of the German people in freedom. We will be firm, but we will always be fair. Our guard is up, but our hand is out.

We must build on our tradition of determined support for the great United Nations. We are pledged to this purpose by the very articles of our treaty, and we have kept our pledge. The members of NATO provide most of the resources of the United Nations, and most of its ability to help in keeping peace. When we began we promised that our treaty was consistent with the charter. Today we know that the charter and the treaty are indispensable to one another. Neither can keep the peace alone. We need them both, in full effectiveness, for as many years ahead as any of us can see.

The Atlantic peoples have a magnificent history, but they have known too much war. It is the splendor of this great alliance that in keeping peace with its opponents, it has kept the road clear for a worldwide upward march toward the good life for free people. Proven in danger, strengthened in freedom, and resolute in purpose, we will go on, with God's help, to serve not only our own people, but to serve the bright future of all mankind.

[At this point the broadcasting of the President's remarks was concluded.]

Thank you for coming.

If I may impose upon you a moment before I leave--we have in our presence one of the great men of our time, who was perhaps more responsible for the Marshall plan and NATO and many of the good things that we now find in our foreign policy: I would like to ask him to come forward and just say a brief word to all of those who respect him and admire him so much--the beloved former Secretary of State, Mr. Dean Acheson.