Remarks to American Field Service Students.

WE WERE DELAYING because we understand that there were about a thousand more who were expected to attend but apparently there is a bus strike and they could not get here. But I understand that in this great audience here on the South Lawn of the White House there are 2,000 students from 60 countries.

THE AUDIENCE. Three thousand.

THE PRESIDENT. Two thousand here. One thousand are in the buses. But we know that there are 3,000 who are in this great program, and I want you to know that in the 6 months that I have been in the White House, I have been in many occasions welcoming chiefs of states, heads of governments, prime ministers, kings, emperors here on this South Lawn, but no group has been more inspiring than yours.

Incidentally, I expect, and I say this with great conviction, that as I look at this group, as I know that you come from all of these 60 countries represented and will be going back to your own countries, and I know, too, that you would not be here unless you had a great interest in political affairs, and I am very sure that from this group at some time a future President will be welcoming a prime minister or a president, I am sure, from some other country abroad.

I see we have plenty of candidates. Also, could I say as you know, I am leaving tonight on a trip myself, one that will take me around the world, not to all of the 60 countries--and I think I have visited 50 of the 60 that are represented here--but to many others. Just to get an idea, I wonder if there are any here today from the first country that I will visit, which will be the Philippines. Anybody from the Philippines?

THE AUDIENCE. Yes!

THE PRESIDENT. Anybody from Indonesia? How about Thailand?

THE AUDIENCE. Yes!

THE PRESIDENT. India?

THE AUDIENCE. Yes !

THE PRESIDENT. Pakistan?

THE AUDIENCE. Yes!

THE PRESIDENT. I will also be in Britain.

THE AUDIENCE. Yes!

The PRESIDENT. That is an indication of the countries that will be covered.

THE AUDIENCE. Brazil!

THE PRESIDENT. There is a future President of Brazil right there, I'm sure.

THE AUDIENCE. Chile!

THE PRESIDENT. I have been there, too.

THE AUDIENCE. Peru!

THE PRESIDENT. Right. Romania?

THE AUDIENCE. Honduras!

THE PRESIDENT. Well, if I mentioned Honduras, how about El Salvador?

THE AUDIENCE. Yes!

THE PRESIDENT. Costa Rica, San Jose; Afghanistan, Kabul?

THE AUDIENCE. Yes!

The PRESIDENT. Denmark, Copenhagen? Yes. Vietnam? Yes, I have been there. Colombia? Yes. Well, you can see if I called the roll that we would take all the time.

Could I speak seriously to you for just a moment as I welcome you to the White House and in effect say goodby to you as you return to your own countries?

I want to say first that my only regret is that our family could not have had some of you visit us in our homes during this last year. Of course, in this last year I have been a little busy, but nevertheless, we have so many friends who have had the privilege of having students from this group in their homes and many of them have said that it was really the best thing that ever happened in their lives.

We thank you all for giving so many Americans the privilege of knowing your countries through you, the youth of your countries. This is a great privilege; it is a privilege that many American families have never had before and we are very grateful for that.

Second, I want you to know that as I meet you and realize your ages and all the years ahead of you, I think what a wonderful time it is for you to be alive. I suppose that that sounds rather strange these days when we read of some of the problems in the world--problems in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Mideast, and the like, a war in Vietnam, all of these problems-but let us look at it, if we can, for a moment, without being Pollyannish, but look at it with the true realism that an idealist must have, looking at the facts, but also looking beyond them as we really should, to the future, which you can help to build.

You could not find a more exciting time to be born; you could not find a more exciting time to finish high school and then go on to college and then pick your profession, because when you are my age or perhaps a little younger than I am, in the year 2000, and you celebrate the new year that comes once in a thousand years, look at what you look back on and look at what you will see then and what you will look forward to in the 21st century.

We think of those men who are returning from the moon. Wasn't that a great thing to see? In the year 2000 I believe, and I am sure that those in this audience who are so young and so full of life and so full of optimism, will agree with me, in the year 2000 we will, on this earth, have visited new worlds where there will be a form of life.

I know this will happen, and I want to tell you as I look forward and dream about that future, as I am sure you look forward to it and dream about it, this is the kind of world I would like to see and the kind of exploration of that new world that I know all Americans want.

I hope that when the next great venture into space takes place that it will be one in which Americans will be joined by representatives of other countries so that we can go to the new world together. I know from the telegrams that I have received around the world that the spirit of all the people of the world was with those three brave men. They are not just Americans; they represented all of mankind. That is why as we look at the future adventures into the free world, let them not be adventures of conquest, but adventures of exploration which tend to unite us all into one people which we truly are, and we feel that today in a crowd like this.

What those new worlds will be like, whether on Mars or Venus or any of the other areas we may be able to explore, no one can presently say, but let me say a word about what this world can be like and what you can make it like.

Sometimes we get very pessimistic about problems. We see the population curve going up. We see the food production not going up as fast, and we look at great areas of the world in Asia and Africa and Latin America and wonder if those two curves are going to pass and the dire prediction of Malthus, made a century or two centuries ago, may prove true in our time--later than he thought, but yet prove true. I don't think so, because I am convinced that we have the genius-genius represented by young people in this group, but genius represented by people all over the world--so that we can produce the food and the clothing, the health care, the housing, the shelter, all the things that we need to keep ahead of population and continue to progress.

That is the challenge you have; it is the challenge you, I am very confident, are going to meet.

I think, too, that, as we look to the future, we think of the possibilities not only of the new worlds, what may not be or may be on the Moon or Mars or Venus, but we think of what that moon achievement means in terms of what we can do on this earth.

So often we hear: "This cannot be done. The problem is too great." But when I saw, or at least heard and saw the simulation of those two space vehicles traveling at 4,500 miles an hour, coupling together in space, let alone landing on the moon and the takeoff on the moon, but saw that take place out there in outer space, as I realized all of the scientific genius and the technical ability, let alone the human factors that went into that decision, I realized that this is no time for the pessimists; this is the time for the optimists and the idealists.

Be optimistic and idealistic about the future. I realize the kind of teamwork, the kind of scientific achievement, the kind of idealism that we saw in that space shot, that landing on the moon. If we could just bring all that to bear on the problems here on earth, the problems of our environment, the problems of adequate food, health, and shelter, and progress, a fair share for everybody in this earth--if that can be done, what a world we can create.

Let me look just a little further ahead in another way. I thought one of the, shall we say, rather sad things about that great day on Monday when man first stepped on the moon was that while most of the peoples of the world saw it on television or participated in it on television or radio, that there was approximately one-half the world that did not see it, the whole of Communist China, and the world of the Soviet Union.

I thought how sad that was, sad not in terms of East-West conflict, because this is no time to discuss that, but sad in terms of the people involved, because you see I know the Russian people. I have visited them. They are a great people. And their young people are like you people.

And I know the Chinese people. I have never seen them on the mainland of China, but I have seen them in Taiwan and I have seen them in Manila and I have seen them in Indonesia and I have seen them in Thailand and I have seen them in New York and I have seen them in San Francisco, and I want the time to come when the Chinese people and the Russian people and all the peoples of this world can walk together and talk together.

I want to say to you that in the time that I am in this office, however long it will be, that the major goal that I will have will be to bring peace to this world, real peace, and also to hasten the day when we can have a truly open world, open cities, open borders, open countries, open minds, open hearts, open ideas. That is what we want. That is what you want. And that is what we are going to build for us.

Now I suppose that when we look at the world today and those great political differences that divide us and the war that goes on, we sometimes perhaps would be pessimistic and say, "Well, you are just dreaming." I don't think so. I want you to know that as I see you today, as I realize the experience that you have, as I know the spirit you will carry back to your own countries, you are going to help to make these dreams come true; and I would simply add to that great slogan that I understand all of you have of walking together and talking together. Let's add to it. Let's dream together, too. Let's dream about the future.

I know of no group of young people in the world who can help more to make those dreams come true than all of you, and I ask all of you as you leave the United States of America--remember, of course, the differences that you saw here, have in mind the problems you saw here, and try to avoid them in your own countries but remember above everything else: The American people are with you in their hearts. They want for you what we want for ourselves: the right to be free, the right to move ahead, the right to talk together and walk together and to dream together.

All of these things you believe in and all of these things, I am sure, the world believes in, if the leaders of the world simply have the ability to allow the people of the world to let their views be felt and their views to prevail.

So, to my good friends, and some of you I hope to meet in some of my future journeys around the world, I can only say: Thank you for coming to America. As one who was born in this country, I love my country, and I think it is a great country; but I can tell you, as one who has visited over 60 countries in the world, I think every people in this world is a great people, and a great country. If we think that way we are going to go a long way.

Thank you.