Mr. President, Senora Diaz Ordaz, Your Excellencies, and our friends from Mexico and the United States:
As I stand here today on this historic site, I think back to another day. In 1953, the first year of his administration, President Eisenhower traveled to the Mexican-American border to meet with President [Adolfo] Ruiz Cortines to dedicate the new Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande. And that structure, he said at that time, was a "living testimony to the understanding and the cooperation binding our two peoples."
Now, in 1969, in the first year of my administration, I, too, come to Mexico. I come to talk with President Diaz Ordaz and to dedicate another new dam along that same river, a complement to the Falcon Dam, and one which was built as a direct result of an agreement which President Eisenhower signed in 1960, his last full year in office.
Like the Falcon Dam, the new Amistad Dam also testifies to the spirit of understanding and cooperation which binds our two countries. In fact, its very name describes better than any other single word the special spirit of our relationship.
How that name came about is an interesting story. In October 1959, President Eisenhower at Camp David met with President Lopez Mateos. The dam then was to be known as the Diablo Dam. President Eisenhower thought that was a rather ominous name for a dam and President Lopez suggested that the name be changed to Amistad.
So today we have a name which to millions of my countrymen who speak Spanish means "friendship," and friendship for my countrymen is a word which carries a special meaning and a special warmth. As we dedicate this dam today, we also rededicate ourselves to the furtherance of an ideal friendship.
Mr. President, we meet today on an international border. It is a beautiful place where we gather, beautiful for natural reasons and beautiful, too, because we see here what two great countries can accomplish when they work together.
This dam is an impressive achievement in many ways. First of all, it is an impressive physical achievement. It will contribute to the conservation and regulation of water supplies and will provide a fine recreational resource for both our people.
It is also an impressive diplomatic accomplishment, the result of complex and determined efforts which have stretched over a period of many years.
And finally, this achievement is impressive in human terms, impressive because of what it says about the special relationship which has grown up between the people of Mexico and the people of the United States.
It is a relationship based on a full understanding, for each of our countries knows the other way. It is a relationship based on mutual trust, for each of our countries has confidence in the other's good will. And it is a relationship based on mutual respect. Each of us recognizes the sovereignty and independence of the other and the right of each to reach different conclusions in matters of mutual interest without impairing our basic friendship.
Mr. President, while our visit today is a brief one, this great dam which we dedicate will continue to bear witness to our relationship day in and day out, year in, year out. It stands as a persuasive example to all the people of the world of the advantages which can come from peaceful cooperation between nations. And it will remain always a tangible monument to the spirit of friendship and partnership between our two peoples and our two nations.
Note: The President spoke at 1:45 p.m. at the Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande between Del Rio, Texas, and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.
Following President Nixon's remarks President Diaz Ordaz responded in Spanish. A translation follows:
Mr. President, Mrs. Nixon, ladies and gentlemen:
It is very satisfactory to have this first contact with you, Mr. President, and it is especially satisfactory to have it under the name of this dam--Amistad, friendship.
I certainly hope that this first contact between us will help to establish and continue the friendship between us. It is a good thing President Lopez Marcos and President Eisenhower gave this name to this dam. Can you imagine what might have happened if we had remained with the old name?
We are two countries with a long frontier between us and, consequently, with many problems between us. Fortunately, none of these problems is important enough, is serious enough, so that it cannot be solved by mutual comprehension and within the law, and none of them can or will become a barrier between us.
This frontier is not just a frontier between two different countries but between two different worlds, two different languages, two different cultures, two different forms of life.
On this line is where Latin America ends. Because of this we have two special tasks. One is to be faithful to ourselves as Mexicans and the other is to be faithful to ourselves as Latin Americans.
Taking into account the great complexity of the relations between our two countries, our relations are the best that we have ever had in our history and I believe that with your cooperation we two together can make them even better.
How is it possible that with so many obstacles our peoples have managed to establish friendship, to maintain it, and to make it ever closer? It is only as you, yourself, have just said, Mr. President: with comprehension, with friendship, and within the law. Whatever unites two that do not respect each other can be called anything except friendship.
We have made efforts through the years to understand and accept that we have two different nations that have different forms of expression and each one of which has its own sovereignty. All the peoples of the world have the right to choose their own road, to construct their own way of life which will lead them to liberty and the prosperity of their inhabitants. We have made every effort to remain within the rule of law.
It took us 100 years to achieve an agreement on the Chamizal. On the other hand, the Los Indios bank, which the river took from one side of the border in 1967, has been already returned to us, and we have already made the canals necessary to clear from salt the flow of water into this river.
You and I, Mr. President, are not only officers of our countries, we are also lawyers. And we know that the application of law is what brings about justice. That is why we both know that any problems that may arise in the future must be resolved within a spirit of com- prehension, with mutual respect, and within the role of law that you mentioned a few moments ago.
We are united here by a very special ceremony. We are about to inaugurate this dam which is important in itself by the economic effort it implies and also by the capacity of our technicians and our workers.
But it is even more important because of its significance. One is the one that lies in its name and the other which you yourself have just mentioned is the demonstration of what two friendly countries can do together.
Thus, this dam is only one more part of the road that we have walked together and we will walk further together in order to respect ourselves and to maintain our friendship.
This dam is not only to hold back the waters of the Rio Bravo or to show that nature can be held back, but it is also a bridge, one more bridge, constructed between our two peoples.
I am very glad to invite you and Mrs. Nixon to inaugurate, together with me, this new dam and bridge. You are awaited by the land of the State of Coahuila, the fountain of our revolution that saw the birth of Francisco I. Madero and Venustiano Carranza, one who initiated our social revolution and the other who consolidated it in our present Constitution in 1917.
Mr. President, to you and your party, we open our arms, the arms of cordiality. You are very welcome to our homeland, to Mexico.
Richard Nixon, Remarks at the Dedication of the Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240162
