Remarks on Arrival at Portland, Oregon.

MRS. NIXON and I want to thank all of you for your very warm welcome to the City of the Roses. We also want you to know that as we traveled across the country today--we started in Washington this morning, then stopped in Montana at Kalispell, and then we have come all the way to Oregon--and as you cross this country and have the chance to see the people, as we have, you realize what a beautiful country it is. We are very proud to be here in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, in Oregon.

On this particular occasion, with Governor McCall here, and Senator Packwood, Senator Hatfield, Congressman Wyatt, Congressman Dellenback, I think it is well for me to mention just briefly, because there are so many young people, the purpose of the trip that I am taking to Alaska tomorrow.

This will be a very historic event. It is the first time that the Emperor of Japan has ever left his country. It will be the first time in history that a President of the United States has ever met with the Emperor of Japan.

Now, as I mention that particular thing, I think that has significance to all of us who are concerned about the future of the Pacific, in which Oregon and Washington and California have such a great interest, and the future of peace in the world.

Just today I have signed into law, and the statement is being issued in Portland--I think it is quite significant that it is issued here, because it had very strong support from Senator Hatfield, Senator Packwood, and the Members of the Congress that I have mentioned, and also by Torn McCall, your Governor--I have signed the bill passed by the Congress, with the support of the Administration, which abolished the detention camps which concerned many people.

Let me tell you that those camps were used only in the period when the Japanese were at war with the United States. It was not a period of the United States that we were particularly proud of, even though that was a very difficult period for us. But let me say this: When we think of the fact that now the President of the United States is meeting with the Emperor of Japan for the first time in history, let all the young people here particularly think what that means.

Do you realize that since World War II has ended, over half the people in this world have been born? Putting it another way, 60 percent of everybody living in the world today was born since World War II. Now, what does that mean?

It means that we have great opportunities for peace in the world today. It means that we can build a new world, a new world with a new generation that did not know that war, and it is for that reason that the meeting between the President of the United States and the Emperor of Japan will underline these facts: It will underline the fact, first, that these two great peoples are going to be competitors in the world, and we are; but it also underlines another fact, that it is indispensable that we be friends.

I would only hope that the meeting of the Emperor of Japan and the President of the United States will mean for future generations that Japan and the United States will always be friends and never enemies in the future, and that means peace in the Pacific.

Now, let me put this in a larger context. We are ending now the war, the longest, most difficult war in the Nation's history. Now the question is: What about the future for these young people? Are they going to have to go through what every generation in this century has gone through? Did you realize there has not been a generation in this century that hasn't known a war World War I, World War II, Korea, and then Vietnam?

That is why we are working for, and we are working here--perhaps sometimes we take different roads, but we all have the same goal, the Senators from this State, Senator Mansfield whom I just left in Montana--we are all working toward the goal: not just peace for 5 years or 10 years but for a generation.

I think we can have it. Our meeting with Japan has something to do with that. But later a visit that I will make to Mainland China will have something to do with that. Let me tell you why that is important. That visit does not mean that the differences between the Governments of the People's Republic of China and that of the United States are going to evaporate, because they are very great and they are very deep.

But it does mean this: It does mean that as far as those differences are concerned, we are going to talk about them rather than fight about them, and that is terribly important to the future of peace in the world.

It also means something else. Eight hundred million people live on Mainland China. That is one-fourth of all the people in the world. I want this younger generation, these young people that I see here today, I want them to grow up in an open world, one in which there can be open communication between the peoples of the world. If we can do that, if we can contribute to that by this initiative, this journey for peace that I am taking, then I think it is worthwhile.

And now, finally, let me say that as I come here, I would not want this occasion to pass without putting in the other side of the equation. We want to build in this country something we have not had for 15 years. That means a new prosperity built on peace and not on war. We can have it. We can have jobs that do not count on the need for war production.

It is true that 2 million men have been let out of the armed services and defense plants since we started to wind down the war, but, believe me, that is worth doing. We will find jobs for them in peace; we do not have to find jobs for them in the pursuit of war.

The other point that I would make is one to which I know the people of Oregon are deeply devoted; that is the quality of life we are going to have in this country'. Your Governor, your Senators, your Congressmen have often spoken to me about the environment, the need to develop, of course, our industry, but the need also to preserve the beauty of this country.

Let me say that we welcome your recommendations, your suggestions. Every time I fly over Oregon I realize why you like to live here. I realize why you want to keep it a beautiful State, one in which you can have jobs and employment, but also retain the beauty which brought you here in the first place. This is a goal we can all work for.

And so with that, may I say thank you again for a very warm welcome. We look forward to coming back again.