Here during the current academic year, this marks the second occasion on which Johns Hopkins has been privileged to welcome our chief executive to this campus. Ladies and gentlemen, i present the president of the united states. Mr. Garland, senator brewster, senator tidings, members of the congressional delegation, members of the faculty of Johns Hopkins, student body, my fellow americans. Last week, 17 nations sent their views to some two dozen countries having an interest in Southeast Asia. We are joining those 17 countries and stating our american policy tonight, which we believe will contribute towards peace in this area of the world. I have come here to review, once again, with my own people the views of the american government. Tonight, americans and asians are dying for a world where each people may choose its own path to change. This is the principle for which our ancestors fought in the valleys of pennsylvania. It is a principle for which our sons fight tonight in the jungles of vietnam. Vietnam is far away from this quiet campus. We have no territory there, nor do we seek any. The war is dirty and brutal and difficult. And some 400 young men, born into in america that is bursting with opportunity and promise, have ended their lives on vietnams steaming soil. Why must we take this painful road . Why must this nation hazards hazard its ease and its interests and its power for the sake of a people so far away. We fight because we must fight. If we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny. And only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure. This kind of a world will never be built by bombs or bullets. Yet the infirmities of man are such that force must often precede reason, and the waste of war, the works of peace. We wish that this were not so, but we must deal with the world as it is if it is ever to be as we wish. The world as it is in asia is not a serene or peaceful place. The first reality is that North Vietnam has attacked the independent nation of South Vietnam. Its object is total conquest. Of course, some of the people of South Vietnam are participating in attacks on their own government. But trained men and supplies, orders and arms, flow in a constant stream from north to south. This support this is the hard feet of the war. It is a war of unparalleled brutality. Simple farmers are the car gets of assassination and kidnapping. Women and children are strangled in the night because their men are loyal to their government. And helpless villages are ravaged by sneak attacks. Large scale rates are conducted on towns and terror strikes in the hearts of cities. They confused nature of this conflict cannot mask the fact that it is the new face of an old enemy. Over this war, and all asia, is a neither reality the deepening shadow of communist china. The rulers in hanoi are urged on by peaking. This is a regime which has destroyed freedom in tibet, which has attack india, and has been condemned by the United Nations for aggression in korea. It is a nation which is helping the forces of violence in almost every continent. The contest in vietnam is part of a wider pattern of aggressive purposes. Why are these realities our concern . Why are we in South Vietnam . We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954, every american president has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. We have helped to build and we have helped to defend. Thus, over many years, we have made a National Pledge to help South Vietnam defend its independence. And i intend to keep that promise i intend to. Keep that promise. [applause] to dishonor that pledge, and to abandon the small and brave nation to its enemies. And to the terror that must follow, would be an unforgivable wrong. We are also there to strengthen world order. Around the globe, from berlin to thailand. Are people whose wellbeing, rest in part on the belief that they can count on us, if they are attacked. To leave vietnam to its faith faith would shake the confidence of all these people, in the value of an american commitment. And the value of americans word. It would be and increased unrest, and instability. And even wider war. We are also there, because there are great stakes in the ballots. Let no one thing for a moment, that retreat from vietnam would bring an end to conflict. The battle would be renewed in one country than another. The central lesson of our time. The appetite of aggression, is never satisfied. To withdraw from one battlefield, means only to prepare for the next. We must say in Southeast Asia, as we did in europe in the words of the bible, get hitherto, shout theyll come but no further. There are those who say that all our effort there, will be futile. The chinas power is such that it is bound to dominate all Southeast Asia. But there is no end to that argument, until all of the nations of asia are swallowed up. There are those who wonder, why we have a responsibility there and we have it there for the same reason that we have a responsibility for the defense of europe. World war ii was fought in both europe in asia and when i ended, we found ourselves with continued responsibility for the defense of freedom. Our objective is the independence of south yet mom, and its freedom from attack. We want nothing for ourselves only that the people of self vietnam, be allowed to guide their own country in their own way and we will do everything necessary to reach that objective, and we will do only what is absolutely necessary. In recent months, the tax on south yet mom, or stepped up thus it became necessary, for us to increase our response and to make attacks. This is not a change of purpose it is a change in what we believe that purpose requires. We do this in order to slow down aggression, we do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam who have bravely born this brutal battle for so many years, with so many casualties and we do this to convince the leaders of North Vietnam and all who seek to share their conquest of a very simple fact. We will not be defeated. Good rug we will not, grow tired we will not withdraw either openly or under the cloak of a disagreement. We now that their attacks alone, will not accomplish all these purposes. But it is our best and powerful judgment, that they are a necessary part of the sheerest road to peace. We hope that peaceful come swiftly but that is in the hand of others besides ourselves and we must be prepared, for a long continued conflict. It will require, patience as well as bravery. The will to endure, as well as the will to resist. I wish it were possible to convince others with words, of what we now find necessary to say with guns and planes, arm hostility is futile and our resources are equal to any challenge. Because we fight for values and we fight for principles, rather than territory or colonies, our patients and our determination are unending. Once this is clear, then it should also be clear that the only path for a reasonable man is the path of these are the essentials of any final settlement. We will never be second in the search for such a peaceful settlement in vietnam. There may be many ways to this kind of piece, and discussion and negotiation where the government is concerned, in large groups or small ones. In the reaffirmation of older agreements, or the strengthening of new ones we have stated this position over and over again, 50 times and more to the friend and foe alike. And we remain ready, with this purpose for unconditional discussions can. And until that necessary day of peace, we will try to keep conflict spreading. We have no desire to see thousands die in battle, agents or americans. We have no desire to devastate that which the people of North Vietnam have built with oil and sacrifice. We will use our power of strength and with all the wisdom that we can command. But we will use it this for, like most wars is still filled with terrible irony. For whom do the people of North Vietnam want. They want their neighbors, what they want their neighbors also desire. Food for their hunger, health for their bodies a chance to learn progress for their country and an end to the bondage of material misery. And they would find all of these things far more readily and Peaceful Association with others that in the endless course of the battle. These countries of Southeast Asia our homes, for millions of impoverished people. Each day these people rise at on, and struggle through until the night. To wrestle existence from the soil. They are often, racked by disease. Played by under hunger, and death comes at the early age of 40 got. Stability and peace do not come easily in such a land. Neither independence or human dignity, will ever be one by arms alone. It also requires, a work of peace. The American People have helped generously in times past, and in these words and now there must be a much more massive effort to improve the life plan in that conflict torn corner of our world. The first step is for the countries of Southeast Asia to associate themselves in a greatly expanded cooperative effort for development. We would hope, let north get numb will take its place in the common area, just as soon as peaceful cooperation is possible the. The United Nations is already actively engaged in development in this area, and as far back as 1961 i conferred that with our authorities in vietnam, with cooperation with their work there, and i would hope tonight that the secretary general of the United Nations, could use the prestige of his great office, and his deep knowledge of asia, to initiate it is possible the countries of that area. The planned cooperation an increase development. Rug for our part, i will ask the congress to join in a billion dollar american investment, in this effort as soon as it is underway. And i would hope, that all other industrialized countries, including the soviet union, will join in this effort to replay despair to replace despair with hope, and terror with progress. The task is nothing less, than to enrich the hopes and the existence of more than 100 million people, and there is much to be done. The vast weeklong river, can provide food and water and power on a scale. The wonders of modern medicine, can be spread through villages, where thousands die every year. From lack of care. Schools can be establish to train people in the skills that are needed, to manage the process of development i also intend to expand and speed up a program to make available our services to assist in feeding including the needy in asia. [applause] we should not allow people to go hungry and wear rags while our own warehouses overflow with an abundance of wheat and corn and rice and cotton. ,. This team will be headed by mr. Eugene black. The very abled former president of the world bank. Areas that are still ripped by conflict,g7e development will not be easy. These will be necessary for a final success. But we cannot and must not wait for peace to begin this job. [applause] this will be a disorderly planted for a long time. In asia, as elsewhere, the forces of the modern world are shaking old ways and uprooting ancient civilizations. There will be turbulence and struggle and even violence. Great social change, as we see in our own country now, does not always come without conflict. We must also expect that nations will, on occasion, be in dispute with us. It may be because we are rich or powerful or because we have made some mistakes, or because they honestly fear our intentions. However, no nation need ever fear that we desire their land or to impose our will work to dictate their institutions. But we will always oppose the effort of one nation to conquer another nation. We will do this because our own security is at stake. But there is more to it than that. For our generation has a dream. It is a very old dream. But we have the power and now we have the opportunity to make that dream come true. For centuries, nations have struggled among each other. But we, we dream of a world where disputes are settled by law and reason. And we will try to make it so. For most of history, men have hated and killed one another in battle, but we dream of an end to war and we will try to make it so. [applause] for all existence, most men have lived in poverty, threatened by hunger, but we dream of a world where all are fed and charged with hope, and we will help to make it so. The ordinary men and women of North Vietnam and southeast numb, of china and india, of russia and america, are brave people. They are filled with the same proportions of hate and fear, of love and hope. Most of them want the same things for themselves and their families. Most of them do not want their sons to ever die and battle, or to see their homes or the homes of others destroyed. Well this can be the world yet. Man now has the knowledge, always before denied, to make this planet serve the real needs of the people who live on it. I know this will not be easy. I know how difficult it is for a reason to guide passion, and love to master hate. The complexities of this world do not bow easily to pure and consistent answers. But the Simple Truths are there just the same. We must all try to follow them as best we can. We often say how impressive power is, but i do not find it impressive at all. The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. They are necessary symbols. They protect what we cherish, but they are witness to human folly. Is impressive. The site of hell jury healthy children in a classroom is impressive. These, not mighty arms, are the achievements which the american nation believes to be impressive. And, if we are steadfast, the time may come when all other nations will also find it so. Every night before i turn out the lights to sleep, i ask myself this question have i done everything that i can do to unite this country . Have i done everything i can to help unite the world, to try to bring peace and hope to all the peoples of the world . Have i done enough . Ask yourselves that question in your homes, and in this hall tonight. Have we, each of us, all done all we could . Have we done enough . We may well be living in the time for told many years ago when it was said i call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that i have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that both thou and die seed may live. This generation of the world must choose. Destroy or billed, kill or aid, hate or understand. Aawe can do all these [applause] contenders. Wherever he goes, he speaks out on the issues. He answers exactly where he stands on domestic and foreign policy. Everywhere he goes, people are responding with enthusiasm for this new and different kind of statement. Barry goldwater has been constantly on the go. It is a grueling schedule. Whenever he can, he catches a quick nap, here with his nap peggy. And with his wife peggy. He is calling for courage and integrity and meeting problems. He is calling for an end to