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4525912
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Erie, PA, February 25, 1965
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4525912
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document
title
Erie, PA, February 25, 1965
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
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Democratic Party (U.S.)
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
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4525912
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1966-02-28
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2
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1966
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1966-02-01
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2
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1966
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The original documents are located in Box D19, folder "Erie, PA, February 25, 1965" of the
Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford
Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Digitized from Box D19 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
Erie, Pa.
For release at time speech
Feb. 25, 1966
is delivered
The people of this Nation are losing patience with the majority party that is
bogged down in disagreement on policy and in petty feuds among its lea Lng
figures. The people are losing patience with an Administration that vacillates
and dodges and shifts position in an attempt to please all the conflicting
elements that make up the Democratic Party.
The public has long tolerated the divisions within the majority party that
produce conflict in matters of domestic policy--in such fields as economic policy,
civil rights, and federal-state relations. Now, however, deep disagreement among
leading Democrats on foreign policy has appeared. It leaves the public confused,
apprehensive, and angry.
Why the uncertainties and misunderstandings and fears about the war in Vietnam?
In great part they are the result of the inability of the party in power to
agree on whether Americans should be in Vietnam at all, what our Nation is trying
to achieve there, and whether the right means are being used.
These divisions among Democrats became very clear recently when a leading
Democratic Senator proposed settling the problem of Vietnam as the problems of
Poland, of Rumania, of Bulgaria, of Czechoslovakia were settled after World War
II---by admitting the Communists to a share of power and responsibility in
government. The Administration's attitude toward this proposal of a coalition
government for South Vietnam--which would pave the way for a Communist government
as surely as did coalition governments in Poland, Czeckoslovakia, Rumania, and
Hungary---is still not clear. For this proposal has been dealt with by double
talk from the White House.
Can a party so badly divided, torn internally by disagreement about the path
which the Nation should follow, subject to schizophrenic impulses as it tries to
satisfy its divergent elements, provide the leadership needed in the present
crisis? The answer is no. And this is the answer which the American people will
give at the polls in November.
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GERALD FORD VIBRARY