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Republican Fund-Raising Dinner in Honor of 18th District Representative Bob Price of Texas, November 17, 1967
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Republican Fund-Raising Dinner in Honor of 18th District Representative Bob Price of Texas, November 17, 1967
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D23, folder "Republican Fund-Raising Dinner
in Honor of 18th District Representative Bob Price of Texas, November 17, 1967" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Distribution: Full, + 20 Mr. Ford
12:30p.m. 11/17/67
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. FRIDAY--
November 17, 1967
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a Republican Fund-
Raising Dinner Friday evening, Nov. 17, 1967, at the Holiday Inn, Amarillo,
Texas, In honor of Rep. Bob Price, R-Tex., representing the Texas 18th District.
The Credibility Canyon at The White House is growing ever wider and deeper
despite studied attempts by the President to wipe it out in recent months.
Lyndon Johnson's Nov. 1 press conference--a quickie like so many of his
other meetings with the news media--provides a couple of prime examples of the
President's inability to be honest with the American people.
Asked about the likelihood of winning congressional approval for his 10 per
cent income tax surcharge, Mr. Johnson said: "We will just continue to do the
best we can here to persuade the Congress to take this action that we think is
very essential to avoid inflation."
He didn't talk about slowing down inflation or keeping it from getting any
worse. He talked as though a $7 billion-or-less increase in taxes would be the
means of avoiding inflation.
The President was pretending that right now inflation is non-existent when
the truth is that the cost-of-living currently is rising at an annual rate of
4.4 per cent. Not only that, but the President was ignoring the fact that the
cost of living has jumped 12.6 per cent since the Democrats took. office in
January, 1961.
The President was saying we could avoid inflation in 1968 if we had a
$21 billion deficit instead of a $28 billion deficit. That is indeed strange
logic. Not only that, it is pure fiction and so is Mr. Johnson's entire state-
ment about "avoiding" inflation.
Mr. Johnson made these statements about inflation and taxes on Nov. 1.
Less than a week later Mr. Johnson's leading expert on consumer prices--Labor
Statistics Commissioner Arthur M. Ross--said in a copyrighted interview with
U.S. News & World Report that the country would see highly inflationary price
increases in 1968 regardless of what happens to the President's proposed income
tax increase.
The Johnson press conference of Nov. 1 was even more interesting on another
ORD
(more)
point.
LIBRARY
Digitized from Box D23 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
One newsman had the temerity to ask about the statement Lyndon Johnson
made during the 1964 campaign, the Vietnam War comment that "we don't want our
American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys" and that we don't want to "get
tied down in a land war in Asia."
Mr. Johnson had the gall to say, flatly: "There has not been a change of
policy." Then he sought to explain away his fraudulent campaign oratory by
adding, "We are asking them all to do all they can. But that did not imply
then and does not imply now that we would not do what we needed to do to deter
aggression.'
This is like saying black is white. I know of no American who did not take
Lyndon Johnson's 1964 campaign statement to mean that he would not send American
boys to fight South Vietnam's War. For Mr. Johnson to say there was no such
implication in his campaign statement is sheer hypocrisy. No wonder the American
people don't believe him or believe in him.
At this point I refer Mr. Johnson to a recent magazine article by former
Assistant Defense Secretary Arthur Sylvester, famous for openly asserting that
the Government has a right to lie when the nation's security is at stake.
Mr. Sylvester blamed the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's credibility gap
on "the failure of newsmen to do their job." Then he added:
"Government officials do not have the right to lie politically or to protect
themselves, but they do always have the duty to protect their countrymen."
At this point, I refer Mr. Sylvester to Mr. Johnson's Nov. 1 press conference
statement on inflation and his 1964 campaign comments on Vietnam.
Mr. Johnson recently appealed for unity on Vietnam. A President cannot have
unity simply by asking for it. He has to earn it by winning the people to his
side. Mr. Johnson has failed to do that because he simply has not been honest
with the American people about the Vietnam War. He eased this Nation into a
huge land force commitment in Vietnam without really letting the people know
what was happening. You can't treat the American people that way and keep their
trust. There is a great crisis of confidence in America today--a confidence gap
bred of a leadership gap--and its consequences could be tragic for every man,
woman and child in this country.
President Johnson has made a wide variety of statements about why we are in
Vietnam. The latest--he finally got around to admitting it--is that we are in
Vietnam because of our own national interest, the stake we have in trying to keep
South Vietnam from being drawn into the Communist world. Up until now the
(more)
-3-
President has given the American people so many other reasons that they are
thoroughly confused.
Republican leaders urged on Dec. 13, 1965, that we achieve success against
the enemy by making full and effective use of our conventional air and sea power
and by shutting off the flow of war supplies through the North Vietnamese port
of Haiphong.
Instead the President placed hundreds of North Vietnamese targets on an off-
limits list and only gradually stepped up the pressure. In fact, it was not
until after I disclosed last August 8 just how we were pulling our air punch in
Vietnam that the President finally approved air strikes against many of the
forbidden targets.
I say that if we had hit those targets nearly two years ago when the
Republican National Coordinating Committee urged it we would now be two years
closer to peace in Vietnam. It may be that a settlement would already have been
reached.
I have always felt we had to fight communism in Vietnam. I supported
President Truman's firm decision to prevent a communist take-over in Korea. But
the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's conduct of the war--on both the military
and pacification fronts--has left much to be desired. The American people--and
the South Vietnamese--have suffered as a result.
While mismanaging the Vietnam War, the Johnson-Humphrey Administration also
has mismanaged the economy.
They deliberately kept the Congress in the dark on the full costs of the
Vietnam War so they could go ahead with extravagant experiments in social welfare.
To all Republican pleas for a setting of priorities on non-defense spending,
their answers were that we could afford both guns and butter and that Republicans
wanted to pay for the Vietnam War at the expense of the poor.
I say the Vietnam War has been fought wrong from the beginning to the present,
and all of the American people have been the victims of this colossal Johnson-
Humphrey Administration blunder. Our policy of gradualism in Vietnam has been a
policy of stupidity. Worse still, it amounted to playing politics with the war.
The same holds true for the economy. President Johnson has spent us into a
$30 billion deficit and into mounting inflation and now he has the gall to ask the
American people for an income tax increase. To add insult to injury, he is seek-
ing to switch the blame for inflation to the 90th Congress. This man is just
too great a burden for the American people to bear.
What is the meaning of the fantastically low approval rating given Mr.
Johnson by the American people? It means they are crying out for a new leader,
a man they can believe in.
# # #
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 P.M. FRIDAY--
November 17, 1967
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich., at a Republican Fund-
Raising Dinner Friday evening, Nov. 17, 1967, at the Holiday Inn, Amarillo,
Texas, In honor of Rep. Bob Price, R-Tex., representing the Texas 18th District,
The Credibility Canyon at The White House is growing ever wider and deeper
despite studied attempts by the President to wipe it out in recent months.
Lyndon Johnson's Nov. 1 press conference--a quickie like so many of his
other meetings with the news media--provides a couple of prime examples of the
President's inability to be honest with the American people.
Asked about the likelihood of winning congressional approval for his 10 per
cent income tax surcharge, Mr. Johnson said: "We will just continue to do the
best we can here to persuade the Congress to take this action that we think is
very essential to avoid inflation."
He didn't talk about slowing down inflation or keeping it from getting any
worse. He talked as though a $7 billion-or-less increase in taxes would be the
means of avoiding inflation.
The President was pretending that right now inflation is non-existent when
the truth is that the cost-of-living currently is rising at an annual rate of
4.4 per cent. Not only that, but the President was ignoring the fact that the
cost of living has jumped 12.6 per cent since the Democrats took office in
January, 1961.
The President was saying we could avoid inflation in 1968 if we had a
$21 billion deficit instead of a $28 billion deficit. That is indeed strange
logic. Not only that, it is pure fiction and so is Mr. Johnson's entire state-
ment about "avoiding" inflation.
Mr. Johnson made these statements about inflation and taxes on Nov. 1.
Less than a week later Mr. Johnson's leading expert on consumer prices--Labor
Statistics Commissioner Arthur M. Ross--said in a copyrighted interview with
U.S. News & World Report that the country would see highly inflationary price
increases in 1968 regardless of what happens to the President's proposed income
tax increase.
The Johnson press conference of Nov. 1 was even more interesting on another
point.
(more)
LIBRARY
-2-
One newsman had the temerity to ask about the statement Lyndon Johnson
made during the 1964 campaign, the Vietnam War comment that "we don't want our
American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys" and that we don't want to "get
tied down in a land war in Asia."
Mr. Johnson had the gall to say, flatly: "There has not been a change of
policy." Then he sought to explain away his fraudulent campaign oratory by
adding, "We are asking them all to do all they can. But that did not imply
then and does not imply now that we would not do what we needed to do to deter
aggression.'
This is like saying black is white. I know of no American who did not take
Lyndon Johnson's 1964 campaign statement to mean that he would not send American
boys to fight South Vietnam's War. For Mr. Johnson to say there was no such
implication in his campaign statement is sheer hypocrisy. No wonder the American
people don't believe him or believe in him.
At this point I refer Mr. Johnson to a recent magazine article by former
Assistant Defense Secretary Arthur Sylvester, famous for openly asserting that
the Government has a right to lie when the nation's security is at stake.
Mr. Sylvester blamed the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's credibility gap
on "the failure of newsmen to do their job." Then he added:
"Government officials do not have the right to lie politically or to protect
themselves, but they do always have the duty to protect their countrymen."
At this point, I refer Mr. Sylvester to Mr. Johnson's Nov. 1 press conference
statement on inflation and his 1964 campaign comments on Vietnam.
Mr. Johnson recently appealed for unity on Vietnam. A President cannot have
unity simply by asking for it. He has to earn it by winning the people to his
side. Mr. Johnson has failed to do that because he simply has not been honest
with the American people about the Vietnam War. He eased this Nation into a
huge land force commitment in Vietnam without really letting the people know
what was happening. You can't treat the American people that way and keep their
trust. There is a great crisis of confidence in America today--a confidence gap
bred of a leadership gap--and its consequences could be tragic for every man,
woman and child in this country.
President Johnson has made a wide variety of statements about why we are in
Vietnam. The latest--he finally got around to admitting it--is that we are in
Vietnam because of our own national interest, the stake we have in trying to keep
South Vietnam from being drawn into the Communist world. Up until now the
(more)
-3-
President has given the American people so many other reasons that they are
thoroughly confused.
Republican leaders urged on Dec. 13, 1965, that we achieve success against
the enemy by making full and effective use of our conventional air and sea power
and by shutting off the flow of war supplies through the North Vietnamese port
of Haiphong.
Instead the President placed hundreds of North Vietnamese targets on an off-
limits list and only gradually stepped up the pressure. In fact, it was not
until after I disclosed last August 8 just how we were pulling our air punch in
Vietnam that the President finally approved air strikes against many of the
forbidden targets.
I say that if we had hit those targets nearly two years ago when the
Republican National Coordinating Committee urged it we would now be two years
closer to peace in Vietnam. It may be that a settlement would already have been
reached.
I have always felt we had to fight communism in Vietnam. I supported
President Truman's firm decision to prevent a communist take-over in Korea. But
the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's conduct of the war--on both the military
and pacification fronts--has left much to be desired. The American people--and
the South Vietnamese--have suffered as a result.
While mismanaging the Vietnam War, the Johnson-Humphrey Administration also
has mismanaged the economy.
They deliberately kept the Congress in the dark on the full costs of the
Vietnam War so they could go ahead with extravagant experiments in social welfare.
To all Republican pleas for a setting of priorities on non-defense spending,
their answers were that we could afford both guns and butter and that Republicans
wanted to pay for the Vietnam War at the expense of the poor.
I say the Vietnam War has been fought wrong from the beginning to the present,
and all of the American people have been the victims of this colossal Johnson-
Humphrey Administration blunder. Our policy of gradualism in Vietnam has been a
policy of stupidity. Worse still, it amounted to playing politics with the war.
The same holds true for the economy. President Johnson has spent us into a
$30 billion deficit and into mounting inflation and now he has the gall to ask the
American people for an income tax increase. To add insult to injury, he is seek-
ing to switch the blame for inflation to the 90th Congress. This man is just
too great a burden for the American people to bear.
What is the meaning of the fantastically low approval rating given Mr.
Johnson by the American people? It means they are crying out for a new leader,
a man they can believe in.
# # #