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Where Do We Go From Here?, August 1954?
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Where Do We Go From Here?, August 1954?
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D14, folder "Where Do We Go From Here?,
August 1954?" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D14 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
[ca.Ang.1954] [ca.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
I den't mind admitting that when I first began to consider
what I was going to talk about today I was semewhat puzaled by the announced
title of my speech. It seemed to me to be somewhat ambigueus and in its
narrowest interpretation to call for some rather specific ferecasting. While
there are people who believe that they can tell you what the steck-market
is going to de and when it is going to do it or just exactly how little
presperity we are going to have six months or a year from new, I must confess
that I am not one of these and that I de not possess the clairveyance to make
such specific predictions.
After some reflection, however, I came to the conclusion that
there was a breader appreach to the subject and that I didn't have to
berrow a crystal ball after all. We can, by standing aside for the moment
from the tumult of our daily lives and avoiding the confusion of our immediate
affairs, perceive at work certain deeper forces which in some measure pertend
live
the future and define the kind of world we may expect to/haxa in and the abli-
gations we will have to meet. It is this approach I would like to follow today.
On the National Archives Building in Washington there is engraved
the motto "What is past is prolegue." In theee werds is to be found the
guiding principle for any one who undertakes the difficult task of trying
to picture even the breadest outlines of the future. Only by reviewing what
has gene before and understanding what is going on now can we gain any insight
into what is to come. To answer the question Where de we 80 from hereM we
must begin by finding out where we are.
Whether we like it or net, the mest significant facter in the
world today is the Cemmunist drive twward world demination. The leaders of
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 2 -
this evil censpiracy having conselidated their position in Russia, are embarked
upon a program of expansion, aggression, and subversion which has as its goal
the subjection of the entire world to their dreadful tyranny. While the
intensity of their effort may ebb and flow and the direction of their path
may change from time to time they never lose sight of the ultimate objective
laid down for them by their false prephets and all of their activities are
directed to this end. Indeed, the variation in pressure and the zigzag course
their
are an integral part of the strategy at prescribed by Lenin,/this master planner.
The men in the Kremlin are net motivated by a desire for
territerial aggrandizement alone, but are guided by a philosophy which abjures
all of the religious, meral, and secial values of the free world and which
denies the validity of the fundamental principles upon which these values are
based. They covet net only the land and wealth of the free nations; they seek
also to destrey the civilization achieved by these nations and to replace
it with a way of life melded in their own disterted pattern. They would
replace eurbaith in God and our belief in man's salvation with their mater-
A
ialistic atheism; they would subsitute for our devetion to the principles of
truth and hener among men the amerality of their belief that the end justifies
any means; and they would supplant our reliance upon freedem and ce-eperation
with their dependence upon force and cenformity. In the view of the Communist
leaders, the nations they rule and those they would conquer are not composed
of individuals endowed with an immertal soul and capable of living in freedem,
but are merely masses to be hold in jubjection and regulated in every phase
of their lives.
Because the final objective of this menstrous conspiracy is the
tesal destruction of freedom overywhere and the enslavement of all mankind, its
attack is all-encempassing and there is no limit to the tactics and weapons
it employs. It attacks in all spheres - diplematic, economic, and Ailitary.
GERALD LIBRARY 4. FORD
- 3-
The prepagandist, the spy, the traiter and the subversive are its servants and
when these are not enough it turns to the seldier to advance its conquests.
The sciences, the arts, the prefessions, and even religion are not regarded
as independent spheres of activity with their own goals, but are considered
merely techniques to be used in the premetion of this awful tyranny. All
phases of human endeaver, regardless of their Agnificance in the total scheme
of things must be directed to the service of this evil cause.
The threat of world communism, furthermere, is net a temporary
one. Its leaders plan not for decades or even centumies, but for an entire
histsmical era. They recegnize the leng drawn-eut character of the struggle
they have initiated and are preparing themselves accerdingly. They may be
expected to centinue in their chesen course until they are made to realize that
the light of freedom cannet be extinguished and that further aggression on
their part will only lead to their destruction.
This, then, is the nature of the threat which we now face and
which we are likely to face for some time to come. The United States is the
richest and freest nation on earth and as such we epitemize all that the
Communists fear and despise. Pessessing only six percent of the world's
pepulation we have acquired almost fifty percent of its wealth and we have
developed the highest standard of living ever achieved by mankind. Following
the ways of freedom, our people as a whole enjoy a degree of comfort and
personal security which even the mightiest in the Communist hierarchy cannet
hope to achieve.
Because this is so, we are the principal obstacle in the path
of the would be world rulers in the Kremlin and we are the main object of
their attack. They envy our wealth, of course, but more importantly they fear
FORD i LIBRARY 07V830
- 4 -
and despise our freedom for it stands in sharp centrast to the system of
slavery they have imposed upen their own people and these they have cenquered
and helds out to their subjects the premise of a better way of life if they
but destroy the evil tyyanny that has overwhelmed them.
The mantle of leadership of the free world has thus been thrust
upon the United States and we are the bulwark of its resistance to the awful
threat which it faces. A substantial partef our attention and effort in the
days to come, therefore, will have to be deveted to the problems of strength-
ening our national security and to achieving unity among the nations which
are on our side in this celessal struggle.
First and feremest, we will have to maintain and develop our
military strength to meet tha whatever form of aggression our enemy may
undertake. We will have to continue to manufacture atomic and hydregen
bembs and to build the aircraft capable of delivering them to the targets for
c
only by being ready and able to retaliate with even greater force,an we hope
to avoid an attack upon us with these herrible weapons of mass destruction.
Slim though this hope may be, w8 must rely upon it for to neglect our prepara-
tion in this respect would leave us without any fully effective means of
avoiding the ultimate attack. While history has shown that the power# of
retaliation has often failed to deter aggressien, it must be recognized that
never before has that power been so sure and SO complete, and it is incenceivable
that even the leaders of Soviet Russia, bent as they are upon world rule,
would be willing to destroy themselves and their people to achieve their
goal.
In preparing for total war, however, we must recegnize that it
the
is also a part of A tactics/the leaders of world communism to engage in lecalized
FORD is LIBRARY GENALD
- 5 -
attacks, such as these which were launched in Kerea and Inde-China, whereby
they seek to bring within their realm peoples and resources now outside of
the Iron Curtain. This preceneal gnawing at the free world must be resisted
and to do so we will have to maintain the numerical strength of our armed
ferces and centimue to equip them with the conventional weapons of warfare.
This means, of course, that military training will centinue to be the lot
of our youfng men and we must be prepared to expand this obligation if and
when circumstances require such action. We must also develop and maintain
our reserves and establish adequate pregrams of training, for only be deing
so can we build the strength and flexibility which our armed services require.
While the Cemmunist attack is centered upon the United States,
we are not alene in this struggle for survival and there are other nations
whose liberty and independence are as much at stake as eurs. In the days
to ceme, much of our attention will have to be devoted to uniting these nations
with ourselves into a solid blec in opposition to Communist ambitions. Of
course, we are cencerned as 2 matter of principle in maintaining the integrity
which share
and well-being of these countries our devetion to freedem and who
seek to work out their own destinies, but we must also recegnize that they
bring to our cause resources and manpower which we vitally need to match
the strength of our enemy and that they provide bases which substantially
increase the effectiveness of our air power. Our pregrams of military I
assistance and economic and cannot be judged solely in humanitarian terms
but must be censidered also as expenditures for our defense, for in building
the strength of our friends and helping in the maintenance of their presperity we
are centributing to our own national security as well as to theirs.
In recent weeks our efforts to build the collective security
of the free world have received seme setbacks which have given encouragement
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 6 -
to these who would have us reverse our policy and "go it alone." We must
remember, in evaluating events like the unhappy settlement in Inde-China
and the failure of France to ratify the European Defense Treaty, that,
unlike our onemy who achieves unity through conquest, we are striving for
the unity of severeign nations through ce-eperation and we must not lose hope
because our progress is not always uninterrupted. Our rele is one of lead-
ership, net compulsion, and we must demenstrate our capacity for that
leadership by finding new bases for agreement when a proposed course of
action fails to receive the necessary approval of our allies. The task
before us is indeed difficult, but we must net diminish our efforts lest
the Communist aggressers achieve that division in the free world se essential
to their victory.
It appears, then, that matters of national defense and fereign
affairs are likely to abserb much of our attention in the fereseeable future,
to defent their evil designs. Important as these matters are, however, they
must not become our sole concern -and they must not deter us from maintaining
a strong economy devoted principally to the preduction of the goods of
peace and advancing the standard of living of all our citizens. Indeed,
in achieving these objectives we will be ferging our strengest weapon against
the Red tyrants, for by showing what can be achieved by free men working
without fear we will demenstrate the falseness of the dectrines they preach
and hold forth to their subjects the premise of participating in a better
life if they but threw off the despetism which restrains them.
But what are our prespects in this connection? Do we face the
depression and cellapse which have been predicted by some since the end of
World War II or de we stand at the threshheld of a period of expansion and
presperity never even dreamed of a few short years ago? What course must
FORD i LIBRARY
- 7 -
we follow to avoid the one and achieve the other?
I could attempt to provide an answer to these questions
by talking about such things as changes in the gross national product, the
EEE rise and fall of disposable personal income, and similar statestical
measurements, but I den't think it would be very helpful. There are some who
place great store in the past perfermances of our economy in its various aspects
and who profess to find the key to the future in comparisons of last month's
or last quarter's results with results in the same period last year. While
I do not wish to find fault with this technique or to underrate the importance
of statistics of this sert, I should like to point out that the conclusions
which are drawn from these comparisens all too frequently depend upon the
predilections and the pelitical philsesphy of the one who draws them and that
the same set of figures are often quoted in support of ******* diametrically
opposed views. It also seems to me that this appreach deals with effects
rather than causes and tends to emphasize the deaails which overleeking some
of the underlying, and sometimes qualitative, factors which are operating
to share our economic future.
Let us look at some of these factors:
are
First, there is the tremendous production capacity
which this country possesses. We have the facilities, tools, and equipment
to manufacture more steel, copper, and aluminum than any other natien and
to fabricate these basic metals into mere automobiles, heusehold appliances,
and the other consumers' goods which are necessities to us but luxuries
elsewhere. ,and we can, and do, produce more feed and clething than any other
country.
we
GERALD LIBRARY ? FORD
In some quarters our great preduction capacity is leeked
- 8 -
upon with misgiving and regarded as a burden upon the orderly functioning
of our economy. I am wheleheartedly and unqualifiedly in disagreement with
this point of view. It seems to me that there is a twisted legic in the
argument that we are unfortunate because we are able to produce so many of the
necessidies and comforts of life. Our machines and toos are not like a
miser's coin to be cherished for themselves, but find their justification
only in the goods which they can produce and their very existence created
a pressure for their use. They are the reason for our ever increasing pre-
ductivity and a necessary cendition to the advancement of our standard of
living.
A second important element pertending our future is
to be found in the rapid rate at which our pepulation is rising. I remember
when I was in college not se many years age seme of our secielogists viewed
with great alarm the trends which they purported to find in our census figures
and predicted a dire future for the United States as a decadent and declining
nation. These prephets of doom gust be embarrassed, to say the least, by
the fact that today we are a country of over 162 million people, that our
pepulation is growing at a faster rate than it over has before, and that for
the past six years it has grown at a faster rate than it did in the previous
ferty years.
This increasing pepulation, of course, means/grewing
market for the houses, the automobiles, and the other goods which we are
capable of turning out and will insure the utilization of our present
production capacity and more.
A third basic facter, and one which is not capable of
statistical measurement, in lies in the genius of our scientists and inventess
GERALD LIBERTY FORD
- 9 -
and in the organizing ability of our industrial engineers. These men are
constantly developing new products to satisfy our wants and defising new
techniques for preducing our goods more efficiently, and developments in the
atemic sciences have opened to them new vistas which were beyond comprehension
only a decade age. After centemplating the premendous power generated in
atomic fission, the miracles of television and radar, and the wender of
supersonic speed, who is beld enough to predict what new products and
technological advances will come out of our laberatories in the years which
like lie ahead?
These three factors tremendeus productive capacity,
an expanding market, and a talent for invention and organization - give
promis of an era of unlimited expansion and presperity for all. An era
in which we can conquer all of the ills which beset us and provide a standard
of living which transcends our imagination.
Yes, the basic ingredients for tremendous advancement
are present today and we need only provide the "climate" necessary to enable
these forces to bring to actuality the premise which they hold forth.
We must never forget that we have reached our present
high estate and have built the basis for our future progress only because
we have been able to accumulate our savings and have been free to risk our
capital in expanding old and building new enterprises. Freedom of
enterprise, individual initiative, and competition are the basie forces which
have breught us to where we are and they are the only means by which we can
hope to move ferward to the heights before us.
If proof of this be needed, we have only to censider
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
the conditions prevailing in Seviet Russia today to find it. Despite their
- 10 - -
tremendous man power and material resources, the Communists have achieved
cemparatively little improvement in the standard of living of the people they
rule and they continue to live in conditions of poverty and wretchedness.
The preductivity of their agricultural and industrial labor is at a very low ±
level and they lack not only the comferts but even the necessities that medern
technolegy is capable of previding. Because these people have not been
free but have labored under an overwhelming bureaucracy which has regulated
every phase of their lives and dictated the direction of all their activities,,
they have been able to realize virtually none of the gains which lay within
their power.
The warning in their experience is clear to us. Our
citizens must be able to work and risk their savings free of government reg-
ulation and their capital must not be consumed in support of a burdenseme
and unproductive bureaucracy. Only by adhering to and developing the economic
freedom which made this nation great can we hope to retain the pelitical and
civil liberties which we cherish and achieve the Wealth and security ***** which
is available to us.
We live in difficult times and the path before us is
steep and tertueus, but we must not lose sight of the goals which lie before
us. We stand not at the end of our greatness, but at the beginning of an
era of opportunity for advancement heretofere undreamed of and if we strengthen
our freedom and maintain our faith in God and ourselves we will surmeunt
the obstacles and reach the heights.
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD