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Commencement Address, Parsons College, Fairfield, IA, June 11, 1966
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Commencement Address, Parsons College, Fairfield, IA, June 11, 1966
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The original documents are located in Box D20, folder "Commencement Address, Parsons
College, Fairfield, IA, June 11, 1966" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D20 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS--PARSONS COLLEGE, JUNE 11, 1966
"NOW IS THE HOUR"
yale
WHENEVER A MAN IS ASKED TO SPEAK TO A GRADUATING
CLASS, HE AUTOMATICALLY THINKS BACK TO HIS OWN
GRADUATION DAY.
THIS IS ALWAYS A RATHER DISCOURAGING EXPERIENCE
BECAUSE I REALIZE THAT WHATEVER THE ADVICE MY UNIVERSITY
COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER GAVE ME--I JUST CAN'T REMEMBER IT.
I HAVE NO ILLUSIONS AS TO THE FATE OF MY MESSAGE
Today
BUT I'LL TRY.
YOU HAVE PURSUED THE ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR FOUR YEARS,
AND HAVE SUCCESSFULLY EARNED A DEGREE.
GERALD R.FORD LIBRARY
-2-
YET, WE ALL KNOW THAT RECEIVING A COLLEGE DIPLOMA
DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY CONFER A LIBERAL EDUCATION ON
YOU. IF ANYTHING, IT GIVES YOU, HOPEFULLY, THE ADDED
ABILITY TO COMPREHEND AND COPE WITH WHAT IS GOING ON
AROUND YOU. IT GIVES YOU THE ADDED SECURITY AND
CAPACITY TO LEARN, TO THINK FOR YOURSELF. THIS IS
THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTE OF AN EDUCATED, ENLIGHTENED
MAN.
from hundergarder to your degree here this atternorn
YOUR EDUCATION QUALIFIES YOU TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.
IF I GIVE YOU ANY PARTING WORDS OR SUGGESTIONS
TODAY FOR A FULLER LIFE---THEY ARE---NOW IS THE HOUR"
TO EXPRESS YOURSELF; NOW IS THE HOUR" TO THINK FOR
YOURSELF.
-3-
I DO NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD NEVER THINK LIKE OTHER
PEOPLE. I MEAN | YOU SHOULD NEITHER BE A "KOOK" WHO
PRIDES HIMSELF ON BEING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM
OTHERS--NOR A SHEEP WHO FOLLOWS OTHERS BLINDLY.
NOW IS THE HOUR FOR YOU TO RAISE PENETRATING BUT
CONSTRUCTIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING AROUND
YOU IN THIS COUNTRY AND IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.
TO ILLUSTRATE--I COULD NOT BE TRUE TO MYSELF OR TO
MY CONSTITUENTS--IF I DID NOT INDEPENDENTLY MAKE
SUGGESTIONS, HELPFULLY I TRUST, TO OTHER PUBLIC
OFFICIALS, INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT, ACCORDING TO THE
BEST OF MY SINCERE BELIEFS.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
LET ME HASTEN TO ADD--WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH--ONE
-4-
MUST FIGHT WITHIN THE LAW FOR THE ACCEPTANCE OF ONE'S
BELIEFS.
NOW IS THE HOUR--TO PERSIST IN BEING HEARD, sometimes alone,
on other occasions with The help 2 some tropa. But if you BELIEVE; BE HEARD.
THINKING A PROBLEM THROUGH, BEING TRUE TO YOUR
PRINCIPLES, IS THE INALIENABLE RIGHT GIVEN TO EVERY
CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES.
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN WE DESPERATELY NEED AN INFORMED
PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICA. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE IN
THE AREA OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
A UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SURVEY IN 1964 REVEALED THAT
MORE THAN 25 PER CENT OF THOSE PERSONS QUESTIONED DID
NOT KNOW THAT MAINLAND CHINA IS RULED BY COMMUNISTS.
LIBRARY
-5-
ALMOST AS HIGH A PERCENTAGE,LESS THAN 2 YEARS AGO,
WERE UNAWARE THAT A WAR WAS GOING ON IN VIETNAM.
THAT SOUNDS INCREDIBLE. YET, THAT'S WHAT THE
SURVEY SHOWED.
WE DESPERATELY NEED AN ACCURATELY INFORMED AND ALERT
PUBLIC OPINION--FOR WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A PERILOUS
AGE. THE FUTURE OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY, AND NO DOUBT
THE WORLD, LIES IN THE EXERCISE OF GOOD JUDGMENT BY
CITIZENS SUCH AS YOURSELF. PUBLIC OPINION DOES EXERCISE
A GUIDING AND RESTRAINING INFLUENCE ON YOUR GOVERNMENT.
EVERY CITIZEN WHO EXPRESSES HIMSELF IS AN IMPORTANT
CATALYST IN GETTING HIS LOCAL, STATE AND FEDERAL
GERALD R.FORD LIBRARY
GOVERNMENT TO PUT HIS CONVICTIONS TO WORK.
-6-
THOSE OF YOU IN THE ATTENTIVE PUBLIC WHO ARE
ACTIVISTS--WHO THINK ABOUT FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRANSMIT
YOUR IDEAS TO OTHERS--ARE THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE. YOU
SERVE AS A KIND OF TRANSMISSION BELT BETWEEN THE POLICY
MAKERS AND THE TOTAL PUBLIC. IN THE VIETNAM CRISIS,
WHERE THERE ARE CURRENTS AND CROSS CURRENTS, SOME
OBVIOUS, SOME DEVIOUS, THIS ROLE IS OF MAJOR CONSEQUENCE.
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN PEACE IS AN ISSUE OF GREAT
URGENCY. THERE IS A DESPERATE NEED NOW TO THINK THROUGH
THE ISSUE OF NUCLEAR EXTINCTION OR SURVIVAL. THERE IS
A DEMAND FOR THE COMMON SENSE TREATMENT OF WORLD AND
NATIONAL AFFAIRS. WE HAVE RARELY, IF EVER, HAD TOTAL
WORLD PEACE.
-7-
NOW IS THE HOUR-WHEN OUR ANXIETIES ARE FURTHER
ACCENTUATED BY THE LATEST NUCLEAR EXPLOSION TOUCHED OFF
BY COMMUNIST CHINA.
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN WE MUST SEEK TO LAY THE BASIS
FOR A DURABLE AND JUST PEACE. NOT PEACE AT ANY COST!
NOT PEACE BY APPEASEMENT OR CAPITULATION!
SOME THINK THAT PEACE CAN BE ATTAINED BY AN OVERNIGHT
CHANGE OF POLICY ON THE PART OF THE UNITED STATES TOWARD
Containment but not indation is a new catch phrase.
COMMUNIST CHINA. BUT, IT IS NOT ACCURATE TO CONTEND THAT
THE U.S. HAS KEPT COMMUNIST CHINA OUT OF THE UNITED
NATIONS. RED CHINA HAS SHUT ITSELF OUT OF THE UNITED
intent + purpose The
NATIONS BY REFUSING TO COMPLY WITH THE U.N. CHARTER
AND BY DEMANDING IMPOSSIBLE CHANGES IN THE U.N. AS
LIBRARY
-8-
CONDITIONS FOR HER ENTRY INTO THAT ORGANIZATION.
SOME WOULD ADMIT COMMUNIST CHINA TO THE U.N. ON THE
BASIS OF A PROMISETO LIVE UP TO THE CHARTER.
NOW IS THE HOUR--TO SAY / A PROMISE, lyRid China IS NOT ENOUGH.
RED CHINA SHOULD PROVE BY ACTIONS THAT SHE IS WORTHY
-
OF U.N. MEMBERSHIP BY AGREEING TO MEANINGFUL PEACE
2
NEGOTIATIONS ON VIETNAM, BY ENDING ANY AND ALL
3
PARTICIPATION IN AGGRESSION, AND BY CALLING FOR AN
IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE IN THAT BATTLE-FATIGUED NATION.
LET RED CHINA PROVE BY DEEDS, NOT JUST BY WORDS,
THAT SHE HAS ABANDONED AGGRESSION. THEN ONE OF THE
MAJOR OBSTACLES TO HER ENTRANCE INTO THIS INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATION ILL BE REMOVED.
-9-
THE UNITED STATES HAS LONG DEMONSTRATED ITS DEEP
DESIRE TO ADVANCE THE CAUSE OF PEACE THROUGH THE RECON-
STRUCTION OF A WAR-TORN WORLD AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THOSE BACKWARD AREAS ON A GLOBAL BASIS.
Let EUROPE.HAVE.HAVE never
INVESTED $13 BILLION TO RESTORE WAR-DEVASTATED
X
THE UNITED STATES HAS DEVOTED $116 BILLION IN AID
TO 118 NATIONS DURING A 20-YEAR SPAN SINCE WORLD WAR II.
WE'VE INVESTED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO
SPEED AGRICULTURAL GROWTH IN THE UNDER-DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD TO MEET FAMINE AND THE SPECTRE
OF AN EVER-WIDENING POPULATION EXPLOSION.
GERALO LIBRURY
-10-
WE'VE SPENT MILLIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD TO FIGHT
DREAD DISEASES.
OUR CITIZENS HAVE SENT TEAMS FROM 71 AMERICAN
UNIVERSITIES TO 38 COUNTRIES TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE.
WE'VE PROVIDED TECHNICAL TRAINING TO FOREIGN VISITORS
AT 126 AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES UNDER AID
CONTRACTS TOTALLING $185 MILLION.
WE'VE BUILT 237,000 CLASSROOMS IN OTHER COUNTRIES IN
FIVE YEARS AND HAVE HELPED TO SET UP FOREIGN COLLEGES
AND UNIVERSITIES WHICH SINCE HAVE GRADUATED MORE THAN
637,000 TEACHERS.
-11-
YES, AMERICANS ARE AN IDEALISTIC, GENEROUS PEOPLE;
BUT THEY ALSO ARE A COMMON-SENSE PEOPLE.
MOST RECOGNIZE THAT OUR FOREIGN ASSISTANCE HELPS
TO BREAK DOWN STAGNANT SOCIAL ORDERS WHICH TEND TO
KEEP THE MASS OF THEIR PEOPLE IN ECONOMIC SERFDOM, AND
OUR AID HELPS TO TRANSFORM BACKWARD ECONOMIES INTO productive
INDUSTRIAL NATION-STATES.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE RECOGNIZE, Too, THAT THESE
TRANSITIONS CAN BE HELPFUL BUILDING BLOCKS OF WORLD
PEACE.
IT MAY SEEM STRANGE TO TALK OF PEACE AS WE READ
REPORTS OF INCREASING AMERICAN CASUALTIES IN VIETNAM.
-12-
MANY IN THIS GRADUATING CLASS LEAVE THIS CAMPUS
NOT TO ENGAGE IN THE WORKS OF PEACE AND PROGRESS FOR
WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN EDUCATED BUT TO FIGHT A WAR. TO
THOSE WHO WILL BEAR SACRIFICE, RISK, AND DANGER SO THAT
MEN MAY BE FREE, THIS NATION OWES A DEBT OF GRATITUDE
THAT CAN NEVER BE ADEQUATELY REPAID.
THE LEAST THE NATION CAN DO FOR THOSE WHO ARE
SUBJECTED TO EXTRAORDINARY RISK AND SACRIFICE IS TO
TAKE EVERY POSSIBLE STEP TO MINIMIZE AMERICAN CASUALTIES
AND END THE CONFLICT HONORABLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
THE NATION IS NOT DOING ALL THAT IT CAN TOWARD THESE
OBJECTIVES WHEN IT FAILS TO USE ITS FULL ECONOMIC AND
DIPLOMATIC RESOURCES TN SUPPORT OF ITS NECESSARY
GERALD
LIBRARY
-13-
MILITARY EFFORT. TO GIVE ONE EXAMPLE, THE NATION IS
NOT USING THESE RESOURCES TO THE MAXIMUM WHEN THE SHIPS
OF OUR ALLIES CONTINUE TO CARRY SUPPLIES, CERTAINLY
SOME WEAPONS, TO NORTH VIETNAM, THEREBY PROLONGING THE
CONFLICT AND INCREASING AMERICAN LOSSES.
I RETURN TO THE THEME OF PEACE, FOR THERE WILL BE
AN END TO THE WAR IN VIETNAM, if we stand firm against communist
appression of term, and when the enemy realizes its terror + aggression cannot prevail. We on do not inst
NOW IS THE HOUR--TO SPEED THAT DAY. AND LET US USpurrender lve 3n/v
unconditional
WORK TO MAKE THIS CONFLICT HOPEFULLY THE LAST CLASH OF
doinsist on
ARMS, NOT THE PRELUDE TO ANOTHER BIGGER WAR.
security inconditional JS.V. S.V.
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN DESPITE THE WHINE OF BOMBS
AND BULLETS, WE MUST START ACTIVELY TO BUILD FOR PEACE.
GERAL
IBRARY
-14-
APART FROM NEGOTIATIONS AT THE DIPLOMATIC LEVEL,
ANOTHER AVENUE TOWARD THE BUILDING OF PEACE-1S DOWN
THE PATH OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE. SCIENCE AND MUSIC ARE
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES.
IN ALL COUNTRIES THE INTELLECTUALS CONSTITUTE AN
ISLAND OF INDEPENDENCE, EVEN WHEN SURROUNDED BY A SEA
OF DICTATORSHIP.
THE INTELLECTUAL HAS BEEN AND CAN BE AN INSTRUMENT
FOR SANITY IN THIS WORLD--IN AMERICA, AS PARTICIPANTS
IN THE SHAPING OF FOREIGN POLICY AND AS A TRANSMISSION
BELT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE TOTAL POPULATION;
IN COMMUNIST NATIONS, AS A MODERATING INFLUENCE ON
RULERS PREACHING A MAD NATIONALISM AND GLOBAL DOMINATION,
-15-
WHILE FURIOUSLY WHIPPING THEIR PEOPLE TOWARD INDUSTRIAL
AND MILITARY GOALS.
THE CHANGES THE INTELLECTUALS CAN BRING ABOUT IN THE
WORLD OF NATIONS WILL, I BELIEVE, IN THE END, PROTECT
THE IDEAS OF PEACE AND PROGRESS FROM THE CRUSHING BLOWS
OF HISTORY.
even one
PERHAPS NO INTELLECTUAL, WITH A GREAT FACILITY FOR
SELF-EXPRESSION, COULD CONVEY MORE CLEARLY THIS CONVIC-
TION I HOLD THAN AN ASIAN STUDENT WHO HAD PONDERED
LONG THE GREAT QUESTIONS OF WAR AND PEACE IN OUR TIME.
IN A LETTER TO A STATE DEPARMENT OFFICIAL, THIS
STUDENT SAID IN MOST INTRIGUING ENGLISH: "SLOW BY SLOW,
-16-
IN THE LONG OF TIME, WE WILL SUCCESS."
WE CAN MOVE TOWARD PEACE IF WE OPEN UP LINES OF
COMMUNICATIONS WITH PEOPLE EVERYWHERE, if we stand from on
principle, i we insist on performance, not promises; and if une believe, really believe, whe america. blessings of
CAN STAND HERE, RAISE QUESTIONS AND MAKE SUGGESTIONS
BUT THIS IS BUT ONE VOICE.
YOU ARE THE FUTURE-YOUR CRIES WILL BE HEARD AND
ANSWERED. IT IS YOU WHO CAN AND WILL TURN THE WHEELS
OF ACTION!
AND, THIS YOU MUST DO!
YOU MUST BE AWARE! YOU MUST NOT FOLLOW ANYONE
BLINDLY!
GREAT FORD FIBRARY
-17-
YOU MUST SEARCH FOR TRUTH AS YOU SEE IT!
YOU MUST EVALUATE CIRCUMSTANCES AND FACTS!
YOU MUST MAKE UP YOUR MIND!
YOU MUST STAND UP AND BE COUNTED!
FOR, NOW IS THE HOUR.
-END-
CORD LIBRARI
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS--PARSONS COLLEGE, JUNE 11. 1966
"NOW IS THE HOUR"
zale
WHENEVER A MAN IS ASKED TO SPEAK TO A GRADUATING
CLASS, HE AUTOMATICALLY THINKS BACK TO HIS OWN
GRADUATION DAY.
THIS IS ALWAYS A RATHER DISCOURAGING EXPERIENCE
BECAUSE I REALIZE THAT WHATEVER THE ADVICE MY UNIVERSITY
COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER GAVE ME--1 JUST CAN'T REMEMBER IT.
I HAVE NO ILLUSIONS AS TO THE FATE OF MY MESSAGE
Today
BUT I'LL TRY.
YOU HAVE PURSUED THE ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR FOUR YEARS,
AND HAVE SUCCESSFULLY EARNED A DEGREE.
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
-2-
YET, WE ALL KNOW THAT RECEIVING A COLLEGE DIPLOMA
DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY CONFER A LIBERAL EDUCATION ON
YOU. IF ANYTHING, IT GIVES YOU, HOPEFULLY, THE ADDED
ABILITY TO COMPREHEND AND COPE WITH WHAT IS GOING ON
AROUND YOU. IT GIVES YOU THE ADDED SECURITY AND
CAPACITY TO LEARN, TO THINK FOR YOURSELF. THIS IS
THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTE OF AN EDUCATED, ENLIGHTENED
MAN.
from to your degree here this afternoon
YOUR EDUCATION QUALIFIES YOU TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.
IF I GIVE YOU ANY PARTING WORDS OR SUGGESTIONS
TODAY FOR A FULLER LIFE---THEY ARE---NOW IS THE HOUR
TO EXPRESS YOURSELF; NOW IS THE HOUR TO THINK FOR
YOURSELF.
FORD is LIBRARY 9ERALD
-3-
I DO NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD NEVER THINK LIKE OTHER
PEOPLE. I MEAN | YOU SHOULD NEITHER BE A "KOOK" WHO
PRIDES HIMSELF ON BEING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM
OTHERS--NOR A SHEEP WHO FOLLOWS OTHERS BLINDLY.
NOW IS THE HOUR FOR YOU TO RAISE PENETRATING BUT
CONSTRUCTIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING AROUND
YOU IN THIS COUNTRY AND IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.
TO ILLUSTRATE--I COULD NOT BE TRUE TO MYSELF OR TO
MY CONSTITUENTS--IF I DID NOT INDEPENDENTLY MAKE
SUGGESTIONS, HELPFULLY I TRUST, TO OTHER PUBLIC
OFFICIALS, INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT, ACCORDING TO THE
BEST OF MY SINCERE BELIEFS.
LET ME HASTEN TO ADD--WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH--ONE
GERALD FORD LIBRIRY
-4-
MUST FIGHT WITHIN THE LAW FOR THE ACCEPTANCE OF ONE'S
BELIEFS.
NOW IS THE HOUR--TO PERSIST IN BEING HEARD, sometimes alone,
on other occasions with The help 8 some trops. But if you BELIEVE; BE HEARD
THINKING A PROBLEM THROUGH, BEING TRUE TO YOUR
PRINCIPLES, IS THE INALIENABLE RIGHT GIVEN TO EVERY
CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES.
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN WE DESPERATELY NEED AN INFORMED
PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICA. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE IN
THE AREA OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
A UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SURVEY IN 1964 REVEALED THAT
MORE THAN 25 PER CENT OF THOSE PERSONS QUESTIONED DID
NOT KNOW THAT MAINLAND CHINA IS RULED BY COMMUNISTS.
GEBALD, FORD LIBRARY
-5-
ALMOST AS HIGH A PERCENTAGE,LESS THAN 2 YEARS AGO,
WERE UNAWARE THAT A WAR WAS GOING ON IN VIETNAM.
THAT SOUNDS INCREDIBLE. YET, THAT'S WHAT THE
SURVEY SHOWED.
WE DESPERATELY NEED AN ACCURATELY INFORMED AND ALERT
PUBLIC OPINION--FOR WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF A PERILOUS
AGE. THE FUTURE OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY, AND NO DOUBT
THE WORLD, LIES IN THE EXERCISE OF GOOD JUDGMENT BY
CITIZENS SUCH AS YOURSELF. PUBLIC OPINION DOES EXERCISE
A GUIDING AND RESTRAINING INFLUENCE ON YOUR GOVERNMENT.
EVERY CITIZEN WHO EXPRESSES HIMSELF IS AN IMPORTANT
CATALYST IN GETTING HIS LOCAL, STATE AND FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT TO PUT HIS CONVICTIONS TO WORK.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-6-
THOSE OF YOU IN THE ATTENTIVE PUBLIC WHO ARE
ACTIVISTS--WHO THINK ABOUT FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRANSMIT
YOUR IDEAS TO OTHERS--ARE THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE. YOU
SERVE AS A KIND OF TRANSMISSION BELT BETWEEN THE POLICY
MAKERS AND THE TOTAL PUBLIC. IN THE VIETNAM CRISIS,
WHERE THERE ARE CURRENTS AND CROSS CURRENTS, SOME
OBVIOUS, SOME DEVIOUS, THIS ROLE IS OF MAJOR CONSEQUENCE.
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN PEACE IS AN ISSUE OF GREAT
URGENCY. THERE IS A DESPERATE NEED NOW TO THINK THROUGH
THE ISSUE OF NUCLEAR EXTINCTION OR SURVIVAL. THERE IS
A DEMAND FOR THE COMMON SENSE TREATMENT OF WORLD AND
NATIONAL AFFAIRS. WE HAVE RARELY, IF EVER, HAD TOTAL
WORLD PEACE.
FORD & LIBRARY 076835
-7-
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN OUR ANXIETIES ARE FURTHER
ACCENTUATED BY THE LATEST NUCLEAR EXPLOSION TOUCHED OFF
BY COMMUNIST CHINA.
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN WE MUST SEEK TO LAY THE BASIS
FOR A DURABLE AND JUST PEACE. NOT PEACE AT ANY COST!
NOT PEACE BY APPEASEMENT OR CAPITULATION!
SOME THINK THAT PEACE CAN BE ATTAINED BY AN OVERNIGHT
CHANGE OF POLICY ON THE PART OF THE UNITED STATES TOWARD
Containment but not indation a new catch phrase.
COMMUNIST CHINA. BUT IT IS NOT ACCURATE TO CONTEND THAT
THE U.S. HAS KEPT COMMUNIST CHINA OUT OF THE UNITED
NATIONS. RED CHINA HAS SHUT ITSELF OUT OF THE UNITED
intent + purpose the
NATIONS BY REFUSING TO COMPLY WITH THE U.N. CHARTER
AND BY DEMANDING IMPOSSIBLE CHANGES IN THE U.N. AS
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
-8-
CONDITIONS FOR HER ENTRY INTO THAT ORGANIZATION.
SOME WOULD ADMIT COMMUNIST CHINA TO THE U.N. ON THE
BASIS OF A PROMISETO LIVE UP TO THE CHARTER.
lyRed China
NOW IS THE HOUR--TO SAY / A PROMISE IS NOT ENOUGH.
RED CHINA SHOULD PROVE BY ACTIONS THAT SHE IS WORTHY
OF U.N. MEMBERSHIP BY AGREEING TO MEANINGFUL PEACE
y
NEGOTIATIONS ON VIETNAM, BY ENDING ANY AND ALL
3
PARTICIPATION IN AGGRESSION, AND BY CALLING FOR AN
IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE IN THAT BATTLE-FATIGUED NATION.
LET RED CHINA PROVE BY DEEDS, NOT JUST BY WORDS,
THAT SHE HAS ABANDONED AGGRESSION. THEN ONE OF THE
MAJOR OBSTACLES TO HER ENTRANCE INTO THIS INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATION WILL BE REMOVED.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-9-
THE UNITED STATES HAS LONG DEMONSTRATED ITS DEEP
DESIRE TO ADVANCE THE CAUSE OF PEACE THROUGH THE RECON-
STRUCTION OF A WAR-TORN WORLD AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THOSE BACKWARD AREAS ON A GLOBAL BASIS.
Let never
WE HAVE INVESTED $13 BILLION TO RESTORE WAR-DEVASTATED
THE UNITED STATES HAS DEVOTED $116 BILLION IN AID
TO 118 NATIONS DURING A 20-YEAR SPAN SINCE WORLD WAR II.
WE'VE INVESTED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO
SPEED AGRICULTURAL GROWTH IN THE UNDER-DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD TO MEET FAMINE AND THE SPECTRE
OF AN EVER-WIDENING POPULATION EXPLOSION.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-10-
WE'VE SPENT MILLIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD TO FIGHT
DREAD DISEASES.
OUR CITIZENS HAVE SENT TEAMS FROM 71 AMERICAN
UNIVERSITIES TO 38 COUNTRIES TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE.
WE'VE PROVIDED TECHNICAL TRAINING TO FOREIGN VISITORS
AT 126 AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES UNDER AID
CONTRACTS TOTALLING $185 MILLION.
WE'VE BUILT 237,000 CLASSROOMS IN OTHER COUNTRIES IN
FIVE YEARS AND HAVE HELPED TO SET UP FOREIGN COLLEGES
AND UNIVERSITIES WHICH SINCE HAVE GRADUATED MORE THAN
637,000 TEACHERS.
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
-11-
YES, AMERICANS ARE AN IDEALISTIC, GENEROUS PEOPLE;
BUT THEY ALSO ARE A COMMON-SENSE PEOPLE.
MOST RECOGNIZE THAT OUR FOREIGN ASSISTANCE HELPS
TO BREAK DOWN STAGNANT SOCIAL ORDERS WHICH TEND TO
KEEP THE MASS OF THEIR PEOPLE IN ECONOMIC SERFDOM, AND
OUR AID HELPS TO TRANSFORM BACKWARD ECONOMIES INTO productive
INDUSTRIAL NATION-STATES.
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE RECOGNIZE, Too, THAT THESE
TRANSITIONS CAN BE HELPFUL BUILDING BLOCKS OF WORLD
PEACE.
IT MAY SEEM STRANGE TO TALK OF PEACE AS WE READ
REPORTS OF INCREASING AMERICAN CASUALTIES IN VIETNAM.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-12-
MANY IN THIS GRADUATING CLASS LEAVE THIS CAMPUS
NOT TO ENGAGE IN THE WORKS OF PEACE AND PROGRESS FOR
WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN EDUCATED BUT TO FIGHT A WAR. TO
THOSE WHO WILL BEAR SACRIFICE, RISK, AND DANGER SO THAT
MEN MAY BE FREE, THIS NATION OWES A DEBT OF GRATITUDE
THAT CAN NEVER BE ADEQUATELY REPAID.
THE LEAST THE NATION CAN DO FOR THOSE WHO ARE
SUBJECTED TO EXTRAORDINARY RISK AND SACRIFICE IS TO
TAKE EVERY POSSIBLE STEP TO MINIMIZE AMERICAN CASUALTIES
AND END THE CONFLICT HONORABLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
THE NATION IS NOT DOING ALL THAT IT CAN TOWARD THESE
OBJECTIVES WHEN IT FAILS TO USE ITS FULL ECONOMIC AND
DIPLOMATIC RESOURCES IN SUPPORT OF ITS NECESSARY
FORD is LIBRARY GER ALD
-13-
MILITARY EFFORT. TO GIVE ONE EXAMPLE, THE NATION IS
NOT USING THESE RESOURCES TO THE MAXIMUM WHEN THE SHIPS
OF OUR ALLIES CONTINUE TO CARRY SUPPLIES, CERTAINLY
SOME WEAPONS, TO NORTH VIETNAM, THEREBY PROLONGING THE
CONFLICT AND INCREASING AMERICAN LOSSES.
I RETURN TO THE THEME OF PEACE, FOR THERE WILL BE
AN END TO THE WAR IN VIETNAM, if we stand from against communest
appression of term, and when the enemy realized its terror of aggression cannot prevail. We on do not insit
unconditional
WORK TO MAKE THIS CONFLICT HOPEFULLY THE LAST CLASH
NOW IS THE HOUR--TO SPEED THAT DAY. AND LET US we surrender drensist In/v,
m
ARMS, NOT THE PRELUDE TO ANOTHER BIGGER WAR.
security incorditional J.S.V.
NOW IS THE HOUR--WHEN DESPITE THE WHINE OF BOMBS
AND BULLETS, WE MUST START ACTIVELY TO BUILD FOR PEACE.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
-14-
APART FROM NEGOTIATIONS AT THE DIPLOMATIC LEVEL,
ANOTHER AVENUE TOWARD THE BUILDING OF PEACE-IS DOWN
THE PATH OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE. SCIENCE AND MUSIC ARE
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES.
IN ALL COUNTRIES THE INTELLECTUALS CONSTITUTE AN
ISLAND OF INDEPENDENCE, EVEN WHEN SURROUNDED BY A SEA
OF DICTATORSHIP.
THE INTELLECTUAL HAS BEEN AND CAN BE AN INSTRUMENT
FOR SANITY IN THIS WORLD--IN AMERICA, AS PARTICIPANTS
IN THE SHAPING OF FOREIGN POLICY AND AS A TRANSMISSION
BELT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE TOTAL POPULATION;
IN COMMUNIST NATIONS, AS A MODERATING INFLUENCE ON
RULERS PREACHING A MAD NATIONALISM AND GLOBAL DOMINATION,
FORD ERALD & LIBRAR 07V83
-15-
WHILE FURIOUSLY WHIPPING THEIR PEOPLE TOWARD INDUSTRIAL
AND MILITARY GOALS.
THE CHANGES THE INTELLECTUALS CAN BRING ABOUT IN THE
WORLD OF NATIONS WILL, I BELIEVE, IN THE END, PROTECT
THE IDEAS OF PEACE AND PROGRESS FROM THE CRUSHING BLOWS
OF HISTORY.
even one
PERHAPS NO INTELLECTUAL, WITH A GREAT FACILITY FOR
SELF-EXPRESSION, COULD CONVEY MORE CLEARLY THIS CONVIC-
TION I HOLD THAN AN ASIAN STUDENT WHO HAD PONDERED
LONG THE GREAT QUESTIONS OF WAR AND PEACE IN OUR TIME.
IN A LETTER TO A STATE DEPARMENT OFFICIAL, THIS
STUDENT SAID IN MOST INTRIGUING ENGLISH: "SLOW BY SLOW
GERALD ORD LIBRAN,
-16-
IN THE LONG OF TIME, WE WILL SUCCESS."
WE CAN MOVE TOWARD PEACE IF WE OPEN UP LINES OF
COMMUNICATIONS WITH PEOPLE EVERYWHERE, your stand from on
principle, 1 five insist n performance, not promises, and share believe, really believe, whe america blessings of
CAN STAND HERE, RAISE QUESTIONS AND MAKE SUGGESTIONS
BUT THIS IS BUT ONE VOICE.
YOU ARE THE FUTURE--YOUR CRIES WILL BE HEARD AND
ANSWERED. IT IS YOU WHO CAN AND WILL TURN THE WHEELS
OF ACTION!
AND, THIS YOU MUST DO!
YOU MUST BE AWARE! YOU MUST NOT FOLLOW ANYONE
BLINDLY!
FORD & LIBRARY 07V839
-17-
YOU MUST SEARCH FOR TRUTH AS YOU SEE IT!
YOU MUST EVALUATE CIRCUMSTANCES AND FACTS!
YOU MUST MAKE UP YOUR MIND!
YOU MUST STAND UP AND BE COUNTED!
FOR, NOW IS THE HOUR.
-END-
GERALD LIBRARY P FORD
from the desk of
William B. Prendergast
I have written in suggested
changes by hand on the first
10 pages. The remaining pages
are a re-write . The pitch is
drastically changed from that
of the original manuscript
after page 10.
WBP
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
2nd haft
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD AT PARSONS COLLEGE
"NOW IS THE HOUR"
Whenever a man is asked to talk to a graduating class-
he automatically thinks back to his own graduation day.
This is always a rather discouraging experience for me,
because I realize that whatever the advice my university
commencement speaker gave me----I just ean't remember it.
I could tell all of you to go out and live life to the
fullest, but that might be a pretty dangerous suggestion
You have pursued the arts and sciences for four years,
and have successfully earned a degree.
Yet, we all know that receiving a college diploma does
not automatically confer a liberal education on anyone. you If
anything, it gives you, hopefully, the added ability to
comprehend and cope with what is going on around you. It
gives you the added security and capacity to learn to
think for yourself. This is the most important attribute
& LEURARY GERALD
-2-
of an educated, enlightened man.
Your education qualifies you
YOU MUST LEARN TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.
If I give you any parting words or suggestions today
for a fuller life, they are NOW IS THE HOUR to
express yourself and NOW IS THE HOUR to think for yourself.
I do not mean that you should never think like other
people. I mean you should neither be a "kook" who prides
himself on being completely different from others
nor
be a sheep who follows others blindly.
NOW IS THE HOUR.
raise questions about
for you to evaluate what is happening around you
in this country and in other parts of the world.
For example, as a life-long Republican and as the
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, I will
always obey my Commander-in-Chief, the President of the
United States.
But I could not be true to myself or to my constituents,
if I did not independently make constructive suggestions to
GERALD
my President according to the best of my sincere beliefs---
-3-
and continually fight for their acceptance.
NOW IS THE HOUR
to persist in being heard.
Thinking and following a thought a problem through;
being true to your principles; is not tyranny American
1
is the inalienable right given to every citizen of the
United States.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when we desperately need an informed public opinion in
America. This is especially true in the area of foreign
affairs.
A University of Michigan survey in 1964 revealed that
more than 25 per cent of those persons questioned did not
know that mainland China is ruled by Communists. Almost
as high a percentage were unaware that a war was going on
in Vietnam.
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
4
That sounds incredible doesn't it? Yet, that's what the
survey showed.
We desperately need informed and alert public opinion,
for we are now in the midst of a perilous age. The future
of our great country, and no doubt the world, lies in the
good judgment
offective exercise of by people such as yourself.
For public opinion does exercise a guiding and restraining
Popular attitudes don't necessarily indicate specifically
influence on your government,
what action our government should take in a crisis, But, they
serve to lot governmental leaders know what the boundary lines
are for their actions
Why have I talked about the importance of an enlightened
electorate?
Because Every citizen who succeeds in expression
himself, and not merely in feeling and thinkings is an
important catalyst in getting his local, state and federal
government to put his convictions to work.
Those of you in the attentive public who are activists,
who think about foreign affairs and transmit your ideas to
-5-
others, are the important people. You serve as a kind of
transmission belt between the policy makersband the total
public.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when there is & great urgeney in this land of
place issue of great argency
There is a demand for the common sense treatment of
world and national affairs.
There is a desperate need to think through the issue
of nuclear extinction or survival. These, of course
merely fancy modern made for the old issue of war and peace
If you reflect for a moment, you will realize that we
rarely, if ever, had
have had total world peace. for over 50 years, since the
administration of WITTIAM Honard Taft. We may not have had
all out war In the ensuing years, but we most certainly have
never had all out peace.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when our anxieties are further accentuated by the
latest nuclear explosion touched off by Communist China.
-6-
NOW IS THE HOUR
when we must move towards
seeb to lay the peased basis for a durable and just prace.
Not peace at any cost!
Not peace by blindly throwing open our arms to Red
Not peace by capitulation!
the part/ of the Red China has thus far effectively shut itself out from
United fates fou and Com munist China. But it is uttaccurate to
Some thinks that peace can be affaired by a change of policy on
following that the U.S. has kept Coan munist Cluna out of the United Nations?
the United Nations by demanding impossible changes in the
refusing to comply with the U.N. charter and by
UN as conditions for her entry into it.
has
opposed Red China's admission to the UN, but
now the administration has offered to drop this opposition.
All the Administration asks of Red China is that she
abandon the conditions for UN admission, that she herself
has set, and pledge to live up to the UN Charter
Some woul d admit Communist Cluna to the UN on the basis of
a promise to live up not to the Chap Ter
is enough.
promise
Red China should prove that she is worthy of
UN membership by agreeing to peace negotiations on Vietna M, by ending
bee at, Hher participation in aggression,
and by calling for an immediate cease-fire there. Let Red
BERMLO FORD LIBRARY
-7-
by deeds, not ust by words that she has aboundoned oppression.
China prove herself fit for admission $0 UN, met morely,
Then one of the major obstacles to her intrance nito this organization
as the Administration suggests, promise to abide by the UN
of Charter. "peace-loving "states will be removed,
We must set some ground rules for direct negotiations
with Red China, to move forward.- After all, you wouldn't
play a game of bridge or baseball without & set of rules. And,
therefore, there is no reason why WO should abandon this time
worn and logical concept in our international dealings.
The back door approach now being used by our Ambassador
to Poland, who in turn is negotiating with Rumania's Polish
Ambassador, who in turn, we are told, is talking with Red China's
Imbassader, certainly seems pretty devious to me, -and it must
seem protty confusing to most of you.
Last week the administration suggested another series
of indirect negotiations in Geneva. This is just another
game of international musical chairs.
How can we expect Red China to trust and respect
us with all of these indirect machinations, and how
LIBRARY
without a set of rules, can they expect us to trust and
-8-
respect them?
,
Remember, it is only this trust and respect, and not fear
among the nations and people of the world that will insure
world peace--tinally.
NOW IS THE HOUR
for us to move forward openly, slowly, and cautiously-
FOR
only then will we be moving toward peace. I feel this
deeply within me despite the fighting in Vietnam and despite
Red Chine's possession of the atomic bomb
The United States has long demonstrated its deep desire
to advance the cause of peace.
through the building up of a was Tornn world of the development
1 There lackward areas on a global lain
We took the initiative in establishing NATO and have
contributed far more than our share in men and money to
keep it strong.
We have invested $13 billion to restore war-devastated
Europe under the Marshall Plan.
We've devoted $116 billion in economic and military
aid to 118 nations during a 20-year span since World War II.
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
-9-
We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars to
speed agricultural growth in the under-developed countries
of the world.
to Africa
We've provided aid for 50 water projects in Africa,
Asia and Latin America, helping to irrigate more than a
million acres in India, a half million each in Pakistan
and Korea, and 100,000 in Tunisia, Ecuador, Morocco, Taiwan
and Afghanistan.
throughout the world
We've spent millions in Southeast Asia to fight
such dread diseases, as chelera
We've sent teams from 71 American universities to
38 countries to provide them with technical assistance.
We've provided technical training to foreign
visitors at 126 American universities and colleges under
AID contracts totalling $185 million.
We've built 237,000 classrooms in other countries
in five years and have helped to set up foreign colleges
and universities which Since have graduated more than
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
637,000 teachers.
-10-
Yes, Americans are a generous people, but they also
are a common-sense people.
THEY RECOGNIZE
^ The fact that foreign aid helps to break down stagnant
social orders which tend to keep the mass of their people
AND aid
backward economing
in economic serfdom, "A helps to transform these secieties into
industrial nation-states.
The American people recognize, too, that these
Can be the
blocks
transitions lies building n of world peace.
In the long view of history, helped along by the
71
generosity and wisdom of the American people, peace will prevail.
NOW IS THE HOUR to move and move we must We cannot
afford to wait
FOR ACTION It may seem strange to fallsof
I became aware of the needy, as T mead and heard of the
peace as we read
reports of increasing American casualties in Vietnam.
This nation today is the greatest military power in
the world has ever seen. We have spent 800 billions of
dellars on defense since 1947. We have developed this
tremendous military strength, with the hope that we would
GERALD R. FORD
never have to use it
-11-
BUT
have used that strength in a limited way in Vietnam
to preserve a freedom of choice of government for that little
country. In doing so, however, we have sacrificed thousands
of American young men'---more than 3,460 of our men have lost
their lives there since January of 1961.
I do not agree that we can do nothing but throw more
young men into the conflict to protect our position in that
country.
smil
If by negotiating, we can save the life of one young
American, I will feel that we have made a major gain.
To paraphrase a well-known safety slogan, "the life
thus saved may very well be your own".
I am not looking at this aspect from an ivory tower.
As a father of three young sons, I view the Vietnam conflict
with apprehension. I do not want my sons, or any other young
American men, thrown into a remote struggle which shows no
signs of abating under our present policies a struggle
which the Administration has made no effort to end by
FORD is LIBRARY 07V839
direct negotiations.
-12-
Our young men YOU are not sacrifical lambs to be
led to slaughter. But, that is exactly what will happen
to thousands of young, healthy American boys--unless we
make a concerted, open and honest effort to end the
Vietnam disaster by negotiation based on a set of rules
mutually acceptable to both sides with the North Vietnamese
and with Red China. Unless the Administration begins direct
peace negotiations
NOW
it will be guilty of the wanton
murder of thousands of Americans.
If one doesn't try to stop a murderer then one is just
as guilty as the killer.
The present Administration has watched this wanton
murder too long without taking steps to stop it.
How long will we allow this?
We must put the blame the guilt where it belongs.
In the lap of the Administration.
NOW IS THE HOUR.
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
3
for you---for us all--to persist for what we believe
is right, to persist for the truth.
History has shown that, when asserted, the will of the
American people has always prevailed in good times and bad.
NOW IS THE HOUR
for us all to search ourselves.
NOW IS THE HOUR
Resume
When we must start actively to build for peace.
Apart from negotiations at the diplomatic level,
another avenue toward the building of peace--is through the
medium of cultural exchange. Science and music, for example,
are universal languages.
We should accelerate efforts to arrange with Red China
for the cultural exchange of newsmen, scholars, doctors,
artists, musicians and other cultural groups-as we ve done
most successfully, in the past, with the Seviet Union.
In a I country is like Communist China, the intellectuals
even when surroundedby
constitute an island of independence in a sea of authoritarianism.
-14-
The intellectual is an instrument for sanity
in this world. In America as shapers of foreign policy and
as a transmission belt between the government and the total
population; in Communist nations as a moderating influence
on rulers preaching a mad nationalism, while furiously
whipping their people toward industrial and military goals.
The changes the intellectuals bring about in the world
of nations will, I believe, in the end, protect the ideas of
peace and progress from the crushing blows of history.
Perhaps no intellectual, with a great facility for
self-expression, could convey more clearly this conviction-
I hold, than an Asian student who had pondered long the
great questions of war and peace in our time.
In a letter to a State Department official, this
student said in most intriguing English: "Slow by slow,
in the long of time, we will success."
we can mow toward
We can only hope for peace if we open up lines of
every
where people
communications with the people on the Chinese mainland. This
BERALD FORD (IBRARY
is most importante Until we do. NO cannot possibly
-15-
understand or trust each other freely, for WO both know
so little of each other's heritage
NOW IS THE HOUR
DIRECT
for/negotiations and cultural exchange. Make no
mistake! We cannot afford to wait!
Communist China has the atomic bomb!
Evidence in the case of the device she exploded last
May ninth is that it had the power of at least two hundred
kiltons. That's the equivalent of two hundred thousand tons
of TNT, or roughly ten time the power of the atomic bomb
we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Apparently, at this very moment, Communist China
could drop an atomic bomb on its neighbors from the air.
Sometime between 1967 and 1970, Red China will have
developed intermediate range ballistic missiles, making
it possible for her to commit nuclear aggression against
other nations within a 500 to 700 mile radius.
-16-
But I would guess that right today they could load
up a suicide plane with an A-Bomb--and inflict great
damage on this country if it slipped through our defenses.
And now our intelligence indicates, it may only be
within nine months to a year that Communist China will
have perfected a hydrogen bomb.
Taking this into account, we must also remember that
the United States has already given its allies in Asia
assurances against nuclear blackmail on the part of Red China.
Can we afford to wait?
Can we continue to sacrifice the lives of thousands
OWL
DIRECTLY
of young men, without attempting to negotiate \and understand
each other's problems and way of life?
The answer is NO
NOW IS THE HOUR.
Until now we have merely taken the expedient road.
NOW IS THE HOUR
to embark on the more difficult task of bringing
GERALD LIQUARY R. FORD
two divergent cultures together on a common base of trust
13
and
understanding
I can stand here and make many suggestions, but I am
only one man.
YOURare the future
YOUR cries will be heard and answered. It is you
who can and will turn the wheels of action!
And, this you must do!
You must be aware!
ANYONE
V+
You must not follow|blindly!
You must search for truth as you see it!
You must evaluate circumstances and facts!
You must make up your mind!
You must assert yourselft
You must stand up and be counted!
For, NOW IS THE HOUR.
- -30-
AlzRaturn Return
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD AT PARSONS COLLEGE
"NOW IS THE HOUR"
Whenever a man is asked to talk to a graduating class
he automatically thinks back to his own graduation day.
This is always a rather discouraging experience for me,
because I realize that whatever the advice my university
commencement speaker gave me----I just can't remember it.
I could tell all of you to go out and live life to
the fullest, but that might be a pretty dangerous suggestion..
You have pursued the arts and sciences for four years,
and have successfully earned a degree..
Yet, we all know that receiving a college diploma does
not automatically confer a liberal education on anyone. If
anything, it gives you, hopefully, the added ability to
comprehend and cope with what is going on around you.
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
-2-
It gives you the added security and capacity to learn to
think for yourself. This is the most important attribute
of an educated, enlightened man.
YOU MUST LEARN TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.
If I give you any parting words or suggestions today
for a fuller life,
they are
NOW IS THE HOUR to
express yourself and NOW IS THE HOUR to think for yourself.
I do not mean that you should never think like other
people. I mean you should neither be a "kook" who prides
himself on being completely different from others
nor
be a sheep who follows others blindly.
NOW IS THE HOUR.
for you to evaluate what is happening around you
in this country and in other parts of the world.
For example, as a life-long Republican and as the
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, I will
always obey my Commander-in-Chief, the President of the
United States.
BUT, I could not be true to myself or to my constituents,
-3-
if I did not independently make constructive suggestions to
my President according to the best of my sincere beliefs-
and continually fight for their acceptance.
NOW IS THE HOUR
to persist in being heard.
Thinking and following a thought and a problem through
being true to your principles is not tyranny or un-American-
it is the inalienable right given to every citizen of the
United States.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when we desperately need an informed public opinion in
America. This is especially true in the area of foreign
affairs.
A University of Michigan survey in 1964 revealed that
more than 25 per cent of those persons questioned did not
know that mainland China is ruled by Communists
Almost
as high a percentage were unaware that a war was going on
in Vietnam.
-4-
That sounds incredible doesn't it? Yet, that's what the
survey showed.
We desperately need informed and alert public opinion,
for we are now in the midst of a perilous age. The future
of our great country, and no doubt the world, lies in the
effective exercise of this opinion by people such as yourself.
Popular attitudes don't necessarily indicate specifically
what action our government should take in a crisis. But, they
serve to let governmental leaders know what the boundary lines
are for their actions.
Why have I talked about the importance of an enlightened
electorate?
Because, every citizen who succeeds in expressing
himself, and not merely in feeling and thinking,
is an
important catalyst in getting his local, state and federal
government to put his convictions to work.
Those of you in the attentive public who are activists,
who think about foreign affairs and transmit your ideas to
-5-
others,
are the important people. You serve as a kind of
transmission belt between the policy makers and the total
public.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when there is a great urgency in this land of ours.
There is a demand for the common sense treatment of
world and national affairs.
There is a desperate need to think through the issue
of nuclear extinction or survival These, of course, are
merely fancy modern words for the old issue of war or peace
If you reflect for a moment, you will realize that we
have not had total world peace for over 50 years, since the
administration of William Howard Taft.
We may not have had
all-out war in the ensuing years, but we most certainly have
never had all-out peace.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when our anxieties are further accentuated by the
latest nuclear explosion touched off by Communist China.
6
NOW IS THE HOUR
when we must move towards peace!
Not peace at any cost!
Not peace by blindly throwing open our arms to Red
China, as a congressional colleague of mine suggested
recently!
Not peace by capitulation!
But peace by setting some ground rules for direct
negotiations with Red China, and then moving forward.
After all, you wouldn't play a game of bridge or baseball
without a set of rules. And, therefore, there is no reason
why we should abandon this time-worn and logical concept
in our international dealings.
The back door approach now being used by our Ambassador
to Poland, who in turn is negotiating with Rumania's Polish
Ambassador, who in turn we are told is talking with Red China's
Ambassador, certainly seems pretty devious to me,
and it
must seem pretty confusing to most of you.
-7-
Last week the Administration suggested another series
of indirect negotiations in Geneva. This is just another
game of international musical chairs.
How can we expect Red China to trust and respect
us with all of these indirect machinations?
It is a mystery to me.
Remember, it is only trust and respect, and not fear,
among the nations and people of the world that will insure
world peace finally.
NOW IS THE HOUR
for us to move forward openly, slowly, and cautiously-
for only then will we be moving toward peace. I feel this
deeply within me despite the fighting in Vietnam and despite
Red China's possession of the atomic bomb.
But, NOW IS THE HOUR to move and move we must. We
cannot afford to wait!
I became aware of the need, now, more than ever, as I
read and heard of the reports of increasing American casualties
in Vietnam.
-8-
I do not agree that we can do nothing but throw more
young men into the conflict to protect our position in that
country.
If by negotiating, we can save the life of one young
American, I will then feel that we have made a major gain.
To paraphrase a well-known safety slogan, "the life
thus saved may very well be your own."
I am not looking at this aspect from an ivory tower.
As a father of three young sons, I view the Vietnam conflict
with apprehension. I do not want my sons, or any other young
American men, thrown into a remote struggle which shows no
signs of abating under our present policies a struggle
which the Administration has made no effort to end by
direct negotiation.
Our young men
YOU
are not sacrificial lambs to
be led to slaughter. But, that is exactly what will happen
to thousands of young, healthy American boys
unless we
make a concerted, open ,and honest effort to end the Vietnam
disaster by negotiation based on a set of rules mutually
-9-
acceptable to both sides with the North Vietnamese and
with Red China. Unless the Administration begins direct
peace negotiations
NOW
it will be guilty of the wanton
murder of thousands of Americans.
If one doesn't try to stop a murderer
then one is just
as guilty astthe killer.
The present Administration has watched this wanton
murder too long
without taking steps to stop it.
How long will we allow this?
We must put the blame the guilt where it belongs.
In the lap of the Administration.
Most American boys will not be so fortunate
as to
marry a desk job in Washington
rather than take the
bitter medicine of Vietnam that their friends have to
swallow.
I think that fighting in Vietnam is pretty
bad, but if our President orders that we must be there
then there should be no special exceptions. While hundreds
of young American men are dying in Vietnam this August
a rather privileged young man will leave his desk in
-10-
Washington to be married.
To use an old, but ironically appropriate phrase, "what
is good for the goose---should be good for the gander".
This sequence of events is every bit as scandalous
as Bobby Baker, or as outrageous as the all out involvement
in Vietnam where the people have not yet decided, by
democratic means, just what type of government they prefer.
NOW IS THE HOUR
for you---for us all--to persist for what we believe
is right, to persist for the truth.
History has shown that, when asserted, the will of the
American people has always prevailed in good times and bad.
NOW IS THE HOUR
ALL
for us to search ourselves.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when we must start actively to build for peace.
BERALD FORD LIBRARA
-11-
Apart from negotiations at the diplomatic level,
another avenue toward the building of peace is through the
medium of cultural exchange. Science and music, for example,
are universal languages.
We should accelerate efforts to arrange with Red China
for the cultural exchange of newsmen, scholars, doctors,
artists, musicians and other cultural groups, as we've done
most successfully, in the past, with the Soviet Union.
We can only hope for peace if we open up lines of
communications with the people on the Chinese mainland. This
is most important!
Until we do, we cannot possibly
understand or trust each other freely, for we both know
so little of each other's heritage.
NOW IS THE HOUR
for negotiations and cultural exchange. Make no
mistake! We cannot afford to wait!
Communist China has the atomic bomb!
-12-
Evidence in the case of the device she exploded last
May Ninth is that it had the power of at least two hundred
kiltons. That's the equivalent of two hundred thousand tons
of TNT, or roughly ten times the power of the atomic bomb
we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Apparently, at this very moment, Communist China
could drop an atomic bomb on its neighbors from the air.
Sometime between 1967 and 1970, Red China will have
developed intermediate range ballistic missiles, making
it possible for her to commit nuclear aggression against
other nations within a 500 to 700 mile radius.
But I would guess that right today they could load
up a suicide plane with an A-Bomb and inflict great
damage on this country if it slipped through our defenses.
And now our intelligence indicates, it may only be
within nine months to a year that Communist China will
have perfected a hydrogen bomb.
-13-
Taking this into account, we must also remember that
the United States has already given it allies in Asia
assurances against nuclear blackmail on the part of Red China.
Can we afford to wait?
Can we continue to sacrifice the lives of thousands
of young men, without attempting to negotiate and understand
each other's problems and way of life?
The answer is NO
NOW IS THE HOUR.
Until now we have merely taken the expedient road.
NOW IS THE HOUR
to embark on the more difficult task of bringing
two divergent cultures together
on a common base of
trust and understanding.
I have today written a letter to the President of
the United States embodying the thoughts I have just
expressed and specifically asking him to embark on a program
of direct and immediate peace negotiations.
MANY
I can stand here and make suggestions, but I am only
-14-
one man.
YOU are the future.
YOU are the way.
YOUR cries will be heard and answered. It is you who
can and will turn the wheels of action!
And, this you must do!
You must be aware!
You must not follow anyone blindly!
You must search for the truth as you see it!
You must evaluate circumstances and facts!
You must make up your mind!
You must assert yourself!
You must stand up and be counted!
For, NOW IS THE HOUR.
/ -
3rd draft
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD AT PARSONS COLLEGE
"NOW IS THE HOUR"
Whenever a man is asked to talk to a graduating class---
he automatically thinks back to his own graduation day.
This is always a rather discouraging experience for me,
because I realize that whatever the advice my university
commencement speaker gave me---I just can't remember it.
You have pursued the arts and sciences for four years,
and have successfully earned a degree.
Yet, we all know that receiving a college diploma does
not automatically confer a liberal education on you. If anything,
it gives you, hopefully, the added ability to comprehend and
cope with what is going on around you. It gives you the added
security and capacity to learn to think for yourself. This is
the most important attribute of an educated, enlightened man.
BEFORD & LIBRARY GERALD
2
YOUR EDUCATION QUALIFIES YOU TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.
If I give you any parting words or suggestions today for
a fuller life
they are
NOW IS THE HOUR to express yourself
and NOW IS THE HOUR to think for yourself.
I do not mean that you should never think like other
people. I mean you should neither be a "kook" who prides
himself on being completely different from others
nor
be a sheep who follows others blindly.
NOW IS THE HOUR.
for you to raise questions about what is happening around
you in this country and in other parts of the world.
I could not be true to myself or to my constituents
if I did not independently make constructive suggestions to my
President according to the best of my sincere beliefs
and continually fight for their acceptance.
BERALD FORD VIBRARY
- 3- 3 -
NOW IS THE HOUR
to persist in being heard.
Thinking a problem through, being true to your principles,
is the inalienable right given to every citizen of the United
States.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when we desperately need an informed public opinion in
America. This is especially true in the area of foreign
affairs.
A University of Michigan survey in 1964 revealed that
more than 25 percent of those persons questioned did not
know that mainland China is ruled by Communists. Almost
as high a percentage were unaware that a war was going on
in Vietnam.
BERALD LISBARY
-4-
That sounds incredible doesn't it? Yet, that's what the
survey showed.
We desperately need informed and aleet public opinion, ----
for we are now in the midst of a perilous age. The future
of our great country, and no doubt the world, lies in the
exercise of good judgment by people such as yourself. For public
opinion does exercise a guiding and restraining influence on your govern-
ment.
Every citizen who expresses himself is an important
catalyst in getting his local, state and federal government to put
his convictions to work.
Those of you in the attentive public who are activists,
who think about foreign affairs and transmit your ideas to
-5-
others, ---are the important people. You serve as a kind of
transmission belt between the policy makers and the total
public.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when peace is an issue of great urgency.
There is a demand for the common sense treatment of
world and national affairs.
There is a desperate need to think through the issue
of nuclear extinction or survival. We have rarely, if ever,
had total world peace.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when our anxieties are further accentuated by the
latest nuclear explosion touched off by Communist China.
GERALD FORD HIBRARY
- 6 -
NOW IS THE HOUR
WHEN we must seek to lay the basis for a durable and just
peace. Not peace at any cost!
Not peace by capitulation!
Some think that peace can be attained by a change of
policy on the part of the United States toward Communist China.
But it is not accurate to believe that the U.S. has kept Communist
China out of the United Nations. Red China has shut itself out
of the United Nations by refusing to comply with the U.N. Charter
and by demanding impossible changes in the U.N. as conditions for
her entry into it.
Some would admit Communist China to the U.N. on the basis
of a promise to live up to the Charter.
I say a promise is not enough.
Red China should prove that she is worthy of U.N. membership
by agreeing to peace negotiations on Vietnam, by ending this partici-
pation in aggression, and by calling for an immediate cease-fire there.
Let Red
-7-
China prove by deeds, not just by words, that she has abandoned aggression.
Then one of the major obstacles to her entrance into this organization
of "peace-loving" states will be removed.
The United States has long demonstrated its deep desire to
advance the cause of peace through the building up of a war-torn world
and the development of those backward areas on a global basis.
We have invested $13 billion to restore war-devastated
Europe under the Marshall Plan.
We've devoted $116 billion in aid to 118 nations during a
20-year span since World War II.
We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars to speed
agricultural growth in the under-developed countries of the world.
We've provided aid to Africa, Asia and Latin America to
irrigate more than a million acreps in India, a half million each in
Pakistan and Korea, and 100,000 in Tunisia, Ecuador, Morocco, Twiwan
and Afghanistan.
We've spent millions throughout the world to fight dredd
diseases.
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 8-
We've sent teams from 71 American universities to 38 countries
to provide technical assistance.
We've provided technical training to fweeign visitors at 126
American un=iversities and colleges under AID contracts totalling $185
million.
We've built 237,000 classrooms in other countries in five
years and have helped to set up foreign colleges and universities which
since have graduated more than 637,000 teachers.
Yes, Americans are a generous people, but they also are a
common-sense people.
They recognize the fact that foreign aid helps to break down
stagnant social weders which tend to keep the mass of their people in
ecohnmic serfdom, and aid helps to transform backward economies into
industrial nation-states.
The American people recognize, too, that these transitions
can be the building blocks of world peace.
It may seem strange to talk of peace as we read reports of
increasing American casualties in Vietnam.
GERALD LIBRARY
9
Many in this graduating class leave this campus not to engage in
the works of peace for which you have been educated but to fight a war.
Tothose who will bear sacrifice, risk, and danger so that men may be
free, this nation owes a debt of gratitude that can never be adequately
repaid.
The least that the nation can do for those who are subjected to
extraordinary risk and sacrifice is to take every possible step to
minimize American casualties and end the conflict as soon as possible on
a satisfactory basis. The nation is not doing all that it can toward
hhese objectives when it fails to use its economic and diplomatic resources
in support of its military effort. To give one example, the nation is
not using these resources to the full when the ships of our allies carry
goods to North Vietnam, prolonging the conflict and increasing American
losses.
I return to the theme of peace, for there will be an end to the
war in Vietnam. Let us work to speed the day. And let us work to make
this conflict the end of war, not the prelude to another bigger war.
- -10-
NOW IS THE HOUR
When we must start actively to build for peace.
Apart from negotiations at the diplomatic level, another avenue
toward the building of peace -- is through the medium of cultural
exchange. Science and music, for example, are universal languages.
In all countries the intellectuals constitute an island of
independence, even when surrounded by a sea of authoritarianism.
The intellectual is an instrument for sanity in this worldd
In America as shapers of foreign policy and as a transmission belt between
the government and the total population; in Communist nations as a
moderating influence on rulers preaching analad nationalism, while
furiously whipping their people toward industrial and military goals.
The changes the intellectuals buring about in the world of nations
will, I believe, in the end, protect the ideas of peace and progress
from the crushing blows of history.
Perhaps no intellectual, with a great facility for self-
expression, could convey more clearly this conviction,I hold, than an
GERALD FORD LIBRAR,
- 11 -
Asian student who had pondered long the great questions of war and
peace in our time.
In a letter to a State Department official, this subdent
said in most intriguing English: "Slow by slow, in the long of time,
we will success."
We can move toward peace if we open up lines of communications
with people everywhere.
I can stand here and make many, suggestions, but I am only
one man.
YOU are the future
YOUR cries will be heard and answered. It is you who can
and will turn the wheels of action!
And, this you must do!
You must be aware!
You must not follow anyone blindly!
You must search for truth as you see it!
You must evaluate circumstances and facts!
-12-
You must make up your mind!
You must stand up and be counted!
For, NOW IS THE HOUR.
First.,Infh
JUNE 11, 1966
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS--BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICHIGAN, AT PARSONS COLLEGE
FAIRFIELD, IOWA
As a congressman, I am interested in such things as reclamation projects.
That, I understand, is what this college is, in a sense. It's a kind of
huge human reclamation project.
This, I think, is good. In fact, I think it's great. There is nothing
so tragic as the waste of human resources, lives literally thrown away for
lack of another chance.
I'm glad Parsons College gave you that other chance. The fact that you
are gathered here today to receive your college diplomas is proof that for
many of you this is a reclamation project that pays valuable dividends.
To the young ladies in the audience, I must say that you are especially
fortunate. I understand the men students at Parsons College outnumber the
women four to one.
Now I know why the Parsons College campus is often referred to as a
happy hunting ground.
GERALD
A commencement speaker usually is expected to give a graduating class
(MORE)
-2-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
ome special advice. Now what if I told you to go out and live life to the
full? That might be a pretty dangerous suggestion.
I really don't think you need any pointers in that connection, anyway.
Having been asked to talk to you on your graduation day, I thought
back to the commencement speech I heard when I received my college diploma.
And, you know, I couldn't remember a word my commencement speaker had said!
That's pretty discouraging, isn't it?
Well, just as many of you will be doing from this day forth, I will
have to start from scratch except for what little wisdom I have been able
to accumulate over the years.
We all know that receiving a college diploma does not automatically
confer a liberal education on anyone.
But one thing I trust you have learned is to think for yourself. This
is important, because the ability to think for oneself is the chief attribute
of an educated man or woman.
We cannot all be intellectuals, of course, but it is significant that
the intellectual in America no longer is sneered at as "an egghead who has
GERAL
never met a payroll."
(MORE)
-3-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
In fact, we are entering upon what might be called the era of the
college man.
The time is fast approaching--it may be here by 1985--when 50 per cent
or more of American young people between the ages of 18 and 21 will be
college students.
The intellectual--the person who likes to use his mind better than
anything else he can do--has come to occupy a position of great importance
in this nation. This is reason to hope that mankind is not destined for
the ash heap after all.
Americans, of course, resist the idea of an intellectual elite. This
is natural. There is no place in this country for what might be called
snobbery of the mind.
But it is also important that Americans have the respect for the mind
that has been commonplace in Europe for centuries. This is happening. And
it augurs well for the future of America and the world.
Now why have I talked about the importance of the intellectual in
GERALD
America? Because every intellectual who engages in thinking and not merely
(MORE)
-4-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
all as its people
in feeling is a conduit between his government and the great mass of the
people. I am talking about the responsible intellectual who is a willing
and conscious member of society and not the spurious intellectual who rebels
merely for the sake of rebellion.
I would guess you people belong among the some 19 per cent of the
total public who might be called the attentive public.
Those of you in the attentive public who are activists, who think about
foreign affairs and transmit your ideas to others are important people. You
serve as a kind of transmission belt between the makers of foreign policy
and the total public.
You, as the transmission belt between policy makers and the total public,
must become aware that there is a great urgency in this land of ours today.
The demand is for thinking, for realism, for common sense treatment in
America's foreign policy. The need is to think through the old issue of war
and peace in the new shape it has assumed in today's world.
Communist China now has the bomb. The number of members in the nuclear
club has grown to five. Is this reason to panic? I think not.
GERALD FORD NIDRABA
(MORE)
-5-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
Despite the fact they are out of touch with reality in many ways, the
rulers of Red China know full well the United States would visit nuclear
retaliation upon their country if they should order an A-bomb dropped on
one of their neighbors.
The fact that Red China is expected to have intermediate ballistic
missiles in the next few years and intercontinental missiles within a decade
also is no reason to fall apart.
Nuclear power tends to make a nation militarily muscle-bound. A
nuclear attack and nuclear retaliation are so horrible to contemplate as to
be almost unthinkable.
There is today, therefore, less of a tendency to think in terms of big
development of the A. tomb.
war than before the bomb. In a sense, this is almost a reason to feel
X
sanguine about prospects for peace.
Thus a nuclear power like the United States finds it necessary to
develop tremendous supplementary power--conventional and guerrilla forces.
There is, after all, the constant threat of small wars like that in Vietnam.
We will almost surely have small wars from time to time in this age
GERA FORD FIBRARY
(MORE)
-6-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
when the Communists seek to weaken the free world with what they cynically
call "wars of liberation."
The world will also have small wars or police actions because of the
ferment created by the political aspirations of a billion and a half humans
who have been living in unspeakable poverty and neglect and now seek to climb
out of the mire.
There is a seething potential for world disaster in a dozen spots as
peoples struggle to attain their aspirations in Southeast Asia, Africa and
Latin America. The lid is not really on in Europe, either, and indeed it
may never be.
But it is in Southeast Asia that America is at a world crossroad.
We must ask ourselves whether we have a mission in Southeast Asia and,
if so, what that mission is.
I believe we do have a mission in Southeast Asia, a mission based on
realism, a mission based on the knowledge that the Communist aim of world
domination will be greatly advanced if we shrug off this mighty burden.
(MORE)
LIBRARY
-7-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
Our mission in Southeast Asia must be to give the countries there free
choice, to help them be independent countries free to develop in their own ways.
Call it a fight for freedom or what you will, this is what we are doing
in Vietnam, That is why we are there.
This is a mission we cannot abandon. To do so would be to place the
security of not only the United States but ultimately the entire free world
in jeopardy.
This much is certain. If America drops its burden in Southeast Asia,
the free world will begin shrinking and the cause of freedom will begin to
shrivel up. Freedom will begin to curl up and die not only in Southeast Asia
but in every part of the world where the United States has a commitment.
Does any American think for a moment that the security of the United
States will not ultimately be threatened if Communist China is permitted to
make satellites of all the nations of Southeast Asia?
However, there is no reason to believe war between the United States and
Red China--a direct confrontation--is inevitable.
Paranoiac as the Red Chinese rulers may be, they understand a policy of
firmness--and that should be the core of our attitude toward Red China.
(MORE)
-8-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
We have found from experience that if the U.S. reaction to a Communist
probe is prompt and strong, the Communists halt and draw back. If the U.S.
hesitates, the Communists are encouraged to nibble a little more, take
another bite.
Let's be realistic about the painful situation we find ourselves in
in Southeast Asia.
Reason tells us that if we do not meet the challenge the Communists
are presenting us in Southeast Asia we will soon meet the same tactics
somewhere else in the world.
Vietnam is a testing ground for the so-called war of liberation that
Mao Tse-tung sees as the major vehicle for the advance of world communism.
The peoples of Southeast Asia are on nobody's side but their own, of
course, and that is why the struggle in Vietnam must be won on the political
front as well as the military.
Our foreign policy for the sixties--a realistic, common-sense foreign
policy--must be a careful blend of foreign aid, military power, and
psychological warfare, skillfully employed for maximum effectiveness in
places of our own choosing.
(MORE)
-9-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
The present administration talks of admitting Red China to the United
Nations, asking only that she abandon the impossible conditions for UN
entry that she herself has set.
I say that given Red China's record of aggression this is not enough.
The American people deserve performance, not promises. I say Red China
should prove herself worthy of UN membership by agreeing to peace negotia-
tions on Vietnam and by calling for an immediate cease-fire there.
For its part, the United States has long demonstrated its deep desire
to advance the cause of world peace.
This nation today is the greatest military power the world has ever
known. We have spent $800 billions of dollars on defense since 1947. We
have developed tremendous military strength--but only with the hope we would
never have to use it.
Because we have used that strength in a limited way in Vietnam to
preserve freedom of choice for that little country,a prominent United States
senator has branded our effort there as "arrogance of power."
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
(MORE)
-10-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
Is it arrogance of power for this country to sacrifice thousands of
its young men in the defense of freedom in Vietnam? More than 3,460 of
our men have lost their lives there since January of 1961.
Were we being arrogant when we sacrificed 33,629 Americans on the
battlefields of Korea? Is anyone really misguided enough to believe this
was an arrogant display of power?
Were we being arrogant in pouring $3.3 billion in aid into Korea since
1953 to prevent its being absorbed by Red China?
Were we being arrogant in spending an equal sum on economic aid to
Vietnam since 1954?
Was it a display of arrogance for us to take the initiative in
establishing NATO and to contribute more than our share in men and money to
keep it strong?
Were we being arrogant in investing $13 billion to restore war-
devastated Europe under the Marshall Plan?
Have we been arrogant in devoting $116 billion in economic and military aid
to 118 nations during a 20-year span since World War II?
(MORE)
-11-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
Are we being arrogant in providing aid for 50 water projects in Africa,
Asia and Latin America, helping to irrigate more than a million acres in
India, a half million each in Pakistan and Korea, and 100,000 in Tunisia,
Ecuador, Morocco, Taiwan and Afghanistan?
Are we being arrogant in spending millions in Southeast Asia to fight
such dread diseases as cholera?
Are we being arrogant in sending teams from 71 American universities
to 38 other countries to provide them with technical assistance?
Are we being arrogant in providing technical training to foreign
visitors at 126 American universities and colleges under AID contracts
totalling $185 million?
Have we been arrogant in building 237,000 classrooms in other countries
in five years and in helping to set up foreign colleges and universities
which since have graduated more than 637,000 teachers?
GERALD FORD (1BRAR)
Americans are an idealistic and a generous people. They have given
of their substance because they feel for the suffering masses of humanity.
At the same time, they are a common sense people. They perceive that foreign
aid is a direct answer to the Communist challenge.
(MORE)
-12-
PARSONS COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT
They know that ours would be a weak foreign policy, indeed, if it rested
only upon weapons of war.
And so Americans give--for reasons of idealism, yes, but also because
they wish to live in a world where peace is more than a newspaper cartoon
of a foolish-looking dove with an olive branch in its beak.
They know the only sensible objective is to help build a new world
order--a stable international community.
Cataclysmic forces will shake the world as it rides down the course
of change. But the world will survive despite the crushing blows of history,
and a common-sense American foreign policy will help preserve the ideas of
peace and progress.
Perhaps no intellectual with a great facility for self-expression could
convey more clearly this conviction I hold than an Asian student who had
pondered at great length the question of war and peace in our time.
In a letter to a State Department official, this student said in most
intriguing English: "Slow by slow, in the long of time, the free world will
success."
This I wish every one of you--that you will success. Thank you.
# # #
Plz Return
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS by REP. GERALD R. FORD at PARSONS COLLEGE FAIRFIELD, IOWA
June 11, 1966
"Now Is The Hour"
Whenever a man is asked to speak to a graduating class---he automatically
thinks back to his own graduation day.
This is always a rather discouraging experience, because I realize that what-
ever the advice my university commencement speaker gave me---I just can't remember
it. I have no illusions as to the fate of my message -- but I'll try.
You have pursued the arts and sciences for four years, and have successfully
earned a degree.
Yet, we all know that receiving a college diploma does not automatically
confer a liberal education on you. If anything, it gives you, hopefully, the added
ability to comprehend and cope with what is going on around you. It gives you the
added security and capacity to learn, to think for yourself. This is the most impor-
tant attribute of an educated, enlightened man.
YOUR EDUCATION QUALIFIES YOU TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.
If I give you any parting words or suggestions today for a fuller life-they
are NOW IS THE HOUR to express yourself: NOW IS THE HOUR to think for yourself.
I do not mean you should never think like other people. I mean you should
neither be a "kook" who prides himself on being completely different from others--
nor a sheep who follows others blindly.
NOW IS THE HOUR
for you to raise penetrating but constructive questions about what is
happening around you in this country and in other parts of the world.
To illustrate, I could not be true to myself or to my constituents if I did not
independently make suggestions, helpfully I trust, to other public officials, including
the President, according to the best of my sincere beliefs. Let me hasten to add:
words are not enough one must fight within the law for the acceptance of one's
beliefs.
NOW IS THE HOUR
to persistin being heard.
Thinking a problem through, being true to your principles, is the inalienable
right given to every citizen of the United States.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when we desperately need an informed public opinion in America. This is
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 2 -
especially true in the area of foreign affairs.
A University of Michigan survey in 1964 revealed that more than 25 percent of
those persons questioned did not know that mainland China is ruled by Communists. --
Almost as high a percentage less than two years ago were unaware that a war was going
on in Vietnam.
That sounds incredible. Yet, that's what the survey showed.
We desperately need an accurately informed and alert public opinion, for we
are in the midst of a perilous age. The future of our great country, and no doubt
the world, lies in the exercise of good judgment by citizens such as yourself. Public
opinion does exercise a guiding and restraining influence on your government.
Every citizen who expresses himself is an important catalyst in getting his
local, state, and federal government to put his convictions to work.
Those of you in the attentive public who are activists, who think about foreign
affairs and transmit your ideas to others, are the important people. You serve as a
kind of transmission belt between the policy makers and the total public. In the
Vietnam crisis, where there are currents and cross currents, some obvious, some
devious, this role is of major consequence.
NOW IS THE HOUR when peace is an issue of great urgency.
There is a desperate need now to think through the issue of nuclear extinction
or survival.
There is a demand for the common sense treatment of world and national affairs.
We have rarely, if ever, had total world peace.
NOW IS THE HOUR when our anxieties are further accentuated by the latest
nuclear explosion touched off by Communist China.
NOW IS THE HOUR when we must seek to lay the basis for a durable and just
peace. Not peace at any ccst!
Not peace by appeasement or capitulation!
Some think that peace can be attained by an over-night change of policy on the
part of the United States toward Communist China. But it is not accurate to contend
that the U.S. has kept Communist China out of the United Nations. Red China has shut
itself out of the United Nations by refusing to comply with the U.N. Charter and by
demanding impossible changes in the U.N. as conditions for her entry into that
organization.
Some would admit Communist China to the U.N. on the basis of a promise to
live up to the Charter.
NOW IS THE HOUR to say a promise is not enough.
- 3 -
Red China should prove by actions that she is worthy of U.N. membership by
agreeing to meaningful peace negotiations on Vietnam, by ending any and all partici-
pation in aggression, and by calling for an immediate cease-fire in that battle-
fatigued nation. Let Red China prove by deeds, not just by words, that she has
abandoned aggression. Then one of the major obstacles to her entrance into this
international organization will be removed.
The United States has long demonstrated its deep desire to advance the cause
of peace through the reconstruction of a war-torn world and the development of those
backward areas on a global basis.
We have invested $13 billion to restore war-devastated Europe.
The United States has devoted $116 billion in aid to 118 nations during a
20-year span since World War II.
We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars to speed agricultural growth in
the under-developed countries of the world to meet famine and the spectre of an ever-
widening population explosion.
We've spent millions throughout the world to fight dread diseases.
Our citizens have sent teams from 71 American universities to 38 countries to
provide technical assistance.
We've provided technical training to foreign visitors at 126 American univer-
sities and colleges under AID contracts totaling $185 million.
We've built 237,000 classrooms in other countries in five years and have
helped to set up foreign colleges and universities which since have graduated more
than 637,000 teachers.
Yes, Americans are an idealistic, generous people, but they also are a common-
sense people.
Most recognize that our foreign assistance helps to break down stagnant social
orders which tend to keep the mass of their people in economic serfdom, and our aid
helps to transform backward economies into industrial nation-states.
The American people recognize, too, that these transitions can be helpful
building blocks of world peace.
It may seem strange to talk of peace as we read reports of increasing American
casualties in Vietnam.
Many in this graduating class leave this campus not to engage in the works of
peace and progress for which you have been educated but to fight a war. To those who
will bear sacrifice, risk, and danger so that men may be free, this nation owes a
debt of gratitude that can never be adequately repaid.
The least the nation can do for those who are subjected to extraordinary risk
- 4
and sacrifice is to take every possible step to minimize American casualties and end
the conflict honorably as soon as possible. The nation is not doing all that it can
toward these objectives when it fails to use its full economic and diplomatic
resources in support of its necessary military effort. To give one example, the
nation is not using these resources to the maximum when the ships of our allies con-
tinue to carry supplies, certainly some weapons, to North Vietnam, thereby prolonging
the conflict and increasing American losses.
I return to the theme of peace, for there will be an end to the war in Vietnam.
NOW IS THE HOUR to speed that day. And let us work to make this conflict hopefully
the last clash of arms, not the prelude to another bigger war.
NOW IS THE HOUR when despite the whine of bombs and bullets we must start
actively to build for peace.
Apart from negotiations at the diplomatic level, another avenue toward the
building of peace -- is down the path of cultural exchange. Science and music are
universal languages.
In all countries the intellectuals constitute an island of independence, even
when surrounded by a sea of dictatorship.
The intellectual has been and can be an instrument for sanity in this world.
In America as participants in the shaping of foreign policy and as a transmission belt
between the government and the total population; in Communist nations as a moderating
influence on rulers preaching a mad nationalism and global domination, while
furiously whipping their people toward industrial and military goals.
The changes the intellectuals can bring about in the world of nations will, I
believe, in the end, protect the ideas of peace and progress from the crushing blows
of history.
Perhaps no intellectual, with a great facility for self-expression, could
convey more clearly this conviction I hold, than an Asian student who had pondered
long the great questions of war and peace in our time.
In a letter to a State Department official, this student said in most intri-
guing English: "Slow by slow, in the long of time, we will success."
We can move toward peace if we open up lines of communications with people
everywhere.
I can stand here, raise questions and make suggestions, but this is one voice.
YOU are the future. YOUR cries will be heard and answered. It is you who can and
will turn the wheels of action!
And, this you must do! You must be aware! You must not follow anyone blindly:
You must search for truth as you see it! You must evaluate circumstances and facts!
You must make up your mind! You must stand up and be counted! For, NOW IS THE HOUR.
###
COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS by REP. GERALD R. FORD at PARSONS COLLEGE
June 11, 1966
"Now Is The Hour"
Whenever a man is asked to speak to a graduating class---he automatically
thinks back to his own graduation day.
This is always a rather discouraging experience, because I realize that what-
ever the advice my university commencement speaker gave me---I just can't remember
it. I have no illusions as to the fate of my message -- but I'll try.
You have pursued the arts and sciences for four years, and have successfully
earned a degree.
Yet, we all know that receiving a college diploma does not automatically
confer a liberal education on you. If anything, it gives you, hopefully, the added
ability to comprehend and cope with what is going on around you. It gives you the
added security and capacity to learn, to think for yourself. This is the most impor-
tant attribute of an educated, enlightened man.
YOUR EDUCATION QUALIFIES YOU TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.
If I give you any parting words or suggestions today for a fuller life they
are NOW IS THE HOUR to express yourself: NOW IS THE HOUR to think for yourself.
I do not mean you should never think like other people. I mean you should
neither be a "kook" who prides himself on being completely different from others--
nor a sheep who follows others blindly.
NOW IS THE HOUR
for you to raise penetrating but constructive questions about what is
happening around you in this country and in other parts of the world.
To illustrate, I could not be true to myself or to my constituents if I did not
independently make suggestions, helpfully I trust, to other public officials, including
the President, according to the best of my sincere beliefs. Let me hasten to add:
words are not enough -- one must fight within the law for the acceptance of one's
beliefs.
NOW IS THE HOUR
to persist in being heard.
Thinking a problem through, being true to your principles, is the inalienable
right given to every citizen of the United States.
NOW IS THE HOUR
when we desparately need an informed public opinion in America. This is
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especially true in the area of foreign affairs.
A University of Michigan survey in 1964 revealed that more than 25 percent of
those persons questioned did not know that mainland China is ruled by Communists. --
Almost as high a percentage less than two years ago were unaware that a war was going
on in Vietnam.
That sounds incredible. Yet, that's what the survey showed.
We desperately need an accurately informed and alert public opinion, for we
are in the midst of a perilous age. The future of our great country, and no doubt
the world, lies in the exercise of good judgment by citizens such as yourself. Public
opinion does exercise a guiding and restraining influence on your government.
Every citizen who expresses himself is an important catalyst in getting his
local, state, and federal government to put his convictions to work.
Those of you in the attentive public who are activists, who think about foreign
affairs and transmit your ideas to others, are the important people. You serve as a
kind of transmission belt between the policy makers and the total public. In the
Vietnam crisis, where there are currents and cross currents, some obvious, some
devious, this role is of major consequence.
NOW IS THE HOUR when peace is an issue of great urgency.
There is a desperate need now to think through the issue of nuclear extinction
or survival.
There is a demand for the common sense treatment of world and national affairs.
We have rarely, if ever, had total world peace.
NOW IS THE HOUR when our anxieties are further accentuated by the latest
nuclear explosion touched off by Communist China.
NOW IS THE HOUR when we must seek to lay the basis for a durable and just
peace. Not peace at any cost!
Not peace by appeasement or capitulation!
Some think that peace can be attained by an over-night change of policy on the
part of the United States toward Communist China. But it is not accurate to contend
that the U.S. has kept Communist China out of the United Nations. Red China has shut
itself out of the United Nations by refusing to comply with the U.N. Charter and by
demanding impossible changes in the U.N. as conditions for her entry into that
organization.
Some would admit Communist China to the U.N. on the basis of a promise to
live up to the Charter.
NOW IS THE HOUR to say a promise is not enough.
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Red China should prove by actions that she is worthy of U.N. membership by
agreeing to meaningful peace negotiations on Vietnam, by ending any and all partici-
pation in aggression, and by calling for an immediate cease-fire in that battle-
fatigued nation. Let Red China prove by deeds, not just by words, that she has
abandoned aggression. Then one of the major obstacles to her entrance into this
international organization will be removed.
The United States has long demonstrated its deep desire to advance the cause
of peace through the reconstruction of a war-torn world and the development of those
backward areas on a global basis.
We have invested $13 billion to restore war-devastated Europe.
The United States has devoted $116 billion in aid to 118 nations during a
20-year span since World War II.
We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars to speed agricultural growth in
the under-developed countries of the world to meet famine and the spectre of an ever-
widening population explosion.
We've spent millions throughout the world to fight dread diseases.
Our citizens have sent teams from 71 American universities to 38 countries to
provide technical assistance.
We've provided technical training to foreign visitors at 126 American univer-
sities and colleges under AID contracts totaling $185 million.
We've built 237,000 classrooms in other countries in five years and have
helped to set up foreign colleges and universities which since have graduated more
than 637,000 teachers.
Yes, Americans are an idealistic, generous people, but they also are a common-
sense people.
Most recognize that our foreign assistance helps to break down stagnant social
orders which tend to keep the mass of their people in economic serfdom, and our aid
helps to transform backward economies into industrial nation-states.
The American people recognize, too, that these transitions can be helpful
building blocks of world peace.
It may seem strange to talk of peace as we read reports of increasing American
casualties in Vietnam.
Many in this graduating class leave this campus not to engage in the works of
peace and progress for which you have been educated but to fight a war. To those who
will bear sacrifice, risk, and danger so that men may be free, this nation owes a
debt of gratitude that can never be adequately repaid.
The least the nation can do for those who are subjected to extraordinary risk
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and sacrifice is to take every possible step to minimize American casualties and end
the conflict honorably as soon as possible. The nation is not doing all that it can
toward these objectives when it fails to use its full economic and diplomatic
resources in support of its necessary military effort. To give one example, the
nation is not using these resources to the maximum when the ships of our allies con-
tinue to carry supplies, certainly some weapons, to North Vietnam, thereby prolonging
the conflict and increasing American losses.
I return to the theme of peace, for there will be an end to the war in Vietnam.
NOW IS THE HOUR to speed that day. And let us work to make this conflict hopefully
the last clash of arms, not the prelude to another bigger war.
NOW IS THE HOUR when despite the whine of bombs and bullets we must start
actively to build for peace.
Apart from negotiations at the diplomatic level, another avenue toward the
building of peace -- is down the path of cultural exchange. Science and music are
universal languages.
In all countries the intellectuals constitute an island of independence, even
when surrounded by a sea of dictatorship.
The intellectual has been and can be an instrument for sanity in this world.
In America as participants in the shaping of foreign policy and as a transmission belt
between the government and the total population; in Communist nations as a moderating
influence on rulers preaching a mad nationalism and global domination, while
furiously whipping their people toward industrial and military goals.
The changes the intellectuals can bring about in the world of nations will, I
believe, in the end, protect the ideas of peace and progress from the crushing blows
of history.
Perhaps no intellectual, with a great facility for self-expression, could
convey more clearly this conviction I hold, than an Asian student who had pondered
long the great questions of war and peace in our time.
In a letter to a State Department official, this student said in most intri-
guing English: "Slow by slow, in the long of time, we will success."
We can move toward peace if we open up lines of communications with people
everywhere.
I can stand here, raise questions and make suggestions, but this is one voice.
YOU are the future. YOUR cries will be heard and answered. It is you who can and
will turn the wheels of action!
And, this you must do! You must be aware! You must not follow anyone blindly!
You must search for truth as you see it! You must evaluate circumstances and facts!
You must make up your mind! You must stand up and be counted! For, NOW IS THE HOUR.
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