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Lincoln Day Dinner, Goldsboro, NC, February 3, 1968
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Lincoln Day Dinner, Goldsboro, NC, February 3, 1968
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D23, folder "Lincoln Day Dinner, Goldsboro,
NC, February 3, 1968" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File
at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Distribution mail, evening 2/2/68
maffice Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--For Release at 6:30 p.m. Friday--
February 3, 1968
Excerpts from a Lincoln Day Dinner Speech at Goldsboro, North Carolina.
"We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect
some new disaster with each newspaper we read. Are we in a healthful political
state? Are not the tendencies plain? Do not the signs of the times point plainly
the way in which we are going?"
We are living today in a time when crisis follows upon crisis and solutions
elude the Administration in power. The graphic lines I have just quoted might
well have been uttered today or yesterday, and the speaker might have been a
member of the Congress of either party.
The words are those of Abraham Lincoln, delivered at Bloomington, Indiana,
on May 29, 1853.
Yet they are chillingly appropriate to the present national and inter-
national scenes.
Recently President Johnson gave the Congress and the Nation his appraisal
of our national and international problems and accomplishments and outlined a
course for the future.
I know of no American who felt stirred by his words. There was no note
of challenge, no clear call to Americans to "rise up against a sea of troubles"
and vanquish them, no demand that Americans embrace a federal regimen of
financial austerity to halt the steady deterioration in the value of the dollar
and the dangerously heightened outflow of our gold supply.
Yet we are living "in the midst of alarms" and nearly every day a new
crisis confronts us.
North Korea, a fifth-rate power, seizes a U.S. naval vessel and leads it
into the port of Wonsan by the nose. Communist terrorists fight us in the
streets of Saigon and hold the U.S. Embassy for six hours,
Where are the answers? Where is the leadership that will make us proud
of America again?
After a lengthy silence during which the credibility of the United States
was much in doubt, the President reported to the American people concerning
North Korea's seizure of the U.S. Navy ship, the Pueblo.
He spoke briefly. We were employing diplomacy by making contingency
QUERLO FORD LIBRARY
(more)
Digitized from Box D23 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
military preparations. Air reservists were being called up. Many questions were
left unanswered.
Why did we not rush jet fighters to the aid of the Pueblo? Why did the
captain not immobilize his ship or scuttle her rather than to let an intelligence
vessel with all manner of sophisticated electronic equipment on board fall into
Communist hands? Why did the crew not resist, even though they were outgunned?
Why was the Pueblo not more heavily armed? Why was it not accompanied by an
armed escort?
In my view, North Korean seizure of the Pueblo should never have been allowed
to happen.
There must be a full-scale investigation of the Johnson Administration's
handling of our spy ship activities and the Pueblo incident itself if the
American people are to have even a shred of confidence in the present
Administration's conduct of our international affairs.
The United States obviously was unprepared for an incident like the seizure
of the Pueblo. The American people are entitled to know why. If our fighting
forces are inadequate in Korea because 500,000 American military personnel are
pinned down in Vietnam, then the Administration must act to correct the situation.
We cannot permit ourselves to be humiliated in the eyes of the world by a
fifth-rate power.
Congress should move quickly to review, update, and strengthen our entire
policy in Southeast Asia.
Americans have always rallied behind their President in time of crisis,
regardless of party. We are doing so now. But, in the words of President
Theodore Roosevelt, it is "not only unpatriotic and servile but it is morally
treasonable to the American public to announce that there must be no criticism
of the President." He continued: "Nothing but the truth should be spoken about
him or anyone else but it is even more important to tell the truth -- pleasant
or unpleasant -- about him than about anyone else."
I would add: It is also critically important that the President tell the
American people the truth. This he has not done -- else he could not create the
illusion that success is near in Vietnam or talk of the "prosperity" of the
Sixties without noting that it feeds on war and inflation. This is false
optimism and phony prosperity.
Abraham Lincoln had great faith in the American people and in their ability
to recognize the truth. I share that faith. It was in his last public address
on April 11, 1865, that Lincoln, a great Republican president, said: "It is true
that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the
people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time." Let
the present Administration take heed.
# # #
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--For Release at 6:30 p.m. Friday--
February 3, 1968
Excerpts from a Lincoln Day Dinner Speech at Goldsboro, North Carolina.
"We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect
some new disaster with each newspaper we read. Are we in a healthful political
state? Are not the tendencies plain? Do not the signs of the times point plainly
the way in which we are going?"
We are living today in a time when crisis follows upon crisis and solutions
elude the Administration in power. The graphic lines I have just quoted might
well have been uttered today or yesterday, and the speaker might have been a
member of the Congress of either party.
The words are those of Abraham Lincoln, delivered at Bloomington, Indiana,
on May 29, 1869.
Yet they are chillingly appropriate to the present national and inter-
national scenes.
Recently President Johnson gave the Congress and the Nation his appraisal
of our national and international problems and accomplishments and outlined a
course for the future.
I know of no American who felt stirred by his words. There was no note
of challenge, no clear call to Americans to "rise up against a sea of troubles"
and vanquish them, no demand that Americans embrace a federal regimen of
financial austerity to halt/the steady deterioration in the value of the dollar
and the dangerously heightened outflow of our gold supply.
Yet we are living "in the midst of alarms" and nearly every day a new
crisis confronts us.
North Korea, a fifth-rate power, seizes a U.S. naval vessel and leads it
into the port of Wonsan by the nose Communist terrorists fight us in the
streets of Saigon and hold the U.S. Embassy for six hours,
Where are the answers? Where is the leadership that will make us proud
of America again?
After a lengthy silence during which the credibility of the United States
was much in doubt, the President reported to the American people concerning
North Korea's seizure of the U.S. Navy ship, the Pueblo.
He spoke briefly. We were employing diplomacy by making contingency
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
(more)
-2-
military preparations. Air reservists were being called up. Many questions were
left unanswered.
Why did we not rush jet fighters to the aid of the Pueblo? Why did the
captain not immobilize his ship or scuttle her rather than to let an intelligence
vessel with all manner of sophisticated electronic equipment on board fall into
Communist hands? Why did the crew not resist, even though they were outgunned?
Why was the Pueblo not more heavily armed? Why was it not accompanied by an
armed escort?
In my view, North Korean seizure of the Pueblo should never have been allowed
to happen.
There must be a full-scale investigation of the Johnson Administration's
handling of our spy ship activities and the Pueblo incident itself if the
American people are to have even a shred of confidence in the present
Administration's conduct of our international affairs.
The United States obviously was unprepared for an incident like the seizure
of the Pueblo. The American people are entitled to know why. If our fighting
forces are inadequate in Korea because 500,000 American military personnel are
pinned down in Vietnam, then the Administration must act to correct the situation.
We cannot permit ourselves to be humiliated in the eyes of the world by a
fifth-rate power.
Congress should move quickly to review, update, and strengthen our entire
policy in Southeast Asia.
Americans have always rallied behind their President in time of crisis,
regardless of party. We are doing so now. But, in the words of President
Theodore Roosevelt, it is "not only unpatriotic and servile but it is morally
treasonable to the American public to announce that there must be no criticism
of the President." He continued: "Nothing but the truth should be spoken about
him or anyone else but it is even more important to tell the truth -- pleasant
or unpleasant -- about him than about anyone else."
I would add: It is also critically important that the President tell the
American people the truth. This he has not done -- else he could not create the
illusion that success is near in Vietnam or talk of the "prosperity" of the
Sixties without noting that it feeds on war and inflation. This is false
optimism and phony prosperity.
Abraham Lincoln had great faith in the American people and in their ability
to recognize the truth. I share that faith. It was in his last public address
on April 11, 1865, that Lincoln, a great Republican president, said: "It is true
that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the
people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time." Let
the present Administration take heed.
###
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--For Release at 6:30 p.m. Friday--
Excerpts from a Lincoln Day Dinner Speech at Goldsboro, North Carolina.
"We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some
new disaster with each newspaper we read. Are we in a healthful political state? Are
not the tendencies plain? Do not the signs of the times point plainly the way in which
we are going?"
We are living today in a time when crisis follows upon crisis and solutions
elude the Administration in power. The graphic lines I have just quoted might well have
been uttered today or yesterday, and the speaker might have been a member of the Congress
of either party.
The words are those of Abraham Lincoln, delivered at Bloomington, Indiana, on
May 29, 1865.
Yet they are chillingly appropriate to the present national and international
scenes.
Recently President Johnson gave the Congress and the Nation his appraisal of
our national and international problems and accomplishments and outlined a course for
the future.
I know of no American who felt stirred by his words. There was no note of
challenge, no clear call to Americans to "rise up against a sea of troubles" and vanquish
them, no demand that Americans embrace a federal regimen of financial austerity to halt
the steady deterioration in the value of the dollar and the dangerously heightened out-
flow of our gold supply.
Yet we are living "in the midst of alarms" and nearly every day a new crisis
confronts us.
North Korea, a fifth-rate power, seizes a U.S. naval vessel and leads it into
the port of Wonsan by the nose. Communist terrorists fight us in the streets of Saigon
and hold the U.S. Embassy for six hours.
Where are the answers? Where is the leadership that will make us proud of
America again?
After a lengthy silence during which the credibility of the United States was
much in doubt, the President reported to the American people concerning North Korea's
seizure of the U. S. Navy ship, the Pueblo.
He spoke briefly. We were employing diplomacy but making contingency military
FORD
preparations. Air reservists were being called up. Many questions were left unanswered. BERART
ERAL
More
- 2 -
Why did we not rush jet fighters to the aid of the Pueblo? Why did the captain
not immobilize his ship or scuttle her rather than to let an intelligence vessel with all
manner of sophisticated electronic equipment on board fall into Communist hands? Why did
the crew not resist, even though they were outgunned? Why was the Pueblo not more
heavily armed? Why was it not accompanied by an armed escort?
In my view, North Korean seizure of the Pueblo should never have been allowed to
happen.
There must be a full-scale investigation of the Johnson Administration's handling
of our spy ship activities and the Pueblo incident itself if the American people are to
have even a shred of confidence in the present Administration's conduct of our international
affairs.
The United States obviously was unprepared for an incident like the seizure of
the Pueblo. The American people are entitled to know why. If our fighting forces are
inadequate in Korea because 500,000 American military personnel are pinned down in Vietnam,
then the Administration must act to correct the situation.
We cannot permit ourselves to be humiliated in the eyes of the world by a fifth-
rate power.
Congress should move quickly to review, update, and strengthen our entire policy
in Southeast Asia.
Americans have always rallied behind their President in time of crisis, regard-
less of party. We are doing so now. But, in the words of President Theodore Roosevelt,
it is "not only unpatriotic and servile but it is morally treasonable to the American
public to announce that there must be no criticism of the President." He continued:
"Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else but it is even more
important to tell the truth -- pleasant or unpleasant - about him than about anyone else."
I would add: It is also critically important that the President tell the
American people the truth. This he has not done else he could not create the illusion
that success is near in Vietnam or talk of the "prosperity" of the Sixties without noting
that it feeds on war and inflation. This is false optimism and phony prosperity.
Abraham Lincoln had great faith in the American people and in their ability to
recognize the truth. I share that faith. It was in his last public address on April 11,
1865, that Lincoln, a great Republican president, said: "It is true that you may fool all
the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you
can't fool all of the people all the time." Let the present Administration take heed.
#####
RAAD LEORD