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    "title": "Kent State University Republican Club, February 27, 1968 (Telelecture)",
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        "Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers",
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        "Crime",
        "Economics",
        "Vietnam War, 1961-1975"
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    "ocrText": "The original documents are located in Box D23, folder \"Kent State University Republican\nClub, February 27, 1968 (Telelecture)\" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary\nand Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nCopyright Notice\nThe copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of\nphotocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United\nStates of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.\nWorks prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public\ndomain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to\nremain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid\ncopyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.\nMAffire NEWS Copy\nCONGRESSMAN\nGERALD R. FORD\nHOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER\nRELEASE\nFOR\nFebruary 23, 1968\nTelelecture\nAn Address by Rep. Gerald R. Ford, R-Mich.,\nbefore to The aMeek Kent Political State U.\nUnivergity of Miscouri Friday evening, Febr 23, 1968.\nRepublican Club, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb, 27, 1968,\nMr. Chairman, Fellow Republicans and Fellow Americans: As we meet here\ntonight in convention, America and, indeed, the world resound with alarms\nWe are met at a time of grave crisis--a crisis not only for the American\npeople but for the entire Free World. While our Free World partners see some of\nthe pieces of this crisis only as in a glass, darkly, we here in America are con-\nfronted with the full stark tragedy of it.\nThis will not be a traditional political convention keynote speech. I have\nno intention of promising the American people that the Republican Party if returned\nto the White House will solve every problem overnight, increase every benefit,\nexpand all existing federal programs and start a whole flock of new ones in\nshort, give everybody everything he wants, with the devil taking the National\nDebt. Let's leave that onus of fiscal irresponsibility to the other major\npolitical party--they deserve it.\nOf course, they have been pursuing that course for the last seven years and\nthey haven't accomplished much except to run up prices, run up interest rates,\nrun up the National Debt and the interest on it to staggering proportions nearly\nrun us out of gold and run the dollar into the ground Small wonder we recently\nwitnessed a run on U.S. gold stocks by foreign creditors. No stardust in their\neyes. They haven't swallowed the Administration's Big Lie--the fiction about\n84 months of uninterrupted prosperity. And they are fearfully aware of how the\nUnited States is being bled of its men and its treasure in that bottomless pit\nknown as Vietnam under the Administration's misguided and misdirected policies.\nTonight I want to talk with you about the health and welfare of our Nation.\nNot in the limited sense of school lunches or prenatal care for indigent mothers.\nBut the health and welfare of all the American people--of every one of us who as\nindividuals make up the great living community which is the United States of\nAmerica.\nWhere\nare\nWe face many that threaten to tear us apart as a people,\nproblems problems today\nproblems that demean us in the eyes of the world, problems that threaten us with\nLIBRARY\ncollapse as a Nation.\n(more)\nDigitized from Box D23 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\n-2-\ninthis year this 1968\nI believe what Americans want to know\nis\nthis:\npolitical\nWhich party is best equipped to restore this country to\npeace and which\nparty can best promote genuine prosperity, a soundly growing economy with\nrelative price stability.\nWhich party best understands the forces at work in America and the world\ntoday--those forces which promise a brighter tomorrow and those other forces\nwhich threaten our very existence?\nWhich party best recognizes the uses of power and how best to employ it in\nthe interests of world peace?\nWhich party does a better job of preserving the value of the dollar so that\na man need not lead a precarious credit-card existence during his working years\nand throw himself on the mercy of the government in his old age?\nWhich party does a better job of watching over tax dollars and seeing to it\nthat Americans get a fair return for what they \"invest\" in their government?\nWhich party offers the American people the kind of moral leadership so\nnecessary to teach respect for law and order and to preserve this republic as a\ngovernment ordained of laws and not merely of men?\nBoth major parties want what is best for America. We share many of the\nsame objectives. Where we differ is not on goals and ends but on the means to\nthose ends.\nThe other party would have Americans believe that the Republican Party is\nthe enemy of the people That is so ridiculous as to be laughable. It would be\nlaughable if the opposition did not repeatedly peddle it as the seeming truth.\nThe truth is we oppose the other party's means to an end when we know those means\nto be unsound.\nnext Movemberwill\nThe Democratic Party SECURITY stands before the people to be judged. The\nDemocratic Party has had seven years in which to demonstrate the wisdom of its\npolicies, the beneficent fruits of legislation which has been pushed through one\nDemocratic Congress after another. The people will decide whether to leave the\nNation in the Democratic Party's hands.\nPostmaster General Lawrence F. O'Brien, who will manage President Johnson's\n1968 campaign, recently said Lyndon Johnson will seek reelection solely upon his\nrecord--the record of his and the preceding Democratic administration. This is\nonly fair. That is how it should be,\nRepublicans urge every American to look at the record--to look, and compare.\nWhat does the record reveal?\nToday we are at war in Vietnam. Not seven years ago!\nLIBRARY\n(more)\n-3-\nToday the Soviet Union is close to controlling the Persian Gulf and the\nRed Sea. Not seven years ago!\nToday the Soviet Union has nearly destroyed American influence in the Middle\nEast. Not seven years ago!\nToday Communists steal our ships. Not seven years ago!\nToday inflation robs us of our wage gains, and prices surge up and up. Not\nseven years ago!\nToday violent civil disorders ravage our cities. Not seven years ago!\nToday the thug, the thief, the mur derer and the rapist terrorize us on city\nstreets throughout America. Not seven years ago!\nToday we have lost the respect America had throughout the world. Not seven\nyears ago!\nHow do we measure what has happened to America in the last seven years?\nThe housewife might say the cost of living has gone up nearly 15 per cent.\nIt costs me $11.43 to buy what $10 would buy in 1960.\nA Republican might say the dollar that was worth a dollar when President\nEisenhower left the White House now is worth about 87½ cents.\nBoth would be right, and that reading of theincontravertible record is\ndevastating. It means that the Johnson Administration with its policy of planned\ndeficits has been robbing all of us of purchasing power and, indeed, has been\npauperizing our senior citizens. The Johnson Administration is primarily\nresponsible for the inflation which has hit us all and has struck most cruelly at\nthe aged who are living on limited incomes.\nThe Johnson Administration's own Labor Department reports that inflation has\nwiped out the wage gains the country's production workers thought they had made\nduring the last two years.\nThe Johnson Administration has so wasted our substance and so heavily\nborrowed against the future that we find ourselves plagued with cost inflation,\nprice inflation, massive federal deficits, some of the highest interest rates\nin a century, and repeated attacks on the dollar. There has been a virtual\nexplosion of federal spending on too many unjustified and wasteful programs and\nprojects.\nDemocratic administrations have added $70 billion to the public debt since\n1960--the last year the federal budget was balanced. The Johnson Administration\nalone is responsible for $60 billion of those accumulated deficits and currently\noffers us the prospect of $20 billion deficits back to back unless we load more\ntaxes on the American people. At the same time, state and local taxes are\n(more)\n-4-\nclimbing steadily so that the combined tax burden--federal, state and local--is\nthe greatest in our history.\nIt is incredible that Lyndon Johnson has allowed the economy to detoriorate\nto the point where runaway inflation is a reality. It is shocking to learn that\nbecause of a lack of faith in America's fiscal integrity foreign holders of U.S.\ndollars prefer gold and as a result have steadily depleted our Gold reserves.\nThe answer to the dollar dilemma eludes Lyndon Johnson because the only\ndefinition of restraint he knows is to slap a spending straitjacket on the\nAmerican worker by digging deeper into his pockets for more tax dollars.\nThe American people today are saddled with a spendthrift Democratic\nadministration--the wildest of all time.\nWhat other administration would deliberately plan a $12 to $20 billion\ndeficit for the next fiscal year at a time when the interest on the national\ndebt has reached the fantastic sum of nearly $15 billion annually? A 46 per cent\nannual increase since the Eisenhower Administration left office!\nWith all this massive spending, the Johnson Administration has failed to\nsolve the major problems of America wage-robbing inflation, the cost-price\nsqueeze on the farmer, the cancers of hard-core unemployment and a swiftly rising\ncrime rate, the widening gulf between the races, the threat of a new kind of\ncivil war, the disaffection of former allies, nation-building in Southeast Asia\nwhere the balance of power is steadily shifting against US.\nWhat is the farmer's position today? He now receives six per cent less\nfor the food he produces than he did two decades ago. This shocking fact really\nstrikes home when we consider that the farmer is paying 30 per cent more for the\nsupplies he needs.\nWhat progress have we made in the war against crime since 1960? With a\nDemocratic administration in power, the crime rate has jumped 88 per cent while\nthe resident population of this country has risen by 11 per cent. Think of it!\nThe national crime rate has increased eight times as fast as the population.\nThrough it all, President Johnson crows about his accomplishments in social\nwelfare fields. And do you know how he measures those accomplishments? Not in\nterms of concrete results but in terms of additional billions of federal dollars\nbeing thrown at problems that simply will not yield to the Lyndon Johnson\ntreatment.\nHe brags that in 1960 the Administration spent $19 billion for health,\neducation and welfare, raised it to $23 billion in 1964 and bumped it to $47\nbillion this year.\nHe boasts that Federal programs for the poor totalled only $9 billion in\n(more)\n-5-\n1960, climbed to $12 billion in 1964 and now total $28 billion.\nHe points with pride to the fact that Administration spending of $3 billion\non government training programs in 1960 rose to $4 billion in 1964 and now have\nclimbed to $12 billion.\nWhere are the results? Where are the benefits? Republicans want the same\nimprovements, but we have better and less costly ways to get them. How\nridiculous to claim great achievements in the language of the bureaucratic\ndollar sign!\nHave we restructured American society? a\nHarth built administration Great Society?\nSeventy-six major riots have swept the Nation since 1965, killing more than\n100 persons and wounding nearly 2,500. These civil explosions produced 7,985 cases\nof arson, 28,939 arrests, 5,434 convictions, $210 million in property damage,\nand $504 million in estimated economic losses.\nThis country has experienced violence and lawlessness on a scale unprecedented\nin our history. The widespread disregard for law and order we have witnessed u\nunder the Johnson Administration is tantamount to a virtual breakdown of the rule\nof law.\nNow some observers are envisioning in 1968 a second civil war in our big\ncity slums. There is an escalating arms race on both sides as police prepare\nfor new outbreaks of rioting in the summer of 1968 and Negro militants plan\nguerrilla terrorist tactics.\nPresident Johnson has been in office continuously since November 1963. At\nall times he has had a Congress controlled by his own party. Yet he waited until\nlast year to send a Law Enforcement Assistance Act to the Congress, did nothing\nto push a 1967 House-approved Law Enforcement Aid Bill through the Senate,\nvetoed the 1967 District of Columbia anti-crime bill, opposed a Republican anti-\nriot bill last year, sent Congress his own anti-riot bill this year when he\nsuddenly realized that crime and riots have become a major issue, designated\nthe \"Mr. Big\" of federal anti-crime efforts the attorney general who said the\ncrime rate has gone up \"only a little\" in this country.\nPicking Attorney General Ramsey Clark as coordinator of all federal crime-\nfighting agencies is like naming Dr. Spock head of the Defense Department. Yet\nLyndon Johnson would like the American people to believe he understands the\nneed for firmness in law enforcement.\nUnder the Johnson Administration we live in a murky world of half-truths\nand contradictions. The American people cry out for truth in government--for\nrealism, for candor. The answers, when they do come back, are buttered with\n(more)\n-6-\nfalse optimism and wrapped in pollyanna promises. At best, some administration\nstatements have proved misleading. At worst, they have constituted outright\ndeception. Small wonder a Credibility Gap separates the Johnson Administration\nfrom the American people!\nThe people have every reason to mistrust the Johnson Administration, for they\nhave been misled almost every step of the way into the sinkhole of war that is\nVietnam.\nWhen the Eisenhower Administration left office, South Vietnam had a\nrelatively stable and apparently established government. The late President\nJohn F. Kennedy, writing in 1960 as a senator, said in his book \"Strategy of Peace\"\nthat U.S. aid to SouthVietnam under Eisenhower had proved \"effective.\" le called\nthe results \"a near miracle.\"\nIn 1960 thee were fewer than 700 U.S. military personnel stationed in South\nVietnam, sent there to train South Vietnamese forces in the use of American\nweapons and equipment. Today more than 525,000 U.S. military personnel have\nbeen committed by Lyndon Johnson to a seemingly interminable land war in Vietnam--\nand he hints he will be sending many thousands more. Where will it all end?\nVietnam has become the third largest war in our history. More than 20,500\nAmerican have lost their lives in this bitter conflict.\nYet Lyndon Johnson ran for the presidency as a peace candidate in 1964. No\nless than five times during that campaign he indicated he would never send large\nground forces to Vietnam.\nOn August 29, 1964, Lyndon Johnson told the nation: \"Some others are eager\nto enlarge the conflict. They call upon us to supply American boys to do the job\nthat Asian boys should do. They ask us to take reckless action which might risk\nthe lives of millions. We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for\nAsian boys. We don't want to get involved in a nation with 700 million people\nand get tied down in a land war in Asia.\"\nLyndon Johnson spoke those words a little more than three years ago. Today\nwe are tied down in a land war in Asia. The end is nowhere in sight.\nIt was a Republican Administration--the Eisenhower Administration--which\nbrought an end to the Korean War which the Truman Administration would not win\nand could not stop. We said in 1952 that we could get and maintain peace with\nhonor, and we did. A Republican Administration will do likewise in 1969.\nThe Korean War was the first war we ever fought on the enemy's terms. The\nVietnam War is the second. To have continued the Korean War would have been\nmadness. To conduct the Vietnam War Lyndon Johnson style has been utterly tragic.\n(more)\n-7-\nThe Johnson style of escalation has never dissuaded Communists from an expanded\nand continued naked aggression.\nWe all recognize we must negotiate an end to the Vietnam War. President\nEisenhower brought the Korean War to an end without compromising our OWD\ninterests or those of our allies. A new Republican administration will bring\nthe Vietnam War to an honorable conclusion. The Johnson Administration is\nincapable of accomplishing this result, although I would dearly like to see it\nhappen right tomorrow.\nA measure of success in Vietnam is demanded by our own national interests.\nBut President Johnson has fought the right war in the wrong way. He has over-\ncommitted the American people in Vietnam as well as at home. He has mismanaged\nthe war, and he has mismanaged the domestic economy.\nHe has taken this Nation down a destructive and failure-filled path that\nhas brought us stalemate in Vietnam, humiliation at the hands of North Korea,\nthe distrust of both the Israelis and the Arabs, a sundering of the once-strong\nties that bound NATO together, danger that the Soviet Union will surpass us in\nnuclear capability, and a shocking loss of credibility among the nations of the\nworld both Communist and free.\nLook at the Democratic record and compare it with the previous Republican\nrecord.\nThe Eisenhower Administration prevented half a dozen threats from developing\ninto wars. There was Trieste, the Mossadegh uprising in Iran, Guatemala, Formosa,\nSuez, Lebanon, Quemoy and West Berlin. All these international crises resolved\nwithout war.\nUnder the present regime Administration witnesses urge expanded East-West\ntrade while the Soviet Union supplies the Viet Cong with rockets, mortars and\nmissiles to kill our fighting men in Vietnam, pours billions of dollars worth of\narms into the Mideast, steadily adds to its nuclear arsenal, and rings its cities\nwith anti-missile systems while ignoring our pleas for an end to the arms race.\nWhere, indeed, is the spirit of Glassboro?\nAmericans have no desire to heat up the cold war. Republicans are anxious\nto live at peace with the Communists. But we will never settle for a fool's\nparadise where detente is nothing but wishful thinking,a word that dangerous\ndreams are built on. More than ever before, the times demand realism and the\nAmerican people demand the truth. The Johnson Administration is failing them\non both counts.\nWe are in a time of testing. Indeed, in the words of a great Republican\n(m re)\n-8-\nPresident, it is a testing whether Government of the people, by the people and\nfor the people can endure.\nThe Nation must have new leadership--great new leadership that will restore\nthis country to fiscal sanity, destroy the ghettoes and rebuild our cities, bring\nus to honorable peace and make us proud of America again.\nThis is a moment of great decision, a point of critical choosing as we ponder\nour Nation's destiny.\nLincoln and the Republican Party led this country through the cataclysmic\ncrisis that was the war between the states. I believe the American people will\nturn again now, in this hour of gravest danger to the Republican Party.\nThe cup that is borne in the hands of that challenge is bitter. But we\nshall not shrink from it. We shall dedicate ourselves to renewing America's soul.\nWe shall be worthy of the people's trust.\n###"
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