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Annual Richmond County Republican Campaign Dinner, Staten Island, NY, October 14, 1971
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Annual Richmond County Republican Campaign Dinner, Staten Island, NY, October 14, 1971
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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The original documents are located in Box D31, folder "Annual Richmond County
Republican Campaign Dinner, Staten Island, NY, October 14, 1971" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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 D31 of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 p.m. THURSDAY--
October 14, 1971
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford at the annual Richmond County, N.Y.,
Republican Campaign Dinner, at Staten Island, N.Y.
Peace and prosperity will be the key political issues in 1972, as they are in
every national election. These issues are naturally of overriding concern to the
American people.
Whatever cosmetics are applied to the two major political parties regarding
these two vital issues, the facts will break through. However heavy the political
oratory, the American people will see through it to the truth at the core of the
election fight.
I submit to you that the Republican Party is looking good on the peace and
prosperity issues, and I am not bashful about saying so. I say it only because the
facts are there to bear me out, and the facts make me hopeful of a solid Republican
victory at the polls next year.
Let's look at the peace issue first. What have we accomplished in seeking to
find our way to peace in the world? To answer that question, we must look at the
situation which existed when Richard Nixon assumed the Presidency on Jan. 20, 1969.
After eight years with a Democrat in the White House, we were deeply involved
in a seemingly endless war in Vietnam. There were nearly 535,000 Americans on that
battleground, and our battle-related casualties were averaging more than 5,000 a month.
The draft was placing an average of 25,000 young men a month into military uniform.
Today the number of Americans in Vietnam has dropped to roughly 213,000 and
that figure will drop to 184,000 by Dec. 1. The middle of next month the President
will announce a new schedule of troop reductions, and I predict that he will step up
the withdrawal rate. Next spring the U.S. combat role in Vietnam will end and we will
continue moving steadily toward a complete windup of our role in Vietnam.
The Democratic Party took us into the Vietnam War. The Republican Party is
getting us out. The Republican Party is the party of peace.
Our Republican Administration has taken many other initiatives for peace.
We have signed a nuclear non-proliferation pact with the Soviet Union and have
entered into serious negotiations iwth Russia on the limitation of strategic arms
(the SALT talks).
FORD
1817
With his visits to Peking and to Moscow, President Nixon is seeking resolution
RY
of the great East-West political issues.
(more)
-2-
Our Republican Administration initiated a cease-fire in the Middle East, and
although our peace-making efforts in that part of the world have had their ups and
downs we have succeeded in averting a new war there.
Our Republican President has developed a new strategy for peace in the world
centered around the Nixon Doctrine.
Our Republican Administration has renounced the use of biological weapons and
the first use of chemical warfare.
We have achieved a treaty prohibiting the emplacement of nuclear weapons in the
seabed.
We are negotiating rather than confronting, wherever and whenever possible.
But we must negotiate from strength, just as we did during the Cuban missile
crisis of 1962--and this our Republican President understands better than anyone else
in the country today.
In this way--by this manner and means--we are moving to achieve a lasting peace
throughout the world. That is the Republican record on peace.
What of prosperity? This Nation has seldom known real prosperity in peacetime.
The Democratic Party did not bring about prosperity after the Great Depression. It
was the boom conditions of World War II that erased depression era unemployment. And
the facts are that the Democrats did not produce prosperity in the Sixties. They
generated a false prosperity, an inflationary boom, by taking us into the Vietnam War
and refusing to pay for it.
After eight years with a Democrat in the White House in the Sixties, we were
not only deeply mired in a war in Vietnam, we were caught up in a roaring inflation.
Between 1965 and 1969, hard-won wage increases were completely eaten up by price
increases and taxes.
Our new Republican President tried to bring inflation under control gradually
as he wound down the Vietnam War. He met with some success but it was not good enough.
As a political goad, the Democrats offered him price and wage controls they thought he
would never use. He seized on this authority and fashioned a New Economic Policy,
initially grounded in a Price-Wage freeze.
We are now moving toward Phase 2 of the President's Price-and-Wage Stabilization
Program and the other aspects of his new economic program also are moving ahead on target.
I predict that the new economic program will place us on the path to high
economic growth. I predict that unemployment will drop below 5 per cent by the middle
of next year and that prices will be stabilized under the new economic program.
I welcome the test at the polls that will come in November 1972 on the twin
issues of peace and prosperity. I think we'll have a lot going for the Republican
Party.
###
Distribution: 20 copies uf Mr. Ford only Office copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 6:30 p.m. THURSDAY--
October 14, 1971
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford at the annual Richmond County, N.Y.,
Republican Campaign Dinner, at Staten Island, N.Y.
Peace and prosperity will be the key political issues in 1972, as they are in
every national election. These issues are naturally of overriding concern to the
American people.
Whatever cosmetics are applied to the two major political parties regarding
these two vital issues, the facts will break through. However heavy the political
oratory, the American people will see through it to the truth at the core of the
election fight.
I submit to you that the Republican Party is looking good on the peace and
prosperity issues, and I am not bashful about saying so. I say it only because the
facts are there to bear me out, and the facts make me hopeful of a solid Republican
victory at the polls next year.
Let's look at the peace issue first. What have we accomplished in seeking to
find our way to peace in the world? To answer that question, we must look at the
situation which existed when Richard Nixon assumed the Presidency on Jan. 20, 1969.
After eight years with a Democrat in the White House, we were deeply involved
in a seemingly endless war in Vietnam. There were nearly 535,000 Americans on that
battleground, and our battle-related casualties were averaging more than 5,000 a month.
The draft was placing an average of 25,000 young men a month into military uniform.
Today the number of Americans in Vietnam has dropped to roughly 213,000 and
that figure will drop to 184,000 by Dec. 1. The middle of next month the President
will announce a new schedule of troop reductions, and I predict that he will step up
the withdrawal rate. Next spring the U.S. combat role in Vietnam will end and we will
continue moving steadily toward a complete windup of our role in Vietnam.
The Democratic Party took us into the Vietnam War. The Republican Party is
getting us out. The Republican Party is the party of peace.
Our Republican Administration has taken many other initiatives for peace.
We have signed a nuclear non-proliferation pact with the Soviet Union and have
entered into serious negotiations iwth Russia on the limitation of strategic arms
(the SALT talks).
FORD
of the great East-West political issues.
With his visits to Peking and to Moscow, President Nixon is seeking resolution GERA
(more)
-2-
Our Republican Administration initiated a cease-fire in the Middle East, and
although our peace-making efforts in that part of the world have had their ups and
downs we have succeeded in averting a new war there.
Our Republican President has developed a new strategy for peace in the world
centered around the Nixon Doctrine.
Our Republican Administration has renounced the use of biological weapons and
the first use of chemical warfare.
We have achieved a treaty prohibiting the emplacement of nuclear weapons in the
seabed.
We are negotiating rather than confronting, wherever and whenever possible.
But we must negotiate from strength, just as we did during the Cuban missile
crisis of 1962--and this our Republican President understands better than anyone else
in the country today.
In this way-by this manner and means--we are moving to achieve a lasting peace
throughout the world. That is the Republican record on peace.
What of prosperity? This Nation has seldom known real prosperity in peacetime.
The Democratic Party did not bring about prosperity after the Great Depression. It
was the boom conditions of World War II that erased depression era unemployment. And
the facts are that the Democrats did not produce prosperity in the Sixties. They
generated a false prosperity, an inflationary boom, by taking us into the Vietnam War
and refusing to pay for it.
After eight years with a Democrat in the White House in the Sixties, we were
not only deeply mired in a war in Vietnam, we were caught up in a roaring inflation.
Between 1965 and 1969, hard-won wage increases were completely eaten up by price
increases and taxes.
Our new Republican President tried to bring inflation under control gradually
as he wound down the Vietnam War. He met with some success but it was not good enough.
As a political goad, the Democrats offered him price and wage controls they thought he
would never use. He seized on this authority and fashioned a New Economic Policy,
initially grounded in a Price-Wage freeze.
We are now moving toward Phase 2 of the President's Price-and-Wage Stabilization
Program and the other aspects of his new economic program also are moving ahead on target.
I predict that the new economic program will place us on the path to high
economic growth. I predict that unemployment will drop below 5 per cent by the middle
of next year and that prices will be stabilized under the new economic program.
I welcome the test at the polls that will come in November 1972 on the twin
issues of peace and prosperity. I think we'll have a lot going for the Republican
Party.
# # #