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Press Conference of the Vice President, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
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7340867
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Press Conference of the Vice President, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 1975
Office of the Vice President
(Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
PRESS CONFERENCE
OF
THE VICE PRESIDENT
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA
(AT 10:15 A.M. CDT)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
Thank you very much, indeed, Senator, for your generous
words. I would just like to say what a pleasure it is to be
here at the Air Base in Oklahoma City with General Randolph,
General Shannon, and it is a special pleasure to be here with
Paula Unruh, who is Republican State Chairman, and to all of you
here.
I might say it is a special pleasure for me to be here
with Dewey because Dewey, who is your Senator, and Henry Bellmon,
who is your Senator, were both governors. I served with both of
them and Governor Ray Shafer, of Pennsylvania, is in here.
So we have got a lot of old colleagues who enjoyed
association in trying to preserve the Federal systems with
States' responsibilities and States' rights.
I would like to say a word first about being here at
the Tinker Air Force Base. Yesterday in Little Rock, Lieutenant
General James Allen, Superintendent of the Air Force Academy,
was speaking.
He said the American military might is the major
element most responsible for maintaining the freedom of personal
choices for the American citizens. I thought that was a very
interesting and a very effective way of describing and trans-
lating the role and the importance of the military in preserving
the values of freedom which we enjoy and take too much for
granted, and the like, that we have citizens that, as individuals
who can decide what we want to do, where we want to go and how
we want to conduct our lives which is a privilege we enjoy in
this country, which too many countries in the world can't enjoy
that we don't want to take for granted, and that we have an
opportunity here to express our appreciation and our gratitude
to the wonderful men and women who serve in the armed forces,
particularly here in the Air Force, which is the first line of
defense for our country that preserves these freedoms.
I would like to take this opportunity to express on
behalf of the President, myself and, as a matter of fact, all of
the American people, our gratitude for the patriotism, the
loyalty and the devotion of the men and women in the armed
forces of the United States, who have done such a fantastic job
for 200 years, and preserved these privileges which we enjoy as
free citizens.
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Page 2
I will be delighted to answer any questions if you want
to ask any.
QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, with the two recent
events of people with the guns near the President of the United
States, do you have any thoughts on any changes that should be
made in security for the top officials of our government?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No. I have to tell you that I
think the Secret Service that protect the President are very
efficient and the FBI, the local Police Forces, the sheriffs in
this country, do a fabulous job.
Those of us who are privileged to have the opportunity
to serve in public office, or to run for public office, take no
greater risks than those men and women who, in the armed forces,
who are defending our country overseas.
This is part of the hazards of life. Everybody does
their best to cut it down and to see that individuals who are
unbalanced or who have a motive that is alien to our free society
are prevented from perpetrating the kind of tragic drives which
they were attempting.
I must say that it does indicate the importance of having
intelligence, and I think it is an element that should be
considered at this point when the Congress of the United States,
the Senate and the House are reviewing CIA and the entire intel-
ligence structure.
I was Chairman of the Committee on the CIA to investigate
violations or alleged violations of domestic statutes. CIA is
designed to handle foreign intelligence and the FBI domestic
intelligence.
We are in a period when the American people have been
told that their rights and their privacy and privileges have been
violated in massive violations. There was no massive violation.
I think we do see from what happened in the case of the President
that it is essential that the FBI and the local law enforcement
agencies preserve records of those who have been outspoken or
been active in efforts to undermine the freedom of this country,
to destroy our democratic society by force or to kill leaders
in this society.
QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, has there been any change
whatsoever in the system for new security system in your traveling?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, ma'am. We have a wonderful
group. I am very grateful to them and their expertise is
tremendous, and I am totally relaxed.
QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, in light of President
Ford's statements of support for you yesterday in St. Louis, you
see now a stronger commitment or a definite commitment that
providing President Ford is renominated as presidential candidate
for the Party that you will be renominated as the vice
presidential candidate?
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Page 3
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I am deeply grateful to him for
his expression of confidence in the work that I have tried to do
for him. I am Staff Assistant to the President in my capacity
as Vice President, and my official function is to preside over
Dewey Bartlett, Henry Bellmon, and their 98 associates.
But in that capacity which is a great honor and privi-
lege, I cannot speak without unanimous consent.
So that, that is my only official function; otherwise,
I am Staff Assistant to the President. I appreciate what he has
said. However, I do not feel -- and I want to preserve the
position --- that he should in any way be committed or bound
emotionally, morally or any other way, to the decision which he
has to make after he is nominated.
After he is nominated, the great American tradition is
that he then will decide who, in his opinion, can best serve the
American people as Vice President and the Party. At that time,
he should make the decision. Until he has done that, I am not
a candidate and I am totally relaxed in this issue, as well as
the other one.
QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, in your discussion about
intelligence, are you also saying that the House Committee, which
released certain information, was incorrect in doing so and the
President was justified in asking for the White House documents
back?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I wasn't referring to that, nor was
I even thinking about it. Now that you mentioned it, I read the
story in the paper and to the degree that I understood what was
written, it seemed to me that they had every reason to take the
action which they did.
Apparently there was agreement regarding the secrecy of
the documents which they turned over. That secrecy was violated
by the committee and therefore he asked the documents be returned
because it breached American security and it was a very serious
situation as far as revealing sources of information and
individuals which can be identified by the opposition.
The trouble is that a lot of people are handling very
sensitive material who are not trained in this, who have no
experience in it, therefore don't understand the significance of
a great deal of material which they have. This can be extremely
dangerous in terms of our national security.
QUESTION: Do you feel that the national security is
in danger because of all of these incidents that there perhaps
should be a rethinking of the intelligence community, that we
have gone overboard?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No. I think I have had that
experience with intelligence now for 35 years and worked very
closely with the intelligence establishments, both the FBI and
the CIA, and General Donovan's organization during the War.
I would like to say that in my opinion there is no
problem about protecting the rights and privileges of American
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Page 4
citizens against infringement by the CIA, and the recommendations
which our committee made, should adequately do that.
I do think that an effective intelligence system is
essential for this country's security, not only military
security, but security in terms of subversive activities and the
undermining from within which is, of course, part of the inter-
national struggling that goes on between two different ideologies
in the world today.
I think it is essential and I think the danger is that
these investigations will mislead the American people regarding
the importance of this and regarding the structure that is
necessary to accomplish it.
But this is a democracy. Therefore, we have to, and
there is no other country in the world that could do it, go
through this. Once it is done, then let's get back to the
business on a basis of protecting the American citizens' privacy
but also will protect the American citizens' security.
QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, what is your comment on
the feeling in Oklahoma that you will be a liability in the
presidential election in 1976?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: This is a free country and anybody
is entitled to have any feelings they want. That is what makes
up the strength and vitality of democracy. They have got to make
their own judgments. The President has to make his judgment, and
then the people will determine whether that was an actual fact,
if he makes the judgment one way and if he makes it the other
way, then I will know.
QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, It seems to be that the
leadership in the Republican Party here in the State of Oklahoma
has been rather cool to yourself seemingly because you are
considered liberal.
Do you, yourself, think that in the past few years you
have changed in any way?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I haven't really changed. I
am a pragmatist, if you really want to know the truth. I try to
do the best job in solving problems that relate to the people's
best interests and their well-being.
Well-being is involved in the free enterprise system,
the tremendous vitality and productivity of that system, the
freedom of opportunity and choice and the freedom of individual
citizens.
It is involved in also our ability to do for the people
who cannot do for themselves. We want to do as much as possible
to help other people, but we cannot go beyond our capacity to
produce goods and services and Federal, State and local revenues
which permit us to carry out our programs.
That is where this whole situation now has to be reviewed
because we are spending more money than we have income. We see
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Page 5
various areas in the country, New York City, to the Federal
Government which are in financial difficulties.
The Federal Government has got a deficit of between
$60 billion and $70 billion. This is one of the factors that
breeds inflation. This is why the President is taking his stance.
I agree with him. I believe in fiscal integrity as well as
deep human concern, but you have got to balance them.
We are in a new situation, a different situation than
we were before. Therefore, I reflect, I think, an intelligent,
accurate analysis of the problems we face and try to be realistic
in dealing with them.
I don't think really you solve problems with ideology.
I think you solve them by careful analysis of the facts. I am not
one of those people who say don't confuse me with the facts, my
mind is already made up. You don't deal with problems
effectively that way.
You have got to study them and analyze them, know what
the best answer is and then if you want to put some politics into
it, do it after you analyze it but don't let your mind be clouded
by a pre-deceived ideological position, the left or right, which
destroys your capacity to be an effective leader.
QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, your thinking on the
Energy Resource Finance Corporation, does that have any kind of
specific plans for Oklahoma?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Of course, you are in a big energy
business here, very successfully. We are very grateful to you and
there are States that don't. This program that is being discussed
is designed to support the free enterprise system in achieving
the stated objective goal by the President of the United States
in the State of the Union Message that this Nation must become
self-sufficient in energy by 1985, so we are not vulnerable to
blackmail, and that our economy cannot be undermined and really
destroyed by political action outside of our borders.
This is just as serious a threat to our security as the
military threat.
This corporation, when realized, is designed to take
those areas of high risk that can produce new sources of energy
where private capital cannot take the risk alone and support dt
and see that the research and the development and the full scale
models are done and the production of energy where energy is
needed and is not going to be produced because of one reason or
another, lack of financing or lack of incentive.
QUESTION: Does this mainly apply to nuclear energy?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, it is right across the board.
We have in this country more oil in shale. We have twice as
much oil in shale as the entire known proven oil reserves in
the Middle East.
If that can be tapped at reasonable prices and without
destroying our ecology or our environment, we have got one of the
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Page 6
most fantastic resources in the world. There are those who feel
that this can be done through what is known the fusion process,
drill down, put off an explosion, set it on fire and then you get
the same effect underground that you do if you take, bring up
the shale and cook it to get the oil out of it.
You do it underground; take the gas up, condense it,
you got oil. If that could be done at a reasonable price, this
is a fantastic step forward. No private company can afford to
do it.
Sir?
QUESTION: What would you say to Senator Bartlett's
Okies who are concerned about too much Social Security payments
and a large percentage of their paycheck going to Federal income
taxes in comparison to the percentage that the richer folks pay
and who are also worried about inflation? Do you have any words?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I think they are right. I share
that feeling. To the degree that we have these complex, over-
lapping, duplicating systems of trying to help people which are
so complicated and so filled with red tape that people are
losing their sense of dignity, and those who are the recipients
of the system that is so widespread and so complicated that they
are subject to tremendous abuse and a great many people who
don't deserve or need assistance are getting it, that I think
it is time the whole system be overhauled.
The President has asked the Domestic Council, and
asked me. to hold hearings around the country to deal with this
subject, along with other economic and social problems.
So I would agree with them. They are pretty smart
people.
QUESTION: Do you foresee a possibility that there
will be some improvements in the next five years?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: There had better be, or we will
be in more trouble than we are in now. The question is how you
get this accomplished and it is going to take legislation. It
is going to be very complicated and all of these 863 Categorical
Grants and all the others have a special interest group support-
ing it and lobbying for it.
QUESTION: Mr. Vice President, who is your pick in
the football game today?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I will tell you. As a Vice
President of the United States, you have got to be a little
careful, but I must say that there is one team that seems to be
closely identified with this State that has got an outstanding
representation. There would seem to be considerable feeling
that they have a very important hedge, and that they are
making a tremendous record again of undefeated streak of
winning. I think it is fantastic. I am very excited to be
there to see them.
END
(AT 10:40 A.M. CDT)