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    "label": "White House Press Release, Address of President Harry S. Truman at the Dinner Held by the Jewish National Fund",
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    "title": "White House Press Release, Address of President Harry S. Truman at the Dinner Held by the Jewish National Fund",
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    "ocrText": "- 2 -\nhad. The trees were gone, the water was gone, some of the land was\neroded away, and other parts were swamp and marsh.\nAfter fifty years, the founders of your organization decided to\ncorrect this situation in Israel. The work you have done is an outstand-\ning example of what can be donc to help the people throughout the Near\nEast to help themselves.\nThat is what we are trying to do in our Point Four program. That\nis why I say the Jewish National Fund embarked on a Point Four program\nfifty years ago. I like to think that the first large-scale program of the\nJewish National Fund was the reclamation of a desert valley called the\nValley of Death. Today that valley is being brought back to life, and so\nis the whole of Israel. That is what Point Four programs can do throughout\nthe world, if we have the courage and the good sense to go ahead with them.\nOur Point Four program is essential to our hopes for world peace.\nIt is as important as our defense program. I have been doing all I can to\nwork for peace, and to make friends and allies for this country abroad, and\nto do everything that I possibly can to make every nation in the world\nfriendly with every other nation in the world.\nBut there are some people who would rather play politics than\nhave strong defenses. They would rathor embarrass the White House than to\ncheckmate the Kremlin. They have been playing a foolhardy game with the\nnational security. It is a horribly terrible game that they are playing.\nIt is one that should not be played in these emergency times. I em a\npolitician, and I don't mind playing the game in the political field, but\nthat game should be confined to our shores, and should not jeopardize the\npeace of the world.\nA few days ago, in the House of Representatives, they put an\narbitrary limitation of 46 billion dollars on our defense expenditures for\nthe coming fiscal year. This was a foolish, rockless act. It jeopardizes\nour defense build-up. It may require us -- in this hour of peril -- to\ndemobilize a substantial part of our armed forces. Think of that.\nAnd last Friday, three days ago, a majority of the Members of the\nHouse weakened our mutual security program, and just about wrecked Point\nFour in Asia. They may have thought they were merely cutting down the aid\nWC give other countries. But in fact they were cutting down the protection\nthe security -- that other countries can give us. They did not see -- or\nthey did not want to see -- that they were endangering the lives of American\nboys, and the safety of American cities and American farms.\nIn the House on Friday, there were two terrible cuts, one in the\ndefense of Europe against communism, the other in the defenses of the free\nnations of Asia against communism. I don't know what they were thinking\nabout. I don't think they knew what they are doing. But I know the effect\nof what they actually did. The ma jority of the House picked the two places\nin the world where the danger is greatest, where the communist threat is\nstrongest, and they did their bit to help the communist side.\nLet me tell you what happened so far as Europe is concerned.\nThey cut nearly a billion out of the arms aid to Europe. They cut about\n800 millions out of defense support aid to Europe. This means that the free\nnations of Europe will not be able to raise and equip the forces they need --\nthe forces we need -- to defend the West against Sovict power. They will\nnot have the arms from us, and they will not have the economic aid they need\nto produce the arms themselves. This undermines the defenses 01 the North\nAtlantic community. It undermines the work of General Eisenhower. It under-\nmines the job General Ridgway has just gone to Europe to do.\nThen look what they did to Asia. The House voted to cut economic\naid and Point Four aid to Asia by well over 100 million dollars. And then\nthey voted a crazy, crippling amendment to the Point Four program. This\namendment will tie the administration of the Point Four program into knots.\nWorse than that, it will cut the Point Four program in Asia by about 50\nmillion dollars more."
}