Toasts of President and de Gaulle at dinner, Elysee Palace, 31 May 1961

FOR RELEASE AT :3 F.M. May 37, 1961 Cffice of the White House Press Secretary THE WHITE HOUSE (Paris, F ance) Following are excerpis of remarks by the President delivered a: the Elysee Palace dinner, May 31, 1961: Many of our earlies. and most famous An erican P Presidents gained raining for the post by heading our mission to Paris -- John Adams, who brought his son John Quncy Alams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Although I have visited France many times, ny preparation for :he Presidency did not include acquiring firs:-hand knowledge of France through diplomatic ex- perience. I acquired it through marriage instead. The France I know -- the F `rance I have seen on this visit is a great an 1 proud nation. And yo have every reason to be proud. For while we are allies and partners in the indivisible defense of freedom, what we share is far more than a military alliance. Your economic Jrowch helps sustain the surength of the íree world. Your scientific genius has helped the path of pro gress in my country and in many others. Your philosophers and artists are world-renowned. And your greatest expor is neither old wine nor new -- neither is it perfurne bu: ideas, both old and new. No two evenis in the pas: 200 years have had more lasting impact than the French Revolution and the American Revolution. The ringing phrases first heard in those two heroic struggles liberty, equality, fraternity, the rights of man, independence are still resoundin around the globe. They are heard today among the newes nations of the world. And what matters TOLE is not the words bu. the ideas that stand behind them -- the ideas which we are united to preserve. That is why I salute your nation for its key contribution to the cause of free- om -- and for its role as a full and equal pariner in the great alliance. Both of our nations know that your fate is our fate chat your safety is our safecy -- and chat American forces will remain in Europe as long as they are required, ready to meet any chreat with whatever response is needed. And both of us also know tha neither ally would ever ignore the alliance to risk war, 01 to accept recreat, or to act out of narrow isolation. And that is also why there is no reason for eithe nation to dwell on our dif- ferences or our disa greements. For we have so much that unites us, and so great and dangerous a. challenge to face togecher. But I wand to say a word in this re ard directly to our host tonight. All na- tions, like all parents, are proud of their most brilliant sons. Our most fanous monuments in America are in memory of our greates Presidents. Noted generals and admirals crown the stateliest columns in England -- the scholar Erasmus looks down upon the market place of Rotterdam -- and like- nesses of the great Roman jurists are found throughou: Italy. But France, in our own time, has produced a man who is boil a superb military leader and an extraordinary statesman, both an erudite scholar and a practical law- giver -- your President, General de Gaulle. Already he lives in hisiory history he has both made and written. And ye: he never dwells in the past. "His min3 is firmly fixed on the fucure. His face is radiant with the sunrise he intently waiches. " And his greatest monum ent is not of bronze or marble -- it is a newer, a greater, a grander France. MORE