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Remarks of the Vice President at General GOP Reception, Hotel Roanoke, Shenandoah Room [Speeches by Others]
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7341283
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Remarks of the Vice President at General GOP Reception, Hotel Roanoke, Shenandoah Room [Speeches by Others]
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Digitized from Box 17 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 16, 1975
Office of the Vice President
(Roanoke, Virginia)
REMARKS OF THE VICE PRESIDENT
AT GENERAL GOP RECEPTION
HOTEL ROANOKE, SHENANDOAH ROOM
ROANOKE, VIRGINIA
(AT 7:50 P.M. EDT)
Mr. President, and Congressman Butler, to
Mr. Creasy and his lovely wife, this is a very moving and
touching occasion. I have to say it means a great deal
to me because I knew Dr. Goodwin through my father.
I started working with my father. The first job
I had coming out of college was to work with him on
Williamsburg, on the restoration. That was before anything
had been done, so that gives away some of the dates that
relate to all of these activities and my association with
him.
But you have no idea how much this means to me
because these were very meaningful and happy years. My
father and my mother came to love, came to know, and feel
a very real part of Williamsburg and the wonderful families
of Williamsburg whom they visited with and spent a great
deal of time exchanging visits with them. So that this to
me is an extremely meaningful and happy occasion.
I don't think anything that my father undertook
during his lifetime meant more to him than the opportunity
to work with Virginians in the restoration of the original
British capital here in the western hemisphere.
I remember having many years later when the
World Bank was formed invited the directors of the World
Bank there and talking with the Indian delegate and
mentioning to him what an extraordinary heritage we both
shared in the colonial life of the British and what a
tremendous contribution they had made to our country and
to the world.
I think that this occasion brings back that
association with them. That also brings back the fact
that only two weeks ago I went over to cut the ribbon on
the Franklin-Jefferson Exhibition which was being opened
in London with the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign
Affairs and the Foreign Secretary, whatever he is called,
and the various dignitaries.
The interesting thing is that here is a colonial
people who have established on their own a great nation
but who still have the closest and most friendly ties
with the original parent nation. This is a very happy
association.
So that all in all I would like to express my
deep thanks to everyone who is involved and say to
Mr. and Mrs. Creasy that this brings back very happy
memories. The only thing is I think it should be
dedicated to my father because he did the work. I was
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Page 2
in sort of the same relation to him that I am
with the President. I am a staff assistant.
(Laughter.)
I can look back at those 15 years as Governor.
But I am a staff assistant both for my father and a great
President. So, gentlemen, thank you very much; Mr. President,
for your thoughtfulness. I am glad we are with the good
guys here today.
(Laughter.)
I was told everybody in Virginia was a good guy.
Isn't that right?
(Applause.)
But I am very honored to be here this evening
and to me this is a very special occasion. I want to
thank John Dalton, your distiniguished Lieutenant Governor,
for his presence. This is a very happy occasion. I went
down and spoke to the Lieutenant Governor some weeks ago
and have been associated with him for a long time, and I
am very grateful to him for his presence.
I would like to express appreciation for the
Governor's having met us at the plane.
Your other distinguished Congressman who is here,
Mr. Wampler, I would like to congratulate him for his
very important contribution, along with that of
Mr. Butler's, not only representing your interests in the
Congress but representing the interests of the United
States in the Congress. You can be very proud of the
fact that you have two such courageous, such farsighted,
and such distinguished Representatives.
(Applause.)
One of the exciting things, of course -- well,
there are two very exciting things. One, that you have in
a very short period of time made this a two-party State.
I happen to believe in the two-party system. I think
this is the strength and vitality of democracy and that
it is the best assurance for the people that they are
going to have good government and that in the long run
the best politics is good government, or good government
is the best politics. At least that is what I have
always thought. So that a two-party system assures that
opportunity for the people to protect their own.
It is a very exciting thing to be here at a
moment when you have so many wonderful candidates running
for local legislative offices. And this to me is a very
exciting thing.
I have been in the State office for a long time
and as Governor know the meaning of responsible and
responsive legislators and local legislators at the
county level. Those of us who have had the privilege of
being associated with local government and State government
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Page 3
understand the value that the government closest to the
people is the best government. That is the Republican
tradition. It is an American tradition. We want to keep
it that way.
(Applause.)
You have running the largest number, and that
is this year, the largest number of representatives for
the Senate and what we call Assembly. It is a slightly
different title here. I have got: House of Delegates,
which has a nice ring to it. But you have the largest
number running at any time in the history of the State
of Republicans.
I think this is a great moment. I am delighted
to be a participant in this gathering. And I would just
like to say this, that the elections this year, 1975,
are the important elections for 1976, because this is
where the pattern is going to be set, where the people
are going to participate, where they are going to have
a chance to express themselves. And to have selected
such outstanding men and women that you have to represent
the party at the local level is going to give it strength
and vitality for the national elections next year.
We are in a very crucial moment in the history
of our country. So I would like to congratulate not only
your two Congressmen, who don't have to run this year --
(Laughter.)
But they obviously show their deep interest by
their presence here this evening, which is a very
significant thing.
I congratulate the Legislators and also I would
like to congratulate the party leaders because let's
face it, ladies and gentlemen, the party leaders are those
men and women who are willing to give of their time and
effort, year in and year out, week after week, day after
day, to preserve the vitality of our system, to organize
the party, to raise the funds.
I would like to parenthetically say there to
congratulate your Chairman, your Finance Chairman, and to
express deep appreciation to all of you who are here as
supporters of the party, financial supporters. And I
didn't get that cut you referred to yet.
(Laughter.)
I just think that one of the most important
things and one of the great traditions of our country is
that people have cared enough about democracy, cared
enough about the vitality of this country, that they are
willing to give of themselves and of their treasure to
support the party of their choice.
This has got to be America. Without it we are
not going to keep a democracy. Too many people who live
here in this great Nation of ours take freedom for granted.
It has to be rerung and supported all of the time.
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Page 4
When you see some of these people who come from
abroad and come here to seek opportunity and freedom and
you see what democracy and what freedom means to them, we
begin to appreciate what we have and take for granted.
Meetings like this are what is going to keep this and
keep it strong. So I am just proud to be a Republican,
proud to be an American, and proud to be with you on
this occasion.
(Applause.)
I think George and Francis who are your leaders
deserve special credit because they are the organizers,
they are the ones who take the responsibility in the last
analysis with the County Chairman and Co-chairmen, and who
raise the funds, pick the candidates, crystallize the
issues, take the issues to the public, organize the
campaigns for those of us who have been fortunate to be
nominated for office by our party, at whatever level.
(Laughter.)
I would like to say a special word to the women
and to the young people because they are the ones who are
the best workers in the party. The men are very generous
in their support. But it is the women and the young
people who do the work.
(Applause.)
That is right. So I want to thank you and
through all of you, all of the other women who are not
here.
And let's face it, as these new restrictions on
giving have been imposed, it is going to be all the more
important because we are not going to be able as parties
to use the media, and we respect the media with great
appropriateness, but it is very expensive to get on the
media involuntarily. You have got to buy time. So we
are going to have to go and ring doorbells. We are going
to have to get the mail out. We are going to have to do
the visits to the home, the telephone conversations.
These are going to be the things that are going
to count at elections. We have to communicate with the
people. So as one who has run in a great many elections --
(Laughter.)
I know these things. I would just like to say
thank you to everybody who is here and who is doing for
the party because you love this country, you care about
this country, and therefore you want to be a part of where
the action is.
Now, that relates to tonight and to this party.
But I would like to just say a word, because while I
believe that the most important action in terms of
government -- George, you will have a chance to talk on
the campaign trail to the unconverted before you get
through. But just let me say a word about our President
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Page 5
and the problems this country faces. I will make it
brief because you want to get to your own campaigns.
We have got a man who did not seek the office,
who was, by the wisdom of the Congress of the United
States passing the 25th Amendment, what was it, 10 or 12
years ago -- 8 years, okay -- and then by the courage
of the members of the Judiciary Committee, and believe me,
ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't been screened by
this committee, you don't know what a screening is.
(Applause and Laughter.)
As I said at the press conference today, the
irony is after having gone through four months of this,
after being investigated by 500 FBI agents throughout
this country, I was appointed by the President as Chairman
of the Committee on Privacy.
(Laughter.)
I have none left. But maybe I am supposed to
know the value of it, and I can tell you I do. But that
is an aside.
But through this wisdom of the Congress, through
this appointment through the 25th Amendment, the
Constitution of the United States stood firm in a moment
of difficulty for this Nation and we stayed strong. We
went through a transition and we have a man who is a leader,
a man of great integrity, a man of openness, which is
very important at this particular moment in our history, a
man of great courage who is willing and who is the hardest
working man I have ever seen to study the issues that face
us, to take the time to listen to all sides and then to
make a decision, and when he makes a decision he does it
for the long term best interest of America and the American
people, regardless of short term political considerations.
(Applause.)
This is tough, but he has got it and he has got
more courage and more dedication, and his fundamental
belief is in the values on which this country was founded
and built and grew to its greatness.
He wants to see those restored and brought back.
He is worried about the size of the Federal Government,
about bureaucracy, about red tape and the loss of mobility
and action at the State and local level, and the loss of
the freedom of the private citizen and of free enterprise
and its ability to be responsive to meet the needs of
people, to use its creativity, its imagination, and to
invest money with certainty that it could be done to
produce goods and services which are a return on capital
and, therefore, there would be additional money to invest.
This man understands this and believes in this
and has the courage to stand for those principles. This
is the kind of leadership we need in a very difficult
period. We have got that period.
But we have the greatest country in the world.
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There isn't a person anywhere else in the world that
wouldn't like to live here. When you think we have got
problems, just think everybody else would like to be here
and would give their eye teeth to be in our place.
(Applause.)
We have got the people and we have the resources.
Let's get back to work. That is all we need to do. We
just put this country right back where it was with the
same kind of strength and vitality and determination which
it has always had, which has brought us to our greatness,
which will bring us back to the position of leadership
and economic strength to meet our own needs and to fulfill
our responsibilities throughout the world.
I think we have got the elements. We just need
to have faith in ourselves; and let's face it, ladies and
gentlemen, there are no problems that we have in this
country that Americans face today that Americans can't
solve themselves. That is what we have got to do.
(Applause.)
I could go into a description of a lot of these
problems. I have spent hours, I have spent my life studying
problems. I love problems, to tell you the truth. I love
problems and people. That is the ideal concern, if you
want to be in the public life, because there is plenty
of both.
That is why I enjoy a meeting like this. I have
an opportunity to meet wonderful people. Some I have known
before; some I haven't. I am grateful for the opportunity
of meeting those of you whom I hadn't known.
But we have got problems. But there are no
problems we can't meet and that we can't deal with.
I would just like to say one thing. We are
increasingly interdependent in the world and have got a
very fundamental ideological difference, a split in the
world, between the Communist world and the free world.
This is a very fundamental situation between
those who believe that the individual is a spiritual human
being, who believe in the brotherhood of man under the
fatherhood of God; and those who believe the individual
is a cog in the machine and who is disciplined and
dominated and used by the State.
That is the fundamental heart of this thing,
and they now control half the world. Let's not kid our-
selves.
So in this situation and with the things that
have happened, we are lucky to have the person as our
leader who believes in what he does and the faith of
this country. And we are very lucky to have a Secretary
of State with the brilliance, the sophistication, and the
tireless energy to deal with these complex international
problems, including detente, because we have got this very
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Page 7
serious struggle going on in the world. We don't want
a confrontation in military action. We don't want a
nuclear war or another world struggle. Therefore, detente
is the essential element to make possible peaceful
solutions. But you can't have detente without military
and economic strength.
(Applause.)
I made a speech on this subject in Virginia only
a week ago at the launching of the Eisenhower, which is
the greatest aircraft carrier this country has ever
produced, and it was a very simple but fundamental analysis
of the growth of the Soviet military power.
There was no word in the press on it. That is
not quite true of some of the press here.
(Laughter.)
But let me just say we cannot go on in this
country and enjoy the opportunity we have and meet the
problems without facing the tough, hard realities that
freedom and peace don't come just by sitting on the porch
and rocking.
We have got to face these hard realities and we
have got to meet them. We are fortunate that we have as
the leader in our international relations Dr. Henry
Kissinger who, in my opinion, is one of the great Americans
and who understands peace as few people do and freedom
because he comes from where they didn't have any.
(Applause.)
I would just like to end on the note that we are
fortunate in this country that throughout America there are
groups like this that are meeting, because to me this is
America right here in this room and this is the best of
America.
You care. You want to keep this country alive
and strong, and we can do it, and we are going to do it.
But let's not relax and let's not lose faith in ourselves,
faith in our country, or faith in the future.
I thank you very much for letting me be with
you. God bless you all.
(Applause.)
END
(AT 8:10 P.M. EDT)