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4526324
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Kiwanis Club, Grand Rapids, MI, October 12, 1970
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4526324
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document
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Kiwanis Club, Grand Rapids, MI, October 12, 1970
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
Speeches
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Department of Defense. 9/18/1947-
Federal budget
International relations
National security
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1970-10-31
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10
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1970
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1970-10-01
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10
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1970
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The original documents are located in Box D30, folder "Kiwanis Club, Grand Rapids, MI,
October 12, 1970" 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States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.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.
Distribution 15 capies to Mr. Ford
+ all Fifth District 10/7/70 p.m. Media M Office Copy
CONGRESSMAN
NEWS
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
RELEASE
--FOR RELEASE AT 12 NOON MONDAY--
October 12, 1970
Excerpts from a Speech by Rep. Gerald R. Ford before the Grand Rapids Kiwanis Club
Our foreign policy goals are clear.
We are moving to end the Vietnam War and to promote a permanent settlement
in the Middle East. We are determined to achieve a lasting peace in both areas of
the world.
We are seeking arms limitation and the resolution of the great East-West
political issues.
We will keep our treaty commitments but we will do so within the framework
of the new Nixon doctrine--the doctrine of "the U.S. helps those who help themselves."
We will provide a shield for our allies against nuclear powers and we will
furnish such other assistance as is appropriate.
We are determined to secure the freedom of Americans held captive by the
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.
We will negotiate rather than confront wherever and whenever possible.
We have established our major goals. Our ultimate objective is peace. How
is peace to be achieved in this mad world we live in today?
There are three principal pillars for the building of peace. Those pillars
are a willingness to negotiate, the maintenance of our strength, and the
development of effective partnerships with other Free World nations.
We cannot build the structure of world peace solely on a willingness to
negotiate. We must undergird the structure with the other two pillars as well. We
must negotiate from strength, just as we did during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
And we must strengthen our friends so that they too can survive.
There are some Americans today who are willing, even eager, to heedlessly
weaken our defenses. They sincerely believe that peace lies in that direction.
But they are terribly mistaken. They look upon a strong national defense as an
underlying cause of war when it is actually a promoter of peace. If they have their
way, they will decimate our defenses--and lay the groundwork for another military
catastrophe.
I do not need to name names. You know who they are-these people who gamble
(more)
Digitized from Box D30 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
with our national security. They are well-intentioned. I do not impugn their
integrity or their patriotism. But I pray that the Nation is saved from their good
intentions. I pray that the American people are not once more misled as they were
when we disarmed ourselves after World War I, which led to Nazi aggression, and
after World War II, which encouraged Communist aggression in Korea.
I would like to ask just one question of the gamblers with our national
security: When was the longrange welfare of any American--rich or poor--ever well
served by national weakness in the face of aggression?
Let us be sensible about our national defense. If we cut we should know
what we are doing. It is meaningless to toss out figures about new weapons systems
and imply that all of them should be abandoned.
We have already made tremendous reductions in defense spending. Measured
in constant 1971 dollars, our defense budget reached an all-time high of
$89.1 billion in 1968 under the last Administration. Today it has been reduced
by $17.3 billion to a low of $71.8 billion.
I applaud rational, reasonable, sound efforts to reduce military spending.
For 12 years as a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee I
personally had a hand in cutting defense budgets by a total of $14.5 billion. But
there is a limit to defense cuts. We must not so weaken our defenses that we
encourage aggressive actions by potential enemies.
The gamblers with our national security call for additional deep cuts in
defense spending under the guise of reordering our priorities. They also disregard
the fact that the Safeguard anti-ballistic-missile system has proved to be a trump
card in our strategic arms negotiations with the Russians.
The facts are that we have already reordered our priorities and are
continuing to do SO within the limitations of a Federal budget weakened by four
years of excessive Federal spending and nearly runaway inflation, beginning in
1965.
In 1962 the Federal Government spent 48 per cent of its budget on defense
and only 32 per cent on human resources. In 1968 we were still spending 44 per cent
of our budget on defense and only 34 per cent on human resources.
Now, finally, under a new Administration, we are turning this country around
and realigning our priorities.
The shift is quite dramatic. For the first time since 1950-for the first
time in two decades--a President has called for greater spending on human resources
than on defense. The Nixon budget for fiscal 1971 allocates 41 per cent of all
Federal funds to human resource outlays and 37 per cent to defense.
Ironically, the gamblers with our security are not only demanding huge
additional budget cuts in the name of realigning our priorities; they are also
criticizing the unemployment the defense cuts helped to create.
In accomplishing massive changes in Federal priorities, we have produced a
certain amount of temporary unemployment as people shift to non-defense jobs.
The American people are aware that we are passing through a period of
transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy. They understand what the Nation
is going through to get back on the right track.
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