Senator KENNEDY. Ladies and gentlemen, the
first presidential candidate to come here to Ann Arbor was Woodrow Wilson
in 1912. Woodrow Wilson was not running on a platform of experience.
The only place that he had learned to stand firm was as a college professor
at Princeton University for a number of years.
The next presidential candidate to come here
was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. [Applause.]
Three times during this century the Democratic
Party has elected Presidents, one was Woodrow Wilson, No.2 was Franklin
Roosevelt, and No.3 was President Truman in 1948. On many different occasions
the other party has elected Presidents, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Harding, Mr.
Coolidge. They ran Mr. Landon. They ran Mr. Dewey. And we come to 1960.
I believe that parties are important. I believe that the kind of men that
parties pick are important. I believe that the party label tells us something
about the candidate, something about the things for which they stand, something
of their political philosophy. And I stand here with some pride and satisfaction
as the direct successor to the Democratic Presidents who in this century
carried the banner of the new freedom, the New Deal and the Fair Deal.
[Applause.]
In my judgment, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin
Roosevelt and Harry Truman were successful in their foreign policy because
it fitted in exactly with what they were trying to do here in the United
States; the 14 points of Woodrow Wilson were the international counterpart
of the new freedom; the four freedoms of Franklin Roosevelt were directly
tied to the aspirations of the New Deal; and the Marshall plan, NATO, the
Truman doctrine and point 4 were directly tied to the kind of America that
President Truman was trying to build; you cannot run as a risktaker abroad,
as Mr. Nixon has said, and a conservative at home. There has to be a country
moving here in the United States if we are going to be moving around the
world. [Applause.]
Now, let's see, where were we? [Laughter.]
Anyway, the point of the matter is that the United States in the 1960's
is going to have to build a society with sufficient vigor, develop its
resources with sufficient energy, provide a better life for our people
with fair opportunity, with a sufficient sense of justice, if the United
States is going to be in fact the leader of the free world. What we are
speaks far louder than what we say we are. [Applause.] All of the Voice
of America, all of the radio broadcasts, all of the books we send abroad,
pale in significance to the kind of society that we are building here in
the United States. The reason that Franklin Roosevelt was a good neighbor
in Latin America was because he was a good neighbor here in the United
States. Therefore, I come as the candidate for the Democratic Party. I
come here asking you to join in building a stronger country, asking you
to demonstrate, as we sit, in Edmund Burke's words, on a most conspicuous
stage, in the most trying and difficult time in the history of the free
world, I ask you to help in building here the kind of society which will
serve as an example to those who wish to trod on freedom's road. I come
here to Ann Arbor, Mich., and I ask your support. Last Saturday, Michigan
beat Duke. [Applause.] And I think on November 8, Michigan and the
United States will beat Duke's favorite son and alumnus, Mr. Richard Nixon.
[Applause.] Thank you. [Applause.]