Senator KENNEDY. Thank you, Governor. Governor
Brown, my friend and colleague from the Congress, Bernie Sisk, your assemblyman,
Bert DeLotto, Senator Burns, ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful to you
all for coming to this station and giving us a great Democratic welcome.
This State can go Democratic in November [Applause.] This is the State
to win this election. I am delighted to be here today. This train is headed
toward Los Angeles, but it is also headed toward Washington, D.C. [Applause.]
This valley and this State have many problems.
We traveled today from Sacramento, down through the rain. If that rain
continues, there is a chance that the farmers of this valley who grow raisins
could lose in 1 day $50 million. It indicates as nothing else does why
I think it is important that this country concern itself with what I conceive
to be the No.1 domestic problem that the United States faces, and that
is the decline in agricultural income. But whether we are farmers or whether
we live in the cities or whether we live in Massachusetts or whether we
live in California, there is one problem that faces us all. That is the
question of whether it is going to be possible in the 1960's for this country
to live at peace, whether we can live in the same world as the Soviet Union
and live in peace, whether we can both possess a hydrogen capacity and
live in peace.
I want to say that I think there are some
things that we can do I don't think that there is a war party and a peace
party, a party appeasement and a party that desires to be tough with the
Russians. I think all Americans, whether they are Republicans or Democrats,
share a common desire, to live at peace and protect the security of the
United States. [Applause.]
There are several things that I think we can
do. First, if we desire to live at peace, with the Russians and the Chinese,
the United States must be strong; not "Strong, if," not "Strong, when,"
not "Strong enough, but," but "Strong first," first in the fight for survival,
first in building our defenses. [Applause.]
Secondly, I think if we can achieve a level
of parity with the Communists, then we will be able to talk about disarmament.
Winston Churchill said 10 years ago, "We arm to parley." It is impossible
for us to provide for the disarmament of outer space, the disarmament of
nuclear weapons, unless we are in a position of parity with the Soviet
Union.
This administration has less than 100 people
working in the entire Federal Government on the subject of disarmament.
I think we can do a better job than that. [Applause.]
Third, I think it is essential on the pathway
to peace that the United States associate itself with other countries who
also desire to live in peace. We cannot protect the security of the free
world by ourselves. We have to join with others in NATO, in SEATO, in Latin
America, in Africa and Asia, as leaders of the free world, not dominating
it but joining it together in a common interest in a desire to be free
and independent and live in peace. [Applause.]
Fourth, the great struggle in foreign policy
in the next decade will not take place in Western Europe, and will not
be directly between the Soviet Union and the United States. The great test
will be which system travels better, which system solves the problems of
the people of Latin America and Africa and Asia. Does our system have freedom
or does the Communist system? It is only if the United States demonstrates
that it is ready to hold out a helping hand to the countries of Latin America,
to Africa and Asia, it is only by that means that we can persuade those
people to travel the same road that we are traveling. They stand today
on the razoredge of decision. They look to Moscow and Peking and they look
to us. I think we must demonstrate sufficient vigor, sufficient friendship
for them, that they will follow the road that we follow, the road of peace.
[Applause.]
And finally, I want to emphasize, and I say
this as chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa of the Foreign Relations
Committee, that the great hope for peace I think in the 1960's is going
to be not only our own strength but also the United Nations. This is a
great forum which if given the attention and prestige and support that
it needs can serve as a great clearinghouse for peace, not just summit
meetings where the Soviet Union and the United States sit down, but the
General Assembly of the United Nations, where all nations sit, and will
all speak their will, where they share a common aspiration to be free and
independent.
This is a great country, but I think we can
make it a greater country. The great struggle of 1960 is not merely between
the Republicans and Democrats. The great struggle, I think, is between
those Americans who think we can do better than we are doing, who desire
that the United States shall stand as it stood in other years, in the days
of Roosevelt and Wilson, as a hope for people around the world, and not
as a matter of indifference to them.
A Gallup poll taken some months ago in 10
countries around the world, when they were asked which country they thought
would be first, militarily and scientifically in 1970, the United States
or the Soviet Union, a majority in all those countries said the Soviet
Union.
What has happened to this country that we
have lost our image? They don't quote Lincoln or Jefferson or Roosevelt
or Stevenson today. They look to the East. I think they should look to
us again. [Applause]
I ask your help in this campaign [applause]
so that here in this country we can move ahead. They were successful, Roosevelt,
Truman, and Wilson, because they were successful here in this country.
If we are successful here, if we are moving ahead here, if we are building
a better society here, then we will stand strongly around the world. If
we sit still here, then we sit still around the world.
I ask your help, and I remind you that 100
years ago in the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln said, "There is a God
and He hates injustice. I see a storm coming but if He has a place and
a part for me I am ready."
Now, 100 years later we believe in a God and
we know He hates injustice, and we see the storm coming. But if He has
a place and a part for us, I believe that we are ready. Thank you.
[Applause.]
My wife is home in Massachusetts having a
boy in November. [Laughter.] I would like to have you meet my sister, Pat
Lawford, who comes from California. [Applause.] And I would like to have
you meet a Senator from Washington who is chairman of the National Democratic
Committee, the most eligible bachelor in Washington, Senator "Scoop" Jackson.
[Applause.]