Moderator: Quincy Howe, ABC.
Panelists: John Edwards, ABC; Walter Cronkite,
CBS; Frank Singiser, MBS; John Chancellor, NBC.
Mr. HOWE. I'm Quincy Howe of CB--- ABC News
saying good evening from New York where the two major candidates for President
of the United States are about to engage in their fourth radio-television
discussion of the present campaign.
Tonight these men will confine that discussion
to foreign policy. Good evening, Vice President Nixon.
Mr. NIXON. Good evening, Mr. Howe.
Mr. HOWE. And good evening, Senator Kennedy.
Mr. KENNEDY. Good evening, Mr. Howe.
Mr. HOWE. Now let me read the rules and conditions
under which the candidates themselves have agreed to proceed. As they did
in their first meeting, both men will make opening statements of about
8 minutes each, and closing statements of equal time, running 3 to 5 minutes
each. During the half hour between the opening and closing statements the
candidates will answer and comment upon questions from the panel of four
correspondents chosen by the nationwide networks that carry the program.
Each candidate will be questioned in turn,
with opportunity for comment by the other. Each answer will be limited
to 2½ minutes. Each comment to 1½ minutes.
The correspondents are free to ask any questions
they choose in the field of foreign affairs. Neither candidate knows what
questions will be asked.
Time alone will determine the final question.
Reversing the order in their first meeting,
Senator Kennedy will make the second opening statement and the first closing
statement.
For the first opening statement, here is Vice
President Nixon.
Mr. NIXON. Mr. Howe, Senator Kennedy, my fellow
Americans. Since this campaign began I have had a very rare privilege.
I have traveled to 48 of the 50 States, and in my travels I have learned
what the people of the United States are thinking about.
There is one issue that stands out above all
the rest; one in which every American is concerned, regardless of what
group he may be a member and regardless of where he may live. And that
issue, very simply stated, is this: How can we keep the peace; keep it
without surrender? How can we extend freedom; extend it without war?
Now, in determining how we deal with this
issue, we must find the answer to a very important but simple question.
Who threatens the peace? Who threatens freedom in the world?
There is only one threat to peace and one
threat to freedom: that that is presented by the international Communist
movement; and therefore, if we are to have peace, if we are to keep our
own freedom and extend it to others without war, we must know how to deal
with the Communists and their leaders.
I know Mr. Khrushchev. I also have had the
opportunity of knowing and meeting other Communist leaders in the world.
I believe there are certain principles we must find in dealing with him
and his colleagues, principles if followed, that will keep the peace and
that also can extend freedom.
First, we have to learn from the past, because
we cannot afford to make the mistakes of the past. In the 7 years before
this administration came into power in Washington, we found that 600 million
people went behind the Iron Curtain and at the end of that 7 years we were
engaged in a war in Korea which cost over 30,000 American lives.
In the past 7 years, in President Eisenhower's
administration, this situation has been reversed. We ended the Korean war
by strong, firm leadership. We have kept out of other wars and we have
avoided surrender of principle or territory at the conference table.
Now, why were we successful as our predecessors
were not successful? I think there are several reasons. In the first place,
they made a fatal error in misjudging the Communists in trying to apply
to them the same rules of conduct that you would apply to the leaders of
the free world.
One of the major errors they made was the
one that led to the Korean war. In ruling out the defense of Korea, they
invited aggression in that area. They thought they were going to have peace.
It brought war. We learned from their mistakes. And so, in our 7 years,
we find that we have been firm in our diplomacy.
We have never made concessions without getting
concessions in return. We have always been willing to go the extra mile
to negotiate for disarmament or in any other area, but we have never been
willing to do anything that, in effect, surrendered freedom any place in
the world. That is why President Eisenhower was correct in not apologizing
or expressing regrets to Mr. Khrushchev at the Paris Conference as Senator
Kennedy suggested he could have done. That is why Senator President Eisenhower
was also correct in his policy in the Formosa Straits where he declined
and refused to follow the recommendations, recommendations which Senator
Kennedy voted for in 1955, again made in 1959, again repeated in his debates,
that you have heard, recommendations with regard to again slicing off a
piece of free territory, and abandoning it in effect to the Communists.
Why did the President feel this was wrong
and why was the President right and his critics wrong? Because again, this
showed a lack of understanding of dictators, a lack of understanding particularly
of Communists because every time you make such a concession it does not
lead to peace. It only encourages them to blackmail you. It encourages
them to begin a war.
And so I say that the record shows that we
know how to keep the peace, to keep it without surrender. Let us move now
to the future.
It is not enough to stand on this record because
we are dealing with the most ruthless, fanatical leaders that the world
has ever seen. That is why I say that in this period of the sixties America
must move forward in every area. First of all, although we are today, as
Senator Kennedy has admitted, the strongest nation in the world militarily,
we must increase our strength, increase it so that we will always have
enough strength that regardless of what our potential opponents have, if
they should launch a surprise attack we will be able to destroy their war-making
capabilities.
They must know, in other words, that it is
national suicide if they begin anything. We need this kind of strength
because we're the guardians of the peace.
In addition to military strength we need to
see that the economy of this country continues to grow. It has grown in
the past 7 years. It can and will grow even more in the next 4. And the
reason that it must grow even more is because we have things to do at home,
and also because we are in a race for survival; a race in which it isn't
enough to be ahead; it isn't enough simply to be complacent. We have to
move ahead in order to stay ahead. And that is why in this field I have
made recommendations which I am confident will move the American economy
ahead, move it firmly and soundly so that there will never be a time when
the Soviet Union will be able to challenge our superiority in this field.
And so we need military strength. We need
economic strength. We also need the right diplomatic policies. What are
they? Again, we turn to the past. Firmness but no belligerence, and by
"no belligerence" I mean that we do not answer insult by insult.
When you are proud and confident of your strength,
you do not get down to the level of Mr. Khrushchev and his colleagues.
And that example that President Eisenhower
has set we will continue to follow.
But all this, by itself, is not enough. It
is not enough for us simply to be the strongest nation militarily, the
strongest economically and also to have firm diplomacy.
We must have a great goal, and that is: Not
just to keep freedom for ourselves but to extend it to all the world. To
extend it to all the world because that is America's destiny. To extend
it to all the world because the Communist aim is not to hold their own
but to extend communism. And you cannot fight a victory for communism or
a strategy of victory for communism with a strata simply of holding the
line.
And so I say that we believe that our policies
of military strength, of economic strength, of diplomatic firmness, first
will keep the peace and keep it without surrender.
We also believe that in the great field of
ideals that we can lead America to the victory for freedom, victory in
the newly developing countries, victory also in the captive countries,
provided we have faith in ourselves and faith in our principles.
Mr. HOWE. Now the opening statement of Senator
Kennedy.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Howe, Mr. Vice President,
first let me again try to correct the record on the matter of Quemoy and
Matsu. I voted for the Formosa resolution in 1955. I have sustained it
since then. I have said that I agree with the administration policy. Mr.
Nixon earlier indicated that he would defend Quemoy and Matsu even if the
attack on these islands, 2 miles off the coast of China, were not part
of a general attack on Formosa and the Pescadores. I indicated that I would
defend those islands if the attack were directed against Pescadores and
Formosa, which is part of the Eisenhower policy. I have supported that
policy.
In the last week, as a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, I reread the testimony of General Twining,
representing the administration in 1959, and the Assistant Secretary of
State, before the Foreign Relations Committee in 1958, and I have accurately
described the administration policy and I support it wholeheartedly. So
that really isn't an issue in this campaign. It isn't an issue with Mr.
Nixon, who now says that he also supports the Eisenhower policy.
Nor is the question that all Americans want
peace and security an issue in this campaign. The question is: Are we moving
in the direction of peace and security? Is our relative strength growing?
Is - as Mr. Nixon says - our prestige at an alltime high, as he said a
week ago, and that of the Communists at an alltime low? I don't believe
it is. I don't believe that our relative strength is increasing, and I
say that not as a Democratic standard bearer, but as a citizen of the United
States who is concerned about the United States.
I look at Cuba, 90 miles off the coast of
the United States. In 1957 I was in Havana. I talked to the American Ambassador
there. He said that he was the second most powerful man in Cuba and yet
even though Ambassador Smith and Ambassador Gardner, both Republican Ambassadors,
both warned of Castro, the Marxist influences around Castro, the Communist
influences around Castro, both of them have testified in the last 6 weeks
that in spite of their warnings to the American Government, nothing was
done.
Our security depends upon Latin America. Can
any American, looking at the situation in Latin America, feel contented
with what's happening today, when a candidate for the Presidency of Brazil
feels it necessary to call, not on Washington during the campaign, but
on Castro in Havana, in order to pick up the support of the Castro supporters
in Brazil?
At the American conference inter-American
conference this summer, when we wanted them to join together in the denunciation
of Castro and the Cuban Communists, we couldn't even get the inter-American
group to join together in denouncing Castro. It was rather a vague statement
that they finally made.
Do you know today that the Comm--- the Russians
broadcast 10 times as many programs in Spanish to Latin America as we do?
Do you know we don't have a single program
sponsored by our Government to Cuba to tell them our story, to tell them
that we are their friends, that we want them to be free again?
Africa is now the emerging area of the world.
It contains 25 percent of all the members of the General Assembly. We didn't
even have a Bureau of African Affairs until 1957. In the Africa, south
of the Sahara, which is the major new section, we have less students from
all of Africa in that area studying under Government auspices today than
from the country of Thailand. If there's one thing Africa needs, it's technical
assistance, and yet last year we gave them less than 5 percent of all the
technical assistance funds that we distributed around the world. We relied
in the Middle East on the Baghdad Pact, and yet when the Iraqi Government
was changed, the Baghdad Pact broke down.
We relied on the Eisenhower doctrine for the
Middle East which passed the Senate. There isn't one country in the Middle
East that now endorses the Eisenhower doctrine.
We look to Euro--- to Asia, because the struggle
is in the underdeveloped world. Which system, communism or freedom, will
triumph in the next 5 or 10 years? That's what should concern us, not the
history of 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. But are we doing enough in these areas?
What are freedom's chances in those areas?
By 1965 or 1970 will there be other Cubas
in Latin America? Will Guinea and Ghana, which have now voted with the
Communists frequently as newly independent countries of Africa, will there
be others? Will the Congo go Communist? Will other countries? Are we doing
enough in that area?
And what about Asia? Is India going to win
the economic struggle, or is China going to win it? Who will dominate Asia
in the next 5 or 10 years? Communism? The Chinese? Or will freedom?
The question which we have to decide as Americans:
Are we doing enough today? Is our strength and prestige rising? Do people
want to be identified with us? Do they want to follow the United States
leadership? I don't think they do enough, and that's what concerns me.
In Africa these countries that have newly
joined the United Nations, on the question of admission of Red China, only
two countries in all of Africa voted with us: Liberia and the Union of
South Africa. The rest either abstained or voted against us. More countries
in Asia voted against us on that question than voted with us.
I believe that this struggle is going to go
on and it may well be decided in the next decade.
I have seen Cuba go to the Communists. I have
seen Communist influence and Castro influence rise in Latin America. I
have seen us ignore Africa. There are six countries in Africa that are
members of the United Nations. There isn't a single American diplomatic
representative in any of those six.
When Guinea became independent, the Soviet
Ambassador showed up that very day. We didn't recognize them for 2 months.
The American Ambassador didn't show up for nearly 8 months. I believe that
the world is changing fast, and I don't think this administration has shown
the foresight, has shown the knowledge, has been identified with the great
fight which these people are waging to be free, to get a better standard
of living, to live better.
The average income in some of those countries
is $25 a year. The Communists say, "Come with us, look what we've done."
And we've been, on the whole, uninterested.
I think we're going to have to do better.
Mr. Nixon talks about our being the strongest country in the world. I think
we are today, but we were far stronger relative to the Communists 5 years
ago. And what is of great concern is that the balance of power is in danger
of moving with them.
They made a breakthrough in missiles and by
1961, '2, and '3, they will be outnumbering us in missiles.
I'm not as confident as he is that we will
be the strongest military power by 1963.
He talks about economic growth as a great
indicator for freedom. I agree with him. What we do in this country, the
kind of society that we build: That will tell whether freedom will be sustained
around the world and yet in the last 9 months of this year we've had a
drop in our economic growth rather than a gain.
We've had the lowest rate of increase of economic
growth in the last 9 months of any major industrialized society in the
world.
I look up and see the Soviet flag on the moon.
The fact is that the State Department polls on our prestige and influence
around the world have shown such a sharp drop that up till now the State
Department has been unwilling to release them and yet they were polled
by the USIA.
The point of all this is: This is a struggle
in which we are engaged. We want peace. We want freedom. We want security.
We want to be stronger. We want freedom to gain. But I don't believe, in
these changing and revolutionary times, this administration has known that
the world is changing, has identified itself with that change.
I think the Communists have been moving with
vigor. Laos, Africa, Cuba - all around the world they're on the move. I
think we have to revitalize our society. I think we have to demonstrate
to the people of the world that we are determined in this free country
of ours to be first - not first "if" and not first "but" and not first
"when" but first.
And when we are strong, and when we are first,
then freedom gains. Then the prospects for peace increase. Then the prospects
for our security gain.
Mr. HOWE. That completes the opening statements.
Now the candidates will answer and comment upon questions put by these
four correspondents: Frank Singiser of Mutual News, John Edwards of ABC
News, Walter Cronkite of CBS News, John Chancellor of NBC News.
Frank Singiser has the first question for
Vice President Nixon.
Mr. SINGISER. Mr. Vice President, I'd like
to pin down the difference between the way you would handle Castro's regime
and prevent the establishment of Communist governments in the Western Hemisphere
and the way that Senator Kennedy would proceed. Vice President Nixon, in
what important respects do you feel there are differences between you,
and why do you believe your policy is better for the peace and security
of the United States and the Western Hemisphere?
Mr. NIXON. Our policies are very different.
I think that Senator Kennedy's policies and recommendations for the handling
of the Castro regime are probably the most dangerously irresponsible recommendations
that he's made during the course of this campaign. In effect, what Senator
Kennedy recommends is that the United States Government should give help
to the exiles and to those within Cuba who oppose the Castro regime, provided
they are anti-Batista.
Now let's just see what this means. We have
five treaties with Latin America, including the one setting up the Organization
of American States in Bogota in 1948, in which we've agreed not to intervene
in the internal affairs of any other American country, and they as well
have agreed to do likewise.
The Charter of the United Nations, its preamble,
Article I and Article II also provide that there shall be no intervention
by one nation in the internal affairs of another. Now I don't know what
Senator Kennedy suggests when he says that we should help those who oppose
the Castro regime both in Cuba and without. But I do know this, that if
we were to follow that recommendation that we would lose all of our friends
in Latin America, we would probably be condemned in the United Nations,
and we would not accomplish our objective. I know something else. It would
be an open invitation for Mr. Khrushchev to come in, to come into Latin
America and to engage us in what would be a civil war and possibly even
worse than that.
This is the major recommendation that he's
made. Now what can we do? We can do what we did with Guatemala. There was
a Communist dictator that we inherited from the previous administration.
We quarantined Mr. Arbenz. The result was that the Guatemalan people themselves
eventually rose up and they threw him out. We are quarantining Mr. Castro
today. We are quarantining him diplomatically by bringing back our Ambassador,
economically by cutting off trade - and Senator Kennedy's suggestion that
the trade that we cut off is not significant is just 100 percent wrong.
We are cutting off the significant items that the Cuban regime needs in
order to survive. By cutting off trade, by cutting off our diplomatic relations
as we have, we will quarantine this regime so that the people of Cuba themselves
will take care of Mr. Castro. But for us to do what Senator Kennedy has
suggested, would bring results which I know he would not want and certainly
which the American people would not want.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Nixon shows himself misinformed.
He surely must be aware that most of the equipment and arms and resources
for Castro came from the United States, flowed out of Florida and other
parts of the United States to Castro in the mountains. There isn't any
doubt about that, No. 1.
No. 2, I believe that if any economic sanctions
against Latin America are going to be successful, they have to be multilateral,
they have to include the other countries of Latin America. The very minute
effect of the action which has been taken this week on Cuba's economy,
I believe Castro can replace those markets very easily through Latin America,
through Europe, and through Eastern Europe. If the United States had stronger
prestige and influence in Latin America it could persuade, as Franklin
Roosevelt did in 1940, the countries of Latin America to join in an economic
quarantine of Castro. That's the only way you can bring real economic pressure
on the Castro regime and also the countries of Western Europe, Canada,
Japan, and the others.
No. 3, Castro is only the beginning of our
difficulties throughout Latin America. The big struggle will be to prevent
the influence of Castro spreading to other countries - Mexico, Panama,
Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia. We're going to have to try to provide closer
ties to associate ourselves with the great desire of these people for a
better life if we're going to prevent Castro's influence from spreading
throughout all of Latin America. His influence is strong enough today to
prevent us from getting the other countries of Latin America to join with
us in economic quarantine. His influence is growing, mostly because this
administration has ignored Latin America. You yourself said, Mr. Vice President,
a month ago, that if we had provided the kind of economic aid 5 years ago
that we are now providing, we might never have had Castro. Why didn't we?
Mr. HOWE. John Edwards has his first question
for Senator Kennedy.
Mr. EDWARDS. Senator Kennedy, one test of
a new President's leadership will be the caliber of his appointments. It's
a matter of interest here and overseas as to who will be the new Secretary
of State. Now under our rules I must ask this question of you but I would
hope that the Vice President also would answer it.
Will you give us the names of three or four
Americans, each of whom, if appointed, would serve with distinction in
your judgment as Secretary of State?
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Edwards I don't think it's
a wise idea for presidential candidates to appoint the members of his Cabinet
prospectively or suggest four people and indicate that one of them surely
will be appointed. This is a decision that the President of the United
States must make. The last candidate who indicated that - who his Cabinet
was going to be, was Mr. Dewey in 1948. This is a race between the Vice
President and myself for the Presidency of the United States. There are
a good many able men who could be Secretary of State. I have made no judgment
about who should be the Secretary of State. I think that judgment could
be made after election if I am successful. The people have to make a choice
between Mr. Nixon and myself, between the Republican Party and the Democratic
Party, between our approach to the problems which now disturb us as a nation
and disturb us as a world power. The President bears the constitutional
responsibility, not the Secretary of State, for the conduct of foreign
affairs.
Some Presidents have been strong in foreign
policy. Others have relied heavily on the Secretary of State. I have been
a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have run for the
Presidency with full knowledge that his great responsibility really given
to him by the Constitution and by the force of events is in the field of
foreign affairs. I am asking the people's support as President; we will
select the best men we can get, but I have not made a judgment and I have
not narrowed down a list of three or four people among whom would be the
candidate.
Mr. HOWE. Mr. Vice President, do you have
a comment?
Mr. NIXON. Mr. Edwards, as you probably know,
I have consistently answered all questions with regard to who will be in
the next Cabinet by saying that that is the responsibility of the next
President and it would be inappropriate to make any decisions on that or
to announce any prior to the time that I had the right to do so. So, that
is my answer to this question.
If you don't mind, I would like to use the
balance of the time to respond to one of the comments that Senator Kennedy
made on the previous question. He was talking about the Castro regime and
what we had been doing in Latin America. I would like to point out that
when we look at our programs in Latin America, we find that we have appropriated
five times as much for Latin America as was appropriated by the previous
administration. We find that we have $2 billion more for the Export-Import
Bank. We have a new bank for Latin America alone of a billion dollars.
We have the new program which was submitted at the Bogota Conference, this
new program that President Eisenhower submitted, approved by the last Congress
for $500 million. We have moved in Latin America very effectively, and
I'd also like to point this out. Senator Kennedy complains very appropriately
about our inadequate radio broadcasts for Latin America. Let me point out
again that his Congress, the Democratic Congress, has cut $80 million off
of the Voice of America appropriations. Now he has to get a better job
out of his Congress if he's going to get us the money that we need to conduct
the foreign affairs of this country in Latin America or any place else.
Mr. HOWE. Walter Cronkite, you have your first
question for Vice President Nixon.
Mr. CRONKITE. Thank you, Quincy. Mr. Vice
President, Senator Fulbright and now tonight Senator Kennedy maintain that
the administration is suppressing a report by the United States Information
Agency that shows a decline in United States prestige overseas. Are you
aware of such a report, and if you are aware of the existence of such a
report, should not that report because of the great importance this issue
has been given in this campaign, be released to the public?
Mr. NIXON. Mr. Cronkite, I naturally am aware
of it because I, of course, pay attention to everything Senator Kennedy
says as well as Senator Fulbright.
Now, in this connection, I want to point out
that the facts simply aren't as stated. First of all, the report to which
Senator Kennedy refers, is one that was made many, many months ago and
related particularly to the period immediately after sputnik.
Second, as far as this report is concerned,
I would have no objection to having it made public.
Third, I would say this with regard to this
report, with regard to Gallup polls of prestige abroad and everything else
that we've been hearing about "what about American prestige abroad?"
America's prestige abroad will be just as
high as the spokesmen for America allow it to be.
Now, when we have a presidential candidate
- for example, Senator Kennedy - stating over and over again that the United
States is second in space, and the fact of the matter is that the space
score today is 28 to 8; we've had 28 successful shots; they've had 8. When
he states that we are second in education, and I have seen Soviet education
and I have seen ours, and we're not. That we're second in science because
they may be ahead in one area or another, when overall we're way ahead
of the Soviet Union and all other countries in science. When he says, as
he did in January of this year, that we have the worst slums, that we have
the most crowded schools, when he says that 17 million people go to bed
hungry every night - when he makes statements like this, what does this
do to American prestige? Well, it can only have the effect, certainly,
of reducing it.
Now, let me make one thing clear. Senator
Kennedy has a responsibility to criticize those things that are wrong but
he has also a responsibility to be right in his criticisms.
Every one of these items that I have mentioned
he's been wrong - dead wrong. And for that reason he has contributed to
any lack of prestige.
Finally, let me say this: As far as prestige
is concerned, the first place it would show up would be in the United Nations.
Now Senator Kennedy has referred to the vote on Communist China. Let's
look at the vote on Hungary. There we got more votes for condemning Hungary
and looking into that situation than we got the last year.
Let's look at the reaction to Khrushchev and
Eisenhower at the last U.N. session. Did Khrushchev gain because he took
his shoe off and pounded the table and shouted and insulted? Not at all.
The President gained.
America gained by continuing the dignity,
the decency that has characterized us and it's that that keeps the prestige
of America up - not running down America the way Senator Kennedy has been
running her down.
Mr. HOWE. Comment, Senator Kennedy?
Mr. KENNEDY. I really don't need Mr. Nixon
to tell me about what my responsibilities are as a citizen. I've served
this country for 14 years in the Congress and before that in the service
I have just as high a devotion, and just as high an opinion. What I downgrade,
Mr. Nixon, is the leadership the country's getting, not the country. Now,
I didn't make most of the statements that you said I made. I believe the
Soviet Union is first in outer space. We may have made more shots, but
the size of their rocket thrust and all the rest - You, yourself, said
to Khrushchev "You may be ahead of us in rocket thrust but we're ahead
of you in color television" in your famous discussion in the kitchen.
I think that color television is not as important
as rocket thrust.
Secondly, I didn't say we had the worst slums
in the world. I said we had too many slums, that they are bad and we ought
to do something about them and we ought to support housing legislation
which this administration has opposed. I didn't say we had the worst education
in the world. What I said was that 10 years ago we were producing twice
as many scientists and engineers as the Soviet Union, and today they're
producing twice as many as we are and that this affects our security around
the world.
And fourth, I believe that the polls and other
studies and votes in the United Nations and anyone reading the paper and
any citizen of the United States must come to the conclusion that the United
States no longer carries the same image of a vital society, on the move,
with its brightest days ahead as it carried a decade or two decades ago.
Part of that is because we've stood still
here at home. Because we haven't met our problems in the United States.
Because we haven't had a moving economy. Part of that, as the Gallup poll
showed, is because the Soviet Union made a breakthrough in outer space.
Mr. George Allen, head of your Information Services, said that that made
the people of the world begin to wonder whether we were first in science.
We are first in other areas of science but in space, which is the new science,
we're not first.
Mr. HOWE. John Chancellor, your first question
for Senator Kennedy.
Mr. CHANCELLOR. Senator, another question
in connection with our relations with the Russians. There have been stories
from Washington from the Atomic Energy Commission hinting that the Russians
may have resumed the testing of nuclear devices. Now, sir, if this is true,
should the United States resume nuclear testing? And if the Russians do
not start testing, can you foresee any circumstances in 1961 in which the
United States might resume its own series of tests ?
Mr. KENNEDY. Yes, I think the next President
of the United States should make one last effort to secure an agreement
on the cessation of tests - No. 1. I think we should go back to Geneva
- whoever's elected President, Mr. Nixon or myself, and try once again.
If we fail then, if we're unable to come to an agreement, and I hope we
can come to an agreement because it does not merely involve now the United
States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union as atomic powers. Because
of new breakthroughs in atomic energy technology, there's some indications
that by the time the next President's term of office has come to an end,
there may be 10, 15 or 20 countries with an atomic capacity - perhaps that
many testing bombs - with all the effect that it could have on the atmosphere
and with all the chances that more and more countries will have an atomic
capacity with more and more chance of war.
So, one more effort should be made. I don't
think that even if that effort fails that it would be necessary to carry
on tests in the atmosphere which pollute the atmosphere.
They can be carried out underground, they
could be carried on in outer space. But I believe the effort should be
made once more by whoever's elected President of the United States. If
we fail, it's been a great, serious failure for everyone, for the human
race. I hope we can succeed. But then if we fail, the responsibility will
be clearly on the Russians, and then we'll have to meet our responsibilities
to the security of the United States, and there may have to be testing
underground, if the Atomic Energy Committee is prepared for it. There may
be testing in outer space. I hope it will not be necessary for any power
to resume testing in the atmosphere. It's possible to detect those kind
of tests. The kind of tests which you can't detect are underground or in
perhaps in outer space.
So that I'm hopeful we can try once more.
If we fail, then we must meet our responsibilities to ourselves.
But I'm most concerned about the whole problem
of the spread of atomic weapons. China may have it by 1963 - Egypt - war
has been the constant companion of mankind. So, to have these weapons disseminated
around the world, I believe, means that we're going to move through a period
of hazard in the next few years. We ought to make one last effort.
Mr. HOWE. Any comment, Mr. Vice President?
Mr. NIXON. Yes. I would say, first of all,
that we must have in mind the fact that we have been negotiating to get
tests inspected and to get an agreement for many, many months. As a matter
of fact, there's been a moratorium on testing as a result of the fact that
we have been negotiating. I've reached the conclusion that the Soviet Union
is actually filibustering. I've reached the conclusion, too, based on the
reports that have been made, that they may be cheating. I don't think we
can wait until the next President is inaugurated and then selects a new
team and then all the months of negotiating that will take place before
we reach a decision. I think that immediately after this election we should
set a timetable - the next President, working with the present President,
President Eisenhower - a timetable to break the Soviet filibuster.
There should be no tests in the atmosphere.
That rules out any fallout. But as far as underground tests are concerned,
and particularly underground tests for developing peaceful uses of atomic
energy, we should not allow this Soviet filibuster to continue. I think
it's time for them to fish or cut bait.
I think that the next President, immediately
after his election, should sit down with the President, work out a timetable,
and get a decision on this before January of neat year.
Mr. HOWE. Our second round of questions begins
with one from Mr. Edwards for the Vice President.
Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Nixon, carrying forward this
business about a timetable, as you know, the pressures are increasing for
a summit conference. Now, both you and Senator Kennedy have said that there
are certain conditions which must be met before you would meet with Khrushchev.
Will you be more specific about these conditions?
Mr. NIXON. Well, the conditions I laid out
in one of our previous television debates, and it's rather difficult to
be much more specific than that.
First of all, we have to have adequate preparation
for a summit conference. This means at the Secretary of State level and
at the ambassadorial level. By adequate preparation I mean that at that
level we must prepare an agenda, an agenda agreed upon with the approval
of the heads of state involved. Now, this agenda should delineate those
issues on which there is a possibility of some agreement or negotiation.
I don't believe we should go to a summit conference unless we have such
an agenda, unless we have some reasonable assurance from Mr. Khrushchev
that he intends seriously to negotiate on those points.
Now this may seem like a rigid, inflexible
position, but let's look at the other side of the coin. If we build up
the hopes of the world by having a summit conference that is not adequately
prepared, and then if Mr. Khrushchev finds some excuse for breaking it
up, as he did this one, because he isn't going to get his way, we set back
the cause of peace. We do not help it.
We can, in other words, negotiate many of
these items of difference between us without going to the summit. I think
we have to make a greater effort than we have been making at the Secretary
of State level, at the ambassadorial level, to work out the differences
that we have.
And so, as far as the summit conference is
concerned, it should only be entered in upon, it should only be agreed
upon, if the negotiations have reached a point that we have some reasonable
assurance that something is going to come out of it other than some "phony
spirit," a spirit of Geneva or Camp David, or whatever it is. When I say
"phony spirit" I mean phony not because the spirit is not good on our side,
but because the Soviet Union simply doesn't intend to carry out what they
say.
Now these are the conditions that I can lay
out. I could not be more precise than that, because until we see what Mr.
Khrushchev does and what he says, we cannot indicate what our plans will
be.
Mr. HOWE. Any comments, Senator Kennedy?
Mr. KENNEDY. Well, I think the President of
the United States last winter indicated that before he'd go to the summit
in May, as he did last fall, he indicated that there should be some agenda,
that there should be some prior agreement. He hoped that there would be
an agreement in part on disarmament. He also expressed the hope that there
should be some understanding of the general situation in Berlin. The Soviet
Union refused to agree to that, and we went to the summit and it was disastrous.
I believe we should not go to the summit until
there is some reason to believe that a meeting of minds can be obtained
on either Berlin, outer space, or general disarmament, including nuclear
testing. In addition, I believe the next President in January and February
should go to work in building the strength of the United States. The Soviet
Union does understand strength. "We arm to parley," Winston Churchill said
10 years ago. If we are strong, particularly as we face a crisis over Berlin,
which we may in the spring or in the winter, it's important that we maintain
our determination here, that we indicate that we're building our strength,
that we are determined to protect our position, that we're determined to
protect our commitments, and then I believe we should indicate our desire
to live at peace with the world.
But until we're strong here, until we're moving
here, I believe a summit could not be successful. I hope that before we
do meet, there will be preliminary agreements on those four questions,
or at least two of them, or even one of them, which would warrant such
a meeting.
I think if we had stuck by that position last
winter, we would have been in a better position in May.
Mr. HOWE. We have time for only one or two
more questions before the closing statements. Now Walter Cronkite's question
for Senator Kennedy.
Mr. CRONKITE. Senator, the charge has been
made frequently that the United States for many years has been on the defensive
around the world, that our policy has been one of reaction to the Soviet
Union rather than positive action on our own. What areas do you see where
the United States might take the offensive in a challenge to communism
over the next 4 to 8 years?
Mr. KENNEDY. One of the areas, and, of course,
the most vulnerable area, I have felt, has been Eastern Europe. I've been
critical of the administration's failure to suggest policies which would
make it possible for us to establish, for example, closer relations with
Poland, particularly after the '55-56 period and the Hungarian revolution.
We indicated at that time that we were not going to intervene militarily,
but there was a period there when Poland demonstrated a national independence,
and even the Polish Government moved some diff--- distance away from the
Soviet Union. I suggested that we amend our legislation so that we could
enjoy closer economic ties. We received the support first of the administration,
and then not, and were defeated by one vote in the Senate. We passed a
bill in the Senate this year, but it didn't pass the House. I would say
Eastern Europe is the area of vulnerability of the Soviet Union.
Secondly, the relations between Russia and
China. They are now engaged in a debate over whether war is the means of
communizing the world or whether they should use subversion, infiltration,
economic struggles, and all the rest. No one can say what that course of
action will be, but I think the next President of the United States should
watch it carefully. If those two powers should split, it could have great
effects throughout the entire world.
Thirdly, I believe that India represents a
great area for affirmative action by the free world. India started from
about the same place that China did. The Chinese Communists have been moving
ahead the last 10 years. India, under a free society, has been making some
progress, but if India does not succeed with her 450 million people she
can't make freedom work, then people around the world are going to determine,
particularly in the underdeveloped world, that the only way that they can
develop their resources is through the Communist system.
Fourth, let me say that in Africa, Asia, Latin
America, Eastern Europe, the great force on our side is the desire of people
to be free. This has expressed itself in the revolts in Eastern Europe;
it's expressed itself in the desire of the people of Africa to be independent
of Western Europe. They want to be free.
And my judgment is that they don't want to
give their freedom up to become Communists, they want to stay free, independent
perhaps of us, but certainly independent of the Communists. And I believe
if we identify ourselves with that force, if we identify ourselves with
it as Lincoln--- as Wilson did, as Franklin Roosevelt did, if we become
known as the friend of freedom, sustaining freedom, helping freedom, helping
these people in the fight against poverty and ignorance and disease, helping
them build their lives, I believe in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, eventually
in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, certainly in Western Europe, we
can strengthen freedom, we can make it move, we can put the Communists
on the defensive.
Mr. HOWE. Your comment, Mr. Vice President?
Mr. NIXON. First, with regard to Poland, when
I talked to Mr. Gomulka, the present leader of Poland, for 6 hours in Warsaw
last year, I learned something about their problems, and particularly his.
Right under the Soviet gun, with Soviet troops there, he is in a very difficult
position in taking anything independent - a position which would be independent
of the Soviet Union. And yet, let's just see what we've done for Poland.
A half a billion dollars worth of aid has gone to Poland, primarily economic,
primarily to go to the people of Poland.
This should continue, and it can be stepped
up, to give them hope and to keep alive the hope for freedom that I can
testify they have so deeply within them.
In addition we can have more exchange with
Poland or with any other of the Iron Curtain countries, which show some
desire to take a different path than the path that has been taken by the
ones that are complete satellites of the Soviet Union.
Now, as far as the balance of the world is
concerned, I, of course, don't have as much time as Senator Kennedy had,
I would just like to add this one point. If we are going to have the initiative
in the world, we must remember that the people of Africa and Asia and Latin
America don't want to be pawns simply in a struggle between two fat powers,
the Soviet Union and the United States. We have to let them know that we
want to help them, not because we're simply trying to save our own skins,
not because we're simply trying to fight communism, but because we care
for them, because we stand for freedom, because if there were no communism
in the world we would still fight poverty, and misery, and disease, and
tyranny. If we can get that across to the people of these countries in
this decade of the sixties, the struggle for freedom will be won.
Mr. HOWE. John Chancellor's question for Vice
President Nixon.
Mr. CHANCELLOR. Sir, I'd like to ask you another
question about Quemoy and Matsu. Both you and Senator Kennedy say you agree
with the President on this subject and with our treaty obligations, but
the subject remains in the campaign as an issue. Now, sir, is this because
each of you feels obliged to respond to the other when he talks about Quemoy
and Matsu? And if that's true, do you think an end should be called to
this discussion, or will it stay with us as a campaign issue.?
Mr. NIXON. I would say that the issue will
stay with us as a campaign issue just as long as Senator Kennedy persists
in what I think is a fundamental error. He says he supports the President's
position. He says that he voted for the resolution. Well, just let me point
this out. He voted for the resolution in 1955 which gave the President
the power to use the forces of the United States to defend Formosa and
the offshore islands. But he also voted then for an amendment which was
lost, fortunately, an amendment which would have drawn a line and left
out those islands and denied the right to the President to defend those
islands if he thought that it was an attack on Formosa.
He repeated that error in 1959 in a speech
that he made. He repeated it again in a television debate that we had.
Now, my point is this: Senator Kennedy has
got to be consistent here. Either he's for the President and he's against
the position that those who opposed the President in '55 and '59 - and
the Senator's position itself stated the other day in our debate - either
he is for the President and against that position, or we simply have a
disagreement here that must continue to be debated.
Now, if the Senator in his answer to this
question will say, "I now will depart or retract my previous views; I think
I was wrong in 1955; I think I was wrong in 1959; and I think I was wrong
in our television debate, to say that we should draw a line, leaving out
Quemoy and Matsu, draw a line in effect abandoning these islands to the
Communists," then this will be right out of the campaign, because there
will be no issue between us.
I support the President's position. I have
always opposed drawing a line. I have opposed drawing a line because I
know that the moment you draw a line, that is an encouragement for the
Communists to attack, to step up their blackmail and to force you into
the war that none of us want.
And so I would hope that Senator Kennedy in
his answer today would clear it up. It isn't enough for him to say, "I
support the President's position, that I voted for the resolution." Of
course he voted for the resolution. It was virtually unanimous. But the
point is, what about his error in voting for the amendment which was not
adopted? And then persisting in it in '59, persisting in it in the debate?
It's very simple for him to clear it up. He
can say now that be no longer believes that a line should be drawn leaving
these islands out of the perimeter of defense. If he says that, this issue
will not be discussed in the campaign.
Mr. HOWE. Senator Kennedy, your comment?
Mr. KENNEDY. Well, Mr. Nixon, to go back to
1955, the resolution commits the President and the United States, which
I supported, to defend Formosa, the Pescadores and, if it was his military
judgment, these islands. Then the President sent a mission composed of
Admiral Radford and Mr. Robertson to persuade Chiang Kai-shek in the spring
of '55 to withdraw from the two islands because they were exposed. The
President was unsuccessful. Chiang Kai-shek would not withdraw.
I referred to the fact that in 1958, as a
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I am very familiar with
the position that the United States took in negotiating with the Chinese
Communists on these two islands. General Twining in January '59 described
the position of the United States. The position of the United States has
been that this buildup, in the words of the President has been foolish.
Mr. Herter has said these islands are indefensible. Chiang Kai-shek will
not withdraw. Because he will not withdraw, because he's committed to these
islands, because we've been unable to persuade him to withdraw, we are
in a very difficult position, and therefore the President's judgment has
been that we should defend the islands if in his military judgment and
the judgment of the commander in the field, the attack on these islands
should be part of an overall attack on Formosa.
I support that, in view of the difficulties
we've had with the islands, in view of the difficulties and disputes we've
had with Chiang Kai-shek. That's the only position we can take. That's
not the position you took, however. The first position you took when this
matter first came up was that we should draw the line and commit ourselves
as a matter of principle to defend these islands, not as part of the defense
of Formosa and the Pescadores. You showed no recognition of the administration
program to try to persuade Chiang Kai-shek for the last 5 years to withdraw
from the islands, and I challenge you tonight to deny that the administration
has sent at least several missions to persuade Chiang Kaishek to withdraw
from these islands.
Mr. HOWE. Under the agreed---
Mr. KENNEDY (continuing). * * * and that's
the testimony of General Twining and the Assistant Secretary of State in
'58.
Mr. HOWE. Under the agreed rules, gentlemen,
we've exhausted the time for questions. Each candidate will now have 4
minutes and 30 seconds for his closing statement. Senator Kennedy will
make the first closing statement.
Mr. KENNEDY. I said that I've served this
country for 14 years. I served it in the war. I am devoted to it. If I
lose this election, I will continue in the Senate to try to build a stronger
country. But I run because I believe this year the United States has a
great opportunity to make a move forward, to make a determination here
at home and around the world, and it's going to reestablish itself as a
vigorous society.
My judgment is that the Republican Party has
stood still here in the Unite States, and it's also stood still around
the world. We're using about 50 percent of our steel capacity today. We
had a recession in '58. We had a recession in '54. We're not moving ahead
in education the way we should. We didn't make a judgment in '57, in '56,
in '55, in '54 that outer space would be important. If we stand still here,
if we appoint people to ambassadorships and positions in Washington who
have a status quo outlook, who don't recognize that this is a revolutionary
time, then the United States does not maintain its influence. And if we
fail, the cause of freedom fails. I believe it incumbent upon the next
President of the United States to get this country moving again, to get
our economy moving ahead, to set before the American people its goals,
its unfinished business, and then throughout the world appoint the best
people we can get, ambassadors who can speak the language, not merely people
who made a political contribution, but who can speak the language, bring
students here, let them see what kind of a country we have. Mr. Nixon said
that we should not regard them as pawns in the cold war, we should identify
ourselves with them. If that were true why didn't we identify ourselves
with the people of Africa? Why didn't we bring students over here? Why
did we suddenly offer Congo 300 students last June when they had the tremendous
revolt? That was more than we had offered to all of Africa the year before
from the Federal Government. I believe that this party, Republican Party,
has stood still really for 25 years; its leadership has. It opposed all
of the programs of President Roosevelt and others, for minimum wage, and
for housing, and economic growth, and development of our natural resources,
the Tennessee Valley and all the rest. And I believe that if we can get
a party which believes in movement, which believes in going ahead, then
we can reestablish our position in the world, strong in defense, strong
in economic growth, justice for our people, guarantee of constitutional
rights, so that people will believe that we practice what we preach. And
then around the world, particularly to try to reestablish the atmosphere
which existed in Latin America at the time of Franklin Roosevelt. He was
a good neighbor in Latin America because he was a good neighbor in the
United States, because they saw us as a society that was compassionate,
that cared about people, that was moving this country ahead.
I believe it my responsibility as the leader
of the Democratic Party in 1960 to try to warn the American people that
in this crucial time we can no longer afford to stand still. We can no
longer afford to be second best.
I want people all over the world to look to
the United States again, to feel that we're on the move, to feel that our
high noon is in the future. I want Mr. Khrushchev to know that a new generation
of Americans who fought in Europe, in Italy, in the Pacific for freedom
in World War II have now taken over in the United States, and that they're
going to put this country back to work again. I don't believe that there
is anything this country cannot do. I don't believe there's any burden
or any responsibility that any American would not assume to protect his
country, protect our security, to advance the cause of freedom. And I believe
it incumbent upon us now to do that.
Franklin Roosevelt said in 1936 that that
generation of Americans had a "rendezvous with destiny." I believe in 1960
and '61 and '2 and '3 we have a "rendezvous with destiny," and I believe
it incumbent upon us to be the defenders of the United States and the defenders
of freedom, and to do that we must give this country leadership, and we
must get America moving again.
Mr. HOWE. Now Vice President Nixon, your closing
statement.
Mr. NIXON. Well, Senator Kennedy has said
tonight again what he has said several times in the course of these debates
and in the campaign: that America is standing still. America is not standing
still; it has not been standing still. And let's set the record straight
right now by looking at the record, as Al Smith used to say. He talks about
housing. We built more houses in the last 7 years than in any administration,
and 30 percent more than in the previous administration. We talk about
schools. Three times as many classrooms built in the past administration
in Eisenhower than under the Truman administration.
Let's talk about civil rights; more progress
in the past 8 years than in the whole 80 years before.
He talks about the progress in the field of
slum clearance and the like. We find four times as many projects undertaken
and completed in this administration as in the previous one.
Anybody that says America has been standing
still for the last 7½ years hasn't been traveling in America. He's
been in some other country. Let's get that straight right away.
Now, the second point we have to understand
is this, however, America has not been standing still, but America cannot
stand pat. We can't stand pat for the reason that we're in a race, as I
have indicated.
We can't stand pat because it is essential
with the conflict that we have around the world, that we not just hold
our own; that we not keep just freedom for ourselves. It is essential that
we extend freedom - extend it to all the world. And this means more than
what we've been doing. It means keeping America even stronger militarily
than she is. It means seeing that our economy moves forward even faster
than it has. It means making more progress in civil rights than we have
so that we can be a splendid example for all the world to see of democracy
in action at its best.
Now, looking at the other parts of the world:
South America, talking about our record and the previous one; we had a
good neighbor policy, yes. It sounded fine. But let's look at it. There
were 11 dictators when we came into power in 1953 in Latin America. There
are only three left.
Let's look at Africa. Twenty new countries
in Africa during the course of this administration. Not one of them selected
a Communist government. All of them voted for freedom - a free type of
government.
Does this show that communism has the bigger
pull or freedom has the bigger pull? Am I trying to indicate that we have
no problems in Africa or Latin America or Asia? Of course not.
What I am trying to indicate is that the tide
of history is on our side and that we can keep it on our side because we're
on the right side. We're on the side of freedom. We're on the side of justice,
against the forces of slavery, against the forces of injustice.
But we aren't going to move America forward
and we aren't going to be able to lead the world to win this struggle for
freedom if we have a permanent inferiority complex about American achievements.
Because we are first in the world in space, as I have indicated. We are
first in science. We are first in education and we're going to move even
further ahead with the kind of leadership that we can provide in these
years ahead.
One other point I would make. What could you
do? Senator Kennedy and I are candidates for the Presidency of the United
States. In the years to come it will be written that one or the other of
us was elected and that he was or was not a great President. What will
determine whether Senator Kennedy or I, if I am elected, was a great President?
It will not be our ambition that will determine it, because greatness is
not something that is written on a campaign poster. It will be determined
to the extent that we represent the deepest ideals, the highest feelings
and faith of the American people. In other words, the next President as
he leads America in the free world can be only as great as the American
people are great.
And so I say, in conclusion, keep America's
faith strong. See that the young people of America particularly have faith
in the ideals of freedom and faith in God which distinguishes us from the
atheistic materialists who oppose us.
Mr. HOWE. Thank you, gentlemen. Both candidates
have asked me to express their thanks to the networks for this opportunity
to appear on this discussion.
May I repeat that all those concerned in tonight's
discussion have sometimes reluctantly followed the rules and conditions
read at the outset and agreed to in advance by the candidates and the networks.
The opening statements ran 8 minutes each.
The closing statements ran 4 minutes 30 seconds. The order of speaking
was reversed from their first joint appearance when they followed the same
procedure. The panel of newsmen questioned each candidate alternately.
Each had 2½ minutes to reply. The other had a minute and a half
to comment. But the first discussion dealt only with domestic policy. This
one dealt only with foreign policy.
One last word, as members of a new political
generation, Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy have used new means
of communication to pioneer a new type of political debate.
The character and courage with which these
two men have spoken sets a high standard for generations to come. Surely
they have set a new precedent. Perhaps they have established a new tradition.
This is Quincy Howe. Good night from New York.