JFK LINK - rmn191060

STATEMENT BY THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
"WHITE PAPER",
NEW YORK, N.Y., OCTOBER 19, 1960

Senator Kennedy in this campaign has resorted to so many misstatements and distortions that I feel compelled to set the record straight. In this document I am presenting some of the most glaring of these errors and the facts relating to them. The mistatement:
In the third debate Senator Kennedy said:

This administration and this country last year had the lowest rate of economic growth, which means jobs, of any major industrialized society in the world in 1959.

     The facts:
     During 1959 the U.S. economy grew 6.9 percent. This rate of growth was higher than Italy's 6.2 percent, West Germany's 5.8 percent, the United Kingdom's 2.7 percent and France's 2.4 percent - all for the same year.
     The mistatement:
     In the first debate Senator Kennedy said:

I am not satisfied when we are failing to develop the natural resources of the United States to the fullest. Here in the United States, which developed the Tennessee Valley and which built the Grand Coulee and the other dams in the Northwest United States, at the present rate of hydropower production, and that is the hallmark of an industrialized society, the Soviet Union by 1975 will be producing more power than we are.

     The facts:
     By 1975 U.S. power production, as estimated by the Federal Power Commission, will be 1,800 billion kilowatt-hours of electrical energy. The Soviet Minister of Power, A. S. Pavlenko, stated in 1958 that the Soviet objective for 1975 was 900 billion kilowatt-hours, half that estimated for the United States by that year.
     The United States is now producing annually about 550 billion kilowatt-hours more than the U.S.S.R. As the above figures show, our lead over the Soviets will have increased by 1975 to 900 billion kilowatt-hours.
     That Senator Kennedy's statement is without foundation is illustrated by the fact that the Soviets, just to catch up with the United States by 1975, would have to increase their capacity by building the equivalent of at least eight Grand Coulee Dams in each and every year between now and 1975.
     The mistatement:
     Senator Kennedy in the third debate said:

Well, first may I correct a statement which was made before that under my agricultural program food prices would go up 25 percent. That's untrue.

     The facts:
     In presenting his farm plan in Sioux Falls, S. Dak., Senator Kennedy said that the prices under his parity-of-income concept could be calculated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture "without difficulty." This has been done by career farm and food experts in that Department. Their report has been made public and is the source for the statements on rising food costs to which the Senator now objects. That study states:
    Indicated price increases, at retail, for some commodities, follow :

(in cents)
	1959	Estimated price under proposal (figures rounded to nearest cent)
Choice grade beef................................. Pork, pound.......................................... Chickens, pound................................... Eggs, dozen.......................................... Bread, loaf............................................ Milk, quart............................................	82 57 42 51 20 25	98 81 64 79 21 30

     The report states that "food prices would go up about 25 percent." The report also points out that "the burden of the higher cost would fall most heavily on the low-income consumers who spend the largest part of their income on food."
     The misstatement:
     In the second debate Senator Kennedy said:

The Republicans in recent years, not only the last 25 years but in the last 8 years, have opposed * * * Federal aid to education * * *.

     The facts:
     This administration proposed bills to provide assistance to education in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960. Of these proposals, the only one passed by the Democratic Congress was the National Defense Education Act of 1958 which provided for student loans, graduate fellowships, and grants to States and universities to improve science, mathematics, and language teaching.
     A majority of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, including Senator Kennedy, wrote in its report on the School Construction Assistance Act of 1959:
     "President Eisenhower has repeatedly stressed the need for Federal assistance to our schools in his state of the Union
messages."
     In addition, I have repeatedly expressed my support for constructive Federal programs to assist education and on September 26, 1960, issued a position paper containing a comprehensive program for such aid.
     The misstatement:
     In Redding, Calif., on September 8, Senator Kennedy said: "Our forests are vanishing, our wildlife is vanishing * * * ",
     The facts:
     Since 1953, the area planned or seeded to trees in national forest has more than doubled - from 51,200 acres annually to 112,000 acres annually. Timber stand improvement work was done on 387,300 acres in the national forests in 1953, and today this work has increased to 800,000 acres annually. Forest research effort has tripled over the past 8 years. Trees planted on all public and private lands have increased more than 4 times - from 477,407,000 in 1953, to 2,080,122,000 in 1960.
     Since 1953 over 600,000 acres have been added to the national park system. In the first 4 years alone of the new Mission 66 program of park improvements, effort as measured by expenditures has exceeded that of the entire 13 years of previous administrations.
     In the field of fish and wildlife conservation, 23 refuges totaling 114,000 acres in 22 States have been added since 1953 to the national wildlife refuge system. Completion of the 9 million acre Arctic Wildlife Range will raise the total of national wildlife areas to a record 27 million acres.
     The misstatement:
     In the second debate Senator Kennedy said,

Mr. Nixon is wholly inaccurate when he says the Congress has not provided more funds in fact than the President recommended for national defense.

     The facts:
     The claim that Democratic Congresses did not cut President Eisenhower's defense budgets, but rather provided more than he asked, is contrary to the facts available in the Bureau of the Budget which show that over the past 6 years of Democratic Congressional control, the Congress cut the President's recommendations for new defense spending authority on net by $1.7 million.
     The misstatement:
     In Warm Springs, Georgia, on October 10, 1960, Senator Kennedy accused the Vice President of "election year hypocrisy" in the health and medical fields. He complained that the Nation's health problems "have been neglected for 8 years" and that the Republican Party has been "frozen in the ice of its own indifference."
     The facts:
     In 1954 this administration recommended, and the Republican 83d Congress approved, legislation to modernize and expend the Hill-Burton program for hospital construction.
     In 1954 President Eiseiihower recommended, and the Republican 83d Congress approved, legislation to expand our Federal-State vocational rehabilitation program.
     In 1956 the administration recommended legislation to establish a continuing national health survey to permit the Public Health Service to gather and evaluate data on the condition of the people's health so that health programs can be soundly planned and intelligently carried out. This program later became law.
     The Republican administration recommended and supported a new medical care program for dependents of members of the armed services.
     Under a Republican administration, a sound health program for American Indians was initiated.
     President Eisenhower initiated our current program for the professional training of graduate nurses and the vocational training of practical nurses. The President also initiated action on legislation to help train physicians and other specialists in public health.
     It was the Republican 83d Congress that passed the first law dealing with the mounting problems of air pollution throughout the land.
     It was the Eisenhower administration that recommended legislation to improve enforcement under the Water Pollution Control Act.
     Repeatedly the President has recommended legislation to provide Federal matching grants for the construction of medical teaching facilities - legislation which the Democratic-led Congress has failed to enact.
     The misstatement:
     In Los Angeles, Calif., on September 9, 1960, Senator Kennedy said:

[The Republican Party] has failed to take one constructive step toward guaranteeing equal opportunities to all Americans.

     The facts:
     In the last 7½ years, more progress has been made in the area of equal opportunity and civil rights than in the entire period
since the Civil War.
     (A) Upon recommendation of President Eisenhower, the first Civil Rights Act in more than 80 years became law in 1957. It established a Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice and provided a more effective guarantee of the right to vote.
     (B) The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was proposed by President Eisenhower and, in most of its significant aspects, drafted by the administration. It reinforced the 1957 law's guarantee of constitutional rights.
     (C) This administration completed integration in the Armed Forces and in hospitals of the Veterans' Administration.
     (D) This administration abolished segregation in the Nation's Capital, in schools on military posts, and in the ranks of civilian employees at military bases and other Federal establishments.
     (E) This administration employed more Negroes and in more responsible positions in the National Government than ever before during peacetime - including a special assistant to the President, a Governor of the Virgin Islands, and an Assistant Secretary of Labor.
     (F) Since it was established in 1957, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice has processed more than 5,500 complaints of violations of a wide range of statutes and, as of September 30, 1960, had 130 cases pending in court.
     (G) Starting June 1, 1960, the administration, through the Department of Justice, initiated a series of conferences with executives of variety and chainstores in order to explore means of enabling Negro citizens to be served at lunch counters in such stores. As a direct result, chainstore management personnel, in conjunction with local authorities and other interested groups, have successfully mediated up to the present time the opening of store counters to Negroes in over 900 communities in Southern and border States.
     The misstatement:
     In the second debate, Senator Kennedy said:

The Republicans in recent years, not only in the last 25 years in the last 8 years, have opposed housing * * *.

     The facts:
     More houses have been built during this administration than during any similar period in history - over 9 million new dwellings - 25 percent more than in the preceding 7 years. More people own their own homes now than at any time in history - three out of every five American families are homeowners compared to slightly more than one out of two families 10 years ago.
     In 1954 the administration, with a Republican Congress, enlarged and transformed the existing slum-clearance program into the broader urban renewal program we have today.
     Since 1953 President Eisenhower has four times recommended increased funds for urban renewal, and $1.5 billion has been authorized - three times as much as was authorized before 1953. Under this administration the number of towns and cities carrying out urban renewal projects has more than doubled - the total is now above 450. The number of projects is more than 800 times the number of slum clearance projects initiated in all the years prior to 1953.
     States and localities are taking advantage of a new Republican program to help in planning for whole metropolitan areas, enacted in 1954 and broadened under Republican - sponsored amendments in 1959. Under this program Federal grants have been made to 10 States, to 100 metropolitan areas and urban regions and to 1,300 smaller communities in our Nation for planning for urban development.
     Since January 1953, under President Eisenhower's administration, 132,000 federally assisted low-rent public housing units have been built.
     The Eisenhower administration has also fostered a special program of housing for the elderly. During the last 3 years, more than 20,000 private or public units especially designed for the elderly have been built or started.
     The distortion:
     In the third debate Senator Kennedy said:

When Senator Green * * * wrote to the President, he received back on the 2d of October 1958, that "neither you nor any other American need feel the United States will be involved in military hostilities merely in the defense of Quemoy and Matsu."

     The facts:
     Senator Kennedy has quoted but one sentence of the President's letter, which gravely distorts and completely misrepresents the President's position on this vital matter.
     The policy of the President and the administration has specifically avoided drawing a defense line around Formosa that excludes Quemoy and Matsu. The President made that perfectly clear in his letter to Senator Green, the following part of which Senator Kennedy did not quote:

The Chinese and Soviet Communist leaders assert, and have reason to believe, that if they can take Quemoy and Matsu by armed assault that will open the way for them to take Formosa and the Pescadores and, as they put it, "expel" the United States from the west Pacific and cause its fleet to leave international waters and "go home."
Certainly there is always the possibility that it may in certain contingencies, after taking account of all relevant facts, become necessary or appropriate for the defense of Formosa and the Pescadores also to take measures to secure and protect the related positions of Quenioy and Matsu.

      The full text of this letter was available to Senator Kennedy as it is to the public. A careful reading of it will show that the President and I are in exact agreement, as the White House has confirmed. Meanwhile, the contradictory statements of Senator Kennedy still leave him opposed to this position.
     The misstatement:
     In the second debate Senator Kennedy said:

The Republicans in recent years, not only in the last 25 years, but in the last 8 years, have opposed * * * minimum wage * *

     The facts:
     Senator Kennedy is saying that Republicans who opposed his particular bill are against minimum wage.
     The administration supported an increase in the minimum wage in 1955, and in 1957 urged legislation to extend minimum wage coverage to some 3 million additional workers, an extension which the Democratic-led Congress failed to approve.
     In 1960, this administration sought to extend minimum wage coverage to 3.1 million additional workers and indicated support of an increase in the minimum wage to $1.15 per hour.
     The misstatement:
     In the first debate Senator Kennedy said that the Republican Party gives only "lipservice" to programs of medical care for the aged.
     In the second debate he said:

The Republicans in recent years, not only in the last 25 years but in the last 8 years, have opposed * * * care for the aged * * *

     The facts:
     The Democratic-controlled Congress rejected the broad Federal-State program of medical care for the aged proposed by the administration. The Republican leadership then developed a compromise proposal which would have established a new Federal-State program to allow all aged persons of moderate means an opportunity to purchase protection in advance against the cost of illness which might occur. The Federal Government would have assisted in this program by liberal matching grants. It would have been a voluntary program in which the individual could elect to enter the program or not as he saw fit.
     The Democratic-controlled Congress rejected this proposal, and its leadership supported a compulsory program of health insurance which would have been available only to those persons over 68 who are social security beneficiaries. That bill would not have covered the many aged who are not social security beneficiaries nor would it have covered those social security beneficiaries between 65 and 68. This measure also failed. Senator Kennedy is typically unwilling to recognize an alternative approach to one that he has suggested as being anything more than a "lipservice," even though the majority of the Senate did not support his bill.
     The misstatement:
     In the second debate Senator Kennedy said:

We have beamed not a single Voice of America program in in Spanish to all of Latin America in the last 8 years except for the 3 months of the Hungarian revolution.

     The facts:
     Through the U.S. Information Agency's Voice of America, Latin Americans receive 160,000 broadcast-hours every year in both Spanish and Portuguese. These programs are recorded by the Voice of America, and are used by 1,500 local stations throughout Latin America to reach medium wave and longwave listeners who constitute the overwhelmingly predominant portion of radio listeners. To reach the small shortwave audience the Voice of America contracted between 1953 and 1960 with Boston station WRUL to broadcast shortwave in Spanish to Latin America. The Voice of America itself broadcasts every day by shortwave in Spanish to Latin America. These broadcasts are heard by individual shortwave listeners. They are also picked up by some 75 Latin American local radio stations which relay the programs on their regular longwave frequencies.
     This record would have been even better had the U.S. Information Agency and its Voice of America been given all of the money recommended for them by the President. The Democratic-led Congress in every year since 1954 has made substantial cuts in the amount of money that the President requested for the U.S. Information Agency, including a total reduction of $87 million in annual operating funds.