Thank you very much.
I want to tell you how very pleased that Pat,
my wife, and I are that we could stop here at London. It wasn't on the
schedule, but then Clarence Brown, my good friend from Washington, said,
"Dick, they announced there might be a stop here," and he said, "I'll bet
you there might be several hundred people out."
Well, there are several thousand, and we thank
you for coming, as you have.
And we particularly appreciate the fact that
we're not only in this particular area which is Clarence Brown's district,
but also, as he indicated, the home county of John Bricker and, as he says,
the richest agricultural county in America.
Is that right?
One other thought: One of the problems people
often ask both Pat and me about is: How does running for President or being
Vice President affect family life?
Well, you do have a few problems because,
or, sometimes you'll be listening to television and so forth, you want
to tune something in and, you know, the girls may prefer "Maverick," and
I don't blame them. Sometimes it's better than some of the speeches I have
had to listen to. But, in any event, there is not only that problem, but
one of the things we run into, when we go home after being away for several
weeks - people say, like you young people when your parents go away, "Have
you brought me a present?"
Well, we never have any time to shop for one,
and this is the first city in Ohio where the people were so thoughtful
to give us a present for our two girls.
So, we thank you for making it good for us
in that respect. And we have it here. Thank you.
I just would like to add one other thought.
I'm so delighted to see our two high school bands here, and also
to see so many people who are from the schools of this particular area.
I want you to know that to me the thing that I will remember the most about
this campaign are, the people that I have seen at stops like this. You
wonder, I suppose, what does a man think about who is running for President.
I'll tell you. What you really think about is when you see so many young
people, when you see all the voters who have come out to look over the
candidate and to listen to him, you realize what a tremendous responsibility
the President of this country has. This isn't a job that somebody must
look at as something that he wants to satisfy personal ambition. This is
not something that you can describe solely in terms of how this man or
that man is going to be a great man, as the case might be, but I think
that what we have to realize is that the man who is President of this country
owes a responsibility to all Americans. He owes a responsibility particularly
to keep this country strong and free now so that we can hand it on to our
children better than we received it. That is what we want to do.
And I want to say for all of the young people
here particularly, that when you read in the papers some of the things
my opponent has been saying about America being a second-rate country,
as far as its science and its education and its prestige is concerned,
that that is just nothing but plain nonsense, and you can put it in your
hat for that, because I know, because I have been abroad and I have seen
what we have in other countries.
America is not a perfect country, but America,
I can assure you, is a country that no American ever needs to apologize
for in any respect, and let's never forget that.
Because one of the things we Americans do
is that we recognize those areas where we haven't made the progress that
we should, and we're determined to move forward in those areas. We're a
free people, and we have the right by our election campaigns to make those
necessary, give to our leaders the mandates that they require to
see that America moves forward the way that we want her to move.
So, I just want to say to you in conclusion
that, as you vote in this election campaign, you will be making the most
important decision perhaps of your life, and I'll tell you why: Because
what you decide will determine not only who's going to be President, but
who will lead the whole free world, and you've got to think in terms of
what man, which of the two men, can handle these problems, handle them
in dealing with Mr. Khrushchev and the other leaders of the world in a
way that will avoid war on the one side and surrender on the other.
I can tell you that it isn't easy. I have
sat with the President when he has made these great and sometimes lonely
decisions. Should he send troops to Lebanon? He did. He was right. It avoided
war. It avoided a Communist conquest. I remember when he made the decision
on Quemoy and Matsu, when he decided we would have to have the right to
defend the whole area in order to stop communism in that area.
He was right, but it was a tough decision,
and with the wrong decision there would have been no time to second-guess.
I don't say to you that I, if I am elected,
can promise perfection in this respect, but I do say this: I know what
responsibility means. I've been through it. I also know what America means,
not only to us here at home, but what it means to millions abroad, and
with your help I can promise you that we will always represent America
at its best. We will always present to the people of the world the
picture of an American people who are not affected with an inferiority
complex by themselves, but people who are confident of their ideals, who
have faith in their God, and faith in their country.
With this kind of belief in ideals at
home, you can be sure that we will build a world abroad and at home in
which our young people can enjoy a better life than we have had, and a
life in peace - and this is what we all want, above everything else.
Thank you again, very much.