President Eisenhower’s address to Congress

Media

Part of The Lawyers Journal

Title: President Eisenhower’s address to Congress
Language: English
Year: 1960
Subject: Eisenhower, Dwight David, 1890-1969 -- Speeches, addresses, etc.
Rights
Fulltext: PRESIDENT EISENHOWER'S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS' I am keenly sensible of the high honor this assembled body has paid to me and to my oountry by inviting me to be present hHe and to addrE!SS this body, a body representing the political leadership of a great republic in the Asian sector. I am indeed overwhelmed by ~our kindness and I can say only "Mabuhay!" (Applause), You will understand the flood o( memories that swept ovet· me on coming back to this land, where I feel that I am revisiting a11 old home _ and old friends and renewing ties of long standing. Here my wife and I sprnt _ four happy years, making friendships that we shall ever cherish. Herc our son went to school and grew into young manhood. Here I saw the first beginnings of this Republic and worked with men whose vision of g!-eatness for the people of the Philippines has been matched by its realization. Through many days I could talk of life as I knew it hern a quarter of a century ago. Fo1· hours on end I could make comparisons of what was in those days and what is now. Bu-t I have only minutes in which I c.an address myself to the subject. Even in the short space I have been here, however, I have been struck by the vigor and progress that is evident everywhere. I see around me a city reconstructed out of the havoc and dest:·uction of a world war. I know of the Binga Dam; and the Maria Cristina Power and Industrial Complex; the Mindanao highway system ; rural electrification; the disappearance of epidemic diseases; the amazing growth of Manila industry. Everywhel'e is inespablc physical evidence of energy and dedication and a surging faith in the future. But of deeper significance is the creation here of a functioning democracy-a sovcl'· eign people directing thci1· own destinies; a sovereign people con. cuned with their responsibilities in the community of nations. Those responsibilities you have discharged magnificently even as you toiled to rebuild and to glorify your own land. Certainly, we Americans salute Philippine pa!·ticipat:on in the Korean war; the example set the whole free world by the Filipino nurses and doctors who went to Laos and Vietnam on Operation Brotherhood; your contribution to SEATO and the defense of your neighbors against aggression; your charter membership and dynamic leadership in the Unit.ed Nations; your active efforts to achieVe closer aultural and economic relations with other Southeast Asian countries. The stature of the Hepublic of the Philippines on the world scene is the creation of it-s own people---of their skill; their imagination; their courage; and above all, their commitment to freedom . But their aspirations would have gone unl'ealized were they not animated by a spirit of nationalism, of a patriotic love of their own land and its independence, which united and directed them and their efforts. •Text of the addl'""S by t'NlOlidenl Dwight D. Eiacnhower before " s1>e,,ial join! aeuiott of the Senate nnd the H ouse or Repr<"Senta.tives. Manila, the Philippines, .1unel5, 1960. ABUSE . . (Continued from page 161) were 11tte1·l71 false and irresponsible. We a!free with an En,qlish writer when he 1·emarked that a iudge 01· a just-i~e puts off his relation!i to anybody when he puts on ?is robes, and that no bulge howeve1· hon1est and prudent w. a?ove criticism. But precis~l?f because judges fall within the purview of public c1·iticism, i1tmost care shou'rl. always be taken, because of the delicate nature of their This spirit was described by your late great leader and my Jl('l'SOnal friend, Manuel Quezon, when he with great eloquence said: "Rightly conceived, felt and practised, nationalism is a tremendous force for good. It strengthens and solidifies a nation. It preserves the best traditions ;)f the past and adds zest to the ambition of enlarging the inheritance of the people. It is, therefo1e, a dynamic urge for continuous self-improvement. In f ine, it enriches the sum total of mankind's cultural, moral, and material pos5essions through the individual and characteristic contribution of each people." Significantly, President Quezon liad this caution to offer. '·So Jong as the nationalistic sentiment is not fostered to the point whel'e a people forgets that it forms a part of the human family; that the good of mankind should be the ultimate aim of eac:h and eve1·y nation; and that Conflicting national interests are only temporary; R"nd that there is always a just formula for adjusting them- nationalism then he said, is .'.l. noble, elevating and most beneficial sentiment . " In theSe words of clarity and timeless wisdom, President Q11,..1.0n spuke a message fovever applicable to human a_ ffairs, partiCl:lady fitted to the circumstances of this era . Nationalism is a mighty and a relentless force. No conspirncy of power, no compusion of arms can stifle it forever. The <~onstructive nationalism defined' by Pl'esident Quezon is a noble, rcrsistent. fiery inspirntion; essential lo the development of a young nation. Within this ideal my own country since its earliest days has striven to achieve the American dream and destiny. We respect this quality in our sister nation. Communist leaders fear constructive nationalism as a mortal foe . This fear is evident in the continuing efforts of the Comr.1unist conspiracy to penetrate nationalists' movements, to pervert them, and to pirate them for their own evll objectives. To dominate-if they can-the eternal impulse of national patriotism, they use force and threats of fo-1·cc, subvc-11 sion and bribery, propaganda and spurious promises . They deny the dignity of men and have subjected man.y millions to the execution of master plans dictated in faraway places . Communism demands subservience to a single ideology, to a straight jacket of ideas and approaches and methods. Freedom of individuals or nations, to them is intolerable. But free men, free nations, make their own rules to fit their own needs within a universally accepted frame of justice and law. Under freedom, thriving sover-cign nations of diverse political, economic and social systems are the basic healthy cells that make up a thriving world commuriity. Freedom and independenr'e for each is in the interest of all. F or that very reason- in our own enlightened self-interest in the interest of all our frirnds-the purpose of American as. sistance programs is to protect the right of nations to develop the political and social instittition of their own choice. None, we lielieve, should have to accept the extremist solutious under the position, that whatever is said against them is based on solid fact and not on ,<;pite. And when a congressman in a priviliqed speech a.tt(},Cks the-m, riaht ·in the hall of the con.oress, where they cannot defend themselves, his parliarrumtary irnniunity makes it an oblipq,tion of honor for him to exercise such privilege with the fullest sense of respons·ibility. 162 LAWYERS JOURNAL June 30, Hl60 whip of hunger, or the threat of ar~ned attack and t.lomination. We, free, self-governing peoples readily accept the fact that there is a great variety of sooial, political, and economic systemf: in the world, and we accept the further fact that there is no single best way of life that nnswers the needs of everyone everywhere. The American way satisfies the United States. We think it best for us. But the United States need not believe that all should imitate us. What we do have in common with the free nations in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America are basic and weighty convictions, more important than differences of speech and color and culture. Some of these convic:tions are: thut man is n being capable of making his own dedsions; that all people should be given a fair opportunity to use their God-given talents, to be worthy heirs of their fathers, to fulfill their ~estiny as children of God; · that volunta1 y cooperation among g1·oups and nations is vastly preferable to cooperation by force-indeed, voluntary cooperation is the only fruitful kind of effort in the long run. True enough, in a too lengthy period of history, wme European nations seemed convinced that they were assigned the mission of controlling the continents. .But always powerful voices within these countries attacked the pol:cy of their own governments. And we of the AmeriC"'Jll Republics-twenty-one indepe"nJ. cnt nations, once European colonies----denied in arms and in bat•tle died there because true nationalism was a more potent force. Since 1945, thirty-three lands that were once subj\!ct to Western control have peaceably achieved self-determination. These countries have a population of almo::it a billion p1.:oplc. Durini; the same period, twelve countries in the Sino-Soviet sphere have been forcibly deprived of their independence . The question might be asked: Who are today the colonialists? The basic antagonism of the Communist system to anything which it cannot control is the single, most important cause of the tension between the free nations in all theil' va1·iety on the one hand, and, on the other, the rigidly controlled Jed Communist bloc. One purpose of the Communist system's propaganda is to obscure these true facts. Right now, the principal target is thu United States of America. The United Siales is painted as a1: imperialistic seeker of limitless power over a!l the peoples of the \Uorld, using them as pawns on the chess.board of war, exploiting them and their 1 ·esources to enrich our own economy, degradini.: them to a role of beggarly dependence. The existence, the prosperity, the prestige of the Republic of the Philippines proves the falsity of those charges. You, as a people, know that our American Republic is no empire of tyr<inny. Your leaders repeatedly ha·1e so testified before the world. But for a few minutes I should like to speak to you on what America stands fol': what it stood for before I became P1·esident and what it will continue to stand for after I have left office . More important than any one year, any one incident, or a11y orie man is the role we have played through our whole historythe role we shall continue to play so long as our J{epubl ic endures. Two hundred years lacking sixteen, have passed since our forefathers proclaimed to the wodd the tl'Uths they held self-evi<l· ent; that all men arc created equal; that t.hey are endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that governments are instituted nmong men to secu re these rights. deriving their j ust powers only from the consent of the governed. On the day of that proclamation, you and we and scores of othet· now free nations were colonies. Mankind everywhere \\·as engaged in a bitter struggle for bare survival Only a few by the accident of birth enjoyed ease without back-breaking toil. Kaked power, more often than not, was the decisive element in human affairs . Most men died young after an all too short life of poverty. Since then, free l'nen-using their rights, embracing their opportunities, daring to venture and to risk, recognizing that justice and good will fortify strength-have transformed the world. The wilderness and jungle of nature have \)een conquered. The mysteries 'of the universe are being unlocked. The poWers of the elements have been harnessed for human benefits. The .rncient tyrannies of hunger and disease and ignorance have been r{']entlessly reduced in their domains. The evil of our forebeius' time were manifold and entrenched and often accepted without murmur . But to free men who ~aw in their fellow men the image of God, who recognized in themSl'lvcs a capacity to transform their circumstances and environment-to such free men, these evils were unbearable. Not all these evils were vanquished at the first assault. Intit:ed, many still survive. Not always was success persistently prosecuted to ultimate triumph. Free men, however mighty theil' i1~spiration, are humanly ~rail. At times they may be fearful when they should be girding nnd brncing themselves for more vigorous effort; trading words when they would be working; bickering over trifles when they should be uniting on essentials; rioting when they should be c:.hnly planning. Often they may dissipate their energies in futile and wasteful exercise . O~ten they arc mistaken or for a while misled. Being human these thir.gs are true about all of Nevertheless, the resou rces of free men Jiving in free communities, coopcri>.ting with their neighbors at home and overseas, constitute the mightiest creative temporal force on earth. In your sister Republic of the United States, the greatest nchievement of our history is that our rebels against colonialism against subjection, against tyranny, were the first in this era to raise the banner of frMom and decent nationalism, to C'arry it beyond your own shores, and lo honor it everywhere. What we stood for in 1776, when we were fighting fo1· our own freedom, we still stand for in 1960. To maintain our stand for pence and friendship and freedom .rmong the nations, the United States must remain sti·on;; and fnithful to its friends, making clear that propaganda p1·essure~, rocket 1~attling and even open aggression are bound to fail. Beyond the g·uarantees of American strength, we seek to c:.pand a collective security. 5EATO demonstrntes what can be accomplished. Since its inception not one inch of free Southeast Asia territory has been lost to an aggressor . Collective serni·ity must be based on all fields of human en. cicavo1-, requiring cooperation and mutual exchange in the a reas of politics, economics, culture and science . We believe in the ex1mnsion of relations between nations as a step towa1·d more formal regional cooperation. In accord with this belief, we support the initiative taken by the Goveriiment of the Philippines during the past several years in establishing closer ties with its neighbors. Patience, forebearance, integ1;ty, n11 enclui·ing t1·ust, must !Jet\\een our two countries characte11ize om· mutual relations . Never, I pray, will the United State:,; because of its favored po3ition in size and numbers and wealth, attempt to dictate or to e.xercisc any unfair pressure of any kind, or to forget or to ignore the Hepublic of the Philippines-its equal in scvereignty dignity. (applause) And never, I pray, wi!l the Philippines deem it advantageous either at home or abroad or to make a whipping bo~· of the United States. (applause). Each of us pn,iudly recognizes the other as a sovereign equal. My friends, at this point, I ju3t want to interpolate one ~i mple thought; in the cooperative efforts for own security, for o.dvancing the standards of Jiving, of peoples, for everything that June 30, 1960 LAWYERS JOURNAL 103 PRESIDENT EISENHOWER'S SPEECH ON THE EVE OF HIS DEPARTURE' 1\11·. President, you, on behalf of the Filipino people, have just bestowed a great honor upon me. Proudly, I accept, in the name of the American people, the nward of Rajah in the Ancient Order of Sikatuna. My friends, t.his Luneta was for more than four years the se'ene of my habitual evening walks. To this day it lives in memory as one of the most pleasant - even indeed one of the most romantic spots - I have known in this entire world. (Applause) Leaving the front entrance of the Manila Hotel of an evening I could walk to the right to view the busy docks where Philippine commerce with the world was loaded and unloaded. From here, looking across the peaceful waters of Manila Bay, I could see the gorgeous sunsets over :Marivcles. Walking toward lhe Club of the Army and the Navy, and looking down toward the city itself, I nearly always paused for n moment before the statue of the great Jose Rizal before returning to my quarters. One thing that made those evening promenades so pleasant, so meaningful, was the deep sense of feeling I had of Philippine-American friendi;,hip. To you, assembled before this platform - to Filipinos and Americans everywhere and to those who are gone from among us - is due the credit of having forged our close friendship in war and in peace. (Applause) Now, upon both om peopl::s still rest the grave responsibility of working together tirelessly in the promotion of liberty and world peaoe. The voluntary association of free peoples produces - from the sharing of common ideals of justice, equality and liberty -· a strength and moral fiber which tyrannies never attain by coercion, control and oppression. Such tyrannies cnn, of course, concentrate upon a single objective the toil of millions upon millions of men and women; working endless hours; denied even the smallest happiness of human living; sometimes whipped, sometimes cajoled, always treated as robots bereft of human dignity. For a spaoe of years, particularly if the peoples they regiment havC' known little of freedom or of a decent prosperity, such dictatorships may seem to achieve marvels. But in their denial of human dignitytheiri destruction of individual self-esteem - they write the eventual doom of their system. Long before many of us here today were bom, a great Filipino, Jose Rizal, in vivid and eloquent language, foretold the eruption of these tyrannies and predicted their ultimate fate. He said: "Deprive a man of his dignity, and you not only dep:·i\·e h''ll of his moral strength but you a!So make him useless even for •Remarks by Pr..,,ident Dwil(ht D. Eisenhower at J)ublic reception Qt Luneta, June 16. 1960. we do together, there is of course differences in the ability of each nation to make contributions. Each of us, as an individual, is different from every other individual. Physically, mentally, in the possession of world goods, we are rnmewhat different but I submit, members of the Congress, that the1 e is one field where no man, no one, no nation need take a secondary plaC'e, and that is, in moral leadership. The spirit of a people does not-is not-tr. be measured by its size or its riches or even its age . It is something that comes from the heart, a11d from the very smallest T1ation can come some of the great ideas, particularly those great inspirational ideas that inspire men to strive always upwa:·d and onward. Therefore, when I say the1·e are two nations that are sovereign equals, I mean it in just that spirit in the sense that those that wish to make use . of him. Every creature has its stimulus, its mainspring. Man's is his self.esteem. Take it away from him and he is a co1pse ... " Now, tyra nnies of many sorts still exist in the world. All are i·ejected by free men. Some authoritarian governments, being narrow in ambition, content themselves with local and confined dominance. Others are blatant in their boasts of eventual su1>rcmacy over continents and even the world; constant in their boast that eventually they will bury all systems of freedom. That boast will never come true. Even in the lands that Communists now master with an iron rule, the eternal aspiration of humanity cannot be forever suppressed. The truth enunciated by J ose Rizal is universal in its application. But tyrannies, heforf\ their fated deterioration and disappearance, can, sometimes for many years, engulf and eiislave free people unable to resist them. In that knowledge, the free wodd -- two.thirds of the earth's population - step by step moves towards a more effective part'nership that freedom, human dignity, the noble heritages of many centuries may withstand successfully all aggression. Some nations are still reluctant to commit themselves fully; others are divided on commitments already made, or of bribe; possibly oonfused by propaganda and threat - oppose even the most obviously profitable associations. But most stand firmly together. The free world must increase in ·strength - in military defenses, in economic growth, in spiritual dedication. Thus the free world will withstand aggressive pressu .. es, and move ever forward in its search for enduring peace. Your government has recently reaffirmed your determination t-O stand steadfast by joining only two weeks ago in t he oommunique issued in Washington by the Council of Ministers of the eight nations of SEATO. They staled clearly that; "The Council availed itself of this timely opportunity to reemphasize the firm unity of purpose of the member countries of SEATO and their determination to maintain and develop, both individually and collectively, their peac~ and security in the Treaty Area." May I say here that the United States is proud, indeed, is thankful to be so closely associated and so staunchly allied with t he Philippines both in SEATO and in the Mutual Defense Treaty h~tween our two countries. (Applause) But in this world of continuing tension and yearnings for social change, it is insufficient that the free world stand ·Static in its defense of freedom. ·we must, all of us, move ahead with imagination and pasitive (Continued on page 191) we (applause) that you have just as much to contribute to the world and to yourselves and to freedom as the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. (Applause). F inally, in the great cause of peace and friendship and freeclom, we who are joined together will succeed. The eternal aspirntions, purposes, ideals of humanity inspire and hearten and urge us to success . But we face repeated challenges; endless .temptations to relax, continuous campaigns of propaganda and threat. Let us stand more firmly together against them all, and so doing and with God's help we shall he great and (prolong applause) good friends. 164 LAWYERS JOURNAL J une 30, 1960