The Secretary of Defense will soon come before you with our detailed proposals for the coming year. He will have recommendations for further strength… - Lyndon B. Johnson

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The Secretary of Defense will soon come before you with our detailed proposals for the coming year. He will have recommendations for further strengthening of our strategic forces and our conventional forces. He will have additional suggestions for achieving greater efficiency, and therefore greater economy. As you consider the state of our defenses and form your judgments as to our future course, I know that you will do so in the knowledge that today we Americans are responsible not only for our own security but, in concert with our Allies, for the security of the Free World. Upon our strength and our wisdom rests the future not only of our American way of life, but that of the whole society of free men. This is an awesome responsibility. So far, we have borne it well. As our strength rose--and largely as a consequence of that strength--we have been able to take encouraging steps toward peace. We have established an Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. We have signed a limited nuclear test ban agreement with the Soviet Union. We have, at the same time, met the challenge of force, unflinchingly, from Berlin to Cuba. In each case, the threat has receded and international tensions have diminished. In a world of 120 nations, there are still great dangers to be faced. As old threats are turned back, change and turmoil will present new ones. The vigilance and courage we have shown in the last twenty years must be sustained as far ahead as we can see. The defense of freedom remains our duty-twenty-four hours a day and every day of the year. We cannot know the future and what it holds. But all our experience of two centuries reminds us that--"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."

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About Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson (27 August 1908 – 22 January 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician. After a long career in U.S. legislatures, Johnson became the vice president of the United States of America under John F. Kennedy, from 1961 to 1963. A Democrat, Johnson became the 36th U.S. president in 1963, after Kennedy's assassination. He served in the role until 1969.

Also Known As

Native Name: Lyndon Baines Johnson
Also Known As: LBJ
Alternative Names: Lyndon Johnson President Johnson L. B. Johnson
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I know that I was only one of many, because we had a group of outstanding candidates throughout the Nation, and we had men of independent views and men and women of both parties who put their country before their party. Now, tonight, our purpose must be to bind up our wounds, to heal our history, and to make this Nation whole. I know that this is more than a victory of party or person. It is a tribute to the program that was begun by our beloved President John F. Kennedy--a program that he carried on until he was taken from us. It is visible evidence of the work of a devoted and unselfish Cabinet, men like Dean Rusk, Bob McNamara, and Douglas Dillon, and all of the other members of the Cabinet and the independent agencies whose service has not been partisan, but has always been in the national interest. It is a tribute to the men and women of all parties in the Congress and the Nation. It reaffirms the achievements and the policies which have emerged over generations from common American principles.

Tonight we of the Democratic Party confidently go before the people offering answers, not retreat; offering unity, not division; offering hope, not fear or smear. We do offer the people a choice, a choice of continuing on the courageous and the compassionate course that has made this Nation the strongest and the freest and the most prosperous and the most peaceful nation in the history of mankind. To those who have sought to divide us they have only helped to unite us. To those who would provoke us we have turned the other cheek. So as we conclude our labors, let us tomorrow turn to our new task. Let us be on our way!

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New York has had many great leaders. One of them has an important meaning for this campaign--that great American Al Smith. When he received the presidential nomination, he said he would follow the principles of Woodrow Wilson: "First, the people as the source, and their interests and desires, as the text, of law and government. Second, individual liberty as the objective of all law." Well, today there are those who call upon us to abandon our historic principles under the pretense of pursuing that individual liberty which Al Smith prized so highly. And yet, time and time again, they themselves have struck at the foundation of our American freedom. They call for freedom and then they attack the courts which protect that freedom. They call for freedom and they would strip away the rights of those accused of crime, rights developed over centuries to protect against arbitrary power. They call for freedom and yet accuse their opponents of being soft on communism or even worse, branding as heretics or traitors all those who ever disagree with them. They call for freedom and they attack our religious leaders for trying to exercise their ancient responsibility--as clergymen and citizens--to guide people in the course of life. But worst of all, they call for freedom and yet they help create the atmosphere of hate and fear and suspicion in which individual liberty faces its maximum danger.

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