Good evening. The television and radio stations of the United States and their affiliated
stations are proud to provide facilities for a discussion of issues in the current political
campaign by the two major candidates for the presidency. The candidates need no introduction.
The Republican candidate, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, and the Democratic candidate, Senator
John F. Kennedy. According to rules set by the candidates themselves, each man shall
make an opening statement of approximately eight minutes' duration and a closing statement
of approximately three minutes' duration. In between the candidates will answer, or
comment upon answers to questions put by a panel of correspondents. In this, the first
discussion in a series of four uh - joint appearances, the subject-matter has been agreed,
will be restricted to internal or domestic American matters. And now for the first opening
statement by Senator John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Smith, Mr. Nixon. In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln said the question was whether
this nation could exist half-slave or half-free. In the election of 1960, and with the world
around us, the question is whether the world will exist half-slave or half-free, whether
it will move in the direction of freedom, in the direction of the road that we are taking,
or whether it will move in the direction of slavery. I think it will depend in great measure
upon what we do here in the United States, on the kind of society that we build, on the
kind of strength that we maintain. We discuss tonight domestic issues, but I would not want
that to be any implication to be given that this does not involve directly our struggle
with Mr. Khrushchev for survival. Mr. Khrushchev is in New York, and he maintains the Communist
offensive throughout the world because of the productive power of the Soviet Union itself.
The Chinese Communists have always had a large population. But they are important and dangerous
now because they are mounting a major effort within their own country. The kind of country
we have here, the kind of society we have, the kind of strength we build in the United
States will be the defense of freedom. If we do well here, if we meet our obligations,
if we're moving ahead, then I think freedom will be secure around the world. If we fail,
then freedom fails. Therefore, I think the question before the American people is: Are
we doing as much as we can do? Are we as strong as we should be? Are we as strong as we must
be if we're going to maintain our independence, and if we're going to maintain and hold out
the hand of friendship to those who look to us for assistance, to those who look to us
for survival? I should make it very clear that I do not think we're doing enough, that
I am not satisfied as an American with the progress that we're making. This is a great
country, but I think it could be a greater country; and this is a powerful country, but
I think it could be a more powerful country. I'm not satisfied to have fifty percent of
our steel-mill capacity unused. I'm not satisfied when the United States had last year the lowest
rate of economic growth of any major industrialized society in the world. Because economic growth
means strength and vitality; it means we're able to sustain our defenses; it means we're
able to meet our commitments abroad. I'm not satisfied when we have over nine billion dollars
worth of food - some of it rotting - even though there is a hungry world, and even though
four million Americans wait every month for a food package from the government, which
averages five cents a day per individual. I saw cases in West Virginia, here in the
United States, where children took home part of their school lunch in order to feed their
families because I don't think we're meeting our obligations toward these Americans. I'm
not satisfied when the Soviet Union is turning out twice as many scientists and engineers
as we are. I'm not satisfied when many of our teachers are inadequately paid, or when
our children go to school part-time shifts. I think we should have an educational system
second to none. I'm not satisfied when I see men like Jimmy Hoffa - in charge of the largest
union in the United States - still free. I'm 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. These are all the things, I think, in this country that can
make our society strong, or can mean that it stands still. I'm not satisfied until every
American enjoys his full constitutional rights. If a Negro baby is born - and this is true
also of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans in some of our cities - he has about one-half as much
chance to get through high school as a white baby. He has one-third as much chance to get
through college as a white student. He has about a third as much chance to be a professional
man, about half as much chance to own a house. He has about uh - four times as much chance
that he'll be out of work in his life as the white baby. I think we can do better. I don't
want the talents of any American to go to waste. I know that there are those who want
to turn everything over to the government. I don't at all. I want the individuals to
meet their responsibilities. And I want the states to meet their responsibilities. But
I think there is also a national responsibility. The argument has been used against every piece
of social legislation in the last twenty-five years. The people of the United States individually
could not have developed the Tennessee Valley; collectively they could have. A cotton farmer
in Georgia or a peanut farmer or a dairy farmer in Wisconsin and Minnesota, he cannot protect
himself against the forces of supply and demand in the market place; but working together
in effective governmental programs he can do so. Seventeen million Americans, who live
over sixty-five on an average Social Security check of about seventy-eight dollars a month,
they're not able to sustain themselves individually, but they can sustain themselves through the
social security system. I don't believe in big government, but I believe in effective
governmental action. And I think that's the only way that the United States is going to
maintain its freedom. It's the only way that we're going to move ahead. I think we can
do a better job. I think we're going to have to do a better job if we are going to meet
the responsibilities which time and events have placed upon us. We cannot turn the job
over to anyone else. If the United States fails, then the whole cause of freedom fails.
And I think it depends in great measure on what we do here in this country. The reason
Franklin Roosevelt was a good neighbor in Latin America was because he was a good neighbor
in the United States. Because they felt that the American society was moving again. I want
us to recapture that image. I want people in Latin America and Africa and Asia to start
to look to America; to see how we're doing things; to wonder what the resident of the
United States is doing; and not to look at Khrushchev, or look at the Chinese Communists.
That is the obligation upon our generation. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt said in his inaugural
that this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. I think our generation of Americans
has the same rendezvous. The question now is: Can freedom be maintained under the most
severe tack - attack it has ever known? I think it can be. And I think in the final
analysis it depends upon what we do here. I think it's time America started moving again.
And now the opening statement by Vice President Richard M. Nixon.