State of the Union

Seven years ago I entered my present office with one long-held resolve overriding all others. I was then, and remain now, determined that the U.S. shall become an ever more potent resource for the cause of peace--realizing that peace cannot be for ourselves alone but for peoples everywhere.

Around President Eisenhower as he thus began his eighth State of the Union message sat members of the U.S. Congress, the diplomatic corps including Soviet Ambassador Mikhail Menshikov, the nine Supreme Court justices, the Cabinet (minus vacationing Secretary of State Christian Herter), and galleries packed with hushed spectators, including Mamie Eisenhower and Son Major John. And as the President spoke on for 46 minutes, his voice clear, his demeanor serious, he cast such far-ranging topics as missile power, foreign aid, inflation, steel strike, civil rights and rule of law into that single theme of searching for peace in freedom. Said Ike: "This determination is shared by the entire Congress--indeed, by all Americans."

Seeking Peace Abroad. The prospect of world peace is made up of three basic elements, said the President. These are 1) possession by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. of "unbelievably destructive weapons" with which "mutual annihilation becomes a possibility," 2) recent Soviet "deportment" that suggests tension lessening but that"remains to be tested by actions," and 3) vast new technological gains that offer mankind the "capacity to make poverty and human misery obsolete." Said Ike: "We must strive to break the calamitous cycle of frustrations and crises which, if unchecked, could spiral into nuclear disaster--the ultimate insanity." U.S. courses of action:

NEGOTIATE WITH THE KREMLIN. "We cannot expect sudden and revolutionary results. But we must find some place to begin." The U.S. wants therefore to 1) widen people-to-people exchanges; 2) press the talks with the U.S.S.R. at Geneva, resuming this week, on the nuclear test deadlock; 3) stress disarmament negotiations even though the Soviets "have not made clear the plans they may have, if any, for mutual inspection and verification--the essential condition for an extensive measure of disarmament."

BROADEN FOREIGN AID. "All people of the free world have a great stake in the progress in freedom of the uncommitted and newly emerging nations." And the U.S.'s partners in Western Europe and Japan, newly prosperous, should now participate actively, increasingly and especially with private capital to help the new nations. "The immediate need for this kind of cooperation is underscored by the strain in our international balance of payments [that in 1959] approached $4 billion."

STAND ON STRONG DEFENSES. "Until tangible and mutually enforceable arms reduction measures are worked out, we will not weaken," pledged Ike. The U.S.'s "enormous" deterrent power includes: 1)"long-range striking power unmatched in manned bombers"; 2)the Atlas intercontinental missile, now operational with 15 successful test shots in a row at 5,000-mile range, impacting, at average, within two miles from target--"less than the length of a jet runway"; 3) nuclear-powered submarines to be armed with Polaris missiles --"impossible to destroy by surprise attack"; 4) such limited war weapons as Navy carriers and Army and Marine divisions; 5) military aid to U.S. allies now to be regeared onto a "longerrange basis for a sounder collective defense system."

EXPLORE OUTER SPACE. Space exploration, said the President with an air of finality that was bound to stir up a debate with space-minded military planners, is "often mistakenly supposed to be an integral part of defense research and development."Expenditure for a scientifically oriented space program will be practically doubled. He is dissatisfied with the way space agencies are set up under the year-old space law, and will ask for changes (reportedly putting a White House boss over both civilian and military space agencies).

Seeking Peace at Home. To support such building bricks of peace, the President went on, will require constant strengthening of "the spiritual, intellectual and economic sinews" and dealing with "nagging disorders" that continue to afflict U.S. life. Proposed course of action at home:

BRING LABOR & MANAGEMENT TOGETHER. The steel strike has been settled on terms that seem to imply "no increase in steel prices at this time," but "the national interest demands that... both management and labor make every possible effort to increase efficiency and productivity ... so that price increases can be avoided." To guard against future "longer and greater strikes," he intends (borrowing a proposal by A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany and Labor Secretary Mitchell) to encourage labor-management talks "outside the bargaining table" to consider the public interest. Missing: any proposal to strengthen the Taft-Hartley law, which would have left the U.S. powerless to interfere with a renewed steel strike had a settlement not been achieved.

MODERNIZE FARM LAWS. "When the original farm laws were written, an hour's farm labor produced only one-fourth as much wheat as at present. Farm legislation is woefully out of date, ineffective and expensive . . . Once again I urge Congress to enact legislation that will gear production more closely to markets, make costly surpluses more manageable, provide greater freedom in farm operations and steadily achieve increased net farm incomes."Specifics to come in a separate message.

STAMP OUT INFLATION. Nothing threatens the U.S. economy more than inflation --"a fire that imperils our home." Despite the steel strike, said Ike amid the loudest applause of his speech, the U.S.'s books should show a surplus of $200 million for this (1960) fiscal year. Then Ike read out a passage that he had kept secret from his closest advisers until time of delivery. For fiscal 1961 (ending June 30, 1961), he said, he would submit a balanced budget of $79.8 billion--and this time the U.S. ought to rack up a surplus of $4.2 billion. The surplus would not go to a tax cut, but to cut down the $290 billion national debt. The President added an unfamiliar note: "Personally I do not feel that any amount can be properly called a surplus as long as the nation is in debt. I prefer to think of such an item as reduction on our children's inherited mortgage."

EXPAND CIVIL RIGHTS. "In all our hopes and plans for a better world . . . provincial and racial prejudices must be corn-batted"; in all the U.S.'s history, the right to vote has been a pillar of freedom. Hence, said the President, the U.S.'s "first duty" is to protect the right to vote for all against "encroachment" and "bias."

EXPAND RULE or LAW. In the broader terms of the U.S.'s world objectives, the Administration intends to move positively toward a world rule of law by advocating greater U.S. participation in the International Court of Justice at The Hague. He will specifically support a Senate resolution to repeal the so-called Connally Amendment of 1946 that permits the U.S. to exclude from the World Court any dispute that "lies essentially within domestic jurisdiction."

The Fountainhead. "I am not unique as a President in having worked with a Congress controlled by the opposition party," said he with a smile as he neared the end of his message, "except that no other President ever did it for quite so long." Then Ike, in one of his best perorations, spoke out once more the faith in peace in freedom that may not be unique but is deeply personal. "Before us and our friends," said he, "is the challenge of an ideology, which, for more than four decades, has trumpeted abroad its purpose of gaining ultimate victory . . . The competition they provide is formidable. But in our scale of values we place freedom first.

"On my recent visit to distant lands I found one statesman after another eager to tell me of the elements of their government that had been borrowed from our American Constitution and from the indestructible ideals set forth in our Declaration of Independence. As a nation we take pride that our own constitutional system and the ideals which sustain it have long been viewed as a fountainhead of freedom.

"And we must live by what we say. By our every action we must strive to make ourselves worthy of this trust, ever mindful that an accumulation of seemingly minor encroachments upon freedom gradually could break down the entire fabric of a free society. So persuaded, we shall get on with the task before us. So dedicated, and with faith in the Almighty, humanity shall one day achieve the unity in freedom to which all men have aspired from the dawn of time."

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