Lyndon Baines Johnson

“ I report tonight as President of the United States and as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on the strength of your country, and I tell you that is greater than any adversary. (Applause) I assure you that it is greater than the combined might of all nations in all the wars, in all the history of this planet. (Applause) And I report our superiority is growing. (Applause) Weapons do not make peace. Men make peace. ”

“ The man who is hungry, who cannot find work or educate his children, who is bound by want – that man is not fully free.
For more than 30 years, from Social Security to the war against poverty, we have diligently worked to enlarge the freedom of man. As a result, Americans tonight are freer to live as they want to live, to pursue their ambitions, to meet their desires to raise their families than at any time in all or our glorious history. ”

“ For 30 years, year by year, step by step, vote by vote, men of both parties have built a solid foundation for our present prosperity. Too many have worked too long and too hard to see this threatened now by polices which propose to undo all that we have done together over all these years. (Applause)
I believe most of the men and women in this hall tonight, and I believe most Americans, understand that to reach our goals in our own land, we must work for peace among all lands. ”

“ We are in the midst of the largest and the longest period of peacetime prosperity in our history. (Applause) And almost every American listening to us tonight has seen the results in his own life.
But prosperity for most has not brought prosperity to all. Those who have received the bounty of this land, who sit tonight secure in affluence and safe in power, must not now turn from the needs of their neighbors. (Applause)
Our Party and our Nation will continue to extend the hand of affection and love to the old and the sick and the hungry. ”

“ It is between those who have vision and those who can see what can be, and those who want only to maintain the status quo. (Applause)
It is between those who welcome the future and those who turn away from its promises. ”

“ And as a result of these policies, the world tonight knows where we stand; and our allies where we stand, too. Our adversaries have learned again that we will never waver in the defense of freedom. (Applause)
The true courage of this nuclear age lies in the quest for peace. There is no place in today’s world for weakness. But there is also no place in today ’s world for recklessness. (Applause) We cannot act rashly with the nuclear weapons that could destroy us all. ”