Since we enacted the Social Security Act back in 1935, Congress has

recognized the necessity to “make more adequate provision for aged

persons . . . through maternal and child welfare . . . and public

health.” Those are the words of the Congress--“more adequate.”

The time has come, I think, to make it more adequate. I believe we

should increase social security benefits, and I am so recommending

tonight.

I am suggesting that there should be an overall increase in benefits of

at least 13 percent. Those who receive only the minimum of $55 should

get $80 a month.

Our Nation, too, is rightfully proud of our medical advances. But we

should remember that our country ranks 15th among the nations of the

world in its infant mortality rate.

I think we should assure decent medical care for every expectant mother

and for their children during the first year of their life in the United

States of America.

I think we should protect our children and their families from the costs

of catastrophic illness.

As we pass on from medicine, I think nothing is clearer to the Congress

than the commitment that the Congress made to end poverty. Congress

expressed it well, I think, in 1964, when they said: “It is the policy

of the United States to eliminate the paradox of poverty in the midst of

plenty in this nation.”

This is the richest nation in the world. The antipoverty program has had

many achievements. It also has some failures. But we must not cripple it

after only 3 years of trying to solve the human problems that have been

with us and have been building up among us for generations.

I believe the Congress this year will want to improve the administration

of the poverty program by reorganizing portions of it and transferring

them to other agencies. I believe, though, it will want to continue,

until we have broken the back of poverty, the efforts we are now making

throughout this land.

I believe, and I hope the next administration--I believe they

believe--that the key to success in this effort is jobs. It is work for

people who want to work.

In the budget for fiscal 1970, I shall recommend a total of $3.5 billion

for our job training program, and that is five times as much as we spent

in 1964 trying to prepare Americans where they can work to earn their

own living.

The Nation’s commitment in the field of civil rights began with the

Declaration of Independence. They were extended by the 13th, 14th, and

15th amendments. They have been powerfully strengthened by the enactment

of three far-reaching civil rights laws within the past 5 years, that

this Congress, in its wisdom, passed.

On January 1 of this year, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 covered over 20

million American homes and apartments. The prohibition against racial

discrimination in that act should be remembered and it should be

vigorously enforced throughout this land.

I believe we should also extend the vital provisions of the Voting

Rights Act for another 5 years.

In the Safe Streets Act of 1968, Congress determined “To assist state

and local governments in reducing the incidence of crime.”

This year I am proposing that the Congress provide the full $300 million

that the Congress last year authorized to do just that.

I hope the Congress will put the money where the authorization is.

I believe this is an essential contribution to justice and to public

order in the United States. I hope these grants can be made to the

States and they can be used effectively to reduce the crime rate in this

country.

But all of this is only a small part of the total effort that must be

made--I think chiefly by the local governments throughout the Nation--if

we expect to reduce the toll of crime that we all detest.

Frankly, as I leave the Office of the Presidency, one of my greatest

disappointments is our failure to secure passage of a licensing and

registration act for firearms. I think if we had passed that act, it

would have reduced the incidence of crime. I believe that the Congress

should adopt such a law, and I hope that it will at a not too distant

date.

In order to meet our long-standing commitment to make government as

efficient as possible, I believe that we should reorganize our postal

system along the lines of the Kappel[1] report.

[Footnote 1: Frederick R. Kappel, Chairman of the Commission on

Executive, Legislative and Judicial Salaries.]

I hope we can all agree that public service should never impose an

unreasonable financial sacrifice on able men and women who want to serve

their country.

I believe that the recommendations of the Commission on Executive,

Legislative and Judicial Salaries are generally sound. Later this week,

I shall submit a special message which I reviewed with the leadership

this evening containing a proposal that has been reduced and has

modified the Commission’s recommendation to some extent on the

congressional salaries.

For Members of Congress, I will recommend the basic compensation not of

the $50,000 unanimously recommended by the Kappel Commission and the

other distinguished Members, but I shall reduce that $50,000 to $42,500.

I will suggest that Congress appropriate a very small additional

allowance for official expenses, so that Members will not be required to

use their salary increase for essential official business.

I would have submitted the Commission’s recommendations, except the

advice that I received from the leadership--and you usually are

consulted about matters that affect the Congress--was that the Congress

would not accept the $50,000 recommendation, and if I expected my

recommendation to be seriously considered, I should make substantial

reductions. That is the only reason I didn’t go along with the Kappel

report.

In 1967 I recommended to the Congress a fair and impartial random

selection system for the draft. I submit it again tonight for your most

respectful consideration.

I know that all of us recognize that most of the things we do to meet

all of these commitments I talk about will cost money. If we maintain

the strong rate of growth that we have had in this country for the past

8 years, I think we shall generate the resources that we need to meet

these commitments.

We have already been able to increase our support for major social

programs--although we have heard a lot about not being able to do

anything on the home front because of Vietnam; but we have been able in

the last 5 years to increase our commitments for such things as health

and education from $30 billion in 1964 to $68 billion in the coming

fiscal year. That is more than double. That is more than it has ever

been increased in the 188 years of this Republic, notwithstanding

Vietnam.

We must continue to budget our resources and budget them responsibly in

a way that will preserve our prosperity and will strengthen our dollar.

Greater revenues and the reduced Federal spending required by Congress

last year have changed the budgetary picture dramatically since last

January when we made our estimates. At that time, you will remember that

we estimated we would have a deficit of $8 billion. Well, I am glad to

report to you tonight that the fiscal year ending June 30, 1969, this

June, we are going to have not a deficit, but we are going to have a

$2.4 billion surplus.

You will receive the budget tomorrow. The budget for the next fiscal

year, that begins July 1--which you will want to examine very carefully

in the days ahead--will provide a $3.4 billion surplus.

This budget anticipates the extension of the surtax that Congress

enacted last year. I have communicated with the President-elect, Mr.

Nixon, in connection with this policy of continuing the surtax for the

time being.

I want to tell you that both of us want to see it removed just as soon

as circumstances will permit, but the President-elect has told me that

he has concluded that until his administration, and this Congress, can

examine the appropriation bills, and each item in the budget, and can

ascertain that the facts justify permitting the surtax to expire or to

be reduced, he, Mr. Nixon, will support my recommendation that the

surtax be continued.

Americans, I believe, are united in the hope that the Paris talks will

bring an early peace to Vietnam. And if our hopes for an early

settlement of the war are realized, then our military expenditures can

be reduced and very substantial savings can be made to be used for other

desirable purposes, as the Congress may determine.

In any event, I think it is imperative that we do all that we

responsibly can to resist inflation while maintaining our prosperity. I

think all Americans know that our prosperity is broad and it is deep,

and it has brought record profits, the highest in our history, and

record wages.

Our gross national product has grown more in the last 5 years than any

other period in our Nation’s history. Our wages have been the highest.

Our profits have been the best. This prosperity has enabled millions to

escape the poverty that they would have otherwise had the last few

years.

I think also you will be very glad to hear that the Secretary of the

Treasury informs me tonight that in 1968 in our balance of payments we

have achieved a surplus. It appears that we have, in fact, done better

this year than we have done in any year in this regard since the year

1957.

The quest for a durable peace, I think, has absorbed every

administration since the end of World War II. It has required us to seek

a limitation of arms races not only among the superpowers, but among the

smaller nations as well. We have joined in the test ban treaty of 1963,

the outer space treaty of 1967, and the treaty against the spread of

nuclear weapons in 1968.

This latter agreement--the nonproliferation treaty--is now pending in

the Senate and it has been pending there since last July. In my opinion,

delay in ratifying it is not going to be helpful to the cause of peace.

America took the lead in negotiating this treaty and America should now

take steps to have it approved at the earliest possible date.

Until a way can be found to scale down the level of arms among the

superpowers, mankind cannot view the future without fear and great

apprehension. So, I believe that we should resume the talks with the

Soviet Union about limiting offensive and defensive missile systems. I

think they would already have been resumed except for Czechoslovakia and

our election this year.

It was more than 20 years ago that we embarked on a program of trying to

aid the developing nations. We knew then that we could not live in good

conscience as a rich enclave on an earth that was seething in misery.

During these years there have been great advances made under our

program, particularly against want and hunger, although we are

disappointed at the appropriations last year. We thought they were

woefully inadequate. This year I am asking for adequate funds for

economic assistance in the hope that we can further peace throughout the

world.

I think we must continue to support efforts in regional cooperation.

Among those efforts, that of Western Europe has a very special place in

America’s concern.

The only course that is going to permit Europe to play the great world

role that its resources permit is to go forward to unity. I think

America remains ready to work with a united Europe, to work as a partner

on the basis of equality.

For the future, the quest for peace, I believe, requires:

--that we maintain the liberal trade policies that have helped us become

the leading nation in world trade,

--that we strengthen the international monetary system as an instrument

of world prosperity, and

--that we seek areas of agreement with the Soviet Union where the

interests of both nations and the interests of world peace are properly

served.

The strained relationship between us and the world’s leading Communist

power has not ended--especially in the light of the brutal invasion of

Czechoslovakia. But totalitarianism is no less odious to us because we

are able to reach some accommodation that reduces the danger of world

catastrophe.

What we do, we do in the interest of peace in the world. We earnestly

hope that time will bring a Russia that is less afraid of diversity and

individual freedom.

The quest for peace tonight continues in Vietnam, and in the Paris

talks.

I regret more than any of you know that it has not been possible to

restore peace to South Vietnam.

The prospects, I think, for peace are better today than at any time

since North Vietnam began its invasion with its regular forces more than

4 years ago.

The free nations of Asia know what they were not sure of at that time:

that America cares about their freedom, and it also cares about

America’s own vital interests in Asia and throughout the Pacific.

The North Vietnamese know that they cannot achieve their aggressive

purposes by force. There may be hard fighting before a settlement is

reached; but, I can assure you, it will yield no victory to the

Communist cause.

I cannot speak to you tonight about Vietnam without paying a very

personal tribute to the men who have carried the battle out there for

all of us. I have been honored to be their Commander in Chief. The

Nation owes them its unstinting support while the battle continues--and

its enduring gratitude when their service is done.

Finally, the quest for stable peace in the Middle East goes on in many

capitals tonight. America fully supports the unanimous resolution of the

U.N. Security Council which points the way. There must be a settlement

of the armed hostility that exists in that region of the world today. It

is a threat not only to Israel and to all the Arab States, but it is a

threat to every one of us and to the entire world as well.

Now, my friends in Congress, I want to conclude with a few very personal

words to you.

I rejected and rejected and then finally accepted the congressional

leadership’s invitation to come here to speak this farewell to you in

person tonight.

I did that for two reasons. One was philosophical. I wanted to give you

my judgment, as I saw it, on some of the issues before our Nation, as I

view them, before I leave.

The other was just pure sentimental. Most all of my life as a public

official has been spent here in this building. For 38 years--since I

worked on that gallery as a doorkeeper in the House of

Representatives--I have known these halls, and I have known most of the

men pretty well who walked them.

I know the questions that you face. I know the conflicts that you

endure. I know the ideals that you seek to serve.

I left here first to become Vice President, and then to become, in a

moment of tragedy, the President of the United States.

My term of office has been marked by a series of challenges, both at

home and throughout the world.

In meeting some of these challenges, the Nation has found a new

confidence. In meeting others, it knew turbulence and doubt, and fear

and hate.

Throughout this time, I have been sustained by my faith in

representative democracy--a faith that I had learned here in this

Capitol Building as an employee and as a Congressman and as a Senator.

I believe deeply in the ultimate purposes of this Nation--described by

the Constitution, tempered by history, embodied in progressive laws, and

given life by men and women that have been elected to serve their fellow

citizens.

Now for 5 most demanding years in the White House, I have been

strengthened by the counsel and the cooperation of two great former

Presidents, Harry S. Truman and Dwight David Eisenhower. I have been

guided by the memory of my pleasant and close association with the

beloved John F. Kennedy, and with our greatest modern legislator,

Speaker Sam Rayburn.

I have been assisted by my friend every step of the way, Vice President

Hubert Humphrey. I am so grateful that I have been supported daily by

the loyalty of Speaker McCormack and Majority Leader Albert.

I have benefited from the wisdom of Senator Mike Mansfield, and I am

sure that I have avoided many dangerous pitfalls by the good commonsense

counsel of the President Pro Tem of the Senate, Senator Richard Brevard

Russell.

I have received the most generous cooperation from the leaders of the

Republican Party in the Congress of the United States, Senator Dirksen

and Congressman Gerald Ford, the Minority Leader.

No President should ask for more, although I did upon occasions. But few

Presidents have ever been blessed with so much.

President-elect Nixon, in the days ahead, is going to need your

understanding, just as I did. And he is entitled to have it. I hope

every Member will remember that the burdens he will bear as our

President, will be borne for all of us. Each of us should try not to

increase these burdens for the sake of narrow personal or partisan

advantage.

Now, it is time to leave. I hope it may be said, a hundred years from

now, that by working together we helped to make our country more just,

more just for all of its people, as well as to insure and guarantee the

blessings of liberty for all of our posterity.

That is what I hope. But I believe that at least it will be said that we

tried.

***

State of the Union Address

Richard Nixon

January 22, 1970

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our

distinguished guests and my fellow Americans:

To address a joint session of the Congress in this great Chamber in

which I was once privileged to serve is an honor for which I am deeply

grateful.

The State of the Union Address is traditionally an occasion for a

lengthy and detailed account by the President of what he has

accomplished in the past, what he wants the Congress to do in the

future, and, in an election year, to lay the basis for the political

issues which might be decisive in the fall.

Occasionally there comes a time when profound and far-reaching events

command a break with tradition. This is such a time.

I say this not only because 1970 marks the beginning of a new decade in

which America will celebrate its 200th birthday. I say it because new

knowledge and hard experience argue persuasively that both our programs

and our institutions in America need to be reformed.

The moment has arrived to harness the vast energies and abundance of

this land to the creation of a new American experience, an experience

richer and deeper and more truly a reflection of the goodness and grace

of the human spirit.

The seventies will be a time of new beginnings, a time of exploring both

on the earth and in the heavens, a time of discovery. But the time has

also come for emphasis on developing better ways of managing what we

have and of completing what man’s genius has begun but left unfinished.

Our land, this land that is ours together, is a great and a good land.

It is also an unfinished land, and the challenge of perfecting it is the

summons of the seventies.

It is in that spirit that I address myself to those great issues facing

our Nation which are above partisanship.

When we speak of America’s priorities the first priority must always be

peace for America and the world.

The major immediate goal of our foreign policy is to bring an end to the

war in Vietnam in a way that our generation will be remembered not so

much as the generation that suffered in war, but more for the fact that

we had the courage and character to win the kind of a just peace that

the next generation was able to keep.

We are making progress toward that goal.

The prospects for peace are far greater today than they were a year ago.

A major part of the credit for this development goes to the Members of

this Congress who, despite their differences on the conduct of the war,

have overwhelmingly indicated their support of a just peace. By this

action, you have completely demolished the enemy’s hopes that they can

gain in Washington the victory our fighting men have denied them in

Vietnam.

No goal could be greater than to make the next generation the first in

this century in which America was at peace with every nation in the

world.

I shall discuss in detail the new concepts and programs designed to

achieve this goal in a separate report on foreign policy, which I shall

submit to the Congress at a later date.

Today, let me describe the directions of our new policies.

We have based our policies on an evaluation of the world as it is, not

as it was 25 years ago at the conclusion of World War II. Many of the

policies which were necessary and right then are obsolete today.

Then, because of America’s overwhelming military and economic strength,

because of the weakness of other major free world powers and the

inability of scores of newly independent nations to defend, or even

govern, themselves, America had to assume the major burden for the

defense of freedom in the world.

In two wars, first in Korea and now in Vietnam, we furnished most of the

money, most of the arms, most of the men to help other nations defend

their freedom.

Today the great industrial nations of Europe, as well as Japan, have

regained their economic strength; and the nations of Latin America--and

many of the nations who acquired their freedom from colonialism after

World War II in Asia and Africa--have a new sense of pride and dignity

and a determination to assume the responsibility for their own defense.

That is the basis of the doctrine I announced at Guam.

Neither the defense nor the development of other nations can be

exclusively or primarily an American undertaking.

The nations of each part of the world should assume the primary

responsibility for their own well-being; and they themselves should

determine the terms of that well-being.

We shall be faithful to our treaty commitments, but we shall reduce our

involvement and our presence in other nations’ affairs.

To insist that other nations play a role is not a retreat from

responsibility; it is a sharing of responsibility.

The result of this new policy has been not to weaken our alliances, but

to give them new life, new strength, a new sense of common purpose.

Relations with our European allies are once again strong and healthy,

based on mutual consultation and mutual responsibility.

We have initiated a new approach to Latin America in which we deal with

those nations as partners rather than patrons.

The new partnership concept has been welcomed in Asia. We have developed

an historic new basis for Japanese-American friendship and cooperation,

which is the linchpin for peace in the Pacific.

If we are to have peace in the last third of the century, a major factor

will be the development of a new relationship between the United States

and the Soviet Union.

I would not underestimate our differences, but we are moving with

precision and purpose from an era of confrontation to an era of

negotiation.

Our negotiations on strategic arms limitations and in other areas will

have far greater chance for success if both sides enter them motivated

by mutual self-interest rather than naive sentimentality.

It is with this same spirit that we have resumed discussions with

Communist China in our talks at Warsaw.

Our concern in our relations with both these nations is to avoid a

catastrophic collision and to build a solid basis for peaceful

settlement of our differences.

I would be the last to suggest that the road to peace is not difficult

and dangerous, but I believe our new policies have contributed to the

prospect that America may have the best chance since World War II to

enjoy a generation of uninterrupted peace. And that chance will be

enormously increased if we continue to have a relationship between

Congress and the Executive in which, despite differences in detail,

where the security of America and the peace of mankind are concerned, we

act not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Americans.

As we move into the decade of the seventies, we have the greatest

opportunity for progress at home of any people in world history.

Our gross national product will increase by $500 billion in the next 10

years. This increase alone is greater than the entire growth of the

American economy from 1790 to 1950.

The critical question is not whether we will grow, but how we will use

that growth.

The decade of the sixties was also a period of great growth

economically. But in that same 10-year period we witnessed the greatest

growth of crime, the greatest increase in inflation, the greatest social

unrest in America in 100 years. Never has a nation seemed to have had

more and enjoyed it less.

At heart, the issue is the effectiveness of government.

Ours has become--as it continues to be, and should remain--a society of

large expectations. Government helped to generate these expectations. It

undertook to meet them. Yet, increasingly, it proved unable to do so.

As a people, we had too many visions--and too little vision.

Now, as we enter the seventies, we should enter also a great age of

reform of the institutions of American government.

Our purpose in this period should not be simply better management of the

programs of the past. The time has come for a new quest--a quest not for

a greater quantity of what we have, but for a new quality of life in

America.

A major part of the substance for an unprecedented advance in this

Nation’s approach to its problems and opportunities is contained in more

than two score legislative proposals which I sent to the Congress last

year and which still await enactment.

I will offer at least a dozen more major programs in the course of this

session.

At this point I do not intend to go through a detailed listing of what I

have proposed or will propose, but I would like to mention three areas

in which urgent priorities demand that we move and move now:

First, we cannot delay longer in accomplishing a total reform of our

welfare system. When a system penalizes work, breaks up homes, robs

recipients of dignity, there is no alternative to abolishing that system

and adopting in its place the program of income support, job training,

and work incentives which I recommended to the Congress last year.

Second, the time has come to assess and reform all of our institutions

of government at the Federal, State, and local level. It is time for a

New Federalism, in which, after 190 years of power flowing from the

people and local and State governments to Washington, D.C., it will

begin to flow from Washington back to the States and to the people of

the United States.

Third, we must adopt reforms which will expand the range of

opportunities for all Americans. We can fulfill the American dream only

when each person has a fair chance to fulfill his own dreams. This means

equal voting rights, equal employment opportunity, and new opportunities

for expanded ownership. Because in order to be secure in their human

rights, people need access to property rights.

I could give similar examples of the need for reform in our programs for

health, education, housing, transportation, as well as other critical

areas which directly affect the well-being of millions of Americans.

The people of the United States should wait no longer for these reforms

that would so deeply enhance the quality of their life.

When I speak of actions which would be beneficial to the American

people, I can think of none more important than for the Congress to join

this administration in the battle to stop the rise in the cost of

living.

Now, I realize it is tempting to blame someone else for inflation. Some

blame business for raising prices. Some blame unions for asking for more

wages.

But a review of the stark fiscal facts of the 1960’s clearly

demonstrates where the primary blame for rising prices must be placed.

In the decade of the sixties the Federal Government spent $57 billion

more than it took in in taxes.

In that same decade the American people paid the bill for that deficit

in price increases which raised the cost of living for the average

family of four by $200 per month in America.

Now millions of Americans are forced to go into debt today because the

Federal Government decided to go into debt yesterday. We must balance

our Federal budget so that American families will have a better chance

to balance their family budgets.

Only with the cooperation of the Congress can we meet this highest

priority objective of responsible government. We are on the right track.

We had a balanced budget in 1969. This administration cut more than $7

billion out of spending plans in order to produce a surplus in 1970, and

in spite of the fact that Congress reduced revenues by $3 billion, I

shall recommend a balanced budget for 1971.

But I can assure you that not only to present, but to stay within, a

balanced budget requires some very hard decisions. It means rejecting

spending programs which would benefit some of the people when their net

effect would result in price increases for all the people.

It is time to quit putting good money into bad programs. Otherwise, we

will end up with bad money and bad programs.

I recognize the political popularity of spending programs, and

particularly in an election year. But unless we stop the rise in prices,

the cost of living for millions of American families will become

unbearable and government’s ability to plan programs for progress for

the future will become impossible.

In referring to budget cuts, there is one area where I have ordered an

increase rather than a cut--and that is the requests of those agencies

with the responsibilities for law enforcement.

We have heard a great deal of overblown rhetoric during the sixties in

which the word “war” has perhaps too often been used--the war on

poverty, the war on misery, the war on disease, the war on hunger. But

if there is one area where the word “war” is appropriate it is in the

fight against crime. We must declare and win the war against the

criminal elements which increasingly threaten our cities, our homes, and

our lives.

We have a tragic example of this problem in the Nation’s Capital, for

whose safety the Congress and the Executive have the primary

responsibility. I doubt if many Members of this Congress who live more

than a few blocks from here would dare leave their cars in the Capitol

garage and walk home alone tonight.

Last year this administration sent to the Congress 13 separate pieces of

legislation dealing with organized crime, pornography, street crime,

narcotics, crime in the District of Columbia.

None of these bills has reached my desk for signature.

I am confident that the Congress will act now to adopt the legislation I

placed before you last year. We in the Executive have done everything we

can under existing law, but new and stronger weapons are needed in that

fight.

While it is true that State and local law enforcement agencies are the

cutting edge in the effort to eliminate street crime, burglaries,

murder, my proposals to you have embodied my belief that the Federal

Government should play a greater role in working in partnership with

these agencies.

That is why 1971 Federal spending for local law enforcement will double

that budgeted for 1970.

The primary responsibility for crimes that affect individuals is with

local and State rather than with Federal Government. But in the field of

organized crime, narcotics, pornography, the Federal Government has a

special responsibility it should fulfill. And we should make Washington,

D.C., where we have the primary responsibility, an example to the Nation

and the world of respect for law rather than lawlessness.

I now turn to a subject which, next to our desire for peace, may well

become the major concern of the American people in the decade of the

seventies.

In the next 10 years we shall increase our wealth by 50 percent. The

profound question is: Does this mean we will be 50 percent richer in a

real sense, 50 percent better off, 50 percent happier?

Or does it mean that in the year 1980 the President standing in this

place will look back on a decade in which 70 percent of our people lived

in metropolitan areas choked by traffic, suffocated by smog, poisoned by

water, deafened by noise, and terrorized by crime?

These are not the great questions that concern world leaders at summit

conferences. But people do not live at the summit. They live in the

foothills of everyday experience, and it is time for all of us to

concern ourselves with the way real people live in real life.

The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our

surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make

reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to

our water?

Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond

factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this

country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because

they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act

on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later.

Clean air, clean water, open spaces--these should once again be the

birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.

We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is

clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our

years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that

debt is being called.

The program I shall propose to Congress will be the most comprehensive

and costly program in this field in America’s history.

It is not a program for just one year. A year’s plan in this field is no

plan at all. This is a time to look ahead not a year, but 5 years or 10

years--whatever time is required to do the job.

I shall propose to this Congress a $10 billion nationwide clean waters

program to put modern municipal waste treatment plants in every place in

America where they are needed to make our waters clean again, and do it

now. We have the industrial capacity, if we begin now, to build them all

within 5 years. This program will get them built within 5 years.

As our cities and suburbs relentlessly expand, those priceless open

spaces needed for recreation areas accessible to their people are

swallowed up--often forever. Unless we preserve these spaces while they

are still available, we will have none to preserve. Therefore, I shall

propose new financing methods for purchasing open space and parklands

now, before they are lost to us.

The automobile is our worst polluter of the air. Adequate control

requires further advances in engine design and fuel composition. We

shall intensify our research, set increasingly strict standards, and

strengthen enforcement procedures--and we shall do it now.

We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free

to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we

should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more

free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our

neighbor’s yard.

This requires comprehensive new regulations. It also requires that, to

the extent possible, the price of goods should be made to include the

costs of producing and disposing of them without damage to the

environment.

Now, I realize that the argument is often made that there is a

fundamental contradiction between economic growth and the quality of

life, so that to have one we must forsake the other.

The answer is not to abandon growth, but to redirect it. For example, we

should turn toward ending congestion and eliminating smog the same

reservoir of inventive genius that created them in the first place.

Continued vigorous economic growth provides us with the means to enrich

life itself and to enhance our planet as a place hospitable to man.

Each individual must enlist in this fight if it is to be won.

It has been said that no matter how many national parks and historical

monuments we buy and develop, the truly significant environment for each

of us is that in which we spend 80 percent of our time--in our homes, in

our places of work, the streets over which we travel.

Street litter, rundown parking strips and yards, dilapidated fences,

broken windows, smoking automobiles, dingy working places, all should be

the object of our fresh view.

We have been too tolerant of our surroundings and too willing to leave

it to others to clean up our environment. It is time for those who make

massive demands on society to make some minimal demands on themselves.

Each of us must resolve that each day he will leave his home, his

property, the public places of the city or town a little cleaner, a

little better, a little more pleasant for himself and those around him.

With the help of people we can do anything, and without their help, we

can do nothing. In this spirit, together, we can reclaim our land for

ours and generations to come.

Between now and the year 2000, over 100 million children will be born in

the United States. Where they grow up--and how--will, more than any one

thing, measure the quality of American life in these years ahead.

This should be a warning to us.

For the past 30 years our population has also been growing and shifting.

The result is exemplified in the vast areas of rural America emptying

out of people and of promise--a third of our counties lost population in

the sixties.

The violent and decayed central cities of our great metropolitan

complexes are the most conspicuous area of failure in American life

today.

I propose that before these problems become insoluble, the Nation

develop a national growth policy.

In the future, government decisions as to where to build highways,

locate airports, acquire land, or sell land should be made with a clear

objective of aiding a balanced growth for America.

In particular, the Federal Government must be in a position to assist in

the building of new cities and the rebuilding of old ones.

At the same time, we will carry our concern with the quality of life in

America to the farm as well as the suburb, to the village as well as to

the city. What rural America needs most is a new kind of assistance. It

needs to be dealt with, not as a separate nation, but as part of an

overall growth policy for America. We must create a new rural

environment which will not only stem the migration to urban centers, but

reverse it. If we seize our growth as a challenge, we can make the

1970’s an historic period when by conscious choice we transformed our

land into what we want it to become.

America, which has pioneered in the new abundance, and in the new

technology, is called upon today to pioneer in meeting the concerns

which have followed in their wake--in turning the wonders of science to

the service of man.

In the majesty of this great Chamber we hear the echoes of America’s

history, of debates that rocked the Union and those that repaired it, of

the summons to war and the search for peace, of the uniting of the

people, the building of a nation.

Those echoes of history remind us of our roots and our strengths.

They remind us also of that special genius of American democracy, which

at one critical turning point after another has led us to spot the new

road to the future and given us the wisdom and the courage to take it.

As I look down that new road which I have tried to map out today, I see

a new America as we celebrate our 200th anniversary 6 years from now.

I see an America in which we have abolished hunger, provided the means

for every family in the Nation to obtain a minimum income, made enormous

progress in providing better housing, faster transportation, improved

health, and superior education.

I see an America in which we have checked inflation, and waged a winning

war against crime.

I see an America in which we have made great strides in stopping the

pollution of our air, cleaning up our water, opening up our parks,

continuing to explore in space.

Most important, I see an America at peace with all the nations of the

world.

This is not an impossible dream. These goals are all within our reach.

In times past, our forefathers had the vision but not the means to

achieve such goals.

Let it not be recorded that we were the first American generation that

had the means but not the vision to make this dream come true.

But let us, above all, recognize a fundamental truth. We can be the best

clothed, best fed, best housed people in the world, enjoying clean air,

clean water, beautiful parks, but we could still be the unhappiest

people in the world without an indefinable spirit--the lift of a driving

dream which has made America, from its beginning, the hope of the world.

Two hundred years ago this was a new nation of 3 million people, weak

militarily, poor economically. But America meant something to the world

then which could not be measured in dollars, something far more

important than military might.

Listen to President Thomas Jefferson in 1802: We act not “for ourselves

alone, but for the whole human race.”

We had a spiritual quality then which caught the imagination of millions

of people in the world.

Today, when we are the richest and strongest nation in the world, let it

not be recorded that we lack the moral and spiritual idealism which made

us the hope of the world at the time of our birth.

The demands of us in 1976 are even greater than in 1776.

It is no longer enough to live and let live. Now we must live and help

live.

We need a fresh climate in America, one in which a person can breathe

freely and breathe in freedom.

Our recognition of the truth that wealth and happiness are not the same

thing requires us to measure success or failure by new criteria.

Even more than the programs I have described today, what this Nation

needs is an example from its elected leaders in providing the spiritual

and moral leadership which no programs for material progress can

satisfy.

Above all, let us inspire young Americans with a sense of excitement, a

sense of destiny, a sense of involvement, in meeting the challenges we

face in this great period of our history. Only then are they going to

have any sense of satisfaction in their lives.

The greatest privilege an individual can have is to serve in a cause

bigger than himself. We have such a cause.

How we seize the opportunities I have described today will determine not

only our future, but the future of peace and freedom in this world in

the last third of the century.

May God give us the wisdom, the strength and, above all, the idealism to

be worthy of that challenge, so that America can fulfill its destiny of

being the world’s best hope for liberty, for opportunity, for progress

and peace for all peoples.

***

State of the Union Address

Richard Nixon

January 22, 1971

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our

distinguished guests, my fellow Americans:

As this 92d Congress begins its session, America has lost a great

Senator, and all of us who had the privilege to know him have lost a

loyal friend. I had the privilege of visiting Senator Russell in the

hospital just a few days before he died. He never spoke about himself.

He only spoke eloquently about the need for a strong national defense.

In tribute to one of the most magnificent Americans of all time, I

respectfully ask that all those here will rise in silent prayer for

Senator Russell.

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, before I begin my formal address, I want to use this

opportunity to congratulate all of those who were winners in the rather

spirited contest for leadership positions in the House and the Senate

and, also, to express my condolences to the losers. I know how both of

you feel.

And I particularly want to join with all of the Members of the House and

the Senate as well in congratulating the new Speaker of the United

States Congress.

To those new Members of this House who may have some doubts about the

possibilities for advancement in the years ahead, I would remind you

that the Speaker and I met just 24 years ago in this Chamber as freshmen

Members of the 80th Congress. As you see, we both have come up in the

world a bit since then.

Mr. Speaker, this 92d Congress has a chance to be recorded as the

greatest Congress in America’s history.

In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long

nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more deeply,

we have gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. But now

that night is ending. Now we must let our spirits soar again. Now we are

ready for the lift of a driving dream.

The people of this Nation are eager to get on with the quest for new

greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet those

challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again

the real greatness of this Nation--the genius of the American people.

How shall we meet this challenge? How can we truly open the doors, and

set free the full genius of our people?

The way in which the 92d Congress answers these questions will determine

its place in history. More importantly, it can determine this Nation’s

place in history as we enter the third century of our independence.

Tonight I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I shall ask not

simply for more new programs in the old framework. I shall ask to change

the framework of government itself---to reform the entire structure of

American government so we can make it again fully responsive to the

needs and the wishes of the American people.

If we act boldly--if we seize this moment and achieve these goals--we

can close the gap between promise and performance in American

government. We can bring together the resources of this Nation and the

spirit of the American people.

In discussing these great goals, I shall deal tonight only with matters

on the domestic side of the Nation’s agenda. I shall make a separate

report to the Congress and the Nation next month on developments in

foreign policy.

The first of these great goals is already before the Congress.

I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be made the

first priority business of the 92d Congress.

Over the next 2 weeks, I will call upon Congress to take action on more

than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed

last year.

The most important is welfare reform.

The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage--an

outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly

against the children it is supposed to help.

We may honestly disagree, as we do, on what to do about it. But we can

all agree that we must meet the challenge, not by pouring more money

into a bad program, but by abolishing the present welfare system and

adopting a new one.

So let us place a floor under the income of every family with children

in America--and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to human

dignity that so blight the lives of welfare children today. But let us

also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work

requirement.

Let us provide the means by which more can help themselves. This shall

be our goal.

Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves. But

let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse to

do so.

The second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not enjoyed

since 1957--full prosperity in peacetime.

The tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living, which

had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late sixties, was reduced

last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year.

But as we have moved from runaway inflation toward reasonable price

stability and at the same time as we have been moving from a wartime

economy to a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in increased

unemployment.

We should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unemployment

in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than

in any peacetime year of the sixties.

This is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the seventies.

We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will do better.

To achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year--one

that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job

opportunities for millions of Americans.

It will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be in balance

if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By spending as if

we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment.

I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies--to accept the

concept of a full employment budget. At the same time, I ask the

Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the

limits of the full employment budget. For as we wage a campaign to bring

about a widely shared prosperity, we must not reignite the fires of

inflation and so undermine that prosperity.

With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget, with

the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to provide

fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy, and with a much

greater effort on the part of labor and management to make their wage

and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own

self-interest--then for the worker, the farmer, the consumer, for

Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more

jobs, more income, more profits, without inflation and without war.

This is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together.

The third great goal is to continue the effort so dramatically begun

last year: to restore and enhance our natural environment.

Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point program that I submitted

to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of initiatives to

clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore

our surroundings.

I will propose programs to make better use of our land, to encourage a

balanced national growth--growth that will revitalize our rural

heartland and enhance the quality of life in America.

And not only to meet today’s needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow,

I will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a

President of the United States to expand the Nation’s parks, recreation

areas, open spaces, in a way that truly brings parks to the people where

the people are. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next

generation have parks to enjoy.

As a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of proposals for

improving America’s health care and making it available more fairly to

more people.

I will propose:

--A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from

obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay.

--I will propose a major increase in and redirection of aid to medical

schools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health

personnel.

--Incentives to improve the delivery of health services, to get more

medical care resources into those areas that have not been adequately

served, to make greater use of medical assistants, and to slow the

alarming rise in the costs of medical care.

--New programs to encourage better preventive medicine, by attacking the

causes of disease and injury, and by providing incentives to doctors to

keep people well rather than just to treat them when they are sick.

I will also ask for an appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch

an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later

for whatever additional funds can effectively be used. The time has come

in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom

and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread

disease. Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal.

America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now it is time

we became the healthiest nation in the world.

The fifth great goal is to strengthen and to renew our State and local

governments.

As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this

Nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States,

without a workable central government. At that time, the mark of its

leaders’ vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the

separate powers of the States with a government of central powers.

And so they gave us a constitution of balanced powers, of unity with

diversity--and so clear was their vision that it survives today as the

oldest written constitution still in force in the world.

For almost two centuries since--and dramatically in the 1930’s--at those

great turning points when the question has been between the States and

the Federal Government, that question has been resolved in favor of a

stronger central Federal Government.

During this time the Nation grew and the Nation prospered. But one thing

history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction

forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die.

The time has now come in America to reverse the flow of power and

resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power

and resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities

and, more important, to the people all across America.

The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government

and the States and localities--a partnership in which we entrust the

States and localities with a larger share of the Nation’s

responsibilities, and in which we share our Federal revenues with them

so that they can meet those responsibilities.

To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a

plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept.

All across America today, States and cities are confronted with a

financial crisis. Some have already been cutting back on essential

services---for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back

on trash collections. Most are caught between the prospects of

bankruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden

on the other.

As one indication of the rising costs of local government, I discovered

the other day that my home town of Whittier, California--which has a

population of 67,000--has a larger budget for 1971 than the entire

Federal budget was in 1791.

Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to

introduce a new and more creative balance to our approach to government.

So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to

spend it where the people are.

I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in renewing

State and local government. Five billion dollars of this will be in new

and unrestricted funds to be used as the States and localities see fit.

The other $11 billion will be provided by allocating $1 billion of new

funds and converting one-third of the money going to the present

narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six

broad purposes--for urban development, rural development, education,

transportation, job training, and law enforcement--but with the States

and localities making their own decisions on how it should be spent

within each category.

For the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal aid to the

States and localities more than 25 percent over the present level.

The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will include the

safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal funds

allocated to the States. Neither the President nor the Congress nor the

conscience of this Nation can permit money which comes from all the

people to be used in a way which discriminates against some of the

people.

The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in

achieving our national progress. Established functions that are clearly

and essentially Federal in nature will still be performed by the Federal

Government. New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the

Federal Government--such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and

health--will be added to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best

sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government should and

will lead the way. But where States or local governments can better do

what needs to be done, let us see that they have the resources to do it

there.

Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and

localities with more money and less interference--and by cutting down

the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further.

Let us share our resources.

Let us share them to rescue the States and localities from the brink of

financial crisis.

Let us share them to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape

from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes.

Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well.

The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the

second has to do with each of us, with the individual.

Let’s face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at

all levels. They will not--and they should not--continue to tolerate the

gap between promise and performance in government.

The fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong it grows

muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach

impotence.

If we put more power in more places, we can make government more

creative in more places. That way we multiply the number of people with

the ability to make things happen--and we can open the way to a new

burst of creative energy throughout America.

The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal, for

each and for every one of us.

As everything seems to have grown bigger and more complex in America, as

the forces that shape our lives seem to have grown more distant and more

impersonal, a great feeling of frustration has crept across this land.

Whether it is the workingman who feels neglected, the black man who

feels oppressed, or the mother concerned about her children, there has

been a growing feeling that “Things are in the saddle, and ride

mankind.”

Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out--asking not

what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute,

how can I matter?

And so let us answer them. Let us say to them and let us say to all

Americans, “We hear you. We will give you a chance. We are going to give

you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect

your future--a chance to participate in government--because we are going

to provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference

that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole

community.”

The further away government is from people, the stronger government

becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong

government and a weak people is an empty shell.

I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D.C., is

inevitably more wise, more honest, and more efficient than government at

the local or State level. The honesty and efficiency of government

depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and bad

people. And the way to get more good people into government is to give

them more opportunity to do good things.

The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best

for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local governments is

really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern themselves.

This notion is completely foreign to the American experience. Local

government is the government closest to the people, it is most

responsive to the individual person. It is people’s government in a far

more intimate way than the Government in Washington can ever be.

People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future

rather than to live in a country where others determined their future

for them.

What this change means is that once again in America we are placing our

trust in people.

I have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give the

people of America a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves

those questions that so greatly affect their lives.

The sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Government

itself.

Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best advice

obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the

executive branch is needed if the Government is to keep up with the

times and with the needs of the people.

I propose, therefore, that we reduce the present 12 Cabinet Departments

to eight.

I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice

remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into four:

Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources, and Economic

Development.

Let us look at what these would be:

--First, a department dealing with the concerns of people--as

individuals, as members of a family--a department focused on human

needs.

--Second, a department concerned with the community--rural communities

and urban communities--and with all that it takes to make a community

function as a community.

--Third, a department concerned with our physical environment, with the

preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources on which

our Nation depends.

--And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity--with our jobs,

our businesses, and those many activities that keep our economy running

smoothly and well.

Under this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by narrow

subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes of

government. Rather than scattering responsibility by adding new levels

of bureaucracy, we would focus and concentrate the responsibility for

getting problems solved.

With these four departments, when we have a problem we will know where

to go--and the department will have the authority and the resources to

do something about it.

Over the years we have added departments and created agencies at the

Federal level, each to serve a new constituency, to handle a particular

task--and these have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless

confusion of form and function.

The time has come to match our structure to our purposes---to look with

a fresh eye, to organize the Government by conscious, comprehensive

design to meet the new needs of a new era.

One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke

of a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Too

often since then, we have become a nation of the Government, by the

Government, for the Government.

By enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that Lincoln

stated so simply and so well.

By giving everyone’s voice a chance to be heard, we will have government

that truly is of the people.

By creating more centers of meaningful power, more places where

decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people a chance

to do something, we can have government that truly is by the people.

And by setting up a completely modern, functional system of government

at the national level, we in Washington will at last be able to provide

government that is truly for the people.

I realize that what I am asking is that not only the executive branch in

Washington but that even this Congress will have to change by giving up

some of its power.

Change is hard. But without change there can be no progress. And for

each of us the question then becomes, not “Will change cause me

inconvenience?” but “Will change bring progress for America?”

Giving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this

country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are

those who gave power to people, and not those who took it away.

As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next 2 years

or for the next 10 years, but for the next 100 years.

So let us approach these six great goals with a sense not only of this

moment in history but also of history itself.

Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the

boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in

Philadelphia almost 190 years ago to write a constitution.

Let us leave a heritage as they did--not just for our children but for

millions yet unborn--of a nation where every American will have a chance

not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity but to

participate in a system of government where he knows not only his votes

but his ideas count--a system of government which will provide the means

for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before.

Those men who met at Philadelphia left a great heritage because they had

a vision--not only of what the Nation was but of what it could become.

As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land

of the open door--as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a

place of refuge, of hope.

When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half

centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find

opportunity--and they left wide the door of welcome for others to

follow.

When the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence almost two

centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of

human fulfillment--not just for an elite but for all.

To the generations that followed, America’s was the open door that

beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better

life, a freer life, a fuller life, and in which, by their own decisions,

they could shape their own destinies.

For the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American, and for those

others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the Nation at last

has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal

opportunity, and of human dignity.

For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we can

open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to full

and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives. We

can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels,

between those governments and the people themselves. And by so doing, we

can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here

in America now and in the years to come.

In the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way I

propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress to be

responsive. If it is, then the 92d Congress, your Congress, our

Congress, at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record

more splendid than any in our history.

This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the

Nation’s history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a

genuine chance to enjoy what we have not had in this century: a full

generation of peace.

This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with

full employment and without inflation--and without the deadly stimulus

of war.

This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed

recipients of their dignity and robbed States and cities of their

resources.

This can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of our

environment, and established for the next generation an enduring legacy

of parks for the people.

This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine,

in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were

made less burdensome.

But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the

way to a new American revolution--a peaceful revolution in which power

was turned back to the people--in which government at all levels was

refreshed and renewed and made truly responsive. This can be a

revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting as that first

revolution almost 200 years ago--and it can mean that just 5 years from

now America will enter its third century as a young nation new in

spirit, with all the vigor and the freshness with which it began its

first century.

My colleagues in the Congress, these are great goals. They can make the

sessions of this Congress a great moment for America. So let us pledge

together to go forward together--by achieving these goals to give

America the foundation today for a new greatness tomorrow and in all the

years to come, and in so doing to make this the greatest Congress in the

history of this great and good country.

***

State of the Union Address

Richard Nixon

January 20, 1972

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our

distinguished guests, my fellow Americans:

Twenty-five years ago I sat here as a freshman Congressman--along with

Speaker Albert--and listened for the first time to the President address

the State of the Union.

I shall never forget that moment. The Senate, the diplomatic corps, the

Supreme Court, the Cabinet entered the Chamber, and then the President

of the United States. As all of you are aware, I had some differences

with President Truman. He had some with me. But I remember that on that

day--the day he addressed that joint session of the newly elected

Republican 80th Congress, he spoke not as a partisan, but as President

of all the people--calling upon the Congress to put aside partisan

considerations in the national interest.

The Greek-Turkish aid program, the Marshall Plan, the great foreign

policy initiatives which have been responsible for avoiding a world war

for over 25 years were approved by the 80th Congress, by a bipartisan

majority of which I was proud to be a part.

Nineteen hundred seventy-two is now before us. It holds precious time in

which to accomplish good for the Nation. We must not waste it. I know

the political pressures in this session of the Congress will be great.

There are more candidates for the Presidency in this Chamber today than

there probably have been at any one time in the whole history of the

Republic. And there is an honest difference of opinion, not only between

the parties, but within each party, on some foreign policy issues and on

some domestic policy issues.

However, there are great national problems that are so vital that they

transcend partisanship. So let us have our debates. Let us have our

honest differences. But let us join in keeping the national interest

first. Let us join in making sure that legislation the Nation needs does

not become hostage to the political interests of any party or any

person.

There is ample precedent, in this election year, for me to present you

with a huge list of new proposals, knowing full well that there would

not be any possibility of your passing them if you worked night and day.

I shall not do that.

I have presented to the leaders of the Congress today a message of

15,000 words discussing in some detail where the Nation stands and

setting forth specific legislative items on which I have asked the

Congress to act. Much of this is legislation which I proposed in 1969,

in 1970, and also in the first session of this 92d Congress and on which

I feel it is essential that action be completed this year.

I am not presenting proposals which have attractive labels but no hope

of passage. I am presenting only vital programs which are within the

capacity of this Congress to enact, within the capacity of the budget to

finance, and which I believe should be above partisanship--programs

which deal with urgent priorities for the Nation, which should and must

be the subject of bipartisan action by this Congress in the interests of

the country in 1972.

When I took the oath of office on the steps of this building just 3

years ago today, the Nation was ending one of the most tortured decades

in its history.

The 1960’s were a time of great progress in many areas. But as we all

know, they were also times of great agony--the agonies of war, of

inflation, of rapidly rising crime, of deteriorating titles, of hopes

raised and disappointed, and of anger and frustration that led finally

to violence and to the worst civil disorder in a century.

I recall these troubles not to point any fingers of blame. The Nation

was so torn in those final years of the sixties that many in both

parties questioned whether America could be governed at all.

The Nation has made significant progress in these first years of the

seventies:

Our cities are no longer engulfed by civil disorders.

Our colleges and universities have again become places of learning

instead of battlegrounds.

A beginning has been made in preserving and protecting our environment.

The rate of increase in crime has been slowed--and here in the District

of Columbia, the one city where the Federal Government has direct

jurisdiction, serious crime in 1971 was actually reduced by 13 percent

from the year before.

Most important, because of the beginnings that have been made, we can

say today that this year 1972 can be the year in which America may make

the greatest progress in 25 years toward achieving our goal of being at

peace with all the nations of the world.

As our involvement in the war in Vietnam comes to an end, we must now go

on to build a generation of peace.

To achieve that goal, we must first face realistically the need to

maintain our defense.

In the past 3 years, we have reduced the burden of arms. For the first

time in 20 years, spending on defense has been brought below spending on

human resources.

As we look to the future, we find encouraging progress in our

negotiations with the Soviet Union on limitation of strategic arms. And

looking further into the future, we hope there can eventually be

agreement on the mutual reduction of arms. But until there is such a

mutual agreement, we must maintain the strength necessary to deter war.

And that is why, because of rising research and development costs,

because of increases in military and civilian pay, because of the need

to proceed with new weapons systems, my budget for the coming fiscal

year will provide for an increase in defense spending.

Strong military defenses are not the enemy of peace; they are the

guardians of peace.

There could be no more misguided set of priorities than one which would

tempt others by weakening America, and thereby endanger the peace of the

world.

In our foreign policy, we have entered a new era. The world has changed

greatly in the 11 years since President John Kennedy said in his

Inaugural Address, “... we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet

any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival

and the success of liberty.”

Our policy has been carefully and deliberately adjusted to meet the new

realities of the new world we live in. We make today only those

commitments we are able and prepared to meet.

Our commitment to freedom remains strong and unshakable. But others must

bear their share of the burden of defending freedom around the world.

And so this, then, is our policy:

--We will maintain a nuclear deterrent adequate to meet any threat to

the security of the United States or of our allies.

--We will help other nations develop the capability of defending

themselves.

--We will faithfully honor all of our treaty commitments.

--We will act to defend our interests, whenever and wherever they are

threatened anyplace in the world.

--But where our interests or our treaty commitments are not involved,

our role will be limited.

--We will not intervene militarily.

--But we will use our influence to prevent war.

--If war comes, we will use our influence to stop it.

--Once it is over, we will do our share in helping to bind up the wounds

of those who have participated in it.

As you know, I will soon be visiting the People’s Republic of China and

the Soviet Union. I go there with no illusions. We have great

differences with both powers. We shall continue to have great

differences. But peace depends on the ability of great powers to live

together on the same planet despite their differences.

We would not be true to our obligation to generations yet unborn if we

failed to seize this moment to do everything in our power to insure that

we will be able to talk about those differences, rather than to fight

about them, in the future.

As we look back over this century, let us, in the highest spirit of

bipartisanship, recognize that we can be proud of our Nation’s record in

foreign affairs.

America has given more generously of itself toward maintaining freedom,

preserving peace, alleviating human suffering around the globe, than any

nation has ever done in the history of man.

We have fought four wars in this century, but our power has never been

used to break the peace, only to keep it; never been used to destroy

freedom, only to defend it. We now have within our reach the goal of

insuring that the next generation can be the first generation in this

century to be spared the scourges of war.

Turning to our problems at home, we are making progress toward our goal

of a new prosperity without war.

Industrial production, consumer spending, retail sales, personal income

all have been rising. Total employment, real income are the highest in

history. New home building starts this past year reached the highest

level ever. Business and consumer confidence have both been rising.

Interest rates are down. The rate of inflation is down. We can look with

confidence to 1972 as the year when the back of inflation will be

broken.

Now, this a good record, but it is not good enough--not when we still

have an unemployment rate of 6 percent.

It is not enough to point out that this was the rate of the early

peacetime years of the sixties, or that if the more than 2 million men

released from the Armed Forces and defense-related industries were still

in their wartime jobs, unemployment would be far lower.

Our goal in this country is full employment in peacetime. We intend to

meet that goal, and we can.

The Congress has helped to meet that goal by passing our job-creating

tax program last month.

The historic monetary agreements, agreements that we have reached with

the major European nations, Canada, and Japan, will help meet it by

providing new markets for American products, new jobs for American

workers.

Our budget will help meet it by being expansionary without being

inflationary--a job-producing budget that will help take up the gap as

the economy expands to full employment.

Our program to raise farm income will help meet it by helping to

revitalize rural America, by giving to America’s farmers their fair

share of America’s increasing productivity.

We also will help meet our goal of full employment in peacetime with a

set of major initiatives to stimulate more imaginative use of America’s

great capacity for technological advance, and to direct it toward

improving the quality of life for every American.

In reaching the moon, we demonstrated what miracles American technology

is capable of achieving. Now the time has come to move more deliberately

toward making full use of that technology here on earth, of harnessing

the wonders of science to the service of man.

I shall soon send to the Congress a special message proposing a new

program of Federal partnership in technological research and

development--with Federal incentives to increase private research,

federally supported research on projects designed to improve our

everyday lives in ways that will range from improving mass transit to

developing new systems of emergency health care that could save

thousands of lives annually.

Historically, our superior technology and high productivity have made it

possible for American workers to be the highest paid in the world by

far, and yet for our goods still to compete in world markets.

Now we face a new situation. As other nations move rapidly forward in

technology, the answer to the new competition is not to build a wall

around America, but rather to remain competitive by improving our own

technology still further and by increasing productivity in American

industry.

Our new monetary and trade agreements will make it possible for American

goods to compete fairly in the world’s markets--but they still must

compete. The new technology program will put to use the skills of many

highly trained Americans, skills that might otherwise be wasted. It will

also meet the growing technological challenge from abroad, and it will

thus help to create new industries, as well as creating more jobs for

America’s workers in producing for the world’s markets.

This second session of the 92d Congress already has before it more than

90 major Administration proposals which still await action.

I have discussed these in the extensive written message that I have

presented to the Congress today.

They include, among others, our programs to improve life for the aging;

to combat crime and drug abuse; to improve health services and to ensure

that no one will be denied needed health care because of inability to

pay; to protect workers’ pension rights; to promote equal opportunity

for members of minorities, and others who have been left behind; to

expand consumer protection; to improve the environment; to revitalize

rural America; to help the cities; to launch new initiatives in

education; to improve transportation, and to put an end to costly labor

tie-ups in transportation.

The west coast dock strike is a case in point. This Nation cannot and

will not tolerate that kind of irresponsible labor tie-up in the future.

The messages also include basic reforms which are essential if our

structure of government is to be adequate in the decades ahead.

They include reform of our wasteful and outmoded welfare

system--substitution of a new system that provides work requirements and

work incentives for those who can help themselves, income support for

those who cannot help themselves, and fairness to the working poor.

They include a $17 billion program of Federal revenue sharing with the

States and localities as an investment in their renewal, an investment

also of faith in the American people.

They also include a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch of

the Federal Government so that it will be more efficient, more

responsive, and able to meet the challenges of the decades ahead.

One year ago, standing in this place, I laid before the opening session

of this Congress six great goals. One of these was welfare reform. That

proposal has been before the Congress now for nearly 2 1/2 years.

My proposals on revenue sharing, government reorganization, health care,

and the environment have now been before the Congress for nearly a year.

Many of the other major proposals that I have referred to have been here

that long or longer.

Now, 1971, we can say, was a year of consideration of these measures.

Now let us join in making 1972 a year of action on them, action by the

Congress, for the Nation and for the people of America.

Now, in addition, there is one pressing need which I have not previously

covered, but which must be placed on the national agenda.

We long have looked in this Nation to the local property tax as the main

source of financing for public primary and secondary education.

As a result, soaring school costs, soaring property tax rates now

threaten both our communities and our schools. They threaten communities

because property taxes, which more than doubled in the 10 years from

1960 to ’70, have become one of the most oppressive and discriminatory

of all taxes, hitting most cruelly at the elderly and the retired; and

they threaten schools, as hard-pressed voters understandably reject new

bond issues at the polls.

The problem has been given even greater urgency by four recent court

decisions, which have held that the conventional method of financing

schools through local property taxes is discriminatory and

unconstitutional.

Nearly 2 years ago, I named a special Presidential commission to study

the problems of school finance, and I also directed the Federal

departments to look into the same problems. We are developing

comprehensive proposals to meet these problems.

This issue involves two complex and interrelated sets of problems:

support of the schools and the basic relationships of Federal, State,

and local governments in any tax reforms.

Under the leadership of the Secretary of the Treasury, we are carefully

reviewing all of the tax aspects, and I have this week enlisted the

Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in addressing the

intergovernmental relations aspects.

I have asked this bipartisan Commission to review our proposals for

Federal action to cope with the gathering crisis of school finance and

property taxes. Later in the year, when both Commissions have completed

their studies, I shall make my final recommendations for relieving the

burden of property taxes and providing both fair and adequate financing

for our children’s education.

These recommendations will be revolutionary. But all these

recommendations, however, will be rooted in one fundamental principle

with which there can be no compromise: Local school boards must have

control over local schools.

As we look ahead over the coming decades, vast new growth and change are

not only certainties, they will be the dominant reality of this world,

and particularly of our life in America.

Surveying the certainty of rapid change, we can be like a fallen rider

caught in the stirrups--or we can sit high in the saddle, the masters of

change, directing it on a course we choose.

The secret of mastering change in today’s world is to reach back to old

and proven principles, and to adapt them with imagination and

intelligence to the new realities of a new age.

That is what we have done in the proposals that I have laid before the

Congress. They are rooted in basic principles that are as enduring as

human nature, as robust as the American experience; and they are

responsive to new conditions. Thus they represent a spirit of change

that is truly renewal.

As we look back at those old principles, we find them as timely as they

are timeless.

We believe in independence, and self-reliance, and the creative value of

the competitive spirit.

We believe in full and equal opportunity for all Americans and in the

protection of individual rights and liberties.

We believe in the family as the keystone of the community, and in the

community as the keystone of the Nation.

We believe in compassion toward those in need.

We believe in a system of law, justice, and order as the basis of a

genuinely free society.

We believe that a person should get what he works for--and that those

who can, should work for what they get.

We believe in the capacity of people to make their own decisions in

their own lives, in their own communities--and we believe in their right

to make those decisions.

In applying these principles, we have done so with the full

understanding that what we seek in the seventies, what our quest is, is

not merely for more, but for better for a better quality of life for all

Americans.

Thus, for example, we are giving a new measure of attention to cleaning

up our air and water, making our surroundings more attractive. We are

providing broader support for the arts, helping stimulate a deeper

appreciation of what they can contribute to the Nation’s activities and

to our individual lives.

But nothing really matters more to the quality of our lives than the way

we treat one another, than our capacity to live respectfully together as

a unified society, with a full, generous regard for the rights of others

and also for the feelings of others.

As we recover from the turmoil and violence of recent years, as we learn

once again to speak with one another instead of shouting at one another,

we are regaining that capacity.

As is customary here, on this occasion, I have been talking about

programs. Programs are important. But even more important than programs

is what we are as a Nation--what we mean as a Nation, to ourselves and

to the world.

In New York Harbor stands one of the most famous statues in the

world--the Statue of Liberty, the gift in 1886 of the people of France

to the people of the United States. This statue is more than a landmark;

it is a symbol--a symbol of what America has meant to the world.

It reminds us that what America has meant is not its wealth, and not its

power, but its spirit and purpose--a land that enshrines liberty and

opportunity, and that has held out a hand of welcome to millions in

search of a better and a fuller and, above all, a freer life.

The world’s hopes poured into America, along with its people. And those

hopes, those dreams, that have been brought here from every corner of

the world, have become a part of the hope that we now hold out to the

world.

Four years from now, America will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its

founding as a Nation. There are those who say that the old Spirit of ’76

is dead--that we no longer have the strength of character, the idealism,

the faith in our founding purposes that that spirit represents.

Those who say this do not know America.

We have been undergoing self-doubts and self-criticism. But these are

only the other side of our growing sensitivity to the persistence of

want in the midst of plenty, of our impatience with the slowness with

which age-old ills are being overcome.

If we were indifferent to the shortcomings of our society, or complacent

about our institutions, or blind to the lingering inequities--then we

would have lost our way.

But the fact that we have those concerns is evidence that our ideals,

deep down, are still strong. Indeed, they remind us that what is really

best about America is its compassion. They remind us that in the final

analysis, America is great not because it is strong, not because it is

rich, but because this is a good country.

Let us reject the narrow visions of those who would tell us that we are

evil because we are not yet perfect, that we are corrupt because we are

not yet pure, that all the sweat and toil and sacrifice that have gone

into the building of America were for naught because the building is not

yet done.

Let us see that the path we are traveling is wide, with room in it for

all of us, and that its direction is toward a better Nation and a more

peaceful world.

Never has it mattered more that we go forward together.

Look at this Chamber. The leadership of America is here today--the

Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the Senate, the House of Representatives.

Together, we hold the future of the Nation, and the conscience of the

Nation in our hands.

Because this year is an election year, it will be a time of great

pressure.

If we yield to that pressure and fail to deal seriously with the

historic challenges that we face, we will have failed the trust of

millions of Americans and shaken the confidence they have a right to

place in us, in their Government.

Never has a Congress had a greater opportunity to leave a legacy of a

profound and constructive reform for the Nation than this Congress.

If we succeed in these tasks, there will be credit enough for all--not

only for doing what is right, but doing it in the right way, by rising

above partisan interest to serve the national interest.

And if we fail, more than any one of us, America will be the loser.

That is why my call upon the Congress today is for a high statesmanship,

so that in the years to come Americans will look back and say because it

withstood the intense pressures of a political year, and achieved such

great good for the American people and for the future of this Nation,

this was truly a great Congress.

***

State of the Union Address

Richard Nixon

February 2, 1973

To the Congress of the United States:

The traditional form of the President’s annual report giving “to the

Congress Information of the State of the Union” is a single message or

address. As the affairs and concerns of our Union have multiplied over

the years, however, so too have the subjects that require discussion in

State of the Union Messages.

This year in particular, with so many changes in Government programs

under consideration--and with our very philosophy about the relationship

between the individual and the State at an historic crossroads--a

single, all-embracing State of the Union Message would not appear to be

adequate.

I have therefore decided to present my 1973 State of the Union report in

the form of a series of messages during these early weeks of the 93rd

Congress. The purpose of this first message in the series is to give a

concise overview of where we stand as a people today, and to outline

some of the general goals that I believe we should pursue over the next

year and beyond. In coming weeks, I will send to the Congress further

State of the Union reports on specific areas of policy including

economic affairs, natural resources, human resources, community

development and foreign and defense policy.

The new course these messages will outline represents a fresh approach

to Government: an approach that addresses the realities of the 1970s,

not those of the 1930s or of the 1960s. The role of the Federal

Government as we approach our third century of independence should not

be to dominate any facet of American life, but rather to aid and

encourage people, communities and institutions to deal with as many of

the difficulties and challenges facing them as possible, and to help see

to it that every American has a full and equal opportunity to realize

his or her potential.

If we were to continue to expand the Federal Government at the rate of

the past several decades, it soon would consume us entirely. The time

has come when we must make clear choices--choices between old programs

that set worthy goals but failed to reach them and new programs that

provide a better way to realize those goals; and choices, too, between

competing programs--all of which may be desirable in themselves but only

some of which we can afford with the finite resources at our command.

Because our resources are not infinite, we also face a critical choice

in 1973 between holding the line in Government spending and adopting

expensive programs which will surely force up taxes and refuel

inflation.

Finally, it is vital at this time that we restore a greater sense of

responsibility at the State and local level, and among individual

Americans.

WHERE WE STAND

The basic state of our Union today is sound, and full of promise.

We enter 1973 economically strong, militarily secure and, most important

of all, at peace after a long and trying war.

America continues to provide a better and more abundant life for more of

its people than any other nation in the world. We have passed through

one of the most difficult periods in our history without surrendering to

despair and without dishonoring our ideals as a people.

Looking back, there is a lesson in all this for all of us. The lesson is

one that we sometimes had to learn the hard way over the past few years.

But we did learn it. That lesson is that even potentially destructive

forces can be converted into positive forces when we know how to channel

them, and when we use common sense and common decency to create a

climate of mutual respect and goodwill.

By working together and harnessing the forces of nature, Americans have

unlocked some of the great mysteries of the universe.

Men have walked the surface of the moon and soared to new heights of

discovery.

This same spirit of discovery is helping us to conquer disease and

suffering that have plagued our own planet since the dawn of time.

By working together with the leaders of other nations, we have been able

to build a new hope for lasting peace--for a structure of world order in

which common interest outweighs old animosities, and in which a new

generation of the human family can grow up at peace in a changing world.

At home, we have learned that by working together we can create

prosperity without fanning inflation; we can restore order without

weakening freedom.

THE CHALLENGES WE FACE

These first years of the 1970s have been good years for America.

Our job--all of us together--is to make 1973 and the years to come even

better ones. I believe that we can. I believe that we can make the years

leading to our Bicentennial the best four years in American history.

But we must never forget that nothing worthwhile can be achieved without

the will to succeed and the strength to sacrifice.

Hard decisions must be made, and we must stick by them.

In the field of foreign policy, we must remember that a strong

America--an America whose word is believed and whose strength is

respected--is essential to continued peace and understanding in the

world. The peace with honor we have achieved in Vietnam has strengthened

this basic American credibility. We must act in such a way in coming

years that this credibility will remain intact, and with it, the world

stability of which it is so indispensable a part.

At home, we must reject the mistaken notion--a notion that has dominated

too much of the public dialogue for too long--that ever bigger

Government is the answer to every problem.

We have learned only too well that heavy taxation and excessive

Government spending are not a cure-all. In too many cases, instead of

solving the problems they were aimed at, they have merely placed an ever

heavier burden on the shoulders of the American taxpayer, in the form of

higher taxes and a higher cost of living. At the same time they have

deceived our people because many of the intended beneficiaries received

far less than was promised, thus undermining public faith in the

effectiveness of Government as a whole.

The time has come for us to draw the line. The time has come for the

responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against

overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer. We are not spending

the Federal Government’s money, we are spending the taxpayer’s money,

and it must be spent in a way which guarantees his money’s worth and

yields the fullest possible benefit to the people being helped.

The answer to many of the domestic problems we face is not higher taxes

and more spending. It is less waste, more results and greater freedom

for the individual American to earn a rightful place in his own

community--and for States and localities to address their own needs in

their own ways, in the light of their own priorities.

By giving the people and their locally elected leaders a greater voice

through changes such as revenue sharing, and by saying “no” to excessive

Federal spending and higher taxes, we can help achieve this goal.

COMING MESSAGES

The policies which I will outline to the Congress in the weeks ahead

represent a reaffirmation, not an abdication, of Federal responsibility.

They represent a pragmatic rededication to social compassion and

national excellence, in place of the combination of good intentions and

fuzzy follow-through which too often in the past was thought sufficient.

In the field of economic affairs, our objectives will be to hold down

taxes, to continue controlling inflation, to promote economic growth, to

increase productivity, to encourage foreign trade, to keep farm income

high, to bolster small business, and to promote better labor-management

relations.

In the area of natural resources, my recommendations will include

programs to preserve and enhance the environment, to advance science and

technology, and to assure balanced use of our irreplaceable natural

resources.

In developing human resources, I will have recommendations to advance

the Nation’s health and education, to improve conditions of people in

need, to carry forward our increasingly successful attacks on crime,

drug abuse and injustice, and to deal with such important areas of

special concern as consumer affairs. We will continue and improve our

Nation’s efforts to assist those who have served in the Armed Services

in Vietnam through better job and training opportunities.

We must do a better job in community development--in creating more

livable communities, in which all of our children can grow up with

fuller access to opportunity and greater immunity to the social evils

and blights which now plague so many of our towns and cities. I shall

have proposals to help us achieve this.

I shall also deal with our defense and foreign policies, and with our

new approaches to the role and structure of Government itself.

Considered as a whole, this series of messages will be a blueprint for

modernizing the concept and the functions of American Government to meet

the needs of our people.

Converting it into reality will require a spirit of cooperation and

shared commitment on the part of all branches of the Government, for the

goals we seek are not those of any single party or faction, they are

goals for the betterment of all Americans. As President, I recognize

that I cannot do this job alone. The Congress must help, and I pledge to

do my part to achieve a constructive working relationship with the

Congress. My sincere hope is that the executive and legislative branches

can work together in this great undertaking in a positive spirit of

mutual respect and cooperation.

Working together--the Congress, the President and the people--I am

confident that we can translate these proposals into an action program

that can reform and revitalize American Government and, even more

important, build a better life for all Americans.

The White House,

February 2, 1973.

***

State of the Union Address

Richard Nixon

January 30, 1974

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our

distinguished guests, my fellow Americans:

We meet here tonight at a time of great challenge and great

opportunities for America. We meet at a time when we face great problems

at home and abroad that will test the strength of our fiber as a nation.

But we also meet at a time when that fiber has been tested, and it has

proved strong.

America is a great and good land, and we are a great and good land

because we are a strong, free, creative people and because America is

the single greatest force for peace anywhere in the world. Today, as

always in our history, we can base our confidence in what the American

people will achieve in the future on the record of what the American

people have achieved in the past.

Tonight, for the first time in 12 years, a President of the United

States can report to the Congress on the state of a Union at peace with

every nation of the world. Because of this, in the 22,000-word message

on the state of the Union that I have just handed to the Speaker of the

House and the President of the Senate, I have been able to deal

primarily with the problems of peace with what we can do here at home in

America for the American people--rather than with the problems of war.

The measures I have outlined in this message set an agenda for truly

significant progress for this Nation and the world in 1974. Before we

chart where we are going, let us see how far we have come.

It was 5 years ago on the steps of this Capitol that I took the oath of

office as your President. In those 5 years, because of the initiatives

undertaken by this Administration, the world has changed. America has

changed. As a result of those changes, America is safer today, more

prosperous today, with greater opportunity for more of its people than

ever before in our history.

Five years ago, America was at war in Southeast Asia. We were locked in

confrontation with the Soviet Union. We were in hostile isolation from a

quarter of the world’s people who lived in Mainland China.

Five years ago, our cities were burning and besieged.

Five years ago, our college campuses were a battleground.

Five years ago, crime was increasing at a rate that struck fear across

the Nation.

Five years ago, the spiraling rise in drug addiction was threatening

human and social tragedy of massive proportion, and there was no program

to deal with it.

Five years ago--as young Americans had done for a generation before

that--America’s youth still lived under the shadow of the military

draft.

Five years ago, there was no national program to preserve our

environment. Day by day, our air was getting dirtier, our water was

getting more foul.

And 5 years ago, American agriculture was practically a depressed

industry with 100,000 farm families abandoning the farm every year.

As we look at America today, we find ourselves challenged by new

problems. But we also find a record of progress to confound the

professional criers of doom and prophets of despair. We met the

challenges we faced 5 years ago, and we will be equally confident of

meeting those that we face today.

Let us see for a moment how we have met them.

After more than 10 years of military involvement, all of our troops have

returned from Southeast Asia, and they have returned with honor. And we

can be proud of the fact that our courageous prisoners of war, for whom

a dinner was held in Washington tonight, that they came home with their

heads high, on their feet and not on their knees.

In our relations with the Soviet Union, we have turned away from a

policy of confrontation to one of negotiation. For the first time since

World War II, the world’s two strongest powers are working together

toward peace in the world. With the People’s Republic of China after a

generation of hostile isolation, we have begun a period of peaceful

exchange and expanding trade.