Smarting under attacks that he had let the U.S. become "second best," Dwight Eisenhower stepped forward at the Republican Convention with a withering counterfire and the best political speech of his administration. Excerpts:
TO this convention I bring no words of despair or doubt about my country—no doleful prediction of impending disaster. Whoever misleads by calculated use of some but not all the facts, whoever distorts the truth to serve selfish ambition, whoever asserts weakness where strength exists—makes a mockery of the democratic process and misrepresents our beloved country in the eyes of the watching world.
The irrefutable truths are that the United States is enjoying an unprecedented prosperity; that it has, in cooperation with its friends and allies, the strongest security system in the world, and that it is working ceaselessly and effectively for a peace with justice, in freedom.
Our own mounting living standards, and the history of these Republican years, provide the proof that these are facts.
The Economy
There are more Americans today employed, at higher wages and with more take-home pay, than ever before in our history. They have more confidence in the stability of their money than they have enjoyed in three decades.
In these past seven and a half years, the annual gross national product has increased by $100 billion or 25%. This figure, though stupendous, is asserted by some to be unnecessarily low. But what would they say if they knew that during the almost eight-year duration of the prior Democratic Administration, the gross national product actually declined in every single peacetime year, save one.
During all the years of this Administration, I've heard much from the opposition, especially from its free-spending clique, about increasing the rate of economic growth by depending principally on governmental activity, with vastly increased federal expenditures.
We reject the argument that healthy growth can thus be bought from the funds of the federal treasury.
We believe profoundly that constant and unnecessary governmental meddling in our economy leads to a standardized, weakened and tasteless society that encourages dull mediocrity, whereas private enterprise, dependent upon the vigor of healthful competition, leads to individual responsibility, pride of accomplishment and, above all, national strength.
Inflation—the most insidious and cruel form of taxation ever devised—drove prices up 48% in the previous Administration, thus robbing millions of our people of savings and of purchasing power.
In the last seven and a half years we have succeeded in keeping the total price rise below 11%. And, at least this is my fixed opinion, this record could have been even better if I might have had the privilege of working all these years with a Republican Congress.
Security