THE PRESIDENCY
This was no humble Harry Truman, nervously starting his speech to the Congress before he had been introduced by the Speaker ("Wait a minute, Harry," interrupted Sam Rayburn on that April morning in 1945). Neither was it a young, buoyantly hopeful Jack Kennedy, though many of the familiar chiastic constructions had been put into the address by Kennedy Speechwriter Ted Sorensen. This was Lyndon B. John son of Texas, appearing for the first time as Chief Executive before Congress and, even while stressing the theme of continuity in U.S. Government, making it eminently clear that he meant to be his own kind of President.
To be sure, he invoked the name and fame of his late predecessor. "All I have," he said quietly, "I would have given gladly not to be standing here today. The greatest leader of our time has been struck down by the foulest deed of our time. Now the ideas and ideals which he so nobly represented must and will be translated into effective action."
"Let Us Continue." The President dealt first with U.S. foreign policy. "This nation will keep its commitments," he vowed, "from South Viet Nam to West Berlin. We will be unceasing in the search for peace, resourceful in our pursuit of areas of agreement, even with those with whom we differ, and generous and loyal to those who join with us in common cause." He pledged continuation of foreign aid to Asia, Africa and, through the Alliance for Progress, to Latin America — but he made no specific mention of controversial aid to countries in Eastern Europe.
"In this age, when there can be no losers in peace and no victors in war," Johnson said, "we must recognize the obligation to match national strength with national restraint. We must be pre pared at one and the same time for both the confrontation of power and the limitation of power. We must be ready to defend the national interest and to negotiate the common interest. Those who test our courage will find it honorable. We will demonstrate anew that the strong can be just in the use of strength, and the just can be strong in the defense of justice."
President Johnson put the world on notice that under his Administration the U.S. would be steadfast in its support of the United Nations, in its maintenance of a military force second to none, in its dedication to the stability of the dollar and to expansion of foreign trade. He recalled Kennedy's famed Inauguration Day challenge: "Let us begin." And he now resolved: "Let us continue. This is our challenge: not to hesitate, not to pause, not to turn about and linger over this evil moment, but to continue on our course so that we may fulfill the destiny history has set for us."