John Fitzgerald Kennedy

It is therefore a particular source of pleasure to me, Mr. President, to inform you that we recognize in your life and in your efforts and in your commitments, a strong passion for freedom for your own people and for people everywhere.

It is therefore a particular source of satisfaction to welcome you to the United States, which also many years ago passed through a similar experience.

The situation in regard to Germany was reviewed and there was full agreement on the necessity of maintaining the rights and obligations of the allied governments in Berlin.

Particular attention was also given to the nuclear tests conference and to the question of disarmament.

Their discussion covered the major problems, both economic and political, and revealed once again the close agreement of the two governments in pursuing their common purposes.

I want to express how important I believe your responsibility is here in this great country.

Our friendship with Great Britain goes back to our earliest beginnings.

On Laos, the President and the Prime Minister noted with satisfaction the agreement in Vienna on the need for an effective cease fire which, in their opinion, should lead to progress in Geneva towards an agreement permitting the…

Occasion was given to review the need for economic collaboration and expansion in the general interest of developed and underdeveloped countries alike.

So I express my thanks to you all, and tell you that having gone just about around the circle from Washington, that I am particularly glad to be in this country where the prospects are so pleasing.

The actions it has taken to assist the freedom of people after people around the globe have given it a special prestige.

I had not only the opportunity to see Mr. Khrushchev, the members of your government, but also to hear played the Tales of the Vienna Woods, so that it has been a very pleasant trip.

I want on behalf of my wife and myself and also the people of the United States to express our great appreciation to the Government of Austria, to you, sir, personally, and to the Mayor and to the people of Vienna.

I hope that less time will be in between the next visit.

They were extremely generous to my wife and to myself.

Unlike Marie Antoinette, I came from Versailles to Schonbrunn.

I want to again express my thanks to the people of Austria.

If I were Mr. Khrushchev, however, and had spent some time in the West, I would take a somewhat different view of the tide of history.

In France, as I said, I think the vitality of a very old race, which the French people are.

I think that the prospects are not easy of securing an independent and neutral Laos as we understand it, but we intend to continue to discuss this matter, and we will stay at the conference for as long as we feel that there is some hope of…

The United States made a determination on three different occasions in this century, in 1917, in 1941, in 1948 and '49, that the security of my country must inevitably be linked with the security of a free Europe.

I have not been informed, and all my information is to the contrary, that there was any involvement by members of the CIA or any other members of the American Government.

I would say that the normalization of relations which--of course, peaceful relations--which is in the common interest of us all, between China and the West--I would hope that they would be brought about.

I consider the power of the United States, plus those countries that are associated with it in the common defense, to give every form of encouragement to any Western leader who discusses matters which concern us with those who occupy…

The United States, I believe, can be proud of these programs, and of the great results that they helped to produce.