Lyndon Johnson

I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Saturday, October 9, 1965, as Leif Erikson Day;

I sent a special message concerning these problems to the Congress on March 8, 1965, and have recommended the enactment of certain new legislation designed to combat those problems.

Public life can be a cruel life and President Hoover experienced that cruelty.

The United States would never undertake the sacrifice these efforts require if its help were not wanted and requested.

And when he was first asked, his first and immediate answer was 'Yes, Mr. President.'

The defense of peace is the very purpose of our power, and peace for the people of Viet-Nam is the purpose of our presence in Viet-Nam.

This house and this Government and this society, of which we are members, really belong to no party, because the partisan spirit is an alien spirit to America.

This is a very proud occasion for all of us here.

He was adviser to two Presidents on Government reorganization, and he was adviser to a third one, yours truly, on other things, including Government reorganization.

I selected General Taylor for this most important of our diplomatic assignments with the understanding that I would ask him to serve for a period of a year.

Herbert Hoover was President when I first came to Washington in 1931.

I shall always cherish his wisdom and his insights, but most especially I shall cherish the inspiration of his character.

What America is, and all that America will ever be, is built on the willingness of her most able citizens to serve their country in times of need without regard either to their personal comfort or sacrifice.

Ambassador Lodge and I are fully agreed on the underlying principle that in Viet-Nam we are there to help the people and their Government to help themselves.

Ambassador Lodge and I have spent many hours together these past few weeks.

Herbert Hoover was truly a remarkable man.

But it is a very great cause for special pride and reassurance that seasoned and able Americans like Maxwell Taylor and Henry Cabot Lodge are willing to respond voluntarily and unselfishly to the same call that our young men have responded…

Our gratitude goes to Congressman Schmidhauser for introducing this legislation and working so tirelessly for its passage, and the entire Iowa delegation, both House and Senate.

The Congress has passed, and I shall sign today, a bill to establish the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa, the scene of his birth and the site of his burial.

When he died, we felt the loss of something good and something honest and something uniquely American.

In Viet-Nam the credibility of our commitment everywhere is challenged.

We must act together to solve the immediate crisis that is facing us.

I want this Nation to lead the effort to close this gap--not in the next 50 years but in the next 5 years.

The seas are not our only recourse and that we aim to make it feasible to mine, desalt, and put to productive use the brackish groundwater which underlies more than 2 million square miles of the United States.

What was impossible and inconceivable yesterday is very near to reality today.