Robert C. Byrd

Peace talks for the sake of talking can only serve as propaganda forums for the Soviets. America comes with clean hands to the peace table-let Russia likewise qualify.

Let us strive everlastingly to achieve safeguards that will banish aggression as an instrument of national policy anywhere and everywhere in the world-let us make war obsolete-let us wage peace, without end.

What a national dishonor and tragedy it would be for America, born in liberty and dedicated to universal freedom, to be a party, in the name of expediency, to the confirmation in slavery of any nation.

National policy to be effective must have its origin and sustenance in public support. Any attempt to flout this principle is foredoomed to failure. If our foreign policy is to succeed, the American people must not be kept in the dark.

Mr. Speaker, America yearns for peace, works for peace, sacrifices for peace. Before history we have honorably acquitted ourselves in the cause of peace.

America is paying heavily for a worldwide program designed to protect the peace through the deterrence of local or general war, and by strengthening the economic and political structure of the Free World.

The American people are getting tired of handing out moneys needlessly, and in some cases foolishly, as when we contribute to the economies of countries like India and Yugoslavia, countries which will either be neutral or opposed to us if…

I believe that we should continue to give some aid to countries that can be depended upon to stand firm against the Communists. I do not believe, however, that we should continue to have aid programs in approximately 60 countries of the…

The reason for developing an alliance in the first place is to maintain the relative strength of the Free World against the Communist bloc. If all of our allies set out together to strengthen the Communist bloc through trade, it is…

Since the end of World War II we have expended our resources in foreign aid to strengthen our allies. It is not logical that we should now counter this by measures to strengthen our enemies.

We must recognize that the countries of Asia are now primarily oriented toward Western concepts of independence and freedom. We must draw a perceptive line between what they really want and their occasional demonstrations of friendship…

Let us in this decisive moment proclaim to the world, friend and foe alike, that America's dedication to the preservation of liberty and freedom is as strong today as it was when the embattled farmers at Concord fired the shot heard around…

If America is to remain a leader among nations we must provide fertile soil in which the seeds of leadership can grow. That soil, needless to say, is in the field of educational opportunity.

So, Mr. Chairman, I say, let us not be like Timon of Athens and learn the truth too late. Let us conserve our resources while there is yet time.

NATO nations have not built the defense force that was contemplated. The nations of Europe, generally speaking, act under a pall of fear and are afraid of drawing down the ire of the Soviets.

In the final analysis, we can probably rely with assurance only upon our own country and our own people to fight any future war to a victorious climax.

The French nation appeared to me to be a decadent nation, no longer possessing the will, the determination, or the desire to resist a powerful aggressor. American money can never supply moral and spiritual purpose, and this is the…

From Munich to Korea to Indochina, the story is all the same: Surrender before threats, new demands by totalitarian powers, new concessions by the democracies, intermittent blood-baths, extension of tyranny, and consolidation of Communist…

Let us not be misled, Mr. Speaker. The leaders in Peiping and in Moscow may be unconscionable men and they may have shut all fear of God out of their inimical minds, but beneath all of their bluff, they have the same respect for power as…

Shall we continue to be outsmarted, outwitted, and outdone? I say that it is time to cut out the talk and turn on the heat. We have turned the other cheek long enough, and we should now say to these international brigands that from this…

Not to prolong my remarks, I feel impelled to make it known that it is a disheartening thing for me to find our Government virtually blackmailed into sitting down with the spokesmen for Red China.

I pray that we will not go to this Conference as we have gone sometimes in the past, too eager to lick the boots of the Communists in order to reach an agreement, but that, with the past lessons clearly in our minds, we will approach this…

Certainly if the Communists want to validate their good intentions as the summit conferences begin, they can do so by turning their captives back to freedom. How else can they make good their claims to wanting peace and ridding the world…

The horrors of modern war are devastating just to contemplate. God-fearing men realize that atomic warfare is the ticket to annihilation.

Money spent in establishing a frontline defense thousands of miles from our shores; money spent in the defense of our native land, directly or indirectly; money spent in saving the lives of American men and women is not money given away.