Only five days ago I expressed to you the grave concern of your Government over the threat of Soviet aggression in the Middle East.  I asked for Congressional authorization to help counter this threat.  I say again that this matter is of vital and immediate importance to the Nation’s and the free world’s security and peace.  By our proposed programs in the Middle East, we hope to assist in establishing a climate in which constructive and long-term solutions to basic problems of the area may be sought.

From time to time, there will be presented to the Congress requests for other legislation in the broad field of international affairs.  All requests will reflect the steadfast purpose of this Administration to pursue peace, based on justice.  Although in some cases details will be new, the underlying purpose and objectives will remain the same.

All proposals made by the Administration in this field are based on the free world’s unity.  This unity may not be immediately obvious unless we examine link by link the chain of relationships that binds us to every area and to every nation.  In spirit the free world is one because its people uphold the right of independent existence for all nations.  I have already alluded to their economic interdependence.  But their interdependence extends also into the field of security.

First of all, no reasonable man will question the absolute need for our American neighbors to be prosperous and secure.  Their security and prosperity are inextricably bound to our own.  And we are, of course, already joined with these neighbors by historic pledges.

Again, no reasonable man will deny that the freedom and prosperity and security of Western Europe are vital to our own prosperity and security.  If the institutions, the skills, the manpower of its peoples were to fall under the domination of an aggressive imperialism, the violent change in the balance of world power and in the pattern of world commerce could not be fully compensated for by any American measures, military or economic.

But these people, whose economic strength is largely dependent on free and uninterrupted movement of oil from the Middle East, cannot prosper—­indeed, their economies would be severely impaired—­should that area be controlled by an enemy and the movement of oil be subject to its decisions.

Next, to the Eastward, are Asiatic and Far Eastern peoples, recently returned to independent control of their own affairs or now emerging into sovereign statehood.  Their potential strength constitutes new assurance for stability and peace in the world—­if they can retain their independence.  Should they lose freedom and be dominated by an aggressor, the world-wide effects would imperil the security of the free world.

In short, the world has so shrunk that all free nations are our neighbors.  Without cooperative neighbors, the United States cannot maintain its own security and welfare, because: