So tonight I now ask and urge this Congress to help our foreign and our commercial trade policies by passing an East-West trade bill and by approving our consular convention with the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union has in the past year increased its long-range missile capabilities.  It has begun to place near Moscow a limited antimissile defense.  My first responsibility to our people is to assure that no nation can ever find it rational to launch a nuclear attack or to use its nuclear power as a credible threat against us or against our allies.

I would emphasize that that is why an important link between Russia and the United States is in our common interest, in arms control and in disarmament.  We have the solemn duty to slow down the arms race between us, if that is at all possible, in both conventional and nuclear weapons and defenses.  I thought we were making some progress in that direction the first few months I was in office.  I realize that any additional race would impose on our peoples, and on all mankind, for that matter, an additional waste of resources with no gain in security to either side.

I expect in the days ahead to closely consult and seek the advice of the Congress about the possibilities of international agreements bearing directly upon this problem.

Next to the pursuit of peace, the really greatest challenge to the human family is the race between food supply and population increase.  That race tonight is being lost.

The time for rhetoric has clearly passed.  The time for concerted action is here and we must get on with the job.

We believe that three principles must prevail if our policy is to succeed: 

First, the developing nations must give highest priority to food production, including the use of technology and the capital of private enterprise.

Second, nations with food deficits must put more of their resources into voluntary family planning programs.

And third, the developed nations must all assist other nations to avoid starvation in the short run and to move rapidly towards the ability to feed themselves.

Every member of the world community now bears a direct responsibility to help bring our most basic human account into balance.  IV.

I come now finally to Southeast Asia—­and to Vietnam in particular.  Soon I will submit to the Congress a detailed report on that situation.  Tonight I want to just review the essential points as briefly as I can.

We are in Vietnam because the United States of America and our allies are committed by the seato Treaty to “act to meet the common danger” of aggression in Southeast Asia.

We are in Vietnam because an international agreement signed by the United States, North Vietnam, and others in 1962 is being systematically violated by the Communists.  That violation threatens the independence of all the small nations in Southeast Asia, and threatens the peace of the entire region and perhaps the world.