They are beginning to realize that the longing for independence is the same the world over, whether it is the independence of West Berlin or Viet-Nam.  They are beginning to realize that such independence runs athwart all Communist ambitions but is in keeping with our own—­and that our approach to their diverse needs is resilient and resourceful, while the Communists are still relying on ancient doctrines and dogmas.

Nevertheless it is hard for any nation to focus on an external or subversive threat to its independence when its energies are drained in daily combat with the forces of poverty and despair.  It makes little sense for us to assail, in speeches and resolutions, the horrors of communism, to spend $50 billion a year to prevent its military advance—­and then to begrudge spending, largely on American products, less than one-tenth of that amount to help other nations strengthen their independence and cure the social chaos in which communism has always thrived.

I am proud—­and I think most Americans are proud—­of a mutual defense and assistance program, evolved with bipartisan support in three administrations, which has, with all its recognized problems, contributed to the fact that not a single one of the nearly fifty U.N. members to gain independence since the Second World War has succumbed to Communist control.

I am proud of a program that has helped to arm and feed and clothe millions of people who live on the front lines of freedom.

I am especially proud that this country has put forward for the 60’s a vast cooperative effort to achieve economic growth and social progress throughout the Americas—­the Alliance for Progress.

I do not underestimate the difficulties that we face in this mutual effort among our close neighbors, but the free states of this hemisphere, working in close collaboration, have begun to make this alliance a living reality.  Today it is feeding one out of every four school age children in Latin America an extra food ration from our farm surplus.  It has distributed 1.5 million school books and is building 17,000 classrooms.  It has helped resettle tens of thousands of farm families on land they can call their own.  It is stimulating our good neighbors to more self-help and self-reform—­fiscal, social, institutional, and land reforms.  It is bringing new housing and hope, new health and dignity, to millions who were forgotten.  The men and women of this hemisphere know that the alliance cannot succeed if it is only another name for United States handouts—­that it can succeed only as the Latin American nations themselves devote their best effort to fulfilling its goals.

This story is the same in Africa, in the Middle East, and in Asia.  Wherever nations are willing to help themselves, we stand ready to help them build new bulwarks of freedom.  We are not purchasing votes for the cold war; we have gone to the aid of imperiled nations, neutrals and allies alike.  What we do ask—­and all that we ask—­is that our help be used to best advantage, and that their own efforts not be diverted by needless quarrels with other independent nations.