VIII.

For we seek not the worldwide victory of one nation or system but a worldwide victory of man.  The modern globe is too small, its weapons are too destructive, and its disorders are too contagious to permit any other kind of victory.

To achieve this end, the United States will continue to spend a greater portion of its national production than any other people in the free world.  For 15 years no other free nation has demanded so much of itself.  Through hot wars and cold, through recession and prosperity, through the ages of the atom and outer space, the American people have never faltered and their faith has never flagged.  If at times our actions seem to make life difficult for others, it is only because history has made life difficult for us all.

But difficult days need not be dark.  I think these are proud and memorable days in the cause of peace and freedom.  We are proud, for example, of Major Rudolf Anderson who gave his life over the island of Cuba.  We salute Specialist James Allen Johnson who died on the border of South Korea.  We pay honor to Sergeant Gerald Pendell who was killed in Viet-Nam.  They are among the many who in this century, far from home, have died for our country.  Our task now, and the task of all Americans is to live up to their commitment.

My friends:  I close on a note of hope.  We are not lulled by the momentary calm of the sea or the somewhat clearer skies above.  We know the turbulence that lies below, and the storms that are beyond the horizon this year.  But now the winds of change appear to be blowing more strongly than ever, in the world of communism as well as our own.  For 175 years we have sailed with those winds at our back, and with the tides of human freedom in our favor.  We steer our ship with hope, as Thomas Jefferson said, “leaving Fear astern.”

Today we still welcome those winds of change—­and we have every reason to believe that our tide is running strong.  With thanks to Almighty God for seeing us through a perilous passage, we ask His help anew in guiding the “Good Ship Union.”

***

State of the Union Address
Lyndon B. Johnson
January 8, 1964

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the House and Senate, my fellow
Americans: 

I will be brief, for our time is necessarily short and our agenda is already long.

Last year’s congressional session was the longest in peacetime history.  With that foundation, let us work together to make this year’s session the best in the Nation’s history.

Let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined; as the session which enacted the most far-reaching tax cut of our time; as the session which declared all-out war on human poverty and unemployment in these United States; as the session which finally recognized the health needs of all our older citizens; as the session which reformed our tangled transportation and transit policies; as the session which achieved the most effective, efficient foreign aid program ever; and as the session which helped to build more homes, more schools, more libraries, and more hospitals than any single session of Congress in the history of our Republic.