A vote for the ballot of the Liberal Party, is a vote to preserve American values. To preserve peace, and to maintain our presence in the international community. The Soviet Union's actions cannot be taken lightly, they must be dealt with, with serious actions. We must stop the spread of Communism, which is violently being spread across the Globe. America, along with Great Britain should stand up against the USSR, and their aggressive actions.
Do not mistake our desire for peace and cooperation for naivety. Six years ago, bright with unified purpose and victory as the troops of the Western Allies met Soviet forces at Tangermünde, there were hopes for a long and just peace. Since those years, that hope has withered in most men, or at least become tempered by the cautions of experience. Poland. Czechoslovakia. We see that the world has two paths before them.
We, and the other free nations of the world, have chosen one path. A path of honor and of peace. To end conflict, support the liberties of all people, end domination and threats around the world. A path where all nations can work together to relieve hunger and poverty, to achieve more perfect unions, to collaborate on enforcing the liberty and full expression of their citizens.
The Soviet Union has chosen another path. We do not dispute this - we do not have our heads buried in the ground, unable to see what is sadly clear. The path of military conquest and control and domination is not new and is not hard. It is an enticing path to take.
Now we are faced with a growing shadow creeping over the world. It is enticing, I admit, to follow the Soviet's path. To push back at every provocation, to amass a terrifying army and hold an iron fist of democracy in opposition to Soviet influences around the world. To stand in the halls of the world, guns pointed vigilantly at the forehead of our opponent, waiting to see who blinks first.
But we cannot take this path. We are second rate at controlling and propagandizing our people to stand in a current state of War First, People Later. We can influence many nations, but we are rubbish - thank God! - at rolling tanks through their capitals or pouring in spies to topple governments. We can shout and gesture all we want, but our heart would not be in it. We would be a mere shadow, an imitation of the Soviet Union's power. Nations would look to us - as the new nations of this world are all now looking - and see nothing better than the other side. Nothing that inspires them to freedom, to peace, and to hope - because we would not have freedom, peace, or hope to give them.
That is the best case. The worst, we all know, is war on a scale unfathomable even to us who have seen the devastation of the last world war.
But even the best... a life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system to achieve happiness or peace or prosperity. The world locked in a battle of fear and arms is not wasting just its money. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on that path. It is enticing, but it is not worth it. It is not a path for life and peace. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity once again hanging on a cross of iron.
((thanks, Eisenhower, for the statistics. I had to say "once again" on the cross of iron, though, as Gallatin actually used the phrase before in reference to the Fascist model))
There is still another way. If we hold firm to our path, we will succeed - not by the metrics of the Soviets, but in the eyes of all peoples of the world. We will succeed in peace, in prosperity, and in liberty.
We must stand firm. We must build up enough military might to ensure the defense of free nations, but no more. We shall spend our money, our time, and our children on better things than a grim amassing of unnecessary arms, a futile buildup of cannon fodder for the other side's bombs, or policemen for far away cities.
The American people can show that the atom can be used for peace - for man's benefit and prosperity rather than for his destruction. The American people can show that nations can develop their economies without totalitarian control, through innovation, agricultural reforms, and open - clean - elections. The American people can be an example which defies the Soviet model and brings nations into agreement and cooperation not by brinksmanship and arm wrenching, but by hope and desire for peace. This is the Republican model for facing the Soviets - aid, defense, protection matched with ideals, freedom, and development. This is true progress. This is a way for life and peace.
Even in adversarial roles, the U.S. and the USSR must cooperate on some things - or at least discuss them - to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and tensions. Through the great hall of world discussion, we will continue to work with free nations on the path of freedom, and with the Soviets on places where our paths hold mutual goals. If not peace, they still cannot desire the annihilation of war. If not prosperity and freedom, they still cannot desire starvation. Perhaps even, when Soviet leadership eventually changes and shifts over time, they too will see the benefits of our path. Until then we will work on defending ourselves, but not burdening ourselves constantly with the chains of war. By working out arms reductions, by balancing defense and human prosperity, by making rational decisions - we will keep ourselves safe both from external threats and from our own fears.
Vote Jarvis/Gallatin for Security, Peace, and Hope