MR. McGEE. Mr. Morgan with a question for Vice President Nixon.
MR. MORGAN. Mr. Vice President, in your speeches you emphasize that the United States is doing basically well in the cold war.
Can you square that statement with a considerable mass of bipartisan reports and studies, including one prominently participated in by Governor Rockefeller, which almost unanimously conclude that we are not doing nearly so well as we should?
MR. NIXON. Mr. Morgan, no matter how well we're doing in the cold war, we're not doing as well as we should, and that will always be the case as long as the Communists are on the international scene, and the aggressive tract--tendencies that they presently are following.
Now, as far as the present situation is concerned, I think it's time that we nail a few of these distortions about the United States that have been put out.
First of all, we hear that our prestige is at an alltime low. Senator Kennedy has been hitting that point over and over again. I would suggest that after Premier Khrushchev's performance in the United Nations, compared with President Eisenhower's eloquent speech, that at the present time Communist prestige in the world is at an all-time low, and American prestige is at an all-time high.
Now that, of course, is just one factor, but it's a significant one.
When we look, for example, at the vote on the Congo, we were on one side; they were on the other side. What happened? There were 70 votes for our position and none for theirs.
Look at the votes in the United Nations over the past 7 1/2 years. That's a test of prestige. Every time the United States has been an one side and they have been on the other side, our position has been sustained.
Now, looking to what we ought to do in the future: In this cold war, we have to recognize where it is being fought and then we have to develop programs to deal with it. It's being fought primarily in Asia, in Africa, and in Latin America.
What do we need? What tools do we need to fight it? Well, we need, for example, economic assistance. We need technical assistance, we need exchange, we need programs of diplomatic and other character which will be effective in that area.
Now Senator Kennedy a moment ago referred to the fact that there was not an adequate "Voice of America" program for Latin America. I'd like to point out that in the last 6 years, the Democratic Congresses, of which he'd been a Member, have cut $20 million off of the "Voice of America" programs. They also have cut $4 billion off of mutual security in these last 6 years. They also have cut $2 billion off of defense.
Now when they talk about our record here, it is well that they recognize that they have to stand up for their record as well. So let me summarize by saying this: I'm not satisfied with what we're doing in the cold war because I believe we have to step up our activities and launch an offensive for the minds and hearts and souls of men. It must be economic, it must be technological, above all it must be ideological. But we've got to get help from the Congress in order to do this.
MR. McGEE. Senator Kennedy.
MR. KENNEDY. Of course Mr. Nixon is wholly inaccurate when he says that the Congress has not provided more funds in fact than the President recommended for national defense.
In 1953 we tried to put an appropriation of $5 billion for our defenses. I was responsible for the amendment with Senator Monroney in 1954 to strengthen our ground forces. The Congress of the United States appropriated $677 million more than the President was willing to use, up till a week ago.
Secondly, on the question of our position in the United Nations. We all know about the vote held this week of the five neutralists, and it was generally regarded as a defeat for the United States.
Thirdly, in 1952, there were only seven votes in favor of the admission of Red China into the United Nations. Last year there were29. Aand tomorrow when the preliminary vote is held, you will see a strengthening of that position or very closely to it.
We have not maintained our position and our prestige. A Gallup Poll taken in February of this year asking in eight out of nine countries--they asked the people, who do they think would be ahead by 1970, militarily and scientifically, and a majority in eight of the nine countries said the Soviet Union would be by 1970.
Governor Rockefeller has been far more critical in June of our position in the world than I have been. The Rockefeller brothers, report, General Ridgway, General Gavin, the Gaither Report, various reports of congressional committees, all indicate that the relative strength of the United States both militarily, politically, psychologically, and scientifically, and industrially, the relative strength of the Sov--United States compared to that of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communists together, has deteriorated in the last 8 years and we should know it, and the American people should be told the facts.
MR. McGEE. Mr. Spivak with a question for Senator Kennedy.
MR. SPIVAK. Senator, following this up, how would you go about increasing the prestige you say we're losing and could the programs you've devised to do so be accomplished without absolutely wrecking our economy?
MR. KENNEDY. Yes; we have been wholly indifferent to Latin America until the last few months. The program that was put forward this summer, after we broke off the sugar quota with Cuba, really was done because we wanted to get through the OAS meeting a condemnation of Russian infiltration of Cuba and, therefore, we passed an authorization, not an aid bill, which was the first time really since the Inter-American Bank, which was founded a year ago, was developed, that we really have looked at the needs of Latin America, that we have associated ourselves with those people.
Secondly, I believe that in the ca--that it's far better for the United States, instead of concentrating our aid particularly in the underdeveloped world on surplus military equipment, we poured $300 million of surplus military equipment into Laos.
We paid more military aid, more aid into Laos per person than in any country in the world, and we ought to know now that Laos is moving from neutralism in the direction of the Communists. I believe instead of doing that we should concentrate our aid in long-term loans, which these people can pay back either in hard money or in local currency.
This permits them to maintain their self-respect. It permits us to make sure that the projects which are invested in are going to produce greater wealth, and I believe that in cases of India and Africa and Latin America, that this is where our emphasis should be.
I would strengthen the Development Loan Fund, and Senator Fulbright, Senator Humphrey and I tried to do that. We tried to provide an appropriation of a billion and a half for 5 years, on a longterm loan basis, which this administration opposed. And, unless we are ready to carry out programs like that in the '60's, this battle for economic survival which these people are waging are going to be lost, and if India should lose her battle, with 35 percent of the people of the underdeveloped world within her borders, then I believe that the balance of power could move against us. I think the United States can afford to do these things. I think that we could not afford not to do these things.
This goes to our survival and here in a country which, if it is moving ahead, if it's developing its economy to the fullest, which we are not now, in my judgment, we'll have the resources to meet our military commitment and also our commitments overseas.
I believe it's essential that we do it because in the next 10 years the balance of power is going to begin to move in the world from one direction or another towards us or towards the Communists and unless we begin to identify ourselves not only with the anti-Communist fight, but also with the fight against poverty and hunger, these people are going to begin to turn to the Communists as an example.
I believe we can do it. If we build our economy the way we should, we can afford to do these things and we must do it.
MR. McGEE. Mr. Vice President.
MR. NIXON. Senator Kennedy has put a great deal of stress on the necessity for economic assistance. This is important. But it's also tremendously important to bear in mind that when you pour in money without pouring in technical assistance at as well, that you have a disastrous situation. We need to step up exchange; we need to step up technical assistance so that trained people in these newly developing countries can operate the economies. We also have to have in mind something else with regard to this whole situation in the world, and that is that as America moves forward, we not only must think in terms of fighting communism, but we must also think primarily in terms of the interests of these countries. We must associate ourselves with their aspirations. We must let them know that the great American ideals of independence, of the right of people to be free, and of the right to progress, that these are ideals that belong not to ourselves alone, but they belong to everybody. This we must get across to the world. And we can't do it unless we do have adequate funds for, for example, information, which has been cut by the Congress; adequate funds for technical assistance.
The other point that I would make with regard to economic assistance and technical assistance is that the United States must not rest its case here alone.
This is primarily an ideological battle, a battle for the minds and the hearts and the souls of men. We must not meet the Communists purely in the field of gross atheistic materialism. We must stand for our ideals.