6715 Ex.Tensions of Remarks

1.96() CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE 6715 EX .TENSIONS OF REMARKS Where Do We Stand? who question the preeminence ~f Harvard or into the Pacific not too far from our University 1n the field of education. The in· shores. Everywhere the implacable cage fluence of the graduates of Harvard upon the stalks the unwary bird. EXTENSION OF REMARKS life of our country is unequaled by those Our communications Instruments are Ol!' of any other institution of learning. superb. Yet over huge areas the telephone Except for the fact that it descended from is silent, the postman is frozen in his rounds, HON. ERNEST GRUENING Cambridge University, rather than Oxford, the airplane dare not land. We cannot Ol!' ALASKA there is little in its ancestry of which one communicate with the Russian people who may not be proud. occupy one-sixth of the earth's surface nor IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES When Senator GRUENING requested that I with the Red Chinese who compose about· Monday, March 28, 1960 speak here tonight, I demurred most strenu one-fifth of the world's population. Per· o~ly, as I was quite aware of the probable haps half of humanity lies beyond our hail· Mr. GRUENING. Mr. President, last conflict in our points of view, inasmuch as ~ng. Tuesday, our distinguished colleague, I was nurtured on the conservatism of Ar Where do we stand? What is our so-called the junior Senator from Arkansas [Mr. kansas University and Oxford. However, peace? Is it not a monstrous make-believe FuLBRIGHT], delivered a highly illuminat upon the earnest plea of ERN:Es'l' GRUENING to which men lend credence so that thereby ing address at the annual dinner of the that this group has never before had the they may have the prospect of another day Harvard Club of Washington. opportunity of observing and of hearing a under the sun? politician from the Ozark Mountains, my The captains and the kings depart. Yes The title of his important speech was native reticence was overcome by my weak terday's empires,-from Britain's to Japan's "Where Do We Stand?" It was a pene ness for lecturing, acquired during the years are today dust. The world's stage lately oc· trating evaluation of the status of the when I was a professor. cupied by several powers has been cleared of· United States in the world today. It I weakened in spite of the fact that I all but two giant protagonists. They are was a sober and realistic appraisal of know many of us 1n public life talk too engaged in deadly conflict even 1! they are the decline of our Nation from its pre much. not in physical combat. The one holds half eminence of leadership and power, a In recent weeks I have had much sympathy the world in its fist. The other haltingly with the point of view of the schoolboy who, sustains the remaining half. decade ago, to its present, far less intlu We have never faced an antagonist quite ential position, when viewed against the when asked to describe Socrates, wrote as follows: like this one. The Soviet Union swiftly phenomenal rise of Russia and of inter leaped from the oxcart to the moon; rose national communism in the world. "Socrates was a Greek who spoke very from a second-rate underdeveloped country often to the Athenians. They poisoned him." to loom menacingly over the world. In a sense, our colleague's brilliant It seems rather a shame to mar an other address was of something of an epoch Master of complex technologies, primitive wise festive evening by discussing serious and advanced, her soldiers march with black making character, which I think was and somber aspects of our national life, but bread in their hands and the awful secrets summarized in his conclusion that the such are my instructions. The most somber of nuclear fission in their minds. Their United States will not be restored to its subject I can think of tonight is-what is our leaders are obsessed by a dedicated sense of position of influence, prestige, and lead position in the world today, how are we mission to dominate mankind. It long ante ership in the world, that our Nation will measuring up to our responsibilities. dates Karl Marx and it did not falter when not recover its lost vantage, and will not Where do we stand today? the Germans stood at Moscow's gates. Even do what is needed to be done in order to A nation with a gross national product as we sent stupendous quantities of' muni· that wm soon hit a peacetime high of $500 tions to the Soviet Union during the war achieve that goal, unless and until the billion and with a per capita income of over Stalin was plotting for our demise in the control of both the executive and the $2,500 (nearly double that of any other na postwar period. legislative branches is vested in one tion) is debating the extent to which our Elsewhere, a colossal specter rises in the political party. Senator FULBRIGHT said Armed Forces may be hiferior to those of the Far East. It commands the world's largest that unless the American people vest that Soviet Union. labor force. At this time 100 million peo control in only one party, the Nation will If there is confusion about the facts, some ple-a group exceeding half of our total be courting disaster. things are clear. It is humiliating that the population-are building the world's great Not wishing to give a political oonno debate should have to occur. Its occurrence est network of hydroelectric stations, irriga"! is evidence of our failures. It is a revelation tion canals, and dams. Red China is at tation to his address, our able colleague of our lack of foresight, of possessing great tempting within one generation an enter did not tell the Harvard Club which riches, yet failing to use them to make 'our prise grea~er than any undertaken by man: political party he thought that should selves, and keep ourselves, the world's strong that of catching up, in this short time, with be, nor was it necessary that he do so. est power, although to do less is to invite the most advanced industrialized nations. The fact is that never before in our national extinction. Many experts believe she will become a major Nation's history has the division of pow Mr. Khrushchev, having outrun us, is not industrial power during the late sixties. ers which Senator FuLBRIGHT deplores one to let our grass grow under his · feet. China's vast population grows. Soon one existed for so long as it has during the "It would be naive to think," he has said, 1n three, or one in four, of all men will be "that we are going • • • to sit with arms Chinese. Awesomely industrious, tough, in two Eisenhower administrations. There folded" while the Americans "make every ured to hardship, China's mlllions are as fore, our colleague's dictum is both new effort to raise their rocketry from the state it the fingers of the hand manipulated by their in its affirmation of a transcendently is now in and reach a better position." But determined and ruthless masters. They di· important principle, and, coming in a before considering this, let us place the recta revolution unparalleled in this dimen year of a presidential election, timely problem in perspective. sion which, in its pitilessness, has swiftly and appropriate. It deserves wide Men have anciently yearned for a un1· destroyed a culture ancient when Christ was recognition. versal commonwealth. Now we have it. But born. I ask unanimous consent that his elo it is a commonwealth of fear kept going We may expect that within foreseeable by a precarious balance of terror, a chilling time the fingers will become a clenched fist quent and constructive contribution to oscillation between negotiation and in· prepared to smash all that stands in the our political science and to the national cineration. path of China's domination of the Asian safety and destiny be printed in the We endure in an era of total crisis. The reaches, their resources, and the nearly CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. great truths are denied. Black becomes three-quarters of a billion people who in· There being no objection, the address white, the horizontal vertical. Whole· habit them. was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, states-as · Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Returning to the Soviet Union we find that as follows: Tibet-sink from sight. Whole countries Mr. Khrushchev, even ~ he bade goodby to as . Hungary-languish behind bars. An these American hosts, repeated what he has SPEECH DELIVERED BY SENATOR J. W. F'UI.· · ancient culture-as China's-is shattered and often said: "Communism would take us BRIGHT AT THE 77TH ANNUAL DINNER OF THE remade overnight .into the largest anthill over." Given communism's unrelenting ob· HARVARD CLUB OP WASHINGTON, D.C., slave state men have ever known. jective-world domination-this goal is logi· MARCH 22, 1960 All the world's parts, for the ffrst time, are cal. We must be the first to go by one Mr. Chairman, I consider lt an honor to simultaneously out of joint. And while means or another. For when the free world's be invited to speak to this distinguished horrors stalk the earth, weapons of potential shield is broken those whom it shelters audience of Harvard men. There are few. unl:yersal destruction are hurled to the stars, become defenseless.

Load more