Union, although the Soviet Union has recognized these rights in a number of agreements along the way. But there is a very long record of broken agreements and treaties with the Soviet Union made during and since the war. I think we can be forgiven if we are skeptical about the offer of fresh assurances when these are made at just the time that they are withdrawing assurances already given.

Now, the question of agreements with the Soviet Union is a very complex one, but there are times when it looks as though, as I said in another place the other day, an agreement seems to them to be a rest camp where you pause to refit, waiting for an opportunity for a further advance.40

An attempt to destroy Western rights in West Berlin by a piece of paper signed between the Soviet Union and East Germany simply cannot have that effect. This is a legal absurdity. It is not an act of political wisdom, and if implications are drawn from this notion that our rights have been destroyed, this could create a very dangerous situation.

242. “WE CANNOT AND WILL NOT PERMIT THE COMMUNISTS TO DRIVE US OUT OF BERLIN, EITHER GRADUALLY OR BY FORCE": Address by the President (Kennedy) to the Nation, July 25, 1961 (Excerpts) "1

41

Seven weeks ago tonight I returned from Europe to report on my meeting with Premier Khrushchev and the others.42 His grim warnings about the future of the world, his aide memoire on Berlin,43 his subsequent speeches and threats which he and his agents have launched, and the increase in the Soviet military budget that he has announced 45 have all prompted a series of decisions by the administration and a series of consultations with the members of the NATO organization. In Berlin, as you recall, he intends to bring to an end, through a stroke of the pen, first, our legal rights to be in West Berlin and, secondly, our ability to make good on our commitment to the 2 million free people of that city. That we cannot permit.

We are clear about what must be done and we intend to do it. I want to talk frankly with you tonight about the first steps that we shall take. These actions will require sacrifice on the part of many of our citizens. More will be required in the future. They will require,

40 Remarks made in the course of the Secretary's address before the National Press Club, July 10, 1961; text in the Department of State Bulletin, July 31, 1961, pp. 175-178.

41

White House press release dated July 25, 1961 (text as printed in the Department of State Bulletin, Aug. 14, 1961, pp. 267-273). The President's address was carried by the principal radio and television networks.

But

from all of us, courage and perseverance in the years to come. if we and our allies act out of strength and unity of purpose-with calm determination and steady nerves, using restraint in our words as well as our weapons-I am hopeful that both peace and freedom will be sustained.

The immediate threat to free men is in West Berlin. But that isolated outpost is not an isolated problem. The threat is worldwide. Our effort must be equally wide and strong and not be obsessed by any single manufactured crisis. We face a challenge in Berlin, but there is also a challenge in southeast Asia, where the borders are less guarded, the enemy harder to find, and the danger of communism less apparent to those who have so little. We face a challenge in our hemisphere and indeed wherever else the freedom of human beings is at stake.

We are there as a result of our victory over Nazi Germany, and our basic rights to be there deriving from that victory include both our presence in West Berlin and the enjoyment of access across East Germany. These rights have been repeatedly confirmed and recognized in special agreements with the Soviet Union. Berlin is not a part of East Germany, but a separate territory under the control of the allied powers. Thus our rights there are clear and deep-rooted. But in addition to those rights is our commitment to sustain-and defend, if need be-the opportunity for more than 2 million people to determine their own future and choose their own way of life.

Thus our presence in West Berlin, and our access thereto, cannot be ended by any act of the Soviet Government. The NATO shield was long ago extended to cover West Berlin, and we have given our word that an attack in that city will be regarded as an attack upon us all.

For West Berlin, lying exposed 110 miles inside East Germany, surrounded by Soviet troops and close to Soviet supply lines, has many roles. It is more than a showcase of liberty, a symbol, an island of freedom in a Communist sea. It is even more than a link with the free world, a beacon of hope behind the Iron Curtain, an escape hatch for refugees.

West Berlin is all of that. But above all it has now become, as never before, the great testing place of Western courage and will, a focal point where our solemn commitments, stretching back over the since 1945, and Soviet ambitions now meet in basic confrontation.

years

It would be a mistake for others to look upon Berlin, because of its location, as a tempting target. The United States is there, the United Kingdom and France are there, the pledge of NATO is there, and the people of Berlin are there. It is as secure, in that sense, as the rest of us, for we cannot separate its safety from our own.

I hear it said that West Berlin is militarily untenable. And so was Bastogne. And so, in fact, was Stalingrad. Any dangerous spot is tenable if men-brave men-will make it so.

We do not want to fight, but we have fought before. And others in earlier times have made the same dangerous mistake of assuming that the West was too selfish and too soft and too divided to resist invasions

of freedom in other lands. Those who threaten to unleash the forces. of war on a dispute over West Berlin should recall the words of the ancient philosopher: "A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear."

We cannot and will not permit the Communists to drive us out of Berlin, either gradually or by force. For the fulfillment of our pledge to that city is essential to the morale and security of Western Germany, to the unity of Western Europe, and to the faith of the entire free world. Soviet strategy has long been aimed not merely at Berlin but at dividing and neutralizing all of Europe, forcing us back to our own shores. We must meet our oft-stated pledge to the free peoples of West Berlin-and maintain our rights and their safety, even in the face of force-in order to maintain the confidence of other free peoples in our word and our resolve. The strength of the alliance on which our security depends is dependent in turn on our willingness to meet our commitments to them.

So long as the Communists insist that they are preparing to end by themselves unilaterally our rights in West Berlin and our commitments to its people, we must be prepared to defend those rights and those commitments. We will at all times be ready to talk, if talk will help. But we must also be ready to resist with force, if force is used upon us. Either alone would fail. Together, they can serve the causeof freedom and peace.

The new preparations that we shall make to defend the peace are part of the long-term buildup in our strength which has been underway since January. They are based on our needs to meet a worldwide threat, on a basis which stretches far beyond the present Berlin crisis. Our primary purpose is neither propaganda nor provocationbut preparation.

A first need is to hasten progress toward the military goals which the North Atlantic allies have set for themselves. In Europe today nothing less will suffice. We will put even greater resources into fulfilling those goals, and we look to our allies to do the same.

46

The supplementary defense buildups that I asked from the Congress. in March and May 6 have already started moving us toward these and our other defense goals. They included an increase in the size of theMarine Corps, improved readiness of our reserves, expansion of our air- and sealift, and stepped-up procurement of needed weapons, ammunition, and other items. To insure a continuing invulnerablecapacity to deter or destroy any aggressor, they provided for the strengthening of our missile power and for putting 50 percent of our B-52 and B-47 bombers on a ground alert which would send them on their way with 15 minutes' warning.

These measures must be speeded up, and still others must now be taken. We must have sea- and airlift capable of moving our forces. quickly and in large numbers to any part of the world.

But even more importantly, we need the capability of placing in any critical area at the appropriate time a force which, combined with.

See the unnumbered title ante, p. 28, and doc. 6, ante..

those of our allies, is large enough to make clear our determination and our ability to defend our rights at all costs and to meet all levels of aggressor pressure with whatever levels of force are required. We intend to have a wider choice than humiliation or all-out nuclear action.

While it is unwise at this time either to call up or send abroad excessive numbers of these troops before they are needed, let me make it clear that I intend to take, as time goes on, whatever steps are necessary to make certain that such forces can be deployed at the appropriate time without lessening our ability to meet our commitments elsewhere.

Thus, in the days and months ahead, I shall not hesitate to ask the Congress for additional measures or exercise any of the Executive powers that I possess to meet this threat to peace. Everything essential to the security of freedom must be done; and if that should require more men, or more taxes, or more controls, or other new powers, I shall not hesitate to ask them. The measures proposed today will be constantly studied, and altered as necessary. But while we will not. let panic shape our policy, neither will we permit timidity to direct our program.

Accordingly I am now taking the following steps:

(1) I am tomorrow requesting of the Congress for the current fiscal year an additional $3,247,000,000 of appropriations for the Armed Forces.

(2) To fill out our present Army divisions and to make more men available for prompt deployment, I am requesting an increase in the Army's total authorized strength from 875,000 to approximately 1 million men.

(3) I am requesting an increase of 29,000 and 63,000 men, respectively, in the active-duty strength of the Navy and the Air Force.

(4) To fulfill these manpower needs, I am ordering that our draft calls be doubled and tripled in the coming months; I am asking the Congress for authority to order to active duty certain ready reserve units and individual reservists and to extend tours of duty; and, under that authority, I am planning to order to active duty a number of air transport squadrons and Air National Guard tactical air squadrons to give us the airlift capacity and protection that we need. Other reserve forces will be called up when needed.

(5) Many ships and planes once headed for retirement are to be retained or reactivated, increasing our air power tactically and our sealift, airlift, and antisubmarine warfare capability. In addition, our strategic air power will be increased by delaying the deactivation of B-47 bombers.

(6) Finally, some $1.8 billion-about half of the total sum-is needed for the procurement of nonnuclear weapons, ammunition, and equipment.

The details on all these requests will be presented to the Congress tomorrow. Subsequent steps will be taken to suit subsequent needs. Comparable efforts for the common defense are being discussed with 47 As S. Doc. 39, 87th Cong., July 26, 1961.

Doc. 242

our NATO allies. For their commitment and interest are as precise

as our own.

And let me add that I am well aware of the fact that many American families will bear the burden of these requests. Studies or careers will be interrupted; husbands and sons will be called away; incomes in some cases will be reduced. But these are burdens which must be borne if freedom is to be defended. Americans have willingly borne them before, and they will not flinch from the task now.

We have another sober responsibility. To recognize the possibilities of nuclear war in the missile age without our citizens' knowing what they should do and where they should go if bombs begin to fall would be a failure of responsibility. In May I pledged a new start on civil defense. Last week I assigned, on the recommendation of the Civil Defense Director, basic responsibility for this program to the Secretary of Defense, to make certain it is administered and coordinated with our continental defense efforts at the highest civilian level.48 Tomorrow I am requesting of the Congress new funds for the following immediate objectives: to identify and mark space in existing structures-public and private-that could be used for fallout shelters. in case of attack; to stock those shelters with food, water, first-aid kits, and other minimum essentials for survival; to increase their capacity; to improve our air-raid warning and fallout detection systems, including a new household warning system which is now under development; and to take other measures that will be effective at an early date to save millions of lives if needed.

In the event of an attack, the lives of those families which are not hit in a nuclear blast and fire can still be saved-if they can be warned to take shelter and if that shelter is available. We owe that kind of insurance to our families and to our country. In contrast to our friends in Europe, the need for this kind of protection is new to our shores. But the time to start is now. In the coming months I hope to let every citizen know what steps he can take without delay to protect his family in case of attack. I know that you will want to do no less.

The addition of $207 million in civil defense appropriations brings our total new defense budget requests to $3.454 billion and a total of $47.5 billion for the year. This is an increase in the defense budget of $6 billion since January and has resulted in official estimates of a budget deficit of over $5 billion. The Secretary of the Treasury and other economic advisers assure me, however, that our economy has the capacity to bear this new request.

We are recovering strongly from this year's recession. The increase in this last quarter of our year of our total national output was greater than that for any postwar period of initial recovery. And yet wholesale prices are actually lower than they were during the recession, and consumer prices are only one-fourth of 1 percent higher than they were last October. In fact this last quarter was the first in 8 years in which our production has increased without an increase in the overall-price index. And for the first time since the fall of 1959 our

48

Reference to Executive Order No. 10952, July 20, 1961 (26 Fed. Reg. 6577).