State of the Union Addresses of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Dwight D. Eisenhower >> State of the Union Addresses of Dwight D. Eisenhower
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14 This eBook was produced by James Linden.
The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
Dates of addresses by Dwight D. Eisenhower in this eBook:
February 2, 1953
January 7, 1954
January 6, 1955
January 5, 1956
January 10, 1957
January 9, 1958
January 9, 1959
January 7, 1960
January 12, 1961
***
State of the Union Address
Dwight D. Eisenhower
February 2, 1953
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Eighty-third Congress:
I welcome the honor of appearing before you to deliver my first message to
the Congress.
It is manifestly the joint purpose of the congressional leadership and of
this administration to justify the summons to governmental responsibility
issued last November by the American people. The grand labors of this
leadership will involve:
Application of America's influence in world affairs with such fortitude and
such foresight that it will deter aggression and eventually secure peace;
Establishment of a national administration of such integrity and such
efficiency that its honor at home will ensure respect abroad;
Encouragement of those incentives that inspire creative initiative in our
economy, so that its productivity may fortify freedom everywhere; and
Dedication to the well-being of all our citizens and to the attainment of
equality of opportunity for all, so that our Nation will ever act with the
strength of unity in every task to which it is called.
The purpose of this message is to suggest certain lines along which our
joint efforts may immediately be directed toward realization of these four
ruling purposes.
The time that this administration has been in office has been too brief to
permit preparation of a detailed and comprehensive program of recommended
action to cover all phases of the responsibilities that devolve upon our
country's new leaders. Such a program will be filled out in the weeks ahead
as, after appropriate study, I shall submit additional recommendations for
your consideration. Today can provide only a sure and substantial
beginning. II.
Our country has come through a painful period of trial and disillusionment
since the victory of 1945. We anticipated a world of peace and cooperation.
The calculated pressures of aggressive communism have forced us, instead,
to live in a world of turmoil.
From this costly experience we have learned one clear lesson. We have
learned that the free world cannot indefinitely remain in a posture of
paralyzed tension, leaving forever to the aggressor the choice of time and
place and means to cause greatest hurt to us at least cost to himself.
This administration has, therefore, begun the definition of a new, positive
foreign policy. This policy will be governed by certain fixed ideas. They
are these:
(1) Our foreign policy must be clear, consistent, and confident. This means
that it must be the product of genuine, continuous cooperation between the
executive and the legislative branches of this Government. It must be
developed and directed in the spirit of true bipartisanship.
(2) The policy we embrace must be a coherent global policy. The freedom we
cherish and defend in Europe and in the Americas is no different from the
freedom that is imperiled in Asia.
(3) Our policy, dedicated to making the free world secure, will envision
all peaceful methods and devices--except breaking faith with our friends.
We shall never acquiesce in the enslavement of any people in order to
purchase fancied gain for ourselves. I shall ask the Congress at a later
date to join in an appropriate resolution making clear that this Government
recognizes no kind of commitment contained in secret understandings of the
past with foreign governments which permit this kind of enslavement.
(4) The policy we pursue will recognize the truth that no single country,
even one so powerful as ours, can alone defend the liberty of all nations
threatened by Communist aggression from without or subversion within.
Mutual security means effective mutual cooperation. For the United States,
this means that, as a matter of common sense and national interest, we
shall give help to other nations in the measure that they strive earnestly
to do their full share of the common task. No wealth of aid could
compensate for poverty of spirit. The heart of every free nation must be
honestly dedicated to the preserving of its own independence and security.
(5) Our policy will be designed to foster the advent of practical unity in
Western Europe. The nations of that region have contributed notably to the
effort of sustaining the security of the free world. From the jungles of
Indochina and Malaya to the northern shores of Europe, they have vastly
improved their defensive strength. Where called upon to do so, they have
made costly and bitter sacrifices to hold the line of freedom.
But the problem of security demands closer cooperation among the nations of
Europe than has been known to date. Only a more closely integrated economic
and political system can provide the greatly increased economic strength
needed to maintain both necessary military readiness and respectable living
standards.
Europe's enlightened leaders have long been aware of these facts. All the
devoted work that has gone into the Schuman plan, the European Army, and
the Strasbourg Conference has testified to their vision and determination.
These achievements are the more remarkable when we realize that each of
them has marked a victory--for France and for Germany alike over the
divisions that in the past have brought such tragedy to these two great
nations and to the world.
The needed unity of Western Europe manifestly cannot be manufactured from
without; it can only be created from within. But it is right and necessary
that we encourage Europe's leaders by informing them of the high value we
place upon the earnestness of their efforts toward this goal. Real progress
will be conclusive evidence to the American people that our material
sacrifices in the cause of collective security are matched by essential
political, economic, and military accomplishments in Western Europe.
(6) Our foreign policy will recognize the importance of profitable and
equitable world trade.
A substantial beginning can and should be made by our friends themselves.
Europe, for example, is now marked by checkered areas of labor surplus and
labor shortage, of agricultural areas needing machines and industrial areas
needing food. Here and elsewhere we can hope that our friends will take the
initiative in creating broader markets and more dependable currencies, to
allow greater exchange of goods and services among themselves.
Action along these lines can create an economic environment that will
invite vital help from us.
This help includes:
First: Revising our customs regulations to remove procedural obstacles to
profitable trade. I further recommend that the Congress take the Reciprocal
Trade Agreements Act under immediate study and extend it by appropriate
legislation. This objective must not ignore legitimate safeguarding of
domestic industries, agriculture, and labor standards. In all executive
study and recommendations on this problem labor and management and farmers
alike will be earnestly consulted.
Second: Doing whatever Government properly can to encourage the flow of
private American investment abroad. This involves, as a serious and
explicit purpose of our foreign policy, the encouragement of a hospitable
climate for such investment in foreign nations.
Third: Availing ourselves of facilities overseas for the economical
production of manufactured articles which are needed for mutual defense and
which are not seriously competitive with our own normal peacetime
production.
Fourth: Receiving from the rest of the world, in equitable exchange for
what we supply, greater amounts of important raw materials which we do not
ourselves possess in adequate quantities. III.
In this general discussion of our foreign policy, I must make special
mention of the war in Korea.
This war is, for Americans, the most painful phase of Communist aggression
throughout the world. It is clearly a part of the same calculated assault
that the aggressor is simultaneously pressing in Indochina and in Malaya,
and of the strategic situation that manifestly embraces the island of
Formosa and the Chinese Nationalist forces there. The working out of any
military solution to the Korean war will inevitably affect all these
areas.
The administration is giving immediate increased attention to the
development of additional Republic of Korea forces. The citizens of that
country have proved their capacity as fighting men and their eagerness to
take a greater share in the defense of their homeland. Organization,
equipment, and training will allow them to do so. Increased assistance to
Korea for this purpose conforms fully to our global policies.
In June 1950, following the aggressive attack on the Republic of Korea, the
United States Seventh Fleet was instructed both to prevent attack upon
Formosa and also to insure that Formosa should not be used as a base of
operations against the Chinese Communist mainland.
This has meant, in effect, that the United States Navy was required to
serve as a defensive arm of Communist China. Regardless of the situation in
1950, since the date of that order the Chinese Communists have invaded
Korea to attack the United Nations forces there. They have consistently
rejected the proposals of the United Nations Command for an armistice. They
recently joined with Soviet Russia in rejecting the armistice proposal
sponsored in the United Nations by the Government of India. This proposal
had been accepted by the United States and 53 other nations.
Consequently there is no longer any logic or sense in a condition that
required the United States Navy to assume defensive responsibilities on
behalf of the Chinese Communists, thus permitting those Communists, with
greater impunity, to kill our soldiers and those of our United Nations
allies in Korea.
I am, therefore, issuing instructions that the Seventh Fleet no longer be
employed to shield Communist China. This order implies no aggressive intent
on our part. But we certainly have no obligation to protect a nation
fighting us in Korea. IV.
Our labor for peace in Korea and in the world imperatively demands the
maintenance by the United States of a strong fighting service ready for any
contingency.
Our problem is to achieve adequate military strength within the limits of
endurable strain upon our economy. To amass military power without regard
to our economic capacity would be to defend ourselves against one kind of
disaster by inviting another.
Both military and economic objectives demand a single national military
policy, proper coordination of our armed services, and effective
consolidation of certain logistics activities.
We must eliminate waste and duplication of effort in the armed services.
We must realize clearly that size alone is not sufficient. The biggest
force is not necessarily the best--and we want the best.
We must not let traditions or habits of the past stand in the way of
developing an efficient military force. All members of our forces must be
ever mindful that they serve under a single flag and for a single cause.
We must effectively integrate our armament programs and plan them in such
careful relation to our industrial facilities that we assure the best use
of our manpower and our materials.
Because of the complex technical nature of our military organization and
because of the security reasons involved, the Secretary of Defense must
take the initiative and assume the responsibility for developing plans to
give our Nation maximum safety at minimum cost. Accordingly, the new
Secretary of Defense and his civilian and military associates will, in the
future, recommend such changes in present laws affecting our defense
activities as may be necessary to clarify responsibilities and improve the
total effectiveness of our defense effort.
This effort must always conform to policies laid down in the National
Security Council.
The statutory function of the National Security Council is to assist the
President in the formulation and coordination of significant domestic,
foreign, and military policies required for the security of the Nation. In
these days of tension it is essential that this central body have the
vitality to perform effectively its statutory role. I propose to see that
it does so.
Careful formulation of policies must be followed by clear understanding of
them by all peoples. A related need, therefore, is to make more effective
all activities of the Government related to international information.
I have recently appointed a committee of representative and informed
citizens to survey this subject and to make recommendations in the near
future for legislative, administrative, or other action.
A unified and dynamic effort in this whole field is essential to the
security of the United States and of the other peoples in the community of
free nations. There is but one sure way to avoid total war--and that is to
win the cold war.
While retaliatory power is one strong deterrent to a would-be aggressor,
another powerful deterrent is defensive power. No enemy is likely to
attempt an attack foredoomed to failure.
Because the building of a completely impenetrable defense against attack is
still not possible, total defensive strength must include civil defense
preparedness. Because we have incontrovertible evidence that Soviet Russia
possesses atomic weapons, this kind of protection becomes sheer necessity.
Civil defense responsibilities primarily belong to the State and local
governments--recruiting, training, and organizing volunteers to meet any
emergency. The immediate job of the Federal Government is to provide
leadership, to supply technical guidance, and to continue to strengthen its
civil defense stockpile of medical, engineering, and related supplies and
equipment. This work must go forward without lag. V.
I have referred to the inescapable need for economic health and strength if
we are to maintain adequate military power and exert influential leadership
for peace in the world.
Our immediate task is to chart a fiscal and economic policy that can:
(1) Reduce the planned deficits and then balance the budget, which means,
among other things, reducing Federal expenditures to the safe minimum;
(2) Meet the huge costs of our defense;
(3) Properly handle the burden of our inheritance of debt and obligations;
(4) Check the menace of inflation;
(5) Work toward the earliest possible reduction of the tax burden;
(6) Make constructive plans to encourage the initiative of our citizens.
It is important that all of us understand that this administration does not
and cannot begin its task with a clean slate. Much already has been written
on the record, beyond our power quickly to erase or to amend. This record
includes our inherited burden of indebtedness and obligations and
deficits.
The current year's budget, as you know, carries a 5.9 billion dollar
deficit; and the budget, which was presented to you before this
administration took office, indicates a budgetary deficit of 9.9 billion
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1954. The national debt is now more
than 265 billion dollars. In addition, the accumulated obligational
authority of the Federal Government for future payment totals over 80
billion dollars. Even this amount is exclusive of large contingent
liabilities, so numerous and extensive as to be almost beyond description.
The bills for the payment of nearly all of the 80 billion dollars of
obligations will be presented during the next 4 years. These bills, added
to the current costs of government we must meet, make a formidable burden.
The present authorized Government-debt limit is 275 billion dollars. The
forecast presented by the outgoing administration with the fiscal year 1954
budget indicates that--before the end of the fiscal year and at the peak of
demand for payments during the year--the total Government debt may approach
and even exceed that limit. Unless budgeted deficits are checked, the
momentum of past programs will force an increase of the statutory debt
limit.
Permit me this one understatement: to meet and to correct this situation
will not be easy.
Permit me this one assurance: every department head and I are determined to
do everything we can to resolve it.
The first order of business is the elimination of the annual deficit. This
cannot be achieved merely by exhortation. It demands the concerted action
of all those in responsible positions in the Government and the earnest
cooperation of the Congress.
Already, we have begun an examination of the appropriations and
expenditures of all departments in an effort to find significant items that
may be decreased or canceled without damage to our essential requirements.
Getting control of the budget requires also that State and local
governments and interested groups of citizens restrain themselves in their
demands upon the Congress that the Federal Treasury spend more and more
money for all types of projects.
A balanced budget is an essential first measure in checking further
depreciation in the buying power of the dollar. This is one of the critical
steps to be taken to bring an end to planned inflation. Our purpose is to
manage the Government's finances so as to help and not hinder each family
in balancing its own budget.
Reduction of taxes will be justified only as we show we can succeed in
bringing the budget under control. As the budget is balanced and inflation
checked, the tax burden that today stifles initiative can and must be
eased.
Until we can determine the extent to which expenditures can be reduced, it
would not be wise to reduce our revenues.
Meanwhile, the tax structure as a whole demands review. The Secretary of
the Treasury is undertaking this study immediately. We must develop a
system of taxation which will impose the least possible obstacle to the
dynamic growth of the country. This includes particularly real opportunity
for the growth of small businesses. Many readjustments in existing taxes
will be necessary to serve these objectives and also to remove existing
inequities. Clarification and simplification in the tax laws as well as the
regulations will be undertaken.
In the entire area of fiscal policy--which must, in its various aspects, be
treated in recommendations to the Congress in coming weeks--there can now
be stated certain basic facts and principles.
First. It is axiomatic that our economy is a highly complex and sensitive
mechanism. Hasty and ill-considered action of any kind could seriously
upset the subtle equation that encompasses debts, obligations,
expenditures, defense demands, deficits, taxes, and the general economic
health of the Nation. Our goals can be clear, our start toward them can be
immediate--but action must be gradual.
Second. It is clear that too great a part of the national debt comes due in
too short a time. The Department of the Treasury will undertake at suitable
times a program of extending part of the debt over longer periods and
gradually placing greater amounts in the hands of longer-term investors.
Third. Past differences in policy between the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve Board have helped to encourage inflation. Henceforth, I expect that
their single purpose shall be to serve the whole Nation by policies
designed to stabilize the economy and encourage the free play of our
people's genius for individual initiative.
In encouraging this initiative, no single item in our current problems has
received more thoughtful consideration by my associates, and by the many
individuals called into our counsels, than the matter of price and wage
control by law.
The great economic strength of our democracy has developed in an atmosphere
of freedom. The character of our people resists artificial and arbitrary
controls of any kind. Direct controls, except those on credit, deal not
with the real causes of inflation but only with its symptoms. In times of
national emergency, this kind of control has a role to play. Our whole
system, however, is based upon the assumption that, normally, we should
combat wide fluctuations in our price structure by relying largely on the
effective use of sound fiscal and monetary policy, and upon the natural
workings of economic law.
Moreover, American labor and American business can best resolve their wage
problems across the bargaining table. Government should refrain from
sitting in with them unless, in extreme cases, the public welfare requires
protection.
We are, of course, living in an international situation that is neither an
emergency demanding full mobilization, nor is it peace. No one can know how
long this condition will persist. Consequently, we are forced to learn many
new things as we go along-clinging to what works, discarding what does
not.
In all our current discussions on these and related facts, the weight of
evidence is clearly against the use of controls in their present forms.
They have proved largely unsatisfactory or unworkable. They have not
prevented inflation; they have not kept down the cost of living.
Dissatisfaction with them is wholly justified. I am convinced that now--as
well as in the long run--free and competitive prices will best serve the
interests of all the people, and best meet the changing, growing needs of
our economy.
Accordingly, I do not intend to ask for a renewal of the present wage and
price controls on April 30, 1953, when present legislation expires. In the
meantime, steps will be taken to eliminate controls in an orderly manner,
and to terminate special agencies no longer needed for this purpose. It is
obviously to be expected that the removal of these controls will result in
individual price changes--some up, some down. But a maximum of freedom in
market prices as well as in collective bargaining is characteristic of a
truly free people.
I believe also that material and product controls should be ended, except
with respect to defense priorities and scarce and critical items essential
for our defense. I shall recommend to the Congress that legislation be
enacted to continue authority for such remaining controls of this type as
will be necessary after the expiration of the existing statute on June 30,
1953.
I recommend the continuance of the authority for Federal control over rents
in those communities in which serious housing shortages exist. These are
chiefly the so-called defense areas. In these and all areas the Federal
Government should withdraw from the control of rents as soon as
practicable. But before they are removed entirely, each legislature should
have full opportunity to take over, within its own State, responsibility
for this function.
It would be idle to pretend that all our problems in this whole field of
prices will solve themselves by mere Federal withdrawal from direct
controls.
We shall have to watch trends closely. If the freer functioning of our
economic system, as well as the indirect controls which can be
appropriately employed, prove insufficient during this period of strain and
tension, I shall promptly ask the Congress to enact such legislation as may
be required.
In facing all these problems--wages, prices, production, tax rates, fiscal
policy, deficits--everywhere we remain constantly mindful that the time for
sacrifice has not ended. But we are concerned with the encouragement of
competitive enterprise and individual initiative precisely because we know
them to be our Nation's abiding sources of strength. VI.
Our vast world responsibility accents with urgency our people's elemental
right to a government whose clear qualities are loyalty, security,
efficiency, economy, and integrity.
The safety of America and the trust of the people alike demand that the
personnel of the Federal Government be loyal in their motives and reliable
in the discharge of their duties. Only a combination of both loyalty and
reliability promises genuine security.
To state this principle is easy; to apply it can be difficult. But this
security we must and shall have. By way of example, all principal new
appointees to departments and agencies have been investigated at their own
request by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Confident of your understanding and cooperation, I know that the primary
responsibility for keeping out the disloyal and the dangerous rests
squarely upon the executive branch. When this branch so conducts itself as
to require policing by another branch of the Government, it invites its own
disorder and confusion.
I am determined to meet this responsibility of the Executive. The heads of
all executive departments and agencies have been instructed to initiate at
once effective programs of security with respect to their personnel. The
Attorney General will advise and guide the departments and agencies in the
shaping of these programs, designed at once to govern the employment of new
personnel and to review speedily any derogatory information concerning
incumbent personnel.
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