January 23, 1964
Page 1033
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S PEACE PROPOSALS IN LETTER TO CHAIRMAN KHRUSHCHEV
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to commend President Johnson on his masterful reply to the New Year's greetings of Premier Khrushchev. The President's letter illustrates the imagination and vigilance that must ever characterize a free people striving for peace, ever willing to reach out toward the promise of peace, ever willing to deflate the propaganda barrage which masquerades under the guise of peace.
In welcoming the New Year's message from the Soviet Premier, the President stressed the areas of agreements with magnanimity and the need for substantive implementation with disarming candor. In a letter offering concrete proposals, the President called upon Premier Khrushchev to implement vague rhetoric with concrete actions. Mr. Johnson called for specific, well thought out, and attainable proposals to be presented to the new session of the 18-Nation Disarmament Conference opening yesterday in Geneva. The President asked Chairman Khrushchev to present practicalities rather than platitudes.
To a Soviet leader who writes of peace the President held up the United Nations as man's highest hope for peace.
The President invited Mr. Khrushchev to enter the forums of negotiation with new candor, to remove the causes of friction between nations and to improve the world's machinery for peacefully settling disputes.
The President responded to vague principles with far-reaching proposals and guidelines against the threat or use of force. He asked Mr. Khrushchev to join him in proscribing subversion and the clandestine supplying of arms. He bid the Soviets strengthen, through usage and contributions, the peacekeeping machinery of the United Nations.
As the President so wisely stressed in his state of the Union message, this is a time when we must "be constantly prepared for the worst and constantly acting for the best."