US Presidency
1967

Lilienthal will be going with me to Guam Saturday night to talk with our new leaders about the plans that he will try to institute there. Our AID programs are supporting the drive toward this sound economy. But none of these economic accomplishments will be decisive by itself. And no economic achievement can substitute for a strong and free political structure. We can not build such a structure because only the Vietnamese can do that. And I think they are building it. As I am talking to you here, a freely elected Constituent Assembly in Saigon is now wrestling with the last details of a new constitution, one which will bring the Republic of Vietnam to full membership among the democratic nations of the world. We expect that constitution to be completed this month. In the midst of war, they have been building for peace and justice. That is a remarkable accomplishment in the annals of mankind.