March 23 1966 Speech Foreign Institute

### About this speech Lyndon B. Johnson March 23, 1966 Source Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum President Johnson speaks before the Foreign Service Institute and emphasizes that the cause served by America's diplomats is, above all else, peace. He stresses the importance of cooperation with NATO and pooling not just resources but genuine effort to promote solidarity across the Atlantic. [Presidential Speeches](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches) | Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency ## March 23, 1966: Speech Before the Foreign Institute [Play Video](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/video/mp4/1Mb/spe_1966_0323_johnson.mp4)   Fast-forward 10 seconds 0:00 [ Download audio ](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/audio/spe_1966_0323_johnson.mp3 "\(opens in a new window\)") Embed Your browser does not support the video tag. [Miller Center: March 23, 1966: Speech Before the Foreign Institute](https://uvamiller.prod.acquia-sites.com/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/march-23-1966-speech-foreign-institute) Download media * [Download Full Video](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/video/mp4/512K/spe_1966_0323_johnson.mp4?download=1) * [Download Audio](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/audio/spe_1966_0323_johnson.mp3?download=1) View Transcript ### Transcript Mr. Secretary, ladies and gentlemen: I am very pleased to address the Foreign Service Institute this morning and to come here to meet with so many Americans that are preparing to serve their 
country abroad. As one who believes that we cannot shorten our reach in the world, I am greatly encouraged by the number and the quality of those who are studying at this Institute. You have the gratitude of your countrymen and my own assurance of support. We have come a long way from the day that someone observed that "some diplomat no doubt will launch a heedless word and lurking war leap out." That was more than half a century ago when diplomacy was often war by another name. Today your task is different. Those of you about to go abroad represent a continuity of purpose in a generation of change. That purpose is to build from reason and moderation a world order in which the fires of conflict yield to the fulfillment of man's oldest yearnings for himself and his family. Your job, wherever you serve, is peace. That is the task that faces all of us today. The question, as always, is how? How do we, for example, maintain the security of the Atlantic community upon which so many of the world's hopes depend? For the answer, we must begin with the gray dawn of the world of 1945, when Europe's cities lay in rubble, her farms devastated, her industries smashed, her people weary with war and death and defeat. Now from that desolation has come abundance. From that weakness has come power. From those ashes of holocaust has come the rebirth of a strong and a vital community. The Europe of today is a new Europe. In place of uncertainty there is confidence; in place of decay, progress; i
n place of isolation, partnership; in place of war, peace. If there is no single explanation for the difference between Europe then and Europe now, there is a pattern. It is a luminous design that is woven through the history of the past 20 years. It is the design of common action, of interdependent institutions serving the good of the European nations as though they were all one. It is the design of collective security protecting the entire Atlantic community. So I have come here this morning to speak to you of one important part of that design. I speak of a structure that some of you have helped to build: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Let me make clear in the beginning that we do not believe there is any righteousness in standing pat. If an organization is alive and vital, if it is to have meaning for all time as well as for any particular time, it must grow and respond and yield to change. Like our Constitution, which makes the law of the land, the North Atlantic Treaty is more than just a legal document. It is the foundation of a living institution. That institution is NATO, the organization created to give meaning and reality to the alliance commitments. The crowded months which immediately preceded and followed the conclusion of the North Atlantic Treaty 17 years ago had produced an atmosphere of crisis. It was a crisis that was born of deep fear: fear for Europe's economic and political vitality, fear of Communist aggression, fear of Communist subversion. Som
e say that new circumstances in the world today call for the dismantling of this great organization. Of course NATO should adapt to the changing needs of the times, but we believe just as firmly that such change must be wrought by the member nations working with one another within the alliance. Consultation, not isolation, is the route to reform. We must not forget either in success or abundance the lessons that we have learned in danger and in isolation: that whatever the issue that we share, we have one common danger--division; and one common safety--unity. What is our view of NATO today? We see it not as an alliance to make war, but as an alliance to keep peace. Through an era as turbulent as man has ever known, and under the constant threat of ultimate destruction, NATO has insured the security of the North Atlantic community. It has reinforced stability elsewhere throughout the world. While NATO rests on the reality that we must fight together if war should come to the Atlantic area, it rests also on the reality that war will not come if we act together during peace. It was the Foreign Minister of France who, in 1949, insisted that to be truly secure, Europe needed not only help in resisting attack, but help in preventing attack. "Liberation," he said, "is not enough." The success of NATO has been measured by many yardsticks. The most significant, to me, is the most obvious: War has been deterred. Through the common organization, we have welded the military contributions
 of each of the 15 allies into a very effective instrument. So convincing was this instrument that potential aggressors took stock and counted as too high the price of satisfying their ambitions. It has been proved true that "one sword keeps another in the sheath." War has been deterred not only because of our integrated military power, but because of the political unity of purpose to which that power has been directed and bent. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the bonds of culture, of political institutions, traditions, and values which form the bedrock of the Atlantic community. There is here a political integrity and an identity of interests that transcends personalities and issues of the moment. If our collective effort should falter and our common determination be eroded, the foundation of the Atlantic's present stability would certainly be shaken. The mightiest arsenal in the world will deter no aggressor who knows that his victims are too divided to decide and too unready to respond. That was the lesson that we learned from two world wars. Yet a nation--not by the action of her friends, but by her own decision to prepare and plan alone--could still imperil her own security by creating a situation in which response would be too late and too diluted. Every advance in the technology of war makes more unacceptable the old and narrow concepts of sovereignty. No one today can doubt the necessity of preventing war. It is our firm conviction that collective actio
n through NATO is the best assurance that war will be deterred in the Atlantic world. Look at the Atlantic community through the eyes of those who in years past have yearned for conquest. The sight is sobering. Integrated commands, common plans, forces in being in advance of an emergency for use in any emergency--all of these testify to a collective readiness and the integrity of collective purposes. To other eyes, NATO can only be a clear warning of the folly of aggression. NATO today, therefore, must be shaped on the experience of the past. Reliance on independent action by separate forces--only loosely coordinated with joint forces and plans--twice led to world wars before 1945. But collective action has proved successful in deterring war since 1945--during 20 years of upheaval and grave danger. We reject those experiences only at our own peril. For our part, the United States of America is determined to join with 13 of her other allies to preserve and to strengthen the deterrent strength of NATO. We will urge that those principles of joint and common preparation be extended wherever they can be usefully applied in the Atlantic Alliance. We are hopeful that no member of the treaty will long remain withdrawn from the mutual affairs and obligations of the Atlantic. A place of respect and responsibility will await any ally who decides to return to the common task. For the world is still full of peril for those who prize and cherish liberty--peril and opportunity. These bounti
ful lands that are washed by the Atlantic, this half-billion people that are unmatched in arms and industry, this cradle of common values and splendid visions, this measureless storehouse of wealth, can enrich the life of an entire planet. It is this strength--of ideas as well as strength of arms, of peaceful purpose as well as power--that offers such hope for the reconciliation of Western Europe with the people of Eastern Europe. To surrender that strength now by isolation from one another would be to dim the promise of that day when the men and women of all Europe shall again move freely among each other. It is not a question of wealth alone. It is a question of heart and mind. It is a willingness to leave forever those national rivalries which so often led to the useless squandering of lives and treasure in war. It is a question of the deeper spirit of unity of which NATO is but a symbol. That unity was never better expressed than when, at the conclusion of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949, a great French leader declared that "nations are more and more convinced that their fates are closely bound together--that their salvation and their welfare must rest upon the progressive application of human solidarity." And it is to the preservation of human solidarity that all of our efforts today should be directed. So let all of you of the Foreign Service Institute make it your task, as well as mine. Thank you and good morning. View Transcript Previous [February 23, 1966: Remarks 
on Receiving the National Freedom Award](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/february-23-1966-remarks-receiving-national-freedom-award) Next [June 30, 1966: Remarks in Omaha, Nebraska](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/june-30-1966-remarks-omaha-nebraska) ### More Lyndon B. Johnson speeches [View all Lyndon B. Johnson speeches](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches?field_president_target_id\[35\]=35) [June 30, 1966: Remarks in Omaha, Nebraska](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/june-30-1966-remarks-omaha-nebraska) video icon audio icon transcript icon [July 5, 1966: Press Conference at the LBJ Ranch](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-5-1966-press-conference-lbj-ranch) video icon audio icon transcript icon [July 12, 1966: Speech on U.S. Foreign Policy in Asia](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-12-1966-speech-us-foreign-policy-asia) video icon audio icon transcript icon [July 20, 1966: Press Conference in the East Room](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-20-1966-press-conference-east-room) video icon audio icon transcript icon [October 6, 1966: Press Conference](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/october-6-1966-press-conference) video icon audio icon transcript icon [October 15, 1966: Remarks on the Creation of the Department of Transportation](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/october-15-1966-remarks-creation-department-transportation) audio icon transcript icon [October 17, 1966: Remarks on Departing for the Asia-Pacific Trip](/the-pr
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