Evening star., 1960-10-22
Nixon Discusses
American Prestige

SNIAOU 0ISSuSSSS
American Prestige
Mr.. CrOnkite Mr.. Vice
President, Senator Fulbright
and noD tonight Senator
Kennedy maintained that the
administration Is suppressing
q report By the United States
Information Agency that
shotOs a decline in United
States prestige overseas. Are
you GtOGre of such q report
and If you are GtDGre of the
existence of such a report,
should not that report. be-
cause of the great Importance
this issue has been giUen in
this campaign, be released to
the public?
Mr.. NixOn-Mr. Cronkite,
naturally am aware Of it be-
cause /, Of course, pay atten-
ton to everything Senator Ken
'nedy says, as well as Senator
Fulbright. Now, in this connec-
ton I want to point out that
the facts simply aren't as
stated. First Of all, the report
to which Senator Kennedy re-
fers is one that was made many,
many months ago and related
particularly to the period i'm
mediately after sputnik.
Second, as far as this report
is concerned I would have no
objection to having 1t made
public. Third, ] would say this
with regard to this report. with
regard to the Gallup polls of
prestige abroad and everything
else that we have been hearing
about-what about American
prestige abroad?
American prestige abroad will
be just as high as the spokes-
men for America allow it to be.
Now. when we have a preSi-
Dental candidate, for example
Senator Kennedy, stating over
and over again that the United
States is second in space-and
the fact Of the matter is that
the space score is % to 8, we
have 28 successful shots, they
have 8-when he states that
we are second in education, and
I have seen Soviet education
and I have seen ours and we
are not; that we are second in
science because they may be
ahead in one area or another
when overall we are way ahead
Of the Soviet Union and all
other countries in science;
when he says, as he did, as he
did in January of this year
that we have the worst Slums
that we have the most crowded
schools. when he says that II
million people 60 to bed hun.
CRY every night; when he makes
statements like this, what does
this do to American prestige?
Well, it can only have the
effect certainly Of reducing it
Let me make one thing clear,
Senator Kennedy has a respon-
Isibility to criticize those things
that are wrong, but he has also
responsibilities to be right In
his criticism. Every one" of these
items that ] have mentioned
he has been wrong, dead wrong,
and for that reason he has con-
tributed to any lack Of prestige.
Finally. let me say this as
far as prestige is concerned,
The tlrSt place 1t would show
up would be in the United Ma
tions. Now. Senator Kennedy
has referred to the vote on
Communist China. Let's look
at the vote on Hungary. There
we got more votes for con.
demning Hungary and looking
into that situation than we got
the last year.
Let's look at the reaction to
Khrushchev and Eisenhower at
the last u. N. session. Did
Khrushchev gain because he
took his shoe of and pounded
the table and shouted and in
sulted?s Not at all. The Presi-
dent gained. America gained.
BY continuing the dignity, the
decency that has character
ized us, and 1t is that that
keeps the prestige of America
UP, not running down America
the way Senator Kennedy has
benn running it down.