balance10: This has nothing to do with flesh and blood; something in the heart as well as in the head

Now, the H-bomb--the H-bomb and the Atomic Age: they are not in themselves a great threat to us, of course not. The H-bomb is a threat to us only if a potential aggressor, who also has the secrets of the H-bomb, determines to use it against us. And against that then we have to make our provisions, to make certain that sensible men have done every possible thing they can to protect ourselves against that threat. Communism seeks to divide us, to set class against class, good people against good people, when those good people should be standing together in defense of liberty and against Communism. Because of that we must take counsel among ourselves and stand together and let nothing tear us apart.

So let us first then take these purposes one by one and think of some of the counterbalancing factors against the threat itself. By this I mean, take the Kremlin. When we say that word we mean the Politburo, and we think of what may be its designs against us, what may be the dictator's intentions with respect to war or aggression, his plans to enslave the world. Of all of these, of course, war poses to us the gravest threat because of its destructive qualities.

Now let us take the first of what I would call the counteracting or counterbalancing factors. The very fact that those men, by their own design, are in the Kremlin, means that they love power. They want to be there. Whenever they start a war they are taking the great risk of losing that power. They study history pretty well. They remember Mussolini, they remember Hitler. They have even studied Napoleon very seriously. When dictators over-reach themselves and challenge the whole world they are very likely to end up in any place except a dictatorial position. And those men in the Politburo know that.. So we have the first of these counteracting or counterbalancing factors against the possibility of their declaring war: there are many risks of every kind in war. Among other things, the Russians have a system of satellites--captive satellites. Now they know again the risks of indulging in war when you have captive satellites. Napoleon went into Russia in 1812 with exactly that kind of army. The Grand Army of France had been reinforced by Prussians and others of the regions that Napoleon had conquered, whose soldiers he had impressed into his own army. As quickly as he met his first disaster they began to desert.

The Russians know all that. That very system of satellites could be, in a war of exhaustion, a very great source of weakness. They have, as compared to us, economic weaknesses, and after all a strong economy is necessary, if you are going to push through to victory in a modern war. The Russians produced last year something less, probably, than half a billion barrels of oil. We produced two and a quarter by ourselves. We produced something over twice as much steel as they produced. Now these are strong elements in our economy--when you are going to use so much of your production to wage a war, particularly a war of exhaustion. Now all of these things are deterrents upon the men in the Kremlin. They are factors that make war, let us say, less likely. As long as they know that we are in position to act strongly and to retaliate, war is not a decision to be taken lightly. Yet I admit--and we must all admit--that it remains a possibility they might do this, in a fit of madness or through miscalculation.

Of course, as I mentioned before, the H-bomb is dangerous because those people have its secrets, possess and have exploded, as they did some months back, such a bomb. But we know, with respect to that bomb, we are not going to start a war. It is not going to be used by our initiative. And I have just talked about this sobering effect of the risks of war upon the men in the Kremlin. Of all those sobering effects, none is greater than the retaliation that will certainly be visited upon them if they would attack any of our nations, or any part of our vital interests, aggressively and in order to conquer us.

In addition to all this, we devote ourselves to civil and continental defense in order to make certain that we have the best possible chance to live through such a catastrophe as well as to inflict upon the enemy such losses that he would quit fighting. But since insanity still exists, I again say there is still an element in that threat that we must calculate very coldly and very carefully.

Now the next thing that we fear, or concerning which we are apprehensive, is this idea of Communist infiltration into our own country, into our Government, into our schools, into our unions, into any of our facilities, any of our industries, wherever they may be, and wherever those Communists could damage us. Now it would be completely false to minimize the dangers of this penetration. It does exist; we know some of them are here; yet let me give you now some of the counterbalancing factors.

First of all, this fear has been greatly exaggerated as to numbers. In our country today, there are possibly some 25,000 doctrinal Communists. The FBI knows pretty well where they are. But the headlines of the newspapers would sometimes have you think that every other person you meet is a Communist. Actually, 25 thousand out of 160 million people means about one out of six thousand. But they are dangerous. Now our great defense against those people is the FBI. The FBI has been doing for years in this line of work a magnificent job. They are a great bulwark, and any one of you can notify them today about real valid facts which you have, and they will be on the job doing something about it; they are that kind. So great is the story that they have to tell that I am not going to attempt to tell it tonight. Instead I have asked the Attorney General on next Friday night to come before you and give you a complete account of what the FBI has been doing about this.

Along with this, this fear of Communist penetration, comes another fear that is related to it, the fear that we will use intemperate investigative methods, particularly through congressional committees, to combat Communistic penetration. As I pointed out before, it is minute. The great mass of governmental people--Government workers, civilian and in uniform, people in our schools and everywhere else that we can think of--are just as dedicated as you and I. They are just as loyal. But this fringe still has to be hunted out, and as I say, you will get a full report of what the FBI is doing on this.

Now the congressional committee--one of its functions when it was set up as the congressional investigative committee it was to be your protection against the unwarranted attacks of an overpowering executive. It was to look after your civil liberties, to make certain that your liberties were not eroded away....But in the long run you may be certain of this: America believes in, and practices, fair play and decency and justice. In this country public opinion is the most powerful of all forces, and it will straighten this matter out wherever and whenever there is real violence done to our great rights.

And now the next fear I want to touch upon is the fear of losing international friends, the fear that comes to us or the apprehension that comes to us, when we consider that exposed areas of the world--not so strong as we are, not so strong in materials or in this world's riches or militarily--may fall prey to the subversion, the deceit, the bribery and the propaganda that is practiced by the Russians. Now some of these areas are very, very important to us, not merely because of the necessary materials we get from them--tin, tungsten, rubber, manganese and all the things we need to keep our economy going--but because those people, if regimented under the Communist dictators in the Kremlin, could make them stronger and stronger as against us, as the free world was chipped away.

Now let us take again some of the counterbalancing values. Did you ever stop to think there is no nation in the world that has ever freely adopted Communism in a vote of the people? On the contrary, every time Communists have taken over a country, even Russia, it has been done by a very small minority practicing violence. Or through some slick method, or political move it has gotten control of the country, establishing a gestapo or other method of police control and has ruled that country.

Moreover there is a growing understanding in the world of the decency and justice of the American position in opposing the slavery of any nation. We do not believe that any nation no matter how great has a right to take another people and subject them to its rule. We believe that every nation has a right to live its own life. Every bit of aid we give, every cooperative effort we undertake, is all based upon the theory that it is cooperation among equals. The other night a newspaper by a curious error spoke of allies as "appliances" instead of alliances. Now the one mistake we must never make is to think of our friends in the international world as being tools of ours. They are not. They are friends of ours; and as they are friends they are equals to us....

Now one of the important things in this kind of problem is the attitude of your Government. I have tried to define our Government several times as one that is completely liberal in its relationship to people but earnestly tries to be conservative when it deals with your money and your economy. Now already there have been many measures taken to ease and to accommodate this transition from war to peace economy. We have made loans easier and facilitated construction. We have reduced and are reducing to some extent the surpluses that overhang our agricultural market. We are trying to increase our markets abroad, stimulating production, and so on. But there are many, many more plans in reserve, ready to use if necessary. Among these of course is public construction, further lowering of taxes, increasing your money to spend in many ways, and that is something to be brought out if necessary. But on the other hand your Government does not intend to go into any slam-bang emergency program unless it is necessary.

Now my friends, I should say that the one great aspiration of America is a free, peaceful and prosperous world. To have a free, peaceful and prosperous world we must be ever stronger; we must be ever stronger not only in the things I have mentioned but particularly in this spiritual sense--in the belief, the faith that we can do certain things. We must have the faith that comes from a study of our own history, from the inspiration of leaders like Washington and Lincoln and what our pioneering forefathers did.

But as we look at the whole problem and we sum up these apprehensions of which I have just spoken, we find that each of them has a certain lingering element of truth in it. And so we have plans, and this administration has presented to the Congress a plan--a legislative program. In that program there is ample measure for defense, civil and continental defense and for the deterrent effects of our atomic development. We have lowered taxes so that six billion dollars or more have been turned back to the public so as to stimulate production. We have farm programs-taxes--trade--mutual security--housing--social security--health programs--all of these things. My friends, if they are done we will be certain of a stronger America that will be capable of bringing closer to us this peaceful, prosperous and secure America.

But I say again that it is the American belief in decency and justice and progress and the value of individual liberty, because of the rights conferred upon each of us by our Creator, that will carry us through as we study and plan these things. There must be something in the heart as well as in the head. So as we do this, as you and I approach our problems in this way, I assure you we don't have to fear. I don't mean to say, and no one can say to you, that there are no dangers. Of course there are risks if we are not vigilant. But we do not have to be hysterical; we can be vigilant; we can be Americans. We can stand up and hold up our heads and say: America is the greatest force that God has ever allowed to exist on His footstool. As such it is up to us to lead this world to a peaceful and secure existence. And I assure you we can do it.

Good-night, my friends.