Richard M. Nixon

Richard M. Nixon: 1960 Republican National
Convention Acceptance Address


Mr. Chairman, Delegates to this Convention,
my fellow Americans:
I have made many speeches in my life,
and never have I found it
more difficult to find the words adequate to
express what I feel, as I find them tonight.
To stand here before this great Convention,
to hear your expression of affection
for me, for Pat, for our daughters, for my mother,
for all of us who are representing our Party,
is, of course, the greatest moment of my life.

And I want you...
And I just want you to know
that my only prayer as I stand here
is that in months ahead
I may be in some way worthy
of the affection and the trust which you have
presented to me on this occasion
in everything that I say,
everything that I do, everything that
I think in this campaign and afterwards.

And may I say also that...
may I say also that
I have been wanting to come to this convention,
but because of the protocol that makes it
necessary for a candidate not to attend the
convention until the nominations are over
I've had to look at it on television;
but I want all of
you to know that I have never been so proud of
my Party as I have been in these last three days,
and as I have compared this convention,
the conduct of our delegates and our speakers,
with what went on in my native State of California
just two weeks ago.

And I congratulate Chairman Halleck
and Chairman Morton and all of those
who have helped to make this convention one
that will stand in the annals of our Party forever
as one of the finest we have ever held.
Have you ever stopped to think of the memories
you will take away from this convention?
The things that run through my mind are these:
That first day with the magnificent speeches;
Mr. Hoover with his great lesson
for the American people;
Walter Judd
with one of the most outstanding
keynote addresses in either Party in history;
and last night our beloved,
fighting President
making the greatest speech that I have ever
heard him make
before this convention;
your platform and its magnificent presentation
by Chuck Percy, the Chairman.

For these and for so many other things,
I want to congratulate you tonight and to thank you
from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of
Americans, not just Republicans, Americans
everywhere, for making us proud of our country
and of our two-party system,
for what you have done.

And tonight, too, I particularly want to thank
this convention for nominating as my running
mate a world statesman of the first rank,
my friend and colleague,
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts.

In refreshing contrast to what happened
in Los Angeles, you nominated a man
who shares my views on the great issues and
who will work with me and not against me in
carrying out our magnificent platform.

And may I say that during this week we
Republicans, who feel our convictions strongly
about our Party and about our country,
have had our differences, but as the speech by
Senator Goldwater indicated yesterday,
and the eloquent
and gracious remarks of my
friend, Nelson Rockefeller,
indicated tonight,
we Republicans know that the differences
that divide us are infinitesimal compared to
the gulf between us and what the Democrats
would put upon us from what they did at Los
Angeles at their convention
two weeks ago.

It was only eight years ago that I stood in this
very place after you had nominated as our
candidate for the President one of the great
men of our century. And I say to you tonight that
for generations to come, Americans, regardless
of party, will gratefully remember Dwight
Eisenhower as the man who brought peace to
America as the man...as the man under whose
leadership America enjoyed the greatest
progress and prosperity in history. But above all,
they will remember him as the man who restored
honesty, integrity, and dignity to the conduct of
government in the highest office of this land.

And my fellow Americans, I know now that you
will understand what I next say, because the next
President of the United States will have his
great example to follow, because the next
President will have new and challenging
problems in the world of utmost gravity.
This truly is a time for greatness in America's
leadership. I am sure you will understand
why I do not say tonight that I alone am the man
who can furnish that leadership. That question is
not for me, but for you to decide.

And I only ask tonight... I only ask that the
thousands in this hall and the millions listening
to me on television, I only ask that you make
that decision in the most thoughtful way that
you possibly can, because what you  decide
this November will not only affect your lives and
your future, it will affect the future of millions
throughout the world. And I urge you, study the
records of the candidates, listen to my speeches
and that of my opponent, and that of Mr. Lodge
and that of his opponent. And then, after you
have studied our records and listened to our
speeches, decide... decide on the basis of what
we say and what we believe which is best
qualified to lead America and the free world in
this critical period. And to help you make this
decision I would like to discuss tonight some of
the great problems which will confront the next
President of the United States and the policies
I believe that should be adopted to meet them.

One hundred years ago, in this city,  Abraham
Lincoln was nominated for President of the
United States. The problems which will confront
our next President will be even greater than
those that confronted him. The question then was
freedom for the slaves and survival of the nation.
The question now is freedom for all mankind and
the survival of civilization, and the choice you
make you, each of you listening to me makes
this November can affect the answer to that
question. What should your choice be and what
is it? Well, let's first examine what our opponents
offered in Los Angeles two weeks ago.
They claimed theirs was a new program, but you
know what it was? It was simply the same old
proposition that a political party should be all
things to all men, and nothing more than that.

And they promised... they promised everything
to everybody, with one exception: they didn't
promise to pay the bill. And I say tonight that
with their convention, their platform, and their
ticket, they composed a symphony of political
cynicism which is out of harmony with our times
today. Now, we come to the key question: What
should our answer be? And some might say,
"Why do as they do... out-promise them, because
that's the only way to win."
And I want to tell you my answer.
I happen to believe that their program would be
disastrous for America; it would wreck our
economy; it would dash our people's high hopes
for a better life; and I serve notice here and now
that whatever the political consequences,
we are not going to try to out-promise our
opponents in this campaign.

We are not going to make promises we cannot
and should not keep, and we are not going to try
to buy the people's votes with their own money.

And to those who say that this position will
mean political defeat, my answer is this:
We have more faith than that in the good sense
of the American people, provided the people
know the facts and that's where we come in.
And I pledge to you tonight that we will bring the
facts home to the American people,
and we will do it with a campaign
such as this country has never seen before.

I have been asked by the newsmen sitting on
my right and my left all week long: "When is this
campaign going to begin, Mr. Vice President?
On the day after Labor Day or one of the other
traditional starting dates?" And this is my answer:
This campaign begins tonight... here and now
and it goes on and this campaign will continue
from now until November 8th without any letup.

And I've also been asked by my friends in the
press on either side here - they say, "Mr. Vice
President, where are you going to concentrate?
What states are you going to visit?" And this is
my answer: In this campaign we are going to
take no states for granted, and we aren't going
to concede any states to the opposition.

And I announce to you tonight, and I pledge to
you, that I, personally, will carry this campaign
into every one of the 50  states of this nation
between now and November the 8th.

And in this campaign I make a prediction.
I say that just as in 1952 and in 1956 millions of
Democrats will join us not because they are
deserting their Party, but because their Party
deserted them at Los Angeles two weeks ago.

Now, I have suggested to you what our friends
of the opposition offered to the American
people. What do we offer? First, we are proud
to offer the bait: the best eight-year record of
any Administration in the history of this country.

But my fellow Americans, that isn't all and that
isn't enough, because we happen to believe
that a record is not something to stand on, but
something to build on.
And building on the great record of this
Administration, we shall build a better America;
we shall build an America in which we shall see
the realization of the dreams, the dreams of
millions of people, not only in America, but
throughout the world for a fuller, freer, richer life
than men have ever known in the history of
mankind. Let me tell you something of the goals
of this better America toward which we will
strive. In this America our older citizens shall not
only have adequate protection against the
hazards of ill health, but a greater opportunity to
lead a useful and productive life by participating
to the extent they are able in the nation's exciting
work, rather than sitting on the sidelines.

And in this better America, young Americans
shall not only have the best basic education in
America, but every boy and girl of ability,
regardless of his financial circumstances,
shall have the opportunity to develop
his intellectual capabilities to the full.

Our wage earners... Our wage earners, shall
enjoy increasingly higher wages in honest
dollars, with better protection against the hazards
of unemployment and old age. And, for those
millions of Americans who are still denied
equality of rights and opportunity, I say there shall
be the greatest progress in human rights since
the days of Lincoln a hundred years ago.

And America’s farmers ? America’s farmers
to whose hard work and almost incredible
efficiency we owe the fact that we are
the best fed, best clothed people in the world.
I say America’s farmers must and will receive
what they do not have today - and what they
deserve - a fair share of America’s
ever-increasing prosperity.

And to accomplish these things, we will develop
to the full the untapped natural resources (our
water, our minerals, our power) with which we are
so fortunate to be blessed in this rich land of ours.
And we shall provide for our scientists the
support they need for the research that will open
exciting new highways into the future, new
highways in which we shall have progress which
we cannot even dream of today. And above all, in
this decade of the sixties, this decade of decision
and progress, we will witness the continued
revitalization of America’s moral and spiritual
strength, with a renewed faith in the eternal ideals
of freedom and justice under God which our are
priceless heritage as a people.

And now I’m sure that many of you in this
fall and many of you on television might well ask,
“But, Mr. Nixon, don’t our opponents favor just
such goals as these? “ And my answer is; “yes,
of course.“ All Americans, regardless of Party,
want a better life for our people. What’s the
difference, then? And I’ll tell you what it is.
The difference is in the way we propose to reach
these goals, and the record shows that our way
works and theirs doesn’t, and we’re going to
prove it in this campaign.

We produce on the promises that they make.
We succeed where they fail. You know why?
Because we put, as governor Rockefeller said in
his remarks, we put our primary reliance not
upon government, but upon people for progress
in America. That is what we will succeed. And
we must never forget that the strength of America
is not in its government, but in it’s people; and we
say tonight that there is no limit to the goals
America can reach, provided we stay true to the
great American traditions. A government has a
role, and a very important one, but the role of
government is not to take responsibility from
people, but to put responsibility on them. It is not
to dictate to people, but to encourage and
stimulate the creative productivity of 180 million
free Americans. That’s the way to progress in
America.

In other words, we have faith in the
people and, because our programs for progress
are based on that faith, we shall succeed where
our opponents will fail in building the  better
America that I’ve described. But if these goals
are to be reached, the next President of the
United States must have the wisdom to choose
between the things government should and
should not do. He must have the courage to
stand against the pressures of the few for the
good of the many, and he must have the vision to
press forward on all fronts for the better life our
people want. Now, I’ve spoken to you of the
responsibilities of our next President at home.

Those which he will face abroad will be infinitely
greater. But before I look to the future let me say
a word about the past. At Los Angeles two
weeks ago, we heard the United States...
our government... blamed for Mr. Khrushchev’s
sabotage of the Paris conference. We heard the
United States blamed for the actions of
Communist-led mobs in Caracas and Tokyo.
We heard that American education and
American scientists are inferior. We’re heard
that America, militarily and economically, is a
second-rate country. We heard that America[n]
prestige is at an all-time  low. This is my answer:
I say that at a time the Communists are running
us down abroad, it’s time to speak up for
America at home.

And my friends, let us recognize America has its
weaknesses, and constructive criticism of those
weaknesses is essential - essential so that we
can correct our weaknesses in the best traditions
of our democratic process. But let us also
recognize this: while it is dangerous to see
nothing wrong in America, it is just as wrong to
refuse to recognize what is right about America.

And tonight I say to you no criticism ? No
criticism ? should be allowed to obscure the truth,
either at  home or abroad, that today America is
the  strongest nation, militarily, economically, and
ideologically, in the world; and we have the will
and  the stamina and the resources to maintain
that  strength in the years ahead.

And now, if we may turn to the future, we must
recognize that the foreign policy problems of
the sixties will be different and they will be be
vastly more difficult than those of the fifties
through which we have just passed.
We are in a race tonight, my fellow Americans,
in a race for survival, in which our lives, our
fortunes, our liberties are at stake. We are
ahead now, but the only way to stay ahead in a
race is to move ahead; and the next President
will make decisions which will determine whether
we win or whether we lose this race. What must
he do? These things, I believe: he must resolve,
first and above all, that the United States must
never settle for second best in anything.

Let’s look at the specifics. Militarily, the security
of the United States must be put before all
other considerations. Why? Not only because
this is necessary to deter aggression, but
because we must make sure that we are in
never in a position at the conference table
where Mr. Khrushchev or his  successor is able
to coerce an American  President because of
his strength and our weakness. Diplomatically,
let's look at what the problem is. Diplomatically,
our next President must be firm, firm on principle.
But he must never be belligerent. He must never
engage in a war of words which might heat up
the international climate to the igniting point of
nuclear catastrophe. But, while he must never
answer insults in kind, he must leave no doubt
at any time that, whether it is in Berlin or in Cuba
or anywhere else in the world,
America will not tolerate being pushed around
by anybody any place.

Because we have already paid a terrible price in
lives and resources to learn that appeasement
leads not to peace, but to war, it will, indeed,
take great leadership to steer us through these
years, avoiding the extreme of belligerency on
the one hand and appeasement on the other.
Now, Mr. Kennedy has suggested that
what the world needs is young leadership;
and, understandably, this has great appeal
because it is true... true, that youth does bring
boldness and imagination and drive to
leadership, and we need all those things.

But I think most people will agree with me tonight
when I say that President de Gaulle, Prime
Minister Macmillan and Chancellor Adenauer
are not young men, but we are indeed fortunate
with - that we have their wisdom and their
experience and their encourage [sic] on our side
in the struggle for freedom today in the world.

And, and, I might suggest, that as we consider
the relative merits of youth and age, it’s only fair
to point out that it was not Mr. de Gaulle or
Mr. Macmillan or Mr. Adenauer, but Mr. Kennedy
who made the rash and impulsive suggestion
that President Eisenhower could have
apologized or sent regrets to Mr. Khrushchev
for the U-2 flights-which the President had
ordered to save our country from surprise
attacks. But formidable as will be the diplomatic
and military problems confronting the next
President, far more difficult and critical will be
the decisions he must make to meet and defeat
the enemies of freedom in an entirely different
kind of struggle.

And now I want to speak to you of another kind
of aggression, aggression without war,
where the aggressor comes not as a conqueror
but as a champion of peace, of freedom,
offering progress and plenty, and hope to the
unfortunate of the earth. And I say tonight that the
major problem, the biggest problem, confronting
the next President of the United States  will be to
inform the people of the character of this kind of
aggression, to arouse the people to the mortal
danger it presents and to inspire the people to
meet that danger.

And he must develop a brand new strategy
which will win the battle for freedom for all men,
and win it without a war. That is the great task of
the next President of the United States.
And this will be a difficult task, difficult because
at times our next President must tell the people
not what they want to hear, but what they need to
hear. Why, for example, it may be just as
essential to the national interest to build a dam
in India as in California. It will be difficult, too,
because, you know, we Americans
have always been able to see and understand
the danger presented  by missiles
and airplanes and bombs; but we've found it
hard to recognize the even more deadly danger
of the propaganda that warps the mind,
the economic offensive that softens a nation,
the subversion that destroys the will of a people
to resist tyranny.

And, yet, may I say tonight that the fact that this
threat is, as I believe it to be, the greatest danger
we have ever confronted, this is no reason for
lack of confidence in the outcome.
You know why? Because there is one great
theme that runs through our history as a nation:
Americans are always at their best
when the challenge is greatest.

And I say tonight that we Americans shall rise to
our greatest heights in this decade of the sixties
as we mount the offensive to meet those
forces which threaten peace and the rights
of free men everywhere; but there are some
things we can do and things we must do,
and I would like to list them for you tonight.
First, we must take the necessary steps which
will assure that the American economy grows
at a maximum rate so that we can maintain our
present massive lead over the Communist bloc.
How do we do this?
There isn't any magic formula by which
government in a free nation can bring this about.
The way to assure maximum growth in America
is not by expanding the functions of government,
but by increasing the opportunities
for investment and creative enterprise
for millions of individual Americans.

And at a...And at a time when the Communists
have found it necessary to turn to
decentralization of their economy and to turn to
the use of individual incentives to increase
productivity - at a time, in other words, when
they are turning our way-I say we must and we
will not make the mistake of turning their way.

There is another step that we must take
- a second one: Our government activities must
be reorganized, reorganized to take the initiative
from the Communists and to develop and carry
out a world-wide strategy an offensive for peace
and freedom. The complex of agencies
which have grown up through the years for
exchange of persons, for technical assistance,
for information, for loans and for grants
- all these must be welded together into one
powerful economic and ideological striking force
under the direct supervision and leadership
of the President of the United States,
because what we must do, you see, is to wage
the battles for peace and freedom
with the same unified direction and dedication
with which we wage battles in war.
And if these activities are to succeed, we must
develop a better training program for the men
and women who will represent our country
at home and abroad. And what we need are
men with broad knowledge of the intricacies
and techniques of the strategy of Communists,
with a keen knowledge of the great principles
for which free people stand;
and, above all, men, who with zeal
and dedication which the Communists cannot
match, will outthink and outwork and outlast
the enemies of freedom wherever they meet
them any place in the world.
This is the kind of men we must train.

And we must recognize something else.
Government can't do this job alone.
The most effective proponents of freedom are
not governments, but free people;
and this means that every American
- every one of you listening tonight
- who works or travels abroad must represent
his country at its best in everything that he does.

And the United States - the United States, big as
it is, strong as it is - we can't do this job alone.
The best brains, the fullest resources of other
free nations, which have as great a stake in
freedom as we have, must be mobilized to
participate with us in this task to the extent they
are able. But you know what is most important
of all? Above all, we must recognize that the
greatest economic strength that we can imagine,
the finest of government organizations
- all this will fail if we are not united and inspired
by a great idea, an idea which will be a battle
cry for a grand offensive to win the minds and
the hearts and the souls of men.
Do we have such an idea?
The Communists proclaim over and over again
that their aim is the victory of communism
throughout the world. It is not enough for us to
reply that our aim is to contain communism,
to defend the free world against communism,
to hold the line against communism. The only
answer to a strategy of victory for the Communist
world is a strategy of victory for the free world.

But let the victory we seek be not victory over
any other nation or any other people. Let it be the
victory of freedom over tyranny, of plenty over
hunger, of health over disease, in every country
of the world. When Mr. Khrushchev says our
"grandchildren will live under communism",
let us say his grandchildren will live in freedom.

When Mr. Khrushchev says, "The Monroe
Doctrine is dead in the Americans", we say,
the doctrine of freedom applies everywhere
in the world. And I say tonight, let us welcome
- let us welcome - Mr. Khrushchev's challenge
to peaceful competition of our systems,
but let us reply, "Let us compete in the
Communist world as well as in the free world,
" because the Communist dictators must not be
allowed a privileged sanctuary from which to
launch their guerilla attacks on
the citadels of freedom.

And we say, further, extend this
competition, extend it to include not only food
and factories as he has suggested, but extend
it to include the great spiritual and moral values
which characterize our civilization.

And further, let us welcome, my friends, let us
welcome-the challenge, not be disconcerted by
it, not fail to meet it - the challenge presented
by the revolution of peaceful peoples'
aspirations in South America, in Asia, in Africa.
We can't fail in this nation. We can't fail to assist
them in finding a way to progress with freedom
so that they will [not] be faced with the terrible
alternative of turning to communism with its
promise of progress at the cost of freedom.
Let us make it clear to them that our aim in
helping them is not merely to stop communism,
but that in the great American tradition
of concern for those less fortunate than we are,
that we welcome the opportunity to work with
people everywhere in helping them to achieve
their aspirations for a life of human dignity.
And this means that our primary aim must be
not to help governments, but to help people,
to help people attain the life they deserve.

In essence, what I am saying tonight
- that our answer to the threat of the Communist
revolution is renewed devotion to the great
ideals of the American Revolution,
ideals that caught the imagination of the world
a hundred and eighty years ago and that still live
in the minds and hearts of people everywhere.
I could tell you tonight that all you need to do
to bring all these things about that I have
described is to elect the right man as President
of this country and leave these tasks to him.
But, my fellow Americans, America demands
more than that of me and of you.
When I visited the Soviet Union, in every factory
there was a huge sign which read:
"Work for the victory of communism."
And what America needs today is not just
a President, not just a few leaders, but millions
of Americans working for the victory of freedom.

America-each American must make a personal
and total commitment to the cause of freedom
and all it stands for. It means wage earners and
employers making an extra effort to increase
the productivity of our factories.
It means our students in school striving for
excellence rather than adjusting to mediocrity.

It means supporting and encouraging our
scientists to explore the unknown, not just for
what we can get, but for what we can learn;
and it means, on the part of each American,
assuming  personal responsibility to make
this country which we love a proud example
of freedom for all the world.
Each of us, for example, doing our part in ending
the prejudice which, one hundred years after
Lincoln, to our shame, still embarrasses us
abroad and saps our strength at home.
Each of us participating in this and other political
campaigns not just by going to the polls and
voting, but working for the candidate of your
choice. And it means, my fellow Americans, it
means sacrifice, but not the grim sacrifice
of desperation, but the rewarding sacrifice
of choice which lifts us out of the humdrum life
in which we live and gives us the supreme
satisfaction which comes from working together
in a cause greater than ourselves, greater than
our nation, as great as the whole world, itself.

What I propose tonight is not new. It is as old as
America, and as young as America,
because America will never grow old.

You will remember - listen - Thomas Jefferson
said: We act "not for ourselves alone, but for
the whole human race." Lincoln said: “In giving
freedom to the slaves we assure freedom to
the free. We shall nobly serve or meanly lose
the last best hope of earth.”
And Teddy Roosevelt said: "Our first duty as
citizens of the nation is owed to the United
States, but if we are true to our principles we
must also think of serving the interests
of mankind at large." And Woodrow Wilson said:
“A patriotic American is never so proud of
the flag under which he lives as when it comes
to mean to others, as well as to himself,
a symbol of hope and liberty.”
And we say... we say today that a young America
shall fulfill her destiny by helping to build a new
world in which men can live together in peace
and justice and freedom with each other.

But there is a difference today, an exciting
difference; and the difference is because of
the dramatic breakthroughs in scientists [sic]
- for the first time in human history we have
the resources, the resources to wage a winning
war against poverty, misery, and disease
wherever it exists in the world.
And upon next President of the United States
will rest the responsibility to inspire and to lead
the forces of freedom toward this goal.

I am sure now that you understand why I said
at the beginning that it would be difficult
for any man to say to that he was qualified
to provide this kind of leadership.
I can only say tonight to you that I believe in
the American Dream because I have seen
it come true in my own life.

I know something... I know something of the
threat which confronts us, and I know something
of the effort which will be needed to meet it.
I have seen hate for America not only in the
Kremlin, but in the eyes of communists in our
own country and on the ugly face of a mob
in Caracas [Venezuela].
I have heard doubts about America expressed
not just by Communists, but by sincere
students and labor leaders in other countries
searching for the way to a better life
and wondering if we had lost the way.
And I have seen love for America in countries
throughout the world, in a crowd in Jakarta
[Indonesia], in Bogota [Columbia], in the heart
of Siberia, in Warsaw - 250,000 people
on the streets on a Sunday afternoon singing,
crying, with tears running down their cheeks
and shouting, “Niech Zyje!” "Niech Zyje!"
"Long live the United States."

And I know... And my fellow Americans, I know
tonight that we must resist the hate;
we must remove the doubts, but above all,
we must be worthy of the love and the trust of
millions on this earth for whom America is the
hope of the world. A hundred years ago,
Abraham Lincoln was asked, during the dark
days of the tragic war between the States,
whether he thought God was on his side.
His answer was, “My concern is not whether
God is on our side, but whether we are on
God’s side.”

And my fellow Americans, may that ever be our
prayer for our country, and in that spirit, with faith
in America, with faith in her ideals and in her
people, I accept your nomination for
President of the United States.
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