5. Establish Bi-National Educational Foundations.

We have at our disposal excess foreign currencies in a number of developing nations. Where conditions are favorable, I propose that significant amounts of these currencies be used to support Bi-National Educational Foundations. Governed by leading citizens from the two nations, they would have opportunities much like those afforded major foundations in the United States to invest in basic educational development.

To the extent further currencies are created by our sales of agricultural commodities abroad, I propose that a portion be earmarked for educational uses, particularly to assist technical training in food production.

IV. TO BUILD NEW BRIDGES OF INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING

The job of international education must extend beyond the classroom. Conferences of experts from many nations, the free flow of books and ideas, the exchange of works of science and imagination can enrich every citizen. I propose steps to:

1. Stimulate Conferences of Leaders and Experts.

I have directed every department and agency to support a series of seminars for representatives from every discipline and every culture to seek answers to the common problems of mankind.

We are ready to serve as host to international gatherings. I have therefore called on the Secretary of State and the Attorney General to explore ways to remove unnecessary hindrances in granting visas to guests invited from abroad.

2. Increase the Flow of Books and Other Educational Material.

I recommend prompt passage of legislation to implement the Florence Agreement and thus stimulate the movement of books and other educational material between nations. This Agreement was signed by representatives of the U.S. Government in 1959 and ratified by the Senate in 1960. This necessary Congressional action is long overdue to eliminate duties and remove barriers for the importation of educational materials.

I also recommend that Congress implement the Beirut Agreement to permit duty-free entry of visual and auditory materials of an educational, scientific or cultural nature.

Finally, we must encourage American private enterprise to participate actively in educational exchange. I urge the Congress to amend the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to permit improvements in the Informational Media Guarantee Program.

3. Improve the Quality of U.S. Schools and Colleges Abroad. We have a potentially rich resource in the American elementary and secondary schools and colleges overseas assisted by the Department of State and AID.

They should be showcases for excellence in education.

They should help make overseas service attractive to our own citizens.

They should provide close contact with students and teachers of the host country.

I request additional support to assist those institutions which meet these standards.

4. Create Special Programs for Future Leaders Studying in the United States.

There are some 90,000 foreign students now enrolled in U.S. institutions. Many of them will someday play leading roles in their own countries. We must identify and assist these potential leaders.

I recommend that HEW and AID provide grants to enrich their educational experience through special courses and summer institutes.

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IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AIMS OF THE DECLARATION OF HONOLULU

Remarks of the President and the Vice President Announcing the Forthcoming Missions to Saigon and Other Capitals in Asia. February 8, 1966

THE PRESIDENT. Governor Brown, Mayor Yorty, ladies and gentlemen:

We went to Honolulu to meet the leaders of the Government of South Viet-Nam. They and their people understand, and we understand, that the war we are helping them fight must be a war that will be won on two fronts.

One front is the military. The other front is the struggle against social injustice, against hunger and disease and ignorance; against political apathy and indifference.

The meeting in Honolulu could take place, and take place successfully, because, as our friends from Saigon said in their part of the Declaration of Honolulu, "We are a Government, indeed a generation, of revolutionary transformation." And as I looked across the table at these brave and determined young men, I thought also of the young Vietnamese soldiers and province chiefs, and teachers and student leaders, who are really a part of this new generation..

They know and we know that this revolutionary transformation cannot wait until the guns grow silent and until the terrorism stops. With that common understanding, we took these last 3 days together to take stock of where we are and where we must go in the days and the weeks and the months that are ahead of all of us.

We talked of many very special and specific things. We talked of rural construction, of agricultural credits, of rural electrification, of new seeds and fertilizers for their crops, of schools and teachers and textbooks for their children, of medical schools and clinics and equipment to give them better health, of how to give training and education to the refugees, of how to deal with inflation in a war-torn country, of how to build the bases for a democratic constitution and for free elections, of how to seek the peace, and of how to effectively conduct the

war.

In all of these fields we set targets, and we set concrete targets. Progress is not going to be easy. I think I should tell you in many fields it is not going to be even quick. But the leaders of both of the

Governments are determined that we are going to move forward and we are going to make progress.

We shall meet again in the next few months, and we will measure the progress that we have made. On our part, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, with an expert staff, with the Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, will be going to Saigon tomorrow morning to see how we can help with the food and rural developments.

Missions will follows that have been organized by Secretary Gardner in the field of education, in the field of health, and in other fields where our people can help with the work of social construction in South Viet-Nam.

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NATIONAL MEDAL OF SCIENCE

The President's Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for Recipients of the 1965 Awards. February 10, 1966 Members of the Cabinet and Members of Congress, Dr. Hornig, and distinguished guests and my friends:

The National Medal of Science honors individual achievement. It reminds us that in a Nation of millions, and in a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change. Without the unfettered curiosity of individual men probing and reaching for new truth, our planet would be a dry and dreary place.

It is a truism, almost, to say that the individual matters most. The very simplicity of the statement lends itself to misunderstanding. Certainly the welfare and happiness of all our people must be the continuing quest of science and Government. As neglected needs mount, a nation indifferent to the interests of the larger community of citizens only invites disorder and ultimate ruin.

But that pursuit must never tolerate apathy to the right of one man to be different. We are a Nation of differences, and the values and principles that protect those differences are the source of a unity far more lasting and strong than any contrived harmony could ever be.

One man alone with his conscience—whether in the laboratory, or the study, or the classroom, or on the street corner-is to be jealously guarded from the thousand who, believing him wrong, would deny his right to search and his right to speak the truth. On that fact we have built a free and great and diverse society

The National Medal of Science symbolizes that from one individual's freedom to be different comes achievement to bless all of us.

The work of these men has been for all mankind. They have extended the frontier of our minds and the comfort of our bodies, and we are all the better for their efforts.

There

This is the 20th year of the atomic age. The power of the sun is in our hands. From this day forward there will be no excuses. can be food and shelter and clothing and health and education and meaningful leisure for every single human being on this earth.

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SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

The President's Letter to the Speaker Transmitting a Request_for Funds for the National Teacher Corps, the Rent Supplement Program, and the Selective Service System. February 14, 1966

Dear Mr. Speaker:

I have the honor to transmit, for the consideration of the Congress, a supplemental appropriations request for three urgently needed and essential programs of government:

for the National Teacher Corps, $13,200,000.

for the Rent Supplement Program, $30,000,000.
for the Selective Service System, $12,681,000.

Two of these programs are vital to our efforts to improve the quality of life in America. The third is a direct effect of our commitment to freedom in Southeast Asia.

Together they testify to a progressive, compassionate and resolute people. They are not the frills of luxury. They are the necessities of a nation devoted to the improvement of man's estate.

NATIONAL TEACHER CORPS

The National Teacher Corps was authorized by the landmark Higher Education Act of 1965. Funds are needed now-so that the first teams to be chosen for the Teacher Corps may begin training this summer. This fall, in poor rural and urban areas, they will be sharing their skills and understanding with the children and teachers who need them most of all.

Parents know how much good teaching means to their children's future. School administrators know how a few teachers, trained in today's advanced methods of instruction, can raise the entire level of education in their schools. Most poignantly, children themselves know what it is to be taught with enthusiasm and skill.

Our country is blessed with young men and women who desire to serve those less fortunate than themselves. In the ranks of experienced teachers there are others who would devote part of their lives to children in most critical need. The Teachers Corps offers a practical means of uniting the idealism and wisdom of each-young graduates and accomplished teachers and thus enriching the lives of coming generations.

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

The President's Remarks to the Convention in Atlantic City. February 16, 1966

Mr. Chairman, Governor Hughes, distinguished members of the most distinguished New Jersey congressional delegation, Mr. Brain, Mr. Platt, Dr. Carr, my dear friends:

As I was observing the presentation of these awards, before you reached the last one, I was almost tempted to say, "California, here I come."

I want to thank Governor Hughes for permitting me to come back to this great city. This is my favorite convention city. And the New Jersey congressional delegation, here on the platform with me tonight, are my favorite congressional delegation. And I don't think that we'll need any help, but if we do, it will be prayers, and I brought Dr. Billy Graham along with me to do the praying.

I am very honored to accept your award and I'm very happy to be here tonight with the big brass of American education. I might have been with you tonight under other auspices except that 30 years ago I left teaching for a different pursuit.

Tonight, our professions differ, but actually we have the same task: to build a society that is worthy of free men. Two hundreds years ago, our fathers laid the foundation. Two years ago, I challenged my fellow citizens to get on with the job. I said that we must build the Great Society in our cities, and in our countryside, and in our classrooms.

Tonight our work is underway. Much of the needed legislation has already been enacted: more than a score of landmark measures in the field of education alone.

So it is a real thrill to me to read the rollcall of these historic acts of the last few months in the Congress:

the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964,

the Civil Rights Laws of 1964 and 1965,
Medicare,

the Natural Beauty Act,

the Higher Education Act of 1965.

And-not last and not least-the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

Laws are only designs for achievement. The barriers that we must overcome do not yield merely because Congress takes a vote or because the President signs a bill.

Two barriers are the most unyielding, each reinforcing the other in blocking our progress.

The first is poverty. Those of us who have worked in schools know what it means for someone who starts life as a victim of poverty. It is hard to teach a hungry child. Poverty breeds handicaps of mind and body which cripple him before he ever has a chance to get ahead. And we have learned all too well that poverty passes on its curse generation to generation.

The second barrier is racial discrimination. Because of it, children grow up aliens in their native land. For a ghetto-whether white or black or brown-is less than half a world. No child can be fully educated unless his life is opened to the wonderful variety that this world affords.

Two weeks ago, I called for the International Education Act of 1966 to promote the worldwide commerce of knowledge to declare that learning is not a commodity which can be confined at the water's edge.

Yet within our own country there are still, tonight, racial walls against hope and opportunity. Between the slums of the inner cities and their spreading suburbs, there are gulfs as deep and as wide as any ocean.

If education is to be worthy of its good name, we must find the ways to span these gulfs.