1964 Republican Platform

July 13, 1964

"For the People" Section One

For a Free People

Humanity is tormented once again by an age-old issue—is man to live in dignity and freedom under God or be enslaved—are men in government to serve, or are they to master, their fellow men?

It befalls us now to resolve this issue anew—perhaps this time for centuries to come. Nor can we evade the issue here at home. Even in this Constitutional Republic, for two centuries the beacon of liberty the world over, individual freedom retreats under the mounting assault of expanding centralized power. Fiscal and economic excesses, too long indulged, already have eroded and threatened the greatest experiment in self-government mankind has known.

We Republicans claim no monopoly of love of freedom. But we challenge as unwise the course the Democrats have charted; we challenge as dangerous the steps they plan along the way; and we deplore as self-defeating and harmful many of the moves already taken.

Dominant in their council are leaders whose words extol human liberty, but whose deeds have persistently delimited the scope of liberty and sapped its vitality. Year after year, in the name of benevolence, these leaders have sought the enlargement of Federal power. Year after year, in the guise of concern for others, they have lavishly expended the resources of their fellow citizens. And year after year freedom, diversity and individual, local and state responsibility have given way to regimentation, conformity and subservience to central power.

We Republicans hold that a leadership so misguided weakens liberty in America and the world. We hold that the glittering enticements so invitingly proffered the people, at their own expense, will inevitably bring disillusionment and true disappointment in place of promised happiness. Such leaders are Federal extremists—impulsive in the use of national power, improvident in the management of public funds, thoughtless as to the long-term effects of their acts on individual freedom and creative, competitive enterprise. Men so recklessly disposed cannot be safely entrusted with authority over their fellow citizens.

To Republicans, liberty is still today man's most precious possession. For every citizen, and for the generations to come, we Republicans vow that it shall be preserved.

In substantiation of this belief the Republican Party submits this platform. To the American people it is our solemn bond.

To Stay Free

The shape of the future is our paramount concern. Much of today's moral decline and drift—much of the prevailing preoccupation with physical and material comforts of life—much of today's crass political appeals to the appetites of the citizenry—can be traced to a leadership grown demagogic and materialistic through indifference to national ideals rounded in devoutly held religious faith. The Republican Party seeks not to renounce this heritage of faith and high purpose; rather, we are determined to reaffirm and reapply it. So doing, these will be our guides:

1. Every person has the right to govern himself, to fix his own goals, and to make his own way with a minimum of governmental interference.

2. It is for government to foster and maintain an environment of freedom encouraging every individual to develop to the fullest his God-given powers of mind, heart and body; and, beyond this, government should undertake only needful things, rightly of public concern, which the citizen cannot himself accomplish.

We Republicans hold that these two principles must regain their primacy in our government's relations, not only with the American people, but also with nations and peoples everywhere in the world.

3. Within our Republic the Federal Government should act only in areas where it has Constitutional authority to act, and then only in respect to proven needs where individuals and local or state governments will not or cannot adequately perform. Great power, whether governmental or private, political or economic, must be so checked, balanced and restrained and, where necessary, so dispersed as to prevent it from becoming a threat to freedom any place in the land.

4. It is a high mission of government to help assure equal opportunity for all, affording every citizen an equal chance at the starting line but never determining who is to win or lose. But government must also reflect the nation's compassionate concern for those who are unable, through no fault of their own, to provide adequately for themselves.

5. Government must be restrained in its demands upon and its use of the resources of the people, remembering that it is not the creator but the steward of the wealth it uses; that its goals must ever discipline its means; and that service to all the people, never to selfish or partisan ends, must be the abiding purpose of men entrusted with public power.

Deeds Not Words

The future we pledge, then, for freedom, by faithful adherence to these guides. Let the people compare these guides with those of the Democratic Party, then test, not the words of the two Parties, but their performance during the past four years of Democratic control. Let the people ask:

Is the Republic stronger today or wiser than when the present Administration took office four years ago?

Is its guardianship of freedom more respected at home and throughout the world?

For these four years the leaders of the Democratic Party have been entrusted with the nation's executive power and overwhelmingly in control of the Congress. The question must be asked: Have these leaders successfully advanced the purposes of this mightiest nation mankind has known?

Tragically, in each instance, the answer must be "no."

Let the Democratic Party stand accused.

Section Two

Failures of Foreign Policy

This Democratic Administration has been, from its beginning, not the master but the prisoner of major events. The will and dependability of its leadership, even for the defense of the free world, have come to be questioned in every area of the globe.

Disregard of Allies

This Administration has neglected to consult with America's allies on critical matters at critical times, leading to lack of confidence, lack of respect and disintegrating alliances.

It has permitted an erosion of NATO force and unity, alienating most of its member nations by negotiating with the common foe behind their backs. It has offered concessions to the Communists while according our allies little understanding, patience, or cooperation.

This Administration has created discord and distrust by failing to develop a nuclear policy for NATO.

It has provoked crises of confidence with our oldest friends, including England and France, by bungling such major projects as Skybolt and NATO's nuclear needs.

It has allowed other great alliances—SEATO and CENTO—also to deteriorate, by failing to provide the leadership required for their revitalization and by neglecting their cooperation in keeping the peace.

Weakness Before Communism

This Administration has sought accommodations with Communism without adequate safeguards and compensating gains for freedom. It has alienated proven allies by opening a "hot line" first with a sworn enemy rather than with a proven friend, and in general pursued a risky path such as began at Munich a quarter century ago.

It has misled the American people and forfeited a priceless opportunity to win concessions for freedom by mishandling sales of farm commodities to Communists. At first it disavowed any intent to subsidize prices or use credit; later it demanded such authority and forced the Democrats in Congress to acquiesce. At first it hinted at concessions for freedom in return for wheat sold to Russia; later it obtained no concessions at all. At first it pledged not to breach restraints on trade with Communist countries in other parts of the world; later it stimulated such trade itself, and thus it encouraged trade with Cuba by America's oldest friends.

This Administration has collaborated with Indonesian imperialism by helping it to acquire territory belonging to the Netherlands and control over the Papuan people.

It has abetted further Communist takeover in Laos, weakly accepted Communist violations of the Geneva Agreement, which the present Administration perpetrated, and increased Soviet influence in Southeast Asia.

It has encouraged an increase of aggression in South Vietnam by appearing to set limits on America's willingness to act—and then, in the deepening struggle, it has sacrificed the lives of American and allied fighting men by denial of modern equipment.

This Administration has permitted the shooting down of American pilots, the mistreatment of American citizens, and the destruction of American property to become hallmarks of Communist arrogance.

It has stood by as a wire barricade in Berlin became a wall of shame, defacing that great city, humiliating every American, and disgracing free men everywhere.

It has turned its back on the captive peoples of Eastern Europe, abandoning their cause in the United Nations and in the official utterances of our government.

This Administration has forever blackened our nation's honor at the Bay of Pigs, bungling the invasion plan and leaving brave men on Cuban beaches to be shot down. Later the forsaken survivors were ransomed, and Communism was allowed to march deeper into Latin America.

It has turned a deaf ear to pleas from throughout the Western Hemisphere for decisive American leadership to seal off subversion from the Soviet base just off our shore.

It has increased the long-term troubles for America by retreating from its pledge to obtain on-the-spot proof of the withdrawal of Soviet offensive weapons from Cuba.

It left vacant for many critical months the high posts of ambassador in Panama and with the Organization of American States, and thus it failed to anticipate and forestall the anti-American violence that burst forth in Panama.

Undermining the United Nations

This Administration has failed to provide forceful, effective leadership in the United Nations.

It has weakened the power and influence of this world organization by failing to demand basic improvements in its procedures to guard against its becoming merely a forum of anti-Western insult and abuse.

It has refused to insist upon enforcement of the United Nations' rules governing financial support though such enforcement is supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.

It has shouldered virtually the full costs of the United Nations' occupation of the Congo, only to have the ousted leadership asked back when United Nations forces had withdrawn.

Forsaking America's Interests

This Administration has subsidized various forms of socialism throughout the world, to the jeopardy of individual freedom and private enterprise.

It has proved itself inept and weak in international trade negotiations, allowing the loss of opportunities historically open to American enterprise and bargaining away markets indispensable to prosperity of American farms.

Failure of National Security Planning

Losing a Critical Lead

This Administration has delayed research and development in advanced weapons systems and thus confronted the American people with a fearsome possibility that Soviet advances, in the decade of the 1970's, may surpass America's present lead. Its misuse of "cost effectiveness" has stifled the creativity of the nation's military, scientific and industrial communities.

It has failed to originate a single new major strategic weapons system after inheriting from a Republican Administration the most powerful military force of all time. It has concealed a lack of qualitative advance for the 1970's by speaking of a quantitative strength which by then will be obsolete. It has not demonstrated the foresight necessary to prepare a strategic strength which in future years will deter war.

It has endangered security by downgrading efforts to prepare defenses against enemy ballistic missiles. It has retarded our own military development for near and outer space, while the enemy's development moves on.

Invitations to Disaster

This Administration has adopted policies which will lead to a potentially fatal parity of power with Communism instead of continued military superiority for the United States.

It has permitted disarmament negotiations to proceed without adequate consideration of military judgment-a procedure which tends to bring about, in effect, a unilateral curtailment of American arms rendered the more dangerous by the Administration's discounting known Soviet advances in nuclear weaponry.

It has failed to take minimum safeguards against possible consequences of the limited nuclear test ban treaty, including advanced underground tests where permissible and full readiness to test elsewhere should the need arise.

Distortions and Blackouts

This Administration has adopted the policies of news management and unjustifiable secrecy, in the guise of guarding the nation's security; it has shown a contempt of the right of the people to know the truth.

This Administration, while claiming major defense savings, has in fact raised defense spending by billions of dollars a year, and yet has short-changed critical areas.

Undermining Morale

This Administration has weakened the bonds of confidence and understanding between civilian leaders and the nation's top military professionals. It has bypassed seasoned military judgment in vital national security policy decisions.

It has permitted non-military considerations, political as well as spurious economic arguments, to reverse professional judgment on major weapons and equipment such as the controversial TFX, the X-22, and the nuclear carrier.

In sum, both in military and foreign affairs, the Democratic record all the world around is one of disappointment and reverses for freedom.

And this record is no better at home.

Failures at Home

Inability to Create Jobs

This Administration has failed to honor its pledges to assure good jobs, full prosperity and a rapidly growing economy for all the American people:

—failing to reduce unemployment to four percent, falling far short of its announced goal every single month of its tenure in office; and

—despite glowing promises, allowing a disheartening increase in long-term and youth unemployment.

This Administration has failed to apply Republican-initiated retraining programs where most needed particularly where they could afford new economic opportunities to Negro citizens. It has preferred, instead, divisive political proposals.

It has demonstrated its inability to measure up to the challenge of automation which, wisely guided, will enrich the lives of all people. Administration approaches have been negative and unproductive, as for example the proposed penalties upon the use of overtime. Such penalties would serve only to spread existing unemployment and injure those who create jobs.

It has failed to perform its responsibility under Republican amendments to the Manpower Training Act. It has neglected, for example, the basic requirement of developing a dictionary of labor skills which are locally, regionally and nationally in short supply, even though many thousands of jobs are unfilled today for lack of qualified applicants.

Failing the Poor

This Administration has refused to take practical free enterprise measures to help the poor. Under the last Republican Administration, the percentage of poor in the country dropped encouragingly from 28% to 21%. By contrast, the present Administration, despite a massive increase in the Federal bureaucracy, has managed a mere two percentage point reduction.

This Administration has proposed a so-called war on poverty which characteristically overlaps, and often contradicts, the 42 existing Federal poverty programs. It would dangerously centralize Federal controls and bypass effective state, local and private programs.

It has demonstrated little concern for the acute problems created for the poor by inflation. Consumer prices have increased in the past three and a half years by almost 5%, amounting in effect to a 5% national sales tax on the purchases of a family living on fixed income.

Under housing and urban renewal programs, notably in the Nation's Capital, it has created new slums by forcing the poor from their homes to make room for luxury apartments, while neglecting the vital need for adequate relocation assistance.

Retarding Enterprises

This Administration has violently thrust Federal power into the free market in such areas as steel prices, thus establishing precedents which in future years could critically wound free enterprise in the United States.

It has so discouraged private enterprise that the annual increase in the number of businesses has plummeted from the Republican level of 70,000 a year to 47,000 a year.

It has allowed the rate of business failures to rise higher under its leadership than in any period since depression days.

It has aggravated the problems of small business by multiplying Federal record-keeping requirements and has hurt thousands of small businessmen by forcing up their costs.

This Administration has curtailed, through such agencies as the National Labor Relations Board, the simple, basic right of Americans voluntarily to go into or to go out of business.

It has failed to stimulate new housing and attract more private capital into the field. In the past three years it has fallen short by 1,500,000 units of meeting its pledge of 2,000,000 new homes each year.

It has sought to weaken the patent system which is so largely responsible for America's progress in technology, medicine and science.

It has required private electric power companies to submit to unreasonable Federal controls as a condition to the utilization of rights-of-way over public lands. It has sought to advance, without Congressional authorization, a vastly expensive nationwide electrical transmission grid.

Betrayal of the Farmer

This Administration has refused, incredibly, to honor the clear mandate of American wheat farmers, in the largest farm referendum ever held, to free them of rigid Federal controls and to restore their birthright to make their own management decisions.

It has strangled the Republican rural development program with red tape and neglected its most essential ingredient, local initiative.

It has broken its major promises to farm people, dropping the parity ratio to its lowest level since 1939. It has dumped surplus stocks so as to lower farm income and increase the vicious cost-price squeeze on the farmer.

It has evidenced hostility toward American livestock producers by proposals to establish mandatory marketing quotas on all livestock, to fine and imprison dairy farmers failing to maintain Federally-acceptable records, and to establish a subsidized grazing cropland conversion program. It has allowed imports of beef and other meat products to rise to an all-time high during a slump in cattle prices which was aggravated by government grain sales.

Neglect of Natural Resources

This Administration has delayed the expeditious handling of oil shale patent applications and the early development of a domestic oil shale industry. It has allowed the deterioration of the domestic mining and petroleum industries including displacement of domestic markets by foreign imports. It has failed to protect the American fishing industry and has retreated from policies providing equitable sharing of international fishing grounds.

Fiscal Irresponsibility

This Administration has misled the American people by such budget manipulations as crowding spending into the previous fiscal year, presenting a proposal to sell off $2.3 billion in government assets as a cot in spending, and using bookkeeping devices to make expenditures seem smaller than they actually are.

It has, despite pledges of economy, burdened this nation with four unbalanced budgets in a row, creating deficits totaling $26 billion, with still more debt to come, reflecting a rate of sustained deficit spending unmatched in peacetime.

It has failed to establish sensible priorities for Federal fluids. In consequence, it has undertaken needlessly expensive crash programs, as for example accelerating a trip to the moon, to the neglect of other critical needs such as research into health and the increasingly serious problems of air and water pollution and urban crowding.

This Administration has continued to endanger retirement under Social Security for millions of citizens; it has attempted to overload the System with costly, unrelated programs which ignore the dangers of overly regressive taxation and the unfairness of forcing the poor to finance such programs for the rich.

It has demanded the elimination of a substantial portion of personal income tax deductions for charitable and church contributions, for real property taxes paid by home owners, and for interest payments. The elimination of these deductions would impose great hardship upon millions of our citizens and discourage the growth of some of the finest organizations in America.

This Administration has impeded investigations of suspected wrongdoing which might implicate public officials in the highest offices in the land. It has thus aroused justifiable resentment against those who use the high road of public service as the low road to illicitly acquired wealth.

It has permitted the quality and morale of the postal system to deteriorate and drastically restricted its services. It has made the Post Office almost inaccessible to millions of working people, reduced the once admired Parcel Post System to a national laughing stock—and yet it is intimated that Americans may soon have to pay 8Вў for a first-class postage stamp.

It has resisted personal income tax credits for education, always preferring the route leading to Federal control over our schools. Some leading Democrats have even campaigned politically in favor of such tax credits while voting against them in Congress.

Contrary to the intent of the Manpower Training Act, it has sought to extend Department of Labor influence over vocational education.

Discord and Discontent

This Administration has exploited interracial tensions by extravagant campaign promises, without fulfillment, playing on the just aspirations of the minority groups, encouraging disorderly and lawless elements, and ineffectually administering the laws.

It has subjected career civil servants and part-time Federal employees, including employees of the Agriculture Department, to political pressures harmful to the integrity of the entire Federal service. It has weakened veterans' preference in Federal jobs.

It has made Federal intervention, even on the Presidential level, a standard operating practice in labor disputes, thus menacing the entire system of free collective bargaining.

It has resorted to police state tactics, using the great power of Federal Departments and agencies, to compel compliance with Administration desires, notably in the steel price dispute. The Department of Justice, in particular, has been used improperly to achieve partisan political, economic, and legislative goals. This abuse of power should be the subject of a Congressional investigation.

Weakening Responsibility

This Administration has moved, through such undertakings as its so-called war on poverty, accelerated public works and the New Communities Program in the 1964 housing proposal, to establish new Federal offices duplicating existing agencies, bypassing the state capitals, thrusting aside local governmend, and siphoning off to Washington the administration of private citizen and community affairs.

It has undermined the Federally assisted, State-operated medical and hospital assistance program, while using—and abusing—Federal authority to force a compulsory hospital program upon the people and the Congress.

This enumeration is necessarily incomplete. It does not exhaust the catalog of misdeeds and failures of the present Administration. And let the nation realize that the full impact of these many ill-conceived and ill-fated activities of the Democratic Administration is yet to come.

Section Three

The Republican Alternative

We Republicans are not content to record Democratic misdeeds and failures. We now offer policies and programs new in conception and dynamic in operation. These we urge to recapture initiative for freedom at home and abroad and to rebuild our strength at home.

Nor is this a new role. Republican Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Dwight D. Eisenhower stand as witness that Republican leadership is steadfast in principle, clear in purpose and committed to progress. The many achievements of the Eisenhower Administration in strengthening peace abroad and the well-being of all at home have been unmatched in recent times. A new Republican Administration will stand proudly on this record.

We do not submit, in this platform, extravagant promises to be cynically cast aside after election day. Rather, we offer examples of Republican initiatives in areas of overriding concern to the whole nation—North, South, East and West-which befit a truly national party. In the interest of brevity, we do not repeat the commitments of the 1960 Republican Platform, "Building a Better America," and the 1962 "Declaration of Republican Principle and Policy." We incorporate into this Platform as pledges renewed those commitments which are relevant to the problems of 1964.

These, then, will be our guides, and these our additional pledges, in meeting the nation's needs.

Faith in the Individual

1. We Republicans shall first rely on the individual's right and capacity to advance his own economic well-being, to control the fruits of his efforts and to plan his own and his family's future; and, where government is rightly involved, we shall assist the individual in surmounting urgent problems beyond his own power and responsibility to control. For instance, we pledge:

—enlargement of employment opportunities for urban and rural citizens, with emphasis on training programs to equip them with needed skills; improved job information and placement services; and research and extension services channeled toward helping rural people improve their opportunities;

—tax credits and other methods of assistance to help needy senior citizens meet the costs of medical and hospital insurance;

—a strong, sound system of Social Security, with improved benefits to our people;

—continued Federal support for a sound research program aimed at both the prevention and cure of diseases, and intensified efforts to secure prompt and effective application of the results of research. This will include emphasis on mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, cancer, heart disease and other diseases of increasing incidence;

—revision of the Social Security laws to allow higher earnings, without loss of benefits, by our elderly people;

—full coverage of all medical and hospital costs for the needy elderly people, financed by general revenues through broader implementation of Federal-State plans, rather than the compulsory Democratic scheme covering only a small percentage of such costs, for everyone regardless of need;

—adoption and implementation of a fair and adequate program for providing necessary supplemental farm labor for producing and harvesting agricultural commodities;

—tax credits for those burdened by the expenses of college education;

—vocational rehabilitation, through cooperation between government—Federal and State—and industry, for the mentally and physically handicapped, the chronically unemployed and the poverty-stricken;

—incentives for employers to hire teenagers, including broadening of temporary exemptions under the minimum wage law;

—to repeal the Administration's wheat certificate "bread-tax" on consumers, so burdensome to low-income families and overwhelmingly rejected by farmers;

—revision of present non-service-connected pension programs to provide increased benefits for low income pensioners, with emphasis on rehabilitation, nursing homes and World War I veterans;

—re-evaluation of the armed forces' manpower procurement programs with the goal of replacing involuntary inductions as soon as possible by an efficient voluntary system, offering real career incentives;

—enactment of legislation, despite Democratic opposition, to curb the flow through the mails of obscene materials which has flourished into a multimillion dollar obscenity racket;

—support of a Constitutional amendment permitting those individuals and groups who choose to do so to exercise their religion freely in public places, provided religious exercises are not prepared or prescribed by the state or political subdivision thereof and no person's participation therein is coerced, thus preserving the traditional separation of church and state;

—full implementation and faithful execution of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and all other civil rights statutes, to assure equal rights and opportunities guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen;

—improvements of civil rights statutes adequate to changing needs of our times;

—such additional administrative or legislative actions as may be required to end the denial, for whatever unlawful reason, of the right to vote;

—immigration legislation seeking to re-unite families and continuation of the "Fair Share" Refugee Program;

—continued opposition to discrimination based on race, creed, national origin or sex. We recognize that the elimination of any such discrimination is a matter of heart, conscience, and education, as well as of equal rights under law.

In all such programs, where Federal initiative is properly involved to relieve or prevent misfortune or meet overpowering need, it will be the Republican way to move promptly and energetically, and wherever possible to provide assistance of a kind enabling the individual to gain or regain the capability to make his own way and to have a fair chance to achieve his own goals. In all matters relating to human rights it will be the Republican way fully to implement all applicable laws and never to lose sight of the intense need for advancing peaceful progress in human relations in our land. The Party of Abraham Lincoln will proudly and faithfully live up to its heritage of equal rights and equal opportunities for all.

In furtherance of our faith in the individual, we also pledge prudent, responsible management of the government's fiscal affairs to protect the individual against the evils of spendthrift government—protecting most of all the needy and fixed-income families against the cruelest tax, inflation—and protecting every citizen against the high taxes forced by excessive spending, in order that each individual may keep more of his earnings for his own and his family's use. For instance, we pledge:

—a reduction of not less than five billion dollars in the present level of Federal spending;

—an end to chronic deficit financing, proudly reaffirming our belief in a balanced budget;

—further reduction in individual and corporate tax rates as fiscal discipline is restored;

—repayments on the public debt;

—maintenance of an administrative, legislative and regulatory climate encouraging job-building enterprise to help assure every individual a real chance for a good job;

—wise, firm and responsible conduct of the nation's foreign affairs, backed by military forces kept modern, strong and ready, thereby assuring every individual of a future promising peace.

In all such matters it will be the Republican way so to conduct the affairs of government as to give the individual citizen the maximum assurance of a peaceful and prosperous future, freed of the discouragement and hardship produced by wasteful and ineffectual government.

In furtherance of our faith in the individual, we also pledge the maximum restraint of Federal intrusions into matters more productively left to the individual. For instance, we pledge:

—to continue Republican sponsorship of practical Federal-State-local programs which will effectively treat the needs of the poor, while resisting, direct Federal handouts that erode away individual self-reliance and self-respect and perpetuate dependency;

—to continue the advancement of education on all levels, through such programs as selective aid to higher education, strengthened State and local tax resources, including tax credits for college education, while resisting the Democratic efforts which endanger local control of schools;

—to help assure equal opportunity and a good education for all, while opposing Federally-sponsored "inverse discrimination," whether by the shifting of jobs, or the abandonment of neighborhood schools, for reasons of race;

—to provide our farmers, who have contributed so much to the strength of our nation, with the maximum opportunity to exercise their own management decisions on their own farms, while resisting all efforts to impose upon them further Federal controls;

—to establish realistic priorities for the concentration of Federal spending in the most productive and creative areas, such as education, job training, vocational rehabilitation, educational research, oceanography, and the wise development and use of natural resources in the water as well as on land, while resisting Democratic efforts to spend wastefully and indiscriminately;

—to open avenues of peaceful progress in solving racial controversies while discouraging lawlessness and violence.

In all such matters, it will be the Republican way to assure the individual of maximum freedom as government meets its proper responsibilities, while resisting the Democratic obsession to impose from above, uniform and rigid schemes for meeting varied and complex human problems.

Faith in the Competitive System

2. We Republicans shall vigorously protect the dynamo of economic growth—free, competitive enterprise—that has made America the envy of the world. For instance, we pledge:

—removal of the wartime Federal excise taxes, favored by the Democratic Administration, on pens, pencils, jewelry, cosmetics, luggage, handbags, wallets and toiletries;

—assistance to small business by simplifying Federal and State tax and regulatory requirements, fostering the availability of longer term credit at fair terms and equity capital for small firms, encouraging strong State programs to foster small business, establishing more effective measures to assure a sharing by small business in Federal procurement, and promoting wider export opportunities;

—an end to power-grabbing regulatory actions, such as the reach by the Federal Trade Commission for injunctive powers and the ceaseless pressing by the White House, the Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission to dominate consumer decisions in the market place;

—returning the consumer to the driver's seat as the chief regulator and chief beneficiary of a free economy, by resisting excessive concentration of power, whether public or private;

—a drastic reduction in burdensome Federal paperwork and overlapping regulations, which weigh heavily on small businessmen struggling to compete and to provide jobs;

—a determined drive, through tough, realistic negotiations, to remove the many discriminatory and restrictive trade practices of foreign nations;

—greater emphasis on overseas sales of surplus farm commodities to friendly countries through long-term credits repayable in dollars under the Republican Food for Peace program;

—dedication to freedom of expression for all news media, to the right of access by such media to public proceedings, and to the independence of radio, television and other news-gathering media from excessive government control;

—improvement, and full and fair enforcement, of the anti-trust statutes, coupled with long-overdue clarification of Federal policies and interpretations relating thereto in order to strengthen competition and protect the consumer and small business;

—constant opposition to any form of unregulated monopoly, whether business or labor;

—meaningful safeguards against irreparable injuries to any domestic industries by disruptive surges of imports, such as in the case of beef and other meat products, textiles, oil, glass, coal, lumber and steel;

—enactment of law, such as the Democratic Administration vetoed in the 88th Congress, requiring that labels of imported items clearly disclose their foreign origin;

—completely reorganize the National Labor Relations Board to assure impartial protection of the rights of the public, employees and employers, ending the defiance of Congress by the present Board;

—the redevelopment of an atmosphere of confidence throughout the government and across the nation, in which vigorous competition can flourish.

In all such matters it will be the Republican way to support, not harass—to encourage, not restrain—to build confidence, not threaten—to provide stability, not unrest—to speed genuine growth, not conjure up statistical fantasies and to assure that all actions of government apply fairly to every element of the nation's economy.

In furtherance of our faith in the competitive system, we also pledge:

—a continual re-examination and reduction of government competition with private business, consistent with the recommendations of the second Hoover Commission;

—elimination of excessive bureaucracy;

—full protection of the integrity of the career governmental services, military and civilian, coupled with adequate pay scales;

—maximum reliance upon subordinate levels of government and individual citizens to meet the nation's needs, in place of establishing even more Federal agencies to burden the people.

In all such matters relating to Federal administration it will be the Republican way to provide maximum service for each tax dollar expended, watchfully superintend the size and scope of Federal activities, and assure an administration always fair, efficient and cooperatively disposed toward every element of our competitive system.

Faith in Limited Government

3. We Republicans shall insist that the Federal Government have effective but limited powers, that it be frugal and efficient, and that it fully meet its Constitutional responsibilities to all the American people. For instance, we pledge:

—restoration of collective bargaining responsibility to labor and management, minimizing third party intervention and preventing any agency of government from becoming an advocate for any private economic interest;

—development of truly voluntary commodity programs for commercial agriculture, including payments in kind out of government-owned surpluses, diversion of unneeded land to conservation uses, price supports free of political manipulation in order to stimulate and attain fair market prices, together with adequate credit facilities and continued support of farm-owned and operated cooperatives including rural electric and telephone facilities, while resisting all efforts to make the farmer dependent, for his economic survival, upon either compensatory payments by the Federal Government or upon the whim of the Secretary of Agriculture;

—full cooperation of all governmental levels and private enterprise in advancing the balanced use of the nation's natural resources to provide for man's multiple needs;

—continuing review of public-land laws and policies to assure maximum opportunity for all beneficial uses of the public lands; including the development of mineral resources;

—comprehensive water-resource planning and development, including projects for our growing cities, expanded research in desalinization of water, and continued support of multi-purpose reclamation projects;

—support of sustained yield management of our forests and expanded research for control of forest insects, disease, and forest fires;

—protection of traditional domestic fishing grounds and other actions, including tax incentives, to encourage modernization of fishing vessels, and improve processing and marketing practices;

—continued tax support to encourage exploration and development of domestic sources of minerals and metals, with reasonable depletion allowances;

—stabilization of present oil programs, private development of atomic power, increased coal research and expansion of coal exports;

—a replanning of the present space program to provide for a more orderly, yet aggressively pursued, step-by-step development, remaining alert to the danger of overdiversion of skilled personnel in critical shortage from other vital areas such as health, industry, education and science;

In furtherance of our faith in limited, frugal and efficient government we also pledge:

—credit against Federal taxes for specified State and local taxes paid, and a transfer to the States of excise and other Federal tax sources, to reinforce the fiscal strength of State and local governments so that they may better meet rising school costs and other pressing urban and suburban problems such as transportation, housing, water systems and juvenile delinquency;

—emphasis upon channeling more private capital into sound urban development projects and private housing;

—critical re-examination and major overhaul of all Federal grant-in-aid programs with a view to channeling such programs through the States, discontinuing those no longer required and adjusting others in a determined effort to restore the unique balance and creative energy of the traditional American system of government;

—revitalization of municipal and county governments throughout America by encouraging them, and private citizens as well, to develop new solutions of their major concerns through a streamlining and modernizing of state and local processes of government, and by a renewed consciousness of their ability to reach these solutions, not through Federal action, but through their own capabilities;

—support of a Constitutional amendment, as well as legislation, enabling States having bicameral legislatures to apportion one House on bases of their choosing, including factors other than population;

—complete reform of the tax structure, to include simplification as well as lower rates to strengthen individual and business incentives;

—effective budgetary reform, improved Congressional appropriation procedures, and full implementation of the anti-deficiency statute;

—a wide-ranging reform of other Congressional procedures, including the provision of adequate professional staff assistance for the minority membership on Congressional Committees, to insure that the power and prestige of Congress remain adequate to the needs of the times;

—high priority for the solution of the nation's balance of payment difficulties to assure unquestioned confidence in the dollar, maintenance of the competitiveness of American products in domestic and foreign markets, expansion of exports, stimulation of foreign tourism in the United States, greater foreign sharing of mutual security burdens abroad, a drastic reorganization and redirection of the entire foreign aid effort, gradual reductions in overseas U.S. forces as manpower can be replaced by increased firepower; and strengthening of the international monetary system without sacrifice of our freedom of policy making.

In all such matters it will be the Republican way to achieve not feigned but genuine savings, allowing a reduction of the public debt and additional tax reductions while meeting the proper responsibilities of government. We pledge an especially determined effort to help strengthen the ability of State and local governments to meet the broad range of needs facing the nation's urban and suburban communities.

Section Four

Freedom Abroad

The Republican commitment to individual freedom applies no less abroad.

America must advance freedom throughout the world as a vital condition of orderly human progress, universal justice, and the security of the American people.

The supreme challenge to this policy is an atheistic imperialism-Communism.

Our nation's leadership must be judged by—indeed, American independence and even survival are dependent upon—the stand it takes toward Communism.

That stand must be: victory for freedom. There can be no peace, there can be no security, until this goal is won.

As long as Communist leaders remain ideologically fixed upon ruling the world, there can be no lesser goal. This is the supreme test of America's foreign policy. It must not be defaulted. In the balance is human liberty everyplace on earth.

Reducing the Risks of War

A dynamic strategy aimed at victory pressing always for initiatives for freedom, rejecting always appeasement and withdrawal-reduces the risk of nuclear war. It is a nation's vacillation, not firmness, that tempts an aggressor into war. It is accommodation, not opposition, that encourages a hostile nation to remain hostile and to remain aggressive.

The road to peace is a road not of fawning amiability but of strength and respect. Republicans judge foreign policy by its success in advancing freedom and justice, not by its effect on international prestige polls.

In making foreign policy, these will be our guidelines:

Trusting Ourselves and Our Friends

1. Secrecy in foreign policy must be at a minimum, public understanding at a maximum. Our own citizens, rather than those of other nations, should be accorded primary trust.

2. Consultation with our allies should take precedence over direct negotiations with Communist powers. The bypassing of our allies has contributed greatly to the shattering of free world unity and to the loss of free world continuity in opposing Communism.

Communism's Course

3. We reject the notion that Communism has abandoned its goal of world domination, or that fat and well fed Communists are less dangerous than lean and hungry ones. We also reject the notion that the United States should take sides in the Sino-Soviet rift.

Republican foreign policy starts with the assumption that Communism is the enemy of this nation in every sense until it can prove that its enmity has been abandoned.

4. We hold that trade with Communist countries should not be directed toward the enhancement of their power and influence but could only be justified if it would serve to diminish their power.

5. We are opposed to the recognition of Red China. We oppose its admission into the United Nations. We steadfastly support free China.

6. In negotiations with Communists, Republicans will probe tirelessly for reasonable, practicable and trustworthy agreements. However, we will never abandon insistence on advantages for the free world.

7. Republicans will continue to work for the realization of the Open Skies policy proposed in 1955 by President Eisenhower. Only open societies offer real hope of confidence among nations.

Communism's Captives

8. Republicans reaffirm their long-standing commitment to a course leading to eventual liberation of the Communist dominated nations of Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, including the peoples of Hungary, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Albania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, and its Serbian, Croatian and Slovene peoples, Cuba, mainland China, and many others. We condemn the persecution of minorities, such as the Jews, within Communist borders.

The United Nations

9. Republicans support the United Nations. However, we will never rest in our efforts to revitalize its original purpose.

We will press for a change in the method of voting in the General Assembly and in the specialized agencies that will reflect population disparities among the member states and recognize differing abilities and willingness to meet the obligations of the Charter. We will insist upon General Assembly acceptance of the International Court of Justice advisory opinion, upholding denial of the votes of member nations which refuse to meet properly levied assessments, so that the United Nations will more accurately reflect the power realities of the world. Further to assure the carrying out of these recommendations and to correct the above abuses, we urge the calling of an amending convention of the United Nations by the year 1967.

Republicans will never surrender to any international group the responsibility of the United States for its sovereignty, its own security, and the leadership of the free world.

NATO: The Great Shield

10. Republicans regard NATO as indispensable for the prevention of war and the protection of freedom. NATO's unity and vitality have alarmingly deteriorated under the present Administration. It is a keystone of Republican foreign policy to revitalize the Alliance.

To hasten its restoration, Republican leadership will move immediately to establish an international commission, comprised of individuals of high competence in NATO affairs, whether in or out of government, to explore and recommend effective new ways to strengthen alliance participation and fulfillment.

Freedom's Further Demands

11. To our nation's associates in SEATO and CENTO, Republicans pledge reciprocal dedication of purpose and revitalized interest. These great alliances, with NATO, must be returned to the forefront of foreign policy planning. A strengthened alliance system is equally necessary in the Western Hemisphere.

This will remain our constant purpose: Republicans will labor tirelessly with free men everywhere and in every circumstance toward the defeat of Communism and victory for freedom.

The Geography of Freedom

12. In diverse regions of the world, Republicans will make clear to any hostile nation that the United States will increase the costs and risks of aggression to make them outweigh hopes for gain. It was just such a communication and determination by the Eisenhower Republican Administration that produced the 1953 Korean Armistice, The same strategy can win victory for freedom and stop further aggression in Southeast Asia.

We will move decisively to assure victory in South Vietnam. While confining the conflict as closely as possible, America must move to end the fighting in a reasonable time and provide guarantees against further aggression. We must make it clear to the Communist world that, when conflict is forced with America, it will end only in victory for freedom.

We will demand that the Berlin Wall be taken down prior to the resumption of any negotiations with the Soviet Union on the status of forces in, or treaties affecting, Germany.

We will reassure our German friends that the United States will not accept any plan for the future of Germany which lacks firm assurance of a free election on reunification.

We will urge the immediate implementation of the Caracas Declaration of Solidarity against international Communist intervention endorsed in 1954 by the Organization of American States during the Eisenhower Administration, which Declaration, in accordance with the historic Monroe Doctrine, our nation's official policy since 1823, opposes domination of any of our neighbor-nations by any power outside this Hemisphere.

We will vigorously press our OAS partners to join the United States in restoring a free and independent government in Cuba, stopping the spread of Sino-Soviet subversion, forcing the withdrawal of the foreign military presence now in Latin America, and preventing future intrusions. We Republicans will recognize a Cuban government in exile; we will support its efforts to regain the independence of its homeland; we will assist Cuban freedom fighters in carrying on guerrilla warfare against the Communist regime; we will work for an economic boycott by all nations of the free world in trade with Cuba; and we will encourage free elections in Cuba after liberty and stability are restored.

We will consider raising the economic participation of the Republic of Panama in the operation of the Panama Canal and assure the safety of Americans in the area. We will reaffirm this nation's treaty rights and study the feasibility of a substitute, sea-level canal at an appropriate location including the feasibility of nuclear excavation.

Republicans will make clear to all Communists now supporting or planning to support guerrilla and subversive activities, that henceforth there will be no privileged sanctuaries to protect those who disrupt the peace of the world. We will make clear that blockade, interception of logistical support, and diplomatic and economic pressure are appropriate United States counters to deliberate breaches of the peace.

We will make clear to all Communist leaders everywhere that aggressive actions, including those in the German air corridors, will be grounds for re-evaluation of any and all trade or diplomatic relations currently to Communism's advantage.

We will take the cold war offensive on all fronts, including, for example, a reinvigorated USIA. It will broadcast not our weaknesses but our strengths. It will mount a psychological warfare attack on behalf of freedom and against Communist doctrine and imperialism.

Republicans will recast foreign aid programs. We will see that all will serve the cause of freedom. We will see that none bolster and sustain anti-American regimes; we will increase the use of private capital on a partnership basis with foreign nationals, as a means of fostering independence and mutual respect but we assert that property of American Nationals must not be ex-propriated by any foreign government without prompt and adequate compensation as contemplated by international law.

Respecting the Middle East, and in addition to our reaffirmed pledges of 1960 concerning this area, we will so direct our economic and military assistance as to help maintain stability in this region and prevent an imbalance of arms.

Finally, we will improve the efficiency and coordination of the foreign service, and provide adequate allowance for foreign service personnel.

The Development of Freedom

13. Freedom's wealth must never support freedom's decline, always its growth. America's tax revenues derived from free enterprise sources must never be employed in support of socialism. America must assist young and underdeveloped nations. In the process, however, we must not sacrifice the trust of old friends.

Our assistance, also, must be conditional upon self-help and progress toward the development of free institutions. We favor the establishment in underdeveloped nations of an economic and political climate that will encourage the investment of local capital and attract the investment of foreign capital.

Freedom's Shield—and Sword

Finally, Republicans pledge to keep the nation's sword sharp, ready, and dependable.

We will maintain a superior, not merely equal, military capability as long as the Communist drive for world domination continues. It will be a capability of balanced force, superior in all its arms, maintaining flexibility for effective performance in the rapidly changing science of war.

Republicans will never unilaterally disarm America.

We will demand that any arms reduction plan worthy of consideration guarantee reliable inspection. We will demand that any such plan assure this nation of sufficient strength, step by step, to forestall and defend against possible violations.

We will take every step necessary to carry forward the vital military research and development programs. We will pursue these programs as absolutely necessary to assure our nation of superior strength in the 1970's.

We will revitalize research and development programs needed to enable the nation to develop advanced new weapons systems, strategic as well as tactical.

We will include the fields of anti-submarine warfare, astronautics and aeronautics, special guerrilla forces, and such other defense systems required to keep America ready for any threat.

We will fully implement such safeguards as our security requires under the limited nuclear test ban treaty. We will conduct advanced tests in permissible areas, maintain facilities to test elsewhere in case of violations, and develop to the fullest our ability to detect Communist transgressions. Additionally, we will regularly review the status of nuclear weaponry under the limited nuclear test ban to assure this nation's protection. We shall also provide sensible, continuing reviews of the treaty itself.

We will end "second-best" weapons policies. We will end the false economies which place price ahead of the performance upon which American lives may depend. Republicans will bring an end once again to the "peak and valley" defense planning, so costly in morale and strength as well as in dollars. We will prepare a practical civil defense program.

We will restore the morale of our armed forces by upgrading military professionalism, and we will allow professional dissent while insuring that strong and sound civilian authority controls objective decision-making.

We will return the Joint Chiefs of Staff to their lawful status as the President's principal military advisors. We will insure that an effective planning and operations staff is restored to the National Security Council.

We will reconsecrate this nation to human liberty, assuring the freedom of our people, and rallying mankind to a new crusade for freedom all around the world.

We Republicans, with the help of Almighty God, will keep those who would bury America aware that this nation has the strength and also the will to defend its every interest. Those interests, we shall make clear, include the preservation and expansion of freedom—and ultimately its victory—everyplace on earth.

We do not offer the easy way. We offer dedication and perseverance, leading to victory. This is our Platform. This is the Republican way.