Gentlemen. I am glad to take your questions. This you think that at point, our force levels in vietnam will begin to level off . Or do you think more troops may be needed in the future. Consideredpreviously and approved the recommendation of joint chiefs of staff for our force level. General discussed with me, and he anticipates no increase in that level. We are getting close to the end of your fourth year in office. You are being subjected to a regular personal criticism, young am senator preacher in williamsburg. Onder how you surprise. Ot a 35 men whoof the preceded me. No public official, certainly not one that has been in public life 35 years, as i have, would fail to expect criticism. There is a different type of criticism. There is a difference between constructive dissent and stormtrooper bullying and howling and taking the lowend of your own hands. I think that the president must partyt those in the other will frequently find it necessary to find fault and to toplain and to attempt picture to the people that the president should be replaced. I think it is also true in all parties, that there are divisions. We do not all think alike. If we did, one man would be doing all the thinking. So we have divisions in the parties. Perhaps more than i share sometimes, but i am sure the republicans think that, too. So when you get into the Political Year with the help and device and abetting that the president that the press can do, and the assistance that the opposing party can do, because they tried to destroy you in order to have a place for themselves, and you take the divisions in your own party, and they concentrate. It does seem to mount up at , and occupy a great deal of public attention. But i dont think it is unusual for a president to be criticized. That seems to be one of the things that go with the job. Say iny of us want to failed, or i made a mistake, or we should not have done that. This shouldnt have happened. It is always easier to say that someone over there is wrong and the president is more or less a lightning rod. At least, i have seen that in this country. They justly, and i think, very wisely, went into korea. Pollsterssters have a poll with gallup, and that position was approved 81 . Six months later, when sacrifices were evident and the problems again appeared, the same pollster, talking to the same people, saw the number go from 81 to 26. Those numbers have happened in all of our crises, economic, domestic, international. The president learns to expect them and learns to live with them. The important thing for every man who occupies this place is to search as best he can to get the right answer. Try to find out what is right and do it without regard to the polls or criticism. A good Many Americans worth trying just to see if North Vietnam would respond . North vietnam has responded. Their statement this week was in the hanoi newspaper in response to my statements from the , very clear and compelling, and i think it should answer to any person in this country who has ever felt that stopping the bombings, alone, would bring us to the negotiating table. Hanoi made it very clear in response to my that their position, in effect, was the same as it has always been, and the same as it was enunciated in ho chi minhs letter to me, which ho chi minh made public. There are some hopeful people and some naive people in this country, and there are some political people. But anyone that really wants to know what the position of North Vietnam is should read what the spokesman of North Vietnam said. That is best summarized and mr. Ho chi minhs letter to the president that he made public, on the record, that he has never changed. All these hopes and dreams and idealistic people that go around , theyslead and confuse weaken our position. Do you have any evidence that the viet cong might be moving toward the position of wanting to negotiate separate from hanoi . If so, what would be your attitude toward negotiating with them . Handle my prefer to negotiations through our withmatic channels whosoever we may negotiate. I dont think this is the place to do a negotiation. We are very anxious to find a solution that will bring an end sothe war, and as we stated many times, we are ready to meet and discuss that with the officials of hanoi and the viet cong. They will have no problem in having their voice fully heard and considered, but i think it wait untiltter to the opportunity develops along that line and do it through our trained clements. Through our trained diplomats. This wednesday, you are going to complete four years in the office of president. What have been your greatest satisfactions and disappointments . I think we had better do that a little later. I cant tell all the good things that have happened, or the bad ones either, in a 30 minute press conference. I would be charged with filibustering. Wek that this primarily want to think of the future, not the past. It has been almost two centuries since our revolution, and since. E won our freedom we have come a long way during that period, but we have longer terms of education, health, city statistics. Farm statistics. People as there are poor four people out of every 10 in the world who cant spell cat or right dog, we have much to do. Dog. Ell cat or write from head start to adult education, men and women learning to read and write for the first time. Have raised that we our contributions from the federal government to Higher Education from 16 to 24 . And the last four years, while the states have remained we have made revolutionary strides in education and health, and conservation, where we are probably taking in as much land in the Public Domain for the first time in years as we are letting out. We feel that we have brought a degree of stability in our International Relations to this hemisphere, through the alliance for progress with our meetings with gillespie. We are working with other nations, making material advances and helping underdeveloped nations. We are very pleased with what has come out of our meetings with the germans and the british , our trilateral talks. What has come out of our round of meetings. The several treaties we have negotiated with the soviet union , and the one we are working on so hard now, the nonproliferation treaty. We are happy that there are 9 million more people with good paying jobs today than when i came into this office. Things in the past, and we should accept that they end. We want to preserve them, but the important problems are ahead. What is the next century going to be like . The third century . As long as there are ancient centuries ancient enemies around the world, and illiteracy, ignorance, disease, poverty, and war, there is much for government to do. We are working on that now and will be talking more to you about that in the months ahead. Mr. President , we know your talks this week with the general and the ambassador, what is your sense of the progress in vietnam . I will repeat their assessment because they are the ones in the best position to judge things locally. I will give my evaluation of what they have said. Heartk every american should swell with pride at the competence and capacity of our leadership in vietnam. Iieve that our allies believe, and our allies believe, we have superior leadership. It is the best that the United States and produce inexperienced, judgment, in experience, judgment, and training. I have had three meetings with general westmoreland. Our American People like when we get in a contest at any time, whether it is in a war or an election or a football game. They want it decided quickly, and they get in or get out, and they like for the opposition to go down like this. Thats not the kind of work we are fighting in vietnam. The kind of war we are fighting in vietnam. We have made our statement to the world of what we would do if we had prominence in that part of the world in 1954. We certainly would stand with those people in the face of common danger, and the time came when we had to put up or shut up, and we put up. And we dont march out and have a big battle each day in a guerrilla war. It is a new kind of war, so it doesnt move that fast. Trying to be fully responsive to your question in the time allotted, i think we are moving more like this. And i think they are moving more like this. Instead of straight up and straight down. We are making progress. We are pleased with the results we are getting. We are inflicting greater losses than we are taking. Pleased amidst the horrors of war, and more people have been killed trying to vote in South Vietnam than by bombs in North Vietnam, according to North Vietnams own figures. In the midst of all the horrors of war and guerrilla fighting in South Vietnam, we have had five elections in a period of a little over 14 months. There was doubt whether we could have any. 1789 not 13 months, but 13 years to get a constitution with our anglosaxon background and all the training we had. To think that here in the midst of war, when the grades are popping like firecrackers all is two thirdsat or three fourths of the people that register and go vote and have five elections and 13 months, and through the democratics s process, select people at the local level, a senate, president , Vice President , that is encouraging. The fact that the population andree control has back under communist control has constantly gone down is an encouraging sign. The improvement made by the South Vietnamese themselves, putting in reforms and announcing other programs, and improving their own army, it is a matter of great satisfaction to ambassador bunker and general westmoreland. We have a lot to do, a great many mistakes have been made. We take two steps forward and take one back. It is not perfect by any means. There have been many days where we get a c minus instead of an a plus. Are making progress. We are satisfied with our progress. Our allies are pleased, and every country i know in that with whatis familiar is happening thanks it is absolutely essential that uncle sam keep his word and stay there until we can find an honorable peace. Have any doubts about it, mr. Ho chi minh, who reads our papers and listens to our radio and looks at our television, if he has any doubts, i want to disillusion him this morning. We keep our commitments. Our people are going to support the men there, and the men there are going to bring us an honorable peace. Mr. President , on oil may be interpreting the current Public Opinion polls to indicate that you will be replaced next year hanoi maybe interpreting. How it willnow affect the campaign in this country. I think that whatever interpretation hanoi might make that would lead them to believe that uncle sam, whoever may be ,resident, is going to pull out and it will be easier for them to make an inside deal with another president they will make a serious misjudgment. Are you going to run next year . I will cross that bridge when i get to it as ive told you so many times. President , there are increasing statements from capitol hill that say your tax bill is dead for this session of congress. The part any plans on of your administration to try to revive this before congress leaves, and if not, what plans might you have next year to avert this inflationary trend we had been told will be coming echo will be coming . We will have a tax bill just as quickly as we can get it. We think the sound, proven fiscal policy requires it. We will do everything that the president and administration can do to get that tax bill. I would be less than frank if i didnt tell you i have no indication that mr. Mills or mr. Burns of the ways and Means Committee is likely to report the tax bill before they adjourn. Ineel that one of our favors the administration has been a high inability to convince congress of the wisdom of fiscal responsibility and the necessity of passing a tax bill, not only for the effect it will have on the inflationary developments, but the effect it will have on the huge deficit that we are running. And i think one of the great mistakes of the congress that the congress will make, that mr. Ford and mr. Mills have taken this position i think they will live to rue the day they made that decision. Because it is a dangerous decision, and unwise decision. Hink the people of america none of whom want to pay taxes. Any pollster who asks if you want to pay more taxes, of course you would say i dont. If they ask, do you want inflation, t1 prices to increase by 6 . Do you want a deficit of 35 billion . To spend 35 billion more dollars than you are taking in . I think the average citizen would say no, at the height of our prosperity, when our Gross National product is 850 billion, when we look at the precedents of what weve done in past wars. In korea, when president truman asked for a task increased a tax increase, the people supported him. This request has been before the Congress Since last january. I finished most of the appropriation bills. It looks like out of a hundred 45 billion, they roughly cut 1 billion. But they have cut several billion dollars from revenue, because of in action. Because people dont like to stand up and do the unpopular thing of assuming responsibility that the men in public life are required to do sometimes. I know it doesnt have to be your poll or your popularity. We have to have traditional taxes to fight this war abroad and fight the problems in our cities at home, but i think we can do it with the Gross National product we have. I think we should do it, and i think that when the American People and congress get the full story, they will do it. We have failed up until now to convince them, but we will continue to try in every way that is proper. Senator mccarthy says he is considering opposing you in the president ial primaries because he believes it would be a healthy thing to debate vietnam in the primaries for the party and most of the country. Do you agree with him, and what effect do you think this will have on your candidacy . I dont know how i will be after all this opposition develops as far as my state of health, but i am healthy today, and i dont know where his criticism will contribute to my health or not. I dont know what senator mccarthy is going to do. Knows whate that he he plans to do. I think we had better just wait and see until there is something there, and meet it when it is necessary. Think there is so much confusion and frustration and difference of opinion in this country about the war in vietnam . I think there has always been confusion and frustration and difference of opinion when there is a war going on. War,nk the revolutionary only a third of the people thought that was a wise move, a third posted, and a third on the sidelines. When all of england came down they didnt quite make it. Not until Andrew Jackson and the results of new york came in. The next morning, they came and told the president they wanted to congratulate him, that he had been right all along. In the next is true war when the Congress Overwhelmingly voted to go in and later passed the resolution that had grave doubts about it, and some of the most bitter speeches were made they couldnt be published. They had to hold a publication for a hundred years. I dont need to remind you what happened in the civil war. People were in the white house begging lincoln to concede and work out a deal with the confederacy. When word came to him of his thatries, they told him pennsylvania was gone, that illinois had no chance. Those pressures come to a president. Of what president roosevelt went through, president wilson in world war i. He had senators that gave him Serious Problems until victory was assured. I think now when you look back on it, there are a few people who would think that wilson or roosevelt or truman were in error. We are going to have these criticisms, these differences. Nobody likes were, all people love peace. But you cant have freedom without defending it. President , the foreign aid authorization has been cut back nearly one third from what you requested. What is the impact of this economy . I think that at a time when the richest nation in the world is going for more prosperity than it has ever had before, and when we carefully tailor our requests to the very minimum that we think is essential, the lowest request we have had in itrs, and then Congress Cuts 33. 3 , i think it is a mistake. I think it is a serious mistake. I think it is when you consider that billion dollars that we are attempting to save, out of the 850 billion we will produce, that we ought to reconsider that decision, because what we are doing with that money not only can give great help to underdeveloped nations, but that in itself can prevent the things that caused war, where you are required to spend billions to win it. A littleather have preventative measures, and i think that every dollar we spend on our foreign assistance, trying to help poor people help themselves, is money well spent. I dont think we overdid it. I dont think we went to far went to bang far, but i think congress has in the reductions it has made. I cut out all these foreign expenditures, but when the trouble develops, the people are starving and the people that are ignorant and illiterate and disease, war has sprung up and we have to go in, we will spend much more than we would if we had taken an ounce of prevention. Mr. President , some people on the air and in print accuse you of trying to label all criticism of your vietnam policy as unpatriotic. Would you tell us whether you have guidelines in which you are unable to separate conscientious dissent from irresponsible dissension . No, i have not called anyone unpatriotic. I have not said anything that would indicate that. I think the wicked flee if when no one pursue. Are irresponsible and make untrue statements and ought to become should send careful when they are dealing with a problem involving their man at the front. Deal of a great difference, as i said a moment ago, between criticism and responsible dissent, all of which we insist on and protect. ,nd stormtrooper bullying throwing yourself down the road and smashing windows, every time a person attempts to speak, to try to drown him out. We believe very strongly in preserving the right to differ in this country and the right to dissent. If i have done a good job of anything since i have been president , it is to ensure t