State of the Union | Page 2

later date to join in an appropriate resolution making clear that this
Government recognizes no kind of commitment contained in secret
understandings of the past with foreign governments which permit this
kind of enslavement.
(4) The policy we pursue will recognize the truth that no single country,
even one so powerful as ours, can alone defend the liberty of all nations

threatened by Communist aggression from without or subversion
within. Mutual security means effective mutual cooperation. For the
United States, this means that, as a matter of common sense and
national interest, we shall give help to other nations in the measure that
they strive earnestly to do their full share of the common task. No
wealth of aid could compensate for poverty of spirit. The heart of every
free nation must be honestly dedicated to the preserving of its own
independence and security.
(5) Our policy will be designed to foster the advent of practical unity in
Western Europe. The nations of that region have contributed notably to
the effort of sustaining the security of the free world. From the jungles
of Indochina and Malaya to the northern shores of Europe, they have
vastly improved their defensive strength. Where called upon to do so,
they have made costly and bitter sacrifices to hold the line of freedom.
But the problem of security demands closer cooperation among the
nations of Europe than has been known to date. Only a more closely
integrated economic and political system can provide the greatly
increased economic strength needed to maintain both necessary
military readiness and respectable living standards.
Europe's enlightened leaders have long been aware of these facts. All
the devoted work that has gone into the Schuman plan, the European
Army, and the Strasbourg Conference has testified to their vision and
determination. These achievements are the more remarkable when we
realize that each of them has marked a victory--for France and for
Germany alike over the divisions that in the past have brought such
tragedy to these two great nations and to the world.
The needed unity of Western Europe manifestly cannot be
manufactured from without; it can only be created from within. But it is
right and necessary that we encourage Europe's leaders by informing
them of the high value we place upon the earnestness of their efforts
toward this goal. Real progress will be conclusive evidence to the
American people that our material sacrifices in the cause of collective
security are matched by essential political, economic, and military
accomplishments in Western Europe.
(6) Our foreign policy will recognize the importance of profitable and
equitable world trade.
A substantial beginning can and should be made by our friends

themselves. Europe, for example, is now marked by checkered areas of
labor surplus and labor shortage, of agricultural areas needing machines
and industrial areas needing food. Here and elsewhere we can hope that
our friends will take the initiative in creating broader markets and more
dependable currencies, to allow greater exchange of goods and services
among themselves.
Action along these lines can create an economic environment that will
invite vital help from us.
This help includes:
First: Revising our customs regulations to remove procedural obstacles
to profitable trade. I further recommend that the Congress take the
Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act under immediate study and extend it
by appropriate legislation. This objective must not ignore legitimate
safeguarding of domestic industries, agriculture, and labor standards. In
all executive study and recommendations on this problem labor and
management and farmers alike will be earnestly consulted.
Second: Doing whatever Government properly can to encourage the
flow of private American investment abroad. This involves, as a serious
and explicit purpose of our foreign policy, the encouragement of a
hospitable climate for such investment in foreign nations.
Third: Availing ourselves of facilities overseas for the economical
production of manufactured articles which are needed for mutual
defense and which are not seriously competitive with our own normal
peacetime production.
Fourth: Receiving from the rest of the world, in equitable exchange for
what we supply, greater amounts of important raw materials which we
do not ourselves possess in adequate quantities. III.
In this general discussion of our foreign policy, I must make special
mention of the war in Korea.
This war is, for Americans, the most painful phase of Communist
aggression throughout the world. It is clearly a part of the same
calculated assault that the aggressor is simultaneously pressing in
Indochina and in Malaya, and of the strategic situation that manifestly
embraces the island of Formosa and the Chinese Nationalist forces
there. The working out of any military solution to the Korean war will
inevitably affect all these areas.
The administration is giving immediate increased attention to the

development of additional Republic of Korea forces. The citizens of
that country have proved their capacity