President Elsenhower, that we "must recognize that we could lose"
that race. "We must not let ourselves be deceived, " said Dr. Killian,
''about the increasingly exacting demands upon our will and our
resources yet to be imposed by the military and economic, as well
as the technological, competition of the Soviet bloc—a competition
that may require us to make some hard choices between growing
comfort and leisure on the one hand and hard work on the other—
that will require, too, a wider recognition that high intellectual
achievement is as important to survival as a high standard of living
and material prosperity. " All these reports, as I have said, are pro-
foundly disturbing to those of us who know the character and the
purpose of the Soviet Union and its allies.

There is little doubt in the minds of any of us as to what the
Communists will do if they are ever convinced that they are con-
fronted by weakness and not strength. All hope of our national
survival will vanish if we ever permit ourselves to cower in weak-
ness before the ruthless leadership of the communist tyranny. The
peace of the world depends on our remaining strong, and our
strength, to a great degree, lies in the military might of our armed
forces. Our country, of course, is everlastingly indebted to veterans
like yourselves who fought in its great wars to preserve the freedom
we cherish.

But it owes a special debt of gratitude to organizations like the
American Legion—and the other great service organizations—for
keeping our citizens constantly alert to the dangers we face. Your
experience as soldiers, sailors and Marines heightened your aware-
ness of these dangers. With this understanding, you have persistently
warned the people of this country of the threats from enemies, and
in so doing, you have made an invaluable contribution to the safety
of the nation and the peace of the world. I urge you to continue your
crusade for a strong nation dedicated to an enduring peace but
fully prepared to resist aggression. In peace or at war, we cannot deal
with Communism unless we do so from a position of strength. We
must not allow ourselves to lag behind in providing the weapons
and materials needed for our defense and in training the manpower
to use them. If our Army is, in truth, "falling to pieces, " we must
rebuild it. It we are, indeed, falling behind the Russians in the race
to build missiles, we must resist public apathy and double and re-
double our effort to overtake them. "To be prepared for war is one
of the most effectual means of preserving peace, " said the father of
our country in his first annual address to the Congress of the United

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