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Now what, in point of actual fact, did President Johnson say?
Well, I'll quote what he said from the very text of his television
remarks:
"There were times when he—meaning Khrushchev—was guilty of
dangerous adventure. It required great American firmness and good
sense—first in the Berlin crisis and later in the Cuban missile crisis
—to turn back his threats and actions without war. Yet he learned
from his mistakes and was not blind to realities.
"In the last two years, his government had shown itself aware of
the need for sanity in the nuclear age. He joined in the Nuclear
Test Ban Treaty. He joined in the hot line which can help prevent
a war by accident. He agreed that space should be kept free of nu-
clear weapons. By these actions he demonstrated good and sober
judgment. "
Commenting editorially on Senator Goldwater's distortions of
President Johnson's statement, the Baltimore Evening Sun correctly
declared:
"If Senator Goldwater cannot or will not rightly read and under-
stand a few sentences in a plain statement, who will take the risk
of supposing he can, or will, rightly read and understand the course
of events and the needs of policy in a complex and dangerous world. "
These statements by Senator Goldwater and his followers have
caused much consternation in Republican ranks that the more prom-
inent, the more responsible members of the GOP simply are refus-
ing to support their party's candidate. Last Saturday night, October
24th, at a gigantic Democratic rally and motorcade in Baltimore,
Theodore R. McKeldin, the Republican mayor of that city, leader
of the Republican party in my State, the man selected in 1952 to
nominate at the Republican National Convention, General Dwight
Eisenhower as the Republican choice for President and the man I
succeeded as Governor of Maryland, warmly welcomed Lyndon John-
son to Baltimore with these words.
"The basic beliefs held by Lyndon Johnson, a member of the party
of Jefferson and Jackson, are the basic beliefs that guide my actions
and the actions of legions of others with whom I share the political
heritage bequeathed by Abraham Lincoln. He believes the toughest
battles yet to be won are the battles against poverty, ignorance and
disease and that is our deep conviction also. He believes, as we do,
in responsible leadership, responsive not to fanaticism but to the
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