282 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

trial revolution, and what should have been a matter of temporary
blindness lapsed slowly but surely into a desperate paralysis.

Unable to inspire others we tore upon ourselves, and left so gaping
a wound that our own Alf Landon in viewing the wreckage of his own
misfortune was to compare Republican disharmony with two under-
takers fighting over a corpse. But now the giant stirs, no longer as the
Grand Old Party of yesteryear but surely as the vital and viable party
of today. And indeed it is our old adversary, the Liberal Establish-
ment, who stirs us to reform what they once thought to be reformed,
to bring meaning back to the cause and the spirit of victory to the
battle believed over and won.

They call not for an old time conservatism but for a new kind of
liberalism, a humanistic Republicanism, a. revival of individualism
made timely. Now we may set about selling our case, and with it a
new image, to the American public.

And the very first thing we must do is to make a sacred covenant
with the people that we will tell the truth, the whole truth and at all
times, the truth. Never before in our history has leadership had its
credibility so seriously questioned or its integrity so nakedly chal-
lenged. Let us never for a moment be party to the great deception that
our times demand a Machiavellian silence on the failings of govern-
ment and Madison Avenue saturation to dignify its accomplishment.
Indeed some delicate affairs of state demand privacy, but when
American sons are being sent overseas to a dangerous and demanding
assignment, we must be truthfully told why they are going, what they
are doing there, and when they might be coming back. I am not ques-
tioning the sincerity of our president's personal views on the impor-
tance of our struggle in Viet Nam, but I am convinced that the reason
we are debating this war so openly and antagonistically is that it was
not faithfully described at its outset. It is suspicion and not a lack
of patriotism that makes the hawk impatient and the dove resentful.

Truth, that priceless ingredient, must be searched out wherever we
believe it to be hidden and exposed for all to see. It is truth that
central government has become monstrous in its size, enormous in its
scope, and devouring in its exercise of power, but it is equally true
that State government too long remained static and only recently has
begun to reassert its reason for being. As Republicans, we believe that
the government closest to the people governs best, that State and local
government must have a talent and a capability and a confidence that
looks to itself and not to Washington at the first sign of trouble or for
the first hand of help.