evening from Ambassador Lodge 13-indicates that there has been some improvement in prices and the economic situation there. The diplomatic front-our representatives and the representatives of other nations are now exploring in other capitals, in many other places, the possibilities of trying to find a way to get to the peace table.

On the political front, plans are going forward for the election of the Constituent Assembly early in September, and numbers. and numbers of candidates are filing for the places.

We are supplying such advice and counsel as we can in the hope that this will be an orderly democratic election where the majority of the people can freely express themselves, and select the leaders of their choice. On the military front, our troops under General Westmoreland 1 are giving an excellent account of themselves. They are attempting to anticipate the enemy and doing everything they can to deter him from further aggression, from additional infiltration, and from the terror that he practices.

14

The results have been that the enemy has lost about 10 men for every loss the Americans have suffered.

I believe the record for the last 10 weeks shows that the enemy has lost in excess of 1,000 men each week. Our average has been something like 100. This week I believe it is less than 100, and I believe theirs is more than 1,200.

The mail that I get, some 50 or 60 letters from the battlefront each week, shows the morale is high, that the men are well trained, that they are well and adequately supplied, and properly led.

We ceased speculating a long time ago on how long this situation would endure. But I have said to you and to the American people time and again, and I repeat it today, that we shall persist.

We shall send General Westmoreland such men as he may require and request, and they will be amply supplied. I have no doubt but what they will give a good account of themselves.

Overall, I would say that the reports from the captured prisoners-and there have been about twice as many defectors so far this year as there were the same period last year, some 10,000 compared to 4,000—but the interviews from a sample of 150 this week indicate that about 15 to 20 percent of the men that have been captured show that they are boys from 12 to 16 years of age.

They show that a good many of their people take 3 months in the infiltration, walking down from North Vietnam, that a good many of them are suffering from malaria, and beriberi, and other diseases.

The men who conducted the bombings on the military targets, the oil supplies of Hanoi and Haiphong, did a very careful but very perfect job. They hit about 90 percent of the total capacity of that storage, and almost 70 percent of it was destroyed.

Our reports indicate that there were few civilian lives lost, if any. One estimate was that one civilian was killed, and he was the one that was at the alarm center.

We were very careful not to get out of the target area, in order not to affect civilian populations. But we are going, with our allies, to continue to do everything that we can to deter the aggressor and to go to the peace table at the earliest possible date.

Merriman Smith, United Press International: Thank you, Mr. President.

NOTE: President Johnson's sixty-eighth news conference was held in the East Room at the White

July 20, 1966

Mr. Howe, distinguished members of the diplomatic corps, students, and friends:

Since you are students and I am a former teacher, I would like to ask a few questions and have "a show of hands."

First of all, how many of you are from this hemisphere-North or South America? How many from Canada? Europe? Africa? Asia? Australia and New Zealand?

Well, whatever your native land, we are very happy to have you here this afternoon. Your visit gives us an opportunity to thank you for enriching our country with your presence. We hope that you have learned something from us, as we know we have learned from you.

There are nearly 3 billion people on this planet. Most of them live and die without ever leaving the small community where they are born. Most of them never have much opportunity to contribute to the understanding among the nations of the world.

But you are among the tiny minority who have had the opportunity to do that. You are among the few who have earned the ability to interpret one nation to another, one people to another.

You probably have been surprised many times during the past year to learn how uninformed people are about your own homeland. You have been able, I think, to eliminate misunderstanding and prejudice, to enlighten your friends in America about your own people and about the place where you live.

When you return home, you will encounter misunderstandings about us, misunderstandings about this land-misunderstandings which you will be able to clear up.

This is what makes you so valuable to the entire world at this critical period in history. Because after this year abroad, you are still a citizen of your own land. But, in addition, you are more than that-you are now a citizen of the world.

There are 3,000 of you here today, I am told, so there are at least 3,000 attitudes and memories reflected from your stay in the United States.

There is one memory that I hope all of you will share. I believe you have seen that Americans are basically an optimistic people, anxious to help solve even the impossible problems.

This optimistic faith is the source of America's volunteer spirit-the spirit that sends young men and women into the slums to fight against poverty and injustice, the spirit that sends others to foreign lands as members of the Peace Corps.

Five months ago I sent a message to the Congress on international health and education. In that message I said: "Only when people know about-and care about-each other will nations learn to live together in harmony." We have volunteered some of America's wealth and some of our energy to that great purpose-to add a world dimension to the task of improving the health and the education of mankind.

So here is another opportunity to volun

teer for another great adventure-to help free people from the slavery of ignorance and the burden of disease.

These must be the goals of all men: to bring new hope and opportunity to the world, to encourage understanding, to constantly search and seek peace.

In this country we have the people-topeople program. It is working well. Now I see in your faces the potential for a youthto-youth program, a means to enlarge your service to others, a means to work as volunteers for peace among men.

So let every nation and every generation— and especially your young hearts and your young minds-volunteer with us in building a more just and a more humane world.

When countries speak of sending volunteers into other lands, let them be sent to the real battlefields-the battlefields of poverty, ignorance, disease, and suffering. Let them come bearing hope and not arms.

Let them cross the frontiers in the bright light of day and not down jungle trails in the dark of night.

Let them volunteer to enlarge the lives of their neighbors, not to take the lives of anyone.

This is the kind of volunteers that Americans understand. It is the only kind that

the world needs or wants.

And I promise you that wherever such a volunteer may walk, he will find an American among the first to give him welcome and to take his hand and join him in his work for peace.

I have been assured that you are future leaders of your countries. There are here this afternoon future lawmakers, future first ladies, future prime ministers.

In that case, you no doubt will be returning occasionally to the White House here in Washington. I will not say goodby to you this afternoon; I will just leave you simply with my hope that the world will be a happier and a more peaceful place because of your visit here, because of what you have learned and what you have taught, because of the efforts that you will spend in the days ahead.

Mrs. Johnson and Lynda Bird and I are delighted to welcome you and we hope to enjoy your companionship for some more of the afternoon.

Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:35 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White House. His opening words referred to Arthur Howe, Jr., president of American Field Service International Scholarships. For the President's message to the Congress on international health and education, see Item 45.

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Poverty and lack of opportunity can be attacked in many ways, as we are proving in America, but there is no more important way than to assure each school child of an adequate meal. So I was pleased to learn of the effectiveness during Fiscal Year 1966 of the special assistance portion of the School Lunch Program, and the fact that nearly

200,000 additional children received these benefits.

It is a tribute to your Department, and to the State and local officials with whom you worked, that the demonstration program. was placed in more than 800 schools after the school year was well underway. This experiment also shows what can be done with a relatively modest amount of public

July 20, 1966

Mr. Howe, distinguished members of the diplomatic corps, students, and friends:

Since you are students and I am a former teacher, I would like to ask a few questions and have "a show of hands."

First of all, how many of you are from this hemisphere-North or South America? How many from Canada? Europe? Africa? Asia? Australia and New Zealand?

Well, whatever your native land, we are very happy to have you here this afternoon. Your visit gives us an opportunity to thank you for enriching our country with your presence. We hope that you have learned something from us, as we know we have learned from you.

There are nearly 3 billion people on this planet. Most of them live and die without ever leaving the small community where they are born. Most of them never have much opportunity to contribute to the understanding among the nations of the world.

But you are among the tiny minority who have had the opportunity to do that. You are among the few who have earned the ability to interpret one nation to another, one people to another.

You probably have been surprised many times during the past year to learn how uninformed people are about your own homeland. You have been able, I think, to eliminate misunderstanding and prejudice, to enlighten your friends in America about your own people and about the place where you live.

When you return home, you will encounter misunderstandings about us, misunderstandings about this land-misunderstandings which you will be able to clear up.

This is what makes you so valuable to the entire world at this critical period in history. Because after this year abroad, you are still a citizen of your own land. But, in addition, you are more than that-you are now a citizen of the world.

There are 3,000 of you here today, I am told, so there are at least 3,000 attitudes and memories reflected from your stay in the United States.

There is one memory that I hope all of you will share. I believe you have seen that Americans are basically an optimistic people, anxious to help solve even the impossible problems.

This optimistic faith is the source of America's volunteer spirit-the spirit that sends young men and women into the slums to fight against poverty and injustice, the spirit that sends others to foreign lands as members of the Peace Corps.

Five months ago I sent a message to the Congress on international health and education. In that message I said: "Only when people know about-and care about-each other will nations learn to live together in harmony." We have volunteered some of America's wealth and some of our energy to that great purpose-to add a world dimension to the task of improving the health and the education of mankind.

So here is another opportunity to volun

teer for another great adventure-to help free people from the slavery of ignorance and the burden of disease.

These must be the goals of all men: to bring new hope and opportunity to the world, to encourage understanding, to constantly search and seek peace.

In this country we have the people-topeople program. It is working well. Now I see in your faces the potential for a youthto-youth program, a means to enlarge your service to others, a means to work as volunteers for peace among men.

So let every nation and every generationand especially your young hearts and your young minds-volunteer with us in building a more just and a more humane world.

When countries speak of sending volunteers into other lands, let them be sent to the real battlefields-the battlefields of poverty, ignorance, disease, and suffering. Let them come bearing hope and not arms.

Let them cross the frontiers in the bright light of day and not down jungle trails in the dark of night.

Let them volunteer to enlarge the lives of their neighbors, not to take the lives of anyone.

This is the kind of volunteers that Americans understand. It is the only kind that

the world needs or wants.

And I promise you that wherever such a volunteer may walk, he will find an American among the first to give him welcome and to take his hand and join him in his work for peace.

I have been assured that you are future leaders of your countries. There are here this afternoon future lawmakers, future first ladies, future prime ministers.

In that case, you no doubt will be returning occasionally to the White House here in Washington. I will not say goodby to you this afternoon; I will just leave you simply with my hope that the world will be a happier and a more peaceful place because of your visit here, because of what you have learned and what you have taught, because of the efforts that you will spend in the days ahead.

Mrs. Johnson and Lynda Bird and I are delighted to welcome you and we hope to enjoy your companionship for some more of the afternoon.

Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 5:35 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White House. His opening words referred to Arthur Howe, Jr., president of American Field Service International Scholarships. For the President's message to the Congress on international health and education, see Item 45.

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Poverty and lack of opportunity can be attacked in many ways, as we are proving in America, but there is no more important way than to assure each school child of an adequate meal. So I was pleased to learn of the effectiveness during Fiscal Year 1966 of the special assistance portion of the School Lunch Program, and the fact that nearly

200,000 additional children received these benefits.

It is a tribute to your Department, and to the State and local officials with whom you worked, that the demonstration program was placed in more than 800 schools after the school year was well underway. This experiment also shows what can be done. with a relatively modest amount of public