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Kennedy: Negroes Need Higher Education

He also thinks the problem of military-industrial complex have lessened over the last year.

The president expressed these views in an interview with three American TV reporters. They were: William H. Lawrence, George Herman and Sander Vanocur.

Mr. Lawrence: Mr. President, is your problem of getting an education bill through this year made more difficult by the events at Oxford, Mississippi, and the use of Federal troops there?

The President: Yes, I think so.

Mr. Lawrence: How will you combat this new—

The President: Well, as I say, this is a case of where we have come very close, and President Eisenhower came close, and we came close once, we got a bill through the House, through the Senate. Almost through the House, and we didn't get it. Then another try for higher education through the Senate and the House, and then it failed, failed in the conference. Now, Oxford. Mississippi, which has made this whole question of the Federal Government and education more sensitive, in some parts of the country I suppose that is going to be a factor against us. I don't really know what other role they would expect the President of the United States to play. The court, made up of Southern judges, determined it was according to the Constitution that Mr. Meredith go to the University of Mississippi. The Governor of Mississippi opposed it, and there was rioting against Mr. Meredith which endangered his life. We sent in marshals, and after all, 150 or 160 marshals were wounded in one way or another out of 400 or 500. and at least three-fourths of the marshals were from the South themselves. Then we sent in troops when it appeared that the marshals were going to be overrun. I don't think that anybody who looks at the situation can think we could possibly do anything else. We wouldn't possibly do anything else. But on the other! hand. I recognise that it has caused a lot of bitterness against me and against the National Government in Mississippi and other parts, and though they expect me to carry out my oath under the Constitution and that is what we are going to do. But it does make it more difficult to pass an education bill.

But I think we shouldn't penalise this great resource of our youth for all these reasons. Instead, we ought to do the job and get these schools built, these teachers compensated, and higher education available to all these boys and girls . . .

Everytime I drive around the country, that is all you see, are six and seven and eight and nine-year-old children who are going to be pouring into our schools and colleges, and every Governor will tell you that is his major problem, providing education facilities, where the National Government has a responsibility.

Mr. Lawrence: Mr. President, your predecessor, President Eisenhower, in his farewell message to the people just before he left office, warned of the dangers of a possible military-industrial complex that might threaten the very nature of the democracy. Have you felt this threat at all while you were in office?

The President: Well, it seems to me there is probably more in that feeling some months ago than I would say today. Of course, every time you cancel a weapons system, it affects a good many thousands of people, the interests of a community, the interests of members of Congress, the interests of the state, and we have had a long fight, for example, over the B-70. which we have felt is a weapon that isn't worth the money we would have to put into it. But it is a very difficult struggle with the Congress. Twice now Congress has appropriated the money for the programme: twice we have not spent that money. But I must say as of today I don't feel that the pressure on us is excessive.

Mr. Lawrence: Well. I was particularly attracted, sir. by an advertisement, a two-page colour advertisement this week in one of the national magazines, for the Project Skybolt missile.

The President: Yes. I saw the ad.

Mr. Lawrence: And it claimed only successes for the missile, it! mentioned no failures, though you had pointed out five, and it said that this system would save billions of dollars in tax dollars if developed. Now, did you regard that as pressure on you?

The President: Well, I think it was an attempt to influence our decision. I see nothing wrong with that. The fact of the matter is that this Skybolt is very essential to the future of the Douglas Company.

There are thousands of jobs that are involved. There are a good many people in the United States who feel that this programme would be useful, and of course the British feel very strongly about it. So I think the ad was an attempt to bring what the Douglas Company feels are the facts to my attention, to Mr. McNamara's, in a different form. In fact, I saw that ad today. The only thing that we ought to point out is we are talking about two-and-a half billion dollars to build a weapon to hang on our B-52's. When we already have billions invested in Polaris, and Minute-man; we are talking about developing now Titan III and other missiles. There is just a limit to how much we need, as well as how much we can afford to have a successful deterrent. Our submarines in the ocean, we have Minutemen on the ground, we have B-52 planes, we still have some B-47's, we have the tactical forces in Europe. I would say when we start to talk about the mega-tonnage we could bring into a nuclear war. We are talking about annihilation. How many times do you have to hit a target with nuclear weapons? That is why when we are talking about spending this $2.5 billion, we don't think that we are going to get $2.5 billion worth of national security. Now, I know there are others who disagree, but that is our feeling.—From Washington.