RN's Copy hh la W Concord, New Hampshire February 3, 1968 ‘The finest hours in our nation's history have been triumphs of the American spirit lL 2. We now are engaged in a great test of that spirit. @ Throughout the land, bitter conflicts are being waged between the races, between the generations, between ideologies, between advocates of lawful change and of chaotic violence. When the leaders of a great nation lose the trust of its people, when they lose touch with its spirit, the soul of the nation is torn. Q Whei Lyndon Johnson took office five years ago, he proclaimed the slogan: "Let us continue." 1. Today, five years later, President Johnson is saying to the American people;: Let us continue what we have been doing Yor the last five years for another four years. (1) So the question the American people will be answering with their votes in 1968 is: Shall we cote?The only 1 iE oe wer to this question is: strongest nation in the world can be tied down for in the war in Viet Nam, with no end in sight; est nation in the world cannot manage its own economy; when the nation with the greatest tradition of respect for the rule of law is plagued by rampant lawlessness; when the nation that has been a symbol/of human liberty is torn apart by racial Strife; when the President of the United States cannot travel either at (1) I don't think America can afford four more years of Lyndon Johnson in the White and jobs and education, (1) This Has to be done and it can be done. \ 1. _/But I mean something more. \ \| () We need leadership that recognizes that the real crisis of America today is a crisis of the spirit.0,5 (2) What America needs most today is what \{ it once had, but has lost: the Lift of a driving dream. Let us look at America now, at the start of this final third of the 20th Century, 1, Whether peace and freedom survive in the world depends on the United States, and the great question is whether we can meet this challenge. () Ina material sense, our assets are immense. 1, Our economic strength is unquestioned, and our military strength can be whatever we choose to make it. 2, But in what should be our area of greatest strength, we have lost something. @) Back in the days when America was one of the _weakest nations of the world, when this granite state was one of only thirteen, then America's ideals were more powerful than they are today. 1. America meant more to the world, (l) It was a symbol of liberty and hope.