CE BY PRESIDENT, MCNAMARA AND GEN. WHEELER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080036-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 9, 2006
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: November 11, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080036-8
_iit.K '~l.ILS, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1956.
Ice ,by Piesident, McNamara and Caen. Wheeler
OF ELECTION: President Johnson at his news confer-
said lie was not altogether unhappy with election's oiitconie.
months of August
of between 37,000
,presents, therefore,
t.
took for the draft
ionths, which is our
to call in about
the months of Dc-
bruary and March,
live a call of 12,000,
tive just announced
:d for the remaining
tive not yet estab-
_llocation by month.
an Army outfit managed to defeat .and
seriously damage a North Vietnamese
force.
Successful Operations
Today,' the Operation Attleboro, In
Tainan Province, near the Cambodian
border northwest of Saigon, General Bill
Depcw and troops of the First Infantry
Division, the First Calvary Division and
the 25th Infantry Division have been
engaging in very successful operations
against the North Vietnamese troops.
add to December that the war in my judgment continues
nount sufficient to in a very favorable fashion. General
-ith total to about Westmoreland retains the initiative and
compares with the in every operation to date, he has man-
months of August, aged to defeat the enemy. I also com-
and November, of merited on the very satisfactory logistic
-y substantial reduc- . , build-up which we checked into during
our visit to Vietnam. I believe that the
Capacity logisticians, the engineers, the ordnance
types, the quartermasters, and so on,
just. one more qucs are perhaps the unsung heroes of this
on the ballistic
u?cly.
l.tnguage, does this
_ i4ans now have the
]own American bal-
do not?
particular war.
I would recommend to any of you
who would like to check my words to
visit Cameron Bay, among other places.
In brief, then, I was able to report to
the. President my satisfaction from a
There is absolutely military point of view as to?tlhe progress
our capability of of the war. I also told him something
ivic.t. defenses with that lie, of course, saw for himself
-and aircraft. There during his visit to South, Vietnam, and
u about that at any that is the outstanding orale, the out-
1. 15 vears and there standing dedication and determination
House son}ewhat exceeded what our bet-
ter people who had reports on it would
indicate, although I was clear?to point
out that they received the reports from
the candidates themselves.
The margin was some five to 10 more
than the total amount that we had
anticipated, as I told you in a press
conference the other day and as I told
you at Johnson City.
A 2-Party System
There are some things that -I think
we ought to observe. First, as a good
American, I think we are all glad to
see a healthy and competent existence
of the two-party system. I think there
IS no question but what the other party
strengthened its position.
Second, I believe, as the leadership
of the Republican party, President
Eisenhower, Senator Dirksen and others
believe, that it will not in any way
change our course of action in connec-,
tion with security matters.
I have had rather good cooperation
from the opposition party, as I have
stated on a good many occasions on
all matters affecting the security of
this nation, and I expect to continue to
have that.
Third, while you regret to see some
effective Congressmen-and certainly
Senator Douglas, an effective Senator
=leave Washington, not many Presi-
dents have been President for very long
with 249, 249 or 250 members of the
House and 64 members of the Senate.
As I said to Mi's. Johnson last night,
it just looks like we will have to get
by with a 248 margin, which will be
some 63 margin, and in the Senate
almost two to one.
I. hope what we propose will be suf-
ficiently meritorious to command a
majority v9te.
Recalls Senate Days
The most effective Democratic opera-
tion that I experienced in the days
I served there was when we only had
a one-man margin in the Senate. There
were less absentees and more people
there.
Of course, anyone would rather have
67 on his side than 64. But I' would
rather have 64 than 36. I would rather
have 248 than 145.
I would be less than frank if I didn't
tell you that I am sorry we. lost any.
Democratic seats. But r would also
tell you that over a priod of years
the American people have a way, I
guess, of balancing things.
When the pendulum swings one way,
as it did in 1964 pretty strongly, it
has a tendency to swing back and some-
what balance it, as it did In 1936 when
we had an unprecedented majority of
Democrats, and in 1938 it swung back.
So while we were disappointed. to see
some of our friends lose, I can't think
a President should be too unhappy after
he had had the. results that we have
had in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1960. We
have had a reasonably good time to
make our recommendations and to get
most of them acted upon.
It may be pertinent to observe that
when I became President in 1963 we
had about 256 members of the House:
We will probably have five, six or seven
less now. We had a reasonably good pro-
gram, as you will remember, in 1963
and. 1064.. .
I would expect that we will have our
recommendations favorably acted upon
in most instances, Where they are de-
serving.
I would like to point out one other
In our state we lost two, in Virginia
we lost two, in Wisconsin we lost two.
But as I have observed to you before,
The Christian Science Monitor made a
study of this question.
Saville Davis came to my office and
brought me the results of some of his
studies. He carried them back to 1840.
'They showed an average of 41 per year.
Some of the high years were with Presr-
dent Roosevelt, when he carried every
state of the union, except Maine and
Vermont, in 1936. I believe he lost 86
votes in 1938. That was about the time
I came into Congress. I remember that
very clearly.
On other occasions they have posted,
60. President Eisenhower served only-
two years before he lost the Congress'
entirely.
As a matter of fact, a fellow working
for me the other morning, after listen
ing the night before, thought we had
lost the Congress entirely. As a matter
of fact, he thought all Democrats wero,
gone.
I asked him what he thought about
the election, and he said, "I am sure
sorry to see them take the House of Ren-
resentatives and the Senate."
Well, we still have 248 or 250 mem-
bers. That is something to bear in mind.
They may have to be a little closce
knit. They may have to have fewer ab-
sentees and things.
But a President that can't lead with,
a 250-85 would have his problems with
260 or 270. I am hopeful, that most of
our legislation that we recommended has
been acted upon reasonably bipartisan.
I have no reason to think it won't be
next year.
13. Time of Surgery
Q. Mr. President, is . there anything
further you can tell irc-at this time about
when and where your surgery, will take.
place ?
,
A. No. It will take place next week.
So you don't have to worry, about this,
week.
Where, the doctors have not decided.
yet. We have several doctors living in-
.various places that will need to be here.
Mr. Burkley is now conferring with them!
and talking to them, trying to get their
schedule on a date that they can agree,
on, sometime, we hope, in less than the-
15- to 20-day period that we originally .
thought.
Just what day it will be, we don't:
know. I think you can be comfortable'
over the weekend here, at least through-
Sunday. But we don't know whether you
will be busy at a hospital in the early.
part of the week right now or not. Just'
as soon'as we do, we will tell you. Wei
will give you ample notice. ,
Q. Mr. President, could you tell us
something about your physical comfort
now? Are you feeling well?
A. Yes, I feel fine. I still have the
same problems. This would just be a_
repeat. If you look at the last tran-
script, we have a little huskiness in'
the voice you may be able to observe
and a little pulling on the side, the
protrusion.
It is actually a pull on the Inner wall
where the incision was made.,It is like
you have a little weight on your arm. In
carrying it around, it pulls on you, and
sometimes when you get up it bothers
YOU.
I have not been wearing a back rest
J or the last two or three days. It is a"
little more comfortable. I forgot to put"
it on. If'I had known you were going to
be here on this occasion this morning, I.,
Obuld have dressed for it. But it is
more comfortable when you don't wear
it. -
14. Now Programs
Approved For Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080036-8
 against the Soviet offensive systems as Communist nuclear developments and In total, they will aid to I)c,_; n,t ?r
well. We concluded that it is much too those elsewhere in the world. and January a41 amount sufficient to
meat against the vmnesq P~l~l~ yapr F4Weli %2 i4i;i]b3i.0anfrI1
have not arrived at a d c sion on any units in the United States.
other deployment. We will continue our
discussions on this subject in the weeks
io come.
The Poseidon Missile
Secondly, we discussed the possible
production of the Poseidon missile. You
may recall that this is a new missile
for deployment at sea, the development
of which we initiated as part of the
fiscal 1967 budget as an insurance pro-
gram. We estimated at the time this
program was presented last, year that it
would require almost $2-billion to de-
velop, and several additional billions to
deploy.
We recommended, and I believe will
present to the Congress, a proposal to
produce and deploy that system. This
will require a complete refitting of most
of our Polaris submarines at a cost
somewhat in excess of 60 per cent of
the initial cost of those Polaris subs.
Desirable Construction
We then considered the supplement
to the 1967 defense budget. As the Presi-
dent reported to you last Saturday; it
will be necessary to have such a sup-
plement. The production of aircraft, heli-
copters, ground ordnance and air ord-
nance has exceeded our expectation. The
-combined team of American manage-
ment and American labor has actually
accomplished "'miracles in the last sev-
eral months.
That,, plus the -necessity to consider
financing, operations In Southeast Asia
beyond June 30, 1967, which was the
foundation of the 1967 program, will
quite clearly require a supplement to the
defense budget. We reviewed certain as-
pects of that.
Finally, we considered the basic pol-
icy which we will follow as a foundation
for the defense. program In fiscal 1968,
and upon the President's Instructions
will defer every possible element of the
defense program that can be deferred
without adversely affecting our secur-
ity. This is in order to soften the tran-
sition following the termination of hos-
tilities in Southeast Asia, the transition
to our peacetime economy.
We will follow, therefore, the same
policy in 1968 that we have to some de-
gree to the present. You will remember
that in 1966 we were authorized a mili-
tary construction program of about.,.
$1.2-billion, and have deferred for future
start about $600-million of that,
This represents' construction which is
desirable, which we need for defense,
but which is not required at the moment.
We believe that considering the short-
age'of construction labor and the short-
age of construction materials, we are
well advised to defer the start of that
construction until such time as our econ-
omy can both absorb it and benefit from
it. We will follow. a similar policy in
developing the 1968 program.
'I think this will mean that, for ex-
ample, we will defer building up certain
inventories of munitions and other equip-
ment, equipment that we don't need at
present, that we won't need next year,
but which we will require at some time
In the future, production of which we
can use as'a means of softening the im-
pact of the termination of hostilities in
Southeast Asia,
I will be very happy to take your
questions on anything I have said today
or on any other aspect of the defense
program.
QUESTIONS
1. Soviet Missile System
Q. 11r. Secretary,. did you say"'that
the Soviets were deploying an antibal-
i
p ? @B0?VARDM300Ai8003 s with-the
Q. How long do you think it would be
before you could fully deploy it?
A: Any deployment of such a system
would take place over several years.
One point I would like to stress to you is
that the length of time required to
deploy such a system is less than the
length of time required for the Chinese
Communists to develop nuclear weapons
that conceivably could threaten this na-
tion. Therefore, it is not timely to at
this time make a decision to deploy
such a system 'to defend against the
Chinese Communist threat.
Q. Does Red China have a nuclear
antiballistic system?
A. No. The Communist Chinese, as
you know, are just in the early stages
of the development of nuclear weapons
and, so far as we know, and I believe
we do know, they have not begun to
develop an antiballistic missile. system.
6. War in Vietnam
Q. Does this affect the war in Viet-
nam? A. No, not in the slightest degree.
7. Draft Cutbacks
Q. Mr. Secretary, what effect will
your announced draft cutbacks have on
our manpower situation other than Viet-
nam? I am thinking in terms of Europe
pdrticularly.
A. We will keep our European forces,
and be prepared to keep them, at current
levels. Early this year we announced
that we were temporarily utilizing 15,-
000 men from our European forces in
the training of the expanded Army in
this country.
At the beginning of the year, we had
something on the order of 225,000 men
In our Army forces in Western Europe.
I stated we would draw them down by
about 15,000 and replace those men by
the end of this year. We are well on the
way to doing something.
I have forgotten the exact strength
in Western Europe today, but I would
think it was on the order of. 218,000.
By the end of this year, it will be
223,000 or 224,000. We will plan to be
prepared to maintain it at thtt through-
out the coming year.
I noticed in the press that I was
accused of playing politics by announc-
ing the cut in the draft call last Satur-',
day. I think some might have accused'
me by playing reverse politics because,
of course,-what it meant was that we
had for the month of November an-
nounced a rather heavy draft call In.
September, and it is not until after the
election that we will 'be cutting the,
draft as much as we are.
' It is customary to announce the draft
calls to the Selective Service System by
a letter from my office to General
Hershey, in the first week of the second
preceding month, which meant,- of
course, that we should have sent the
letter to General Hershey on last Sat-..
urday or earlier for the month of
January.
Actually, because General Wheeler
total for the four months of August,
September, October and November, of
about 162,000, a very substantial reduc-
tion.
S. Soviet Capacity
Q. alr. SecrePry. just ono in re que'
tien, if you on the
missile sy::cm. A. Surely.
Q. In l,ivman's langua:-e, does thl
mean that the l:ussians now have Lh,'
capacity to knock down American bal-
listic missiles but we do not?
A. Certainly not. There is absolutely
no question about our capability of
penetrating the Soviet defenses with
both our missiles and aircraft. There
has been no question about that at any
time during the past 15 years and there:
is no question about it now.
There was not any question about It
when they erected the antiaircraft. de-
fenses and intended to prevent our.
bomber aircraft from penetrating. At
that time, we had a capability of assur-
ing bomber penetration. There is no
question about it now when they are
similarly trying to defend against inter-
continental ballistic missiles.
9. Manned Bombers
Q. Mr. Secretary, in your summary
you did not mention manned bombers
and plans for next year's defense budget.
What are the plans?
A. No, we did not mention that be-
cause we did not discuss that with the
President this morning. I have just
received within 'the ' past two days or
three days a report on this subject
from the Secretary of the Air Force.
We have not had an opportunity yet to
analyze it fully in my office and we did
not have that on our agenda this morn-
ing. This meeting today, which as I say
is the third with the President on the
subject of the fiscal. 1968 program, is
but one of several.
I am sure we will request an op-
portunity to meet on future occasions.
Among the subjects we will discuss at
that time will, of course, be the pos-
sibility of an advanced manned bomber.
If there are no more questions, Gen-
oral Wheeler will comment upon South
Vietnam.
WHEELER STATEMENT
As the President mentioned, I dis-
cussed with him this morning the pro-
gress of the war In South Vietnam. It
is interesting to note that it is just
about a year ago in a series of battles
in the Anbrang Valley near the Cam-
bodian border, General Westmoreland's
troops, in this case the First Cavalry
Division, defeated, with substantial
losses, the North Vietnamese Army,'
325th Infantry Division.
that the v,.,r is
in a very fat
Westmoreland
in every operat
aged to defeat
mented on the
build-up which
our visit. to Vs
t}; thw qe:u
h.,r' ul.ir w.u.
i u',?nld r,??i
\1?he. wOul,l 111c,'
vi:.iL C,,meri,n 1'
In bri~?f, th, n,
the I'rr tdrnI
military point ,1
of the war. I
that he, of c
during his visit
that is the out:
standing dedic
of the America
of all ranks, I to the G.I.'s, it
war.
I think that
orally. I will any questions.
10
Q. General,
reports today,
lieve, used not
time against ,
special signific,
A. I don't kr
have to remen
ington at a rat
.ing and when
mand center b
such report. If
represents a cc
tional sophistic
responding t them.
Q. Thank yoi
Rego
THE PRES]
take some quc
the network p
people,. if the3
back there i meet with all
such visits as 3
11.Ef
Q. Mr. Pros
had a chance
election retut7
chances of kec
legislation got
year?
A. I think
for any new I
pose. I think
House with i
more likely t emendations t
250.
While I do:
any great diff
do have a Sei
67 to 64.
I told Mr.
me yesterday
thought we to
ate than we 1
Very frank
recommend th
anticipated a,
the Senate, a only one wa!
Douglas.
The Oregon
for Senator 1
seat was a
Bass.
We thought
we lost three
'guess when
people in 50
be. But the
Since that time, the North Vietnamese
and the Vietcong have made a number
of efforts to seize the initiative from
General Westmoreland's forces. When I
say his forces, I am speaking not only
of Americans, but also the Australians,
the New Zealanders, the Republic of
Korea forces and the Republic of Viet-
nam forces. .
and I had not had an opportunity to Ina series of quite extensive battles,
discuss this subject with the President, Hastings, which took place near the
because its size depended in part upon demilitarized zone starting in April,
decisions we had not yet had an op- Operation Prairie, which, again, took.
portunity to make with 'respect to pos- . place and is taking place' today, near
sible deployments to ,,South Vietnam in the demilitarized zone, the Third
1967, we deferred that January call Marines have managed to frustrate and
until Monday in order that we might defeat an attempt at an invasion from
complete our discussions with the Presi North Vietnam into South. Vietnam by-.dent on Saturday. the North Vietnamese Army forces.
We did so, and we transmitted' the While we_were-in`Vietnama.eouple of
letter to General Hersey' on Monday,__ week's ago, we visited operations in the
It was `for a call of 27,0150 ,for the ";vicinity., of Phu Kok, where the First
month ot,January That compares with RArmored bivision, a ROK outfit and
Approved For\Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080036-8
 add to December
ount sufficient to
total. to about
:ompares with the
.?ont.hs of August,
_md November, of
substantial reduce
Z W JS A.Uie L' .j: w L Lu Lll~ t Z L~ 1 .11L what balance it, as it did in rjao WRCR """ "" ' a '""""" ~' ' ` t' , ^ ' '?. _
that the war in my judgment continues we had an unprecedented majority of now? Are you feeling well?
in a very favorable fashion. General Democrats, and in 1938 it swung back. A. Yes, I feel fine. I still have the
WcstmorA g k This would just ho a
fn every WVt'oadh.t?,Pl e, fi k 006 #b1iWe: v~d F 3fl Fd6M04 ?~ look at the last tram
aged to defeat the'enemy. I also com- some of our friends lose, I can't think script, we have a little huskiness in
wonted on the very satisfactory logistic a President should be too unhappy after the voice you may be able to observe
build-up which we checked into during he had had the. :results that we have and a little pulling on the side, the
had in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966. We
rotrusion
our visit t
Vietn
m
li
I b
th
t th
p
.
.
o
a
e
eve
a
e
"apacity logisticians, the engineers, the ordnance have had a reasonably good time to It is actually a pull on the Inner wall
types, the quartermasters, and so on, make our recommendations and to get where the Incision was made. ,It is like
ust one more ques- are perhaps the unsung heroes of this most of them acted upon. you have a little weight on your arm. In
on the ballistic particular war. It may be pertinent to observe that carrying it around, it pulls on you, and
-`ly. I would recommend to any of you when I became President in 1963 we 'sometimes when you get up ft bothers
nguage, does this who would like to check my words to had about 256 members of the House. you.
a.ns now have the visit Cameron Bay, annong other places. We will probably have five, six or seven I have not been wearing a back rest
-wn American'bal- In brief, then, I was able to report to less now. We had a reasonably good pro- for the last two or three days. It is a
1
6
to not?
'here is absolutely
our capability of
9
3 little more comfortable. I forgot to put
the President my satisfaction from a gram, as you will remember, in
military point of view as to. the progress , and 1964.. it on. If'I had known you were going to .
of th war. I also told ,him something I would expect that we will have our, be here on this occasion this morning, I,_,,
jet defenses with that he, of course, saw for himself
_id aircraft. There during his visit to South Vietnam, and
about that at any that is the outstanding morale, the out-
15 years and there standing dedication and determination
now, of the American forces and their allies
- question about it of all ranks, from the commanders down
-ic antiaircraft.de- to the G.L's, in pursuing this particular
i to prevent our war.
-n penetrating. At I think that Is all I have to say for-
:apability of assur- mally. I will be glad to try to answer
[ion. There is no any questions.
fend against inter-
aissiles.
? 10. Use of Gas
Q. General, according to the news
reports today, the Vietcong have, I be-
lieve, used nonlethal gas for the first
.. manned bombers
ar's defense budget.
special significance on that action? '
A. I don't know that this is true. You
have to remember that we left Wash-
_ mention that be- ington at a rather eaj?ly hour this morn-
-cuss that with the - ing and when I checked with the com-
ing. I have just mand center before I left, I received no
past two days or such report. If it is true, I would say it
t on this subject represents a certain sophistication, addi-
of the Air Force. tional sophistication, of their efforts in
opportunity yet to responding to our offensive against
office and we did them,
agenda this morn-., Q. Thank you.
President on the
. 1968 program, . is
Request by Johnson
THE PRESIDENT: I will be glad to
take some questions. I would like to ask
_ll request an op- ` the network people .or the broadcasting
a future occasions. people, if they want to originate some
we will discuss at - back there in the back. Then I will
nurse, be the pos- meet with all of you for extended visits,
-~d manned bomber. such visits as you want.
7)re questions, Gen-
znmcnt upon South 11. Effect of Elections -
Q. Mr. President, now that you have
TATEMENT had a chance to further evaluate the
election returns, how do you see the
mentioned, I dis. chances of keeping your Great Society
morning the pro- legislation going - in the Congress next
South Vietnam. It year?
Le that it is just A. I think it will be more difficult -
a series of battles
ey :near the CanZ-
-al Westmoreland's
for any new legislation we might -pro-
pose. I think it is very clear that a
1-louse with 295 to 300 Democrats is
the First Cavalry more likely to approve Democratic rec-
with substantial omendations- than a House with 245 to
cietnamese Army, 250 -
North Vietnamese any great difference in the Senate, you
we made a number - do have a Senate that is reduced from
-lie Initiative from - - 67 to 64. - -
dsp forces. When I I told Mr. Christian when he asked
speaking not only me yesterday about the election -that I
~;o the Australians,
thought we lost more seats in the Sen-.
o ate than we had anticipated.
Republic Republic of Viet-
-
Very frankly, I don't like to . ever
extensive battles, - recommend that we lose any, but I had
It place near the anticipated a loss of not over one in
starting - in April, the Senate, and we lost three, although
_=hick, again, tools. - only one was an incumbent, Senator
place' today, near Douglas.
Zone, the Third The Oregon scat was a replacement
-d to frustrate and for Senator Neuberger. The Tennessee
an invasion from seat was a replacement for Senator
South Vietnam by-.,.,- Bass. X.
Army forces. -We thought -we would lose one, but
-ictnaam-a, couple of we lost three. It is pretty difficult to
I operations in the-, guess when they are -voting -on 435
where the First. people in 50 states what the result will
RON outfit and be. But the number of losses in the
recommendations favorably, acted upon would have dressed for it. But it Is
in most instances, where they are de- ? more comfortable when you don't wear.,
serving. It.
I would like to point out one other
thing, that on most of the roll-calls
on passage of what you would call
Great Society bills, we had a good
many members of the other party. I
expect, if our recommendations are
meritorious, that they will command
support from some of them in the days
ahead.
12. Backlash Vote
Q. Mr. President, on Sunday you made
an appeal for the voters to repudiatethe
white backlash in the election. 'Could
you tell us to what extent you think
the backlash did play a part in the
voting ?
A. That is a little bit difficult to ap-
praise. 'I don't think I am really in a
position to be an authority on just what
the result of my appeal was, or the ex-
pression of the voters in each of the
states. - -
I just don't have the answer to it.
I don't know.
I would say that you could look at
the states where you had some problems
of that kind and see the action taken.
.without getting specific, I think it did
play some part, but I wouldn't say it
was the only factor at all.
There were a good many factors, if
you will look over the list. I think it is
only fair to say that the substantial
reductions of Democratic Congressmen
occurred in states where they had a
popular leader of the Republican party.
In Ohio, Governor Rhodes had a great
majority and has been a very effective
leader of the Republican party, a very
popular one and very cooperative with
our Administration and with me per-
sonally. He made the motion, 'you will.
remember, on Vietnam at the Governors'
Conference, and things of that kind.
We lost five seats there because he
ran hundreds of thousands ahead of his
opponent.
The same thing was true in California,
where we lost. I believe, three -seats
because Governor Reagan had a sub-
stantial majority in his election.
In- Michigan, Governor Romney got
almost 60 per cent of the votes.
What happened In the state this time
was what happened in the nation when
the head of the ticket has a command-
ing lead. The other men on the.ticket
sometimes benefit from it.
I am not commenting on the quality
of the five Republicans elected, but I
don't think they were hurt by the fact
that Governor Romney had a '59 or 60
per cent vote..
So Reagan, Rhodes' and Romney ac-
count for, 25 or 30 per cent of the.
total. -
In other instances you had vacancies
and you had men dying before their
election. You had men after they had
gotten their nomination not running it
out - things of that kind, one or two.
14. New Programs
Q. In terms of your Great Society pro-
gram, when the 90th Congress meets, do -
you think- you will have a lot of new
programs or are you looking to the fu-
ture with plans of adding on and ex-
panding the programs that you have had
In the last couple of years? -
A. We will have recommendations in
expand and enlarge some of the recom-".
.
mendations we have previously made.
Unquestionably, some of them will be,
new recommendations. I think my princi-,
pal job right at the moment is to try to
find a way to fund the programs we
have authorized.
As I said to you in Fredericksburg the
other 'day, we have authorized some 40
new health and education programs. We
have quite a problem in funding that
many. '
We will not fund most of the programs
at the amount authorized because we
are very anxious to begin slowly and T -
of last year, ?as the ones last year were
less than the year before.
of Congress on them from time to time.
I hope to have a,chance to visit with'
most of the now membes in the early
days of the session, certainly with the
leadership of both parties.
I don't anticipate that we are going-
to hate any great trouble. A 65 majority
in the House and a 30 majority in the.
Senab Is a reasonable working majority."
As I told you, in six of the eight years
the Republiaas served, they had a minor- -
ity in both houses. The Speakers and a -
the organization and committee
chairnen.
So vhile I must be frank, I would have,,.
liked 1o have seen every Democrat elect-
ed butwe only lost one incumbent in the
Senate I expect the Seante will get,
along reasonably well with 64; instead of
67.
I hop, the House will be able to. Wo
lost twc committee chairmen. We will,
have a freshman Republican succeeding -- -
Judge Snith and a freshman Republican
succeedin; Mr. Cooley.
But I believe with 250 members, V
Speaker Iv:cCormack, Mr. Albert and Mr.,,
Boggs wil be able to get adequate and
fair consiieration for the President's rec-,,
ommendaaons.
I think they will be duly acted upon.
15. Move Into Delta '
Q. Mr. President, this is not a military,
question. Would. you comment on the
reports tat American forces may move
into the Delta? A. No. I don't have any-
thing to speculate on about when, what,
or whereour forces might move.
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. -
Approved For\Release 2006/01/30 : CIA-RDP70B00338R000300080036-8